On the way he came upon a herd of elephants standing in an open
forest glade. Here the trees were too far apart to permit Korak
to travel through the branches--a trail he much preferred not only
because of its freedom from dense underbrush and the wider field
of vision it gave him but from pride in his arboreal ability. It
was exhilarating to swing from tree to tree; to test the prowess
of his mighty muscles; to reap the pleasurable fruits of his hard
won agility. Korak joyed in the thrills of the highflung upper
terraces of the great forest, where, unhampered and unhindered,
he might laugh down upon the great brutes who must keep forever to
the darkness and the gloom of the musty soil.
But here, in this open glade where Tantor flapped his giant ears
and swayed his huge bulk from side to side, the ape-man must pass
along the surface of the ground--a pygmy amongst giants. A great
bull raised his trunk to rattle a low warning as he sensed the
coming of an intruder. His weak eyes roved hither and thither but
it was his keen scent and acute hearing which first located the
ape-man.
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