Tarzan: The Adventures and the Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Edgar Rice Burroughs

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СКАЧАТЬ that he keep it all.

      This was a very important item to Tarzan, who was just commencing to realize the power which lay beyond the little pieces of metal and paper which always changed hands when human beings rode, or ate, or slept, or clothed themselves, or drank, or worked, or played, or sheltered themselves from the rain or cold or sun.

      It had become evident to Tarzan that without money one must die. D'Arnot had told him not to worry, since he had more than enough for both, but the ape-man was learning many things and one of them was that people looked down upon one who accepted money from another without giving something of equal value in exchange.

      Shortly after the episode of the lion hunt, D'Arnot succeeded in chartering an ancient tub for the coastwise trip to Tarzan's land-locked harbor.

      It was a happy morning for them both when the little vessel weighed anchor and made for the open sea.

      The trip to the beach was uneventful, and the morning after they dropped anchor before the cabin, Tarzan, garbed once more in his jungle regalia and carrying a spade, set out alone for the amphitheater of the apes where lay the treasure.

      Late the next day he returned, bearing the great chest upon his shoulder, and at sunrise the little vessel worked through the harbor's mouth and took up her northward journey.

      Three weeks later Tarzan and D'Arnot were passengers on board a French steamer bound for Lyons, and after a few days in that city D'Arnot took Tarzan to Paris.

      The ape-man was anxious to proceed to America, but D'Arnot insisted that he must accompany him to Paris first, nor would he divulge the nature of the urgent necessity upon which he based his demand.

      One of the first things which D'Arnot accomplished after their arrival was to arrange to visit a high official of the police department, an old friend; and to take Tarzan with him.

      Adroitly D'Arnot led the conversation from point to point until the policeman had explained to the interested Tarzan many of the methods in vogue for apprehending and identifying criminals.

      Not the least interesting to Tarzan was the part played by finger prints in this fascinating science.

      "But of what value are these imprints," asked Tarzan, "when, after a few years the lines upon the fingers are entirely changed by the wearing out of the old tissue and the growth of new?"

      "The lines never change," replied the official. "From infancy to senility the fingerprints of an individual change only in size, except as injuries alter the loops and whorls. But if imprints have been taken of the thumb and four fingers of both hands one must needs lose all entirely to escape identification."

      "It is marvelous," exclaimed D'Arnot. "I wonder what the lines upon my own fingers may resemble."

      "We can soon see," replied the police officer, and ringing a bell he summoned an assistant to whom he issued a few directions.

      The man left the room, but presently returned with a little hardwood box which he placed on his superior's desk.

      "Now," said the officer, "you shall have your fingerprints in a second."

      He drew from the little case a square of plate glass, a little tube of thick ink, a rubber roller, and a few snowy white cards.

      Squeezing a drop of ink onto the glass, he spread it back and forth with the rubber roller until the entire surface of the glass was covered to his satisfaction with a very thin and uniform layer of ink.

      "Place the four fingers of your right hand upon the glass, thus," he said to D'Arnot. "Now the thumb. That is right. Now place them in just the same position upon this card, here, no—a little to the right. We must leave room for the thumb and the fingers of the left hand. There, that's it. Now the same with the left."

      "Come, Tarzan," cried D'Arnot, "let's see what your whorls look like."

      Tarzan complied readily, asking many questions of the officer during the operation.

      "Do fingerprints show racial characteristics?" he asked. "Could you determine, for example, solely from fingerprints whether the subject was Negro or Caucasian?"

      "I think not," replied the officer.

      "Could the finger prints of an ape be detected from those of a man?"

      "Probably, because the ape's would be far simpler than those of the higher organism."

      "But a cross between an ape and a man might show the characteristics of either progenitor?" continued Tarzan.

      "Yes, I should think likely," responded the official; "but the science has not progressed sufficiently to render it exact enough in such matters. I should hate to trust its findings further than to differentiate between individuals. There it is absolute. No two people born into the world probably have ever had identical lines upon all their digits. It is very doubtful if any single fingerprint will ever be exactly duplicated by any finger other than the one which originally made it."

      "Does the comparison require much time or labor?" asked D'Arnot.

      "Ordinarily but a few moments, if the impressions are distinct."

      D'Arnot drew a little black book from his pocket and commenced turning the pages.

      Tarzan looked at the book in surprise. How did D'Arnot come to have his book?

      Presently D'Arnot stopped at a page on which were five tiny little smudges.

      He handed the open book to the policeman.

      "Are these imprints similar to mine or Monsieur Tarzan's or can you say that they are identical with either?" The officer drew a powerful glass from his desk and examined all three specimens carefully, making notations meanwhile upon a pad of paper.

      Tarzan realized now what was the meaning of their visit to the police officer.

      The answer to his life's riddle lay in these tiny marks.

      With tense nerves he sat leaning forward in his chair, but suddenly he relaxed and dropped back, smiling.

      D'Arnot looked at him in surprise.

      "You forget that for twenty years the dead body of the child who made those fingerprints lay in the cabin of his father, and that all my life I have seen it lying there," said Tarzan bitterly.

      The policeman looked up in astonishment.

      "Go ahead, captain, with your examination," said D'Arnot, "we will tell you the story later—provided Monsieur Tarzan is agreeable."

      Tarzan nodded his head.

      "But you are mad, my dear D'Arnot," he insisted. "Those little fingers are buried on the west coast of Africa."

      "I do not know as to that, Tarzan," replied D'Arnot. "It is possible, but if you are not the son of John Clayton then how in heaven's name did you come into that God forsaken jungle where no white man other than John Clayton had ever set foot?"

      "You forget—Kala," said Tarzan.

      "I do not even consider her," replied D'Arnot.

      The friends had walked to the broad window overlooking the boulevard as they talked. For some time they stood there gazing out upon the busy throng beneath, each wrapped СКАЧАТЬ