Cautiously he lowered himself over the edge of the cliff, and with
utter noiselessness commenced the descent toward the bottom of the
gulch. He stopped often and turned his keen eyes and ears in the
direction of the cave's mouth at the far end of the gulch, some
hundred feet away. As he neared the foot of the cliff his danger
increased greatly. If he could reach the bottom and cover half
the distance to the tree that stood in the center of the gulch he
would feel comparatively safe for then, even if Numa appeared, he
felt that he could beat him either to the cliff or to the tree,
but to scale the first thirty feet of the cliff rapidly enough to
elude the leaping beast would require a running start of at least
twenty feet as there were no very good hand- or footholds close
to the bottom--he had had to run up the first twenty feet like
a squirrel running up a tree that other time he had beaten an
infuriated Numa to it. He had no desire to attempt it again unless
the conditions were equally favorable at least, for he had escaped
Numa's raking talons by only a matter of inches on the former
occasion.

At last he stood upon the floor of the gulch. Silent as a disembodied
spirit he advanced toward the tree. He was half way there and no
sign of Numa. He reached the scarred bole from which the famished
lion had devoured the bark and even torn pieces of the wood itself
and yet Numa had not appeared. As he drew himself up to the lower
branches he commenced to wonder if Numa were in the cave after
all. Could it be possible that he had forced the barrier of rocks
with which Tarzan had plugged the other end of the passage where
it opened into the outer world of freedom? Or was Numa dead? The
ape-man doubted the verity of the latter suggestion as he had fed