d a
good-natured playmate even at an age when other shes of the tribe of
Kerchak had assumed the sullen dignity of maturity. She yet retained
her childish delight in the primitive games of tag and hide-and-go-seek
which Tarzan's fertile man-mind had evolved.

To play tag through the tree tops is an exciting and inspiring pastime.
Tarzan delighted in it, but the bulls of his childhood had long since
abandoned such childish practices. Teeka, though, had been keen for it
always until shortly before the baby came; but with the advent of her
first-born, even Teeka changed.

The evidence of the change surprised and hurt Tarzan immeasurably. One
morning he saw Teeka squatted upon a low branch hugging something very
close to her hairy breast--a wee something which squirmed and wriggled.
Tarzan approached filled with the curiosity which is common to all
creatures endowed with brains which have progressed beyond the
microscopic stage.

Teeka rolled her eyes in his direction and strained the squirming mite
still closer to her. Tarzan came nearer. Teeka drew away and bared
her fangs. Tarzan was nonplussed. In all his experiences with Teeka,
never before had she bared fangs at him other than in play; but today
she did not look playful. Tarzan ran his brown fingers through his
thick, black hair, cocked his head upon one side, and stared. Then he
edged a bit nearer, craning his neck to have a better look at the thing
which Teeka cuddled.

Again Teeka drew back her upper lip in a warning snarl. Tarzan reached
forth a hand, cautiously, to touch the thing which Teeka held, and
Teeka, with a hideous growl, turned suddenly upon him. Her teeth sank
into the flesh of his forearm before the ape-man could snatch it away,
and she pursued him for a short distance as he retreated incontinently
through the trees; but Teeka, carrying her baby, could not overtake
him. At a safe distance Tarzan stopped and turned to regard his
erstwhile play-fellow in unconcealed astonishment. What had happened
to so alter the gentle Teeka? She had so covered the thing in her arms
that Tarzan had not yet been able to recognize it for what it was; but
now, as she turned from the pursuit of him, he saw it. Through his
pain and chagrin he smiled, for Tarzan had seen young ape mothers
before. In a few days she would be less suspicious. Still Tarzan was
hurt; it was not right that Teeka, of all others, should fear him.
Why, not for the world would he