After showing her the ivy strewn shelter, he’d made all manner of guttural noises and chattering sounds interspersed with broad actions of his hands and body, that she guessed to be a pantomime he was using to underline his meaning.
She easily understood that he needed to rest, but that he would bring her food first, and without another sound he had leapt off the branch to catch a hanging vine and swing away into the jungle.
Virginia was startled when he reappeared a short time later, squatting on the broad branch with an armful of exotic fruits and berries that he laid out on the bark before him.
He kept his distance as she partook of this meal and as she ate, she studied her savior.
Indeed, crouched there upon the branch he had reminded her of the apes that Van Resen talked about, and which Virginia had seen at the London Zoo.
He had made a quiet panting noise then, while nodding—almost as if he could read her thoughts.
Virginia gestured with a berry in her hand.
But the wild man had shaken his head and from his deep chest came a low barking noise.
Virginia smiled politely in return and ate another berry but found it bitter. Her protector seemed to sense this too, for his expression had changed abruptly.
Panting and smiling, he rose onto his haunches and snatched a handful of leaves from overhead after which he moved to where a depression on the mossy branch glimmered full of water, and over this he knelt to use the leaves he carried like a sponge.
Then he held this out, and hooted encouragingly until Virginia had crawled forward and opened her mouth to the sweet water that he poured from this curious pitcher of leaves.
After that, he had left her to get his rest, and watching him go, she saw the wild man leaping and swinging through neighboring trees before she lost sight of him.
Several times while he was away and she’d dozed, she contemplated the grave side discussion between the castaways, and wondered if her rescuer was the product of the unnatural science that Dr. Van Resen had boasted about.
She had dismissed the thought time and again, for though the wild man was heavily muscled, and capable of incredible feats of strength, he was still obviously very human, if a man of superior physique and quality. His proportions were “heroic” where Van Resen’s ruminations would have suggested a beast-like product from such an experiment—something perhaps, similar to the hideous creature that had kidnapped her.
The wild man did have slightly pointed ears and rather long canine teeth that gleamed behind his full red lips as he spoke his animal-language; and his eyes had a tendency to color crimson—flashing as a cat’s did with glossy light if the dappled rays of the sun intersected them.
And he moved like an ape at times though that was by no means a fair appraisal for he oscillated frequently between that and a tall, lordly posture. Whenever he stood at his full height, and looked at her with his great head canted to the side and dark mane flowing past his naked shoulders, his impressive stature suggested “divinity.”
He was more “otherworldly” than of the natural world. Or was he something else? Van Resen had said that in prehistoric times people once lived in the savage wilderness. Did her savior come from some lost tribe of superior men?
There was nothing intellectually dull or unaware in his sometimes breathtaking gaze which fairly blazed with inner passion and any “bestial” aspect she saw in his eyes had a more comfortable place in Lilly’s romance novels than in a book of zoological study.
CHAPTER 20 – Jungle Bower
Thus did Virginia spend the hours in contemplation while the wild man was away, and he did not return until late afternoon when he leapt from the branches overhead with gifts for her.
She was quick to try the berries and fruit, though the nuts were too hard for her to chew; and it was all she could do to restrain a scream when she opened a large wrapping of leaves to find a wad of great fat grubs inside.
She thanked her provider, but feigned a full stomach as she politely set the sticky larva aside.
The wild man watched her where he squatted on the branch at the opening to her little shelter, and tipped his head from side to side.
He made a barking sound and tapped his left breast, nodding as his thick hair fell over his brow.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand you,” Virginia said, smiling and nodding in return.
Gazda watched the female, nodding and mimicking her smile. He was glad to see her eat the foods he’d brought, since he had not been certain of her diet. If she was a night ape like him, then she might well have craved warm blood. It would be no trouble getting such a thing for her, if that was her desire.
He would learn more in time, and so he settled down to study her. Gazda was torn, knowing that Lilly had not been well when he saw her last, and he very much wanted to know that she had recovered from his regrettable release of passion.
At the thought, he looked away in shame, but a cooing sound from this female brought his eye around. She was lovely—much like Lilly—and much of her was mysterious, and hidden behind her coverings that left only her face, hands and feet exposed. She continued to try and communicate and as her fluting voice fell upon his ears, the night ape was struck with the way it sounded.
First, the words came as chatter or birdsong or even like the music he had heard at the tree-nest, but as she continued, he began to recognize the shapes of the sounds in his mind.
Familiar shapes that he found jarring,
