Chapter V
The White Ape
Tenderly Kala nursed her little waif, wondering silently why it did notgain strength and agility as did the little apes of other mothers. Itwas nearly a year from the time the little fellow came into herpossession before he would walk alone, and as for climbing--my, but howstupid he was!
Kala sometimes talked with the older females about her young hopeful,but none of them could understand how a child could be so slow andbackward in learning to care for itself. Why, it could not even findfood alone, and more than twelve moons had passed since Kala had comeupon it.
Had they known that the child had seen thirteen moons before it hadcome into Kala's possession they would have considered its case asabsolutely hopeless, for the little apes of their own tribe were as faradvanced in two or three moons as was this little stranger aftertwenty-five.
Tublat, Kala's husband, was sorely vexed, and but for the female'scareful watching would have put the child out of the way.
"He will never be a great ape," he argued. "Always will you have tocarry him and protect him. What good will he be to the tribe? None;only a burden.
"Let us leave him quietly sleeping among the tall grasses, that you maybear other and stronger apes to guard us in our old age."
"Never, Broken Nose," replied Kala. "If I must carry him forever, sobe it."
And then Tublat went to Kerchak to urge him to use his authority withKala, and force her to give up little Tarzan, which was the name theyhad given to the tiny Lord Greystoke, and which meant "White-Skin."
But when Kerchak spoke to her about it Kala threatened to run away fromthe tribe if they did not leave her in peace with the child; and asthis is one of the inalienable rights of the jungle folk, if they bedissatisfied among their own people, they bothered her no more, forKala was a fine clean-limbed young female, and they did not wish tolose her.
As Tarzan grew he made more rapid strides, so that by the time he wasten years old he was an excellent climber, and on the ground could domany wonderful things which were beyond the powers of his littlebrothers and sisters.
In many ways did he differ from them, and they often marveled at hissuperior cunning, but in strength and size he was deficient; for at tenthe great anthropoids were fully grown, some of them towering over sixfeet in height, while little Tarzan was still but a half-grown boy.
Yet such a boy!
From early childhood he had used his hands to swing from branch tobranch after the manner of his giant mother, and as he grew older hespent hour upon hour daily speeding through the tree tops with hisbrothers and sisters.
He could spring twenty feet across space at the dizzy heights of theforest top, and grasp with unerring precision, and without apparentjar, a limb waving wildly in the path of an approaching tornado.
He could drop twenty feet at a stretch from limb to limb in rapiddescent to the ground, or he could gain the utmost pinnacle of theloftiest tropical giant with the ease and swiftness of a squirrel.
Though but ten years old he was fully as strong as the average man ofthirty, and far more agile than the most practiced athlete everbecomes. And day by day his strength was increasing.
His life among these fierce apes had been happy; for his recollectionheld no other life, nor did he know that there existed within theuniverse aught else than his little forest and the wild jungle animalswith which he was familiar.
He was nearly ten before he commenced to realize that a greatdifference existed between himself and his fellows. His little body,burned brown by exposure, suddenly caused him feelings of intenseshame, for he realized that it was entirely hairless, like some lowsnake, or other reptile.
He attempted to obviate this by plastering himself from head to footwith mud, but this dried and fell off. Besides it felt souncomfortable that he quickly decided that he preferred the shame tothe discomfort.
In the higher land which his tribe frequented was a little lake, and itwas here that Tarzan first saw his face in the clear, still waters ofits bosom.
It was on a sultry day of the dry season that he and one of his cousinshad gone down to the bank to drink. As they leaned over, both littlefaces were mirrored on the placid pool; the fierce and terriblefeatures of the ape beside those of the aristocratic scion of an oldEnglish house.
Tarzan was appalled. It had been bad enough to be hairless, but to ownsuch a countenance! He wondered that the other apes could look at himat all.
That tiny slit of a mouth and those puny white teeth! How they lookedbeside the mighty lips and powerful fangs of his more fortunatebrothers!
And the little pinched nose of his; so thin was it that it looked halfstarved. He turned red as he compared it with the beautiful broadnostrils of his companion. Such a generous nose! Why it spread halfacross his face! It certainly must be fine to be so handsome, thoughtpoor little Tarzan.
But when he saw his own eyes; ah, that was the final blow--a brownspot, a gray circle and then blank whiteness! Frightful! not even thesnakes had such hideous eyes as he.
So intent was he upon this personal appraisement of his features thathe did not hear the parting of the tall grass behind him as a greatbody pushed itself stealthily through the jungle; nor did hiscompanion, the ape, hear either, for he was drinking and the noise ofhis sucking lips and gurgles of satisfaction drowned the quiet approachof the intruder.
Not thirty paces behind the two she crouched--Sabor, the hugelioness--lashing her tail. Cautiously she moved a great padded pawforward, noiselessly placing it before she lifted the next. Thus sheadvanced; her belly low, almost touching the surface of the ground--agreat cat preparing to spring upon its prey.
Now she was within ten feet of the two unsuspecting littleplayfellows--carefully she drew her hind feet well up beneath her body,the great muscles rolling under the beautiful skin.
So low she was crouching now that she seemed flattened to the earthexcept for the upward bend of the glossy back as it gathered for thespring.
No longer the tail lashed--quiet and straight behind her it lay.
An instant she paused thus, as though turned to stone, and then, withan awful scream, she sprang.
Sabor, the lioness, was a wise hunter. To one less wise the wild alarmof her fierce cry as she sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, forcould she not more surely have fallen upon her victims had she butquietly leaped without that loud shriek?
But Sabor knew well the wondrous quickness of the jungle folk and theiralmost unbelievable powers of hearing. To them the sudden scraping ofone blade of grass across another was as effectual a warning as herloudest cry, and Sabor knew that she could not make that mighty leapwithout a little noise.
Her wild scream was not a warning. It was voiced to freeze her poorvictims in a paralysis of terror for the tiny fraction of an instantwhich would suffice for her mighty claws to sink into their soft fleshand hold them beyond hope of escape.
So far as the ape was concerned, Sabor reasoned correctly. The littlefellow crouched trembling just an instant, but that instant was quitelong enough to prove his undoing.
Not so, however, with Tarzan, the man-child. His life amidst thedangers of the jungle had taught him to meet emergencies withself-confidence, and his higher intelligence resulted in a quickness ofmental action far beyond the powers of the apes.
So the scream of Sabor, the lioness, galvanized the brain and musclesof little Tarzan into instant action.
Before him lay the deep waters of the little lake, behind him certaindeath; a cruel death beneath tearing claws and rending fangs.
Tarzan had always hated water except as a medium for quenching histhirst. He hated it because he connected it with the chill anddiscomfort of the torrential rains, and he feared it for the thunderand lightning and wind which accompanied them.
The deep waters of the lake he had been taught by his wild mother toavoid, and further, had he not seen little Neeta sink beneath its quietsurface only a few short weeks before never to return t
o the tribe?
But of the two evils his quick mind chose the lesser ere the first noteof Sabor's scream had scarce broken the quiet of the jungle, and beforethe great beast had covered half her leap Tarzan felt the chill watersclose above his head.
He could not swim, and the water was very deep; but still he lost noparticle of that self-confidence and resourcefulness which were thebadges of his superior being.
Rapidly he moved his hands and feet in an attempt to scramble upward,and, possibly more by chance than design, he fell into the stroke thata dog uses when swimming, so that within a few seconds his nose wasabove water and he found that he could keep it there by continuing hisstrokes, and also make progress through the water.
He was much surprised and pleased with this new acquirement which hadbeen so suddenly thrust upon him, but he had no time for thinking muchupon it.
He was now swimming parallel to the bank and there he saw the cruelbeast that would have seized him crouching upon the still form of hislittle playmate.
The lioness was intently watching Tarzan, evidently expecting him toreturn to shore, but this the boy had no intention of doing.
Instead he raised his voice in the call of distress common to histribe, adding to it the warning which would prevent would-be rescuersfrom running into the clutches of Sabor.
Almost immediately there came an answer from the distance, andpresently forty or fifty great apes swung rapidly and majesticallythrough the trees toward the scene of tragedy.
In the lead was Kala, for she had recognized the tones of her bestbeloved, and with her was the mother of the little ape who lay deadbeneath cruel Sabor.
Though more powerful and better equipped for fighting than the apes,the lioness had no desire to meet these enraged adults, and with asnarl of hatred she sprang quickly into the brush and disappeared.
Tarzan now swam to shore and clambered quickly upon dry land. Thefeeling of freshness and exhilaration which the cool waters hadimparted to him, filled his little being with grateful surprise, andever after he lost no opportunity to take a daily plunge in lake orstream or ocean when it was possible to do so.
For a long time Kala could not accustom herself to the sight; forthough her people could swim when forced to it, they did not like toenter water, and never did so voluntarily.
The adventure with the lioness gave Tarzan food for pleasurablememories, for it was such affairs which broke the monotony of his dailylife--otherwise but a dull round of searching for food, eating, andsleeping.
The tribe to which he belonged roamed a tract extending, roughly,twenty-five miles along the seacoast and some fifty miles inland. Thisthey traversed almost continually, occasionally remaining for months inone locality; but as they moved through the trees with great speed theyoften covered the territory in a very few days.
Much depended upon food supply, climatic conditions, and the prevalenceof animals of the more dangerous species; though Kerchak often led themon long marches for no other reason than that he had tired of remainingin the same place.
At night they slept where darkness overtook them, lying upon theground, and sometimes covering their heads, and more seldom theirbodies, with the great leaves of the elephant's ear. Two or threemight lie cuddled in each other's arms for additional warmth if thenight were chill, and thus Tarzan had slept in Kala's arms nightly forall these years.
That the huge, fierce brute loved this child of another race is beyondquestion, and he, too, gave to the great, hairy beast all the affectionthat would have belonged to his fair young mother had she lived.
When he was disobedient she cuffed him, it is true, but she was nevercruel to him, and was more often caressing him than chastising him.
Tublat, her mate, always hated Tarzan, and on several occasions hadcome near ending his youthful career.
Tarzan on his part never lost an opportunity to show that he fullyreciprocated his foster father's sentiments, and whenever he couldsafely annoy him or make faces at him or hurl insults upon him from thesafety of his mother's arms, or the slender branches of the highertrees, he did so.
His superior intelligence and cunning permitted him to invent athousand diabolical tricks to add to the burdens of Tublat's life.
Early in his boyhood he had learned to form ropes by twisting and tyinglong grasses together, and with these he was forever tripping Tublat orattempting to hang him from some overhanging branch.
By constant playing and experimenting with these he learned to tie rudeknots, and make sliding nooses; and with these he and the younger apesamused themselves. What Tarzan did they tried to do also, but he aloneoriginated and became proficient.
One day while playing thus Tarzan had thrown his rope at one of hisfleeing companions, retaining the other end in his grasp. By accidentthe noose fell squarely about the running ape's neck, bringing him to asudden and surprising halt.
Ah, here was a new game, a fine game, thought Tarzan, and immediatelyhe attempted to repeat the trick. And thus, by painstaking andcontinued practice, he learned the art of roping.
Now, indeed, was the life of Tublat a living nightmare. In sleep, uponthe march, night or day, he never knew when that quiet noose would slipabout his neck and nearly choke the life out of him.
Kala punished, Tublat swore dire vengeance, and old Kerchak took noticeand warned and threatened; but all to no avail.
Tarzan defied them all, and the thin, strong noose continued to settleabout Tublat's neck whenever he least expected it.
The other apes derived unlimited amusement from Tublat's discomfiture,for Broken Nose was a disagreeable old fellow, whom no one liked,anyway.
In Tarzan's clever little mind many thoughts revolved, and back ofthese was his divine power of reason.
If he could catch his fellow apes with his long arm of many grasses,why not Sabor, the lioness?
It was the germ of a thought, which, however, was destined to mullaround in his conscious and subconscious mind until it resulted inmagnificent achievement.
But that came in later years.
Tarzan of the Apes Page 5