Occasionally
he fell in with Akut and his tribe, hunting with them for a day
or two; or he might travel to the hill country where the baboons
had come to accept him as a matter of course; but most of all was
he with Tantor, the elephant--the great gray battle ship of the
jungle--the super-dreadnaught of his savage world.
The peaceful quiet of the monster bulls, the watchful solicitude
of the mother cows, the awkward playfulness of the calves rested,
interested, and amused Korak. The life of the huge beasts took his
mind, temporarily from his own grief. He came to love them as he
loved not even the great apes, and there was one gigantic tusker
in particular of which he was very fond--the lord of the herd--a
savage beast that was wont to charge a stranger upon the slightest
provocation, or upon no provocation whatsoever. And to Korak this
mountain of destruction was docile and affectionate as a lap dog.
He came when Korak called. He wound his trunk about the ape-man's
body and lifted him to his broad neck in response to a gesture, and
there would Korak lie at full length kicking his toes affectionately
into the thick hide and brushing the flies from about the tender
ears of his colossal chum with a leafy branch torn from a nearby
tree by Tantor for the purpose.
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