Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Tarzan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
The orphaned cub stopped twenty feet away and surveyed the first great
catastrophe of his life with questioning eyes. He wanted to approach his
dam but a natural fear of the man-scent held him away. Presently he
commenced to whine in a tone that always brought his mother to him
hurriedly; but this time she did not come—she did not even rise and
look toward him. He was puzzled—he could not understand it. He
continued to cry, feeling all the while more sad and more lonely.
Gradually he crept closer to his mother. He saw that the strange
creature she had killed did not move and after a while he felt less
terror of it, so that at last he found the courage to come quite close
to his mother and sniff at her. He still whined to her, but she did not
answer. It dawned on him at last that there was something wrong—that
his great, beautiful mother was not as she had been—a change had come
over her; yet still he clung to her, crying much until at last he fell
asleep, cuddled close to her dead body.
It was thus that Tarzan found him—Tarzan and Jane, his wife, and their
son, Korak the Killer, returning from the mysterious land of Pal-ul-don
from which the two men had rescued Jane Clayton. At the sound of their
approach the cub opened his eyes and rising, flattened his ears and
snarled at them, backing close against his dead mother. At sight of him
the ape-man smiled.
“Plucky little devil,” he commented, taking in the story of the tragedy
at a single glance. He approached the spitting cub, expecting it to turn
and run away; but it did nothing of the sort. Instead it snarled more
ferociously and struck at his extended hand as he stooped and reached
for it.
“What a brave little fellow,” cried Jane. “Poor little orphan!”
“He’s going to make a great lion, or he would have if his dam had
lived,” said Korak. “Look at that back—as straight and strong as a
spear. Too bad the rascal has got to die.”
“He doesn’t have to die,” returned Tarzan.
“There’s not much chance for him—he’ll need milk for a couple of months
more, and who’s going to get it for him?”
“I am,” replied Tarzan.
“You’re going to adopt him?”
Tarzan nodded.
Korak and Jane laughed. “That’ll be fine,” commented the former.
“Lord Greystoke, foster mother to the son of Numa,” laughed Jane.
Tarzan smiled with them, but he did not cease his attentions toward the
cub. Reaching out suddenly he caught the little lion by the scruff of
its neck and then stroking it gently he talked to it in a low, crooning
tone. I do not know what he said; but perhaps the cub did, for presently
it ceased its struggles and no longer sought to scratch or bite the
caressing hand. After that he picked it up and held it against his
breast. It did not seem afraid now, nor did it even bare its fangs
against this close proximity to the erstwhile hated man-scent.
“How do you do it?” exclaimed Jane Clayton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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