Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-15
CHAPTER Ill.
Exit Paulvitch

Exit Paulvitch
| AS THE trainer, with raised lash, hesi-
n tated an instant at the entrance to
the box where the boy and the ape con-
fronted him, a tall, broad-shouldered man
pushed past him and entered. As his eyes
fell upon the newcomer slight flush
mounted the boys cheeks.
"Fatherl" he exclaimed.
The ape gave one look at the English
lord, and then leaped toward him, calling
out in excited jabbering. The man, his
eyes wide in astonishment stopped as
though turned to stone.
"Akut !" he cried.
The boy looked, bewlldered. from the ape
to his father, and from his father to the
ape. The trainers Jaw dropped as he
listened to what followed, for from the
| lips Of the Bngllshman flowed the gutturals
| of an ape that were answered in kind by
the huge anthropoid that now chung to him.
And from the wings a hideously bent and
| dlsfgured old man watched the tableau in
| tho box, his pock-marked features work.
ing spasmodlcally in varying expressions
| that might have marked every sensation in
| the gamut from pleasure to terror
Long have I looked for YOU, Tarzan,"
| said Akut Nov that l have found you
I shall come to your jungle and live there
| always"
The man stroked the beasts head
| Through his mind was running rapidly n
| train OF recollection that carried him far
| into the depths of the primeva African
| forest, where this huge, man-like beast
had fought shoulder TO shoulder with him
| in years before. lie saw the black Mu-
| gambi welding his deadly knob-stlck, and
beside them, with barred fangs and bristling
| whiskers. Sheeta the terrible; and pressing
| close behind, savage as the savage pam
ther, the hdeous apes of Akut.
The man sighed. Strong within him
surged the Jungle lust that he had thought
| dead. All, II he could go back even for a
| brief month to IT. to feel again the brush
| of eafy branches against his naked hide ;
| to smell the musty rot of dead vegetation
| frankncense and myrrh to the jungle-born
| to sense the noiseless coming Of the great
carnvore upon his trail to hunt and to be
hunted; to kill
The picture was alluring And then
| came another picture--a sweetfaced wom-
| an, still young and beautiful; friends; a
| home; son. He shrugged his giant shoul-
ders.
ut cannot be, AlSut," he said; but If you
would return, / shall see that 1t is done.
You could not be happy here-1 may not
| be happy there.
The trainer stepped forward. The ape
| Ddlcu iuhSSi biN"i'ho'
| "Go with him, AlSut," said Tarzan of the
Apes. II will come and see you tomor-
| row"
The beast moved sullenly to the trainers
side The latter, at John Clayton's request,
| told where they might be found. Tarzan
turned toward his son.
Gomez. he said. and the two left the
theatre. Neither spoke for several min.
| utes after they had entered the Limousine.
| 1t was the boy who broke the silence.
"The ape knew you," he said, "and you
| spoke together in the apes tongue. How
| did the ape know you, and how did you
| learn his language?'
And then, briefly, and for the first time.
| Tarzan of the Apes told his son of his
early Iife-of his birth in the jungle, of
| the death of his parents, and of how Kala,
| the great she-ape, had suckled and raised
him from infancy almost to manhood.
He told him, too, of the dangers and the
| horrors of the jungle-of the great beasts
| that stalked one by day and by night; of
| the periods of drought, and of the oataclys-
| mic rains: of hunger; of cold; of intense
heat; of nakedness and fear and suffering.
He told him of all those things that seem
most horrible to the creature of civilization
in the hope that the knowledge of them
might expunge from the lads mind any
inherent desire for the jungle. Yet they
were the very things that made the memory
of the jungle what 1t was to Tarzan--
tnat nlaue up lIS SOhlpOSlNS
loved. .-. D.. -....-
And in the telling he forgot one thing
the principal thing-that the boy at his
side, listening 80 eagerly, was the son of
Tarzan of the Apes. .I.
After the boy had been tucked away in
bed-and without the threatened punish
ment-John Clayton told his wife of the
events of the evening, and that he had at
last acquainted the boy with the facts of
his jungle life. The mother, who had long
foreseen that her son must some time know
of those frightful years during which his
age beast of prey, shook her head, hoping
against hope that the lure she knew was
still strong in the fathers breast had
not been transmitted to his son.
Tarzan visited Akut the following day.
but though Jack begged to be allowed to
accompany him, he was refused. This
time Tarzan saw the pock'marked old
owner of the ape, whom he did not rec
ognize as the willy Paulvtch of former
days Tarzan, influenced by Akut's plead
ings broached the question of the apes
purchase; but Paulvitch would not name
any price. saying that he would consider
the matter.
When Tarzan returned home Jack was
all excitement to hear the details of his
visit and finally suggested that his father
buy the ape and bring II home. Lady Grey
stoke was Mortified at the suggestion.
The boy was insistent. Tarzan explained
that he had wished TO purchase Akut and
return him to his jungle home, and to this
the mother assented. Jack asked to be
allowed to visit the ape, but again he was
met with fiat refusal.
He had the address. however, which the
trainer had given his father; and two days
later he found the opportunity to elude his
new tutor-who had replaced the terrified
Mr.. Moore-and after a considerable search
through a section of London which he had
never before visited, he found the smelly
little quarters OF the pock-marked old man.
The old fellow himself replied to his
knocking and when jack stated that he
had come to see Ajax, opened the door and
admitted him to the little room which he
and the great ape occupied.
CONTINUED TOMORROW