even consider descending and engaging in so unequal and useless a
duel for the mere reward of a little added creature comfort. And
so he sat perched in the tree while the rain fell steadily and the
lion padded round and round beneath, casting a baleful eye upward
after every few steps.

Tarzan scanned the precipitous walls for an avenue of escape. They
would have baffled an ordinary man; but the ape-man, accustomed
to climbing, saw several places where he might gain a foothold,
precarious possibly; but enough to give him reasonable assurance
of escape if Numa would but betake himself to the far end of the
gulch for a moment. Numa, however, notwithstanding the rain, gave
no evidence of quitting his post so that at last Tarzan really
began to consider seriously if it might not be as well to take the
chance of a battle with him rather than remain longer cold and wet
and humiliated in the tree.

But even as he turned the matter over in his mind Numa turned
suddenly and walked majestically toward the tunnel without even a
backward glance. The instant that he disappeared, Tarzan dropped
lightly to the ground upon the far side of the tree and was away at
top speed for the cliff. The lion had no sooner entered the tunnel
than he backed immediately out again and, pivoting like a flash,
was off across the gulch in full charge after the flying ape-man;
but Tarzan's lead was too great--if he could find finger or foothold
upon the sheer wall he would be safe; but should he slip from the
wet rocks his doom was already sealed as he would fall directly into
Numa's clutches where even the Great Tarmangani would be helpless.

With the agility of a cat Tarzan ran up the cliff for thirty feet