The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-27
CHAPTER NV.
,arzan Mfahtieat of the Apes.

~\HE tribe of apes had grown | larger since Tarzan had come 1 among them.
 i Under the leadership of Ker- i chak they had been able to frighten ] the other tribes from their part of the 1 jungle, so that they had plenty to eat and little or no loss from predat tory in cursions of neighbors.
 | The younger males as they became 1 adult found it more comfortable to take wives from their own tribe or, if they l captured one of another tribe, to bring ! her back to Kerchak's band and live in am1ty rather than attempt to set up new establishments of their own or i make war upon the redoubtable Ker- } chak. | Occasionally one more ferocious than his fellows would attempt this latter alternative, but none had come yet who could wrest the palm of victory from the fierce and brutal ape. Tarzan held a peculiar position in the tribe. They seemed to consider him one of them and yet in some way different The older males either ignored him en- tirely or else hated him so vindietiveIy that but for his wonderous agility and speed and the fierce protection of the huge Ka1a he would have been dis patched at an early age.
 Tublat was his most consistent ene- my, but it was through Tublat that, when he was about thirteen, the perse- cution of his enemies suddenly ceased, and he was left severely alone, except on the occasions when one of them ran amuck in the throes of one of those strange fits of insane rage which attack the males of many of the 6ercer animals of the jungle. Then none was safe.
 On the day that Tarzan established his right to respect the tribe was gath, cred about a small natural amphithe- ter which the jungle had left free from its entangling- vines and creepers. Here the tribe often gathered. In the center of the amDhitheater was one of those strange .earthen drums which the anthropoids build for the dumdum the queer rites the sound of which men have heard in the fastness- eS of the jungle, but which none has ever witnessed.
 Son the day that Tarzan won his emancipation from the persecution that had followed him remorselessly for twelve of his thirteen years of life the tribe, now a full 100 strong, trooped silently through the lower terrace of the jungle trees and dropped noiseless- ly upon the floor of the amphitheater. The rites of the dumdum marked important events in the life of the tribe-a victory, the capture of a pris- oner, the killing of some large, fierce denizen of the jungle, the death or ac- cession of king.
 Today it was the killing of a giant ape member of another tribe, and as the people of Kerchak entered the arena two mighty bulls might have been seen bearing the body of the van quished between them. They laid their burden before the earthen drum and then squatted beside it as guards, while the other members of the community curled themselves in grassy hooks to , sleep until the rising moon should give the signal for the commencement of the orgy.
 A darkness settled upon the jungle, the apes commenced to bestir them selves, and soon they formed a great circle about the earthen drum.
 The females and young squatted in a thin line at the outer periphery of the circle, while just in front of them ranged the adult males. Before the drum sat three old females, each arm ed with a knotted branch fifteen or eighteen inches in length.
 
 ping upon the resounding surface of the drum the first faint rays of the ascending moon silvered the treetops.
 As the light increased the females augmented the frequency and force of their blows until presently a rhyth- mical din pervaded the jungle for miles in every direction. Huge brutes stop ped in their hunting. with uppricked ears and raised heads. to listen to the
 
 dunn of the great apes
 AS the din of the drum rose to al- most deafening volume Kerchak sprang into the open space between the squatting males and the drummers.
 Standing erect. he threw his head far back. and. looking full into the eye of the rising moon. he beat upon his breast with his great hairy paws and emitted his fearful roaring shriek-
 Once-twicc-thrice that terrifying cry rang ont across the teeming soli- tude of that unspeakabIy quick, yet unthfnkabIy dead. world.
 Then, crouclling. kerchak sIunk noiselessly around the open circle. veering far away from the dead body lying before the altar drum but as he passed keeping his little. fierce. wicked red eyes upon the corpse
 Another nlale then spraRg .-eo the arena and. repeating the hoErid cries of his king. followed steathiIy in his wake. Another and another followed in quick succession until the jungle reverberated with the HOW almost ceaseless notes of their boodthirsty screams.
 It was the challenge and the hunt.
 When all the adult males had joined in the thin line of circling dancers the attack commenced
 kerchak, seizing huge club from the pile which lay at hand for the pur- pose rushed furiousIy upon the dead