Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-09

lized prototypes who make a busi-
ness of dividing their time between
the movies and the neighborhood
funerals of friends and strangers
especially strangers.
From a tree overhanging the pail
sade, Tarzan watched alfthat passed
within the village. He saw the
frenzied women tantalizing the great
lion with sticks and stones. The
cruelty of the blacks toward cap
tive always induced in Tarzan feel
ing of angry contempt for the
Gomangani. Had he attempted to
analyze this feeling he would have
found it difficult, for during all his
life he had been accustomed to
sights cf suffering and cruelty. He,
himself, was cruel. All the beasts of
the jungle were cruel; but the
cruelty of the blacks was of diff
ferent order. 1t was the cruelty OF
wanton torture of the helpless, while
the cruelty of Tarzan and the other
beasts was the cruelty of necessity
or of passion.
And just in proportion as his
anger rose against the Gomanganl his
savage sympathy went out to Numa,
the lion, for, though Numa was his
lifetime enemy, there was neither
bitterness nor contempt in Tarzan S
sentiments toward him. In the ape
mans mind, therefore, the deter
limitation formed to thwart the blacks
and liberate the lion; but he must
accomplish this in some way which
would cause the Gomangani the
greatest chagrin and discontinue.
As he squatted there watching the
proceeding beneath him, he saw the
warriors seize upon the cage once
more and drag it between two huts.
Tarzan knew that it would remain
there now until evening, and that the
blacks were planning a feast and
orgy in celebration of their captive.
When he saw that two warriors were
placed beside the cage, and that
these drove off the women and chill
dren and young men who would have
eventually tortured Numa to death,
he knew that the lion would be safe
until he was needed for the eve
ning's entertainment, when he would
be more cruelty and scientifically
tortured for the edifcation of the
entire tribe.
Now Tarzan preferred to bait the
blacks in as theatric a manner as his
fertile imagination could evolve. He
had some half-formed conception of
their superstitious fears and of their
=. especial dread of night, and so he
decided to wait until darkness fell
and the blacks partially worked to
hysteria by their dancing and religi-
GUS rites before he took any steps
toward the freeing of Numa. In
the meantime, he hoped, an idea
adequate to the possibilities of the
various factors at hand would occur
to him. Nor was it long before one
did.
He had swung off through the
jungle to search for food when the
plan came to him. At first it made
him smile a little and then look
dubious, for he still retained a vivid
memory of the dire results that had
followed the carrying out of a very
wonderful idea along almost iden-
tical lines, yet he did not abandon
his intention, and a moment later,
food temporarily forgotten, he was
swinging through the middle ter
races in rapid flight toward the
stamping ground of the tribe of Ker-
chak, the great ape.
AS was his wont, he alighted in
the midst of the little band without
announcing his approach save by a
hideous scream just as he sprang
from a branch above them. For
tunate are the apes of Kerchak that
their kind is not subject to heart
failure, for the methods of Tarzan
subjected them to one severe shock
after another, nor could they ever
accustom themselves to the ape
! mans peculiar style of humon
Now, when theyysaw who It was