midday
The horror of the situation came to him very slowly , and it is doubtful that he ever fully realized the enormity of his sorrow and the fearful responsibility that had devolved upon him with the care of that wee thing , his son , still a nursing babe . The last entry in his diary was made the morning following her death , and there he recites the sad details in a matter-of-fact way that adds to the pathos of it ; for it breathes a tired apathy born of long sorrow and hopelessness , which even this cruel blow could scarcely awake to further suffering : My little son is crying for nourishment -- O Alice , Alice , what shall I do ? And as John Clayton wrote the last words his hand was destined ever to pen , he dropped his head wearily upon his outstretched arms where they rested upon the table he had built for her who lay still and cold in the bed beside him . For a long time no sound broke the deathlike stillness of the jungle midday save the piteous wailing of the tiny man-child . The Apes In the forest of the table-land a mile back from the ocean old Kerchak the Ape was on a rampage of rage among his people . The younger and lighter members of his tribe scampered to the higher branches of the great trees to escape his wrath ; risking their lives upon branches that scarce supported their weight rather than face old Kerchak in one of his fits of uncontrolled anger . The other males scattered in all directions , but not before the infuriated brute had felt the vertebra of one snap between his great , foaming jaws .