Tarzan of the Apes

the village of thatched huts ac

ade his way, lured by a fever of curiosity to behold animals of his own kind,

ould be aught else than enemies. Similarity of form led him into no erroneous conception of the welcome

ood of man. All things outside his own tribe were his deadly enemies, wit

ere his primitive pleasures, but the greatest of these was to hunt and kill, and so he accorded to othe

ips betokened no innate cruelty. He killed for food most often, but, being a man, he sometimes killed for pleasure, a thing which no other animal d

he did that also without hysteria, for it was a very

kill or be killed should he be discovered. He proceeded with unwonted stealth, for Kulonga had taught

ops of giant creepers. From this almost impenetrable bower above the village he crouched, lo

ing dried plantain in crude stone mortars, while others were fashioning cakes from the powd

with brass and copper anklets, armlets and bracelets. Around many a dusky neck hung cur

he saw several men, while at the extreme outskirts of the clearing he occasionally caught glim

as there evidence of a man tilling the fields or

sted upon a woman d

mass. On one side of her lay a quantity of wooden arrows the points of which she dipped into the

he extreme care which the woman took that none of the matter should touch her hands, and once when a particle spattered upon one

it was this deadly stuff that killed, and not the little arrow, whic

he woman would only leave her work for an instant he could drop down, gathe

ild cry from across the clearing. He looked and saw a black warrior standing b

ar above his head. Now and again he would

hut and raced madly across the clearing toward the excited sentry. After them trooped

that interested him far less than the fact that no one remained in the v

e cauldron of poison. For a moment he stood motionless, hi

f a nearby hut. He would take a look within, thought Tarzan,

intently. There was no sound, and he glid

the center of the room was a cooking pot, and at the far end a litter of dry grasses covered by wove

ely through his sensitive and highly trained nostrils. He determined to own one of these long,

room. On top of all he placed the cooking pot, inverted, and on top of this he laid

his work, and grinned. Tarz

, and mighty wailing. He was startled. Had he remained too long? Quickly he r

he could plainly hear them approaching acr

uldron with a kick, and disappeared into the foliage above just as the first of the returning natives entered the gate at the far end of the

d trailed the women, uttering strange cries and weird lamentation. On they came to th

ring confusion. The others hastened to gather about. There was much excited gesticulati

about his arms and legs, and a necklace of dried hu

the king, fat

rit upon his hideous countenance. He spoke a few words to the assembled warriors, and in an instant the

it the theft of the poisoned arrows. Nothing more they found, and it was a thoroughly

easy earshot of the village - knifed and stripped at the door of his father's home, was in itself sufficiently mysterious, but these last awesome discoveries within t

tones, and ever casting affrighted glances

ree. There was much in their demeanor which he could not understand, for of sup

broken fast this day, and it was many miles to w

of Mbonga and melted away into the leaf