When they had gone Tarzan looked across
at his companion in misery.
"While there is life," he said, "there is hope," but he grinned as
he voiced the ancient truism.
Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick returned the other's smile.
"I fancy," he said, "that we are getting short on both. It must
be close to supper time now."
Zu-tag hunted alone far from the balance of the tribe of Go-lat,
the great ape. Zu-tag (Big-neck) was a young bull but recently
arrived at maturity. He was large, powerful, and ferocious and at
the same time far above the average of his kind in intelligence as
was denoted by a fuller and less receding forehead. Already Go-lat
saw in this young ape a possible contender for the laurels of his
kingship and consequently the old bull looked upon Zu-tag with
jealousy and disfavor. It was for this reason, possibly, as much
as another that Zu-tag hunted so often alone; but it was his utter
fearlessness that permitted him to wander far afield away from the
protection which numbers gave the great apes. One of the results
of this habit was a greatly increased resourcefulness which found
him constantly growing in intelligence and powers of observation.
Today he had been hunting toward the south and was returning along
the river upon a path he often followed because it led by the
village of the Gomangani whose strange and almost apelike actions
and peculiar manners of living had aroused his interest and curiosity.
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