re some that looked like knife blades, and some that could easily be
fashioned into spear heads, and many smaller ones that nature seemed to
have intended for the tips of savage arrows.

The spear she would essay first--that would be easiest. There was a
hollow in the bole of the tree in a great crotch high above the ground.
Here she cached all of her treasure except a single knifelike sliver.
With this she descended to the ground and searching out a slender
sapling that grew arrow-straight she hacked and sawed until she could
break it off without splitting the wood. It was just the right diameter
for the shaft of a spear--a hunting spear such as her beloved Waziri
had liked best. How often had she watched them fashioning them, and
they had taught her how to use them, too--them and the heavy war
spears--laughing and clapping their hands as her proficiency increased.

She knew the arborescent grasses that yielded the longest and toughest
fibers and these she sought and carried to her tree with the spear
shaft that was to be. Clambering to her crotch she bent to her work,
humming softly a little tune. She caught herself and smiled--it was the
first time in all these bitter months that song had passed her lips or
such a smile.

"I feel," she sighed, "I almost feel that John is near--my John--my
Tarzan!"

She cut the spear shaft to the proper length and removed the twigs and
branches and the bark, whittling and scraping at the nubs until the
surface was all smooth and straight. Then she split one end and
inserted a spear point, shaping the wood until it fitted perfectly.
This done she laid the shaft aside and fell to splitting the thick
grass stems and pounding and twisting them until she had separated and
partially cleaned the fibers. These she took down to the brook and
washed and brought back again and wound tightly around the cleft end of
the shaft, which she had notched to receive them, and the upper part of
the spear head which she had also notched slightly with a bit of stone.
It was a crude spear but the best that she could attain in so short a
time. Later, she promised herself, she should have others--many of
them--and they would be spears of which even the greatest of the Waziri
spear-men might be proud.

18

The Lion Pit of Tu-lur

Though Tarzan searched the outskirts of the city until nearly dawn he
discovered nowhere the spoor of his mate. The breeze coming down from
the mountains brought to his n