Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan the Terrible Edgar Rice Burroughs

Silent as the shadows through which he moved, the great beast slunk through the midnightjungle, his yellow-green eyes round and staring, his sinewy tail undulating behind him, his headlowered and flattened, and every muscle vibrant to the thrill of the hunt. The jungle moondappled an occasional clearing which the great cat was always careful to avoid. Though hemoved through thick verdure across a carpet of innumerable twigs, broken branches, and leaves, his passing gave forth no sound that might have been apprehended by dull human ears. Apparently less cautious was the hunted thing moving even as silently as the lion a hundredpaces ahead of the tawny carnivore, for instead of skirting the moon-splashed natural clearings itpassed directly across them, and by the tortuous record of its spoor it might indeed be guessedthat it sought these avenues of least resistance, as well it might, since, unlike its grim stalker, itwalked erect upon two feet-it walked upon two feet and was hairless except for a black thatchupon its head; its arms were well shaped and muscular; its hands powerful and slender with longtapering fingers and thumbs reaching almost to the first joint of the index fingers. Its legs toowere shapely but its feet departed from the standards of all races of men, except possibly a fewof the lowest races, in that the great toes protruded at right angles from the foot