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Chapter 3 - Beasts at Bay
Slowly Tarzan unfolded the note the sailor had thrust into his hand, and read it.
At first it made little impression on his sorrow-numbed senses, but finally the full
purport of the hideous plot of revenge unfolded itself before his imagination.
"This will explain to you" [the note read] "the exact nature of my intentions
relative to your offspring and to you.
"You were born an ape. You lived naked in the jungles--to your own we have
returned you; but your son shall rise a step above his sire. It is the immutable
law of evolution.
"
The father was a beast, but the son shall be a man--he shall take the next
ascending step in the scale of progress. He shall be no naked beast of the jungle,
but shall wear a loin-cloth and copper anklets, and, perchance, a ring in his
nose, for he is to be reared by men--a tribe of savage cannibals.
"I might have killed you, but that would have curtailed the full measure of the
punishment you have earned at my hands.
"
Dead, you could not have suffered in the knowledge of your son's plight; but
living and in a place from which you may not escape to seek or succour your
child, you shall suffer worse than death for all the years of your life in
contemplation of the horrors of your son's existence.
"This, then, is to be a part of your punishment for having dared to pit yourself
against
N. R.
"P.S.--The balance of your punishment has to do with what shall presently befall
your wife--that I shall leave to your imagination."
As he finished reading, a slight sound behind him brought him back with a start
to the world of present realities.
Instantly his senses awoke, and he was again Tarzan of the Apes.
As he wheeled about, it was a beast at bay, vibrant with the instinct of self-
preservation, that faced a huge bull-ape that was already charging down upon
him.
The two years that had elapsed since Tarzan had come out of the savage forest
with his rescued mate had witnessed slight diminution of the mighty powers that
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