vering the
havoc and disaster which had befallen the estate of his dead master.

The ape-man eyed the blacks with curiosity. In the back of his brain
loitered a fleeting sense of familiarity with all that he saw, yet he
could not connect any of the various forms of life, animate and
inanimate, which had fallen within the range of his vision since he had
emerged from the darkness of the pits of Opar, with any particular
event of the past.

Hazily he recalled a grim and hideous form, hairy, ferocious. A vague
tenderness dominated his savage sentiments as this phantom memory
struggled for recognition. His mind had reverted to his childhood
days--it was the figure of the giant she-ape, Kala, that he saw; but
only half recognized. He saw, too, other grotesque, manlike forms.
They were of Terkoz, Tublat, Kerchak, and a smaller, less ferocious
figure, that was Neeta, the little playmate of his boyhood.

Slowly, very slowly, as these visions of the past animated his
lethargic memory, he came to recognize them. They took definite shape
and form, adjusting themselves nicely to the various incidents of his
life with which they had been intimately connected. His boyhood among
the apes spread itself in a slow panorama before him, and as it
unfolded it induced within him a mighty longing for the companionship
of the shaggy, low-browed brutes of his past.

He watched the blacks scatter their cook fire and depart; but though
the face of each of them had but recently been as familiar to him as
his own, they awakened within him no recollections whatsoever.

When they had gone, he descended from the tree and sought food. Out
upon the plain grazed numerous herds of wild ruminants. Toward a
sleek, fat bunch of zebra he wormed his stealthy way. No intricate
process of reasoning caused him to circle widely until he was down wind
from his prey--he acted instinctively. He took advantage of every form
of cover as he crawled upon all fours and often flat upon his stomach
toward them.

A plump young mare and a fat stallion grazed nearest to him as he
neared the herd. Again it was instinct which selected the former for
his meat. A low bush grew but a few yards from the unsuspecting two.
The ape-man reached its shelter. He gathered his spear firmly in his
grasp. Cautiously he drew his feet beneath him. In a single swift
move he rose and cast his heavy weapon at the mare's side. Nor did he
wait to note the effect of his assault