Apelike he
ascended, following easily the scent spoor of Pan-at-lee. Over the
summit and across the ridge the trail lay, plain as a printed page
to the delicate senses of the jungle-bred tracker.
Tarzan knew naught of the Kor-ul-gryf. He had seen, dimly in the
shadows of the night, strange, monstrous forms and Ta-den and Om-at
had spoken of great creatures that all men feared; but always,
everywhere, by night and by day, there were dangers. From infancy
death had stalked, grim and terrible, at his heels. He knew little
of any other existence. To cope with danger was his life and he
lived his life as simply and as naturally as you live yours amidst
the dangers of the crowded city streets. The black man who goes
abroad in the jungle by night is afraid, for he has spent his life
since infancy surrounded by numbers of his own kind and safeguarded,
especially at night, by such crude means as lie within his powers.
But Tarzan had lived as the lion lives and the panther and the
elephant and the ape--a true jungle creature dependent solely upon
his prowess and his wits, playing a lone hand against creation.
Therefore he was surprised at nothing and feared nothing and so he
walked through the strange night as undisturbed and unapprehensive
as the farmer to the cow lot in the darkness before the dawn.
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