The Lambertville record., 1919-12-12
CHAPTER ll.-continued.

The Belgian did not have long to
wait, for the following day his ennis
sary returned with word that Tarzan
and party of fifty Waziri warriors
had set out toward the southeast early
in the morning
Werper called his head man to him.
after writing a long letter to Achmet
Eek This letter he handed to the head
man.
"Send q runner at once to Achmet
Eek with this" he instructed the head
man. Remain here in camp awaiting
further Instructions from him or from
me If any come from the bungalow of
the Englishman, tell them that l am
very Ill within my tent and can see no
one. Now, give me six porters and six
askaris-the strongest and bravest of
the safari-and will march after the
Englishman and discover where his
gold is hidden"
And so it was that as Tarzan,
stripped to the loin cloth and armed
after the primitive fashion he best
loved, led his loyal Waziri toward the
dead city of Opar Werper, the rene
gade, haunted his trail through the
hind him by night.
And as they marched, Achmet Eek
rode with his entire following south
ward toward the Greystoke farm.
To Tarzan of the Apes the expedi-
tion was in the nature of holiday
outing. His civilization was at best
but IN outward veneer which he glad
y peeled off with his uncomfortable
European clothes whenever any rea-
sonable pretext presented itself 1t
was woman's love which kept Tar.
zan even to the semblance of cviliza-
tion-a condition for which familiarity
had bred contempt. He hated the
Shams and the hypocrisies of 1t and
with the clear vision of an unspoiled
mind he had penetrated to the rotten
core of the heart of the thing-the
cowardly greed for peace and ease and
the safeguarding of property rights.
And so Tarzan always came back to
nature in the spirit of lover keeping
a long-deferred tryst after period be-
hind prison walls. His Waziri, at
marrow, were more civilized than he.
ate it and they stunned many articles
of food as unclean that Tarzan had
eaten with gusto all his life, and so in
sidious is the virus of hypocrisy that
even the stalwart ape-man hesitated
to give rein to his natural longings be-
fore them. He ate burnt flesh when
he would have preferred it raw and
unspoied, and he brought down game
with arrow or spear when he would
far rather have leaped upon it from
ambush and sunk his strong teeth in
its jugular; but at last the call of the
milk of the savage mother that had
sucked him in infancy rose to an in
sistent demand-he craved the hot
blood of fresh kill and his muscles
yearned to pit themselves against the
savage jungle in the battle for exist
ence that had been his sole birthright
for the first twenty years of his life.
Moved by these vague yet all-power-
full urgings the ape-man lay awake one
night in the little thorn bona that pro-
tected in a way, his party from the
depredations of the great carniyora of
the jungle. A single warrior stood
sleepy guard beside the fire that vel
low eyes out of the darkness beyond
the camp made imperative. The means
and the coughing of the big cats
mingled with the myriad noises of the
lesser denizens of the jungle to fan the
savage flame in the breast of this saw
age English lord. He tossed upon his
bed of grasses, sleepless, for an hour
and then he rose, noiseless as wrath,
and while the Waziri's back was
turned, vaulted the bona wall in the
face of the flaming eyes, swung silent
ly into great tree and was gone.
For a time in sheer exuberance of
animal spirit he raced swiftly through
the middle terrace. swinging perilously
across wide spans from one jungle
giant to the next, and then he clam
bered upward to the swaying, lesser
boughs of the upper terrace where the
moon shone full upon him and the air
was stirred by little breezes and death
lurked ready in each frail branch.
Here he paused and raised his face to
Goro, the moon. With uplifted arm
he stood, the cry of the bull ape quiv-
erng upon his lips, yet he remained
silent lest he arouse his faithful Wa
Ziri. who were all too familiar with the
hideous challenge of their master
And then he went on more slowly
and with greater stealth and caution,
for now TarZan of the Apes was seek
ing a kill. Down to the ground he
came in the utter blackness of the
close-set boles and the overhanging
verdure of the jungle. He stopped
from time to time and put his nose
close TO earth. He sought and found
wide game trail and at last his nostrils
We're rewarded with the scent of the
fresh spoor of Bara, the deer. Tar
zan's mouth watered and low growl
escaped his patrician lips. Sloughed
from him was the last vestige of arti-
fetal caste-once again he was the
prmeval hunter-the first mantle |
highest caste type of the human race.
Up wind he followed the elusive spoor
with sense of perception so transcend
ing that of ordinary man as to be in
conceivable to us.
Presently the body scent of the deer
told Tarzan that his prey was close at |
hand. 1t sent him into the trees again
into the lower terrace where he |