She made the leap successfully, but as she grasped the limb
of the further tree the sudden jar loosened the hold of the
tiny babe where it clung frantically to her neck, and she saw
the little thing hurled, turning and twisting, to the ground
thirty feet below.
With a low cry of dismay Kala rushed headlong to its side,
thoughtless now of the danger from Kerchak; but when she
gathered the wee, mangled form to her bosom life had left it.
With low moans, she sat cuddling the body to her; nor did
Kerchak attempt to molest her. With the death of the babe his
fit of demoniacal rage passed as suddenly as it had seized him.
Kerchak was a huge king ape, weighing perhaps three hundred
and fifty pounds. His forehead was extremely low and receding,
his eyes bloodshot, small and close set to his coarse, flat
nose; his ears large and thin, but smaller than most of his kind.
His awful temper and his mighty strength made him supreme
among the little tribe into which he had been born some
twenty years before.
Now that he was in his prime, there was no simian in all the
mighty forest through which he roved that dared contest his
right to rule, nor did the other and larger animals molest him.
Old Tantor, the elephant, alone of all the wild savage life,
feared him not--and he alone did Kerchak fear. When Tantor
trumpeted, the great ape scurried with his fellows high
among the trees of the second terrace.
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