The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-24
TARTAN OF
 THE APES
By EDGAR RFUEsBURRoUGHs
EOopyr4gI1t, 1s12. by the Frauk-A
 NEHnSeysCo
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 HIS life among the had been happy, for Hlfs recnHectfon. ,hefd no other life, nor did he kuoOT that there existed within the unfserseaag1e else than his little forest and the w8a0 2 jungle animals with which he was fa- mfliaE
 He was nearly ten before he com menced to realize that a great differ ence existed between himself and his fellows His little body, burned al- most black by exposure suddenly eaUg- ed him feelings of intense shame, for he realized that it was entirely hair less, like some low snake or reptile.
 In the higher land which his tribe freQuented was a little lake, and it was here that Tarzan first saw his face in the1clear, still waters of its bosom.
 It was 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.
 So intent was he upon his personal appraisement of his features that he did not hear the parting of the tall grass behind him as a great body pushed itself stealthiiy through the jungle, nor did his companion, the ape, hear either, for he was drinking, and the noise of his sucking lips drowned the quiet approach of the intruder.
 Not thirty paces behind the two he crouched- bor, the tiger-Iashing his tail Cautiously he moved a great padded paw forward, notselessly pIac- ing it before he lifted the next Thus he advanced, his belly low, almost touching the surface of the ground-a great cat preparing to spring upon it's prey
 Now he was within ten, feet of the two unsuspecting little playfelIows. Carefully he drew his hind feet well up beneath his body, the great muscles rolling under the beautiful skin of black and yellow. So low he was crouching that he seemed f1attened to the earth except for the upward bend of the glossy back as it gathered for the spring
 No longer the tail Iashed- Quiet and straight behind him it lay.
 An instant he paused thus as though turned to stone, and then, with an aw- fuI scream, he sprang.
 Sabor, the tiger, was a wise hunter. To one less wise the wild alarm of his fierce cry as he sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, for could he not more surely have fallen upon his victims had he but quietly leaped with out 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 emectual a warning as his 1Oudest cry, and Sabor knew that he could not make that leap without a little noise.
 His wild scream was not a warning, but instead was meant to freeze his poor victims in a paralysis of terror for the tiny fraction of an instant, which would suffice for his mighty claws to sink into their soft flesh and hold them beyond peradventure of es- cape
 Tn so far as the ape was concerned, Sabor reasoned correctly The little