Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-26


bers In times OF peril
And" he continued. when they hear
Iarzan call TO them, let them remember
what he has done for Akut and come to
MN MN with great speed. Shall Il be as
Tarzan says"
"Huhv assented Akut. and from the
members OF his tribe there rose a unani-
nous Huh"
Then, presently, they went TO feed
ing again as though nothing had hap
pened, and with them fed John Clayton,
Lord Greystoke
He noticed. however. that Akut kept
always close TO him, and was often look
ing at him with n strange wonder in his
little bloodshot eyes, and once he did a
thing that Tarzan during all his long
years among the apes had never before
seen an ape do-he found a particularly
tender morsel and handed Il to Tarzan.
AS the tribe hunted, the glistening
body of the ape-msn mingled with the
brown, shaggy hides of his companions.
Oftentimes they brushed together in pass
Ing, but the apes had already taken his
presence for granted. so that he was as
much one OF them as Akut himself.
II he came too close to she with a
young baby, the former would bare her
great hghting fangs and growl ominously,
and occasionally a truculent young bull
would snarl warning II Tarzan APP
preached while the former was eating
But in these things the treatment was
no different from that which they ac-
corded any other member of the tribe.
Tarzan on his part felt very much at
nome with these fierce hairy progenitors
! o. primitive man. He slipped nmbly out
% reach of each threatening female-for
| such is the way Of apes, II they be not
| In one of their occasional fits of bestial
rage-and he growled back at the trucu-
lent young bulls. barring his canine teeth
/ even as they. Thus easily he fell back
into the way of his early life. nor did It
seem that he had ever tasted association
| with creatures of his own kind.
For the better part of a week he roamed
| the jungle with his new friends, partly
because of desire for companonship and
| partly through a well laid plan to i'm
! press himself indelibly upon - cir MEM
ories, which at best are none too long;
| for Tarzan from past experience knew
that It might serve him in good stead to
/ have a tribe of these powerful and ter
I rible beasts at his call.
When he was convinced that he had
| succeeded to some extent in fixing his
Identity upon them he decided to take
up again his exploration. To this end
| he set out toward the north early one
day, and keeping parallel with the shore,
Travelled rapidly until almost nlghtfall.
When the sun rose the next morning
he saw that 1t lay almost directly to his
right as he stood upon the beach instead
| of straight out across the water as here
/ tofore and so he reasoned that the shore
line had trended toward the west. All the
second day he continued his rapid course,
! and when Tarzan of the Apes sought
| speed, he passed through the middle ter
race of the forest with the rapidity of
squirrel.
That night the sun set straight out
across the water opposite the land, and
then the ape-man guessed at last the
truth that he had been suspicioning.
Rokoff had set him ashore upon an
island.
He might have known 1t! If there was
any plan that would render his position
more narrowing he should have known
that such would be the one adopted by
the Russian, and what could be more
terrible than to leave him to a lifetime of
suspense upon an uninhabted island?
Rokoff doubtless had sailed directly to
the mainland, where II would be a COM
paratively easy thing for him to find the
means of delivering the infant Jack into
the hands of the cruel and savage foster
parents who, as his note had threatened,
would have the upbringing of the child.
Tarzan shuddered as he thought of the
cruel suffering the little one must endure
in such life, even though he might fall
into the hands of individuals whose in
tentions toward him were of the kindest.
The ape-man had had sufficient expert
ence with the lower savages of Africa to
know that even there may be found the
cruder virtues of charity and humanity;
but their lives were at best but a series
of terrible privations, dangers and suffer-
ings.,
Then there was the horrid after-fate
that awaited the child as he grew to man
mn
form a part Of his life-training would
alone be sufficient to bar him forever
from association with those of his own
race and station in life.
A cannibali His little boy a savage
man-eater! II was too horrible to con-
template.
The filed. teeth. the slit nose, the little
face painted hideously.
Tarzan groaned. Could he but feel the
throat of the Russ iend beneath his steel
ingers
And Jane!
What tortures Of doubt and fear and
uncertainty less terrible than hers. for
he at least knew that one OF his loved
ones was safe at home, while she had nc
idea of the whereabouts OF either her hus-
band or her son.
1t is well for Tarzan that he did moi
guess the truth. for the knowledge would
OUT aou hundredfold 10 his suffering.
AS he moved slowly through the Jungle
his mind absorbed by his gloomy thoughts
there presently came TO his ears strange
scratching sound which he could not
translate.
Cautiously he moved in the direction
from which It emanated. presently com
ing upon a huge panther pinned beneath
a fallen tree.
AS Tarzan approached the beast turned
snarlng. toward him. struggling to ex.
trlcate itself; but one great limb across
it's back and the smaller entanglnl
branches pinioning its limbs prevented Il
from moving but a few inches in any
direction.
The ape-man stood before the help
less cat fitting an arrow to his bow thai
J he might dispatch the beast that other
wise must die OF starvation; but ever
as he drew back the shaft sudden whln
stayed his hand.
Why rob the poor creature OF life anc
liberty when II would be so easy thinl
10 restore both TO III He was sure from
the fact that the panther moved all Ia
limbs IN its futile struggle for freedom
that its spine was uninJured, and for the
same reason he knew that none Of III
, limbs were broken.