Akut, discovering that the boy was not close behind him,turned back to search for him. He had gone but a shortdistance in return when he was brought to a sudden and startledhalt by sight of a strange figure moving through the treestoward him. It was the boy, yet could it be? In his hand wasa long spear, down his back hung an oblong shield such as theblack warriors who had attacked them had worn, and upon ankle andarm were bands of iron and brass, while a loin cloth was twistedabout the youth's middle. A knife was thrust through its folds.

When the boy saw the ape he hastened forward to exhibithis trophies. Proudly he called attention to each of hisnewly won possessions. Boastfully he recounted the detailsof his exploit.

"With my bare hands and my teeth I killed him," he said."I would have made friends with them but they chose to bemy enemies. And now that I have a spear I shall show Numa, too,what it means to have me for a foe. Only the white men and thegreat apes, Akut, are our friends. Them we shall seek, all othersmust we avoid or kill. This have I learned of the jungle."

They made a detour about the hostile village, and resumedtheir journey toward the coast. The boy took much pride in hisnew weapons and ornaments. He practiced continually with thespear, throwing it at some object ahead hour by hour as theytraveled their loitering way, until he gained a proficiency suchas only youthful muscles may attain to speedily. All the whilehis training went on under the guidance of Akut. No longer wasthere a single jungle spoor but was an open book to the keeneyes of the lad, and those other indefinite spoor that elude thesenses of civilized man and are only partially appreciable to hissavage cousin came to be familiar friends of the eager boy. He could differentiate the innumerable species of the herbivoraby scent, and he could tell, too, whether an animal was approachingor departing merely by the waxing or waning strength of its effluvium. Nor did he need the evidence of his eyes to tell him whether therewere two lions or four up wind,--a hundred yards away or half a mile.

Much of this had Akut taught him, but far more was instinctiveknowledge--a species of strange intuition inherited fromhis father. He had come to love the jungle life. The constantbattle of wits and senses against the many deadly foes that lurkedby day and by night along the pathway of the wary and the unwaryappealed to the spirit of adventure which breathes strong in theheart of every red-blooded son of primordial Adam. Yet, thoughhe loved it, he had not let his selfish desires outweigh thesense of duty that had brought him to a realization of themoral wrong which lay beneath the adventurous escapade thathad brought him to Africa. His love of father and mother wasstrong within him, too strong to permit unalloyed happinesswhich was undoubtedly causing them days of sorrow. And sohe held tight to his determination to find a port upon the coastwhere he might communicate with them and receive funds forhis return to London. There he felt sure that he could nowpersuade his parents to let him spend at least a portion of histime upon those African estates which from little careless remarksdropped at home he knew his father possessed. That would besomething, better at least than a lifetime of the cramped andcloying restrictions of civilization.

And so he was rather contented than otherwise as he madehis way in the direction of the coast, for while he enjoyed theliberty and the savage pleasures of the wild his conscience was atthe same time clear, for he knew that he was doing all that layin his power to return to his parents. He rather looked forward,too, to meeting white men again--creatures of his own kind--for there had been many occasions upon which he had longedfor other companionship than that of the old ape. The affair withthe blacks still rankled in his heart. He had approached them insuch innocent good fellowship and with such childlike assuranceof a hospitable welcome that the reception which had been accordedhim had proved a shock to his boyish ideals. He no longer lookedupon the black man as his brother; but rather as only another ofthe innumerable foes of the bloodthirsty jungle--a beast of preywhich walked upon two feet instead of four.

But if the blacks were his enemies there were those in theworld who were not. There were those who always would welcomehim with open arms; who would accept him as a friend and brother,and with whom he might find sanctuary from every enemy. Yes, there were always white men. Somewhere along the coastor even in the depths of the jungle itself there were white men. To them he would be a welcome visitor. They would befriend him. And there were also the great apes--the friends of his fatherand of Akut. How glad they would be to receive the son ofTarzan of the Apes! He hoped that he could come upon them beforehe found a trading post upon the coast. He wanted to be able totell his father that he had known his old friends of the jungle,that he had hunted with them, that he had joined with them intheir savage life, and their fierce, primeval ceremonies--thestrange ceremonies of which Akut had tried to tell him. It cheeredhim immensely to dwell upon these happy meetings. Often herehearsed the long speech which he would make to the apes, inwhich he would tell them of the life of their former king sincehe had left them.

At other times he would play at meeting with white men. Then hewould enjoy their consternation at sight of a naked white boytrapped in the war togs of a black warrior and roaming the junglewith only a great ape as his companion.

And so the days passed, and with the traveling and the huntingand the climbing the boy's muscles developed and his agilityincreased until even phlegmatic Akut marvelled at the prowessof his pupil. And the boy, realizing his great strength andrevelling in it, became careless. He strode through the jungle,his proud head erect, defying danger. Where Akut took to the treesat the first scent of Numa, the lad laughed in the face of the kingof beasts and walked boldly past him. Good fortune was withhim for a long time. The lions he met were well-fed, perhaps,or the very boldness of the strange creature which invaded theirdomain so filled them with surprise that thoughts of attack werebanished from their minds as they stood, round-eyed, watchinghis approach and his departure. Whatever the cause, however,the fact remains that on many occasions the boy passed withina few paces of some great lion without arousing more than awarning growl.

But no two lions are necessarily alike in character or temper.They differ as greatly as do individuals of the human family.Because ten lions act similarly under similar conditions onecannot say that the eleventh lion will do likewise--thechances are that he will not. The lion is a creature of highnervous development. He thinks, therefore he reasons. Having anervous system and brains he is the possessor of temperament,which is affected variously by extraneous causes. One day theboy met the eleventh lion. The former was walking across a smallplain upon which grew little clumps of bushes. Akut was a few yardsto the left of the lad who was the first to discover the presenceof Numa.

"Run, Akut," called the boy, laughing. "Numa lies hid in thebushes to my right. Take to the trees. Akut! I, the son ofTarzan, will protect you," and the boy, laughing, kept straightalong his way which led close beside the brush in which Numalay concealed.

The ape shouted to him to come away, but the lad only flourishedhis spear and executed an improvised war dance to show hiscontempt for the king of beasts. Closer and closer to thedread destroyer he came, until, with a sudden, angry growl, thelion rose from his bed not ten paces from the youth. A hugefellow he was, this lord of the jungle and the desert. A shaggymane clothed his shoulders. Cruel fangs armed his great jaws.His yellow-green eyes blazed with hatred and challenge.

The boy, with his pitifully inadequate spear ready in his hand,realized quickly that this lion was different from the others hehad met; but he had gone too far now to retreat. The nearesttree lay several yards to his left--the lion could be upon himbefore he had covered half the distance, and that the beastintended to charge none could doubt who looked upon him now. Beyond the lion was a thorn tree--only a few feet beyond him.It was the nearest sanctuary but Numa stood between it and his prey.

The feel of the long spear shaft in his hand and the sight ofthe tree beyond the lion gave the lad an idea--a preposterousidea--a ridiculous, forlorn hope of an idea; but there was notime now to weigh chances--there was but a single chance, andthat was the thorn tree. If the lion charged it would be too late--the lad must charge first, and to the astonishment of Akut andnone the less of Numa, the boy leaped swiftly toward the beast.Just for a second was the lion motionless with surprise and inthat second Jack Clayton put to the crucial test an accomplishmentwhich he had practiced at school.

Straight for the savage brute he ran, his spear held buttforemost across his body. Akut shrieked in terror and amazement.The lion stood with wide, round eyes awaiting the attack, readyto rear upon his hind feet and receive this rash creature withblows that could crush the skull of a buffalo.

Just in front of the lion the boy placed the butt of his spearupon the ground, gave a mighty spring, and, before the bewilderedbeast could guess the trick that had been played upon him,sailed over the lion's head into the rending embrace of the thorntree--safe but lacerated.

Akut had never before seen a pole-vault. Now he leaped upand down within the safety of his own tree, screaming tauntsand boasts at the discomfited Numa, while the boy, torn andbleeding, sought some position in his thorny retreat in which hemight find the least agony. He had saved his life; but atconsiderable cost in suffering. It seemed to him that the lionwould never leave, and it was a full hour before the angry brutegave up his vigil and strode majestically away across the plain. When he was at a safe distance the boy extricated himself from thethorn tree; but not without inflicting new wounds upon his alreadytortured flesh.

It was many days before the outward evidence of the lessonhe had learned had left him; while the impression upon his mindwas one that was to remain with him for life. Never again didhe uselessly tempt fate.

He took long chances often in his after life; but only when thetaking of chances might further the attainment of some cherishedend--and, always thereafter, he practiced pole-vaulting.

For several days the boy and the ape lay up while the formerrecovered from the painful wounds inflicted by the sharp thorns.The great anthropoid licked the wounds of his human friend,nor, aside from this, did they receive other treatment, but theysoon healed, for healthy flesh quickly replaces itself.

When the lad felt fit again the two continued their journeytoward the coast, and once more the boy's mind was filled withpleasurable anticipation.

And at last the much dreamed of moment came. They werepassing through a tangled forest when the boy's sharp eyesdiscovered from the lower branches through which he wastraveling an old but well-marked spoor--a spoor that set hisheart to leaping--the spoor of man, of white men, for amongthe prints of naked feet were the well defined outlines ofEuropean made boots. The trail, which marked the passage ofa good-sized company, pointed north at right angles to thecourse the boy and the ape were taking toward the coast.

Doubtless these white men knew the nearest coast settlement.They might even be headed for it now. At any rate it would beworth while overtaking them if even only for the pleasure ofmeeting again creatures of his own kind. The lad was all excitement; palpitant with eagerness to beoff in pursuit. Akut demurred. He wanted nothing of men. To him the lad was a fellow ape,for he was the son of the king of apes. He tried to dissuadethe boy, telling him that soon they should come upon a tribe oftheir own folk where some day when he was older the boy shouldbe king as his father had before him. But Jack was obdurate. He insisted that he wanted to see white men again. He wanted tosend a message to his parents. Akut listened and as he listenedthe intuition of the beast suggested the truth to him--the boywas planning to return to his own kind.

The thought filled the old ape with sorrow. He loved the boyas he had loved the father, with the loyalty and faithfulness ofa hound for its master. In his ape brain and his ape heart he hadnursed the hope that he and the lad would never be separated.He saw all his fondly cherished plans fading away, and yet heremained loyal to the lad and to his wishes. Though disconsolatehe gave in to the boy's determination to pursue the safari ofthe white men, accompanying him upon what he believed would betheir last journey together.

The spoor was but a couple of days old when the two discovered it,which meant that the slow-moving caravan was but a few hoursdistant from them whose trained and agile muscles could carrytheir bodies swiftly through the branches above the tangledundergrowth which had impeded the progress of the laden carriersof the white men.

The boy was in the lead, excitement and anticipation carryinghim ahead of his companion to whom the attainment of theirgoal meant only sorrow. And it was the boy who first saw therear guard of the caravan and the white men he had been soanxious to overtake.

Stumbling along the tangled trail of those ahead a dozenheavily laden blacks who, from fatigue or sickness, had droppedbehind were being prodded by the black soldiers of the rearguard, kicked when they fell, and then roughly jerked to theirfeet and hustled onward. On either side walked a giant whiteman, heavy blonde beards almost obliterating their countenances. The boy's lips formed a glad cry of salutation as his eyes firstdiscovered the whites--a cry that was never uttered, for almostimmediately he witnessed that which turned his happiness to angeras he saw that both the white men were wielding heavy whipsbrutally upon the naked backs of the poor devils staggering alongbeneath loads that would have overtaxed the strength and enduranceof strong men at the beginning of a new day.

Every now and then the rear guard and the white men castapprehensive glances rearward as though momentarily expecting thematerialization of some long expected danger from that quarter. The boy had paused after his first sight of the caravan, and nowwas following slowly in the wake of the sordid, brutal spectacle. Presently Akut came up with him. To the beast there was less ofhorror in the sight than to the lad, yet even the great ape growledbeneath his breath at useless torture being inflicted upon thehelpless slaves. He looked at the boy. Now that he had caughtup with the creatures of his own kind, why was it that he did notrush forward and greet them? He put the question to his companion.

"They are fiends," muttered the boy. "I would not travelwith such as they, for if I did I should set upon them and killthem the first time they beat their people as they are beatingthem now; but," he added, after a moment's thought, "I canask them the whereabouts of the nearest port, and then, Akut,we can leave them."

The ape made no reply, and the boy swung to the ground andstarted at a brisk walk toward the safari. He was a hundredyards away, perhaps, when one of the whites caught sight of him. The man gave a shout of alarm, instantly levelling his rifle uponthe boy and firing. The bullet struck just in front of its mark,scattering turf and fallen leaves against the lad's legs. A secondlater the other white and the black soldiers of the rear guard werefiring hysterically at the boy.

Jack leaped behind a tree, unhit. Days of panic ridden flightthrough the jungle had filled Carl Jenssen and Sven Malbihn withjangling nerves and their native boys with unreasoning terror. Every new note from behind sounded to their frightened ears thecoming of The Sheik and his bloodthirsty entourage. They werein a blue funk, and the sight of the naked white warrior steppingsilently out of the jungle through which they had just passed hadbeen sufficient shock to let loose in action all the pent nerve energyof Malbihn, who had been the first to see the strange apparition. And Malbihn's shout and shot had set the others going.

When their nervous energy had spent itself and they came totake stock of what they had been fighting it developed thatMalbihn alone had seen anything clearly. Several of the blacksaverred that they too had obtained a good view of the creaturebut their descriptions of it varied so greatly that Jenssen, whohad seen nothing himself, was inclined to be a trifle skeptical.One of the blacks insisted that the thing had been eleven feettall, with a man's body and the head of an elephant. Another hadseen THREE immense Arabs with huge, black beards; but when,after conquering their nervousness, the rear guard advanced uponthe enemy's position to investigate they found nothing, for Akutand the boy had retreated out of range of the unfriendly guns.

Jack was disheartened and sad. He had not entirely recoveredfrom the depressing effect of the unfriendly reception he hadreceived at the hands of the blacks, and now he had found aneven more hostile one accorded him by men of his own color.

"The lesser beasts flee from me in terror," he murmured, half tohimself, "the greater beasts are ready to tear me to piecesat sight. Black men would kill me with their spears or arrows.And now white men, men of my own kind, have fired upon meand driven me away. Are all the creatures of the worldmy enemies? Has the son of Tarzan no friend other than Akut?"

The old ape drew closer to the boy.

"There are the great apes," he said. "They only will be thefriends of Akut's friend. Only the great apes will welcome theson of Tarzan. You have seen that men want nothing of you. Let usgo now and continue our search for the great apes--our people."

The language of the great apes is a combination of monosyllabicgutturals, amplified by gestures and signs. It may not beliterally translated into human speech; but as near as may bethis is what Akut said to the boy.

The two proceeded in silence for some time after Akut had spoken. The boy was immersed in deep thought--bitter thoughts in whichhatred and revenge predominated. Finally he spoke: "Very well,Akut," he said, "we will find our friends, the great apes."

The anthropoid was overjoyed; but he gave no outward demonstrationof his pleasure. A low grunt was his only response, and a momentlater he had leaped nimbly upon a small and unwary rodent that hadbeen surprised at a fatal distance from its burrow. Tearing theunhappy creature in two Akut handed the lion's share to the lad.