Really, the one great danger was that one of the men might stumble and fall, and then the yellow devil would be upon him in a moment and the joy of the kill would be too great a temptation to withstand.
So Tarzan swung quickly to a lower limb in line with the approaching fugitives; and as Mr.Samuel T.Philander came panting and blowing beneath him, already too spent to struggle up to the safety of the limb, Tarzan reached down and, grasping him by the collar of his coat, yanked him to the limb by his side.
Another moment brought the professor within the sphere of the friendly grip, and he, too, was drawn upward to safety just as the baffled Numa, with a roar, leaped to recover his vanishing quarry.
For a moment the two men clung panting to the great branch, while Tarzan squatted with his back to the stem of the tree, watching them with mingled curiosity and amusement.
It was the professor who first broke the silence.
"I am deeply pained, Mr.Philander, that you should have evinced such a paucity of manly courage in the presence of one of the lower orders, and by your crass timidity have caused me to exert myself to such an unaccustomed degree in order that I might resume my discourse.As I was saying, Mr.
Philander, when you interrupted me, the Moors--""Professor Archimedes Q.Porter," broke in Mr.Philander, in icy tones, "the time has arrived when patience becomes a crime and mayhem appears garbed in the mantle of virtue.
You have accused me of cowardice.You have insinuated that you ran only to overtake me, not to escape the clutches of the lion.Have a care, Professor Archimedes Q.Porter! I am a desperate man.Goaded by long-suffering patience the worm will turn.""Tut, tut, Mr.Philander, tut, tut!" cautioned Professor Porter; "you forget yourself.""I forget nothing as yet, Professor Archimedes Q.Porter; but, believe me, sir, I am tottering on the verge of forgetfulness as to your exalted position in the world of science, and your gray hairs."The professor sat in silence for a few minutes, and the darkness hid the grim smile that wreathed his wrinkled countenance.Presently he spoke.
"Look here, Skinny Philander," he said, in belligerent tones, "if you are lookin' for a scrap, peel off your coat and come on down on the ground, and I'll punch your head just as Idid sixty years ago in the alley back of Porky Evans' barn.""Ark!" gasped the astonished Mr.Philander."Lordy, how good that sounds! When you're human, Ark, I love you; but somehow it seems as though you had forgotten how to be human for the last twenty years."The professor reached out a thin, trembling old hand through the darkness until it found his old friend's shoulder.
"Forgive me, Skinny," he said, softly."It hasn't been quite twenty years, and God alone knows how hard I have tried to be `human' for Jane's sake, and yours, too, since He took my other Jane away."Another old hand stole up from Mr.Philander's side to clasp the one that lay upon his shoulder, and no other message could better have translated the one heart to the other.
They did not speak for some minutes.The lion below them paced nervously back and forth.The third figure in the tree was hidden by the dense shadows near the stem.He, too, was silent--motionless as a graven image.
"You certainly pulled me up into this tree just in time,"said the professor at last."I want to thank you.You saved my life.""But I didn't pull you up here, Professor," said Mr.Philander.
"Bless me! The excitement of the moment quite caused me to forget that I myself was drawn up here by some outside agency--there must be someone or something in this tree with us.""Eh?" ejaculated Professor Porter."Are you quite positive, Mr.Philander?""Most positive, Professor," replied Mr.Philander, "and,"he added, "I think we should thank the party.He may be sitting right next to you now, Professor.""Eh? What's that? Tut, tut, Mr.Philander, tut, tut!" said Professor Porter, edging cautiously nearer to Mr.Philander.
Just then it occurred to Tarzan of the Apes that Numa had loitered beneath the tree for a sufficient length of time, so he raised his young head toward the heavens, and there rang out upon the terrified ears of the two old men the awful warning challenge of the anthropoid.
The two friends, huddled trembling in their precarious position on the limb, saw the great lion halt in his restless pacing as the blood-curdling cry smote his ears, and then slink quickly into the jungle, to be instantly lost to view.
"Even the lion trembles in fear," whispered Mr.Philander.
"Most remarkable, most remarkable," murmured Professor Porter, clutching frantically at Mr.Philander to regain the balance which the sudden fright had so perilously endangered.
Unfortunately for them both, Mr.Philander's center of equilibrium was at that very moment hanging upon the ragged edge of nothing, so that it needed but the gentle impetus supplied by the additional weight of Professor Porter's body to topple the devoted secretary from the limb.
For a moment they swayed uncertainly, and then, with mingled and most unscholarly shrieks, they pitched headlong from the tree, locked in frenzied embrace.
It was quite some moments ere either moved, for both were positive that any such attempt would reveal so many breaks and fractures as to make further progress impossible.
At length Professor Porter made an attempt to move one leg.
To his surprise, it responded to his will as in days gone by.He now drew up its mate and stretched it forth again.
"Most remarkable, most remarkable," he murmured.
