The Son of Tarzan

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Chapter 2

  Mr. Harold Moore was a bilious-countenanced, studious young man. Hetook himself very seriously, and life, and his work, which latter wasthe tutoring of the young son of a British nobleman. He felt that hischarge was not making the progress that his parents had a right toexpect, and he was now conscientiously explaining this fact to theboy's mother.

  "It's not that he isn't bright," he was saying; "if that were true Ishould have hopes of succeeding, for then I might bring to bear all myenergies in overcoming his obtuseness; but the trouble is that he isexceptionally intelligent, and learns so quickly that I can find nofault in the matter of the preparation of his lessons. What concernsme, however, is the fact that he evidently takes no interest whateverin the subjects we are studying. He merely accomplishes each lesson asa task to be rid of as quickly as possible and I am sure that no lessonever again enters his mind until the hours of study and recitation oncemore arrive. His sole interests seem to be feats of physical prowessand the reading of everything that he can get hold of relative tosavage beasts and the lives and customs of uncivilized peoples; butparticularly do stories of animals appeal to him. He will sit forhours together poring over the work of some African explorer, and upontwo occasions I have found him setting up in bed at night reading CarlHagenbeck's book on men and beasts."

  The boy's mother tapped her foot nervously upon the hearth rug.

  "You discourage this, of course?" she ventured.

  Mr. Moore shuffled embarrassedly.

  "I--ah--essayed to take the book from him," he replied, a slight flushmounting his sallow cheek; "but--ah--your son is quite muscular for oneso young."

  "He wouldn't let you take it?" asked the mother.

  "He would not," confessed the tutor. "He was perfectly good naturedabout it; but he insisted upon pretending that he was a gorilla andthat I was a chimpanzee attempting to steal food from him. He leapedupon me with the most savage growls I ever heard, lifted me completelyabove his head, hurled me upon his bed, and after going through apantomime indicative of choking me to death he stood upon my prostrateform and gave voice to a most fearsome shriek, which he explained wasthe victory cry of a bull ape. Then he carried me to the door, shovedme out into the hall and locked me from his room."

  For several minutes neither spoke again. It was the boy's mother whofinally broke the silence.

  "It is very necessary, Mr. Moore," she said, "that you do everything inyour power to discourage this tendency in Jack, he--"; but she got nofurther. A loud "Whoop!" from the direction of the window brought themboth to their feet. The room was upon the second floor of the house,and opposite the window to which their attention had been attracted wasa large tree, a branch of which spread to within a few feet of thesill. Upon this branch now they both discovered the subject of theirrecent conversation, a tall, well-built boy, balancing with ease uponthe bending limb and uttering loud shouts of glee as he noted theterrified expressions upon the faces of his audience.

  The mother and tutor both rushed toward the window but before they hadcrossed half the room the boy had leaped nimbly to the sill and enteredthe apartment with them.

  "'The wild man from Borneo has just come to town,'" he sang, dancing aspecies of war dance about his terrified mother and scandalized tutor,and ending up by throwing his arms about the former's neck and kissingher upon either cheek.

  "Oh, Mother," he cried, "there's a wonderful, educated ape being shownat one of the music halls. Willie Grimsby saw it last night. He saysit can do everything but talk. It rides a bicycle, eats with knife andfork, counts up to ten, and ever so many other wonderful things, andcan I go and see it too? Oh, please, Mother--please let me."

  Patting the boy's cheek affectionately, the mother shook her headnegatively. "No, Jack," she said; "you know I do not approve of suchexhibitions."

  "I don't see why not, Mother," replied the boy. "All the other fellowsgo and they go to the Zoo, too, and you'll never let me do even that.Anybody'd think I was a girl--or a mollycoddle. Oh, Father," heexclaimed, as the door opened to admit a tall gray-eyed man. "Oh,Father, can't I go?"

  "Go where, my son?" asked the newcomer.

  "He wants to go to a music hall to see a trained ape," said the mother,looking warningly at her husband.

  "Who, Ajax?" questioned the man.

  The boy nodded.

  "Well, I don't know that I blame you, my son," said the father, "Iwouldn't mind seeing him myself. They say he is very wonderful, andthat for an anthropoid he is unusually large. Let's all go, Jane--whatdo you say?" And he turned toward his wife, but that lady only shookher head in a most positive manner, and turning to Mr. Moore asked himif it was not time that he and Jack were in the study for the morningrecitations. When the two had left she turned toward her husband.

  "John," she said, "something must be done to discourage Jack's tendencytoward anything that may excite the cravings for the savage life whichI fear he has inherited from you. You know from your own experiencehow strong is the call of the wild at times. You know that often ithas necessitated a stern struggle on your part to resist the almostinsane desire which occasionally overwhelms you to plunge once againinto the jungle life that claimed you for so many years, and at thesame time you know, better than any other, how frightful a fate itwould be for Jack, were the trail to the savage jungle made eitheralluring or easy to him."

  "I doubt if there is any danger of his inheriting a taste for junglelife from me," replied the man, "for I cannot conceive that such athing may be transmitted from father to son. And sometimes, Jane, Ithink that in your solicitude for his future you go a bit too far inyour restrictive measures. His love for animals--his desire, forexample, to see this trained ape--is only natural in a healthy, normalboy of his age. Just because he wants to see Ajax is no indicationthat he would wish to marry an ape, and even should he, far be it fromyou Jane to have the right to cry 'shame!'" and John Clayton, LordGreystoke, put an arm about his wife, laughing good-naturedly down intoher upturned face before he bent his head and kissed her. Then, moreseriously, he continued: "You have never told Jack anything concerningmy early life, nor have you permitted me to, and in this I think thatyou have made a mistake. Had I been able to tell him of theexperiences of Tarzan of the Apes I could doubtless have taken much ofthe glamour and romance from jungle life that naturally surrounds it inthe minds of those who have had no experience of it. He might thenhave profited by my experience, but now, should the jungle lust everclaim him, he will have nothing to guide him but his own impulses, andI know how powerful these may be in the wrong direction at times."

  But Lady Greystoke only shook her head as she had a hundred other timeswhen the subject had claimed her attention in the past.

  "No, John," she insisted, "I shall never give my consent to theimplanting in Jack's mind of any suggestion of the savage life which weboth wish to preserve him from."

  It was evening before the subject was again referred to and then it wasraised by Jack himself. He had been sitting, curled in a large chair,reading, when he suddenly looked up and addressed his father.

  "Why," he asked, coming directly to the point, "can't I go and seeAjax?"

  "Your mother does not approve," replied his father.

  "Do you?"

  "That is not the question," evaded Lord Greystoke. "It is enough thatyour mother objects."

  "I am going to see him," announced the boy, after a few moments ofthoughtful silence. "I am not different from Willie Grimsby, or anyother of the fellows who have been to see him. It did not harm themand it will not harm me. I could go without telling you; but I wouldnot do that. So I tell you now, beforehand, that I am going to seeAjax."

  There was nothing disrespectful or defiant in the boy's tone or manner.His was merely a dispassionate statement of facts. His father couldscarce repress either a smile or a show of the admiration he felt forthe manly course his son had pursued.

  "I admire your candor, Jack," he said. "Permit me to be ca
ndid, aswell. If you go to see Ajax without permission, I shall punish you. Ihave never inflicted corporal punishment upon you, but I warn you thatshould you disobey your mother's wishes in this instance, I shall."

  "Yes, sir," replied the boy; and then: "I shall tell you, sir, when Ihave been to see Ajax."

  Mr. Moore's room was next to that of his youthful charge, and it wasthe tutor's custom to have a look into the boy's each evening as theformer was about to retire. This evening he was particularly carefulnot to neglect his duty, for he had just come from a conference withthe boy's father and mother in which it had been impressed upon himthat he must exercise the greatest care to prevent Jack visiting themusic hall where Ajax was being shown. So, when he opened the boy'sdoor at about half after nine, he was greatly excited, though notentirely surprised to find the future Lord Greystoke fully dressed forthe street and about to crawl from his open bed room window.

  Mr. Moore made a rapid spring across the apartment; but the waste ofenergy was unnecessary, for when the boy heard him within the chamberand realized that he had been discovered he turned back as though torelinquish his planned adventure.

  "Where were you going?" panted the excited Mr. Moore.

  "I am going to see Ajax," replied the boy, quietly.

  "I am astonished," cried Mr. Moore; but a moment later he wasinfinitely more astonished, for the boy, approaching close to him,suddenly seized him about the waist, lifted him from his feet and threwhim face downward upon the bed, shoving his face deep into a softpillow.

  "Be quiet," admonished the victor, "or I'll choke you."

  Mr. Moore struggled; but his efforts were in vain. Whatever elseTarzan of the Apes may or may not have handed down to his son he had atleast bequeathed him almost as marvelous a physique as he himself hadpossessed at the same age. The tutor was as putty in the boy's hands.Kneeling upon him, Jack tore strips from a sheet and bound the man'shands behind his back. Then he rolled him over and stuffed a gag of thesame material between his teeth, securing it with a strip wound aboutthe back of his victim's head. All the while he talked in a low,conversational tone.

  "I am Waja, chief of the Waji," he explained, "and you are MohammedDubn, the Arab sheik, who would murder my people and steal my ivory,"and he dexterously trussed Mr. Moore's hobbled ankles up behind to meethis hobbled wrists. "Ah--ha! Villain! I have you in me power atlast. I go; but I shall return!" And the son of Tarzan skipped acrossthe room, slipped through the open window, and slid to liberty by wayof the down spout from an eaves trough.

  Mr. Moore wriggled and struggled about the bed. He was sure that heshould suffocate unless aid came quickly. In his frenzy of terror hemanaged to roll off the bed. The pain and shock of the fall jolted himback to something like sane consideration of his plight. Where beforehe had been unable to think intelligently because of the hystericalfear that had claimed him he now lay quietly searching for some meansof escape from his dilemma. It finally occurred to him that the roomin which Lord and Lady Greystoke had been sitting when he left them wasdirectly beneath that in which he lay upon the floor. He knew thatsome time had elapsed since he had come up stairs and that they mightbe gone by this time, for it seemed to him that he had struggled aboutthe bed, in his efforts to free himself, for an eternity. But the bestthat he could do was to attempt to attract attention from below, andso, after many failures, he managed to work himself into a position inwhich he could tap the toe of his boot against the floor. This heproceeded to do at short intervals, until, after what seemed a verylong time, he was rewarded by hearing footsteps ascending the stairs,and presently a knock upon the door. Mr. Moore tapped vigorously withhis toe--he could not reply in any other way. The knock was repeatedafter a moment's silence. Again Mr. Moore tapped. Would they neveropen the door! Laboriously he rolled in the direction of succor. Ifhe could get his back against the door he could then tap upon its base,when surely he must be heard. The knocking was repeated a littlelouder, and finally a voice called: "Mr. Jack!"

  It was one of the house men--Mr. Moore recognized the fellow's voice.He came near to bursting a blood vessel in an endeavor to scream "comein" through the stifling gag. After a moment the man knocked again,quite loudly and again called the boy's name. Receiving no reply heturned the knob, and at the same instant a sudden recollection filledthe tutor anew with numbing terror--he had, himself, locked the doorbehind him when he had entered the room.

  He heard the servant try the door several times and then depart. Uponwhich Mr. Moore swooned.

  In the meantime Jack was enjoying to the full the stolen pleasures ofthe music hall. He had reached the temple of mirth just as Ajax's actwas commencing, and having purchased a box seat was now leaningbreathlessly over the rail watching every move of the great ape, hiseyes wide in wonder. The trainer was not slow to note the boy'shandsome, eager face, and as one of Ajax's biggest hits consisted in anentry to one or more boxes during his performance, ostensibly in searchof a long-lost relative, as the trainer explained, the man realized theeffectiveness of sending him into the box with the handsome boy, who,doubtless, would be terror stricken by proximity to the shaggy,powerful beast.

  When the time came, therefore, for the ape to return from the wings inreply to an encore the trainer directed its attention to the boy whochanced to be the sole occupant of the box in which he sat. With aspring the huge anthropoid leaped from the stage to the boy's side; butif the trainer had looked for a laughable scene of fright he wasmistaken. A broad smile lighted the boy's features as he laid his handupon the shaggy arm of his visitor. The ape, grasping the boy byeither shoulder, peered long and earnestly into his face, while thelatter stroked his head and talked to him in a low voice.

  Never had Ajax devoted so long a time to an examination of another ashe did in this instance. He seemed troubled and not a little excited,jabbering and mumbling to the boy, and now caressing him, as thetrainer had never seen him caress a human being before. Presently heclambered over into the box with him and snuggled down close to theboy's side. The audience was delighted; but they were still moredelighted when the trainer, the period of his act having elapsed,attempted to persuade Ajax to leave the box. The ape would not budge.The manager, becoming excited at the delay, urged the trainer togreater haste, but when the latter entered the box to drag away thereluctant Ajax he was met by bared fangs and menacing growls.

  The audience was delirious with joy. They cheered the ape. Theycheered the boy, and they hooted and jeered at the trainer and themanager, which luckless individual had inadvertently shown himself andattempted to assist the trainer.

  Finally, reduced to desperation and realizing that this show of mutinyupon the part of his valuable possession might render the animalworthless for exhibition purposes in the future if not immediatelysubdued, the trainer had hastened to his dressing room and procured aheavy whip. With this he now returned to the box; but when he hadthreatened Ajax with it but once he found himself facing two infuriatedenemies instead of one, for the boy had leaped to his feet, and seizinga chair was standing ready at the ape's side to defend his new foundfriend. There was no longer a smile upon his handsome face. In hisgray eyes was an expression which gave the trainer pause, and besidehim stood the giant anthropoid growling and ready.

  What might have happened, but for a timely interruption, may only besurmised; but that the trainer would have received a severe mauling, ifnothing more, was clearly indicated by the attitudes of the two whofaced him.

  It was a pale-faced man who rushed into the Greystoke library toannounce that he had found Jack's door locked and had been able toobtain no response to his repeated knocking and calling other than astrange tapping and the sound of what might have been a body movingabout upon the floor.

  Four steps at a time John Clayton took the stairs that led to the floorabove. His wife and the servant hurried after him. Once he called hisson's name in a loud voice; but receiving no reply he launched hisgreat weight, backed by all the undiminished power of his
giantmuscles, against the heavy door. With a snapping of iron butts and asplintering of wood the obstacle burst inward.

  At its foot lay the body of the unconscious Mr. Moore, across whom itfell with a resounding thud. Through the opening leaped Tarzan, and amoment later the room was flooded with light from a dozen electricbulbs.

  It was several minutes before the tutor was discovered, so completelyhad the door covered him; but finally he was dragged forth, his gag andbonds cut away, and a liberal application of cold water had hastenedreturning consciousness.

  "Where is Jack?" was John Clayton's first question, and then; "Who didthis?" as the memory of Rokoff and the fear of a second abductionseized him.

  Slowly Mr. Moore staggered to his feet. His gaze wandered about theroom. Gradually he collected his scattered wits. The details of hisrecent harrowing experience returned to him.

  "I tender my resignation, sir, to take effect at once," were his firstwords. "You do not need a tutor for your son--what he needs is a wildanimal trainer."

  "But where is he?" cried Lady Greystoke.

  "He has gone to see Ajax."

  It was with difficulty that Tarzan restrained a smile, and aftersatisfying himself that the tutor was more scared than injured, heordered his closed car around and departed in the direction of acertain well-known music hall.