Part 6 (2/2)
The thought filled the old ape with sorrow He loved the boy as he had loved the father, with the loyalty and faithfulness of a hound for its master In his ape brain and his ape heart he had nursed the hope that he and the lad would never be separated He saw all his fondly cherished plans fading away, and yet he reh disconsolate he gave in to the boy's deter hiether
The spoor was but a couple of days old when the two discovered it, whichcaravan was but a few hours distant froile h the branches above the tangled undergrohich had iress of the laden carriers of the white men
The boy was in the lead, excite hioal uard of the caravan and the whitethe tangled trail of those ahead a dozen heavily laden blacks who, fro prodded by the black soldiers of the rear guard, kicked when they fell, and then roughly jerked to their feet and hustled onward On either side walked a giant whitetheir countenances The boy's lips forlad cry of salutation as his eyes first discovered the whites-a cry that was never uttered, for almost ier as he saw that both the whiteheavy whips brutally upon the naked backs of the poor devils staggering along beneath loads that would have overtaxed the strength and endurance of strongof a new day
Every now and then the rear guard and the white hexpected danger froht of the caravan, and noas following slowly in the wake of the sordid, brutal spectacle Presently Akut came up with hiht than to the lad, yet even the great ape growled beneath his breath at useless torture being inflicted upon the helpless slaves He looked at the boy Now that he had caught up with the creatures of his own kind, as it that he did not rush forward and greet them? He put the question to his companion
”They are fiends,” muttered the boy ”I would not travel with such as they, for if I did I should set upon them and kill the theht, ”I can ask them the whereabouts of the nearest port, and then, Akut, we can leave theround and started at a brisk walk toward the safari He was a hundred yards away, perhaps, when one of the whites caught sight of hi his rifle upon the boy and firing The bullet struck just in front of its s A second later the other white and the black soldiers of the rear guard were firing hysterically at the boy
Jack leaped behind a tree, unhit Days of panic ridden flight through the jungle had filled Carl Jenssen and Sven Malbihn with jangling nerves and their native boys with unreasoning terror Every new note fro of The Sheik and his bloodthirsty entourage They were in a blue funk, and the sight of the naked white warrior stepping silently out of the jungle through which they had just passed had been sufficient shock to let loose in action all the pent nerve energy of 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 ca it developed that Malbihn alone had seen anything clearly Several of the blacks averred that they too had obtained a good view of the creature but their descriptions of it varied so greatly that Jenssen, who had seen nothing himself, was inclined to be a trifle skeptical One of the blacks insisted that the thing had been eleven feet tall, with a man's body and the head of an elephant Another had seen THREE ie, black beards; but when, after conquering their nervousness, the rear guard advanced upon the ene, for Akut and the boy had retreated out of range of the unfriendly guns
Jack was disheartened and sad He had not entirely recovered fro effect of the unfriendly reception he had received at the hands of the blacks, and now he had found an even more hostile one accorded him by men of his own color
”The lesser beasts flee froreater beasts are ready to tear ht Black men would kill me with their spears or arrows And nohite men, men of my own kind, have fired upon me and driven me away Are all the creatures of the world my 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 the friends of Akut's friend Only the great apes elco of you Let us go now and continue our search for the great apes-our people”
The language of the great apes is a coestures and signs It may not be literally translated into human speech; but as near as may be this is what Akut said to the boy
The two proceeded in silence for some tiht-bitter thoughts in which hatred and revenge predominated Finally he spoke: ”Very well, Akut,” he said, ”ill find our friends, the great apes”
The anthropoid was overjoyed; but he gave no outward derunt was his only response, and a moment later he had leaped nimbly upon a small and unwary rodent that had been surprised at a fatal distance fro the unhappy creature in two Akut handed the lion's share to the lad
Chapter 8
A year had passed since the tedes had been driven in terror froe country where The Sheik held sway Little Merie all her childish love upon the now almost hopeless ruin of what had never, even in its palree of loveliness But to Meriem, Geeka was all that eet and adorable She carried to the deaf ears of the battered ivory head all her sorrows all her hopes and all her ambitions, for even in the face of hopelessness, in the clutches of the dread authority from which there was no escape, little Meriem yet cherished hopes and ambitions It is true that her a chiefly of a desire to escape with Geeka to some remote and unknown spot where there were no Sheiks, no Mabunus-where El Adrea could find no entrance, and where she ht play all day surrounded only by flowers and birds and the har in the tree tops
The Sheik had been away for a long ti a caravan of ivory, skins, and rubber far into the north The interireat peace for Meriem It is true that Mabunu had still been with her, to pinch or beat her as the ; but Mabunu was only one When The Sheik was there also there were two of theer and more brutal even than Mabunu Little Merierim old man hated her so It is true that he was cruel and unjust to all horeatest cruelties, hisat the foot of a large tree which grew inside the palisade close to the edge of the village She was fashi+oning a tent of leaves for Geeka Before the tent were some pieces of wood and small leaves and a few stones These were the household utensils Geeka was cooking dinner As the little girl played she prattled continuously to her cos She was totally absorbed in the doentle swaying of the branches of the tree above her as they bent to the body of the creature that had entered thenorance the little girl played on, while fro, unwavering There was none other than the little girl in this part of the village, which had been al months before upon his journey toward the north
And out in the jungle, an hour'scaravan homeward