Sometimes they separated for an instant only to rush upon each other
again with all the ferocity and nearly the strength of mad bulls.
Presently one of them tripped the other but in that viselike embrace
one could not fall alone--Es-sat dragged Om-at with him, toppling
upon the brink of the niche. Even Tarzan held his breath. There they
surged to and fro perilously for a moment and then the inevitable
happened--the two, locked in murderous embrace, rolled over the
edge and disappeared from the ape-man's view.

Tarzan voiced a suppressed sigh for he had liked Om-at and then,
with Ta-den, approached the edge and looked over. Far below, in
the dim light of the coming dawn, two inert forms should be lying
stark in death; but, to Tarzan's amazement, such was far from the
sight that met his eyes. Instead, there were the two figures still
vibrant with life and still battling only a few feet below him.
Clinging always to the pegs with two holds--a hand and a foot, or
a foot and a tail, they seemed as much at home upon the perpendicular
wall as upon the level surface of the vestibule; but now their
tactics were slightly altered, for each seemed particularly bent
upon dislodging his antagonist from his holds and precipitating
him to certain death below. It was soon evident that Om-at, younger
and with greater powers of endurance than Es-sat, was gaining an
advantage. Now was the chief almost wholly on the defensive. Holding
him by the cross belt with one mighty hand Om-at was forcing his
foeman straight out from the cliff, and with the other hand and
one foot was rapidly breaking first one of Es-sat's holds and then
another, alternating his efforts, or rather punctuating them, with
vicious blows to the pit of his adversary's stomach. Rapidly was
Es-sat weakening and with the knowledge of impending death there
came, as there comes to every coward and bully under similar