304 Tarzan of the Apes
of the ape-man.
‘But you are afraid, just as any of us would be, to go out
there naked, armed only with a knife and a piece of rope,’
said the banterer. ‘Is it not so?’
‘No,’ replied Tarzan. ‘Only a fool performs any act with-
out reason.’
‘Five thousand francs is a reason,’ said the other. ‘I wa-
ger you that amount you cannot bring back a lion from the
jungle under the conditions we have named—naked and
armed only with a knife and a piece of rope.’
Tarzan glanced toward D’Arnot and nodded his head.
‘Make it ten thousand,’ said D’Arnot.
‘Done,’ replied the other.
Tarzan arose.
‘I shall have to leave my clothes at the edge of the settle-
ment, so that if I do not return before daylight I shall have
something to wear through the streets.’
‘You are not going now,’ exclaimed the wagerer—‘at
night?’
‘Why not?’ asked Tarzan. ‘Numa walks abroad at night
—it will be easier to find him.’
‘No,’ said the other, ‘I do not want your blood upon my
hands. It will be foolhardy enough if you go forth by day.’
‘I shall go now,’ replied Tarzan, and went to his room for
his knife and rope.
The men accompanied him to the edge of the jungle,
where he left his clothes in a small storehouse.
But when he would have entered the blackness of the un-
dergrowth they tried to dissuade him; and the wagerer was