Chapter 30 Mystery

Amidst the gunshots, D'Arnot saw the door open, and the figure of a man fell face down on the floor of the hut. In a panic, the Frenchman raised his gun and aimed at the person who fell on the ground.But by a faint light from the wide-open door, he saw that it was a white man he had knocked down—Tarzan! With a cry of pain, D'Arnot rushed towards Taishan, knelt down beside him, put his head in his arms, and called out his name. Taishan didn't answer, D'Arnot hurriedly put his ear to his chest, and was pleasantly surprised to find that his heart was still beating vigorously.

He carefully helped Tarzan to the hammock, then closed the door and plugged it in from the inside, lit a lamp, and carefully inspected his wound. The bullet hit the top of the head, and the wound was scary, but it didn't look like it hurt the bones. D'Arnot let out a long sigh of relief, and quickly wiped off the blood on Taishan's face. The cold water quickly revived Taishan, and after a while he opened his eyes and looked at D'Arnot with an inquiring look. D'Arnot wrapped up his wound with cloth strips, saw that Tarzan was fully conscious, got up, went to the desk, and wrote a note, explaining what a terrible mistake he had made, and saying that thank God the injury was not serious .He handed the note to Tarzan.

After reading it, Taishan sat on the edge of the bed and laughed heartily. "It's all right," he said in French.Because I haven't learned any other vocabulary to express my thoughts, I have to write in English: "Scratches are nothing! If you saw how Borgani, Kochak, and Teganz hurt me before I killed them, you should be laughing now." D'Arnot handed him two letters. When Taishan read the first letter, his face was full of regret.For the second letter, he flipped through it for a while, but he couldn't find where to unpack it. He had never seen a sealed letter before.D'Arnot opened it for him and handed him the letter.

Tai Shan sat down on a small mat, spread out the letter paper, and began to read. Tarzan of the Apes: Mr. Clayton has thanked you for your kindness in allowing us to stay in your cottage.Before leaving, let me express my deep gratitude to you again. It is a pity that you have not shown yourself to make friends with us.We really look forward to being able to meet you as the host and thank you in person. There was another man whom I would like to thank, but he did not come back, though I do not believe he is dead. I don't know his name, but he was an otherworldly, amazing white guy.On his breast was a locket studded with diamonds.

If you know him and can speak his language, please thank him for me and tell him that I have been waiting for him for seven days. Tell him that if he will come, he will always be the most welcome guest in my home in America, in Baltimore. I found a note from you in a pile of leaves under a big tree next to the cabin.I don't know how you fell in love with me because you never even spoke to me. If you really love me, it's a shame because I've given my heart to someone else. But please believe me, I will always be your friend. jenny porter Tarzan sat staring at the floor for a full hour.Judging from these two letters, they obviously didn't know that he and Tarzan the ape were actually the same person.

"I've given my heart to someone else," he said over and over. So she doesn't love him at all!What a show she is!Lead him to the peak of hope, and throw him into the abyss of disappointment. Perhaps, though, her kiss was merely a gesture of friendship—he knew too little of human habits to figure out what that meant. He stood up suddenly, said good night to D'Arnot according to the etiquette he had just learned, and then lay down on the fern-covered bed where Jenny Potter had slept. D'Arnot put out the light and lay down in the hammock. For a whole week, they did almost nothing but rest.

D'Arnot taught Tarzan French.By the end of the week, the two were quite comfortable talking. One night, as they were sitting in the hut before going to bed, Tarzan turned suddenly and asked D'Arnot: "Where is America?" Diano waited and pointed to the northwest. "Thousands of miles across the ocean," he replied, "what do you ask?" "I'm going there." D'Arnot shook his head. "Impossible, my friend," he said. Taishan stood up, walked to a cupboard, and took out a geography book that he often read. He turned to a world map and said:

"I have never understood what this means, please explain to me." Dianot told him that the blue part represents all the water on the earth, and the other colors represent the continents and islands.Tarzan asks him to show him where they are now. D'Arnot pointed to him. "Now show me where America is," said Tarzan. D'Arnot pointed to North America with one finger.Taishan looked at it, smiled and put his palm on that page, "across" the entire Atlantic Ocean, connecting two continents. "Do you think it's far away?" He said, "It's not out of my palm yet."

D'Arnot laughed while thinking about how to explain it so that he could understand the meaning of the map. He picked up a pencil and marked a dot on the coast of Africa. "This dot represents territory on the map," he said. "I don't know how many times larger than your cabin occupies on the earth. Now you can see how far we are from America?" Taishan thought for a long time. "Are there white people living in Africa?" he asked. "Have." "Where is the nearest place to live?" D'Arnot pointed at the coastline to the north of them.

"So close?" Tai Shan asked in surprise. "Yes," D'Arnot said, "but it's not really close." "Do they have ships across the ocean?" "Yes!" "We will go tomorrow." Taishan solemnly announced. D'Arnot smiled and shook his head again. "It's too far away. Before we get there, we will die of exhaustion and starvation." "Are you willing to stay here forever?" Tarzan asked. "Of course not." D'Arnot replied. "To-morrow, then, we're going. I don't want to be here for a minute. Yes, I'd rather die than be here."

"Okay," D'Arnot shrugged, "I'm not sure about this. But, like you, I'd rather die than stay here any longer.If you want to go, I will go with you. " "It is thus decided," said Tarzan, "that I shall set off for America tomorrow." "But how can you go to the United States without money?" D'Arnot asked. "What is money?" Taishan asked. It took him a long time to figure it out. "How can I get money?" he asked again. "Earn by working." "Great, then I'll work and earn." "No, my friend," replied D'Arnot, "you have no need to worry about money, and you have no need to work to earn money. I have enough money for both of us, and even twenty people to go to America. .and enough money to last a few lifetimes alone. Once you're back in civilization, you'll have what you want." So the next day they walked north along the coast, each of them carrying a rifle with a lot of bullets besides bedding, dry food, and cooking utensils. That set of cooking utensils was the most useless burden in Taishan's eyes, so he threw it away. "But you must eat cooked food, my friend," D'Arnot advised. "Civilized people don't eat raw meat." "In a civilized society, there is plenty of time to eat cooked food." Taishan said, "I don't like cooked food, which destroys the freshness of the meat."' They walked north for a whole month, sometimes finding plenty of food, and sometimes starving for days. They did not run into the local natives, nor were they attacked by wild animals.It was a miracle that the trip was safe and sound. Taishan asked many questions and learned very quickly.D'Arnot taught him the habits of the society, even the usage of knives and forks.But Taishan often threw away those useless things in disgust, and stretched out his dark, thick hands to grab food, tearing the meat with his molars like a wild animal. D'Arnot persuaded him: "I'm trying to teach you to be a civilized person. You can't eat like a beast, Tarzan. My God, people of status can't do this, it's too terrible." With a rather timid grin, Tarzan picked up the knife and fork, which he hated in his heart. On the way he told D'Arnot how he had seen the sailors bury the great chest, and how he dug it up and hid it in the "little stage" where the apes gathered. "This must be Professor Porter's treasure chest." D'Arnot said, "Too bad! But . . . of course you don't know anything about it." Tarzan remembered the letter Jenny wrote to her friend—the letter he had peeked at when they first moved into the hut, and he suddenly understood what was in the box and what these things meant to Jenny's fate. "We'll go back and get it tomorrow." He announced to D'Arnot solemnly. "Go back?" exclaimed D'Arnot. "My dear friend, we have been walking for three weeks. Going back means walking for another three weeks. Besides, you didn't say that the box was so heavy that it took four sailors to carry it." Can it be moved? It took us months and we couldn't get it up here." "However, this matter must be done, my friend." Tarzan insisted, "You can continue to the civilized world, and I will go back to get the treasure alone. It will be much faster if I go alone." "I came up with a good idea, Tarzan." D'Arnot shouted happily, "Let's go forward together, and when we reach the nearest village, we'll hire a boat and go back by sea to get the box of treasures. It's also easy to carry. All in all, my plan is safe, fast, and doesn't require us to be separated. What do you think?" "Very good," said Tarzan, "we can get the treasure in the box later. If I go to get it now, I will catch up with you in a month or two. In fact, I left you alone on the road. My heart will not be at peace. Diarnot, sometimes I see you look so weak and incompetent, I wonder why after such a long time as you said, human beings have not been wiped out? You see, Lao Shanbao, single-handedly It can eat a thousand people of your size." D'Arnot laughed out loud. "When you see our mighty armies and navies, our bustling cities, our great factories for making machines, you will be proud of your fellow man. You will realize that it is the mind, not the muscles, that makes man stronger than those in the jungle. A strong beast is ten thousand times greater! "Only an unarmed, single man is no match for any beast. If ten men together, they will unite their wits and strength against a murderous foe. Beasts, because they have no reason, can never unite with men. Go against it. Otherwise, Tarzan, how can you live with the beasts to this day?" "You are quite right, D'Arnot," replied Tarzan, "if Kochak had gone to help Tarbrandt on the day of Dum-Dum, I would have died. But It would never have occurred to Kochak to take advantage of this opportunity to eliminate his opponent. Not even my mother Carla would have thought about a problem beforehand. She would eat something only when she needed it. Even When food was so hard to find, she found enough to last several meals, and she didn't know how to store it. "I remember when I was 'moving house', she saw that I was always carrying extra food and said I was stupid. However, when there was no food on the way, she still happily shared my things." "So, you know your mother, Tarzan?" D'Arnot asked in surprise. "Yes. She's a beautiful ape, bigger than me and more than twice my weight." "Where's your father?" D'Arnot asked. "I don't know. Carla told me he was a white ape, hairless like me. Now I think he must be a white man." D'Arnot gazed long and intently at his companion. "Tarzan," he said at last, "this Callaway pair cannot be your mother. If there is such a thing—and I am naturally skeptical—you must have inherited something from the apes in your character, temperament, or otherwise. But you don't have the slightest trace of heredity.You're a complete human being, and I must say, your parents must have been well educated and quite intelligent. Don't you have a clue about the past? " "Not at all," replied Tarzan. "Is there any written material in the hut that can tell us a little bit about the previous owner's experience?" "I've read everything in the hut except for a notebook. Now that I think about it, the things said in this notebook must have been written down in a language other than English. Maybe you can understand it." Tarzan took out the black leather notebook from his quiver and handed it to D'Arnot. D'Arnot glanced at the title page and said: "This is the diary of John Clayton, Lord Greystoke. He is an English nobleman.The diary is written in French. " Then he started talking about the diary he wrote twenty years ago.This diary records in detail the story we already know—the perils, hardships, and pains of John Clayton and his wife Alice.From leaving England to the hour before Clayton was killed by Kirchak. D'Arnot read aloud.The sadness and disappointment soaked between the lines made him feel his throat tightened from time to time, and he couldn't continue reading with sobs. He glanced at Tarzan now and then.The "man-ape" squatted there like a statue, with a pair of eyes staring straight at the grass under his feet. Only when the child is mentioned, the tone of the diary is no longer so sad and desperate.This change gradually occurred two months after they went ashore. Since then, the diary has been shrouded in a faint color of happiness, but it looks even more sad. There is a passage that is almost full of hope and confidence: Today, our little boy turns six months.I was writing in my diary, and Alice was sitting at the table with him in his arms.He was a happy, healthy, very beautiful boy. Suddenly, somehow, it seemed to me that he had grown up and taken my father's place in the world—a second John Clayton.He will be a great addition to the Greystoke family. I write here, as if to prove my premonition, to assure me of some kind, his chubby little hands snatched my pen, and pressed his ink-stained fingers on the page, leaving five small Small finger prints. On the margin of the page, there were indeed four faint and extremely small finger prints, and a half thumb print. After D'Arnot finished reading the diary, the two sat silently for a while. "Ah, Tarzan the Ape, what do you think of this matter?" D'Arnot asked, "Can't this diary explain your life experience? "Why don't you understand, you are Lord Greystoke!" Taishan shook his head. "There is only one child mentioned in the diary," he replied, "but he had long since died of starvation. His skeleton was from the time I first entered the cabin until Professor Porter put him in with his parents." On the beach next to the hut, has been lying in that cradle. "Of course, he is the kid mentioned in the diary. Recently, I have been thinking that maybe that hut is my birthplace, and now I am getting more and more confused. Looking at it now, maybe Carla is telling the truth." He said It is sad to come to such a conclusion. D'Arnot shook his head.Taishan's conclusion could not convince him.He was determined to prove his theory correct.Because he has obtained the only key that can solve the mystery of Taishan's life and death. A week later, the two of them suddenly came to a clearing in the woods. There are several houses here, surrounded by a strong fence.From where they stood to the fence was a well-cultivated field where some niggers were working. Tarzan and D'Arnot stopped at the edge of the jungle. Tai Shan took the bow and set the arrow, and D'Arnot quickly grabbed his arm. "What are you going to do, Tarzan?" he asked. "If they see it, they will kill us," replied Tarzan, "I would rather kill them first." "But these people may be our friends," D'Arnot said. "They are negroes," replied Tarzan. He drew the bow again. "You mustn't do that, Tarzan!" cried D'Arnot. "We can't just kill people. My God, you have so much to learn. "It seems that I took you to Paris, to pity the rascals who offended you. My hands are always on your neck, lest you go to the guillotine."' Taishan put down the bow in his hand and laughed. "I don't understand why it's okay to kill niggers in my jungle, but not here. If Numa the lion lion comes at us, should I say to him, 'Good morning, Mr. Numa. Mrs. Numa.' How?' Really?" D'Arnot replied: "It's not too late to kill these black people until they come to you. Remember, don't think that anyone is against you until their own actions prove that they are your enemies." "Come then," said Tarzan, "let us meet death." He walked straight to the fields as he spoke, head held high, the tropical sun shining on his smooth skin. Glittering on dark skin. D'Arnot followed Tarzan in the rags Clayton had left in the cabin—the officers of the French cruiser had given him a more respectable suit. One of the Negroes looked up, saw Tarzan suddenly, and screamed, turned and ran for the fence. Immediately, the group of garden workers fled in all directions, screaming in terror. But before anyone could get to the fence, a white man stepped out of the fence with a gun in his hand, and asked about the cause of the confusion. The man saw D'Arnot and Tarzan and immediately raised his gun.Tai Shan felt cold, and was about to rush over, when D'Arnot shouted loudly to the white man holding his rifle: "Don't shoot, we're friends!" "Then stop!" "Stay still, Tarzan!" cried D'Arnot, "he thinks we are his enemies." Tai Shan stopped the steps that were about to rush up, and walked towards the white man standing at the door together with Dianot. The man looked at them in astonishment, with a look of bewilderment on his face. "Who are you?" he asked in French. "White people," D'Arnot replied, "we walked for a long time in the jungle because we lost our way." The man put down his rifle and walked towards them with a hand outstretched. "I am Father Constantine, the French parish priest here," he said. "It is a great pleasure to meet you." "This is Mr. Tarzan, Father Constantine." D'Arnault pointed to Tarzan the ape.The priest held out a hand to Tarzan.D'Arnot quickly added: "I am Paul D'Arnot from the French Navy." Constantine took Tarzan's outstretched hand, following his example.Tarzan glanced at the tall, handsome priest with longing and enthusiasm. In this way, Taishan came to the first window of civilized society. They stayed here for a week.The ape Tarzan has keen observation and industrious thinking, and has learned the way of life of many people.Meanwhile the Negro women made him and Deano each a set of white canvas suits so they could continue their travels in dignity.