Latest / Tarzan of the Apes / 07 - The LIght of Knowledge
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter seven, The Light of Knowledge. After what seemed an
- 0:08Speaker 1: eternity to the little sufferer, he was able to walk
- 0:11Speaker 1: once more, and from then on his recovery was so
- 0:14Speaker 1: rapid that in another month he was as strong and
- 0:16Speaker 1: active as ever. During his convalescence, he had gone over
- 0:20Speaker 1: in his mind many times the battle with the gorilla,
- 0:24Speaker 1: and his first thought was to recover the wonderful little
- 0:26Speaker 1: weapon which had transformed him from a hopelessly outclassed weakling
- 0:31Speaker 1: to the superior of the mighty terror of the jungle. Also,
- 0:35Speaker 1: he was anxious to return to the cabin and continue
- 0:38Speaker 1: his investigations of its wondrous contents. So early one morning
- 0:43Speaker 1: he set forth alone upon his quest. After a little search,
- 0:47Speaker 1: he located the clean pick bones of his late adversary,
- 0:50Speaker 1: and close by, partly buried beneath the fallen leaves, he
- 0:54Speaker 1: found the knife, now red with rust from its exposure
- 0:57Speaker 1: to the dampness of the ground and from the drug
- 1:00Speaker 1: blood of the gorilla. He did not like the change
- 1:03Speaker 1: in its former bright and gleaming surface, but it was
- 1:07Speaker 1: still a formidable weapon, and one which he meant to
- 1:10Speaker 1: use to advantage whenever the opportunity presented itself. He had
- 1:14Speaker 1: in mind that no more would he run from the
- 1:16Speaker 1: wanton attacks of old tublat. In another moment, he was
- 1:21Speaker 1: at the cabin, and after a short time, had again
- 1:23Speaker 1: thrown the latch and entered. His first concern was to
- 1:27Speaker 1: learn the mechanism of the lock, and this he did
- 1:30Speaker 1: by examining it closely while the door was open, so
- 1:33Speaker 1: that he could learn precisely what caused it to hold
- 1:36Speaker 1: the door, and by what means it released at his touch.
- 1:40Speaker 1: He found that he could close and lock the door
- 1:43Speaker 1: from within, and this he did so that there would
- 1:45Speaker 1: be no chance of his being molested. While at his investigation,
- 1:50Speaker 1: he commenced a systematic search of the cabin, but his
- 1:53Speaker 1: attention was soon riveted by the books, which seemed to
- 1:56Speaker 1: exert its strange and powerful influence over him, so that
- 2:00Speaker 1: he could scarce attend to aught else for the lure
- 2:03Speaker 1: of the wondrous puzzle which their purpose presented to him.
- 2:07Speaker 1: Among the other books was a primmer, some child's readers,
- 2:11Speaker 1: numerous picture books, and a great dictionary. All of these
- 2:15Speaker 1: he examined, but the pictures caught his fancy most though
- 2:19Speaker 1: the strange little bugs which covered the pages where there
- 2:22Speaker 1: were no pictures excited his wonder in deepest thought, squatting
- 2:27Speaker 1: upon his haunches on the table top and the cabin
- 2:30Speaker 1: his father had built, his smooth, brown naked little body
- 2:34Speaker 1: bent over the book which rested in his strong, slender hands,
- 2:38Speaker 1: and his great shock of long black hair falling about
- 2:41Speaker 1: his well shaped head and bright intelligent eyes. Tarzan of
- 2:45Speaker 1: the Apes, little primitive man presented a picture filled at
- 2:49Speaker 1: once with pathos and with promise, an allegorical figure of
- 2:54Speaker 1: the primordial groping through the black night of ignorance toward
- 2:58Speaker 1: the light of learning. His little face was tense and steady,
- 3:03Speaker 1: for he had partially grasped, in a hazy, nebulous way,
- 3:07Speaker 1: the rudiments of a thought which was destined to prove
- 3:10Speaker 1: the key and the solution to the puzzling problem of
- 3:14Speaker 1: the strange little bugs. In his hands was a primer
- 3:18Speaker 1: opened at a picture of a little ape similar to himself,
- 3:22Speaker 1: but covered except for hands and face with strange colored fur.
- 3:27Speaker 1: For such he thought the jacket and trousers to be
- 3:31Speaker 1: beneath the picture were three little bugs b o y.
- 3:36Speaker 1: And now he had discovered in the text upon the
- 3:38Speaker 1: page that these three were repeated many times in the
- 3:41Speaker 1: same sequence. Another fact, he learned that there were comparatively
- 3:47Speaker 1: few individual bugs, but these were repeated many times, occasionally alone,
- 3:52Speaker 1: but more often in company with others. Slowly he turned
- 3:56Speaker 1: the pages, scanning the pictures and the text, or a
- 4:00Speaker 1: repetition of the combination b o Why presently he found
- 4:05Speaker 1: it beneath the picture of another little ape and a
- 4:08Speaker 1: strange animal, which went upon fore legs like the jackal,
- 4:12Speaker 1: and resembled him not a little beneath this picture the
- 4:15Speaker 1: bugs appeared as a boy and a dog. There they
- 4:20Speaker 1: were the three little bugs which always accompanied the little ape.
- 4:25Speaker 1: And so he progressed very very slowly, for it was
- 4:29Speaker 1: a hard and laborious task which he had set himself
- 4:32Speaker 1: without knowing it, a task which might seem to you
- 4:35Speaker 1: or me impossible learning to read without having the slightest
- 4:39Speaker 1: knowledge of letters or written language, or the faintest idea
- 4:44Speaker 1: that such things existed. He did not accomplish it in
- 4:48Speaker 1: a day, or in a week, or in a month
- 4:51Speaker 1: or in a year. But slowly, very slowly he learned
- 4:56Speaker 1: after he had grasped the possibilities which lay in the
- 5:00Speaker 1: little bugs, so that by the time he was fifteen
- 5:04Speaker 1: he knew the various combinations of letters, which stood for
- 5:07Speaker 1: every pictured figure in the Little Primmer, and in one
- 5:10Speaker 1: or two of the picture books. Of the meaning and
- 5:14Speaker 1: use of the articles in conjunctions, verbs and adverbs and pronouns,
- 5:19Speaker 1: he had but the faintest conception. One day, when he
- 5:23Speaker 1: was about twelve, he found a number of lead pencils
- 5:26Speaker 1: in a hitherto undiscovered drawer beneath the table, and in
- 5:30Speaker 1: scratching upon the table top with one of them, he
- 5:32Speaker 1: was delighted to discover the black line it left behind it.
- 5:37Speaker 1: He worked so assiduously with this new toy that the
- 5:40Speaker 1: table top was soon a mass of scrawly loops and
- 5:43Speaker 1: irregular lines, and his pencil point worn down to the wood.
- 5:48Speaker 1: Then he took another pencil, but this time he had
- 5:51Speaker 1: a definite object in view. He would attempt to reproduce
- 5:55Speaker 1: some of the little bugs that scrambled over the pages
- 5:58Speaker 1: of his books. It was a difficult task, for he
- 6:02Speaker 1: held the pencil as one would grasp the hilt of
- 6:05Speaker 1: a dagger, which does not add greatly to ease in
- 6:08Speaker 1: writing or to the legibility of the results. But he persevered.
- 6:13Speaker 1: From months, At such times as he was able to
- 6:16Speaker 1: come to the cabin, until at last, by repeated experimenting,
- 6:21Speaker 1: he found a position in which to hold the pencil
- 6:23Speaker 1: that best permitted him to guide and control it, so
- 6:26Speaker 1: that at last he could roughly reproduce any of the
- 6:30Speaker 1: little bugs. Thus he made a beginning of writing. Copying
- 6:35Speaker 1: the bugs taught him another thing their number, And though
- 6:39Speaker 1: he could not count, as we understand it, yet he
- 6:42Speaker 1: had an idea of quantity, the base of his calculations
- 6:45Speaker 1: being the number of fingers upon one of his hands.
- 6:49Speaker 1: His search through the various books convinced him that he
- 6:52Speaker 1: had discovered all the different kinds of bugs, most often
- 6:55Speaker 1: repeated in combination, and these he arranged in proper order
- 6:59Speaker 1: with great ease. Because of the frequency with which he
- 7:02Speaker 1: had perused the fascinating alphabet picture book, his education progressed,
- 7:09Speaker 1: but his greatest finds were in the inexhaustible storehouse of
- 7:12Speaker 1: the huge illustrated dictionary, For he learned more through the
- 7:16Speaker 1: medium of pictures than text. Even after he had grasped
- 7:20Speaker 1: the significance of the bugs, when he discovered the arrangement
- 7:24Speaker 1: of words in alphabetical order, he delighted in searching for
- 7:28Speaker 1: and finding the combinations with which he was familiar, and
- 7:32Speaker 1: the words which followed them their definitions led him still
- 7:35Speaker 1: further into the mazes of erudition. By the time he
- 7:40Speaker 1: was seventeen, he had learned to read the simple child's
- 7:44Speaker 1: primmer and had fully realized the true and wonderful purpose
- 7:47Speaker 1: of the little bugs. No longer did he feel shame
- 7:51Speaker 1: for his hairless body or his human features. For now
- 7:55Speaker 1: his reason told him that he was of a different
- 7:57Speaker 1: race from his wild and hairy companions. He was a
- 8:02Speaker 1: m A n they were a p e s, and
- 8:08Speaker 1: the little apes which scurried through the forest top were
- 8:11Speaker 1: m O n k e y s. He knew too
- 8:17Speaker 1: that old Sabor was a l I O n e
- 8:22Speaker 1: s S, and hista s n a k e and
- 8:30Speaker 1: tantor and e l e p h a n t.
- 8:37Speaker 1: And so he learned to read. From then on, his
- 8:40Speaker 1: progress was rapid, with the help of the Great Dictionary
- 8:43Speaker 1: and the active intelligence of a healthy mind endowed by inheritance.
- 8:48Speaker 1: With more than ordinary reasoning powers. He shrewdly guessed it
- 8:52Speaker 1: much which he could not really understand, and more often
- 8:56Speaker 1: than not his guesses were close to the mark of truth.
- 9:00Speaker 1: There were many breaks in his education caused by the
- 9:03Speaker 1: migratory habits of his tribe. But even when removed from
- 9:07Speaker 1: his books, his active brain continued to search out the
- 9:10Speaker 1: mysteries of his fascinating avocation. Pieces of bark and flat leaves,
- 9:16Speaker 1: and even smooth stretches of bare earth provided him with
- 9:19Speaker 1: copy books whereon to scratch with the point of his
- 9:22Speaker 1: hunting knife the lessons he was learning, nor did he
- 9:26Speaker 1: neglect the sterner duties of life. While following the bent
- 9:29Speaker 1: of his inclination towards the solving of the mystery of
- 9:32Speaker 1: his library, he practiced with his rope and played with
- 9:36Speaker 1: his sharp knife, which he had learned to keep keen
- 9:39Speaker 1: by wetting upon flat stones. The tribe had grown larger
- 9:44Speaker 1: since Tarzan had come among them, for under the leadership
- 9:48Speaker 1: of Kirjak, they had been able to frighten the other
- 9:51Speaker 1: tribes from their part of the jungle, so that they
- 9:53Speaker 1: had plenty to eat and little or no loss from
- 9:56Speaker 1: predatory incursions of neighbors. Hence, the younger males, as they
- 10:02Speaker 1: became adult, found it more comfortable to take mates from
- 10:05Speaker 1: their own tribe, or, if they captured one of another tribe,
- 10:09Speaker 1: to bring her back to Kirchak's band and live in
- 10:12Speaker 1: amity with him, rather than attempt to set up new
- 10:14Speaker 1: establishments of their own or fight with the redoubtable Kurchak
- 10:19Speaker 1: for supremacy at home. Occasionally, one more ferocious than his
- 10:24Speaker 1: fellows would attempt this latter alternative, but none had come
- 10:28Speaker 1: yet who could wrest the palm of victory from the
- 10:30Speaker 1: fierce and brutal ape. Tarzan held a peculiar position in
- 10:35Speaker 1: the tribe. They seemed to consider him one of them,
- 10:38Speaker 1: and yet in some way different. The older males either
- 10:43Speaker 1: ignored him entirely or else hated him so vindictively that,
- 10:47Speaker 1: but for his wondrous agility and speed, and the fierce
- 10:50Speaker 1: protection of the huge Kala, he would have been dispatched
- 10:53Speaker 1: at an early age. Too. Blat was his most consistent enemy,
- 10:58Speaker 1: But it was through two Blat pads that when he
- 11:01Speaker 1: was about thirteen, the persecution of his enemies suddenly ceased,
- 11:05Speaker 1: and he was left severely alone. Except on the occasions
- 11:09Speaker 1: when one of them ran amok in the throes of
- 11:12Speaker 1: one of those strange, wild fits of insane rage which
- 11:16Speaker 1: attacks the males of many of the fiercer animals of
- 11:18Speaker 1: the jungle. Then none was safe. On the day that
- 11:23Speaker 1: Tarzan established his right to respect. The tribe was gathered
- 11:27Speaker 1: around a small natural amphitheater, which the jungle had left
- 11:30Speaker 1: free from its entangling vines and creepers, in a hollow
- 11:34Speaker 1: among some low hills. The open space was almost circular
- 11:39Speaker 1: in shape. Upon every hand rose the mighty giants of
- 11:42Speaker 1: the untouched forest, with a matted undergrowth banks so closely
- 11:47Speaker 1: between the huge trunks that the only opening into the
- 11:51Speaker 1: little level arena was through the upper branches of the trees.
- 11:55Speaker 1: Here safe from interruption, the tribe often gathered in the
- 12:00Speaker 1: center of the amphitheatre was one of those strange earthen
- 12:03Speaker 1: drums which the anthropoids build for the queer rights, the
- 12:07Speaker 1: sounds of which men have heard in the fastnesses of
- 12:10Speaker 1: the jungle, but which none has ever witnessed. Many travelers
- 12:14Speaker 1: have seen the drums of the great apes, and some
- 12:17Speaker 1: have heard the sounds of their beating and the noise
- 12:20Speaker 1: of the wild, weird revelry of these first lords of
- 12:24Speaker 1: the jungle. But Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, is doubtless the only
- 12:29Speaker 1: human being who ever joined in the fierce, mad, intoxicating
- 12:33Speaker 1: revel of the dumb Dum. From this primitive function has
- 12:37Speaker 1: arisen unquestionably all the forms and ceremonials of modern church
- 12:43Speaker 1: and state, For through all the countless ages, back beyond
- 12:47Speaker 1: the uttermost ramparts of a dawning humanity, our fierce, hairy
- 12:51Speaker 1: forebears danced out the rights of the Dumb Dum to
- 12:55Speaker 1: the sound of their earthen drums, beneath the bright light
- 12:58Speaker 1: of a tropical moon, in the depth of a mighty jungle,
- 13:02Speaker 1: which stands unchanged to day, as it stood on that
- 13:06Speaker 1: long forgotten night, in the dim, unthinkable vistas of the
- 13:10Speaker 1: long dead past, when our first shaggy ancestors swung from
- 13:14Speaker 1: a swaying bough and dropped lightly upon the soft turf
- 13:18Speaker 1: of the first meeting place on the day the Tarzan
- 13:22Speaker 1: won his emancipation from the persecution that had followed him
- 13:26Speaker 1: remorselessly for twelve of his thirteen years of life. The tribe,
- 13:31Speaker 1: now a full hundred strong, trooped silently through the lower
- 13:35Speaker 1: terrace of the jungle trees and dropped noiselessly upon the
- 13:39Speaker 1: floor of the amphitheater. The rights of the dumb Dumb
- 13:43Speaker 1: marked important events in the life of the tribe. A victory,
- 13:47Speaker 1: the capture of a prisoner, the killing of some large,
- 13:50Speaker 1: fierce denizen of the jungle, the death or accession of
- 13:54Speaker 1: a king, and were conducted with set ceremonialism. Today it
- 13:59Speaker 1: was it was the killing of a giant ape, a
- 14:01Speaker 1: member of another tribe. And as the people of Kurchak
- 14:05Speaker 1: entered the arena, two mighty bulls were seen, bearing the
- 14:08Speaker 1: body of the vanquish between them. They laid their burden
- 14:12Speaker 1: before the earthen drum, and then squatted there beside his guards,
- 14:17Speaker 1: while the other members of the community curled themselves in
- 14:19Speaker 1: grassy nooks to sleep until the rising moon should give
- 14:23Speaker 1: the signal for the commencement of their savage georgy. For hours,
- 14:28Speaker 1: absolute quiet reigned in the little clearing, except as it
- 14:33Speaker 1: was broken by the discordant notes of brilliantly feathered parrots,
- 14:37Speaker 1: or the screeching and twittering of the thousand jungle birds
- 14:41Speaker 1: flitting ceaselessly amongst the vivid orchids and flamboyant blossoms which
- 14:46Speaker 1: festooned the myriad moss covered branches of the forest kings.
- 14:52Speaker 1: At length, as darkness settled upon the jungle, the apes
- 14:55Speaker 1: commenced to bestir themselves, and soon they formed a great
- 14:59Speaker 1: circle about the earthen drum. The females and young squatted
- 15:04Speaker 1: in a thin line at the outer periphery of the circle,
- 15:07Speaker 1: while just in front of them ranged the adult males.
- 15:11Speaker 1: Before the drum sat three old females, each armed with
- 15:14Speaker 1: a knotted branch fifteen or eighteen inches in length. Slowly
- 15:20Speaker 1: and softly, they began tapping upon the resounding surface of
- 15:24Speaker 1: the drum as the first faint rays of the ascending
- 15:27Speaker 1: moon silvered the encircling tree tops. As the light in
- 15:32Speaker 1: the amphitheater increased, the females augmented the frequency and force
- 15:37Speaker 1: of their blows, until presently a wild rhythmic din pervaded
- 15:42Speaker 1: the great jungle from miles in every direction. Huge fierce
- 15:46Speaker 1: brutes stopped in their hunting with up pricked ears and
- 15:49Speaker 1: raised heads to listen to the dull booming that betokened
- 15:53Speaker 1: the dumb dumb of the apes. Occasionally one would raise
- 15:58Speaker 1: his shrill scream or thunder roar in answering challenge to
- 16:02Speaker 1: the savage din of the anthropoids, but none came near
- 16:06Speaker 1: to investigate or attack, for the great apes, assembled in
- 16:09Speaker 1: all the power of their numbers, filled the breasts of
- 16:13Speaker 1: their jungle neighbors. With deep respect. As the din of
- 16:18Speaker 1: the drum rose to an almost deafening volume, Kirjak sprang
- 16:22Speaker 1: into the open space between the squatting males and the drummers.
- 16:27Speaker 1: Standing erect he threw his head far back, and looking
- 16:30Speaker 1: full into the eye of the rising moon, he beat
- 16:33Speaker 1: upon his breast with his great hairy paws and emitted
- 16:37Speaker 1: his fearful, roaring shriek one twice thrice. That terrifying cry
- 16:44Speaker 1: rang out across the teeming solitude of that unspeakably quick
- 16:49Speaker 1: yet unthinkably dead world. Then, crouching Kirchak slunk noiselessly around
- 16:55Speaker 1: the open circle, veering far away from the dead body
- 16:59Speaker 1: lying before them the altar drum. But as he passed,
- 17:03Speaker 1: keeping his little, fierce, wicked red eyes upon the corpse.
- 17:07Speaker 1: Another male then sprang into the arena, and, repeating the
- 17:11Speaker 1: horrid cries of his king, followed stealthily in his wake.
- 17:15Speaker 1: Another and another followed in quick succession, until the jungle
- 17:19Speaker 1: reverberated with the now almost ceaseless notes of their bloodthirsty screams.
- 17:25Speaker 1: It was the challenge and the hunt. When all the
- 17:29Speaker 1: adult males had joined in the thin line of circling dancers.
- 17:32Speaker 1: The attack commenced. Kurchak, seizing a huge club from the
- 17:37Speaker 1: pile which lay at hand for the purpose, rushed furiously
- 17:41Speaker 1: upon the dead ape, dealing the corpse a terrific blow
- 17:44Speaker 1: at the same time emitting the growls and snarls of combat.
- 17:48Speaker 1: The din of the drum was now increased, as well
- 17:51Speaker 1: as the frequency of the blows, and the warriors, as
- 17:55Speaker 1: each approached the victim of the hunt and delivered his
- 17:57Speaker 1: bludgeon blow, joined in the mad whirl of the death dance.
- 18:03Speaker 1: Tarzan was one of the wild leaping horde. His brown,
- 18:06Speaker 1: sweat streaked, muscular body, listening in the moonlight, shone supple
- 18:11Speaker 1: and graceful Among the uncouth, awkward, hairy brutes about him.
- 18:16Speaker 1: None was more stealthy in the mimic hunt, None more
- 18:20Speaker 1: ferocious than he in the wild ferocity of the attack,
- 18:23Speaker 1: None who leaped so high into the air and the
- 18:26Speaker 1: dance of death. As the noise and rapidity of the
- 18:30Speaker 1: drum beats increased, the dancers apparently became intoxicated with the
- 18:34Speaker 1: wild rhythm and the savage yells. Their leaps and bounds increased,
- 18:40Speaker 1: their bared fangs dripped sliva, and their lips and breasts
- 18:43Speaker 1: were flecked with foam. For half an hour, the weird
- 18:47Speaker 1: dance went on until at a sign from Kerchak, the
- 18:51Speaker 1: noise of the drums ceased, the female drummers scampering hurriedly
- 18:55Speaker 1: through the line of dancers toward the outer rim of
- 18:58Speaker 1: squatting spectators. Then as one, the males rushed headlong upon
- 19:04Speaker 1: the thing which their terrific blows had reduced to a
- 19:06Speaker 1: mass of hairy pulp. Flesh seldom came to their jaws
- 19:11Speaker 1: and satisfying quantities, so a fit finale to their wild
- 19:15Speaker 1: revel was a taste of fresh killed meat. And it
- 19:18Speaker 1: was to the purpose of devouring their late enemy that
- 19:21Speaker 1: they now turned their attention. Great fangs sunk into the carcass,
- 19:26Speaker 1: tearing away huge hunks, the mightiest of the apes obtaining
- 19:29Speaker 1: their choicest morsels, while the weaker circled the outer edge
- 19:33Speaker 1: of the fighting, snarling pack, awaiting their chance to dodge
- 19:37Speaker 1: in and snatch a drop, tidbit, or filter your remaining bone.
- 19:41Speaker 1: Before all was gone, Tarzan, more than the apes, craved
- 19:46Speaker 1: and needed flesh, descended from a race of meat eaters.
- 19:50Speaker 1: Never in his life, he thought, had he once satisfied
- 19:53Speaker 1: his appetite for animal food, and so now his agile
- 19:57Speaker 1: little body wormed its way far into the mass of struggling,
- 20:00Speaker 1: rending apes, in an endeavor to obtain a share which
- 20:04Speaker 1: his strength would have been unequal to the task of
- 20:07Speaker 1: winning for him. At his side hung the hunting knife
- 20:11Speaker 1: of his unknown father in a sheath, self fashioned in
- 20:14Speaker 1: copy of one he had seen among the pictures of
- 20:17Speaker 1: his treasure books. At last he reached the fast disappearing feast,
- 20:21Speaker 1: and with his sharp knife, slashed off a more generous
- 20:25Speaker 1: portion than he had hoped for, an entire hairy forearm,
- 20:29Speaker 1: where it protruded from beneath the feet of the muddy Kerchak,
- 20:32Speaker 1: who was so busily engaged in perpetuating the royal prerogative
- 20:36Speaker 1: of gluttony that he failed to note the act of
- 20:39Speaker 1: les ma jeste. So little Tarzan wriggled out from beneath
- 20:44Speaker 1: the struggling mask, clutching his grisly prize close to his breast.
- 20:49Speaker 1: Among those circling feutally, the outskirts of the banquetters was old,
- 20:53Speaker 1: too blat. He had been among the first at the feast,
- 20:57Speaker 1: but had retreated with a goodly share to eat in quiet,
- 21:00Speaker 1: and was now forcing his way back for more. So
- 21:04Speaker 1: it was that he spied Tarzan. As the boy emerged
- 21:07Speaker 1: from the clawing, pushing throng with that hairy forearm hugged
- 21:11Speaker 1: firmly to his body. Two blats, little, close set, blood
- 21:15Speaker 1: shot pig eyes, shot wicked gleams of hate as they
- 21:19Speaker 1: fell upon the object of his loathing. In them, too
- 21:23Speaker 1: was greed for the toothsome dainty the boy carried, But
- 21:26Speaker 1: Tarzan saw his arch enemy as quickly, and divining what
- 21:30Speaker 1: the great beasts would do, he leaped nimbly away toward
- 21:33Speaker 1: the females and the young, hoping to hide himself among them. Tublat, however,
- 21:39Speaker 1: was close upon his heels, so that he had no
- 21:41Speaker 1: opportunity to seek a place of concealment, but saw that
- 21:45Speaker 1: he would be put to it to escape at all. Swiftly,
- 21:49Speaker 1: he sped toward the surrounding trees, and with an agile bound,
- 21:52Speaker 1: gained a lower limb with one hand, and then transferring
- 21:56Speaker 1: his burden to his teeth, he climbed rapidly upward, closely
- 22:00Speaker 1: followed by two blat Up up he went to the
- 22:04Speaker 1: waving pinnacle of a lofty monarch of the forest, where
- 22:07Speaker 1: his heavy pursuer dared not follow him. There he perched,
- 22:11Speaker 1: hurling taunts and insults at the raging, foaming beasts fifty
- 22:15Speaker 1: feet below him, and then two went mad with horrifying
- 22:21Speaker 1: screams and roars. He rushed to the ground among the
- 22:25Speaker 1: females and young, sinking his great fangs into a dozen
- 22:28Speaker 1: tiny necks and tearing great pieces from the backs and
- 22:32Speaker 1: breasts of the females who fell into his clutches. In
- 22:35Speaker 1: the brilliant moonlight, Tarzan witnessed the whole mad carnival of rage.
- 22:40Speaker 1: He saw the females and the young scamper to the
- 22:43Speaker 1: safety of the trees. Then the great bulls in the
- 22:46Speaker 1: center of the arena felt the mighty fangs of their
- 22:48Speaker 1: demented fellow, and with one accord they melted into the
- 22:52Speaker 1: black shadows of the overhanging forest. There was but one
- 22:56Speaker 1: in the amphitheater beside two blat, a belated email, running
- 23:00Speaker 1: swiftly toward the tree where Tarzan perched, And close behind
- 23:04Speaker 1: her came the awful too blat. It was Kayla, and
- 23:09Speaker 1: as quickly as Tarzan saw that Tublat was gaining on her,
- 23:13Speaker 1: he dropped with the rapidity of a falling stone from
- 23:16Speaker 1: branch to branch toward his foster mother. Now she was
- 23:20Speaker 1: beneath the overhanging limbs, and close above her crouched Tarzan,
- 23:24Speaker 1: Awaiting the outcome of the race. She leaped into the air,
- 23:28Speaker 1: grasping a low hanging branch, but almost over the head
- 23:32Speaker 1: of Tublat. So nearly had he distanced her, she should
- 23:36Speaker 1: have been safe now, but there was a rending, tearing sound.
- 23:39Speaker 1: The branch broke and precipitated her full upon the head
- 23:43Speaker 1: of Tublat, knocking him to the ground. Both were up
- 23:47Speaker 1: in an instant, but as quick as they had been,
- 23:50Speaker 1: Tarzan had been quicker, so that the infuriated bull found
- 23:54Speaker 1: himself facing the manchild, who stood between him and Kayla.
- 23:58Speaker 1: Nothing could have suited the fierce beast better, and with
- 24:02Speaker 1: a roar of triumph, he leaped upon the little lord Greystoke,
- 24:06Speaker 1: but his fangs never closed in that nut brown flesh.
- 24:10Speaker 1: A muscular hand shot out and grasped the hairy throat,
- 24:14Speaker 1: and another plunged a keen hunting knife a dozen times
- 24:17Speaker 1: into the broad breast. Like lightning. The blows fell and
- 24:21Speaker 1: only ceased when Tarzan felt the limp form crumple beneath him.
- 24:26Speaker 1: As the body rolled to the ground, Tarzan of the
- 24:28Speaker 1: Apes placed his foot upon the neck of his lifelong enemy, and,
- 24:32Speaker 1: raising his eyes to the full moon, threw back his
- 24:36Speaker 1: fierce young head and voiced the wild and terrible cry
- 24:39Speaker 1: of his people. One by one, the tribes swung down
- 24:43Speaker 1: from their arboreal retreats and formed a circle about Tarzan
- 24:48Speaker 1: and his vanquished foe. When they had all come, Tarzan
- 24:51Speaker 1: turned toward them. I am Tarzan, he cried, I am
- 24:56Speaker 1: a great killer. Let all respect Tarzan the Apes, and
- 25:00Speaker 1: Kayla his mother. There be none among you as mighty
- 25:03Speaker 1: as Tarzan. Let his enemies beware. Looking full into the
- 25:09Speaker 1: wicked red eyes of Kushak, the young lord Greystoke beat
- 25:13Speaker 1: upon his mighty breast and screamed out once more his
- 25:16Speaker 1: shrill cry of defiance. End of chapter