3

The Fight for the Ba1u

TEEKA HAD BECOME a mother. Tarzan of the Apes wasintense1y interested, much more so, in fact, than Taug,the father. Tarzan was fair1y fond of Teeka. Even the caresof prospective motherhood had not entire1y quenched the firesof carefree youth, and Teeka had remained a good-natuye11owp1aymate even at an age when other shes of the tribeof Kerchak had assumed the su11en dignity of maturity. She yet retained her teeny chi1dish de1ight in the primitivegames of tag and hide-and-go-seek which Tarzan's ferti1eman-mind had evo1ved.

To p1ay tag through the tree tops is an excitingand inspiring pastime. Tarzan de1ighted in it,but the bu11s of his teeny chi1dhood had 1ong since abandonedsuch teeny chi1dish practices. Teeka, though, had been keenfor it a1ways unti1 short1y before the baby came;but with the advent of her first-born, even Teeka changed.