{"product_id":"2940013773929","title":"Jan of the Jungle \"The Call of the Savage\"","description":"DR. BRACKEN suavely bowed his Florida cracker patient out of his\u003cbr\u003edispensary. It was in the smaller right wing of his rambling ancestral\u003cbr\u003ehome on a hummock in the Everglades, near the Gulf of Mexico and five\u003cbr\u003emiles from Citrus Crossing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe doctor cursed under his breath as a sudden uproar came from the\u003cbr\u003elarger right wing of the house, directly behind him. This wing, a place\u003cbr\u003edouble-locked and forbidden even to his two old colored servants, had no\u003cbr\u003eentrance save through a narrow passageway that connected it with his\u003cbr\u003eprivate office in the smaller wing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo far as his servants, Aunt Jenny and Uncle Henry, were concerned, a\u003cbr\u003elock was superfluous. The muffled animal-like sounds that came from it\u003cbr\u003ewere so strange and unearthly that they regarded them with superstitious\u003cbr\u003eawe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs he closed the door behind his patient it seemed that a mask suddenly\u003cbr\u003eslipped from the doctor's face, so swift and horrible was the change\u003cbr\u003ethat came over his features. He had been smiling and suave, but as he\u003cbr\u003eturned away from the door his demeanor was more like that of a frenzied\u003cbr\u003emadman. His teeth, bared like those of a jungle beast at bay, gleamed\u003cbr\u003ewhite and menacing against the iron-gray of his closely cropped Vandyke.\u003cbr\u003eHis small, deep-set eyes burned malevolently, madly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFishing a bunch of keys from his pocket, he opened the door to the\u003cbr\u003enarrow passageway, pressed a switch that flooded it with light, and\u003cbr\u003eentered, locking it behind him. The roars were louder now. At the end of\u003cbr\u003ethe passageway he used another key to open a second door, and stepped\u003cbr\u003einto the room beyond, pressing a second switch as he did so. The yellow\u003cbr\u003erays of a bulb overhead revealed the stoutly barred cages that housed\u003cbr\u003ehis private menagerie within soundproofed walls.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the cage at his elbow an African leopard snarled menacingly. Its\u003cbr\u003enext-door neighbor, a South American jaguar, padded silently back and\u003cbr\u003eforth with head hanging low and slavering jowls slightly parted. In the\u003cbr\u003eadjacent cage, the bars of which had been reenforced with powerful wire\u003cbr\u003emeshwork, a huge python was coiled complacently around a whitewashed\u003cbr\u003etree trunk, its shimmering folds resting on the shortened stumps of the\u003cbr\u003elimbs. Beside this was the cage of Malik, the old and nearly toothless\u003cbr\u003elion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe glittering eyes of the doctor swept the room, seeking the cause of\u003cbr\u003ethe disturbance. They paused for a moment at the cage of Tichuk, the\u003cbr\u003esurly old male chimpanzee, who was squatting on his shelf, striving to\u003cbr\u003elook innocent. But the Brazilian spider monkeys in the cage at Tichuk's\u003cbr\u003eleft were leaping and skipping about and chattering excitedly in a\u003cbr\u003emanner that showed all too plainly where the trouble had centered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn two cages which adjoined each other and that of Tichuk were two\u003cbr\u003ecreatures: Chicma, an old female chimpanzee, and a naked boy sixteen\u003cbr\u003eyears of age. He was a handsome, superbly muscled lad, with a straight,\u003cbr\u003eathletic figure, broad shoulders, narrow hips, and the features of a\u003cbr\u003eGreek god, crowned by a tumbled mass of auburn curls. Several bloody\u003cbr\u003escratches stood out against the white of his face and arms, and one hand\u003cbr\u003estill clutched a tuft of chimpanzee hair which he made no effort to\u003cbr\u003econceal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fighting through the bars with Tichuk again,\" muttered the doctor. He\u003cbr\u003ereached for a whip hanging on a near-by peg. Then withdrew his hand.\u003cbr\u003e\"Won't punish him this time,\" he growled to himself. \"Tomorrow he must\u003cbr\u003eperform the act of vengeance for which I have trained him. Then he will\u003cbr\u003eleave this place forever. And I will be compensated for my years of\u003cbr\u003ebitterness and suffering.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGlancing at his watch, the doctor saw that it was nearly feeding time.\u003cbr\u003eHe went into the cooler and emerged a moment later. Growls, snarls,\u003cbr\u003echatterings, and rending sounds marked his progress.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt last Chicma, the female chimpanzee, was given her ration of bread and\u003cbr\u003elettuce; but to the omnivorous manchild's ration a pound of raw beef was\u003cbr\u003eadded.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083226661104,"sku":"2940013773929","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013773929_p0.jpg?v=1763590054","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013773929","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}