TEEKA,
           STRETCHED AT luxurious ease
               in the shade
                   of the tropical forest,
         presented,
           unquestionably,
         a most alluring
               picture of young,
           feminine loveliness.

    Or at least so
          thought Tarzan of the Apes,
           who squatted
               upon a low-swinging branch
                   in a near-by tree and
              looked down upon her.

    Just to have
          seen him there,
           lolling upon the swaying bough
               of the jungle-forest giant,
         his brown skin mottled
               by the brilliant equatorial sunlight
              which percolated
                   through the leafy canopy
                       of green
                   above him,
           his clean-limbed body
              relaxed in graceful ease,
         his shapely head partly
              turned in contemplative absorption
                   and his intelligent,
           gray eyes dreamily
              devouring the object
                   of their devotion,
         you would have thought
               him the
             reincarnation
                of some demigod of old.

    You would not have guessed
         that in infancy
           he had
              suckled at the breast
                   of a hideous,
           hairy she-ape,
         nor that
               in all his conscious past
             since his parents
                had passed
                      away in the little cabin
                       by the landlocked harbor
                           at the jungle's verge,
           he had
              known no other associates
                   than the sullen bulls
                       and the snarling cows
                           of the tribe of Kerchak,
         the great ape.

    Nor,
           could you
              have read the thoughts
            which passed through
             that active,
         healthy brain,
           the longings
               and desires and aspirations
              which the sight
                   of Teeka inspired,
         would you
              have been any more inclined
                  to give credence
                       to the reality
                           of the origin
                         of the ape-man.

    For,
           from his thoughts alone,
         you could never
              have gleaned the truth
          --that he
            had been born
                to a gentle English
                         lady or
             that his sire
                had been an English nobleman
                       of time-honored lineage.

    Lost to Tarzan
           of the Apes
        was the truth
               of his origin.

    That he was John Clayton,
           Lord Greystoke,
         with a seat
               in the House of Lords,
           he did not know,
         nor,
           knowing,
         would have understood.

    Yes,
           Teeka was indeed beautiful!

    Of course Kala
        had been beautiful
         --one's mother is always that--
           but Teeka
            was beautiful
                   in a way
                       all her own,
           an indescribable sort of way
              which Tarzan
                was just
                      beginning to sense in a
                           rather vague and hazy manner.

    For years
        had Tarzan and Teeka
            been play-fellows,
           and Teeka still continued
              to be playful
             while the young bulls
                   of her own age
                were rapidly
                      becoming surly and morose.

    Tarzan,
           if he
            gave the matter much
                  thought at all,
         probably reasoned
             that his growing attachment
                   for the young female
                could be easily
                      accounted for by the fact
             that of the former playmates
               she and
             he alone
                  retained any desire
                      to frolic as of old.

    But today,
           as he sat
             gazing upon her,
         he found himself
              noting the beauties
                   of Teeka's form and features
          --something he never
            had done before,
           since none of them
            had aught
              to do with Teeka's ability
                  to race nimbly
                       through the lower terraces
                           of the forest
                         in the primitive games
                               of tag
                             and hide-and-go-seek
              which Tarzan's fertile brain evolved.

    Tarzan scratched his head,
           running his fingers deep
               into the shock
                   of black hair
              which framed his shapely,
         boyish face
          --he scratched
               his head and sighed.

    Teeka's new-found beauty
        became as suddenly his despair.

    He envied
           her the handsome coat
         of hair
          which covered her body.

    His own smooth,
           brown hide
             he hated
                   with a hatred born of
                  disgust and contempt.

    Years back
         he had harbored a hope
           that some day he,
           too,
         would be
              clothed in hair as
            were all his brothers
                   and sisters;