Just in front of the loge of Menofra the lion overtook Hyark, and the screaming man went down beneath the mangy body to a mercifully quick end. Before his final struggles had ended the starving beast commenced to devour him.
Tarzan came up the arena toward the royal loge and the feeding lion. On the way he picked up Hyark's discarded spear and crept silently onto the lion from the rear; nor did the lion, occupied with his greedy feeding, see the approaching man. The crowd sat tense and silent, marvelling, perhaps, at the courage of this naked wild-man. Closer and closer to the lion crept Tarzan; and still the lion fed upon the carcass of Hyark, unconscious of the ape- man's presence. Directly behind the carnivore Tarzan laid the spear upon the ground. He had brought it only as a measure of safety in the event his plan miscarried. Then, with the swiftness and agility of Sheeta the panther, he leaped astride the feeding cat and grasped it by the mane and the loose hide upon its back, lifting it bodily from its kill and at the same time swinging around and whirling the beast with him, roaring and striking, but futilely. It was the lightning quickness of his act that made it possible-that and his great strength-as, with one superhuman effort, he flung the beast into the royal loge; then, without a single backward glance, he turned and walked back toward the prisoners' paddock.
The lion's body struck Menofra and knocked her from her chair; but the lion, frightened now and bewildered, thought for the moment only of escape; and leaped to an adjoining loge. Here he lashed out with his taloned paws to right and left among the screaming nobility. From one loge to another he leaped, leaving a trail of screaming victims, until he chanced upon a tunnel, into which he darted and galloped to freedom beyond the amphitheater.
The stands were in an uproar as the populace cheered Tarzan as he entered the paddock and took his place again beside Valthor on the cross-beam. The guard who had ridiculed him looked at him now in awe, while the other prisoners praised and congratulated him.
'Menofra should give you a wreath and a title,' said Valthor, 'for you have given her and the people such entertainment as they have never seen before in this arena.'
Tarzan looked across at the royal loge and saw Menofra standing in it apparently unhurt. 'The lion missed a golden opportunity,' he said; 'and as for the wreath and the title, I do not deserve them; for it was the lion, not Menofra or the people, that I was trying to entertain.'
When the stands had quieted down and the wounded been removed, the officer in charge returned to the paddock. 'You were a fool,' he said to Tarzan, 'to throw the lion into Menofra's loge. If you hadn't done that, I believe she would have given you your liberty; but now she has ordered that you be destroyed at once. You and Valthor go in next. You will take your places in the center of the arena immediately.'
'I wish,' said Valthor, 'that you might have had a better reception in The City of Ivory. I wish that you might have known my own people and they you. That you should have come here to die is tragic, but the fates were against you.'
'Well, my friend,' said Tarzan, 'at least we have seen one another again; and-we are not dead yet.'
'We shall be presently.'
'I think that perhaps you are right,' agreed the ape-man.
'Well, here we are. Have you any plan?'
'None,' replied Tarzan. 'I know that I cannot throw an elephant into Menofra's loge.'
'Not this one,' said Valthor. 'I know him. I helped capture him. He is a devil and huge. He hates men. They have been saving him for this, and they will probably kill him afterward-he is too dangerous. '
'They are opening the elephant paddock,' said Tarzan. 'Here he comes-!'
A great elephant charged, trumpeting, through the opened gates. At first he did not appear to notice the two men in the center of the arena, and trotted around close to the stands as though searching for an avenue of escape; then quite suddenly he wheeled toward the center and trotted toward the two men.
Tarzan had noted his great size and the one tusk darker than the other, and on the screen of memory was pictured another scene and another day-hyenas at the edge of a pit, snapping at a huge elephant with one dark tusk, while above circled Ska the vulture.
The elephant's trunk was raised, he was trumpeting as he came toward them; and then Tarzan stepped quickly forward and raised a hand with the palm toward the beast.
'Dan-do, Tantor!' he commanded. 'Tarzan yo.'
The great beast hesitated; then he stopped. Tarzan walked toward him, motioning Valthor to follow directly behind him, and stopped with one hand upon the trunk that was now lowered and feeling exploratively over the ape-man's body.
'Nala Tarzan!' commanded the ape-man. 'Nala tarmangani!' and he pulled Valthor to his side.
The elephant raised his trunk and trumpeted loudly; then he gathered first one and then the other in its folds and lifted them to his head. For a moment he stood swaying to and fro as Tarzan spoke to him in low tones; then, trumpeting again, he started off at a trot around the arena while the spectators sat in stunned amazement. The great beast had completed half the oval and was opposite the prisoners' paddock when Tarzan gave a quick command. The elephant wheeled sharply to the left and crossed the arena while Tarzan urged him on with words of encouragement in that strange mother of languages that the great apes use and the lesser apes and the little monkeys and that is understood in proportion to their intelligence by many another beast of the forest and the plain.
With lowered head the mighty bull crashed into the flimsy palisade at the inner end of the paddock, flattening it to the ground; then the outer palisade fell before him; and he carried Tarzan and Valthor out onto the plain toward freedom.
As they passed the main gate of the amphitheater and headed south they saw the first contingent of their pursuers issuing from the arena and clambering to the howdahs of the waiting elephants, and before they had covered half a mile the pursuit was in full cry behind them.
While their own mount was making good time some of the pursuing elephants were gaining on him.
'Racing elephants,' commented Valthor.
'They are carrying heavy loads,' observed the ape-man: 'five and six warriors beside a heavy howdah.'
Valthor nodded. 'If we can keep ahead of them for half an hour we've a good chance to get away.' Then he turned from the pursuers and looked ahead. 'Mother of Dyaus!' he exclaimed. 'We're caught between a wild bull and a hungry lion-the Cathneans are coming, and they're coming for war. This is no ordinary raid. Look at them!'
Tarzan turned and saw a body of men that approximated an army coming across the plain toward them, and in the van were the fierce war lions of Cathne. He looked back. Closing in rapidly upon them were the war elephants of Athne.
Chapter 25. Battle
'I THINK WE YET have a chance to escape them both,' said Valthor. 'Turn him toward the east. Zygo and his loyal followers are there in the mountains.'
'We do not have to run away from our friends,' replied Tarzan.
'I hope they recognize you as a friend before they loose their war lions. They are trained to leap to the backs of elephants and kill the men riding there.'
'Then we'll approach them on foot,' said the ape-man.
'And be caught by the Erythra,' added Valthor.
'We shall have to take a chance but wait! Let's try something.' He spoke to the bull, and the animal came to a stop and wheeled about; then Tarzan leaped to the ground, motioning Valthor to follow him. He spoke a few words into the ear of the elephant, and stepped aside. Up went the great trunk, forward the huge ears; as the mighty beast started back to meet the oncoming elephants.
'I think he'll hold them up long enough for us to reach the Cathnean line before they can overtake us,' said Tarzan.
The two men turned then and started toward the advancing horde of warriors-toward ranks of gleaming spears and golden helmets and the lions of war on golden chains. Suddenly a warrior left the ranks and ran forward
