lapping the water greedily, and at the approach of Tarzan along
the trail in his rear, he raised his head, and turning his gaze
backward across his maned shoulders glared at the intruder. A
low growl of warning rumbled from his throat; but Tarzan, guessing
that the beast had but just quitted his kill and was well filled,
merely made a slight detour and continued to the river, where
he stopped a few yards above the tawny cat, and dropping upon his
hands and knees plunged his face into the cool water. For a moment
the lion continued to eye the man; then he resumed his drinking,
and man and beast quenched their thirst side by side each apparently
oblivious of the other's presence.

Numa was the first to finish. Raising his head, he gazed across
the river for a few minutes with that stony fixity of attention
which is a characteristic of his kind. But for the ruffling of his
black mane to the touch of the passing breeze he might have been
wrought from golden bronze, so motionless, so statuesque his pose.

A deep sigh from the cavernous lungs dispelled the illusion. The
mighty head swung slowly around until the yellow eyes rested upon
the man. The bristled lip curved upward, exposing yellow fangs.
Another warning growl vibrated the heavy jowls, and the king of
beasts turned majestically about and paced slowly up the trail into
the dense reeds.

Tarzan of the Apes drank on, but from the corners of his gray eyes
he watched the great brute's every move until he had disappeared
from view, and, after, his keen ears marked the movements of the
carnivore.