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With man it is different. When he comes many of the larger animals instinctively leave the district entirely,
seldom if ever to return; and thus it has always been with the great anthropoids. They flee man as man
flees a pestilence.
For a short time the tribe of Tarzan lingered in the vicinity of the beach because their new chief hated the
thought of leaving the treasured contents of the little cabin forever. But when one day a member of the
tribe discovered the blacks in great numbers on the banks of a little stream that had been their watering
place for generations, and in the act of clearing a space in the jungle and erecting many huts, the apes
would remain no longer; and so Tarzan led them inland for many marches to a spot as yet undefiled by
the foot of a human being.
Once every moon Tarzan would go swinging rapidly back through the swaying branches to have a day
with his books, and to replenish his supply of arrows. This latter task was becoming more and more
difficult, for the blacks had taken to hiding their supply away at night in granaries and living huts.
This necessitated watching by day on Tarzan's part to discover where the arrows were being concealed.
Twice had he entered huts at night while the inmates lay sleeping upon their mats, and stolen the arrows
from the very sides of the warriors. But this method he realized to be too fraught with danger, and so he
commenced picking up solitary hunters with his long, deadly noose, stripping them of weapons and
ornaments and dropping their bodies from a high tree into the village street during the still watches of the
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night.
These various escapades again so terrorized the blacks that, had it not been for the monthly respite
between Tarzan's visits, in which they had opportunity to renew hope that each fresh incursion would
prove the last, they soon would have abandoned their new village.
The blacks had not as yet come upon Tarzan's cabin on the distant beach, but the ape-man lived in
constant dread that, while he was away with the tribe, they would discover and despoil his treasure. So it
came that he spent more and more time in the vicinity of his father's last home, and less and less with the
tribe. Presently the members of his little community began to suffer on account of his neglect, for disputes
and quarrels constantly arose which only the king might settle peaceably.
At last some of the older apes spoke to Tarzan on the subject, and for a month thereafter he remained
constantly with the tribe.
The duties of kingship among the anthropoids are not many or arduous.
In the afternoon comes Thaka, possibly, to complain that old Mungo has stolen his new wife. Then must
Tarzan summon all before him, and if he finds that the wife prefers her new lord he commands that
matters remain as they are, or possibly that Mungo give Thaka one of his daughters in exchange.
Whatever his decision, the apes accept it as final, and return to their occupations satisfied.
Then comes Tana, shrieking and holding tight her side from which blood is streaming. Gunto, her
husband, has cruelly bitten her! And Gunto, summoned, says that Tana is lazy and will not bring him nuts
and beetles, or scratch his back for him.
So Tarzan scolds them both and threatens Gunto with a taste of the death-bearing slivers if he abuses
Tana further, and Tana, for her part, is compelled to promise better attention to her wifely duties.
And so it goes, little family differences for the most part, which, if left unsettled would result finally in
greater factional strife, and the eventual dismemberment of the tribe.
But Tarzan tired of it, as he found that kingship meant the curtailment of his liberty. He longed for the
little cabin and the sun-kissed sea--for the cool interior of the well-built house, and for the never-ending
wonders of the many books.
As he had grown older, he found that he had grown away from his people. Their interests and his were
far removed. They had not kept pace with him, nor could they understand aught of the many strange and
wonderful dreams that passed through the active brain of their human king. So limited was their
vocabulary that Tarzan could not even talk with them of the many new truths, and the great fields of
thought that his reading had opened up before his longing eyes, or make known ambitions which stirred
his soul.
Among the tribe he no longer had friends as of old. A little child may find companionship in many strange
and simple creatures, but to a grown man there must be some semblance of equality in intellect as the
basis for agreeable association.
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