say? At any rate, she was feminine, and so she reached
up and scratched Taug behind one of his small, flat ears.

Tarzan saw, and in the instant that he saw, Teeka was no
longer the little playmate of an hour ago; instead she
was a wondrous thing--the most wondrous in the world--and
a possession for which Tarzan would fight to the death
against Taug or any other who dared question his right
of proprietorship.

Stooped, his muscles rigid and one great shoulder turned
toward the young bull, Tarzan of the Apes sidled nearer
and nearer. His face was partly averted, but his keen
gray eyes never left those of Taug, and as he came,
his growls increased in depth and volume.

Taug rose upon his short legs, bristling. His fighting
fangs were bared. He, too, sidled, stiff-legged, and growled.

"Teeka is Tarzan's," said the ape-man, in the low gutturals
of the great anthropoids.

"Teeka is Taug's," replied the bull ape.

Thaka and Numgo and Gunto, disturbed by the growlings
of the two young bulls, looked up half apathetic,
half interested. They were sleepy, but they sensed a fight.
It would break the monotony of the humdrum jungle life
they led.