Edgar Rice Burroughs - The Son of Tarzan

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The Son of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Table of Contents

The Son of Tarzan...............................................................................................................................................1

Edgar Rice Burroughs..............................................................................................................................1

The Son of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Chapter I• Chapter II• Chapter III• Chapter IV• Chapter V• Chapter VI• Chapter VII• Chapter VIII• Chapter IX• Chapter X• Chapter XI• Chapter XII• Chapter XIII• Chapter XIV• Chapter XV• Chapter XVI• Chapter XVII• Chapter XVIII• Chapter XIX• Chapter XX• Chapter XXI• Chapter XXII• Chapter XXIII• Chapter XXIV• Chapter XXV• Chapter XXVI• Chapter XXVII•

TO HULBERT BURROUGHS

Chapter 1

The long boat of the Marjorie W. was floating down the broad Ugambi with ebb tide and current. Her crew

were lazily enjoying this respite from the arduous labor of rowing up stream. Three miles below them lay the

Marjorie W. herself, quite ready to sail so soon as they should have clambered aboard and swung the long

boat to its davits. Presently the attention of every man was drawn from his dreaming or his gossiping to the

northern bank of the river. There, screaming at them in a cracked falsetto and with skinny arms outstretched,

stood a strange apparition of a man.

"Wot the 'ell?" ejaculated one of the crew.

"A white man!" muttered the mate, and then: "Man the oars, boys, and we'll just pull over an' see what he

wants."

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When they came close to the shore they saw an emaciated creature with scant white locks tangled and matted.

The thin, bent body was naked but for a loin cloth. Tears were rolling down the sunken pock−marked cheeks.

The man jabbered at them in a strange tongue.

"Rooshun," hazarded the mate. "Savvy English?" he called to the man.

He did, and in that tongue, brokenly and haltingly, as though it had been many years since he had used it, he

begged them to take him with them away from this awful country. Once on board the Marjorie W. the

stranger told his rescuers a pitiful tale of privation, hardships, and torture, extending over a period of ten

years. How he happened to have come to Africa he did not tell them, leaving them to assume he had forgotten

the incidents of his life prior to the frightful ordeals that had wrecked him mentally and physically. He did not

even tell them his true name, and so they knew him only as Michael Sabrov, nor was there any resemblance

between this sorry wreck and the virile, though unprincipled, Alexis Paulvitch of old.

It had been ten years since the Russian had escaped the fate of his friend, the arch−fiend Rokoff, and not

once, but many times during those ten years had Paulvitch cursed the fate that had given to Nicholas Rokoff

death and immunity from suffering while it had meted to him the hideous terrors of an existence infinitely

worse than the death that persistently refused to claim him.

Paulvitch had taken to the jungle when he had seen the beasts of Tarzan and their savage lord swarm the deck

of the Kincaid, and in his terror lest Tarzan pursue and capture him he had stumbled on deep into the jungle,

only to fall at last into the hands of one of the savage cannibal tribes that had felt the weight of Rokoff's evil

temper and cruel brutality. Some strange whim of the chief of this tribe saved Paulvitch from death only to

plunge him into a life of misery and torture. For ten years he had been the butt of the village, beaten and

stoned by the women and children, cut and slashed and disfigured by the warriors; a victim of often recurring

fevers of the most malignant variety. Yet he did not die. Smallpox laid its hideous clutches upon him; leaving

him unspeakably branded with its repulsive marks. Between it and the attentions of the tribe the countenance

of Alexis Paulvitch was so altered that his own mother could not have recognized in the pitiful mask he called

his face a single familiar feature. A few scraggly, yellow−white locks had supplanted the thick, dark hair that

had covered his head. His limbs were bent and twisted, he walked with a shuffling, unsteady gait, his body

doubled forward. His teeth were gone−−knocked out by his savage masters. Even his mentality was but a

sorry mockery of what it once had been.

They took him aboard the Marjorie W., and there they fed and nursed him. He gained a little in strength; but

his appearance never altered for the better−−a human derelict, battered and wrecked, they had found him; a

human derelict, battered and wrecked, he would remain until death claimed him. Though still in his thirties,

Alexis Paulvitch could easily have passed for eighty. Inscrutable Nature had demanded of the accomplice a

greater penalty than his principal had paid.

In the mind of Alexis Paulvitch there lingered no thoughts of revenge−−only a dull hatred of the man whom

he and Rokoff had tried to break, and failed. There was hatred, too, of the memory of Rokoff, for Rokoff had

led him into the horrors he had undergone. There was hatred of the police of a score of cities from which he

had had to flee. There was hatred of law, hatred of order, hatred of everything. Every moment of the man's

waking life was filled with morbid thought of hatred−−he had become mentally as he was physically in

outward appearance, the personification of the blighting emotion of Hate. He had little or nothing to do with

the men who had rescued him. He was too weak to work and too morose for company, and so they quickly

left him alone to his own devices.

The Marjorie W. had been chartered by a syndicate of wealthy manufacturers, equipped with a laboratory and

a staff of scientists, and sent out to search for some natural product which the manufacturers who footed the

bills had been importing from South America at an enormous cost. What the product was none on board the

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Marjorie W. knew except the scientists, nor is it of any moment to us, other than that it led the ship to a

certain island off the coast of Africa after Alexis Paulvitch had been taken aboard.

The ship lay at anchor off the coast for several weeks. The monotony of life aboard her became trying for the

crew. They went often ashore, and finally Paulvitch asked to accompany them−−he too was tiring of the

blighting sameness of existence upon the ship.

The island was heavily timbered. Dense jungle ran down almost to the beach. The scientists were far inland,

prosecuting their search for the valuable commodity that native rumor upon the mainland had led them to

believe might be found here in marketable quantity. The ship's company fished, hunted, and explored.

Paulvitch shuffled up and down the beach, or lay in the shade of the great trees that skirted it. One day, as the

men were gathered at a little distance inspecting the body of a panther that had fallen to the gun of one of

them who had been hunting inland, Paulvitch lay sleeping beneath his tree. He was awakened by the touch of

a hand upon his shoulder. With a start he sat up to see a huge, anthropoid ape squatting at his side, inspecting

him intently. The Russian was thoroughly frightened. He glanced toward the sailors−−they were a couple of

hundred yards away. Again the ape plucked at his shoulder, jabbering plaintively. Paulvitch saw no menace

in the inquiring gaze, or in the attitude of the beast. He got slowly to his feet. The ape rose at his side.

Half doubled, the man shuffled cautiously away toward the sailors. The ape moved with him, taking one of

his arms. They had come almost to the little knot of men before they were seen, and by this time Paulvitch

had become assured that the beast meant no harm. The animal evidently was accustomed to the association of

human beings. It occurred to the Russian that the ape represented a certain considerable money value, and

before they reached the sailors he had decided he should be the one to profit by it.

When the men looked up and saw the oddly paired couple shuffling toward them they were filled with

amazement, and started on a run toward the two. The ape showed no sign of fear. Instead he grasped each

sailor by the shoulder and peered long and earnestly into his face. Having inspected them all he returned to

Paulvitch's side, disappointment written strongly upon his countenance and in his carriage.

The men were delighted with him. They gathered about, asking Paulvitch many questions, and examining his

companion. The Russian told them that the ape was his−−nothing further would he offer−−but kept harping

continually upon the same theme, "The ape is mine. The ape is mine." Tiring of Paulvitch, one of the men

essayed a pleasantry. Circling about behind the ape he prodded the anthropoid in the back with a pin. Like a

flash the beast wheeled upon its tormentor, and, in the briefest instant of turning, the placid, friendly animal

was metamorphosed to a frenzied demon of rage. The broad grin that had sat upon the sailor's face as he

perpetrated his little joke froze to an expression of terror. He attempted to dodge the long arms that reached

for him; but, failing, drew a long knife that hung at his belt. With a single wrench the ape tore the weapon

from the man's grasp and flung it to one side, then his yellow fangs were buried in the sailor's shoulder.

With sticks and knives the man's companions fell upon the beast, while Paulvitch danced around the cursing

snarling pack mumbling and screaming pleas and threats. He saw his visions of wealth rapidly dissipating

before the weapons of the sailors.

The ape, however, proved no easy victim to the superior numbers that seemed fated to overwhelm him.

Rising from the sailor who had precipitated the battle he shook his giant shoulders, freeing himself from two

of the men that were clinging to his back, and with mighty blows of his open palms felled one after another of

his attackers, leaping hither and thither with the agility of a small monkey.

The fight had been witnessed by the captain and mate who were just landing from the Marjorie W., and

Paulvitch saw these two now running forward with drawn revolvers while the two sailors who had brought

them ashore trailed at their heels. The ape stood looking about him at the havoc he had wrought, but whether

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he was awaiting a renewal of the attack or was deliberating which of his foes he should exterminate first

Paulvitch could not guess. What he could guess, however, was that the moment the two officers came within

firing distance of the beast they would put an end to him in short order unless something were done and done

quickly to prevent. The ape had made no move to attack the Russian but even so the man was none too sure

of what might happen were he to interfere with the savage beast, now thoroughly aroused to bestial rage, and

with the smell of new spilled blood fresh in its nostrils. For an instant he hesitated, and then again there rose

before him the dreams of affluence which this great anthropoid would doubtless turn to realities once

Paulvitch had landed him safely in some great metropolis like London.

The captain was shouting to him now to stand aside that he might have a shot at the animal; but instead

Paulvitch shuffled to the ape's side, and though the man's hair quivered at its roots he mastered his fear and

laid hold of the ape's arm.

"Come!" he commanded, and tugged to pull the beast from among the sailors, many of whom were now

sitting up in wide eyed fright or crawling away from their conqueror upon hands and knees.

Slowly the ape permitted itself to be led to one side, nor did it show the slightest indication of a desire to

harm the Russian. The captain came to a halt a few paces from the odd pair.

"Get aside, Sabrov!" he commanded. "I'll put that brute where he won't chew up any more able seamen."

"It wasn't his fault, captain," pleaded Paulvitch. "Please don't shoot him. The men started it−−they attacked

him first. You see, he's perfectly gentle−−and he's mine−−he's mine−−he's mine! I won't let you kill him," he

concluded, as his half−wrecked mentality pictured anew the pleasure that money would buy in

London−−money that he could not hope to possess without some such windfall as the ape represented.

The captain lowered his weapon. "The men started it, did they?" he repeated. "How about that?" and he

turned toward the sailors who had by this time picked themselves from the ground, none of them much the

worse for his experience except the fellow who had been the cause of it, and who would doubtless nurse a

sore shoulder for a week or so.

"Simpson done it," said one of the men. "He stuck a pin into the monk from behind, and the monk got

him−−which served him bloomin' well right−−an' he got the rest of us, too, for which I can't blame him, since

we all jumped him to once."

The captain looked at Simpson, who sheepishly admitted the truth of the allegation, then he stepped over to

the ape as though to discover for himself the sort of temper the beast possessed, but it was noticeable that he

kept his revolver cocked and leveled as he did so. However, he spoke soothingly to the animal who squatted

at the Russian's side looking first at one and then another of the sailors. As the captain approached him the

ape half rose and waddled forward to meet him. Upon his countenance was the same strange, searching

expression that had marked his scrutiny of each of the sailors he had first encountered. He came quite close to

the officer and laid a paw upon one of the man's shoulders, studying his face intently for a long moment, then

came the expression of disappointment accompanied by what was almost a human sigh, as he turned away to

peer in the same curious fashion into the faces of the mate and the two sailors who had arrived with the

officers. In each instance he sighed and passed on, returning at length to Paulvitch's side, where he squatted

down once more; thereafter evincing little or no interest in any of the other men, and apparently forgetful of

his recent battle with them.

When the party returned aboard the Marjorie W., Paulvitch was accompanied by the ape, who seemed

anxious to follow him. The captain interposed no obstacles to the arrangement, and so the great anthropoid

was tacitly admitted to membership in the ship's company. Once aboard he examined each new face

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minutely, evincing the same disappointment in each instance that had marked his scrutiny of the others. The

officers and scientists aboard often discussed the beast, but they were unable to account satisfactorily for the

strange ceremony with which he greeted each new face. Had he been discovered upon the mainland, or any

other place than the almost unknown island that had been his home, they would have concluded that he had

formerly been a pet of man; but that theory was not tenable in the face of the isolation of his uninhabited

island. He seemed continually to be searching for someone, and during the first days of the return voyage

from the island he was often discovered nosing about in various parts of the ship; but after he had seen and

examined each face of the ship's company, and explored every corner of the vessel he lapsed into utter

indifference of all about him. Even the Russian elicited only casual interest when he brought him food. At

other times the ape appeared merely to tolerate him. He never showed affection for him, or for anyone else

upon the Marjorie W., nor did he at any time evince any indication of the savage temper that had marked his

resentment of the attack of the sailors upon him at the time that he had come among them.

Most of his time was spent in the eye of the ship scanning the horizon ahead, as though he were endowed

with sufficient reason to know that the vessel was bound for some port where there would be other human

beings to undergo his searching scrutiny. All in all, Ajax, as he had been dubbed, was considered the most

remarkable and intelligent ape that any one aboard the Marjorie W. ever had seen. Nor was his intelligence

the only remarkable attribute he owned. His stature and physique were, for an ape, awe inspiring. That he was

old was quite evident, but if his age had impaired his physical or mental powers in the slightest it was not

apparent.

And so at length the Marjorie W. came to England, and there the officers and the scientists, filled with

compassion for the pitiful wreck of a man they had rescued from the jungles, furnished Paulvitch with funds

and bid him and his Ajax Godspeed.

Upon the dock and all through the journey to London the Russian had his hands full with Ajax. Each new

face of the thousands that came within the anthropoid's ken must be carefully scrutinized, much to the horror

of many of his victims; but at last, failing, apparently, to discover whom he sought, the great ape relapsed

into morbid indifference, only occasionally evincing interest in a passing face.

In London, Paulvitch went directly with his prize to a certain famous animal trainer. This man was much

impressed with Ajax with the result that he agreed to train him for a lion's share of the profits of exhibiting

him, and in the meantime to provide for the keep of both the ape and his owner.

And so came Ajax to London, and there was forged another link in the chain of strange circumstances that

were to affect the lives of many people.

Chapter 2

Mr. Harold Moore was a bilious−countenanced, studious young man. He took himself very seriously, and

life, and his work, which latter was the tutoring of the young son of a British nobleman. He felt that his

charge was not making the progress that his parents had a right to expect, and he was now conscientiously

explaining this fact to the boy's mother.

"It's not that he isn't bright," he was saying; "if that were true I should have hopes of succeeding, for then I

might bring to bear all my energies in overcoming his obtuseness; but the trouble is that he is exceptionally

intelligent, and learns so quickly that I can find no fault in the matter of the preparation of his lessons. What

concerns me, however, is that fact that he evidently takes no interest whatever in the subjects we are studying.

He merely accomplishes each lesson as a task to be rid of as quickly as possible and I am sure that no lesson

ever again enters his mind until the hours of study and recitation once more arrive. His sole interests seem to

be feats of physical prowess and the reading of everything that he can get hold of relative to savage beasts

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and the lives and customs of uncivilized peoples; but particularly do stories of animals appeal to him. He will

sit for hours together poring over the work of some African explorer, and upon two occasions I have found

him setting up in bed at night reading Carl Hagenbeck's book on men and beasts."

The boy's mother tapped her foot nervously upon the hearth rug.

"You discourage this, of course?" she ventured.

Mr. Moore shuffled embarrassedly.

"I−−ah−−essayed to take the book from him," he replied, a slight flush mounting his sallow cheek;

"but−−ah−−your son is quite muscular for one so young."

"He wouldn't let you take it?" asked the mother.

"He would not," confessed the tutor. "He was perfectly good natured about it; but he insisted upon pretending

that he was a gorilla and that I was a chimpanzee attempting to steal food from him. He leaped upon me with

the most savage growls I ever heard, lifted me completely above his head, hurled me upon his bed, and after

going through a pantomime indicative of choking me to death he stood upon my prostrate form and gave

voice to a most fearsome shriek, which he explained was the victory cry of a bull ape. Then he carried me to

the door, shoved me out into the hall and locked me from his room."

For several minutes neither spoke again. It was the boy's mother who finally broke the silence.

"It is very necessary, Mr. Moore," she said, "that you do everything in your power to discourage this

tendency in Jack, he−−"; but she got no further. A loud "Whoop!" from the direction of the window brought

them both to their feet. The room was upon the second floor of the house, and opposite the window to which

their attention had been attracted was a large tree, a branch of which spread to within a few feet of the sill.

Upon this branch now they both discovered the subject of their recent conversation, a tall, well−built boy,

balancing with ease upon the bending limb and uttering loud shouts of glee as he noted the terrified

expressions upon the faces of his audience.

The mother and tutor both rushed toward the window but before they had crossed half the room the boy had

leaped nimbly to the sill and entered the apartment with them.

"`The wild man from Borneo has just come to town,'" he sang, dancing a species of war dance about his

terrified mother and scandalized tutor, and ending up by throwing his arms about the former's neck and

kissing her upon either cheek.

"Oh, Mother," he cried, "there's a wonderful, educated ape being shown at one of the music halls. Willie

Grimsby saw it last night. He says it can do everything but talk. It rides a bicycle, eats with knife and fork,

counts up to ten, and ever so many other wonderful things, and can I go and see it too? Oh, please,

Mother−−please let me."

Patting the boy's cheek affectionately, the mother shook her head negatively. "No, Jack," she said; "you know

I do not approve of such exhibitions."

"I don't see why not, Mother," replied the boy. "All the other fellows go and they go to the Zoo, too, and

you'll never let me do even that. Anybody'd think I was a girl−−or a mollycoddle. Oh, Father," he exclaimed,

as the door opened to admit a tall gray−eyed man. "Oh, Father, can't I go?"

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"Go where, my son?" asked the newcomer.

"He wants to go to a music hall to see a trained ape," said the mother, looking warningly at her husband.

"Who, Ajax?" questioned the man.

The boy nodded.

"Well, I don't know that I blame you, my son," said the father, "I wouldn't mind seeing him myself. They say

he is very wonderful, and that for an anthropoid he is unusually large. Let's all go, Jane−−what do you say?"

And he turned toward his wife, but that lady only shook her head in a most positive manner, and turning to

Mr. Moore asked him if it was not time that he and Jack were in the study for the morning recitations. When

the two had left she turned toward her husband.

"John," she said, "something must be done to discourage Jack's tendency toward anything that may excite the

cravings for the savage life which I fear he has inherited from you. You know from your own experience how

strong is the call of the wild at times. You know that often it has necessitated a stern struggle on your part to

resist the almost insane desire which occasionally overwhelms you to plunge once again into the jungle life

that claimed you for so many years, and at the same time you know, better than any other, how frightful a fate

it would be for Jack, were the trail to the savage jungle made either alluring or easy to him."

"I doubt if there is any danger of his inheriting a taste for jungle life from me," replied the man, "for I cannot

conceive that such a thing may be transmitted from father to son. And sometimes, Jane, I think that in your

solicitude for his future you go a bit too far in your restrictive measures. His love for animals−−his desire, for

example, to see this trained ape−−is only natural in a healthy, normal boy of his age. Just because he wants to

see Ajax is no indication that he would wish to marry an ape, and even should he, far be it from you Jane to

have the right to cry `shame!'" and John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, put an arm about his wife, laughing

good−naturedly down into her upturned face before he bent his head and kissed her. Then, more seriously, he

continued: "You have never told Jack anything concerning my early life, nor have you permitted me to, and

in this I think that you have made a mistake. Had I been able to tell him of the experiences of Tarzan of the

Apes I could doubtless have taken much of the glamour and romance from jungle life that naturally surrounds

it in the minds of those who have had no experience of it. He might then have profited by my experience, but

now, should the jungle lust ever claim him, he will have nothing to guide him but his own impulses, and I

know how powerful these may be in the wrong direction at times."

But Lady Greystoke only shook her head as she had a hundred other times when the subject had claimed her

attention in the past.

"No, John," she insisted, "I shall never give my consent to the implanting in Jack's mind of any suggestion of

the savage life which we both wish to preserve him from."

It was evening before the subject was again referred to and then it was raised by Jack himself. He had been

sitting, curled in a large chair, reading, when he suddenly looked up and addressed his father.

"Why," he asked, coming directly to the point, "can't I go and see Ajax?"

"Your mother does not approve," replied his father.

"Do you?"

"That is not the question," evaded Lord Greystoke. "It is enough that your mother objects."

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"I am going to see him," announced the boy, after a few moments of thoughtful silence. "I am not different

from Willie Grimsby, or any other of the fellows who have been to see him. It did not harm them and it will

not harm me. I could go without telling you; but I would not do that. So I tell you now, beforehand, that I am

going to see Ajax."

There was nothing disrespectful or defiant in the boy's tone or manner. His was merely a dispassionate

statement of facts. His father could scarce repress either a smile or a show of the admiration he felt for the

manly course his son had pursued.

"I admire your candor, Jack," he said. "Permit me to be candid, as well. If you go to see Ajax without

permission, I shall punish you. I have never inflicted corporal punishment upon you, but I warn you that

should you disobey your mother's wishes in this instance, I shall."

"Yes, sir," replied the boy; and then: "I shall tell you, sir, when I have been to see Ajax."

Mr. Moore's room was next to that of his youthful charge, and it was the tutor's custom to have a look into the

boy's each evening as the former was about to retire. This evening he was particularly careful not to neglect

his duty, for he had just come from a conference with the boy's father and mother in which it had been

impressed upon him that he must exercise the greatest care to prevent Jack visiting the music hall where Ajax

was being shown. So, when he opened the boy's door at about half after nine, he was greatly excited, though

not entirely surprised to find the future Lord Greystoke fully dressed for the street and about to crawl from his

open bed room window.

Mr. Moore made a rapid spring across the apartment; but the waste of energy was unnecessary, for when the

boy heard him within the chamber and realized that he had been discovered he turned back as though to

relinquish his planned adventure.

"Where were you going?" panted the excited Mr. Moore.

"I am going to see Ajax," replied the boy, quietly.

"I am astonished," cried Mr. Moore; but a moment later he was infinitely more astonished, for the boy,

approaching close to him, suddenly seized him about the waist, lifted him from his feet and threw him face

downward upon the bed, shoving his face deep into a soft pillow.

"Be quiet," admonished the victor, "or I'll choke you."

Mr. Moore struggled; but his efforts were in vain. Whatever else Tarzan of the Apes may or may not have

handed down to his son he had at least bequeathed him almost as marvelous a physique as he himself had

possessed at the same age. The tutor was as putty in the boy's hands. Kneeling upon him, Jack tore strips

from a sheet and bound the man's hands behind his back. Then he rolled him over and stuffed a gag of the

same material between his teeth, securing it with a strip wound about the back of his victim's head. All the

while he talked in a low, conversational tone.

"I am Waja, chief of the Waji," he explained, "and you are Mohammed Dubn, the Arab sheik, who would

murder my people and steal my ivory," and he dexterously trussed Mr. Moore's hobbled ankles up behind to

meet his hobbled wrists. "Ah−−ha! Villain! I have you in me power at last. I go; but I shall return!" And the

son of Tarzan skipped across the room, slipped through the open window, and slid to liberty by way of the

down spout from an eaves trough.

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