Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-06-21

| io"'' "'iN' olCpI lue apes OF heT-
chak, and he was still absorbed in
the solution of his strange problem
when he fell asleep.
The sun was well up in the he,.vens
when he awoke. The apes were astir
in search of food Tarzan watched
them lazily from above as they
scratched in the rotting loan for
bugs and beetles and grubworms. or
sought among the branches of the
trees for eggs and young birds. or
luscious caterpillars.
An orchid, dangling close beside
his head, opened slowly, unfolding
its delicate petals to the warmth and
light of the sun which but recently
had penetrated to its shady retreat.
A thousand times had Tarzan of the
Apes witnessed the beauteous mir
acle; but now it aroused keener in
tcreSt for the ape-man was just
commencing to ask himself questions
about all the myriad wonders which
heretofore he had but taken for
granted.
What made the flower open?
What made it grow from tiny bud
to full-blown bloom? Why was it
at all? Why was he? Where did
Numa, the lion, come from? Who
planted the first tree? How did
GorO get way up into the darkness
of the night sky to cast his welcome
light upon the fearsome nocturnal
Jungle? And the SUM- Did the sun
merely happen there?
Why were all the peoples of the
jungle not trees? Why were the
trees not something else? Why was
Tarzan different from Taug, and
Taug different from Bara, the deer,
and Bara different from Sheeta, the
panther, and why was not Sheeta like
Buto, the rhinoCeros? Where and
how, anyway, did they all come from
the trees, the flowers. the insects,
the countless creatures of the Jungle? ?
Quite Unexpectedly an idea popped
into Tarzan'S head. In following out
the many ramifcations of the die
tionary definition of God he had come
upon the word creatc-"to cause to
come into existence; to form out Of
nothing
Tarzan almost had arrived at
something tangible when a distant
wall startled him from his preoccu-
patton into sensibility of the present
and the real. The wall came from
the jungle at some little distance from
Tarzan's swaying couch. 1t was
the wall of a tiny ba,u. Tar
zan recognized it at once as the voice
Of Gazan, Teeka's baby, They had
called it Gazan because its soft, baby
hair had been unusually red, and
Gazan in the language of the great
apes means red skin.
The wall was Immediately follow
ed by a real scream of terror from
the small lungs. Tarzan was electri-
fed into instant action. Like an
arrow from bow he shot through
the trees in the direction of the
sound. Ahead Of him he heard the
savage snarling of an adult she-apc.
1t was Teeka to the rescue. The
danger must be very real. Tarzan
could tell that by the note of rage
mingled with fear in the voice of the
she.
Running along bending limbs,
swinging from one tree to another,
the ape-man raced through the mid
die terraces toward the sounds which
now had risen in volume to deafen-
ing proportions. From all directions
the apes of Kerchak were hurrying
in response to the appeal in the tones
of the balu and its mother, and as
they came, their roars reverberated
through the forest.
But Tarzan, swifter than his heavy
fellows, djstanced them all 1t was
ho who was first upon the scene.
What he saw sent a cold chill
through his giant frame, for the
enemy was the most hated and
loathed of all the jungle creatures.
Twined in a great tree was His
tah, the snake--huge, pOnderous,
in the folds of its deadly
embrace was Teeka's little balu,
Gazan. Nothing in the jungle in
spired within the breast of Tarzan
so near semblance to fear as did
the hidePus Histah. The apes, too,
!oathed the terrifying reptile and
feared him even more than they did
the panther, or Numa, the
lion. Of all their enemies there was
none they gave wider berth than
they gave Histah, the snake.
Tarzan knew that Teeka was
peculiarly fearful of this silent, re-
pulsive foe, and as the scene broke
upon his vision, it was the action of
Teeka which filled him with the
greatest wonder, for at the moment
that he saw her, the she-ape leaped
upon the glistening body of the
snake, and as the mighty folds en-
circled her as we'll as her offspring,
she made no effort to escape, but
instead grasped the writhing body in
a futile effort to tear it from her
screaming balu.
Tarzan knew all too well how deep
rooted WIS Teeka'S terror of His