D'Arnot turned on his side and closed his eyes. He did not
wish to die; but he felt that he was going, for the fever was
mounting higher and higher. That night he lost consciousness.
For three days he was in delirium, and Tarzan sat beside
him and bathed his head and hands and washed his wounds.
On the fourth day the fever broke as suddenly as it had
come, but it left D'Arnot a shadow of his former self, and
very weak. Tarzan had to lift him that he might drink from
the gourd.
The fever had not been the result of infection, as D'Arnot
had thought, but one of those that commonly attack whites in
the jungles of Africa, and either kill or leave them as
suddenly as D'Arnot's had left him.
Two days later, D'Arnot was tottering about the amphitheater,
Tarzan's strong arm about him to keep him from falling.
They sat beneath the shade of a great tree, and Tarzan
found some smooth bark that they might converse.
D'Arnot wrote the first message:
What can I do to repay you for all that you have done for me?
And Tarzan, in reply:
Teach me to speak the language of men.
And so D'Arnot commenced at once, pointing out familiar
objects and repeating their names in French, for he thought
that it would be easier to teach this man his own language,
since he understood it himself best of all.
It meant nothing to Tarzan, of course, for he could not tell
one language from another, so when he pointed to the word
man which he had printed upon a piece of bark he learned
from D'Arnot that it was pronounced HOMME, and in the
same way he was taught to pronounce ape, SINGE and tree,
ARBRE.
Pages:
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285