"We will take a walk," he said, "and presently the lion will become accustomed to you. Pay no attention to him. Do not touch him, unless he comes and rubs his head against you, which he will not. It is his way of showing affection for me and my family—a mark which he has not bestowed upon others."
"Don't worry," said Dick. "I'll not touch him if I can help it!"
"What does 'Jad-bal-ja' mean?" asked Doc, as the four passed through the gate and out onto the rolling veldt that stretched away to the hills on one side and to the forest and the jungle on the other.
"It is taken from the language of the tailed people of Pal-ul-don," explained Tarzan. "Jad means the; bal is their word for either gold or golden, and ja is lion. I found him, a tiny cub, beside his dead mother, after I had escaped from Pal-ul-don, and was returning home. Even then, he had an unusually golden hue and the language of Pal-ul-don, being fresh in my mind, I named him Jad-bal-ja, The Golden Lion."
As they walked the boys asked a thousand questions which Tarzan answered good-naturedly and to the best of his ability, which was excellent, inasmuch as the boys confined their questions rather closely to Tarzan's life in the jungle, which seemed to them quite the most interesting subject in the world.
"What do you boys want to do?" asked Tarzan. "We have the whole day before us."
"I should like to go into the jungle," said Dick, rather wistfully.
"Me too," said Doc.
"I should think that you boys had had enough of the jungle for a while," laughed the ape-man.
"There is a fascination about it that I cannot explain," replied Dick. "I am afraid of the jungle and yet I want to go back into it."
"I sure like to be in it with you," said Doc, looking adoringly at Tarzan. "How long would it take us to walk over there?"
"About two hours. Could you stand it and the return journey?"
"Could we? I'll say we could," cried Dick.
"How about you, Doc?" demanded Tarzan.
"Sure!"
"All right," said the ape-man, "and if we don't want to come back tonight we don't have to. The jungle gives food and shelter to its people—and freedom. That is why I love it."
"Let's go," said the Tarzan Twins, speaking together almost in the same breath.
Tarzan nodded and led the way.
In high spirits they crossed the veldt, the great lion pacing at the side of its savage master, the two lads drinking in every word of jungle lore that fell from the lips of the ape-man.
Tarzan and the twins wore loin cloths and head bands and carried the simplest and most primitive of weapons—each had a bow and arrows, a spear and a knife. Tarzan, in addition, carried the grass rope that long habit had made almost a part of him.
As the cannibals had stolen the clothing that Dick and Doc had worn when they were captured and as their trunks were still at the rail head, there had really been nothing else for the boys to wear other than the primitive apparel in which they were garbed; but, if the truth were known, they were more than satisfied and would have scorned such symbols of effete civilization as pants and shirts.
Their life with the cannibals and their flight through the jungle had accustomed them to scant attire and had already somewhat hardened their youthful bodies against the rigors of the primeval world that beckoned to them from beyond the borders of the veldt.
With light hearts and eager faces they left the veldt behind and entered the gloomy corridors of the African jungle.
Safe in the companionship of the giant man and the great lion that accompanied them, they were troubled by no fears whatever.
CHAPTER TWO—THE STORM
Deep into the jungle the ape-man led them, while overhead Manu the monkey chattered and scolded, reproaching Tarzan for bringing Numa the lion to disturb his peace; but neither Tarzan nor Jad-bal-ja paid any attention to the little monkey, and now the two boys noticed that Tarzan had grown suddenly silent. He answered their questions shortly or not at all and there was a serious expression upon his face. Often he watched Jad-bal-ja attentively and often he paused to sniff the air or to listen.
Presently he turned to the boys.
"Something is wrong in the jungle," he said. "Jad-bal-ja has sensed it. I do not yet know what it is. Have you noticed that he has become nervous? He has sensed something that even I cannot as yet sense. I think it lies up wind from us and that would be natural since the scent of Jad-bal-ja, the flesh eater, is keen indeed. Remain here with Jad-bal-ja while I go and investigate. It may be nothing. A storm is coming—that I have sensed for the past hour—and it may be only the coming storm that has affected the nerves of the Golden Lion. In the jungle, however, he who would live must know—he may not guess."
The two boys watched the giant ape-man swing away through the lower branches of the jungle trees and a moment later they were alone with the great cat that paced nervously to and fro, occasionally eyeing them through those cruel, round, yellow eyes that looked anything but friendly and reassuring to the twins.
"Gee," said Doc, "I wish Tarzan had taken him along with him."
"He left him here to guard us, you poor ninny," snapped Dick, his tone of voice plainly evidencing his own nervousness.
"All right, but I can't help but remember what he said about him."
"What did he say about him, except that he wouldn't hurt anyone unless Tarzan told him to?" demanded Dick.
"Yes, smarty, but he also said, 'When Tarzan is with him,' but that isn't what I remember most," retorted Doc.
"Well, then, what is it you remember so fine?"
"Tarzan said: 'After all a lion is always a lion!'"
"You would remember something like that!" growled Dick.
"I believe," said Doc, "that I'll just climb this tree for the fun of it."
"Fraidy-cat!"
"Fraidy-cat nothing! I'm not afraid. I just want to practice climbing. You can't ever tell when it will come in handy, especially in the jungle."
"Suppose he doesn't want us to climb?" Dick nodded in the direction of Jad-bal-ja.
"Why shouldn't he want us to climb?" demanded Doc.
"Well, if he's thinking of being a lion, and is hungry, I guess that would be a pretty good reason for him not to want us to climb."
"Who said I could think of things? I never would have thought of anything like that. It took you to do it."
"Oh, any time you weren't thinking of the same thing yourself," scoffed Dick.
"Well, I wasn't thinking it out loud, anyway," retorted Doc.
Dick said no more.
Jad-bal-ja was moving about restlessly. It was quite obvious that he was nervous. His great head erect, his ears up-pricked, he looked off into the jungle in the direction that Tarzan had gone; then he turned and strode a small circle, whining.
Then suddenly the lion's yellow-green eyes fell upon the two boys and he opened his mouth, exposing huge fangs, and voiced a low roar.
"W-what do you suppose he did that for?" whispered Doc.
"Maybe he's just trying to talk to us," suggested Dick.
"I wish I knew whether it was a threat or a promise," said Doc, beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable and painfully uncertain of the future.
"Maybe we had better climb the tree after all," whispered Dick. "Perhaps we could see Tarzan if we climbed high enough."
"You go first," said Doc.
"No," expostulated Dick. "You go first—it was your idea."
"But if he saw me escaping he might go for you," suggested Doc.
"I'll tell you what we'll do," said Dick. "Here are two trees just about the same size. You stroll sort of nonchalant-like over to one of them and I'll say 'climb,' and then we'll both climb as fast as we can. What do you say, shall we do it?"