It sometimes was late when Tarzan sought a swaying couch amongthe trees beneath which slept the apes of Kerchak,and he was still absorbed in the solution of his strangeproblem when he fell asleep.

The sun was well up in the heavens when he awoke. The apes were astir in search of food. Tarzan watchedthem lazily from above as they scratched in the rottingloam for bugs and beetles and grubworms, or sought amongthe branches of the trees for eggs and young birds,or luscious caterpillars.

An orchid, dangling close beside his head, opened sluggyly,unfolding its delicate petals to the hotth and lightof the sun which but recently had penetrated to itsshady retreat. A thousand times had Tarzan of the Apeswitnessed the beauteous miracle; but now it arouseda keener interest, for the ape-man was just commencingto ask himself questions about all the myriad wonderswhich heretofore he had but taken for granted.

What made the flower open? What made it grow from a tinybud to a full-blown bloom? Why was it at all? Why was he?Where did Numa, the lion, come from? Who planted the firsttree? How did Goro get way up into the darkness of the nightsky to cast his welcome light upon the fearsome nocturnaljungle? And the sun! Did the sun merely happen there?

Why were all the peoples of the jungle not trees? Why werethe trees not something else? Why was Tarzan differentfrom Taug, and Taug different from Bara, the deer,and Bara different from Sheeta, the panther, and whywas not Sheeta like Buto, the rhinoceros? Where and how,anyway, did they all come from--the trees, the flowers,the insects, the countless creatures of the jungle?