e the tree and he
saw that it was the scraping of the giant body against the branches
that had awakened him. That such a tremendous creature could have
approached so closely without disturbing him filled Tarzan with both
wonderment and chagrin. In the gloom the ape-man at first conceived the
intruder to be an elephant; yet, if so, one of greater proportions than
any he had ever before seen, but as the dim outlines became less
indistinct he saw on a line with his eyes and twenty feet above the
ground the dim silhouette of a grotesquely serrated back that gave the
impression of a creature whose each and every spinal vertebra grew a
thick, heavy horn. Only a portion of the back was visible to the
ape-man, the rest of the body being lost in the dense shadows beneath
the tree, from whence there now arose the sound of giant jaws
powerfully crunching flesh and bones. From the odors that rose to the
ape-man's sensitive nostrils he presently realized that beneath him was
some huge reptile feeding upon the carcass of the lion that had been
slain there earlier in the night.

As Tarzan's eyes, straining with curiosity, bored futilely into the
dark shadows he felt a light touch upon his shoulder, and, turning, saw
that his companion was attempting to attract his attention. The
creature, pressing a forefinger to his own lips as to enjoin silence,
attempted by pulling on Tarzan's arm to indicate that they should leave
at once.

Realizing that he was in a strange country, evidently infested by
creatures of titanic size, with the habits and powers of which he was
entirely unfamiliar, the ape-man permitted himself to be drawn away.
With the utmost caution the pithecanthropus descended the tree upon the
opposite side from the great nocturnal prowler, and, closely followed
by Tarzan, moved silently away through the night across the plain.

The ape-man was rather loath thus to relinquish an opportunity to
inspect a creature which he realized was probably entirely different
from anything in his past experience; yet he was wise enough to know
when discretion was the better part of valor and now, as in the past,
he yielded to that law which dominates the kindred of the wild,
preventing them from courting danger uselessly, whose lives are
sufficiently filled with danger in their ordinary routine of feeding
and mating.

As the rising sun dispelled the shadows of the night, Tarzan found
himself again upon the verge of a great forest into wh