|
"Let
us leave him quietly sleeping among the tall grasses, that you may bear
other and stronger apes to guard us in our old age."
"Never,
Broken Nose," replied Kala. "If
I must carry him forever, so be it."
And
then Tublat went to Kerchak to urge him to use his authority with Kala,
and force her to give up little Tarzan, which was the name they had given
to the tiny Lord Greystoke, and which meant "White-Skin."
But
when Kerchak spoke to her about it Kala threatened to run away from the
tribe if they did not leave her in peace with the child; and as this is
one of the inalienable rights of the jungle folk, if they be dissatisfied
among their own people, they bothered her no more, for Kala was a fine
clean-limbed young female, and they did not wish to lose her.
As
Tarzan grew he made more rapid strides, so that by the time he was ten
years old he was an excellent climber, and on the ground could do many
wonderful things which were beyond the powers of his little brothers and
sisters.
In
many ways did he differ from them, and they often marveled at his superior
cunning, but in strength and size he was deficient; for at ten the great
anthropoids were fully grown, some of them towering over six feet in
height, while little Tarzan was still but a half-grown boy.
Yet
such a boy!
From
early childhood he had used his hands to swing from branch to branch after
the manner of his giant mother, and as he grew older he spent hour upon
hour daily speeding through the tree tops with his brothers and sisters.
He
could spring twenty feet across space at the dizzy heights of the forest
top, and grasp with unerring precision, and without apparent jar, a limb
waving wildly in the path of an approaching tornado.
He
could drop twenty feet at a stretch from limb to limb in rapid descent to
the ground, or he could gain the utmost pinnacle of the loftiest tropical
giant with the ease and swiftness of a squirrel.
Though
but ten years old he was fully as strong as the average man of thirty, and
far more agile than the most practiced athlete ever becomes.
And day by day his strength was increasing.
His
life among these fierce apes had been happy; for his recollection held no
other life, nor did he know that there existed within the universe aught
else than his little forest and the wild jungle animals with which he was
familiar.
He
was nearly ten before he commenced to realize that a great difference
existed between himself and his fellows.
His little body, burned brown by exposure, suddenly caused him
feelings of intense shame, for he realized that it was entirely hairless,
like some low snake, or other reptile.
He
attempted to obviate this by plastering himself from head to foot with
mud, but this dried and fell off. Besides
it felt so uncomfortable that he quickly decided that he preferred the
shame to the discomfort.
In
the higher land which his tribe frequented was a little lake, and it was
here that Tarzan first saw his face in the clear, still waters of its
bosom.
It
was on a sultry day of the dry season that he and one of his cousins had
gone down to the bank to drink. As
they leaned over, both little faces were mirrored on the placid pool; the
fierce and terrible features of the ape beside those of the aristocratic
scion of an old English house.
Tarzan
was appalled. It had been bad
enough to be hairless, but to own such a countenance!
He wondered that the other apes could look at him at all.
That
tiny slit of a mouth and those puny white teeth!
How they looked beside the mighty lips and powerful fangs of his
more fortunate brothers!
And
the little pinched nose of his; so thin was it that it looked half
starved. He turned red as he
compared it with the beautiful broad nostrils of his companion.
Such a generous nose! Why it spread half across his face!
It certainly must be fine to be so handsome, thought poor little
Tarzan.
But
when he saw his own eyes; ah, that was the final blow --a brown spot, a
gray circle and then blank whiteness! Frightful! not even the snakes had
such hideous eyes as he.
So
intent was he upon this personal appraisement of his features that he did
not hear the parting of the tall grass behind him as a great body pushed
itself stealthily through the jungle; nor did his companion, the ape, hear
either, for he was drinking and the noise of his sucking lips and gurgles
of satisfaction drowned the quiet approach of the intruder.
Not
thirty paces behind the two she crouched--Sabor, the huge lioness--lashing
her tail. Cautiously she moved a great padded paw forward, noiselessly
placing it before she lifted the next.
Thus she advanced; her belly low, almost touching the surface of
the ground--a great cat preparing to spring upon its prey.
Now
she was within ten feet of the two unsuspecting little
playfellows--carefully she drew her hind feet well up beneath her body,
the great muscles rolling under the beautiful skin.
So
low she was crouching now that she seemed flattened to the earth except
for the upward bend of the glossy back as it gathered for the spring.
No
longer the tail lashed--quiet and straight behind her it lay.
An
instant she paused thus, as though turned to stone, and then, with an
awful scream, she sprang.
Sabor,
the lioness, was a wise hunter. To
one less wise the wild alarm of her fierce cry as she sprang would have
seemed a foolish thing, for could she not more surely have fallen upon her
victims had she but quietly leaped without that loud shriek?
But
Sabor knew well the wondrous quickness of the jungle folk and their almost
unbelievable powers of hearing. To
them the sudden scraping of one blade of grass across another was as
effectual a warning as her loudest cry, and Sabor knew that she could not
make that mighty leap without a little noise.
Her
wild scream was not a warning. It
was voiced to freeze her poor victims in a paralysis of terror for the
tiny fraction of an instant which would suffice for her mighty claws to
sink into their soft flesh and hold them beyond hope of escape.
So
far as the ape was concerned, Sabor reasoned correctly. The little fellow
crouched trembling just an instant, but that instant was quite long enough
to prove his undoing.
Not
so, however, with Tarzan, the man-child.
His life amidst the dangers of the jungle had taught him to meet
emergencies with self-confidence, and his higher intelligence resulted in
a quickness of mental action far beyond the powers of the apes.
So
the scream of Sabor, the lioness, galvanized the brain and muscles of
little Tarzan into instant action.
Before
him lay the deep waters of the little lake, behind him certain death; a
cruel death beneath tearing claws and rending fangs.
Tarzan
had always hated water except as a medium for quenching his thirst.
He hated it because he connected it with the chill and discomfort
of the torrential rains, and he feared it for the thunder and lightning
and wind which accompanied them.
The
deep waters of the lake he had been taught by his wild mother to avoid,
and further, had he not seen little Neeta sink beneath its quiet surface
only a few short weeks before never to return to the tribe?
But
of the two evils his quick mind chose the lesser ere the first note of
Sabor's scream had scarce broken the quiet of the jungle, and before the
great beast had covered half her leap Tarzan felt the chill waters close
above his head.
He
could not swim, and the water was very deep; but still he lost no particle
of that self-confidence and resourcefulness which were the badges of his
superior being.
Rapidly
he moved his hands and feet in an attempt to scramble upward, and,
possibly more by chance than design, he fell into the stroke that a dog
uses when swimming, so that within a few seconds his nose was above water
and he found that he could keep it there by continuing his strokes, and
also make progress through the water.
He
was much surprised and pleased with this new acquirement which had been so
suddenly thrust upon him, but he had no time for thinking much upon it.
He
was now swimming parallel to the bank and there he saw the cruel beast
that would have seized him crouching upon the still form of his little
playmate.
The
lioness was intently watching Tarzan, evidently expecting him to return to
shore, but this the boy had no intention of doing.
Instead
he raised his voice in the call of distress common to his tribe, adding to
it the warning which would prevent would-be rescuers from running into the
clutches of Sabor.
Almost
immediately there came an answer from the distance, and presently forty or
fifty great apes swung rapidly and majestically through the trees toward
the scene of tragedy.
In
the lead was Kala, for she had recognized the tones of her best beloved,
and with her was the mother of the little ape who lay dead beneath cruel
Sabor.
Though
more powerful and better equipped for fighting than the apes, the lioness
had no desire to meet these enraged adults, and with a snarl of hatred she
sprang quickly into the brush and disappeared.
Tarzan
now swam to shore and clambered quickly upon dry land.
The feeling of freshness and exhilaration which the cool waters had
imparted to him, filled his little being with grateful surprise, and ever
after he lost no opportunity to take a daily plunge in lake or stream or
ocean when it was possible to do so.
For
a long time Kala could not accustom herself to the sight; for though her
people could swim when forced to it, they did not like to enter water, and
never did so voluntarily.
The
adventure with the lioness gave Tarzan food for pleasurable memories, for
it was such affairs which broke the monotony of his daily life--otherwise
but a dull round of searching for food, eating, and sleeping.
The
tribe to which he belonged roamed a tract extending, roughly, twenty-five
miles along the seacoast and some fifty miles inland.
This they traversed almost continually, occasionally remaining for
months in one locality; but as they moved through the trees with great
speed they often covered the territory in a very few days.
Much
depended upon food supply, climatic conditions, and the prevalence of
animals of the more dangerous species; though Kerchak often led them on
long marches for no other reason than that he had tired of remaining in
the same place.
At
night they slept where darkness overtook them, lying upon the ground, and
sometimes covering their heads, and more seldom their bodies, with the
great leaves of the elephant's ear. Two
or three might lie cuddled in each other's arms for additional warmth if
the night were chill, and thus Tarzan had slept in Kala's arms nightly for
all these years.
That
the huge, fierce brute loved this child of another race is beyond
question, and he, too, gave to the great, hairy beast all the affection
that would have belonged to his fair young mother had she lived.
When
he was disobedient she cuffed him, it is true, but she was never cruel to
him, and was more often caressing him than chastising him.
Tublat,
her mate, always hated Tarzan, and on several occasions had come near
ending his youthful career.
Tarzan
on his part never lost an opportunity to show that he fully reciprocated
his foster father's sentiments, and whenever he could safely annoy him or
make faces at him or hurl insults upon him from the safety of his mother's
arms, or the slender branches of the higher trees, he did so.
His
superior intelligence and cunning permitted him to invent a thousand
diabolical tricks to add to the burdens of Tublat's life.
Early
in his boyhood he had learned to form ropes by twisting and tying long
grasses together, and with these he was forever tripping Tublat or
attempting to hang him from some overhanging branch.
By
constant playing and experimenting with these he learned to tie rude
knots, and make sliding nooses; and with these he and the younger apes
amused themselves. What
Tarzan did they tried to do also, but he alone originated and became
proficient.
One
day while playing thus Tarzan had thrown his rope at one of his fleeing
companions, retaining the other end in his grasp.
By accident the noose fell squarely about the running ape's neck,
bringing him to a sudden and surprising halt.
Ah,
here was a new game, a fine game, thought Tarzan, and immediately he
attempted to repeat the trick. And
thus, by painstaking and continued practice, he learned the art of roping.
Now,
indeed, was the life of Tublat a living nightmare.
In sleep, upon the march, night or day, he never knew when that
quiet noose would slip about his neck and nearly choke the life out of
him.
Kala
punished, Tublat swore dire vengeance, and old Kerchak took notice and
warned and threatened; but all to no avail.
Tarzan
defied them all, and the thin, strong noose continued to settle about
Tublat's neck whenever he least expected it.
The
other apes derived unlimited amusement from Tublat's discomfiture, for
Broken Nose was a disagreeable old fellow, whom no one liked, anyway.
In
Tarzan's clever little mind many thoughts revolved, and back of these was
his divine power of reason.
If
he could catch his fellow apes with his long arm of many grasses, why not
Sabor, the lioness?
It
was the germ of a thought, which, however, was destined to mull around in
his conscious and subconscious mind until it resulted in magnificent
achievement.
But
that came in later years.
|
Table of Contents
