Along the verge of the
forest upon the southeastern side of the gorge he sought some point
at which the trees touched some negotiable portion of the cliff,
but though he traveled far both up and down the gorge he discovered
no such easy avenue of escape. The ape-man finally commenced to
entertain an idea of the hopelessness of his case and to realize
to the full why the Kor-ul-gryf had been religiously abjured by
the races of Pal-ul-don for all these many ages.
Night was falling and though since early morning he had sought
diligently a way out of this cul-de-sac he was no nearer to liberty
than at the moment the first bellowing gryf had charged him as he
stooped over the carcass of his kill: but with the falling of night
came renewed hope for, in common with the great cats, Tarzan was,
to a greater or lesser extent, a nocturnal beast. It is true he
could not see by night as well as they, but that lack was largely
recompensed for by the keenness of his scent and the highly developed
sensitiveness of his other organs of perception. As the blind follow
and interpret their Braille characters with deft fingers, so Tarzan
reads the book of the jungle with feet and hands and eyes and ears
and nose; each contributing its share to the quick and accurate
translation of the text.
But again he was doomed to be thwarted by one vital weakness--he
did not know the gryf, and before the night was over he wondered if
the things never slept, for wheresoever he moved they moved also,
and always they barred his road to liberty.
Pages:
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130