Chapter 15 "Ape King" Tarzan

When he returned to the tribe, it was still dark.Although after digging up the wild bear buried the previous day, he devoured it a lot, and climbed to the top of the tree to get the bow and arrows he had hidden there, which wasted time. Tarzan jumped from the branch and stood among Kochak's horde in full armor. Out of breath he told his companions of the glory of his adventure, and showed them all the trophies one by one. Kochak snorted and turned to leave.Because he was jealous of this strange guy in the tribe, his evil mind was turning, looking for an excuse to vent his hatred on Taishan.

The next day, when the first ray of sunlight rose from the sky, Taishan began to practice bow and arrow.At first, he couldn't hit the shot, but gradually he got the hang of it.In less than a month, he was a master archer.However, the back and forth practice almost used up all his arrows. The tribe continued to forage around the beach, so that, in addition to practicing his archery, Tarzan continued to read his father's carefully selected books. During this time the young English lord discovered the metal box, with the key in the lock, hidden behind a cupboard in the cottage.After observing for a while and trying a few times, he opened the box.

Inside the box he found a faded photograph of a beardless young man.There was also a gold chain from which hung a locket of great cost studded with diamonds.All that was left were a few letters and a small notebook. Tai Shanzai inspected these things carefully. He likes that photo the most.The eyes of the person in the photo are smiling, and his face is bright and sincere.This is his father. He was also very fond of the locket.He wore a gold chain around his neck, like the Negroes who wore ornaments.Beautiful diamonds shone wonderfully against his smooth, dark skin. He could not quite understand the letters, for he knew little or nothing of handwriting.So he put them back in the box, along with the photograph, and turned his attention back to the notebook.

This book is filled with beautiful handwriting.But although those "little beetles" were all familiar to him, their arrangement and combination were completely different from those words he had seen before.Therefore, he could not understand the meaning of it at all. Tarzan had learned to use a dictionary long ago, but to his great regret and bewilderment, it was of no use in a pinch.I couldn't find a word in that book, so I had to put it back in the iron box.But he made up his mind that he must figure out the mystery in the future. Little did he know, of course, that this book was the key to his history, the answer to the mystery of his strange life.This is the diary of John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, written in French, as is customary.

Tarzan put the box back in the cupboard.But since then, he will always remember his father's smiling face.In my heart, and with determination, I must figure out the secrets hidden in those strange words in the little black leather book. He had a more pressing matter to attend to now.He was almost out of arrows and had to go to the Negro villages and get some more. He set off early the next morning.He walked quickly, and reached the clearing before noon.He hid on the big tree again, and saw the women working in the fields and on the village street just like last time, with the bubbling pot still under him.

He hid in the tree for hours, hoping to jump down when he could, and snatch the arrow he had come to get.But this time nothing happened that could call the whole village out of their homes.It was getting later and later, Tarzan the ape was still squatting on the tree, and the woman who didn't notice at all was still guarding by the pot. After a while, all the people working in the fields came back.The hunting warriors also came out of the woods.When everyone was back inside the fence, they closed the gate and barred it from the inside. At this time, the village was full of cooking pots.In front of each hut is a woman guarding a pot of stew.People were holding plantain pancakes and sweet potato pudding.

Suddenly, a greeting came from the clearing in the forest. Taishan looked up. It turned out to be a group of belated hunters coming back from the north.They tugged and tugged at a desperately struggling animal. Walking up to the village, the gate was thrown open and let them in.After the people saw the prey that had been brought back, they immediately burst into cheers.It turned out that it was a person. Although he struggled desperately, he was dragged to the village street.Women and children rushed towards him with sticks and stones.Tarzan, the young, fierce savage of the jungle, was amazed at the cruelty of his kind.

In the jungle, only Zita—the leopard—tortures its prey.The "morality" of other beasts is to let their prey die quickly. Through his books, Taishan still has some understanding of the human way of life. He followed Kulonga, and as he trudged through the Great Forest, he hoped that the Negro would take him to a city.There were strange houses on wheels, and one house had a huge tree growing from the roof and belching clouds of black smoke.Or take him to the ocean with giant "buildings" floating on the surface. He knew that these "buildings" had different names.Some are called ships, others are called steamers, steamboats, or boats.

But Kulonga took him to such a poor little village where the negroes lived.The village was hidden in his own jungle, and there was no house in the village bigger than his cabin.This scene made him very disappointed at the time. He saw that these people were more evil than apes and as cruel as Shan Bao.Tarzan no longer respected his kind. Now they had tied the poor man to a big post in the middle of the village, just in front of Kimotoga's thatched hut.The warriors formed a circle around the pillar, jumping and screaming, with gleaming knives and sharp spears in their hands. The women squatted outside in a larger circle, shouting and beating drums.The scene reminded Tarzan of the "Dum-Dum" carnival.Therefore, he knew very well what awaited this prey.He wondered if they were going to eat his flesh alive.Apes don't do that.

The poor captive was terrified out of his wits.The samurai dancing around him danced desperately and savagely to the beat of crazy drums.The circle got smaller and smaller, and after a while someone stabbed the victim, which was a signal to the other fifty warriors. Eyes, ears, arms and legs had all been pierced with spears.Every inch of that poor naked body writhing desperately in infinite pain became the target of assassination by the cruel "Pikeman". Women and children screamed with joy. The warriors licked their ugly lips and waited for the feast to begin, competing with each other in brutality and ferocity, torturing the prisoner who was still unconscious.

At this time, Tarzan the Ape saw his opportunity coming.All eyes were fixed on the horrific sight of the prisoner tied to the post.The twilight was growing, and there was not even a moon in the sky, but a bonfire lit around the revelers, casting flickering light on this restless scene. Tai Shan, who was as light as a swallow, lightly jumped onto the soft soil at the end of the village street. Quickly gather the arrows together.This time he is "connected with the pot".Because he brought several long and strong vines and tied the arrows into a bundle. He wrapped the arrow tightly without hesitation, and was about to walk away when a prank thought rose from the bottom of his heart.He looked around, hoping to find some inspiration to play a joke on this wild, eccentric group of people and make his presence felt again. He put the arrow under the big tree, and crawled forward under the dim shadow of houses on that street, until he reached the thatched hut he had entered during his first "visit" to this village. It was dark in the room, but he quickly found what he was looking for, and without further delay, turned and walked towards the door. But as soon as he took a step, his sharp ears heard the footsteps of someone approaching.In the blink of an eye, the dark figure of a woman blocked the small door of the hut. Tai Shan pulled back silently, pressed against the wall, groped with one hand, and grasped the sharp hunting knife his father left him.The woman quickly walked to the middle of the hut, stopped, and stretched out her hands to grope for something.She was obviously not familiar with the furnishings of this hut.She groped and searched blindly, getting closer and closer to the wall against which Mount Tai was clinging. She was already so close to him, Tai Shan felt the heat of that naked body. The hunting knife she held tightly was lifted up, but the woman turned around and touched it to the other side. She let out an "oh" and finally found what she was looking for. She turned and left the hut at once, and as she went out through the door Tarzan saw that she was holding a cooking pot in her hand. He walked out of the house at her heels, and as he peered out of the shadow of the doorway he saw all the women of the village hurrying to bring pots and pots from their huts.They filled it with water and set it over the piles of fires that were lit beside the pillars.The dying prisoner was hung up, and he was tortured until he was mangled and motionless. Seeing no one around, Taishan hurried to the big tree at the end of the village street. His bundle of arrows lay there.Like last time, he kicked over the pot first, and then jumped up, like a cat, crawling three times and two times to the middle of the lower branches of "King of Trees". Then Taishan climbed up to a very high branch silently, and looked at the scene below through the dense branches and leaves. The women were preparing to cook the captive's meat in a rice cooker.The men were exhausted from the crazy dance just now, and they all stood there to rest.A relative silence fell over the village. Tarzan held up the thing he had stolen from the hut, and threw it at the group of barbaric natives with the perfect skill of throwing wild fruits and coconuts that he had practiced for many years. The thing fell among them, and fell right on the head of one of the warriors.The thing fell to the ground, and then the thing rolled among the women and stopped in front of the half-dead captive. All the people stared at the black thing with wide-eyed panic, and then screamed and fled in all directions towards their hut. The thing turned out to be a human skull, standing on the ground, looking at them with a grin.Such a thing falling from the sky is really an incredible feat, which further increases the superstition and fear of this group of natives. In this way, the ape Tarzan left, but the natives fell into a panic. This strange incident showed more and more that there was some invisible and mysterious power lurking in the forest around their village. When they found that the pot had been kicked over and the arrow had been stolen, they began to think that they must have offended some god by building the village in this jungle and not offering anything for atonement.Since then, they have put some food under the arrow-throwing tree every day to win the favor of the powerful god. But the seeds of fear have been deeply planted, and at the same time, Taishan has also planted the root of many sufferings for himself and the tribe in the future.It's just that he doesn't know it yet. That night, he slept in the forest not far from the village.The next morning, I walked slowly along the way home, looking for food while walking.But only berries, earthworms and the like were found.He was so hungry that he ran under a log and rummaged around, looking for something to eat.As he was looking for it, he heard a chattering voice, raised his head suddenly, and saw the lioness Shan Bao standing in the middle of the path twenty steps away from him. He saw Shan Bao squatting there, with a pair of big yellow eyes shining with evil light, staring straight at him.With a red tongue licking her hungry lips, her belly was on the ground, and she approached him furtively. Taishan didn't want to run away.Now he was armed with more than just a straw rope.He welcomed the encounter.In fact, he has been looking for Lao Shanbao these days. He quickly picked up his bow and set up an arrow, and the moment Shan Bao rushed over, the poisonous arrow hit it in mid-air.At the same time, the ape Tarzan dodged suddenly, before the huge monster landed and stood still, the second poisonous arrow shot deeply into Shanbao's skin. The giant beast roared, turned and swooped again.Taishan shot the third arrow, which hit one of its eyes.But this time Shanbao was too close to him, and he had no time to get away from the giant lion that was pounced on him. The ape Taishan was crushed by Shanbao's huge body.He drew out his hunting knife and stabbed with all his strength.They lay on the ground for a while, and gradually Tarzan realized that the huge thing that was crushing him had no strength left to hurt man or ape. He climbed out from under the giant lion with great difficulty, straightened his waist, looked at the booty on the ground, and a burst of ecstasy welled up in his heart. He raised his chest, put one foot on the corpse of his mighty old opponent, threw back his beautiful head, and uttered the terrible cry of a great ape when he was victorious, challenging nature. The forest resounded with a savage, triumphal song of triumph.The little birds perched on the branches held their voices, and the bigger beasts also slipped away.No one in the jungle wants to bother with such a tall and strong ape. In London, another Lord Greystoke addressed his colleagues in the House of Lords.No one trembled from his limp voice. Shanbao's meat is bland and tasteless, even for Tarzan the ape, it is a bit hard to swallow.But he was hungry, and after a while, Taishan ate his stomach to the full.He wanted to have a good night's sleep, but first he had to peel off Shanbao's skin. He had already practiced his unique skills, so he peeled off the huge lion skin in the blink of an eye.Then he hung it on the branch of a big tree, curled up by himself, and fell asleep.Soon fell into a deep sleep without even having a dream. Lack of sleep, exhaustion, and "satisfaction with meat and food", Taishan slept until noon the next day.He jumped down from the tree and went straight to eat Shanbao's meat, only to find to his chagrin that the hungry animals in the forest had already gnawed it down to a skeleton. Taishan walked in the woods for about half an hour and saw a small deer.Before the little thing could see that the enemy was close at hand, an arrow shot it in the neck. The poison on the arrow took effect so quickly that the fawn fell dead in the bushes before running ten paces.Taishan had another good meal, but this time he didn't sleep. He hurried to the place where he left the tribe two days before, and after finding his companions, he showed them the lioness Shan Bao's skin very proudly. "Look," he cried, "Apes of the Kochak tribe, look what Tarzan the Great Slayer has done! Which of you has killed the subjects of Numa? Tarzan is the greatest of you. For Tarzan is not Ape, Taishan is..." He stopped talking here.Because there is no word for "human" in ape language, and Taishan can only write this word in English, and does not know how to pronounce it. The members of the tribe gathered around, listening to his speech, and looking at this lion skin that proved his bravery and fearlessness. Only Kochak, tormented by hatred and rage, wandered alone in the background. Suddenly something flashed through his evil little ape-like brain, and the giant beast gave a loud cry and jumped into the group of apes. He opened his dancing claws, scratching and biting, and before the bewildered apes escaped to the tree branches on a higher level in the forest, he had killed and injured more than a dozen of them. Kochak was foaming at the mouth with anger, screamed like crazy, looked around, looking for the Tarzan he hated to the bone, and finally saw the young man sitting very leisurely on a branch not too far away. "Come down, Tarzan, great killer!" growled Kochak, "come down, and taste the sharp teeth of a killer greater than yourself! Do invincible fighters run for trees at the first sight of danger?" Then, Kochak Chuck challenged Tarzan by cursing a series of the most vicious words of his tribe. Taishan jumped to the ground without a sound.All the tribe members held their breath and watched nervously from the tall branches that sheltered them.The giant ape Kochak roared angrily, and swooped towards the little Tarzan who seemed to be "dwarfed by comparison". Kochak stands seven feet tall despite his short legs.He is muscular, with big shoulders and a round waist. An iron-hard lump protrudes from the back of his short neck, almost covering his entire head.As a result, his head looks like a small ball growing out of a giant "mountain of meat." He parted his fat lips and growled, revealing his sloppy teeth, and a pair of vicious small bloodshot eyes gleamed, reflecting his anger and madness. Tarzan stood there waiting.Although he was strong and strong, his six-foot body with bulging muscles seemed not enough to deal with the fierce battle in front of him. When he showed Shanbao's skin to his friends just now, he left the bow and arrows there and confiscated them.Therefore, now only rely on the pig knife and wisdom to counteract the terrible strength of the opponent. As the enemy came roaring and rushing, Lord Greystoke drew the slender knife from its scabbard, and answered his call with a hideous, creepy cry, like that of the great beast that had come upon him. challenge, while leaping nimbly to meet his attacks.Dexterously, he dodged the two hairy arms that tried to hold him, and before the two bodies collided, Tarzan grabbed Kochak's wrists, dodged, and stabbed the knife in below his heart. Before he could draw the knife out, the great ape, with its terrible arms outstretched and rushing to strangle him, snatched the knife from Tarzan's hand. Kochak opened his big hand and slapped the top of the "human ape" violently.If this palm hits, it will definitely smash half of Taishan's head. Tai Shan lowered his head abruptly, dodging the terrible palm, then clenched his iron fist tightly, and hit Kochak in the heart. Kochak staggered, barely able to hold on from the fatal stab in the stomach.But he struggled desperately, holding on for a while, freed an arm from Tarzan's grasp, and wrestled with the slender opponent. He hugged Taishan tightly, opened his bloody mouth, and wanted to bite his throat, but the young lord didn't wait for the cruel fangs to bite his smooth, dark skin, and tightly clamped Kocha with his big hands like iron clamps. g's neck. They fought like this, one wanted to kill the other with terrifying sharp teeth; the other stuck the other's windpipe tightly with a strong hand, and tried to avoid the roaring bloody mouth. The giant ape finally gained the upper hand due to its strength, and its mouth full of fangs was only an inch away from Tarzan's throat.However, this huge monster suddenly convulsed, then tilted its body, and fell limply to the ground. Kochak is dead. Tarzan pulled out the hunting knife that often helped him defeat enemies far stronger than himself, and stepped on the neck of the enemy he had eliminated. Once again, the vicious and savage cry of the conqueror resounded in the jungle. In this way, young Lord Greystoke became "King of the Apes".