suggestion. The boy was insistent. Tarzan explained that he had
wished to purchase Akut and return him to his jungle home, and to
this the mother assented. Jack asked to be allowed to visit the
ape, but again he was met with flat refusal. He had the address,
however, which the trainer had given his father, and two days later
he found the opportunity to elude his new tutor--who had replaced
the terrified Mr. Moore--and after a considerable search through a
section of London which he had never before visited, he found the
smelly little quarters of the pock-marked old man. The old fellow
himself replied to his knocking, and when he stated that he had
come to see Ajax, opened the door and admitted him to the little
room which he and the great ape occupied. In former years Paulvitch
had been a fastidious scoundrel; but ten years of hideous life
among the cannibals of Africa had eradicated the last vestige of
niceness from his habits. His apparel was wrinkled and soiled.
His hands were unwashed, his few straggling locks uncombed. His
room was a jumble of filthy disorder. As the boy entered he saw
the great ape squatting upon the bed, the coverlets of which were
a tangled wad of filthy blankets and ill-smelling quilts. At sight
of the youth the ape leaped to the floor and shuffled forward. The
man, not recognizing his visitor and fearing that the ape meant
mischief, stepped between them, ordering the ape back to the bed.

"He will not hurt me," cried the boy. "We are friends, and before,
he was my father's friend. They knew one another in the jungle.
My father is Lord Greystoke. He does not know that I have come
here. My mother forbid my coming; but I wished to see Ajax, and
I will pay you if you will let me come here often and see him."

At the mention of the boy's identity Paulvitch's eyes narrowed.