Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Tarzan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
And in truth, great indeed was the rejoicing in the huts of the Waziri.
And not for one night alone, but for many nights did the dancing and the
rejoicing continue until Tarzan was compelled to put a stop to the
festivities that he and his family might gain a few hours of unbroken
slumber. The ape-man found that not only had his faithful Waziri, under
the equally faithful guidance of his English foreman, Jervis, completely
rehabilitated his stables, corrals, and outbuildings as well as the
native huts, but had restored the interior of the bungalow, so that in
all outward appearances the place was precisely as it had been before
the raid of the Germans.
Jervis was at Nairobi on the business of the estate, and it was some
days after their arrival that he returned to the ranch. His surprise and
happiness were no less genuine than those of the Waziri. With the chief
and warriors he sat for hours at the feet of the Big Bwana, listening to
an account of the strange land of Pal-ul-don and the adventures that had
befallen the three during Lady Greystoke’s captivity there, and with the
Waziri he marveled at the queer pets the ape-man had brought back with
him. That Tarzan might have fancied a mongrel native cur was strange
enough, but that he should have adopted a cub of his hereditary enemies,
Numa and Sabor, seemed beyond all belief. And equally surprising to them
all was the manner of Tarzan’s education of the cub.
The golden lion and his foster mother occupied a corner of the ape-man’s
bedroom, and many was the hour each day that he spent in training and
educating the little spotted, yellow ball—all playfulness and affection
now, but one day to grow into a great, savage beast of prey.
As the days passed and the golden lion grew, Tarzan taught it many
tricks—to fetch and carry, to lie motionless in hiding at his almost
inaudible word of command, to move from point to point as he indicated,
to hunt for hidden things by scent and to retrieve them, and when meat
was added to its diet he fed it always in a way that brought grim smiles
to the savage lips of the Waziri warriors, for Tarzan had built for him
a dummy in the semblance of a man and the meat that the lion was to eat
was fastened always at the throat of the dummy. Never did the manner of
feeding vary. At a word from the ape-man the golden lion would crouch,
belly to the ground, and then Tarzan would point at the dummy and
whisper the single word “kill.” However hungry he might be, the lion
learned never to move toward his meat until that single word had been
uttered by its master; and then with a rush and a savage growl it drove
straight for the flesh. While it was little it had difficulty at first
in clambering up the dummy to the savory morsel fastened at the figure’s
throat, but as it grew older and larger it gained the objective more
easily, and finally a single leap would carry it to its goal and down
would go the dummy upon its back with the young lion tearing at its
throat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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