Chapter 6

Son of Tarzan

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER 6, SON OF TARZAN by Edgar R. Burroughs
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His first night in the jungle was one which the son of
Tarzan held longest in his memory. No savage carnivora
menaced him. There was never a sign of hideous barbarian.
Or, if there were, the boy's troubled mind took no cognizance
of them. His conscience was harassed by the thought of his
mother's suffering. Self-blame plunged him into the depths
of misery. The killing of the American caused him little or
no remorse. The fellow had earned his fate. Jack's regret
on this score was due mainly to the effect which the death of
Condon had had upon his own plans. Now he could not return
directly to his parents as he had planned. Fear of the primitive,
borderland law, of which he had read highly colored, imaginary tales,
had thrust him into the jungle a fugitive. He dared not return to
the coast at this point--not that he was so greatly influenced
through personal fear as from a desire to shield his father and
mother from further sorrow and from the shame of having their
honored name dragged through the sordid degradation of a murder trial.

With returning day the boy's spirits rose. With the rising sun
rose new hope within his breast. He would return to civilization
by another way. None would guess that he had been connected
with the killing of the stranger in the little out-of-the-way
trading post upon a remote shore.

Crouched close to the great ape in the crotch of a tree the boy
had shivered through an almost sleepless night. His light pajamas
had been but little protection from the chill dampness of
the jungle, and only that side of him which was pressed against
the warm body of his shaggy companion approximated to comfort.
And so he welcomed the rising sun with its promise of warmth as well
as light--the blessed sun, dispeller of physical and mental ills.

He shook Akut into wakefulness.

"Come," he said. "I am cold and hungry. We will search for
food, out there in the sunlight," and he pointed to an open
plain, dotted with stunted trees and strewn with jagged rock.

The boy slid to the ground as he spoke, but the ape first looked
carefully about, sniffing the morning air. Then, satisfied that
no danger lurked near, he descended slowly to the ground beside
the boy."

"Numa, and Sabor his mate, feast upon those who descend
first and look afterward, while those who look first and descend
afterward live to feast themselves." Thus the old ape imparted
to the son of Tarzan the boy's first lesson in jungle lore. Side by
side they set off across the rough plain, for the boy wished first
to be warm. The ape showed him the best places to dig for
rodents and worms; but the lad only gagged at the thought of
devouring the repulsive things. Some eggs they found, and these
he sucked raw, as also he ate roots and tubers which Akut unearthed.
Beyond the plain and across a low bluff they came upon water--
brackish, ill-smelling stuff in a shallow water hole, the sides
and bottom of which were trampled by the feet of many beasts.
A herd of zebra galloped away as they approached.

The lad was too thirsty by now to cavil at anything even remotely
resembling water, so he drank his fill while Akut stood with
raised head, alert for any danger. Before the ape drank he
cautioned the boy to be watchful; but as he drank he raised his
head from time to time to cast a quick glance toward a clump
of bushes a hundred yards away upon the opposite side of the
water hole. When he had done he rose and spoke to the boy, in
the language that was their common heritage--the tongue of the
great apes.

"There is no danger near?" he asked.

"None," replied the boy. "I saw nothing move while you drank."

"Your eyes will help you but little in the jungle," said the ape.

"Here, if you would live, you must depend upon your ears
and your nose but most upon your nose. When we came down
to drink I knew that no danger lurked near upon this side of the
water hole, for else the zebras would have discovered it and fled
before we came; but upon the other side toward which the wind
blows danger might lie concealed. We could not smell it for its
scent is being blown in the other direction, and so I bent my
ears and eyes down wind where my nose cannot travel."

"And you found--nothing?" asked the lad, with a laugh.

"I found Numa crouching in that clump of bushes where the
tall grasses grow," and Akut pointed.

"A lion?" exclaimed the boy. "How do you know? I can see nothing."

"Numa is there, though," replied the great ape. "First I heard
him sigh. To you the sigh of Numa may sound no different from
the other noises which the wind makes among the grasses and
the trees; but later you must learn to know the sigh of Numa.
Then I watched and at last I saw the tall grasses moving at one
point to a force other than the force of the wind. See, they are
spread there upon either side of Numa's great body, and as he
breathes--you see? You see the little motion at either side that
is not caused by the wind--the motion that none of the other
grasses have?"

The boy strained his eyes--better eyes than the ordinary boy
inherits--and at last he gave a little exclamation of discovery.

"Yes," he said, "I see. He lies there," and he pointed.
"His head is toward us. Is he watching us?"

"Numa is watching us," replied Akut, "but we are in little
danger, unless we approach too close, for he is lying upon
his kill. His belly is almost full, or we should hear him
crunching the bones. He is watching us in silence merely
from curiosity. Presently he will resume his feeding or he
will rise and come down to the water for a drink. As he
neither fears or desires us he will not try to hide his
presence from us; but now is an excellent time to learn to
know Numa, for you must learn to know him well if you would
live long in the jungle. Where the great apes are many Numa
leaves us alone. Our fangs are long and strong, and we can
fight; but when we are alone and he is hungry we are no match
for him. Come, we will circle him and catch his scent.
The sooner you learn to know it the better; but keep close to
the trees, as we go around him, for Numa often does that which
he is least expected to do. And keep your ears and your eyes
and your nose open. Remember always that there may be an enemy
behind every bush, in every tree and amongst every clump of
jungle grass. While you are avoiding Numa do not run into the
jaws of Sabor, his mate. Follow me," and Akut set off in a wide
circle about the water hole and the crouching lion.

The boy followed close upon his heels, his every sense upon
the alert, his nerves keyed to the highest pitch of excitement.
This was life! For the instant he forgot his resolutions of a few
minutes past to hasten to the coast at some other point than that
at which he had landed and make his way immediately back to London.
He thought now only of the savage joy of living, and of pitting
one's wits and prowess against the wiles and might of the savage
jungle brood which haunted the broad plains and the gloomy forest
aisles of the great, untamed continent. He knew no fear.
His father had had none to transmit to him; but honor and
conscience he did have and these were to trouble him many
times as they battled with his inherent love of freedom for
possession of his soul.

They had passed but a short distance to the rear of Numa when
the boy caught the unpleasant odor of the carnivore. His face
lighted with a smile. Something told him that he would have
known that scent among a myriad of others even if Akut had not
told him that a lion lay near. There was a strange familiarity--
a weird familiarity in it that made the short hairs rise at the
nape of his neck, and brought his upper lip into an involuntary
snarl that bared his fighting fangs. There was a sense of
stretching of the skin about his ears, for all the world as though
those members were flattening back against his skull in preparation
for deadly combat. His skin tingled. He was aglow with a
pleasurable sensation that he never before had known. He was,
upon the instant, another creature--wary, alert, ready. Thus did
the scent of Numa, the lion, transform the boy into a beast.

He had never seen a lion--his mother had gone to great pains
to prevent it. But he had devoured countless pictures of them,
and now he was ravenous to feast his eyes upon the king of
beasts in the flesh. As he trailed Akut he kept an eye cocked
over one shoulder, rearward, in the hope that Numa might rise
from his kill and reveal himself. Thus it happened that he
dropped some little way behind Akut, and the next he knew he
was recalled suddenly to a contemplation of other matters than
the hidden Numa by a shrill scream of warning from the Ape.
Turning his eyes quickly in the direction of his companion, the
boy saw that, standing in the path directly before him, which
sent tremors of excitement racing along every nerve of his body.
With body half-merging from a clump of bushes in which she
must have lain hidden stood a sleek and beautiful lioness.
Her yellow-green eyes were round and staring, boring straight into
the eyes of the boy. Not ten paces separated them. Twenty paces
behind the lioness stood the great ape, bellowing instructions to
the boy and hurling taunts at the lioness in an evident effort to
attract her attention from the lad while he gained the shelter of
a near-by tree.

But Sabor was not to be diverted. She had her eyes upon the lad.
He stood between her and her mate, between her and the kill.
It was suspicious. Probably he had ulterior designs upon her
lord and master or upon the fruits of their hunting. A lioness
is short tempered. Akut's bellowing annoyed her. She uttered a
little rumbling growl, taking a step toward the boy.

"The tree!" screamed Akut.

The boy turned and fled, and at the same instant the lioness charged.
The tree was but a few paces away. A limb hung ten feet from the
ground, and as the boy leaped for it the lioness leaped for him.
Like a monkey he pulled himself up and to one side. A great
forepaw caught him a glancing blow at the hips--just grazing him.
One curved talon hooked itself into the waist band of his pajama
trousers, ripping them from him as the lioness sped by. Half-naked
the lad drew himself to safety as the beast turned and leaped for
him once more.

Akut, from a near-by tree, jabbered and scolded, calling the
lioness all manner of foul names. The boy, patterning his
conduct after that of his preceptor, unstoppered the vials of his
invective upon the head of the enemy, until in realization of the
futility of words as weapons he bethought himself of something
heavier to hurl. There was nothing but dead twigs and branches
at hand, but these he flung at the upturned, snarling face of
Sabor just as his father had before him twenty years ago, when
as a boy he too had taunted and tantalized the great cats of
the jungle.

The lioness fretted about the bole of the tree for a short time;
but finally, either realizing the uselessness of her vigil, or
prompted by the pangs of hunger, she stalked majestically away
and disappeared in the brush that hid her lord, who had not once
shown himself during the altercation.

Freed from their retreats Akut and the boy came to the ground,
to take up their interrupted journey once more. The old ape
scolded the lad for his carelessness.

"Had you not been so intent upon the lion behind you you
might have discovered the lioness much sooner than you did,"

"But you passed right by her without seeing her," retorted
the boy.

Akut was chagrined.

"It is thus," he said, "that jungle folk die. We go cautiously
for a lifetime, and then, just for an instant, we forget, and--"
he ground his teeth in mimicry of the crunching of great jaws
in flesh. "It is a lesson," he resumed. "You have learned that
you may not for too long keep your eyes and your ears and your
nose all bent in the same direction."

That night the son of Tarzan was colder than he ever had been
in all his life. The pajama trousers had not been heavy; but they
had been much heavier than nothing. And the next day he roasted
in the hot sun, for again their way led much across wide and
treeless plains.

It was still in the boy's mind to travel to the south, and circle
back to the coast in search of another outpost of civilization.
He had said nothing of this plan to Akut, for he knew that the old
ape would look with displeasure upon any suggestion that savored
of separation.

For a month the two wandered on, the boy learning rapidly
the laws of the jungle; his muscles adapting themselves to the
new mode of life that had been thrust upon them. The thews of
the sire had been transmitted to the son--it needed only the
hardening of use to develop them. The lad found that it came
quite naturally to him to swing through the trees. Even at great
heights he never felt the slightest dizziness, and when he had
caught the knack of the swing and the release, he could hurl
himself through space from branch to branch with even greater
agility than the heavier Akut.

And with exposure came a toughening and hardening of his
smooth, white skin, browning now beneath the sun and wind.
He had removed his pajama jacket one day to bathe in a little
stream that was too small to harbor crocodiles, and while he
and Akut had been disporting themselves in the cool waters a
monkey had dropped down from the over hanging trees, snatched
up the boy's single remaining article of civilized garmenture,
and scampered away with it.

For a time Jack was angry; but when he had been without the
jacket for a short while he began to realize that being half-
clothed is infinitely more uncomfortable than being entirely naked.
Soon he did not miss his clothing in the least, and from that he
came to revel in the freedom of his unhampered state.
Occasionally a smile would cross his face as he tried to imagine
the surprise of his schoolmates could they but see him now.
They would envy him. Yes, how they would envy him. He felt
sorry for them at such times, and again as he thought of them
amid luxuries and comforts of their English homes, happy with
their fathers and mothers, a most uncomfortable lump would arise
into the boy's throat, and he would see a vision of his mother's
face through a blur of mist that came unbidden to his eyes.
Then it was that he urged Akut onward, for now they were headed
westward toward the coast. The old ape thought that they were
searching for a tribe of his own kind, nor did the boy disabuse
his mind of this belief. It would do to tell Akut of his real
plans when they had come within sight of civilization.

One day as they were moving slowly along beside a river they
came unexpectedly upon a native village. Some children were
playing beside the water. The boy's heart leaped within his breast
at sight of them--for over a month he had seen no human being.
What if these were naked savages? What if their skins were black?
Were they not creatures fashioned in the mold of their Maker,
as was he? They were his brothers and sisters! He started
toward them. With a low warning Akut laid a hand upon his
arm to hold him back. The boy shook himself free, and with a
shout of greeting ran forward toward the ebon players.

The sound of his voice brought every head erect. Wide eyes
viewed him for an instant, and then, with screams of terror, the
children turned and fled toward the village. At their heels ran
their mothers, and from the village gate, in response to the
alarm, came a score of warriors, hastily snatched spears and
shields ready in their hands.

At sight of the consternation he had wrought the boy halted.
The glad smile faded from his face as with wild shouts and
menacing gestures the warriors ran toward him. Akut was calling
to him from behind to turn and flee, telling him that the
blacks would kill him. For a moment he stood watching them
coming, then he raised his hand with the palm toward them in
signal for them to halt, calling out at the same time that he came
as a friend--that he had only wanted to play with their children.
Of course they did not understand a word that he addressed to
them, and their answer was what any naked creature who had
run suddenly out of the jungle upon their women and children
might have expected--a shower of spears. The missiles struck
all about the boy, but none touched him. Again his spine tingled
and the short hairs lifted at the nape of his neck and along the
top of his scalp. His eyes narrowed. Sudden hatred flared in
them to wither the expression of glad friendliness that had lighted
them but an instant before. With a low snarl, quite similar to
that of a baffled beast, he turned and ran into the jungle.
There was Akut awaiting him in a tree. The ape urged him to hasten
in flight, for the wise old anthropoid knew that they two, naked
and unarmed, were no match for the sinewy black warriors who would
doubtless make some sort of search for them through the jungle.

But a new power moved the son of Tarzan. He had come with a
boy's glad and open heart to offer his friendship to these people
who were human beings like himself. He had been met with
suspicion and spears. They had not even listened to him.
Rage and hatred consumed him. When Akut urged speed he held back.
He wanted to fight, yet his reason made it all too plain that it
would be but a foolish sacrifice of his life to meet these
armed men with his naked hands and his teeth--already the boy
thought of his teeth, of his fighting fangs, when possibility of
combat loomed close.

Moving slowly through the trees he kept his eyes over his shoulder,
though he no longer neglected the possibilities of other dangers
which might lurk on either hand or ahead--his experience with the
lioness did not need a repetition to insure the permanency of the
lesson it had taught. Behind he could hear the savages advancing
with shouts and cries. He lagged further behind until the pursuers
were in sight. They did not see him, for they were not looking
among the branches of the trees for human quarry. The lad kept
just ahead of them. For a mile perhaps they continued the search,
and then they turned back toward the village. Here was the boy's
opportunity, that for which he had been waiting, while the hot
blood of revenge coursed through his veins until he saw his
pursuers through a scarlet haze.

When they turned back he turned and followed them. Akut was
no longer in sight. Thinking that the boy followed he had
gone on further ahead. He had no wish to tempt fate within range
of those deadly spears. Slinking silently from tree to tree the
boy dogged the footsteps of the returning warriors. At last one
dropped behind his fellows as they followed a narrow path toward
the village. A grim smile lit the lad's face. Swiftly he
hurried forward until he moved almost above the unconscious
black--stalking him as Sheeta, the panther, stalked his prey, as
the boy had seen Sheeta do on many occasions.

Suddenly and silently he leaped forward and downward upon
the broad shoulders of his prey. In the instant of contact his
fingers sought and found the man's throat. The weight of the
boy's body hurled the black heavily to the ground, the knees in
his back knocking the breath from him as he struck. Then a set
of strong, white teeth fastened themselves in his neck, and muscular
fingers closed tighter upon his wind-pipe. For a time the
warrior struggled frantically, throwing himself about in an effort
to dislodge his antagonist; but all the while he was weakening
and all the while the grim and silent thing he could not see clung
tenaciously to him, and dragged him slowly into the bush to one
side of the trail.

Hidden there at last, safe from the prying eyes of searchers,
should they miss their fellow and return for him, the lad choked
the life from the body of his victim. At last he knew by the
sudden struggle, followed by limp relaxation, that the warrior
was dead. Then a strange desire seized him. His whole being
quivered and thrilled. Involuntarily he leaped to his feet and
placed one foot upon the body of his kill. His chest expanded.
He raised his face toward the heavens and opened his mouth to
voice a strange, weird cry that seemed screaming within him for
outward expression, but no sound passed his lips--he just stood
there for a full minute, his face turned toward the sky, his breast
heaving to the pent emotion, like an animate statue of vengeance.

The silence which marked the first great kill of the son of
Tarzan was to typify all his future kills, just as the hideous
victory cry of the bull ape had marked the kills of his mighty sire.