Chapter 3

Son of Tarzan

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER 3, SON OF TARZAN by Edgar R. Burroughs
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As the trainer, with raised lash, hesitated an instant at the
entrance to the box where the boy and the ape confronted
him, a tall broad-shouldered man pushed past him and entered.
As his eyes fell upon the newcomer a slight flush mounted the
boy's cheeks.

"Father!" 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
going wide in astonishment, stopped as though turned to stone.

"Akut!" he cried.

The boy looked, bewildered, from the ape to his father, and
from his father to the ape. The trainer's jaw dropped as he
listened to what followed, for from the lips of the Englishman
flowed the gutturals of an ape that were answered in kind by the
huge anthropoid that now clung to him.

And from the wings a hideously bent and disfigured old man
watched the tableau in the box, his pock-marked features working
spasmodically 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. "Now that I
have found you I shall come to your jungle and live there always."

The man stroked the beast's head. Through his mind there
was running rapidly a train of recollection that carried him
far into the depths of the primeval African forest where this
huge, man-like beast had fought shoulder to shoulder with him
years before. He saw the black Mugambi wielding his deadly knob-
stick, and beside them, with bared fangs and bristling whiskers,
Sheeta the terrible; and pressing close behind the savage and
the savage panther, the hideous apes of Akut. The man sighed.
Strong within him surged the jungle lust that he had thought dead.
Ah! if he could go back even for a brief month of it, to feel
again the brush of leafy branches against his naked hide; to
smell the musty rot of dead vegetation--frankincense and myrrh
to the jungle born; to sense the noiseless coming of the great
carnivora upon his trail; to hunt and to be hunted; to kill!
The picture was alluring. And then came another picture--a sweet-
faced woman, still young and beautiful; friends; a home; a son.
He shrugged his giant shoulders.

"It cannot be, Akut," he said; "but if you would return, I
shall see that it is done. You could not be happy here--I may
not be happy there."

The trainer stepped forward. The ape bared his fangs, growling.

"Go with him, Akut," said Tarzan of the Apes. "I will come
and see you tomorrow."

The beast moved sullenly to the trainer's side. The latter,
at John Clayton's request, told where they might be found.
Tarzan turned toward his son.

"Come!" he said, and the two left the theater. Neither spoke
for several minutes after they had entered the limousine. It was
the boy who broke the silence.

"The ape knew you," he said, "and you spoke together in
the ape's 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 life--of the 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 cataclysmic 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 lad's mind any inherent desire for the jungle.
Yet they were the very things that made the memory of the jungle
what it was to Tarzan--that made up the composite jungle life
he loved. And in the telling he forgot one thing--the principal
thing--that the boy at his side, listening with eager ears, was
the son of Tarzan of the Apes.

After the boy had been tucked away in bed--and without the
threatened punishment--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 father had roamed the jungle, a naked, savage beast
of prey, only shook her head, hoping against hope that the lure
she knew was still strong in the father's 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 recognize as the wily Paulvitch of former days.
Tarzan, influenced by Akut's pleadings, broached the question
of the ape's 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 it home. Lady Greystoke was horrified 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 flat 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 he 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. In former years Paulvitch had been a fastidious
scoundrel; but ten years of hideous life among the cannibals of
Africa had eradicated the last vestige of niceness from his habits.
His apparel was wrinkled and soiled. His hands were unwashed,
his few straggling locks uncombed. His room was a jumble of
filthy disorder. As the boy entered he saw the great ape squatting
upon the bed, the coverlets of which were a tangled wad of filthy
blankets and ill-smelling quilts. At sight of the youth the ape
leaped to the floor and shuffled forward. The man, not recognizing
his visitor and fearing that the ape meant mischief, stepped
between them, ordering the ape back to the bed.

"He will not hurt me," cried the boy. "We are friends, and before,
he was my father's friend. They knew one another in the jungle.
My father is Lord Greystoke. He does not know that I have
come here. My mother forbid my coming; but I wished to see Ajax,
and I will pay you if you will let me come here often and see him."

At the mention of the boy's identity Paulvitch's eyes narrowed.
Since he had first seen Tarzan again from the wings of
the theater there had been forming in his deadened brain the
beginnings of a desire for revenge. It is a characteristic of the
weak and criminal to attribute to others the misfortunes that are
the result of their own wickedness, and so now it was that Alexis
Paulvitch was slowly recalling the events of his past life and as
he did so laying at the door of the man whom he and Rokoff had
so assiduously attempted to ruin and murder all the misfortunes
that had befallen him in the failure of their various schemes
against their intended victim.

He saw at first no way in which he could, with safety to
himself, wreak vengeance upon Tarzan through the medium of
Tarzan's son; but that great possibilities for revenge lay in the
boy was apparent to him, and so he determined to cultivate the
lad in the hope that fate would play into his hands in some way
in the future. He told the boy all that he knew of his father's
past life in the jungle and when he found that the boy had been kept
in ignorance of all these things for so many years, and that he
had been forbidden visiting the zoological gardens; that he had
had to bind and gag his tutor to find an opportunity to come to
the music hall and see Ajax, he guessed immediately the nature
of the great fear that lay in the hearts of the boy's parents--
that he might crave the jungle as his father had craved it.

And so Paulvitch encouraged the boy to come and see him often,
and always he played upon the lad's craving for tales of the
savage world with which Paulvitch was all too familiar. He left
him alone with Akut much, and it was not long until he was
surprised to learn that the boy could make the great beast
understand him--that he had actually learned many of the words
of the primitive language of the anthropoids.

During this period Tarzan came several times to visit Paulvitch.
He seemed anxious to purchase Ajax, and at last he told
the man frankly that he was prompted not only by a desire upon
his part to return the beast to the liberty of his native jungle;
but also because his wife feared that in some way her son might
learn the whereabouts of the ape and through his attachment for
the beast become imbued with the roving instinct which, as
Tarzan explained to Paulvitch, had so influenced his own life.

The Russian could scarce repress a smile as he listened to
Lord Greystoke's words, since scarce a half hour had passed
since the time the future Lord Greystoke had been sitting upon
the disordered bed jabbering away to Ajax with all the fluency
of a born ape.

It was during this interview that a plan occurred to Paulvitch,
and as a result of it he agreed to accept a certain fabulous sum
for the ape, and upon receipt of the money to deliver the beast
to a vessel that was sailing south from Dover for Africa two
days later. He had a double purpose in accepting Clayton's offer.
Primarily, the money consideration influenced him strongly, as
the ape was no longer a source of revenue to him, having
consistently refused to perform upon the stage after having
discovered Tarzan. It was as though the beast had suffered himself
to be brought from his jungle home and exhibited before thousands
of curious spectators for the sole purpose of searching out his
long lost friend and master, and, having found him, considered
further mingling with the common herd of humans unnecessary.
However that may be, the fact remained that no amount of persuasion
could influence him even to show himself upon the music hall stage,
and upon the single occasion that the trainer attempted force the
results were such that the unfortunate man considered himself
lucky to have escaped with his life. All that saved him was the
accidental presence of Jack Clayton, who had been permitted to
visit the animal in the dressing room reserved for him at the
music hall, and had immediately interfered when he saw that the
savage beast meant serious mischief.

And after the money consideration, strong in the heart of the
Russian was the desire for revenge, which had been growing with
constant brooding over the failures and miseries of his life,
which he attributed to Tarzan; the latest, and by no means the
least, of which was Ajax's refusal to longer earn money for him.
The ape's refusal he traced directly to Tarzan, finally convincing
himself that the ape man had instructed the great anthropoid to
refuse to go upon the stage.

Paulvitch's naturally malign disposition was aggravated by the
weakening and warping of his mental and physical faculties
through torture and privation. From cold, calculating, highly
intelligent perversity it had deteriorated into the
indiscriminating, dangerous menace of the mentally defective.
His plan, however, was sufficiently cunning to at least cast
a doubt upon the assertion that his mentality was wandering.
It assured him first of the competence which Lord Greystoke
had promised to pay him for the deportation of the ape, and
then of revenge upon his benefactor through the son he idolized.
That part of his scheme was crude and brutal--it lacked the
refinement of torture that had marked the master strokes of the
Paulvitch of old, when he had worked with that virtuoso of
villainy, Nikolas Rokoff--but it at least assured Paulvitch of
immunity from responsibility, placing that upon the ape, who
would thus also be punished for his refusal longer to support
the Russian.

Everything played with fiendish unanimity into Paulvitch's hands.
As chance would have it, Tarzan's son overheard his father
relating to the boy's mother the steps he was taking to return
Akut safely to his jungle home, and having overheard he begged
them to bring the ape home that he might have him for a
play-fellow. Tarzan would not have been averse to this plan;
but Lady Greystoke was horrified at the very thought of it.
Jack pleaded with his mother; but all unavailingly. She was
obdurate, and at last the lad appeared to acquiesce in his
mother's decision that the ape must be returned to Africa and
the boy to school, from which he had been absent on vacation.

He did not attempt to visit Paulvitch's room again that day,
but instead busied himself in other ways. He had always been
well supplied with money, so that when necessity demanded he
had no difficulty in collecting several hundred pounds. Some of
this money he invested in various strange purchases which he
managed to smuggle into the house, undetected, when he returned
late in the afternoon.

The next morning, after giving his father time to precede him
and conclude his business with Paulvitch, the lad hastened to
the Russian's room. Knowing nothing of the man's true character
the boy dared not take him fully into his confidence for
fear that the old fellow would not only refuse to aid him, but
would report the whole affair to his father. Instead, he simply
asked permission to take Ajax to Dover. He explained that it
would relieve the old man of a tiresome journey, as well as
placing a number of pounds in his pocket, for the lad purposed
paying the Russian well.

"You see," he went on, "there will be no danger of detection
since I am supposed to be leaving on an afternoon train for school.
Instead I will come here after they have left me on board
the train. Then I can take Ajax to Dover, you see, and arrive at
school only a day late. No one will be the wiser, no harm will
be done, and I shall have had an extra day with Ajax before I
lose him forever."

The plan fitted perfectly with that which Paulvitch had in mind.
Had he known what further the boy contemplated he would doubtless
have entirely abandoned his own scheme of revenge and aided the
boy whole heartedly in the consummation of the lad's, which would
have been better for Paulvitch, could he have but read the future
but a few short hours ahead.

That afternoon Lord and Lady Greystoke bid their son good-
bye and saw him safely settled in a first-class compartment of
the railway carriage that would set him down at school in a
few hours. No sooner had they left him, however, than he
gathered his bags together, descended from the compartment and
sought a cab stand outside the station. Here he engaged a cabby
to take him to the Russian's address. It was dusk when he arrived.
He found Paulvitch awaiting him. The man was pacing the floor
nervously. The ape was tied with a stout cord to the bed. It was
the first time that Jack had ever seen Ajax thus secured. He looked
questioningly at Paulvitch. The man, mumbling, explained that he
believed the animal had guessed that he was to be sent away and he
feared he would attempt to escape.

Paulvitch carried another piece of cord in his hand. There was
a noose in one end of it which he was continually playing with.
He walked back and forth, up and down the room. His pock-marked
features were working horribly as he talked silent to himself.
The boy had never seen him thus--it made him uneasy. At last
Paulvitch stopped on the opposite side of the room, far from the ape.

"Come here," he said to the lad. "I will show you how to secure
the ape should he show signs of rebellion during the trip."

The lad laughed. "It will not be necessary," he replied.
"Ajax will do whatever I tell him to do."

The old man stamped his foot angrily. "Come here, as I tell you,"
he repeated. "If you do not do as I say you shall not accompany
the ape to Dover--I will take no chances upon his escaping."

Still smiling, the lad crossed the room and stood before the Russ.

"Turn around, with your back toward me," directed the latter,
"that I may show you how to bind him quickly."

The boy did as he was bid, placing his hands behind him when
Paulvitch told him to do so. Instantly the old man slipped
the running noose over one of the lad's wrists, took a couple of
half hitches about his other wrist, and knotted the cord.

The moment that the boy was secured the attitude of the
man changed. With an angry oath he wheeled his prisoner about,
tripped him and hurled him violently to the floor, leaping upon
his breast as he fell. From the bed the ape growled and struggled
with his bonds. The boy did not cry out--a trait inherited from
his savage sire whom long years in the jungle following the death
of his foster mother, Kala the great ape, had taught that there
was none to come to the succor of the fallen.

Paulvitch's fingers sought the lad's throat. He grinned down
horribly into the face of his victim.

"Your father ruined me," he mumbled. "This will pay him. He will
think that the ape did it. I will tell him that the ape did it.
That I left him alone for a few minutes, and that you sneaked
in and the ape killed you. I will throw your body upon the bed
after I have choked the life from you, and when I bring your
father he will see the ape squatting over it," and the twisted
fiend cackled in gloating laughter. His fingers closed upon the
boy's throat.

Behind them the growling of the maddened beast reverberated
against the walls of the little room. The boy paled, but no other
sign of fear or panic showed upon his countenance. He was the
son of Tarzan. The fingers tightened their grip upon his throat.
It was with difficulty that he breathed, gaspingly. The ape lunged
against the stout cord that held him. Turning, he wrapped the
cord about his hands, as a man might have done, and surged
heavily backward. The great muscles stood out beneath his
shaggy hide. There was a rending as of splintered wood--the
cord held, but a portion of the footboard of the bed came away.

At the sound Paulvitch looked up. His hideous face went
white with terror--the ape was free.

With a single bound the creature was upon him. The man shrieked.
The brute wrenched him from the body of the boy. Great fingers
sunk into the man's flesh. Yellow fangs gaped close to his
throat--he struggled, futilely--and when they closed, the soul
of Alexis Paulvitch passed into the keeping of the demons who
had long been awaiting it.

The boy struggled to his feet, assisted by Akut. For two hours
under the instructions of the former the ape worked upon the
knots that secured his friend's wrists. Finally they gave up
their secret, and the boy was free. Then he opened one of his
bags and drew forth some garments. His plans had been well made.
He did not consult the beast, which did all that he directed.
Together they slunk from the house, but no casual observer might
have noted that one of them was an ape.