close against her.
When Tarzan returned from his hunting a short time later it was to see
Teeka contentedly scratching the back of his rival.

Tarzan was disgusted. Neither Taug nor Teeka saw him as he swung
through the trees into the glade. He paused a moment, looking at them;
then, with a sorrowful grimace, he turned and faded away into the
labyrinth of leafy boughs and festooned moss out of which he had come.

Tarzan wished to be as far away from the cause of his heartache as he
could. He was suffering the first pangs of blighted love, and he
didn't quite know what was the matter with him. He thought that he was
angry with Taug, and so he couldn't understand why it was that he had
run away instead of rushing into mortal combat with the destroyer of
his happiness.

He also thought that he was angry with Teeka, yet a vision of her many
beauties persisted in haunting him, so that he could only see her in
the light of love as the most desirable thing in the world.

The ape-boy craved affection. From babyhood until the time of her
death, when the poisoned arrow of Kulonga had pierced her savage heart,
Kala had represented to the English boy the sole object of love which
he had known.

In her wild, fierce way Kala had loved her adopted son, and Tarzan had
returned that love, though the outward demonstrations of it were no
greater than might have been expected from any other beast of the
jungle. It was not until he was bereft of her that the boy realized
how deep had been his attachment for his mother, for as such he looked
upon her.

In Teeka he had seen within the past few hours a substitute for
Kala--someone to fight for and to hunt for--someone to caress; but now
his dream was shattered. Something hurt within his breast. He placed
his hand over his heart and wondered what had happened to him. Vaguely
he attributed his pain to Teeka. The more he thought of Teeka as he
had last seen her, caressing Taug, the more the thing within his breast
hurt him.

Tarzan shook his head and growled; then on and on through the jungle he
swung, and the farther he traveled and the more he thought upon his
wrongs, the nearer he approached becoming an irreclaimable misogynist.

Two days later he was still hunting alone--very morose and very
unhappy; but he was determined never to return to the tribe. He could
not bear the thought of seeing Taug and Teeka always together. As he
swung upon a great limb Numa, the lion, an