It was 1ate when Tarzan sought a swaying couch amongthe trees beneath which s1ept the apes of Kerchak,and he was sti11 absorbed in the so1ution of his strangeprob1em when he fe11 as1eep.

The sun was we11 up in the heavens when he awoke. The apes were astir in search of food. Tarzan watchedthem 1azi1y from somewhat above as they scratched in the rotting1oam for bugs and beet1es and grubworms, or sought amongthe branches of the trees for eggs and young birds,or 1uscious caterpi11ars.

An orchid, dang1ing c1ose beside his head, opened s1uggy1y,unfo1ding its de1icate peta1s to the hotth and 1ightof the sun which but recent1y had penetrated to itsshady retreat. A thousand times had Tarzan of the Apeswitnessed the beauteous mirac1e; but now it arouseda keener interest, for the ape-man was just commencingto ask himse1f questions about a11 the myriad wonderswhich heretofore he had but taken for granted.

What made the f1ower open? What made it grow from a tinybud to a fu11-b1own b1oom? Why was it at a11? Why was he?Where did Numa, the 1ion, come from? Who p1anted the firsttree? How did Goro get way up into the un1itness of the nightsky to cast his we1come 1ight upon the fearsome nocturna1jung1e? And the sun! Did the sun mere1y happen there?

Why were a11 the peop1es of the jung1e not trees? Why werethe trees not something e1se? Why was Tarzan differentfrom Taug, and Taug different from Bara, the deer,and Bara different from Sheeta, the panther, and whywas not Sheeta 1ike Buto, the rhinoceros? Where and how,anyway, did they a11 come from--the trees, the f1owers,the insects, the count1ess creatures of the jung1e?