Chapter 3
As the trainer, with raised lash, hesitated an instant at the
entrance to the box where the boy and the ape confronted him, a
tall broad-shouldered man pushed past him and entered. As his eyes
fell upon the newcomer a slight flush mounted the boy's cheeks.
"Father!" he exclaimed.
The ape gave one look at the English lord, and then leaped toward
him, calling out in excited jabbering. The man, his eyes going
wide in astonishment, stopped as though turned to stone.
"Akut!" he cried.
The boy looked, bewildered, from the ape to his father, and from
his father to the ape. The trainer's jaw dropped as he listened
to what followed, for from the lips of the Englishman flowed the
gutturals of an ape that were answered in kind by the huge anthropoid
that now clung to him.
And from the wings a hideously bent and disfigured old man watched
the tableau in the box, his pock-marked features working spasmodically
in varying expressions that might have marked every sensation in
the gamut from pleasure to terror.
"Long have I looked for you, Tarzan," said Akut. "Now that I have
found you I shall come to your jungle and live there always."
The man stroked the beast's head. Through his mind there was
running rapidly a train of recollection that carried him far into
the depths of the primeval African forest where this huge, man-like
beast had fought shoulder to shoulder with him years before. He
saw the black Mugambi wielding his deadly knob-stick, and beside
them, with bared fangs and bristling whiskers, Sheeta the terrible;
and pressing close behind the savage and the savage panther, the
hideous apes of Akut. The man sighed. Strong within him surged
the jungle lust that he had thought dead. Ah! if he could go back
even for a brief month of it, to feel again the brush of leafy
branches against his naked hide; to smell the musty rot of dead
vegetation--frankincense and myrrh to the jungle born; to sense the
noiseless coming of the great carnivora upon his trail; to hunt and
to be hunted; to kill! The picture was alluring. And then came
another picture--a sweet-faced woman, still young and beautiful;
friends; a home; a son. He shrugged his giant shoulders.
"It cannot be, Akut," he said; "but if you would return, I shall
see that it is done. You could not be happy here--I may not be
happy there."
The trainer stepped forward. The ape bared his fangs, growling.
"Go with him, Akut," said Tarzan of the Apes. "I will come and
see you tomorrow."
The beast moved sullenly to the trainer's side. The latter, at John
Clayton's request, told where they might be found. Tarzan turned
toward his son.
"Come!" he said, and the two left the theater. Neither spoke for
several minutes after they had entered the limousine. It was the
boy who broke the silence.
"The ape knew you," he said, "and you spoke together in the ape's
tongue. How did the ape know you, and how did you learn his
language?"
And then, briefly and for the first time, Tarzan of the Apes told
his son of his early life--of the birth in the jungle, of the death
of his parents, and of how Kala, the great she ape had suckled
and raised him from infancy almost to manhood. He told him, too,
of the dangers and the horrors of the jungle; of the great beasts
that stalked one by day and by night; of the periods of drought,
and of the cataclysmic rains; of hunger; of cold; of intense heat;
of nakedness and fear and suffering. He told him of all those
things that seem most horrible to the creature of civilization in
the hope that the knowledge of them might expunge from the lad's
mind any inherent desire for the jungle. Yet they were the very
things that made the memory of the jungle what it was to Tarzan--that
made up the composite jungle life he loved. And in the telling he
forgot one thing--the principal thing--that the boy at his side,
listening with eager ears, was the son of Tarzan of the Apes.
After the boy had been tucked away in bed--and without the threatened
punishment--John Clayton told his wife of the events of the evening,
and that he had at last acquainted the boy with the facts of his
jungle life. The mother, who had long foreseen that her son must
some time know of those frightful years during which his father had
roamed the jungle, a naked, savage beast of prey, only shook her
head, hoping against hope that the lure she knew was still strong
in the father's breast had not been transmitted to his son.
Tarzan visited Akut the following day, but though Jack begged to
be allowed to accompany him he was refused. This time Tarzan saw
the pock-marked old owner of the ape, whom he did not recognize as
the wily Paulvitch of former days. Tarzan, influenced by Akut's
pleadings, broached the question of the ape's purchase; but Paulvitch
would not name any price, saying that he would consider the matter.
When Tarzan returned home Jack was all excitement to hear the
details of his visit, and finally suggested that his father buy
the ape and bring it home. Lady Greystoke was horrified at the
suggestion. The boy was insistent. Tarzan explained that he had
wished to purchase Akut and return him to his jungle home, and to
this the mother assented. Jack asked to be allowed to visit the
ape, but again he was met with flat refusal. He had the address,
however, which the trainer had given his father, and two days later
he found the opportunity to elude his new tutor--who had replaced
the terrified Mr. Moore--and after a considerable search through a
section of London which he had never before visited, he found the
smelly little quarters of the pock-marked old man. The old fellow
himself replied to his knocking, and when he stated that he had
come to see Ajax, opened the door and admitted him to the little
room which he and the great ape occupied. In former years Paulvitch
had been a fastidious scoundrel; but ten years of hideous life
among the cannibals of Africa had eradicated the last vestige of
niceness from his habits. His apparel was wrinkled and soiled.
His hands were unwashed, his few straggling locks uncombed. His
room was a jumble of filthy disorder. As the boy entered he saw
the great ape squatting upon the bed, the coverlets of which were
a tangled wad of filthy blankets and ill-smelling quilts. At sight
of the youth the ape leaped to the floor and shuffled forward. The
man, not recognizing his visitor and fearing that the ape meant
mischief, stepped between them, ordering the ape back to the bed.
"He will not hurt me," cried the boy. "We are friends, and before,
he was my father's friend. They knew one another in the jungle.
My father is Lord Greystoke. He does not know that I have come
here. My mother forbid my coming; but I wished to see Ajax, and
I will pay you if you will let me come here often and see him."
At the mention of the boy's identity Paulvitch's eyes narrowed.
Since he had first seen Tarzan again from the wings of the theater
there had been forming in his deadened brain the beginnings of a
desire for revenge. It is a characteristic of the weak and criminal
to attribute to others the misfortunes that are the result of their
own wickedness, and so now it was that Alexis Paulvitch was slowly
recalling the events of his past life and as he did so laying at
the door of the man whom he and Rokoff had so assiduously attempted
to ruin and murder all the misfortunes that had befallen him in
the failure of their various schemes against their intended victim.
He saw at first no way in which he could, with safety to himself,
wreak vengeance upon Tarzan through the medium of Tarzan's son; but
that great possibilities for revenge lay in the boy was apparent
to him, and so he determined to cultivate the lad in the hope that
fate would play into his hands in some way in the future. He told
the boy all that he knew of his father's past life in the jungle
and when he found that the boy had been kept in ignorance of all
these things for so many years, and that he had been forbidden
visiting the zoological gardens; that he had had to bind and gag
his tutor to find an opportunity to come to the music hall and see
Ajax, he guessed immediately the nature of the great fear that lay
in the hearts of the boy's parents--that he might crave the jungle
as his father had craved it.
And so Paulvitch encouraged the boy to come and see him often, and
always he played upon the lad's craving for tales of the savage
world with which Paulvitch was all too familiar. He left him alone
with Akut much, and it was not long until he was surprised to learn
that the boy could make the great beast understand him--that he
had actually learned many of the words of the primitive language
of the anthropoids.
During this period Tarzan came several times to visit Paulvitch.
He seemed anxious to purchase Ajax, and at last he told the man
frankly that he was prompted not only by a desire upon his part
to return the beast to the liberty of his native jungle; but also
because his wife feared that in some way her son might learn the
whereabouts of the ape and through his attachment for the beast
become imbued with the roving instinct which, as Tarzan explained
to Paulvitch, had so influenced his own life.
The Russian could scarce repress a smile as he listened to Lord
Greystoke's words, since scarce a half hour had passed since the
time the future Lord Greystoke had been sitting upon the disordered
bed jabbering away to Ajax with all the fluency of a born ape.
It was during this interview that a plan occurred to Paulvitch,
and as a result of it he agreed to accept a certain fabulous sum
for the ape, and upon receipt of the money to deliver the beast
to a vessel that was sailing south from Dover for Africa two days
later. He had a double purpose in accepting Clayton's offer.
Primarily, the money consideration influenced him strongly, as the
ape was no longer a source of revenue to him, having consistently
refused to perform upon the stage after having discovered Tarzan.
It was as though the beast had suffered himself to be brought from
his jungle home and exhibited before thousands of curious spectators
for the sole purpose of searching out his long lost friend and
master, and, having found him, considered further mingling with the
common herd of humans unnecessary. However that may be, the fact
remained that no amount of persuasion could influence him even
to show himself upon the music hall stage, and upon the single
occasion that the trainer attempted force the results were such
that the unfortunate man considered himself lucky to have escaped
with his life. All that saved him was the accidental presence of
Jack Clayton, who had been permitted to visit the animal in the
dressing room reserved for him at the music hall, and had immediately
interfered when he saw that the savage beast meant serious mischief.
And after the money consideration, strong in the heart of the Russian
was the desire for revenge, which had been growing with constant
brooding over the failures and miseries of his life, which he
attributed to Tarzan; the latest, and by no means the least, of
which was Ajax's refusal to longer earn money for him. The ape's
refusal he traced directly to Tarzan, finally convincing himself
that the ape man had instructed the great anthropoid to refuse to
go upon the stage.
Paulvitch's naturally malign disposition was aggravated by the
weakening and warping of his mental and physical faculties through
torture and privation. From cold, calculating, highly intelligent
perversity it had deteriorated into the indiscriminating,
dangerous menace of the mentally defective. His plan, however, was
sufficiently cunning to at least cast a doubt upon the assertion
that his mentality was wandering. It assured him first of the
competence which Lord Greystoke had promised to pay him for the
deportation of the ape, and then of revenge upon his benefactor
through the son he idolized. That part of his scheme was crude
and brutal--it lacked the refinement of torture that had marked
the master strokes of the Paulvitch of old, when he had worked with
that virtuoso of villainy, Nikolas Rokoff--but it at least assured
Paulvitch of immunity from responsibility, placing that upon the
ape, who would thus also be punished for his refusal longer to
support the Russian.
Everything played with fiendish unanimity into Paulvitch's hands.
As chance would have it, Tarzan's son overheard his father relating
to the boy's mother the steps he was taking to return Akut safely
to his jungle home, and having overheard he begged them to bring
the ape home that he might have him for a play-fellow. Tarzan would
not have been averse to this plan; but Lady Greystoke was horrified
at the very thought of it. Jack pleaded with his mother; but all
unavailingly. She was obdurate, and at last the lad appeared to
acquiesce in his mother's decision that the ape must be returned
to Africa and the boy to school, from which he had been absent on
vacation.
He did not attempt to visit Paulvitch's room again that day, but
instead busied himself in other ways. He had always been well supplied
with money, so that when necessity demanded he had no difficulty in
collecting several hundred pounds. Some of this money he invested
in various strange purchases which he managed to smuggle into the
house, undetected, when he returned late in the afternoon.
The next morning, after giving his father time to precede him
and conclude his business with Paulvitch, the lad hastened to the
Russian's room. Knowing nothing of the man's true character the
boy dared not take him fully into his confidence for fear that the
old fellow would not only refuse to aid him, but would report the
whole affair to his father. Instead, he simply asked permission
to take Ajax to Dover. He explained that it would relieve the old
man of a tiresome journey, as well as placing a number of pounds
in his pocket, for the lad purposed paying the Russian well.
"You see," he went on, "there will be no danger of detection since
I am supposed to be leaving on an afternoon train for school. Instead
I will come here after they have left me on board the train. Then
I can take Ajax to Dover, you see, and arrive at school only a day
late. No one will be the wiser, no harm will be done, and I shall
have had an extra day with Ajax before I lose him forever."
The plan fitted perfectly with that which Paulvitch had in mind.
Had he known what further the boy contemplated he would doubtless
have entirely abandoned his own scheme of revenge and aided the
boy whole heartedly in the consummation of the lad's, which would
have been better for Paulvitch, could he have but read the future
but a few short hours ahead.
That afternoon Lord and Lady Greystoke bid their son good-bye and
saw him safely settled in a first-class compartment of the railway
carriage that would set him down at school in a few hours. No sooner
had they left him, however, than he gathered his bags together,
descended from the compartment and sought a cab stand outside the
station. Here he engaged a cabby to take him to the Russian's
address. It was dusk when he arrived. He found Paulvitch awaiting
him. The man was pacing the floor nervously. The ape was tied
with a stout cord to the bed. It was the first time that Jack had
ever seen Ajax thus secured. He looked questioningly at Paulvitch.
The man, mumbling, explained that he believed the animal had
guessed that he was to be sent away and he feared he would attempt
to escape.
Paulvitch carried another piece of cord in his hand. There was a
noose in one end of it which he was continually playing with. He
walked back and forth, up and down the room. His pock-marked
features were working horribly as he talked silent to himself. The
boy had never seen him thus--it made him uneasy. At last Paulvitch
stopped on the opposite side of the room, far from the ape.
"Come here," he said to the lad. "I will show you how to secure
the ape should he show signs of rebellion during the trip."
The lad laughed. "It will not be necessary," he replied. "Ajax
will do whatever I tell him to do."
The old man stamped his foot angrily. "Come here, as I tell you,"
he repeated. "If you do not do as I say you shall not accompany
the ape to Dover--I will take no chances upon his escaping."
Still smiling, the lad crossed the room and stood before the Russ.
"Turn around, with your back toward me," directed the latter, "that
I may show you how to bind him quickly."
The boy did as he was bid, placing his hands behind him when
Paulvitch told him to do so. Instantly the old man slipped the
running noose over one of the lad's wrists, took a couple of half
hitches about his other wrist, and knotted the cord.
The moment that the boy was secured the attitude of the man changed.
With an angry oath he wheeled his prisoner about, tripped him and
hurled him violently to the floor, leaping upon his breast as he
fell. From the bed the ape growled and struggled with his bonds.
The boy did not cry out--a trait inherited from his savage sire
whom long years in the jungle following the death of his foster
mother, Kala the great ape, had taught that there was none to come
to the succor of the fallen.
Paulvitch's fingers sought the lad's throat. He grinned down
horribly into the face of his victim.
"Your father ruined me," he mumbled. "This will pay him. He will
think that the ape did it. I will tell him that the ape did it.
That I left him alone for a few minutes, and that you sneaked in
and the ape killed you. I will throw your body upon the bed after
I have choked the life from you, and when I bring your father he
will see the ape squatting over it," and the twisted fiend cackled
in gloating laughter. His fingers closed upon the boy's throat.
Behind them the growling of the maddened beast reverberated against
the walls of the little room. The boy paled, but no other sign
of fear or panic showed upon his countenance. He was the son
of Tarzan. The fingers tightened their grip upon his throat. It
was with difficulty that he breathed, gaspingly. The ape lunged
against the stout cord that held him. Turning, he wrapped the
cord about his hands, as a man might have done, and surged heavily
backward. The great muscles stood out beneath his shaggy hide.
There was a rending as of splintered wood--the cord held, but a
portion of the footboard of the bed came away.
At the sound Paulvitch looked up. His hideous face went white with
terror--the ape was free.
With a single bound the creature was upon him. The man shrieked.
The brute wrenched him from the body of the boy. Great fingers sunk
into the man's flesh. Yellow fangs gaped close to his throat--he
struggled, futilely--and when they closed, the soul of Alexis
Paulvitch passed into the keeping of the demons who had long been
awaiting it.
The boy struggled to his feet, assisted by Akut. For two hours
under the instructions of the former the ape worked upon the knots
that secured his friend's wrists. Finally they gave up their
secret, and the boy was free. Then he opened one of his bags and
drew forth some garments. His plans had been well made. He did
not consult the beast, which did all that he directed. Together
they slunk from the house, but no casual observer might have noted
that one of them was an ape.
