Akut had taught him to fight
as the bull ape fights, nor ever was there a teacher better fitted
to instruct in the savage warfare of primordial man, or a pupil
better equipped to profit by the lessons of a master.
As the two searched for a band of the almost extinct species
of ape to which Akut belonged they lived upon the best the jungle
afforded. Antelope and zebra fell to the boy's spear, or were dragged
down by the two powerful beasts of prey who leaped upon them from
some overhanging limb or from the ambush of the undergrowth beside
the trail to the water hole or the ford.
The pelt of a leopard covered the nakedness of the youth; but the
wearing of it had not been dictated by any prompting of modesty.
With the rifle shots of the white men showering about him he had
reverted to the savagery of the beast that is inherent in each
of us, but that flamed more strongly in this boy whose father had
been raised a beast of prey. He wore his leopard skin at first
in response to a desire to parade a trophy of his prowess, for he
had slain the leopard with his knife in a hand-to-hand combat.
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