wound his trunk about the bole of the tree, spread his giant feet
wide apart and tugged to uproot the jungle giant. A huge creature
was Tantor, an enormous bull in the full prime of all his stupendous
strength. Mightily he strove until presently, to Tarzan's
consternation, the great tree gave slowly at the roots. The ground
rose in little mounds and ridges about the base of the bole, the
tree tilted--in another moment it would be uprooted and fall.

The ape-man whirled La to his back and just as the tree inclined
slowly in its first movement out of the perpendicular, before the
sudden rush of its final collapse, he swung to the branches of a
lesser neighbor. It was a long and perilous leap. La closed her
eyes and shuddered; but when she opened them again she found herself
safe and Tarzan whirling onward through the forest. Behind them
the uprooted tree crashed heavily to the ground, carrying with it
the lesser trees in its path and then Tantor, realizing that his
prey had escaped him, set up once more his hideous trumpeting and
followed at a rapid charge upon their trail.





14

A Priestess But Yet a Woman