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Chapter VIII - Tarzan and the Great Apes

Three days the ape-man spent in resting and recuperating, eating fruits and nuts

and the smaller animals that were most easily bagged, and upon the fourth he set

out to explore the valley and search for the great apes. Time was a negligible

factor in the equation of life--it was all the same to Tarzan if he reached the west

coast in a month or a year or three years. All time was his and all Africa. His was

absolute freedom--the last tie that had bound him to civilization and custom had

been severed. He was alone but he was not exactly lonely. The greater part of his

life had been spent thus, and though there was no other of his kind, he was at all

times surrounded by the jungle peoples for whom familiarity had bred no

contempt within his breast. The least of them interested him, and, too, there were

those with whom he always made friends easily, and there were his hereditary

enemies whose presence gave a spice to life that might otherwise have become

humdrum and monotonous.

And so it was that on the fourth day he set out to explore the valley and search

for his fellow-apes. He had proceeded southward for a short distance when his

nostrils were assailed by the scent of man, of Gomangani, the black man. There

were many of them, and mixed with their scent was another-that of a she

Tarmangani.

Swinging through the trees Tarzan approached the authors of these disturbing

scents. He came warily from the flank, but paying no attention to the wind, for he

knew that man with his dull senses could apprehend him only through his eyes

or ears and then only when comparatively close. Had he been stalking Numa or

Sheeta he would have circled about until his quarry was upwind from him, thus

taking practically all the advantage up to the very moment that he came within

sight or hearing; but in the stalking of the dull clod, man, he approached with

almost contemptuous indifference, so that all the jungle about him knew that he

was passing--all but the men he stalked.

From the dense foliage of a great tree he watched them pass--a disreputable mob

of blacks, some garbed in the uniform of German East African native troops,

others wearing a single garment of the same uniform, while many had reverted to

the simple dress of their forbears--approximating nudity. There were many black

women with them, laughing and talking as they kept pace with the men, all of

whom were armed with German rifles and equipped with German belts and

ammunition.

There were no white officers there, but it was none the less apparent to Tarzan

that these men were from some German native command, and he guessed that

Tarzan the Untamed