Home Categories foreign novel Tarzan of the Apes Series Ⅰ Tarzan is Born

Chapter 23 Jenny was robbed-2

He took out one and wrote under Jenny's signature: I am Tarzan of the Apes. He thought that would be enough.After a while, he sent the letter back to the hut. Regarding the issue of food, Taishan thought, they don't have to worry about it, he will guarantee the supply. On the third morning, Jenny found that the letter she had lost the night before had been put back where it had been.Jenny was puzzled.But when she saw the printed line under her signature, a cool air flowed through her body.She showed Clayton the letter, or only the last page with her signature. "To think of it," she said, "perhaps this mysterious fellow has been hiding and peeping while I'm writing. Oh, I'm shaking just thinking about it!"

"However, he must be very friendly," Clayton reassured. "He returned your letter without doing you any harm. Besides, last night he left a solid proof of his friendship outside the cabin door." What's there—I saw a wild bear at the door when I went out just now." From then on, almost every day, Taishan would send them some game or other food.Sometimes it was a fawn, sometimes a bear, a leopard, and once even a lion.Sometimes some strange cooked food is also sent, cassava cakes stolen from Mubenja's village. Because Taishan hunted game for these strangers, he felt that life was full of joy.In his opinion, there is no greater joy in the world than working for the happiness and safety of this white girl.

He wished he could one day walk into their "bivouac" in broad daylight and talk through them with the little beetle he was all familiar with. But he found it difficult to overcome the shyness and timidity common to all wild animals in the forest.Therefore, day after day passed, and he still failed to fulfill his wish. The few people living in the hut became more and more courageous because they gradually became familiar with the surrounding environment, and they went farther and farther when they went to the dense forest to look for walnuts and wild fruits. Because Professor Porter was so preoccupied, he almost never spent a day wandering around in the jungle, or wandering under the jaws of death.Mr. Samuel Philander, who had never been strong, was getting thinner and thinner.In order to protect the safety of the professor, he was in a state of endless anxiety and disturbance, and made great efforts.

A month has passed.Taishan finally made up his mind to visit the "camp" during the day. It was one afternoon, and Clayton went to the headland at the mouth of the harbor again, looking out to sea to see if there were any passing ships.There he prepared a large pile of wood.As soon as a ship or sailboat appears where the water and the sky meet, light it up immediately to attract their attention. Professor Porter walked along the beach to the south of the "bivouac", and Mr. Philander took his arm, persuading him to turn around and go back to "home" before he became the object of some beast's entertainment.

Jenny and Esmeralda went to the forest to pick berries.In order to find fruit, they went farther and farther away from the hut. Taishan waited silently at the door of the hut, thinking only of the beautiful white girl.Now, he only thinks about her all the time.He wondered if she was afraid of him.And it was this suspicion that made him change his plans to visit them several times. He soon grew impatient.He hoped that she would come back quickly, feast his eyes upon seeing her beauty, he hoped that he could get close to her, even touch her.The ape did not know of a god, but he worshiped this "fairy" as much as any mortal worshiped a god.

To pass the time, he wrote her a letter while he was waiting for her.Whether he wanted to give her the letter or not, he couldn't say for himself.But he felt infinite joy in seeing his thoughts expressed in words.Because in this letter, after all, he is not so savage, so stupid.He wrote: I am Tarzan of the Apes.I miss you.You are mine and I am yours.We live together forever, in my cabin.I will bring you the most delicious wild fruit, the most tender venison, and the most beautiful game in the forest.I will hunt for you.I am the greatest fighter in the jungle.I will fight for you.Your name is Jenny Porter.I know it from your letter.When you read this letter, you will understand that it is for you.Tarzan loves you.

After writing the note, he stood erect at the door like a young Indian, waiting.Suddenly, his sharp ears heard a familiar voice.He heard a great ape swinging through the lower branches of the wood. As he listened intently, a woman's scream sounded from the Twilight Grove.Tarzan the ape threw his first love letter on the ground, and flew into the forest like a leopard. Clayton heard the scream too.After a while, Professor Porter and Mr. Philander also ran back out of breath.As they approached the hut, they greeted each other loudly and asked each other anxiously what was the matter.But a mere glance into the room confirmed the worst expectations.

Jenny and Esmeralda were not in the house. Clayton immediately ran to the dense forest, followed by two old men, calling the girl's name loudly.They staggered about in the forest for half an hour, and then, by sheer chance, Clayton saw Esmeralda lying on the ground. He stopped beside her, felt her pulse, listened to her heart, she was still alive.He shook her vigorously. "Esmeralda!" he called into her ear. "Esmeralda, for God's sake, where is Miss Potter? What's the matter, Esmeralda?" Esmeralda slowly opened her eyes, looked at Clayton, and then at the dense jungle around her.

"Oh, my God!" she screamed.Passed out again. "What should we do, Mr. Clayton?" asked the old professor. "Where do we go to find her? God would not be so cruel, take my beloved daughter from me!" "We have to wake Esmeralda up first," Clayton replied. "She can tell us what happened. Esmeralda!" One shoulder shook vigorously. "Oh, great! I want to die!" said the poor woman, closing her eyes tightly. "Go to hell, dear Lord, and don't let me see that terrible face again." "Hey! Hey! Esmeralda!" Clayton yelled.

"The Lord isn't here, it's Mr. Clayton. Open your eyes." Esmeralda opened her eyes. "Oh my God! Thank God," she said. "Where's Miss Potter? What's the matter?" asked Clayton anxiously. "Miss Jeanne is not here?" Esmeralda asked aloud.She got up in a jiffy, that kind of quickness was not commensurate with her big body. "Oh, God! Now I remember!That guy must have taken her. "The black woman wailed loudly, telling the sorrow in her heart. "What guy took him away?" Professor Porter asked anxiously. "A hairy giant."

"Gorilla, is it not, Esmeralda?" asked Mr. Philander.As soon as this terrible thought came out, the three men shuddered and were so frightened that they couldn't even breathe. "I think it's the darn thing. But I guess it must be a male orangutan. Ah, my poor darling, my darling! Esmeralda beat her chest again and burst into tears. Clayton looked around, hoping to find a trace of a gorilla, but he found nothing except that the nearby grass seemed to be trampled and messy.His forest knowledge is pitiful, and he can't even see a little clue. They searched for Jenny in the jungle for the rest of the day, until nightfall, when they had to give up their futile search in resignation and despair.Because they didn't even know which direction the monster that hijacked Jenny was going from. It was dark for a long time before they returned to the "camp".These few sad, suffering people sat silently in the hut. Finally, it was Professor Porter who broke the silence.His tone of voice no longer has the pedantic air of talking about abstract and unknowable theories, but has a firm, heroic energy that is immediately put into action.However, there is still a trace of indescribable sadness and disappointment in the tone.Clayton couldn't help feeling sad when he heard this. "I'll lie down and sleep now," said the old man. "Tomorrow morning, as soon as it's light, I'll take as much food as I can and go on looking for Jenny. I won't come back until I find her." The partners didn't answer right away, they were all lost in their own painful thoughts. Everyone knew--and the old man himself knew--the implication of that last sentence, that Professor Potter would never come back to them from the jungle again. Then Clayton stood up and placed his hand lightly on Professor Porter's old, bowed back. "Of course I'll go with you," he said. "I know you'd like... no, you'd like to go with me, Mr. Clayton. But you mustn't. Jenny can't be rescued by human power now. The problem now is that I must not be allowed to go." The dear little girl lay alone in the dreadful jungle, without a friend by her side. "Let the same vines and leaves cover us, let the same cold rain whip us. When her mother's spirit in heaven comes to seek us, she will find that, as we were together in life, we are in death Together. "Yes, I went to her alone. Because she is my daughter, my only love in this world!" "I'll go with you," Clayton said firmly. The old man raised his head and gazed dreamily at the strong and handsome William Cecil Clayton before him.Maybe he saw the love buried in the young man's heart - adoration for his daughter. In the past, he was too absorbed in his own research on those "academic issues", and he seldom paid attention to the minutiae, just a few words, that showed that the two young people were attracted to each other and became closer day by day.Until now, the details that those careful people should have noticed have emerged one after another before his eyes. "Then do as you please!" he said. "You'll have to count me in," said Mr. Philander. "No, dear old friend," said Mr. Potter, "we cannot all go to her. It would be too cruel to leave poor Esmeralda here alone. Besides, all three of us are present, so the effect is not necessarily better than one. "There are enough lives to be swallowed up in the harsh forest. Well, let's all sleep for a while."
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