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Jungle Tales Of Tarzan
By
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Contents
Chapter
1 - Tarzan's First Love
Chapter
2 - The Capture of Tarzan
Chapter
3 - The Fight for the Balu
Chapter
5 - Tarzan and the Black Boy
Chapter
6 - The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance.
Chapter 7 - The End of Bukawai
Chapter
10 - The Battle for Teeka
Chapter
12 - Tarzan Rescues the Moon
TEEKA, STRETCHED =
AT
luxurious ease in the shade of the tropical forest, presented, unquestionab=
ly,
a most alluring picture of young, feminine loveliness. Or at least so thought Tarzan of the Ap=
es,
who squatted upon a low-swinging branch in a near-by tree and looked down u=
pon
her.
Just to have seen=
him
there, lolling upon the swaying bough of the jungle-forest giant, his brown
skin mottled by the brilliant equatorial sunlight which percolated through =
the
leafy canopy of green above him, his clean-limbed body relaxed in graceful
ease, his shapely head partly turned in contemplative absorption and his
intelligent, gray eyes dreamily devouring the object of their devotion, you
would have thought him the reincarnation of some demigod of old.
You would not have
guessed that in infancy he had suckled at the breast of a hideous, hairy
she-ape, nor that in all his conscious past since his parents had passed aw=
ay
in the little cabin by the landlocked harbor at the jungle's verge, he had
known no other associates than the sullen bulls and the snarling cows of the
tribe of Kerchak, the great ape.
Nor, could you ha=
ve
read the thoughts which passed through that active, healthy brain, the long=
ings
and desires and aspirations which the sight of Teeka inspired, would you ha=
ve
been any more inclined to give credence to the reality of the origin of the
ape-man. For, from his thoughts alone, you could never have gleaned the
truth--that he had been born to a gentle English lady or that his sire had =
been
an English nobleman of time-honored lineage.
Lost to Tarzan of=
the
Apes was the truth of his origin. =
That
he was John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, with a seat in the House of Lords, he =
did not
know, nor, knowing, would have understood.
Yes, Teeka was in=
deed
beautiful!
Of course Kala had
been beautiful--one's mother is always that--but Teeka was beautiful in a w=
ay
all her own, an indescribable sort of way which Tarzan was just beginning to
sense in a rather vague and hazy manner.
For years had Tar=
zan
and Teeka been play-fellows, and Teeka still continued to be playful while =
the
young bulls of her own age were rapidly becoming surly and morose. Tarzan, if he gave the matter much thou=
ght at
all, probably reasoned that his growing attachment for the young female cou=
ld
be easily accounted for by the fact that of the former playmates she and he
alone retained any desire to frolic as of old.
But today, as he =
sat
gazing upon her, he found himself noting the beauties of Teeka's form and
features--something he never had done before, since none of them had aught =
to
do with Teeka's ability to race nimbly through the lower terraces of the fo=
rest
in the primitive games of tag and hide-and-go-seek which Tarzan's fertile b=
rain
evolved. Tarzan scratched his head, running his fingers deep into the shock=
of black
hair which framed his shapely, boyish face--he scratched his head and
sighed. Teeka's new-found beauty b=
ecame
as suddenly his despair. He envied her the handsome coat of hair which cove=
red
her body. His own smooth, brown hi=
de he
hated with a hatred born of disgust and contempt. Years back he had harbored a hope that =
some
day he, too, would be clothed in hair as were all his brothers and sisters;=
but
of late he had been forced to abandon the delectable dream.
Then there were
Teeka's great teeth, not so large as the males, of course, but still mighty,
handsome things by comparison with Tarzan's feeble white ones. And her beetling brows, and broad, flat=
nose,
and her mouth! Tarzan had often practiced making his mouth into a little ro=
und
circle and then puffing out his cheeks while he winked his eyes rapidly; bu=
t he
felt that he could never do it in the same cute and irresistible way in whi=
ch
Teeka did it.
And as he watched=
her
that afternoon, and wondered, a young bull ape who had been lazily foraging=
for
food beneath the damp, matted carpet of decaying vegetation at the roots of=
a
near-by tree lumbered awkwardly in Teeka's direction. The other apes of the tribe of Kerchak =
moved
listlessly about or lolled restfully in the midday heat of the equatorial
jungle. From time to time one or a=
nother
of them had passed close to Teeka, and Tarzan had been uninterested. Why was it then that his brows contract=
ed and
his muscles tensed as he saw Taug pause beside the young she and then squat
down close to her?
Tarzan always had
liked Taug. Since childhood they h=
ad
romped together. Side by side they=
had
squatted near the water, their quick, strong fingers ready to leap forth and
seize Pisah, the fish, should that wary denizen of the cool depths dart
surfaceward to the lure of the insects Tarzan tossed upon the face of the p=
ool.
Together they had
baited Tublat and teased Numa, the lion.
Why, then, should Tarzan feel the rise of the short hairs at the nap=
e of
his neck merely because Taug sat close to Teeka?
It is true that T=
aug
was no longer the frolicsome ape of yesterday. When his snarling-muscles ba=
red
his giant fangs no one could longer imagine that Taug was in as playful a m=
ood
as when he and Tarzan had rolled upon the turf in mimic battle. The Taug of today was a huge, sullen bu=
ll
ape, somber and forbidding. Yet he=
and
Tarzan never had quarreled.
For a few minutes=
the
young ape-man watched Taug press closer to Teeka. He saw the rough caress of
the huge paw as it stroked the sleek shoulder of the she, and then Tarzan of
the Apes slipped catlike to the ground and approached the two.
As he came his up=
per
lip curled into a snarl, exposing his fighting fangs, and a deep growl rumb=
led
from his cavernous chest. Taug loo=
ked up,
batting his blood-shot eyes. Teeka=
half
raised herself and looked at Tarzan. Did
she guess the cause of his perturbation? Who may say? At any rate, she was
feminine, and so she reached up and scratched Taug behind one of his small,
flat ears.
Tarzan saw, and in
the instant that he saw, Teeka was no longer the little playmate of an hour
ago; instead she was a wondrous thing--the most wondrous in the world--and a
possession for which Tarzan would fight to the death against Taug or any ot=
her
who dared question his right of proprietorship.
Stooped, his musc=
les
rigid and one great shoulder turned toward the young bull, Tarzan of the Ap=
es
sidled nearer and nearer. His face=
was partly
averted, but his keen gray eyes never left those of Taug, and as he came, h=
is
growls increased in depth and volume.
Taug rose upon his
short legs, bristling. His fighting
fangs were bared. He, too, sidled,
stiff-legged, and growled.
"Teeka is Ta=
rzan's,"
said the ape-man, in the low gutturals of the great anthropoids.
"Teeka is
Taug's," replied the bull ape.
Thaka and Numgo a=
nd
Gunto, disturbed by the growlings of the two young bulls, looked up half
apathetic, half interested. They w=
ere
sleepy, but they sensed a fight. It
would break the monotony of the humdrum jungle life they led.
Coiled about his
shoulders was Tarzan's long grass rope, in his hand was the hunting knife of
the long-dead father he had never known.
In Taug's little brain lay a great respect for the shiny bit of shar=
p metal
which the ape-boy knew so well how to use.
With it had he slain Tublat, his fierce foster father, and Bolgani, =
the
gorilla. Taug knew these things, a=
nd so
he came warily, circling about Tarzan in search of an opening. The latter, made cautious because of his
lesser bulk and the inferiority of his natural armament, followed similar
tactics.
For a time it see=
med
that the altercation would follow the way of the majority of such differenc=
es
between members of the tribe and that one of them would finally lose intere=
st
and wander off to prosecute some other line of endeavor. Such might have been the end of it had =
the CASUS
BELLI been other than it was; but Teeka was flattered at the attention that=
was
being drawn to her and by the fact that these two young bulls were
contemplating battle on her account.
Such a thing never before had occurred in Teeka's brief life. She had seen other bulls battling for o=
ther
and older shes, and in the depth of her wild little heart she had longed for
the day when the jungle grasses would be reddened with the blood of mortal
combat for her fair sake.
So now she squatt=
ed
upon her haunches and insulted both her admirers impartially. She hurled taunts at them for their
cowardice, and called them vile names, such as Histah, the snake, and Dango,
the hyena. She threatened to call =
Mumga
to chastise them with a stick--Mumga, who was so old that she could no long=
er
climb and so toothless that she was forced to confine her diet almost exclu=
sively
to bananas and grub-worms.
The apes who were
watching heard and laughed. Taug w=
as
infuriated. He made a sudden lunge=
for
Tarzan, but the ape-boy leaped nimbly to one side, eluding him, and with the
quickness of a cat wheeled and leaped back again to close quarters. His hunting knife was raised above his =
head
as he came in, and he aimed a vicious blow at Taug's neck. The ape wheeled to dodge the weapon so =
that
the keen blade struck him but a glancing blow upon the shoulder.
The spurt of red
blood brought a shrill cry of delight from Teeka. Ah, but this was something worth while!=
She glanced about to see if others had
witnessed this evidence of her popularity.
Helen of Troy was never one whit more proud than was Teeka at that
moment.
If Teeka had not =
been
so absorbed in her own vaingloriousness she might have noted the rustling of
leaves in the tree above her--a rustling which was not caused by any moveme=
nt
of the wind, since there was no wind.
And had she looked up she might have seen a sleek body crouching alm=
ost
directly over her and wicked yellow eyes glaring hungrily down upon her, but
Teeka did not look up.
With his wound Ta=
ug
had backed off growling horribly. =
Tarzan
had followed him, screaming insults at him, and menacing him with his brand=
ishing
blade. Teeka moved from beneath th=
e tree
in an effort to keep close to the duelists.
The branch above
Teeka bent and swayed a trifle with the movement of the body of the watcher
stretched along it. Taug had halte=
d now
and was preparing to make a new stand.
His lips were flecked with foam, and saliva drooled from his jowls.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He stood with head lowered and arms out=
stretched,
preparing for a sudden charge to close quarters. Could he but lay his mighty hands upon =
that
soft, brown skin the battle would be his.
Taug considered Tarzan's manner of fighting unfair. He would not close. Instead, he leaped nimbly just beyond t=
he
reach of Taug's muscular fingers.
The ape-boy had as
yet never come to a real trial of strength with a bull ape, other than in p=
lay,
and so he was not at all sure that it would be safe to put his muscles to t=
he
test in a life and death struggle. Not
that he was afraid, for Tarzan knew nothing of fear. The instinct of
self-preservation gave him caution--that was all. He took risks only when it seemed neces=
sary,
and then he would hesitate at nothing.
His own method of
fighting seemed best fitted to his build and to his armament. His teeth, while strong and sharp, were=
, as
weapons of offense, pitifully inadequate by comparison with the mighty figh=
ting
fangs of the anthropoids. By danci=
ng
about, just out of reach of an antagonist, Tarzan could do infinite injury =
with
his long, sharp hunting knife, and at the same time escape many of the pain=
ful
and dangerous wounds which would be sure to follow his falling into the clu=
tches
of a bull ape.
And so Taug charg=
ed
and bellowed like a bull, and Tarzan of the Apes danced lightly to this side
and that, hurling jungle billingsgate at his foe, the while he nicked him n=
ow
and again with his knife.
There were lulls =
in
the fighting when the two would stand panting for breath, facing each other,
mustering their wits and their forces for a new onslaught. It was during a pause such as this that=
Taug
chanced to let his eyes rove beyond his foeman.
Instantly the entire aspect of the ape altered. Rage left his countenance to be supplan=
ted by
an expression of fear.
With a cry that e=
very
ape there recognized, Taug turned and fled.
No need to question him--his warning proclaimed the near presence of
their ancient enemy.
Tarzan started to
seek safety, as did the other members of the tribe, and as he did so he hea=
rd a
panther's scream mingled with the frightened cry of a she-ape. Taug heard, too; but he did not pause i=
n his
flight.
With the ape-boy,
however, it was different. He look=
ed
back to see if any member of the tribe was close pressed by the beast of pr=
ey,
and the sight that met his eyes filled them with an expression of horror.
Teeka it was who
cried out in terror as she fled across a little clearing toward the trees u=
pon
the opposite side, for after her leaped Sheeta, the panther, in easy, grace=
ful
bounds. Sheeta appeared to be in no
hurry. His meat was assured, since=
even
though the ape reached the trees ahead of him she could not climb beyond his
clutches before he could be upon her.
Tarzan saw that T=
eeka
must die. He cried to Taug and the=
other
bulls to hasten to Teeka's assistance, and at the same time he ran toward t=
he pursuing
beast, taking down his rope as he came.
Tarzan knew that once the great bulls were aroused none of the jungl=
e,
not even Numa, the lion, was anxious to measure fangs with them, and that if
all those of the tribe who chanced to be present today would charge, Sheeta,
the great cat, would doubtless turn tail and run for his life.
Taug heard, as did
the others, but no one came to Tarzan's assistance or Teeka's rescue, and
Sheeta was rapidly closing up the distance between himself and his prey.
The ape-boy, leap=
ing
after the panther, cried aloud to the beast in an effort to turn it from Te=
eka
or otherwise distract its attention until the she-ape could gain the safety=
of
the higher branches where Sheeta dared not go.
He called the panther every opprobrious name that fell to his
tongue. He dared him to stop and do
battle with him; but Sheeta only loped on after the luscious titbit now alm=
ost
within his reach.
Tarzan was not far
behind and he was gaining, but the distance was so short that he scarce hop=
ed
to overhaul the carnivore before it had felled Teeka. In his right hand the boy swung his gra=
ss
rope above his head as he ran. He =
hated
to chance a miss, for the distance was much greater than he ever had cast
before except in practice. It was =
the full
length of his grass rope which separated him from Sheeta, and yet there was=
no
other thing to do. He could not re=
ach
the brute's side before it overhauled Teeka.
He must chance a throw.
And just as Teeka
sprang for the lower limb of a great tree, and Sheeta rose behind her in a
long, sinuous leap, the coils of the ape-boy's grass rope shot swiftly thro=
ugh
the air, straightening into a long thin line as the open noose hovered for =
an
instant above the savage head and the snarling jaws. Then it settled--clean and true about t=
he
tawny neck it settled, and Tarzan, with a quick twist of his rope-hand, dre=
w the
noose taut, bracing himself for the shock when Sheeta should have taken up =
the
slack.
Just short of Tee=
ka's
glossy rump the cruel talons raked the air as the rope tightened and Sheeta=
was
brought to a sudden stop--a stop that snapped the big beast over upon his
back. Instantly Sheeta was up--with
glaring eyes, and lashing tail, and gaping jaws, from which issued hideous
cries of rage and disappointment.
He saw the ape-bo=
y,
the cause of his discomfiture, scarce forty feet before him, and Sheeta
charged.
Teeka was safe no=
w;
Tarzan saw to that by a quick glance into the tree whose safety she had gai=
ned
not an instant too soon, and Sheeta was charging. It was useless to risk his life in idle=
and
unequal combat from which no good could come; but could he escape a battle =
with
the enraged cat? And if he was forced to fight, what chance had he to survi=
ve?
Tarzan was constrained to admit that his position was aught but a desirable
one. The trees were too far to hop=
e to
reach in time to elude the cat. Ta=
rzan
could but stand facing that hideous charge. In his right hand he grasped his
hunting knife--a puny, futile thing indeed by comparison with the great row=
s of
mighty teeth which lined Sheeta's powerful jaws, and the sharp talons encas=
ed
within his padded paws; yet the young Lord Greystoke faced it with the same
courageous resignation with which some fearless ancestor went down to defeat
and death on Senlac Hill by Hastings.
From safety point=
s in
the trees the great apes watched, screaming hatred at Sheeta and advice at
Tarzan, for the progenitors of man have, naturally, many human traits. Teeka was frightened. She screamed at the bulls to hasten to
Tarzan's assistance; but the bulls were otherwise engaged--principally in
giving advice and making faces. Anyway, Tarzan was not a real Mangani, so w=
hy
should they risk their lives in an effort to protect him?
And now Sheeta was
almost upon the lithe, naked body, and--the body was not there. Quick as was the great cat, the ape-boy=
was
quicker. He leaped to one side alm=
ost as
the panther's talons were closing upon him, and as Sheeta went hurtling to =
the
ground beyond, Tarzan was racing for the safety of the nearest tree.
The panther recov=
ered
himself almost immediately and, wheeling, tore after his prey, the ape-boy's
rope dragging along the ground behind him.
In doubling back after Tarzan, Sheeta had passed around a low bush.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> It was a mere nothing in the path of any
jungle creature of the size and weight of Sheeta--provided it had no traili=
ng
rope dangling behind. But Sheeta w=
as
handicapped by such a rope, and as he leaped once again after Tarzan of the
Apes the rope encircled the small bush, became tangled in it and brought the
panther to a sudden stop. An insta=
nt
later Tarzan was safe among the higher branches of a small tree into which
Sheeta could not follow him.
Here he perched,
hurling twigs and epithets at the raging feline beneath him. The other members of the tribe now took=
up
the bombardment, using such hard-shelled fruits and dead branches as came w=
ithin
their reach, until Sheeta, goaded to frenzy and snapping at the grass rope,
finally succeeded in severing its strands.
For a moment the panther stood glaring first at one of his tormentors
and then at another, until, with a final scream of rage, he turned and slunk
off into the tangled mazes of the jungle.
A half hour later=
the
tribe was again upon the ground, feeding as though naught had occurred to
interrupt the somber dullness of their lives.
Tarzan had recovered the greater part of his rope and was busy fashi=
oning
a new noose, while Teeka squatted close behind him, in evident token that h=
er
choice was made.
Taug eyed them
sullenly. Once when he came close,=
Teeka
bared her fangs and growled at him, and Tarzan showed his canines in an ugl=
y snarl;
but Taug did not provoke a quarrel. He
seemed to accept after the manner of his kind the decision of the she as an
indication that he had been vanquished in his battle for her favors.
Later in the day,=
his
rope repaired, Tarzan took to the trees in search of game. More than his fellows he required meat,=
and
so, while they were satisfied with fruits and herbs and beetles, which coul=
d be
discovered without much effort upon their part, Tarzan spent considerable t=
ime
hunting the game animals whose flesh alone satisfied the cravings of his
stomach and furnished sustenance and strength to the mighty thews which, da=
y by
day, were building beneath the soft, smooth texture of his brown hide.
Taug saw him depa=
rt,
and then, quite casually, the big beast hunted closer and closer to Teeka in
his search for food. At last he wa=
s within
a few feet of her, and when he shot a covert glance at her he saw that she =
was
appraising him and that there was no evidence of anger upon her face.
Taug expanded his=
great
chest and rolled about on his short legs, making strange growlings in his
throat. He raised his lips, baring=
his fangs. My, but what great, beautiful fangs he =
had!
Teeka could not but notice them. S=
he
also let her eyes rest in admiration upon Taug's beetling brows and his sho=
rt,
powerful neck. What a beautiful cr=
eature
he was indeed!
Taug, flattered by
the unconcealed admiration in her eyes, strutted about, as proud and as vai=
n as
a peacock. Presently he began to i=
nventory
his assets, mentally, and shortly he found himself comparing them with thos=
e of
his rival.
Taug grunted, for
there was no comparison. How could=
one
compare his beautiful coat with the smooth and naked hideousness of Tarzan's
bare hide? Who could see beauty in the stingy nose of the Tarmangani after =
looking
at Taug's broad nostrils? And Tarzan's eyes! Hideous things, showing white
about them, and entirely unrimmed with red.
Taug knew that his own blood-shot eyes were beautiful, for he had se=
en
them reflected in the glassy surface of many a drinking pool.
The bull drew nea=
rer
to Teeka, finally squatting close against her. When Tarzan returned from his
hunting a short time later it was to see Teeka contentedly scratching the b=
ack
of his rival.
Tarzan was
disgusted. Neither Taug nor Teeka =
saw
him as he swung through the trees into the glade. He paused a moment, looking at them; th=
en,
with a sorrowful grimace, he turned and faded away into the labyrinth of le=
afy
boughs and festooned moss out of which he had come.
Tarzan wished to =
be
as far away from the cause of his heartache as he could. He was suffering the first pangs of bli=
ghted
love, and he didn't quite know what was the matter with him. He thought that he was angry with Taug,=
and
so he couldn't understand why it was that he had run away instead of rushing
into mortal combat with the destroyer of his happiness.
He also thought t=
hat
he was angry with Teeka, yet a vision of her many beauties persisted in
haunting him, so that he could only see her in the light of love as the most
desirable thing in the world.
The ape-boy craved
affection. From babyhood until the=
time
of her death, when the poisoned arrow of Kulonga had pierced her savage hea=
rt, Kala
had represented to the English boy the sole object of love which he had kno=
wn.
In her wild, fier=
ce
way Kala had loved her adopted son, and Tarzan had returned that love, thou=
gh
the outward demonstrations of it were no greater than might have been expec=
ted
from any other beast of the jungle. It
was not until he was bereft of her that the boy realized how deep had been =
his
attachment for his mother, for as such he looked upon her.
In Teeka he had s=
een
within the past few hours a substitute for Kala--someone to fight for and to
hunt for--someone to caress; but now his dream was shattered. Something hurt within his breast. He placed his hand over his heart and
wondered what had happened to him.
Vaguely he attributed his pain to Teeka.
The more he thought of Teeka as he had last seen her, caressing Taug,
the more the thing within his breast hurt him.
Tarzan shook his =
head
and growled; then on and on through the jungle he swung, and the farther he
traveled and the more he thought upon his wrongs, the nearer he approached
becoming an irreclaimable misogynist.
Two days later he=
was
still hunting alone--very morose and very unhappy; but he was determined ne=
ver
to return to the tribe. He could n=
ot
bear the thought of seeing Taug and Teeka always together. As he swung upon a great limb Numa, the=
lion,
and Sabor, the lioness, passed beneath him, side by side, and Sabor leaned
against the lion and bit playfully at his cheek. It was a half-caress. Tarzan sighed and
hurled a nut at them.
Later he came upon
several of Mbonga's black warriors. He
was upon the point of dropping his noose about the neck of one of them, who=
was
a little distance from his companions, when he became interested in the thi=
ng
which occupied the savages. They w=
ere
building a cage in the trail and covering it with leafy branches. When they had completed their work the =
structure
was scarcely visible.
Tarzan wondered w=
hat
the purpose of the thing might be, and why, when they had built it, they tu=
rned
away and started back along the trail in the direction of their village.
It had been some =
time
since Tarzan had visited the blacks and looked down from the shelter of the
great trees which overhung their palisade upon the activities of his enemie=
s,
from among whom had come the slayer of Kala.
Although he hated
them, Tarzan derived considerable entertainment in watching them at their d=
aily
life within the village, and especially at their dances, when the fires gla=
red
against their naked bodies as they leaped and turned and twisted in mimic
warfare. It was rather in the hope=
of
witnessing something of the kind that he now followed the warriors back tow=
ard
their village, but in this he was disappointed, for there was no dance that
night.
Instead, from the
safe concealment of his tree, Tarzan saw little groups seated about tiny fi=
res
discussing the events of the day, and in the darker corners of the village =
he
descried isolated couples talking and laughing together, and always one of =
each
couple was a young man and the other a young woman.
Tarzan cocked his
head upon one side and thought, and before he went to sleep that night, cur=
led
in the crotch of the great tree above the village, Teeka filled his mind, a=
nd
afterward she filled his dreams--she and the young black men laughing and
talking with the young black women.
Taug, hunting alo=
ne,
had wandered some distance from the balance of the tribe. He was making his way slowly along an
elephant path when he discovered that it was blocked with undergrowth. Now Taug, come into maturity, was an
evil-natured brute of an exceeding short temper. When something thwarted him, his sole i=
dea
was to overcome it by brute strength and ferocity, and so now when he found=
his
way blocked, he tore angrily into the leafy screen and an instant later fou=
nd
himself within a strange lair, his progress effectually blocked, notwithsta=
nding
his most violent efforts to forge ahead.
Biting and striki=
ng
at the barrier, Taug finally worked himself into a frightful rage, but all =
to
no avail; and at last he became convinced that he must turn back. But when he would have done so, what wa=
s his chagrin
to discover that another barrier had dropped behind him while he fought to
break down the one before him! Taug was trapped. Until exhaustion overcame him he fought
frantically for his freedom; but all for naught.
In the morning a
party of blacks set out from the village of Mbonga in the direction of the =
trap
they had constructed the previous day, while among the branches of the trees
above them hovered a naked young giant filled with the curiosity of the wild
things. Manu, the monkey, chattere=
d and
scolded as Tarzan passed, and though he was not afraid of the familiar figu=
re
of the ape-boy, he hugged closer to him the little brown body of his life's
companion. Tarzan laughed as he sa=
w it;
but the laugh was followed by a sudden clouding of his face and a deep sigh=
.
A little farther =
on,
a gaily feathered bird strutted about before the admiring eyes of his
somber-hued mate. It seemed to Tar=
zan
that everything in the jungle was combining to remind him that he had lost =
Teeka;
yet every day of his life he had seen these same things and thought nothing=
of
them.
When the blacks
reached the trap, Taug set up a great commotion. Seizing the bars of his
prison, he shook them frantically, and all the while he roared and growled
terrifically. The blacks were elat=
ed,
for while they had not built their trap for this hairy tree man, they were =
delighted
with their catch.
Tarzan pricked up=
his
ears when he heard the voice of a great ape and, circling quickly until he =
was
down wind from the trap, he sniffed at the air in search of the scent spoor=
of
the prisoner. Nor was it long befo=
re
there came to those delicate nostrils the familiar odor that told Tarzan the
identity of the captive as unerringly as though he had looked upon Taug with
his eyes. Yes, it was Taug, and he=
was
alone.
Tarzan grinned as=
he
approached to discover what the blacks would do to their prisoner. Doubtless they would slay him at once.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Again Tarzan grinned. Now he could have Teeka for his own, wi=
th
none to dispute his right to her. =
As he
watched, he saw the black warriors strip the screen from about the cage, fa=
sten
ropes to it and drag it away along the trail in the direction of their vill=
age.
Tarzan watched un=
til
his rival passed out of sight, still beating upon the bars of his prison and
growling out his anger and his threats. Then the ape-boy turned and swung
rapidly off in search of the tribe, and Teeka.
Once, upon the
journey, he surprised Sheeta and his family in a little overgrown
clearing. The great cat lay stretc=
hed
upon the ground, while his mate, one paw across her lord's savage face, lic=
ked
at the soft white fur at his throat.
Tarzan increased =
his
speed then until he fairly flew through the forest, nor was it long before =
he
came upon the tribe. He saw them b=
efore
they saw him, for of all the jungle creatures, none passed more quietly than
Tarzan of the Apes. He saw Kamma a=
nd her
mate feeding side by side, their hairy bodies rubbing against each other. There was a start=
led
rush and a chorus of angry and frightened snarls, for Tarzan had surprised
them; but there was more, too, than mere nervous shock to account for the
bristling neck hair which remained standing long after the apes had discove=
red
the identity of the newcomer. Tarzan noticed th=
is
as he had noticed it many times in the past--that always his sudden coming
among them left them nervous and unstrung for a considerable time, and that
they one and all found it necessary to satisfy themselves that he was indeed
Tarzan by smelling about him a half dozen or more times before they calmed
down. Pushing through t=
hem,
he made his way toward Teeka; but as he approached her the ape drew away. "Teeka,"=
; he
said, "it is Tarzan. You belo=
ng to
Tarzan. I have come for you."=
The ape drew clos=
er,
looking him over carefully. Finall=
y she
sniffed at him, as though to make assurance doubly sure. "Where is
Taug?" she asked. "The Gomanga=
ni
have him," replied Tarzan.
"They will kill him." In the eyes of the
she, Tarzan saw a wistful expression and a troubled look of sorrow as he to=
ld
her of Taug's fate; but she came quite close and snuggled against him, and
Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, put his arm about her. As he did so he
noticed, with a start, the strange incongruity of that smooth, brown arm
against the black and hairy coat of his lady-love. He recalled the paw of
Sheeta's mate across Sheeta's face--no incongruity there. He thought of little Manu hugging his s=
he,
and how the one seemed to belong to the other.
Even the proud male bird, with his gay plumage, bore a close resembl=
ance
to his quieter spouse, while Numa, but for his shaggy mane, was almost a
counterpart of Sabor, the lioness. The
males and the females differed, it was true; but not with such differences =
as
existed between Tarzan and Teeka. Tarzan was
puzzled. There was something wrong=
. His arm dropped from the shoulder of
Teeka. Very slowly he drew away fr=
om
her. She looked at him with her he=
ad
cocked upon one side. Tarzan rose =
to his
full height and beat upon his breast with his fists. He raised his head toward the heavens a=
nd
opened his mouth. From the depths =
of his
lungs rose the fierce, weird challenge of the victorious bull ape. The tribe turned curiously to eye him.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He had killed nothing, nor was there an=
y antagonist
to be goaded to madness by the savage scream.
No, there was no excuse for it, and they turned back to their feedin=
g,
but with an eye upon the ape-man lest he be preparing to suddenly run amuck=
. As they watched h=
im
they saw him swing into a near-by tree and disappear from sight. Then they forgot him, even Teeka. Mbonga's black
warriors, sweating beneath their strenuous task, and resting often, made sl=
ow
progress toward their village. Alw=
ays
the savage beast in the primitive cage growled and roared when they moved h=
im. He beat upon the bars and slavered at t=
he
mouth. His noise was hideous. They had almost
completed their journey and were making their final rest before forging ahe=
ad
to gain the clearing in which lay their village. A few more minutes would have taken the=
m out
of the forest, and then, doubtless, the thing would not have happened which=
did
happen. A silent figure m=
oved
through the trees above them. Keen=
eyes inspected
the cage and counted the number of warriors.
An alert and daring brain figured upon the chances of success when a
certain plan should be put to the test. Tarzan watched the
blacks lolling in the shade. They =
were
exhausted. Already several of them slept.
He crept closer, pausing just above them. Not a leaf rustled before his stealthy
advance. He waited in the infinite
patience of the beast of prey. Pre=
sently
but two of the warriors remained awake, and one of these was dozing. Tarzan of the Apes
gathered himself, and as he did so the black who did not sleep arose and pa=
ssed
around to the rear of the cage. The
ape-boy followed just above his head.
Taug was eyeing the warrior and emitting low growls. Tarzan feared that the anthropoid would
awaken the sleepers. In a whisper which
was inaudible to the ears of the Negro, Tarzan whispered Taug's name,
cautioning the ape to silence, and Taug's growling ceased. The black approac=
hed
the rear of the cage and examined the fastenings of the door, and as he sto=
od
there the beast above him launched itself from the tree full upon his
back. Steel fingers circled his th=
roat, choking
the cry which sprang to the lips of the terrified man. Strong teeth fastened themselves in his
shoulder, and powerful legs wound themselves about his torso. The black in a fr=
enzy
of terror tried to dislodge the silent thing which clung to him. He threw himself to the ground and roll=
ed
about; but still those mighty fingers closed more and more tightly their de=
adly
grip. The man's mouth g=
aped
wide, his swollen tongue protruded, his eyes started from their sockets; but
the relentless fingers only increased their pressure. Taug was a silent
witness of the struggle. In his fi=
erce
little brain he doubtless wondered what purpose prompted Tarzan to attack t=
he
black. Taug had not forgotten his recent battle with the ape-boy, nor the c=
ause
of it. Now he saw the form of the
Gomangani suddenly go limp. There was a convulsive shiver and the man lay
still. Tarzan sprang from
his prey and ran to the door of the cage.
With nimble fingers he worked rapidly at the thongs which held the d=
oor
in place. Taug could only watch--he
could not help. Presently Tarzan p=
ushed
the thing up a couple of feet and Taug crawled out. The ape would have turned upon the slee=
ping
blacks that he might wreak his pent vengeance; but Tarzan would not permit =
it. Instead, the ape-=
boy
dragged the body of the black within the cage and propped it against the si=
de
bars. Then he lowered the door and=
made fast
the thongs as they had been before. A happy smile lig=
hted
his features as he worked, for one of his principal diversions was the bait=
ing
of the blacks of Mbonga's village. He could imagine their terror when they
awoke and found the dead body of their comrade fast in the cage where they =
had
left the great ape safely secured but a few minutes before. Tarzan and Taug t=
ook
to the trees together, the shaggy coat of the fierce ape brushing the sleek
skin of the English lordling as they passed through the primeval jungle sid=
e by
side. "Go back to
Teeka," said Tarzan. "Sh=
e is
yours. Tarzan does not want her.&q=
uot; "Tarzan has
found another she?" asked Taug. The ape-boy shrug=
ged. "For the
Gomangani there is another Gomangani," he said; "for Numa, the li=
on,
there is Sabor, the lioness; for Sheeta there is a she of his own kind; for
Bara, the deer; for Manu, the monkey; for all the beasts and the birds of t=
he
jungle is there a mate. Only for T=
arzan
of the Apes is there none. Taug is=
an
ape. Teeka is an ape. Go back to Teeka. Tarzan is a man. He will go alone." THE BLACK WARRIORS
labored in the humid heat of the jungle's stifling shade. With war spears they loosened the thick,
black loam and the deep layers of rotting vegetation. With heavy-nailed fingers they scooped =
away the
disintegrated earth from the center of the age-old game trail. Often they ceased their labors to squat,
resting and gossiping, with much laughter, at the edge of the pit they were
digging. Against the boles=
of
near-by trees leaned their long, oval shields of thick buffalo hide, and the
spears of those who were doing the scooping.
Sweat glistened upon their smooth, ebon skins, beneath which rolled
rounded muscles, supple in the perfection of nature's uncontaminated health=
. A reed buck, step=
ping
warily along the trail toward water, halted as a burst of laughter broke up=
on
his startled ears. For a moment he=
stood
statuesque but for his sensitively dilating nostrils; then he wheeled and f=
led
noiselessly from the terrifying presence of man. A hundred yards a=
way,
deep in the tangle of impenetrable jungle, Numa, the lion, raised his massi=
ve
head. Numa had dined well until al=
most daybreak
and it had required much noise to awaken him.
Now he lifted his muzzle and sniffed the air, caught the acrid scent
spoor of the reed buck and the heavy scent of man. But Numa was well filled. With a low, disgusted grunt he rose and=
slunk
away. Brilliantly pluma=
ged
birds with raucous voices darted from tree to tree. Little monkeys, chattering and scolding,
swung through the swaying limbs above the black warriors. Yet they were alone, for the teeming ju=
ngle
with all its myriad life, like the swarming streets of a great metropolis, =
is
one of the loneliest spots in God's great universe. But were they alo=
ne? Above them, light=
ly
balanced upon a leafy tree limb, a gray-eyed youth watched with eager
intentness their every move. The f=
ire of
hate, restrained, smoldered beneath the lad's evident desire to know the pu=
rpose
of the black men's labors. Such a =
one as
these it was who had slain his beloved Kala.
For them there could be naught but enmity, yet he liked well to watch
them, avid as he was for greater knowledge of the ways of man. He saw the pit gr=
ow
in depth until a great hole yawned the width of the trail--a hole which was=
amply
large enough to hold at one time all of the six excavators. Tarzan could not guess the purpose of so
great a labor. And when they cut l=
ong
stakes, sharpened at their upper ends, and set them at intervals upright in=
the
bottom of the pit, his wonderment but increased, nor was it satisfied with =
the
placing of the light cross-poles over the pit, or the careful arrangement of
leaves and earth which completely hid from view the work the black men had =
performed. When they were do=
ne
they surveyed their handiwork with evident satisfaction, and Tarzan surveyed
it, too. Even to his practiced eye=
there
remained scarce a vestige of evidence that the ancient game trail had been
tampered with in any way. So absorbed was t=
he
ape-man in speculation as to the purpose of the covered pit that he permitt=
ed
the blacks to depart in the direction of their village without the usual
baiting which had rendered him the terror of Mbonga's people and had afford=
ed
Tarzan both a vehicle of revenge and a source of inexhaustible delight. Puzzle as he woul=
d,
however, he could not solve the mystery of the concealed pit, for the ways =
of
the blacks were still strange ways to Tarzan.
They had entered his jungle but a short time before--the first of th=
eir
kind to encroach upon the age-old supremacy of the beasts which laired
there. To Numa, the lion, to Tanto=
r, the
elephant, to the great apes and the lesser apes, to each and all of the myr=
iad
creatures of this savage wild, the ways of man were new. They had much to learn of these black, =
hairless
creatures that walked erect upon their hind paws--and they were learning it
slowly, and always to their sorrow. Shortly after the
blacks had departed, Tarzan swung easily to the trail. Sniffing suspiciously, he circled the e=
dge of
the pit. Squatting upon his haunches, he scraped away a little earth to exp=
ose one
of the cross-bars. He sniffed at this, touched it, cocked his head upon one
side, and contemplated it gravely for several minutes. Then he carefully re-covered it, arrang=
ing
the earth as neatly as had the blacks.
This done, he swung himself back among the branches of the trees and
moved off in search of his hairy fellows, the great apes of the tribe of
Kerchak. Once he crossed t=
he
trail of Numa, the lion, pausing for a moment to hurl a soft fruit at the
snarling face of his enemy, and to taunt and insult him, calling him eater =
of
carrion and brother of Dango, the hyena.
Numa, his yellow-green eyes round and burning with concentrated hate,
glared up at the dancing figure above him.
Low growls vibrated his heavy jowls and his great rage transmitted to
his sinuous tail a sharp, whiplike motion; but realizing from past experien=
ce
the futility of long distance argument with the ape-man, he turned presently
and struck off into the tangled vegetation which hid him from the view of h=
is
tormentor. With a final scream of =
jungle
invective and an apelike grimace at his departing foe, Tarzan continued alo=
ng
his way. Another mile and a
shifting wind brought to his keen nostrils a familiar, pungent odor close at
hand, and a moment later there loomed beneath him a huge, gray-black bulk
forging steadily along the jungle trail.
Tarzan seized and broke a small tree limb, and at the sudden cracking
sound the ponderous figure halted. Great
ears were thrown forward, and a long, supple trunk rose quickly to wave to =
and
fro in search of the scent of an enemy, while two weak, little eyes peered =
suspiciously
and futilely about in quest of the author of the noise which had disturbed =
his
peaceful way. Tarzan laughed al=
oud
and came closer above the head of the pachyderm. "Tantor!
Tantor!" he cried. "Bara=
, the
deer, is less fearful than you--you, Tantor, the elephant, greatest of the
jungle folk with the strength of as many Numas as I have toes upon my feet =
and
fingers upon my hands. Tantor, who=
can
uproot great trees, trembles with fear at the sound of a broken twig."=
A rumbling noise,
which might have been either a sign of contempt or a sigh of relief, was
Tantor's only reply as the uplifted trunk and ears came down and the beast's
tail dropped to normal; but his eyes still roved about in search of
Tarzan. He was not long kept in
suspense, however, as to the whereabouts of the ape-man, for a second later=
the
youth dropped lightly to the broad head of his old friend. Then stretching himself at full length,=
he
drummed with his bare toes upon the thick hide, and as his fingers scratched
the more tender surfaces beneath the great ears, he talked to Tantor of the
gossip of the jungle as though the great beast understood every word that he
said. Much there was wh=
ich
Tarzan could make Tantor understand, and though the small talk of the wild =
was
beyond the great, gray dreadnaught of the jungle, he stood with blinking ey=
es
and gently swaying trunk as though drinking in every word of it with keenest
appreciation. As a matter of fact =
it was
the pleasant, friendly voice and caressing hands behind his ears which he
enjoyed, and the close proximity of him whom he had often borne upon his ba=
ck
since Tarzan, as a little child, had once fearlessly approached the great b=
ull,
assuming upon the part of the pachyderm the same friendliness which filled =
his
own heart. In the years of t=
heir
association Tarzan had discovered that he possessed an inexplicable power to
govern and direct his mighty friend. At his bidding, Tantor would come from=
a
great distance--as far as his keen ears could detect the shrill and piercing
summons of the ape-man--and when Tarzan was squatted upon his head, Tantor
would lumber through the jungle in any direction which his rider bade him g=
o. It
was the power of the man-mind over that of the brute and it was just as
effective as though both fully understood its origin, though neither did. For half an hour
Tarzan sprawled there upon Tantor's back.
Time had no meaning for either of them.
Life, as they saw it, consisted principally in keeping their stomachs
filled. To Tarzan this was a less
arduous labor than to Tantor, for Tarzan's stomach was smaller, and being
omnivorous, food was less difficult to obtain.
If one sort did not come readily to hand, there were always many oth=
ers
to satisfy his hunger. He was less
particular as to his diet than Tantor, who would eat only the bark of certa=
in
trees, and the wood of others, while a third appealed to him only through i=
ts leaves,
and these, perhaps, just at certain seasons of the year. Tantor must needs
spend the better part of his life in filling his immense stomach against the
needs of his mighty thews. It is t=
hus
with all the lower orders--their lives are so occupied either with searchin=
g for
food or with the processes of digestion that they have little time for other
considerations. Doubtless it is th=
is
handicap which has kept them from advancing as rapidly as man, who has more
time to give to thought upon other matters. However, these
questions troubled Tarzan but little, and Tantor not at all. What the former knew was that he was ha=
ppy in
the companionship of the elephant. He
did not know why. He did not know =
that
because he was a human being--a normal, healthy human being--he craved some
living thing upon which to lavish his affection. His childhood playmates among the apes =
of
Kerchak were now great, sullen brutes.
They felt nor inspired but little affection. The younger apes Tarzan still played wi=
th
occasionally. In his savage way he=
loved
them; but they were far from satisfying or restful companions. Tantor was a great mountain of calm, of
poise, of stability. It was restfu=
l and
satisfying to sprawl upon his rough pate and pour one's vague hopes and
aspirations into the great ears which flapped ponderously to and fro in
apparent understanding. Of all the
jungle folk, Tantor commanded Tarzan's greatest love since Kala had been ta=
ken
from him. Sometimes Tarzan wondere=
d if
Tantor reciprocated his affection. It
was difficult to know. It was the call of
the stomach--the most compelling and insistent call which the jungle
knows--that took Tarzan finally back to the trees and off in search of food,
while Tantor continued his interrupted journey in the opposite direction. For an hour the
ape-man foraged. A lofty nest yiel=
ded
its fresh, warm harvest. Fruits,
berries, and tender plantain found a place upon his menu in the order that =
he
happened upon them, for he did not seek such foods. Meat, meat, meat! It was always meat th=
at
Tarzan of the Apes hunted; but sometimes meat eluded him, as today. And as he roamed =
the
jungle his active mind busied itself not alone with his hunting, but with m=
any
other subjects. He had a habit of =
recalling
often the events of the preceding days and hours. He lived over his visit with Tantor; he
cogitated upon the digging blacks and the strange, covered pit they had left
behind them. He wondered again and=
again
what its purpose might be. He comp=
ared
perceptions and arrived at judgments. He
compared judgments, reaching conclusions--not always correct ones, it is tr=
ue,
but at least he used his brain for the purpose God intended it, which was t=
he
less difficult because he was not handicapped by the second-hand, and usual=
ly
erroneous, judgment of others. And as he puzzled
over the covered pit, there loomed suddenly before his mental vision a huge,
gray-black bulk which lumbered ponderously along a jungle trail. Instantly Tarzan tensed to the shock of=
a
sudden fear. Decision and action u=
sually
occurred simultaneously in the life of the ape-man, and now he was away thr=
ough
the leafy branches ere the realization of the pit's purpose had scarce form=
ed
in his mind. Swinging from swa=
ying
limb to swaying limb, he raced through the middle terraces where the trees =
grew
close together. Again he dropped t=
o the ground
and sped, silently and light of foot, over the carpet of decaying vegetatio=
n,
only to leap again into the trees where the tangled undergrowth precluded r=
apid
advance upon the surface. In his anxiety he
cast discretion to the winds. The
caution of the beast was lost in the loyalty of the man, and so it came tha=
t he
entered a large clearing, denuded of trees, without a thought of what might=
lie
there or upon the farther edge to dispute the way with him. He was half way
across when directly in his path and but a few yards away there rose from a
clump of tall grasses a half dozen chattering birds. Instantly Tarzan turned aside, for he k=
new
well enough what manner of creature the presence of these little sentinels
proclaimed. Simultaneously Buto, the rhinoceros, scrambled to his short legs
and charged furiously. Haphazard c=
harges
Buto, the rhinoceros. With his wea=
k eyes
he sees but poorly even at short distances, and whether his erratic rushes =
are
due to the panic of fear as he attempts to escape, or to the irascible temp=
er
with which he is generally credited, it is difficult to determine. Nor is the matter of little moment to o=
ne
whom Buto charges, for if he be caught and tossed, the chances are that nau=
ght
will interest him thereafter. And today it chan=
ced
that Buto bore down straight upon Tarzan, across the few yards of knee-deep
grass which separated them. Accide=
nt started
him in the direction of the ape-man, and then his weak eyes discerned the
enemy, and with a series of snorts he charged straight for him. The little rhino birds fluttered and ci=
rcled
about their giant ward. Among the
branches of the trees at the edge of the clearing, a score or more monkeys
chattered and scolded as the loud snorts of the angry beast sent them scurr=
ying
affrightedly to the upper terraces.
Tarzan alone appeared indifferent and serene. Directly in the p=
ath
of the charge he stood. There had =
been
no time to seek safety in the trees beyond the clearing, nor had Tarzan any
mind to delay his journey because of Buto.
He had met the stupid beast before and held him in fine contempt. And now Buto was =
upon
him, the massive head lowered and the long, heavy horn inclined for the
frightful work for which nature had designed it; but as he struck upward, h=
is
weapon raked only thin air, for the ape-man had sprung lightly aloft with a
catlike leap that carried him above the threatening horn to the broad back =
of
the rhinoceros. Another spring and he was on the ground behind the brute and
racing like a deer for the trees. Buto, angered and
mystified by the strange disappearance of his prey, wheeled and charged
frantically in another direction, which chanced to be not the direction of
Tarzan's flight, and so the ape-man came in safety to the trees and continu=
ed
on his swift way through the forest. Some distance ahe=
ad
of him Tantor moved steadily along the well-worn elephant trail, and ahead =
of
Tantor a crouching, black warrior listened intently in the middle of the
path. Presently he heard the sound=
for which
he had been hoping--the cracking, snapping sound which heralded the approac=
h of
an elephant. To his right and =
left
in other parts of the jungle other warriors were watching. A low signal, passed from one to anothe=
r, apprised
the most distant that the quarry was afoot.
Rapidly they converged toward the trail, taking positions in trees d=
own
wind from the point at which Tantor must pass them. Silently they waited and presently were=
rewarded
by the sight of a mighty tusker carrying an amount of ivory in his long tus=
ks
that set their greedy hearts to palpitating. No sooner had he
passed their positions than the warriors clambered from their perches. No longer were they silent, but instead
clapped their hands and shouted as they reached the ground. For an instant Tantor, the elephant, pa=
used
with upraised trunk and tail, with great ears up-pricked, and then he swung=
on
along the trail at a rapid, shuffling pace--straight toward the covered pit
with its sharpened stakes upstanding in the ground. Behind him came t=
he
yelling warriors, urging him on in the rapid flight which would not permit a
careful examination of the ground before him. Tantor, the elephant, who cou=
ld
have turned and scattered his adversaries with a single charge, fled like a
frightened deer--fled toward a hideous, torturing death. And behind them a=
ll
came Tarzan of the Apes, racing through the jungle forest with the speed and
agility of a squirrel, for he had heard the shouts of the warriors and had
interpreted them correctly. Once h=
e uttered
a piercing call that reverberated through the jungle; but Tantor, in the pa=
nic
of terror, either failed to hear, or hearing, dared not pause to heed. Now the giant
pachyderm was but a few yards from the hidden death lurking in his path, and
the blacks, certain of success, were screaming and dancing in his wake, wav=
ing
their war spears and celebrating in advance the acquisition of the splendid
ivory carried by their prey and the surfeit of elephant meat which would be
theirs this night. So intent were th=
ey
upon their gratulations that they entirely failed to note the silent passag=
e of
the man-beast above their heads, nor did Tantor, either, see or hear him, e=
ven
though Tarzan called to him to stop. A few more steps
would precipitate Tantor upon the sharpened stakes; Tarzan fairly flew thro=
ugh
the trees until he had come abreast of the fleeing animal and then had pass=
ed
him. At the pit's verge the ape-ma=
n dropped
to the ground in the center of the trail.
Tantor was almost upon him before his weak eyes permitted him to
recognize his old friend. "Stop!"
cried Tarzan, and the great beast halted to the upraised hand. Tarzan turned and
kicked aside some of the brush which hid the pit. Instantly Tantor saw and
understood. "Fight!"
growled Tarzan. "They are com=
ing
behind you." But Tantor, the elephant, is a huge bunch of nerves, and =
now
he was half panic-stricken by terror. Before him yawned=
the
pit, how far he did not know, but to right and left lay the primeval jungle
untouched by man. With a squeal the
great beast turned suddenly at right angles and burst his noisy way through=
the
solid wall of matted vegetation that would have stopped any but him. Tarzan, standing =
upon
the edge of the pit, smiled as he watched Tantor's undignified flight. Soon the blacks would come. It was best that Tarzan of the Apes fad=
ed
from the scene. He essayed a step =
from the
pit's edge, and as he threw the weight of his body upon his left foot, the
earth crumbled away. Tarzan made a
single Herculean effort to throw himself forward, but it was too late. Backward and downward he went toward the
sharpened stakes in the bottom of the pit. When, a moment la=
ter,
the blacks came they saw even from a distance that Tantor had eluded them, =
for
the size of the hole in the pit covering was too small to have accommodated=
the
huge bulk of an elephant. At first=
they
thought that their prey had put one great foot through the top and then,
warned, drawn back; but when they had come to the pit's verge and peered ov=
er,
their eyes went wide in astonishment, for, quiet and still, at the bottom l=
ay
the naked figure of a white giant. Some of them there
had glimpsed this forest god before and they drew back in terror, awed by t=
he
presence which they had for some time believed to possess the miraculous po=
wers
of a demon; but others there were who pushed forward, thinking only of the
capture of an enemy, and these leaped into the pit and lifted Tarzan out. There was no scar
upon his body. None of the sharpen=
ed
stakes had pierced him--only a swollen spot at the base of the brain indica=
ted
the nature of his injury. In the f=
alling
backward his head had struck upon the side of one of the stakes, rendering =
him
unconscious. The blacks were quick=
to
discover this, and equally quick to bind their prisoner's arms and legs bef=
ore
he should regain consciousness, for they had learned to harbor a wholesome
respect for this strange man-beast that consorted with the hairy tree folk.=
They had carried =
him
but a short distance toward their village when the ape-man's eyelids quiver=
ed
and raised. He looked about him
wonderingly for a moment, and then full consciousness returned and he reali=
zed
the seriousness of his predicament.
Accustomed almost from birth to relying solely upon his own resource=
s,
he did not cast about for outside aid now, but devoted his mind to a
consideration of the possibilities for escape which lay within himself and =
his
own powers. He did not dare t=
est
the strength of his bonds while the blacks were carrying him, for fear they
would become apprehensive and add to them. Presently his captors discovered
that he was conscious, and as they had little stomach for carrying a heavy =
man
through the jungle heat, they set him upon his feet and forced him forward
among them, pricking him now and then with their spears, yet with every
manifestation of the superstitious awe in which they held him. When they discove=
red
that their prodding brought no outward evidence of suffering, their awe
increased, so that they soon desisted, half believing that this strange whi=
te
giant was a supernatural being and so was immune from pain. As they approached
their village, they shouted aloud the victorious cries of successful warrio=
rs,
so that by the time they reached the gate, dancing and waving their spears,=
a
great crowd of men, women, and children were gathered there to greet them a=
nd
hear the story of their adventure. As the eyes of the
villagers fell upon the prisoner, they went wild, and heavy jaws fell open =
in
astonishment and incredulity. For =
months
they had lived in perpetual terror of a weird, white demon whom but few had
ever glimpsed and lived to describe.
Warriors had disappeared from the paths almost within sight of the
village and from the midst of their companions as mysteriously and complete=
ly
as though they had been swallowed by the earth, and later, at night, their =
dead
bodies had fallen, as from the heavens, into the village street. This fearsome
creature had appeared by night in the huts of the village, killed, and
disappeared, leaving behind him in the huts with his dead, strange and
terrifying evidences of an uncanny sense of humor. But now he was in
their power! No longer could he terrorize them. Slowly the realization of t=
his
dawned upon them. A woman, screami=
ng, ran
forward and struck the ape-man across the face.
Another and another followed her example, until Tarzan of the Apes w=
as
surrounded by a fighting, clawing, yelling mob of natives. And then Mbonga, =
the
chief, came, and laying his spear heavily across the shoulders of his peopl=
e,
drove them from their prey. "We will save
him until night," he said. Far out in the ju=
ngle
Tantor, the elephant, his first panic of fear allayed, stood with up-pricked
ears and undulating trunk. What wa=
s passing
through the convolutions of his savage brain? Could he be searching for
Tarzan? Could he recall and measur=
e the
service the ape-man had performed for him? Of that there can be no doubt. The screams of the
infuriated villagers came faintly to his sensitive ears, and he wheeled, as
though in terror, contemplating flight; but something stayed him, and again=
he
turned about, raised his trunk, and gave voice to a shrill cry. Then he stood
listening. In the distant vi=
llage
where Mbonga had restored quiet and order, the voice of Tantor was scarcely
audible to the blacks, but to the keen ears of Tarzan of the Apes it bore i=
ts
message. His captors were
leading him to a hut where he might be confined and guarded against the com=
ing
of the nocturnal orgy that would mark his torture-laden death. He halted as he heard the notes of Tant=
or's
call, and raising his head, gave vent to a terrifying scream that sent cold=
chills
through the superstitious blacks and caused the warriors who guarded him to
leap back even though their prisoner's arms were securely bound behind him.=
With raised spears
they encircled him as for a moment longer he stood listening. Faintly from the distance came another,=
an
answering cry, and Tarzan of the Apes, satisfied, turned and quietly pursued
his way toward the hut where he was to be imprisoned. The afternoon wore
on. From the surrounding village t=
he
ape-man heard the bustle of preparation for the feast. Through the doorway of the hut he saw t=
he
women laying the cooking fires and filling their earthen caldrons with wate=
r;
but above it all his ears were bent across the jungle in eager listening for
the coming of Tantor. Even Tarzan but h=
alf
believed that he would come. He kn=
ew
Tantor even better than Tantor knew himself.
He knew the timid heart which lay in the giant body. He knew the panic of terror which the s=
cent
of the Gomangani inspired within that savage breast, and as night drew on, =
hope
died within his heart and in the stoic calm of the wild beast which he was,=
he
resigned himself to meet the fate which awaited him. All afternoon he =
had
been working, working, working with the bonds that held his wrists. Very slowly they were giving. He might free his hands before they cam=
e to
lead him out to be butchered, and if he did--Tarzan licked his lips in
anticipation, and smiled a cold, grim smile.
He could imagine the feel of soft flesh beneath his fingers and the
sinking of his white teeth into the throats of his foemen. He would let them taste his wrath befor=
e they
overpowered him! At last they
came--painted, befeathered warriors--even more hideous than nature had inte=
nded
them. They came and pushed him int=
o the
open, where his appearance was greeted by wild shouts from the assembled vi=
llagers. To the stake they=
led
him, and as they pushed him roughly against it preparatory to binding him t=
here
securely for the dance of death that would presently encircle him, Tarzan
tensed his mighty thews and with a single, powerful wrench parted the loose=
ned
thongs which had secured his hands. Like
thought, for quickness, he leaped forward among the warriors nearest him. Striking, clawing,
and snapping, the ape-man fought--fought as his foster people had taught hi=
m to
fight--fought like a wild beast cornered.
His strength, his agility, his courage, and his intelligence rendered
him easily a match for half a dozen black men in a hand-to-hand struggle, b=
ut
not even Tarzan of the Apes could hope to successfully cope with half a
hundred. Slowly they were
overpowering him, though a score of them bled from ugly wounds, and two lay
very still beneath the trampling feet, and the rolling bodies of the
contestants. Overpower him they
might, but could they keep him overpowered while they bound him? A half hou=
r of
desperate endeavor convinced them that they could not, and so Mbonga, who, =
like
all good rulers, had circled in the safety of the background, called to one=
to
work his way in and spear the victim.
Gradually, through the milling, battling men, the warrior approached=
the
object of his quest. He stood with poi=
sed
spear above his head waiting for the instant that would expose a vulnerable
part of the ape-man's body and still not endanger one of the blacks. Closer and closer he edged about, follo=
wing
the movements of the twisting, scuffling combatants. The growls of the ape-man sent cold chi=
lls up
the warrior's spine, causing him to go carefully lest he miss at the first =
cast
and lay himself open to an attack from those merciless teeth and mighty han=
ds. At last he found =
an
opening. Higher he raised his spea=
r,
tensing his muscles, rolling beneath his glistening, ebon hide, and then fr=
om
the jungle just beyond the palisade came a thunderous crashing. The spear-hand paused, the black cast a=
quick
glance in the direction of the disturbance, as did the others of the blacks=
who
were not occupied with the subjugation of the ape-man. In the glare of t=
he
fires they saw a huge bulk topping the barrier. They saw the palisade belly=
and
sway inward. They saw it burst as =
though
built of straws, and an instant later Tantor, the elephant, thundered down =
upon
them. To right and left=
the
blacks fled, screaming in terror. =
Some
who hovered upon the verge of the strife with Tarzan heard and made good th=
eir
escape, but a half dozen there were so wrapt in the blood-madness of battle
that they failed to note the approach of the giant tusker. Upon these Tantor
charged, trumpeting furiously. Abo=
ve
them he stopped, his sensitive trunk weaving among them, and there, at the =
bottom,
he found Tarzan, bloody, but still battling. A warrior turned =
his
eyes upward from the melee. Above =
him
towered the gigantic bulk of the pachyderm, the little eyes flashing with t=
he reflected
light of the fires--wicked, frightful, terrifying. The warrior screamed, and as he screame=
d, the
sinuous trunk encircled him, lifted him high above the ground, and hurled h=
im
far after the fleeing crowd. Another and anoth=
er
Tantor wrenched from the body of the ape-man, throwing them to right and to
left, where they lay either moaning or very quiet, as death came slowly or =
at
once. At a distance Mbo=
nga
rallied his warriors. His greedy e=
yes
had noted the great ivory tusks of the bull.
The first panic of terror relieved, he urged his men forward to atta=
ck
with their heavy elephant spears; but as they came, Tantor swung Tarzan to =
his
broad head, and, wheeling, lumbered off into the jungle through the great r=
ent
he had made in the palisade. Elephant hunters =
may
be right when they aver that this animal would not have rendered such servi=
ce
to a man, but to Tantor, Tarzan was not a man--he was but a fellow jungle
beast. And so it was that
Tantor, the elephant, discharged an obligation to Tarzan of the Apes, cemen=
ting
even more closely the friendship that had existed between them since Tarzan=
as
a little, brown boy rode upon Tantor's huge back through the moonlit jungle
beneath the equatorial stars. TEEKA HAD BECOME a
mother. Tarzan of the Apes was int=
ensely
interested, much more so, in fact, than Taug, the father. Tarzan was very fond of Teeka. Even the cares of prospective motherhoo=
d had
not entirely quenched the fires of carefree youth, and Teeka had remained a=
good-natured
playmate even at an age when other shes of the tribe of Kerchak had assumed=
the
sullen dignity of maturity. She yet
retained her childish delight in the primitive games of tag and
hide-and-go-seek which Tarzan's fertile man-mind had evolved. To play tag throu=
gh
the tree tops is an exciting and inspiring pastime. Tarzan delighted in it,=
but
the bulls of his childhood had long since abandoned such childish
practices. Teeka, though, had been=
keen
for it always until shortly before the baby came; but with the advent of he=
r first-born,
even Teeka changed. The evidence of t=
he
change surprised and hurt Tarzan immeasurably.
One morning he saw Teeka squatted upon a low branch hugging something
very close to her hairy breast--a wee something which squirmed and wriggled=
. Tarzan
approached filled with the curiosity which is common to all creatures endow=
ed
with brains which have progressed beyond the microscopic stage. Teeka rolled her =
eyes
in his direction and strained the squirming mite still closer to her. Tarzan came nearer. Teeka drew away and bared her fangs. Again Teeka drew =
back
her upper lip in a warning snarl. =
Tarzan
reached forth a hand, cautiously, to touch the thing which Teeka held, and =
Teeka,
with a hideous growl, turned suddenly upon him.
Her teeth sank into the flesh of his forearm before the ape-man could
snatch it away, and she pursued him for a short distance as he retreated
incontinently through the trees; but Teeka, carrying her baby, could not
overtake him. At a safe distance T=
arzan
stopped and turned to regard his erstwhile play-fellow in unconcealed
astonishment. What had happened to=
so
alter the gentle Teeka? She had so covered the thing in her arms that Tarzan
had not yet been able to recognize it for what it was; but now, as she turn=
ed
from the pursuit of him, he saw it.
Through his pain and chagrin he smiled, for Tarzan had seen young ape
mothers before. In a few days she =
would
be less suspicious. Still Tarzan w=
as hurt;
it was not right that Teeka, of all others, should fear him. Why, not for t=
he
world would he harm her, or her balu, which is the ape word for baby. And now, above the
pain of his injured arm and the hurt to his pride, rose a still stronger de=
sire
to come close and inspect the new-born son of Taug. Possibly you will wonder that Tarzan of=
the
Apes, mighty fighter that he was, should have fled before the irritable att=
ack
of a she, or that he should hesitate to return for the satisfaction of his =
curiosity
when with ease he might have vanquished the weakened mother of the new-born
cub; but you need not wonder. Were=
you
an ape, you would know that only a bull in the throes of madness will turn =
upon
a female other than to gently chastise her, with the occasional exception of
the individual whom we find exemplified among our own kind, and who delight=
s in
beating up his better half because she happens to be smaller and weaker than
he. Tarzan again came
toward the young mother--warily and with his line of retreat safely open. "Tarzan of t=
he
Apes will not harm Teeka's balu," he said.
"Let me see it." "Go away!&qu=
ot;
commanded Teeka. "Go away, or=
I
will kill you." "Let me see
it," urged Tarzan. "Go away,&qu=
ot;
reiterated the she-ape. "Here comes Taug.
He will make you go away. T=
aug
will kill you. This is Taug's
balu." A savage growl cl=
ose
behind him apprised Tarzan of the nearness of Taug, and the fact that the b=
ull
had heard the warnings and threats of his mate and was coming to her succor=
. Now Taug, as well=
as
Teeka, had been Tarzan's play-fellow while the bull was still young enough =
to
wish to play. Once Tarzan had save=
d Taug's
life; but the memory of an ape is not overlong, nor would gratitude rise ab=
ove
the parental instinct. Tarzan and =
Taug
had once measured strength, and Tarzan had been victorious. That fact Taug could be depended upon s=
till
to remember; but even so, he might readily face another defeat for his
first-born--if he chanced to be in the proper mood. From his hideous
growls, which now rose in strength and volume, he seemed to be in quite the
mood. Now Tarzan felt no fear of T=
aug,
nor did the unwritten law of the jungle demand that he should flee from bat=
tle
with any male, unless he cared to from purely personal reasons. But Tarzan
liked Taug. He had no grudge again=
st
him, and his man-mind told him what the mind of an ape would never have
deduced--that Taug's attitude in no sense indicated hatred. It was but the instinctive urge of the =
male
to protect its offspring and its mate. Tarzan had no des=
ire
to battle with Taug, nor did the blood of his English ancestors relish the
thought of flight, yet when the bull charged, Tarzan leaped nimbly to one s=
ide,
and thus encouraged, Taug wheeled and rushed again madly to the attack. Perhaps the memory of a past defeat at
Tarzan's hands goaded him. Perhaps=
the
fact that Teeka sat there watching him aroused a desire to vanquish the ape=
-man
before her eyes, for in the breast of every jungle male lurks a vast egotis=
m which
finds expression in the performance of deeds of derring-do before an audien=
ce
of the opposite sex. At the ape-man's =
side
swung his long grass rope--the play-thing of yesterday, the weapon of
today--and as Taug charged the second time, Tarzan slipped the coils over h=
is
head and deftly shook out the sliding noose as he again nimbly eluded the
ungainly beast. Before the ape cou=
ld
turn again, Tarzan had fled far aloft among the branches of the upper terra=
ce. Taug, now wrought=
to
a frenzy of real rage, followed him.
Teeka peered upward at them. It was
difficult to say whether she was interested. Taug could not climb as rapidl=
y as
Tarzan, so the latter reached the high levels to which the heavy ape dared =
not
follow before the former overtook him.
There he halted and looked down upon his pursuer, making faces at him
and calling him such choice names as occurred to the fertile man-brain. The=
n,
when he had worked Taug to such a pitch of foaming rage that the great bull
fairly danced upon the bending limb beneath him, Tarzan's hand shot suddenly
outward, a widening noose dropped swiftly through the air, there was a quick
jerk as it settled about Taug, falling to his knees, a jerk that tightened =
it
securely about the hairy legs of the anthropoid. Taug, slow of wit,
realized too late the intention of his tormentor. He scrambled to escape, b=
ut
the ape-man gave the rope a tremendous jerk that pulled Taug from his perch,
and a moment later, growling hideously, the ape hung head downward thirty f=
eet
above the ground. Tarzan secured the
rope to a stout limb and descended to a point close to Taug. And he saw Teeka feeding by herself.
Chapter 2 - The Capture of Tarzan
But did he feel gratitude? Would he have
risked his own life to have saved Tarzan could he have known of the danger
which confronted his friend? You will doubt it.
Anyone at all familiar with elephants will doubt it. Englishmen who have hunted much with
elephants in India will tell you that they never have heard of an instance =
in
which one of these animals has gone to the aid of a man in danger, even tho=
ugh
the man had often befriended it. A=
nd so
it is to be doubted that Tantor would have attempted to overcome his
instinctive fear of the black men in an effort to succor Tarzan. A blow sent one to earth, as, growling =
and snarling,
the beast-man leaped upon the breast of another. His fangs were buried instantly in the =
jugular
of his adversary and then a half hundred black men had leaped upon him and
borne him to earth.
Chapter 3 - The Fight for the Balu
Again Teeka growled ferociously. Tarzan expostulated.
"Taug,"=
he
said, "you are as stupid as Buto, the rhinoceros. Now you may hang here until you get a l=
ittle
sense in your thick head. You may =
hang
here and watch while I go and talk with Teeka."
Taug blustered and
threatened, but Tarzan only grinned at him as he dropped lightly to the low=
er
levels. Here he again approached T=
eeka only
to be again greeted with bared fangs and menacing growls. He sought to placate her; he urged his
friendly intentions, and craned his neck to have a look at Teeka's balu; but
the she-ape was not to be persuaded that he meant other than harm to her li=
ttle
one. Her motherhood was still so n=
ew
that reason was yet subservient to instinct.
Realizing the futility of attempting to catch and chastise Tarzan, Teeka sought to escape him. She dropped to the ground and lumbered across the little clearing about which the apes of the tribe were = disposed in rest or in the search of food, and presently Tarzan abandoned his attemp= ts to persuade her to permit a close examination of the balu. The ape-man would have liked to handle = the tiny thing. The very sight of it awakened in his breast a strange yearning. He wished to cuddle and fondle the grotesque little ape-thing. It was Teeka's balu and Tarzan had once lavished his young affections upon Teeka.<= o:p>
But now his atten=
tion
was diverted by the voice of Taug. The
threats that had filled the ape's mouth had turned to pleas. The tightening noose was stopping the
circulation of the blood in his legs--he was beginning to suffer. Several apes sat near him highly intere=
sted
in his predicament. They made
uncomplimentary remarks about him, for each of them had felt the weight of
Taug's mighty hands and the strength of his great jaws. They were enjoying revenge.
Teeka, seeing that
Tarzan had turned back toward the trees, had halted in the center of the
clearing, and there she sat hugging her balu and casting suspicious glances
here and there. With the coming of=
the balu,
Teeka's care-free world had suddenly become peopled with innumerable
enemies. She saw an implacable foe=
in
Tarzan, always heretofore her best friend.
Even poor old Mumga, half blind and almost entirely toothless, searc=
hing
patiently for grubworms beneath a fallen log, represented to her a malignan=
t spirit
thirsting for the blood of little balus.
And while Teeka
guarded suspiciously against harm, where there was no harm, she failed to n=
ote
two baleful, yellow-green eyes staring fixedly at her from behind a clump of
bushes at the opposite side of the clearing.
Hollow from hunge=
r,
Sheeta, the panther, glared greedily at the tempting meat so close at hand,=
but
the sight of the great bulls beyond gave him pause.
Ah, if the she-ape
with her balu would but come just a trifle nearer! A quick spring and he wo=
uld
be upon them and away again with his meat before the bulls could prevent.
The tip of his ta=
wny
tail moved in spasmodic little jerks; his lower jaw hung low, exposing a red
tongue and yellow fangs. But all t=
his Teeka
did not see, nor did any other of the apes who were feeding or resting about
her. Nor did Tarzan or the apes in=
the
trees.
Hearing the abuse
which the bulls were pouring upon the helpless Taug, Tarzan clambered quick=
ly
among them. One was edging closer =
and
leaning far out in an effort to reach the dangling ape. He had worked himself into quite a fury
through recollection of the last occasion upon which Taug had mauled him, a=
nd
now he was bent upon revenge. Once=
he
had grasped the swinging ape, he would quickly have drawn him within reach =
of
his jaws. Tarzan saw and was wroth=
. He loved a fair fight, but the thing wh=
ich
this ape contemplated revolted him.
Already a hairy hand had clutched the helpless Taug when, with an an=
gry
growl of protest, Tarzan leaped to the branch at the attacking ape's side, =
and
with a single mighty cuff, swept him from his perch.
Surprised and
enraged, the bull clutched madly for support as he toppled sidewise, and th=
en
with an agile movement succeeded in projecting himself toward another limb a
few feet below. Here he found a
hand-hold, quickly righted himself, and as quickly clambered upward to be
revenged upon Tarzan, but the ape-man was otherwise engaged and did not wis=
h to
be interrupted. He was explaining =
again
to Taug the depths of the latter's abysmal ignorance, and pointing out how =
much
greater and mightier was Tarzan of the Apes than Taug or any other ape.
In the end he wou=
ld
release Taug, but not until Taug was fully acquainted with his own
inferiority. And then the maddened=
bull
came from beneath, and instantly Tarzan was transformed from a good-natured=
, teasing
youth into a snarling, savage beast.
Along his scalp the hair bristled: his upper lip drew back that his
fighting fangs might be uncovered and ready.
He did not wait for the bull to reach him, for something in the
appearance or the voice of the attacker aroused within the ape-man a feelin=
g of
belligerent antagonism that would not be denied. With a scream that carried no human not=
e,
Tarzan leaped straight at the throat of the attacker.
The impetuosity of
this act and the weight and momentum of his body carried the bull backward,
clutching and clawing for support, down through the leafy branches of the
tree. For fifteen feet the two fel=
l, Tarzan's
teeth buried in the jugular of his opponent, when a stout branch stopped th=
eir
descent. The bull struck full upon=
the
small of his back across the limb, hung there for a moment with the ape-man=
still
upon his breast, and then toppled over toward the ground.
Tarzan had felt t=
he
instantaneous relaxation of the body beneath him after the heavy impact with
the tree limb, and as the other turned completely over and started again up=
on
its fall toward the ground, he reached forth a hand and caught the branch in
time to stay his own descent, while the ape dropped like a plummet to the f=
oot
of the tree.
Tarzan looked
downward for a moment upon the still form of his late antagonist, then he r=
ose
to his full height, swelled his deep chest, smote upon it with his clenched
fist and roared out the uncanny challenge of the victorious bull ape.
Even Sheeta, the
panther, crouched for a spring at the edge of the little clearing, moved
uneasily as the mighty voice sent its weird cry reverberating through the
jungle. To right and left, nervous=
ly, glanced
Sheeta, as though assuring himself that the way of escape lay ready at hand=
.
"I am Tarzan=
of
the Apes," boasted the ape-man; "mighty hunter, mighty fighter! N=
one
in all the jungle so great as Tarzan."
Then he made his =
way
back in the direction of Taug. Tee=
ka had
watched the happenings in the tree. She
had even placed her precious balu upon the soft grasses and come a little
nearer that she might better witness all that was passing in the branches a=
bove
her. In her heart of hearts did she
still esteem the smooth-skinned Tarzan?
Did her savage breast swell with pride as she witnessed his victory =
over
the ape? You will have to ask Teeka.
And Sheeta, the
panther, saw that the she-ape had left her cub alone among the grasses. He moved his tail again, as though this
closest approximation of lashing in which he dared indulge might stimulate =
his momentarily
waned courage. The cry of the vict=
orious
ape-man still held his nerves beneath its spell. It would be several minutes before he a=
gain
could bring himself to the point of charging into view of the giant
anthropoids.
And as he regathe=
red
his forces, Tarzan reached Taug's side, and then clambering higher up to the
point where the end of the grass rope was made fast, he unloosed it and low=
ered
the ape slowly downward, swinging him in until the clutching hands fastened
upon a limb.
Quickly Taug drew
himself to a position of safety and shook off the noose. In his rage-maddened heart was no room =
for
gratitude to the ape-man. He recalled only the fact that Tarzan had laid th=
is
painful indignity upon him. He wou=
ld be
revenged, but just at present his legs were so numb and his head so dizzy t=
hat
he must postpone the gratification of his vengeance.
Tarzan was coiling
his rope the while he lectured Taug on the futility of pitting his poor pow=
ers,
physical and intellectual, against those of his betters. Teeka had come close beneath the tree a=
nd was
peering upward. Sheeta was worming=
his
way stealthily forward, his belly close to the ground. In another moment he would be clear of =
the
underbrush and ready for the rapid charge and the quick retreat that would =
end
the brief existence of Teeka's balu.
Then Tarzan chanc=
ed
to look up and across the clearing.
Instantly his attitude of good-natured bantering and pompous
boastfulness dropped from him. Sil=
ently
and swiftly he shot downward toward the ground. Teeka, seeing him coming, a=
nd
thinking that he was after her or her balu, bristled and prepared to
fight. But Tarzan sped by her, and=
as he
went, her eyes followed him and she saw the cause of his sudden descent and=
his
rapid charge across the clearing. =
There
in full sight now was Sheeta, the panther, stalking slowly toward the tiny,
wriggling balu which lay among the grasses many yards away.
Teeka gave voice =
to a
shrill scream of terror and of warning as she dashed after the ape-man. She=
eta
saw Tarzan coming. He saw the she-=
ape's
cub before him, and he thought that this other was bent upon robbing him of=
his
prey. With an angry growl, he char=
ged.
Taug, warned by
Teeka's cry, came lumbering down to her assistance. Several other bulls,
growling and barking, closed in toward the clearing, but they were all much
farther from the balu and the panther than was Tarzan of the Apes, so it was
that Sheeta and the ape-man reached Teeka's little one almost simultaneousl=
y;
and there they stood, one upon either side of it, baring their fangs and
snarling at each other over the little creature.
Sheeta was afraid=
to
seize the balu, for thus he would give the ape-man an opening for attack; a=
nd
for the same reason Tarzan hesitated to snatch the panther's prey out of ha=
rm's
way, for had he stooped to accomplish this, the great beast would have been
upon him in an instant. Thus they =
stood
while Teeka came across the clearing, going more slowly as she neared the p=
anther,
for even her mother love could scarce overcome her instinctive terror of th=
is
natural enemy of her kind.
Behind her came T=
aug,
warily and with many pauses and much bluster, and still behind him came oth=
er
bulls, snarling ferociously and uttering their uncanny challenges. Sheeta's yellow-green eyes glared terri=
bly at
Tarzan, and past Tarzan they shot brief glances at the apes of Kerchak
advancing upon him. Discretion pro=
mpted
him to turn and flee, but hunger and the close proximity of the tempting mo=
rsel
in the grass before him urged him to remain.
He reached forth a paw toward Teeka's balu, and as he did so, with a
savage guttural, Tarzan of the Apes was upon him.
The panther reare=
d to
meet the ape-man's attack. He swun=
g a
frightful raking blow for Tarzan that would have wiped his face away had it=
landed,
but it did not land, for Tarzan ducked beneath it and closed, his long knife
ready in one strong hand--the knife of his dead father, of the father he ne=
ver
had known.
Instantly the balu
was forgotten by Sheeta, the panther. He
now thought only of tearing to ribbons with his powerful talons the flesh of
his antagonist, of burying his long, yellow fangs in the soft, smooth hide =
of
the ape-man, but Tarzan had fought before with clawed creatures of the
jungle. Before now he had battled =
with
fanged monsters, nor always had he come away unscathed. He knew the risk that he ran, but Tarza=
n of
the Apes, inured to the sight of suffering and death, shrank from neither, =
for
he feared neither.
The instant that =
he
dodged beneath Sheeta's blow, he leaped to the beast's rear and then full u=
pon
the tawny back, burying his teeth in Sheeta's neck and the fingers of one h=
and
in the fur at the throat, and with the other hand he drove his blade into
Sheeta's side.
Over and over upon
the grass rolled Sheeta, growling and screaming, clawing and biting, in a m=
ad
effort to dislodge his antagonist or get some portion of his body within ra=
nge
of teeth or talons.
As Tarzan leaped =
to
close quarters with the panther, Teeka had run quickly in and snatched up h=
er
balu. Now she sat upon a high bran=
ch, safe
out of harm's way, cuddling the little thing close to her hairy breast, the
while her savage little eyes bored down upon the contestants in the clearin=
g,
and her ferocious voice urged Taug and the other bulls to leap into the mel=
ee.
Thus goaded the b=
ulls
came closer, redoubling their hideous clamor; but Sheeta was already
sufficiently engaged--he did not even hear them. Once he succeeded in parti=
ally
dislodging the ape-man from his back, so that Tarzan swung for an instant in
front of those awful talons, and in the brief instant before he could regain
his former hold, a raking blow from a hind paw laid open one leg from hip to
knee.
It was the sight and smell of this blood=
, possibly,
which wrought upon the encircling apes; but it was Taug who really was
responsible for the thing they did.
Taug, but a moment
before filled with rage toward Tarzan of the Apes, stood close to the battl=
ing
pair, his red-rimmed, wicked little eyes glaring at them. What was passing in his savage brain? D=
id he
gloat over the unenviable position of his recent tormentor? Did he long to =
see
Sheeta's great fangs sink into the soft throat of the ape-man? Or did he
realize the courageous unselfishness that had prompted Tarzan to rush to the
rescue and imperil his life for Teeka's balu--for Taug's little balu? Is
gratitude a possession of man only, or do the lower orders know it also?
With the spilling=
of
Tarzan's blood, Taug answered these questions. With all the weight of his g=
reat
body he leaped, hideously growling, upon Sheeta. His long fighting fangs buried themselv=
es in
the white throat. His powerful arm=
s beat
and clawed at the soft fur until it flew upward in the jungle breeze.
And with Taug's
example before them the other bulls charged, burying Sheeta beneath rending
fangs and filling all the forest with the wild din of their battle cries.
Ah! but it was a
wondrous and inspiring sight--this battle of the primordial apes and the gr=
eat,
white ape-man with their ancestral foe, Sheeta, the panther.
In frenzied
excitement, Teeka fairly danced upon the limb which swayed beneath her great
weight as she urged on the males of her people, and Thaka, and Mumga, and
Kamma, with the other shes of the tribe of Kerchak, added their shrill crie=
s or
fierce barkings to the pandemonium which now reigned within the jungle.
Bitten and biting,
tearing and torn, Sheeta battled for his life; but the odds were against
him. Even Numa, the lion, would ha=
ve
hesitated to have attacked an equal number of the great bulls of the tribe =
of Kerchak,
and now, a half mile away, hearing the sounds of the terrific battle, the k=
ing
of beasts rose uneasily from his midday slumber and slunk off farther into =
the
jungle.
Presently Sheeta's
torn and bloody body ceased its titanic struggles. It stiffened spasmodical=
ly,
twitched and was still, yet the bulls continued to lacerate it until the
beautiful coat was torn to shreds. At last they desisted from sheer physical
weariness, and then from the tangle of bloody bodies rose a crimson giant,
straight as an arrow.
He placed a foot =
upon
the dead body of the panther, and lifting his blood-stained face to the blu=
e of
the equatorial heavens, gave voice to the horrid victory cry of the bull ap=
e.
One by one his ha=
iry
fellows of the tribe of Kerchak followed his example. The shes came down from their perches of
safety and struck and reviled the dead body of Sheeta. The young apes refought the battle in m=
imicry
of their mighty elders.
Teeka was quite c=
lose
to Tarzan. He turned and saw her w=
ith
the balu hugged close to her hairy breast, and put out his hands to take th=
e little
one, expecting that Teeka would bare her fangs and spring upon him; but ins=
tead
she placed the balu in his arms, and coming nearer, licked his frightful
wounds.
And presently Tau=
g,
who had escaped with only a few scratches, came and squatted beside Tarzan =
and
watched him as he played with the little balu, and at last he too leaned ov=
er
and helped Teeka with the cleansing and the healing of the ape-man's hurts.=
AMONG THE BOOKS of
his dead father in the little cabin by the land-locked harbor, Tarzan of the
Apes found many things to puzzle his young head. By much labor and through the medium of
infinite patience as well, he had, without assistance, discovered the purpo=
se
of the little bugs which ran riot upon the printed pages. He had learned that in the many combina=
tions
in which he found them they spoke in a silent language, spoke in a strange
tongue, spoke of wonderful things which a little ape-boy could not by any
chance fully understand, arousing his curiosity, stimulating his imagination
and filling his soul with a mighty longing for further knowledge.
A dictionary had
proven itself a wonderful storehouse of information, when, after several ye=
ars
of tireless endeavor, he had solved the mystery of its purpose and the mann=
er
of its use. He had learned to make=
a
species of game out of it, following up the spoor of a new thought through =
the
mazes of the many definitions which each new word required him to consult.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> It was like following a quarry through =
the jungle--it
was hunting, and Tarzan of the Apes was an indefatigable huntsman.
There were, of
course, certain words which aroused his curiosity to a greater extent than
others, words which, for one reason or another, excited his imagination.
However, Tarzan
counted no time wasted which he devoted to these strange hunting expeditions
into the game preserves of knowledge, for each word and each definition led=
on
and on into strange places, into new worlds where, with increasing frequenc=
y,
he met old, familiar faces. And al=
ways
he added to his store of knowledge.
But of the meanin=
g of
GOD he was yet in doubt. Once he t=
hought
he had grasped it--that God was a mighty chieftain, king of all the Mangani=
. He
was not quite sure, however, since that would mean that God was mightier th=
an
Tarzan--a point which Tarzan of the Apes, who acknowledged no equal in the
jungle, was loath to concede.
But in all the bo=
oks
he had there was no picture of God, though he found much to confirm his bel=
ief
that God was a great, an all-powerful individual. He saw pictures of places where God was
worshiped; but never any sign of God.
Finally he began to wonder if God were not of a different form than =
he,
and at last he determined to set out in search of Him.
He commenced by
questioning Mumga, who was very old and had seen many strange things in her
long life; but Mumga, being an ape, had a faculty for recalling the
trivial. That time when Gunto mist=
ook a
sting-bug for an edible beetle had made more impression upon Mumga than all=
the
innumerable manifestations of the greatness of God which she had witnessed,=
and
which, of course, she had not understood.
Numgo, overhearing
Tarzan's questions, managed to wrest his attention long enough from the
diversion of flea hunting to advance the theory that the power which made t=
he
lightning and the rain and the thunder came from Goro, the moon. He knew this, he said, because the Dum-=
Dum always
was danced in the light of Goro. T=
his
reasoning, though entirely satisfactory to Numgo and Mumga, failed fully to
convince Tarzan. However, it gave =
him a
basis for further investigation along a new line. He would investigate the moon.
That night he
clambered to the loftiest pinnacle of the tallest jungle giant. The moon was full, a great, glorious,
equatorial moon. The ape-man, upri=
ght
upon a slender, swaying limb, raised his bronzed face to the silver orb.
"Come,
Goro!" he cried, "Tarzan of the Apes will not harm you!" But=
still
the moon held aloof.
"Tell me,&qu=
ot;
he continued, "if you be the great king who sends Ara, the lightning; =
who
makes the great noise and the mighty winds, and sends the waters down upon =
the
jungle people when the days are dark and it is cold. Tell me, Goro, are you God?"
Of course he did =
not
pronounce God as you or I would pronounce His name, for Tarzan knew naught =
of
the spoken language of his English forbears; but he had a name of his own
invention for each of the little bugs which constituted the alphabet. Unlike the apes he was not satisfied me=
rely
to have a mental picture of the things he knew, he must have a word descrip=
tive
of each. In reading he grasped a w=
ord in
its entirety; but when he spoke the words he had learned from the books of =
his
father, he pronounced each according to the names he had given the various
little bugs which occurred in it, usually giving the gender prefix for each=
.
Thus it was an
imposing word which Tarzan made of GOD.
The masculine prefix of the apes is BU, the feminine MU; g Tarzan had
named LA, o he pronounced TU, and d was MO. So the word God evolved itself =
into
BULAMUTUMUMO, or, in English, he-g-she-o-she-d.
Similarly he had arrived at a strange and wonderful spelling of his own name. Tarzan is derived from the two ape word= s TAR and ZAN, meaning white skin. It was given him by his foster mother, Kala, the great she-ape. When Tarzan first = put it into the written language of his own people he had not yet chanced upon either WHITE or SKIN in the dictionary; but in a primer he had seen the pic= ture of a little white boy and so he wrote his name BUMUDE-MUTOMURO, or he-boy.<= o:p>
To follow Tarzan's
strange system of spelling would be laborious as well as futile, and so we
shall in the future, as we have in the past, adhere to the more familiar fo=
rms
of our grammar school copybooks. I=
t would
tire you to remember that DO meant b, TU o, and RO y, and that to say he-boy
you must prefix the ape masculine gender sound BU before the entire word and
the feminine gender sound MU before each of the lower-case letters which go=
to
make up boy--it would tire you and it would bring me to the nineteenth hole
several strokes under par.
And so Tarzan
harangued the moon, and when Goro did not reply, Tarzan of the Apes waxed
wroth. He swelled his giant chest =
and
bared his fighting fangs, and hurled into the teeth of the dead satellite t=
he challenge
of the bull ape.
"You are not
Bulamutumumo," he cried. &quo=
t;You
are not king of the jungle folk. Y=
ou are
not so great as Tarzan, mighty fighter, mighty hunter. None there is so gre=
at
as Tarzan. If there be a Bulamutum=
umo,
Tarzan can kill him. Come down, Go=
ro,
great coward, and fight with Tarzan. Tarzan will kill you. I am Tarzan, the killer."
But the moon made=
no
answer to the boasting of the ape-man, and when a cloud came and obscured h=
er
face, Tarzan thought that Goro was indeed afraid, and was hiding from him, =
so
he came down out of the trees and awoke Numgo and told him how great was
Tarzan--how he had frightened Goro out of the sky and made him tremble. Tarzan spoke of the moon as HE, for all
things large or awe inspiring are male to the ape folk.
Numgo was not much
impressed; but he was very sleepy, so he told Tarzan to go away and leave h=
is
betters alone.
"But where s=
hall
I find God?" insisted Tarzan.
"You are very old; if there is a God you must have seen Him.
"I am God,&q=
uot;
replied Numgo. "Now sleep and
disturb me no more."
Tarzan looked at
Numgo steadily for several minutes, his shapely head sank just a trifle bet=
ween
his great shoulders, his square chin shot forward and his short upper lip d=
rew
back, exposing his white teeth. Then, with a low growl he leaped upon the a=
pe
and buried his fangs in the other's hairy shoulder, clutching the great nec=
k in
his mighty fingers. Twice he shook=
the
old ape, then he released his tooth-hold.
"Are you
God?" he demanded.
"No,"
wailed Numgo. "I am only a po=
or,
old ape. Leave me alone. Go ask the Gomangani where God is. They are hairless like yourself and very
wise, too. They should know."=
Tarzan released N=
umgo
and turned away. The suggestion th=
at he
consult the blacks appealed to him, and though his relations with the peopl=
e of
Mbonga, the chief, were the antithesis of friendly, he could at least spy u=
pon
his hated enemies and discover if they had intercourse with God.
So it was that Ta=
rzan
set forth through the trees toward the village of the blacks, all excitemen=
t at
the prospect of discovering the Supreme Being, the Creator of all things. As he traveled he reviewed, mentally, h=
is
armament--the condition of his hunting knife, the number of his arrows, the
newness of the gut which strung his bow--he hefted the war spear which had =
once
been the pride of some black warrior of Mbonga's tribe.
If he met God, Ta=
rzan
would be prepared. One could never=
tell
whether a grass rope, a war spear, or a poisoned arrow would be most effica=
cious
against an unfamiliar foe. Tarzan =
of the
Apes was quite content--if God wished to fight, the ape-man had no doubt as=
to
the outcome of the struggle. There=
were
many questions Tarzan wished to put to the Creator of the Universe and so he
hoped that God would not prove a belligerent God; but his experience of life
and the ways of living things had taught him that any creature with the mea=
ns
for offense and defense was quite likely to provoke attack if in the proper=
mood.
It was dark when
Tarzan came to the village of Mbonga. As
silently as the silent shadows of the night he sought his accustomed place
among the branches of the great tree which overhung the palisade. Below him, in the village street, he sa=
w men
and women. The men were hideously =
painted--more
hideously than usual. Among them m=
oved a
weird and grotesque figure, a tall figure that went upon the two legs of a =
man and
yet had the head of a buffalo. A t=
ail
dangled to his ankles behind him, and in one hand he carried a zebra's tail
while the other clutched a bunch of small arrows.
Tarzan was electr=
ified. Could it be that chance had given him t=
hus early
an opportunity to look upon God? Surely this thing was neither man nor beas=
t,
so what could it be then other than the Creator of the Universe! The ape-man
watched the every move of the strange creature. He saw the black men and wo=
men
fall back at its approach as though they stood in terror of its mysterious
powers.
Presently he
discovered that the deity was speaking and that all listened in silence to =
his
words. Tarzan was sure that none o=
ther
than God could inspire such awe in the hearts of the Gomangani, or stop the=
ir
mouths so effectually without recourse to arrows or spears. Tarzan had come=
to
look with contempt upon the blacks, principally because of their
garrulity. The small apes talked a=
great
deal and ran away from an enemy. T=
he
big, old bulls of Kerchak talked but little and fought upon the slightest
provocation. Numa, the lion, was n=
ot given
to loquacity, yet of all the jungle folk there were few who fought more oft=
en
than he.
Tarzan witnessed
strange things that night, none of which he understood, and, perhaps because
they were strange, he thought that they must have to do with the God he cou=
ld
not understand. He saw three youths
receive their first war spears in a weird ceremony which the grotesque
witch-doctor strove successfully to render uncanny and awesome.
Hugely interested=
, he
watched the slashing of the three brown arms and the exchange of blood with
Mbonga, the chief, in the rites of the ceremony of blood brotherhood. He saw the zebra's tail dipped into a c=
aldron
of water above which the witch-doctor had made magical passes the while he
danced and leaped about it, and he saw the breasts and foreheads of each of=
the
three novitiates sprinkled with the charmed liquid. Could the ape-man have known the purpos=
e of
this act, that it was intended to render the recipient invulnerable to the
attacks of his enemies and fearless in the face of any danger, he would
doubtless have leaped into the village street and appropriated the zebra's =
tail
and a portion of the contents of the caldron.
But he did not kn=
ow,
and so he only wondered, not alone at what he saw but at the strange sensat=
ions
which played up and down his naked spine, sensations induced, doubtless, by=
the
same hypnotic influence which held the black spectators in tense awe upon t=
he
verge of a hysteric upheaval.
The longer Tarzan
watched, the more convinced he became that his eyes were upon God, and with=
the
conviction came determination to have word with the deity. With Tarzan of the Apes, to think was t=
o act.
The people of Mbo=
nga
were keyed to the highest pitch of hysterical excitement. They needed little to release the accum=
ulated
pressure of static nerve force which the terrorizing mummery of the
witch-doctor had induced.
A lion roared,
suddenly and loud, close without the palisade.
The blacks started nervously, dropping into utter silence as they
listened for a repetition of that all-too-familiar and always terrorizing
voice. Even the witch-doctor paused in the midst of an intricate step, rema=
ining
momentarily rigid and statuesque as he plumbed his cunning mind for a
suggestion as how best he might take advantage of the condition of his audi=
ence
and the timely interruption.
Already the eveni=
ng
had been vastly profitable to him. There
would be three goats for the initiation of the three youths into full-fledg=
ed warriorship,
and besides these he had received several gifts of grain and beads, together
with a piece of copper wire from admiring and terrified members of his
audience.
Numa's roar still
reverberated along taut nerves when a woman's laugh, shrill and piercing,
shattered the silence of the village. It
was this moment that Tarzan chose to drop lightly from his tree into the
village street. Fearless among his=
blood
enemies he stood, taller by a full head than many of Mbonga's warriors,
straight as their straightest arrow, muscled like Numa, the lion.
For a moment Tarz=
an
stood looking straight at the witch-doctor. Every eye was upon him, yet no =
one
had moved--a paralysis of terror held them, to be broken a moment later as =
the
ape-man, with a toss of head, stepped straight toward the hideous figure
beneath the buffalo head.
Then the nerves of
the blacks could stand no more. For
months the terror of the strange, white, jungle god had been upon them. Their arrows had been stolen from the v=
ery
center of the village; their warriors had been silently slain upon the jung=
le
trails and their dead bodies dropped mysteriously and by night into the vil=
lage
street as from the heavens above.
One or two there =
were
who had glimpsed the strange figure of the new demon and it was from their
oft-repeated descriptions that the entire village now recognized Tarzan as =
the
author of many of their ills. Upon another occasion and by daylight, the wa=
rriors
would doubtless have leaped to attack him, but at night, and this night of =
all
others, when they were wrought to such a pitch of nervous dread by the unca=
nny artistry
of their witch-doctor, they were helpless with terror. As one man they turned and fled, scatte=
ring
for their huts, as Tarzan advanced. For
a moment one and one only held his ground.
It was the witch-doctor. More than half self-hypnotized into a belie=
f in
his own charlatanry he faced this new demon who threatened to undermine his=
ancient
and lucrative profession.
"Are you God?" asked Tarzan.
The witch-doctor,
having no idea of the meaning of the other's words, danced a few strange st=
eps,
leaped high in the air, turning completely around and alighting in a stoopi=
ng
posture with feet far outspread and head thrust out toward the ape-man. Thu=
s he
remained for an instant before he uttered a loud "Boo!" which was
evidently intended to frighten Tarzan away; but in reality had no such effe=
ct.
Tarzan did not
pause. He had set out to approach =
and examine
God and nothing upon earth might now stay his feet. Seeing that his antics had no potency w=
ith
the visitor, the witch-doctor tried some new medicine. Spitting upon the
zebra's tail, which he still clutched in one hand, he made circles above it
with the arrows in the other hand, meanwhile backing cautiously away from
Tarzan and speaking confidentially to the bushy end of the tail.
This medicine mus=
t be
short medicine, however, for the creature, god or demon, was steadily closi=
ng
up the distance which had separated them. The circles therefore were few and
rapid, and when they were completed, the witch-doctor struck an attitude wh=
ich
was intended to be awe inspiring and waving the zebra's tail before him, dr=
ew
an imaginary line between himself and Tarzan.
"Beyond this
line you cannot pass, for my medicine is strong medicine," he cried. "Stop, or you will fall dead as yo=
ur
foot touches this spot. My mother was a voodoo, my father was a snake; I li=
ve
upon lions' hearts and the entrails of the panther; I eat young babies for =
breakfast
and the demons of the jungle are my slaves.
I am the most powerful witch-doctor in the world; I fear nothing, fo=
r I
cannot die. I--" But he got no further; instead he turned and fled as
Tarzan of the Apes crossed the magical dead line and still lived.
As the witch-doct=
or
ran, Tarzan almost lost his temper. This
was no way for God to act, at least not in accordance with the conception T=
arzan
had come to have of God.
"Come
back!" he cried. "Come b=
ack,
God, I will not harm you." But the witch-doctor was in full retreat by
this time, stepping high as he leaped over cooking pots and the smoldering
embers of small fires that had burned before the huts of villagers. Straight for his own hut ran the
witch-doctor, terror-spurred to unwonted speed; but futile was his effort--=
the
ape-man bore down upon him with the speed of Bara, the deer.
Just at the entra=
nce
to his hut the witch-doctor was overhauled.
A heavy hand fell upon his shoulder to drag him back. It seized upon a portion of the buffalo=
hide,
dragging the disguise from him. It=
was a
naked black man that Tarzan saw dodge into the darkness of the hut's interi=
or.
So this was what =
he
had thought was God! Tarzan's lip curled in an angry snarl as he leaped into
the hut after the terror-stricken witch-doctor. In the blackness within he
found the man huddled at the far side and dragged him forth into the
comparative lightness of the moonlit night.
The witch-doctor =
bit
and scratched in an attempt to escape; but a few cuffs across the head brou=
ght
him to a better realization of the futility of resistance. Beneath the moon Tarzan held the cringi=
ng figure
upon its shaking feet.
"So you are
God!" he cried. "If you =
be
God, then Tarzan is greater than God," and so the ape-man thought. "I am Tarzan," he shouted int=
o the
ear of the black. "In all the
jungle, or above it, or upon the running waters, or the sleeping waters, or
upon the big water, or the little water, there is none so great as Tarzan.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Tarzan is greater than the Mangani; he =
is greater
than the Gomangani. With his own h=
ands
he has slain Numa, the lion, and Sheeta, the panther; there is none so grea=
t as
Tarzan. Tarzan is greater than God=
. See!" and with a sudden wrench he
twisted the black's neck until the fellow shrieked in pain and then slumped=
to
the earth in a swoon.
Placing his foot =
upon
the neck of the fallen witch-doctor, the ape-man raised his face to the moon
and uttered the long, shrill scream of the victorious bull ape. Then he stooped and snatched the zebra'=
s tail
from the nerveless fingers of the unconscious man and without a backward gl=
ance
retraced his footsteps across the village.
From several hut
doorways frightened eyes watched him.
Mbonga, the chief, was one of those who had seen what passed before =
the
hut of the witch-doctor. Mbonga was greatly concerned. Wise old patriarch that he was, he neve=
r had
more than half believed in witch-doctors, at least not since greater wisdom=
had
come with age; but as a chief he was well convinced of the power of the
witch-doctor as an arm of government, and often it was that Mbonga used the
superstitious fears of his people to his own ends through the medium of the
medicine-man.
Mbonga and the
witch-doctor had worked together and divided the spoils, and now the
"face" of the witch-doctor would be lost forever if any saw what
Mbonga had seen; nor would this generation again have as much faith in any
future witch-doctor.
Mbonga must do
something to counteract the evil influence of the forest demon's victory ov=
er
the witch-doctor. He raised his heavy spear and crept silently from his hut=
in
the wake of the retreating ape-man. Down the village street walked Tarzan, =
as
unconcerned and as deliberate as though only the friendly apes of Kerchak
surrounded him instead of a village full of armed enemies.
Seeming only was =
the
indifference of Tarzan, for alert and watchful was every well-trained
sense. Mbonga, wily stalker of
keen-eared jungle creatures, moved now in utter silence. Not even Bara, the deer, with his great=
ears
could have guessed from any sound that Mbonga was near; but the black was n=
ot
stalking Bara; he was stalking man, and so he sought only to avoid noise.
Closer and closer=
to
the slowly moving ape-man he came. Now
he raised his war spear, throwing his spear-hand far back above his right s=
houlder. Once and for all would Mbonga, the chie=
f, rid
himself and his people of the menace of this terrifying enemy. He would make no poor cast; he would ta=
ke
pains, and he would hurl his weapon with such great force as would finish t=
he
demon forever.
But Mbonga, sure =
as
he thought himself, erred in his calculations.
He might believe that he was stalking a man--he did not know, howeve=
r, that
it was a man with the delicate sense perception of the lower orders. Tarzan, when he had turned his back upo=
n his
enemies, had noted what Mbonga never would have thought of considering in t=
he hunting
of man--the wind. It was blowing i=
n the
same direction that Tarzan was proceeding, carrying to his delicate nostrils
the odors which arose behind him. =
Thus
it was that Tarzan knew that he was being followed, for even among the many
stenches of an African village, the ape-man's uncanny faculty was equal to =
the
task of differentiating one stench from another and locating with remarkable
precision the source from whence it came.
He knew that a man
was following him and coming closer, and his judgment warned him of the pur=
pose
of the stalker. When Mbonga, there=
fore,
came within spear range of the ape-man, the latter suddenly wheeled upon hi=
m,
so suddenly that the poised spear was shot a fraction of a second before Mb=
onga
had intended. It went a trifle hig=
h and Tarzan
stooped to let it pass over his head; then he sprang toward the chief. But Mbonga did not wait to receive him.=
Instead, he turned and fled for the dark
doorway of the nearest hut, calling as he went for his warriors to fall upon
the stranger and slay him.
Well indeed might
Mbonga scream for help, for Tarzan, young and fleet-footed, covered the
distance between them in great leaps, at the speed of a charging lion. He was growling, too, not at all unlike=
Numa himself. Mbonga heard and his blood ran cold.
Others heard, too,
and saw, from the darkness of their huts--bold warriors, hideously painted,
grasping heavy war spears in nerveless fingers.
Against Numa, the lion, they would have charged fearlessly. Against =
many
times their own number of black warriors would they have raced to the
protection of their chief; but this weird jungle demon filled them with
terror. There was nothing human in=
the
bestial growls that rumbled up from his deep chest; there was nothing human=
in
the bared fangs, or the catlike leaps.
Mbonga's warriors
were terrified--too terrified to leave the seeming security of their huts w=
hile
they watched the beast-man spring full upon the back of their old chieftain=
.
Mbonga went down =
with
a scream of terror. He was too fri=
ghtened
even to attempt to defend himself. He
just lay beneath his antagonist in a paralysis of fear, screaming at the to=
p of
his lungs. Tarzan half rose and kn=
eeled
above the black. He turned Mbonga =
over
and looked him in the face, exposing the man's throat, then he drew his lon=
g,
keen knife, the knife that John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, had brought from
England many years before. He rais=
ed it
close above Mbonga's neck. The old=
black
whimpered with terror. He pleaded =
for
his life in a tongue which Tarzan could not understand.
For the first time
the ape-man had a close view of the chief.
He saw an old man, a very old man with scrawny neck and wrinkled fac=
e--a
dried, parchment-like face which resembled some of the little monkeys Tarzan
knew so well. He saw the terror in=
the
man's eyes--never before had Tarzan seen such terror in the eyes of any ani=
mal,
or such a piteous appeal for mercy upon the face of any creature.
Something stayed =
the
ape-man's hand for an instant. He
wondered why it was that he hesitated to make the kill; never before had he
thus delayed. The old man seemed to
wither and shrink to a bag of puny bones beneath his eyes. So weak and helpless and terror-stricke=
n he appeared
that the ape-man was filled with a great contempt; but another sensation al=
so
claimed him--something new to Tarzan of the Apes in relation to an enemy. It was pity--pity for a poor, frightene=
d, old
man.
Tarzan rose and
turned away, leaving Mbonga, the chief, unharmed.
With head held hi=
gh
the ape-man walked through the village, swung himself into the branches of =
the
tree which overhung the palisade and disappeared from the sight of the
villagers.
All the way back =
to
the stamping ground of the apes, Tarzan sought for an explanation of the
strange power which had stayed his hand and prevented him from slaying
Mbonga. It was as though someone g=
reater
than he had commanded him to spare the life of the old man. Tarzan could not understand, for he cou=
ld
conceive of nothing, or no one, with the authority to dictate to him what he
should do, or what he should refrain from doing.
It was late when
Tarzan sought a swaying couch among the trees beneath which slept the apes =
of
Kerchak, and he was still absorbed in the solution of his strange problem w=
hen
he fell asleep.
The sun was well =
up
in the heavens when he awoke. The =
apes
were astir in search of food. Tarz=
an
watched them lazily from above as they scratched in the rotting loam for bu=
gs
and beetles and grubworms, or sought among the branches of the trees for eg=
gs
and young birds, or luscious caterpillars.
An orchid, dangli=
ng
close beside his head, opened slowly, unfolding its delicate petals to the
warmth and light of the sun which but recently had penetrated to its shady
retreat. A thousand times had Tarz=
an of the
Apes witnessed the beauteous miracle; but now it aroused a keener interest,=
for
the ape-man was just commencing to ask himself questions about all the myri=
ad
wonders which heretofore he had but taken for granted.
What made the flo=
wer
open? What made it grow from a tiny bud to a full-blown bloom? Why was it at
all? Why was he? Where did Numa, t=
he lion,
come from? Who planted the first tree? How did Goro get way up into the
darkness of the night sky to cast his welcome light upon the fearsome noctu=
rnal
jungle? And the sun! Did the sun merely happen there?
Why were all the
peoples of the jungle not trees? Why were the trees not something else? Why=
was
Tarzan different from Taug, and Taug different from Bara, the deer, and Bara
different from Sheeta, the panther, and why was 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?
Quite unexpectedl=
y an
idea popped into Tarzan's head. In
following out the many ramifications of the dictionary definition of GOD he=
had
come upon the word CREATE--"to cause to come into existence; to form o=
ut
of nothing."
Tarzan almost had
arrived at something tangible when a distant wail startled him from his
preoccupation into sensibility of the present and the real. The wail came from the jungle at some l=
ittle
distance from Tarzan's swaying couch. It
was the wail of a tiny balu. Tarza=
n recognized
it at once as the voice of Gazan, Teeka's baby.
They had called it Gazan because its soft, baby hair had been unusua=
lly
red, and GAZAN in the language of the great apes, means red skin.
The wail was
immediately followed by a real scream of terror from the small lungs. Tarzan was electrified into instant
action. Like an arrow from a bow h=
e shot
through the trees in the direction of the sound. Ahead of him he heard the savage snarli=
ng of
an adult she-ape. It was Teeka to the rescue.
The danger must be very real.
Tarzan could tell that by the note of rage mingled with fear in the
voice of the she.
Running along ben= ding limbs, swinging from one tree to another, the ape-man raced through the mid= dle terraces toward the sounds which now had risen in volume to deafening proportions. From all directions t= he apes of Kerchak were hurrying in response to the appeal in the tones of the balu= and its mother, and as they came, their roars reverberated through the forest.<= o:p>
But Tarzan, swift=
er
than his heavy fellows, distanced them all.
It was he who was first upon the scene.
What he saw sent a cold chill through his giant frame, for the enemy=
was
the most hated and loathed of all the jungle creatures.
Twined in a great
tree was Histah, the snake--huge, ponderous, slimy--and in the folds of its
deadly embrace was Teeka's little balu, Gazan.
Nothing in the jungle inspired within the breast of Tarzan so near a
semblance to fear as did the hideous Histah.
The apes, too, loathed the terrifying reptile and feared him even mo=
re
than they did Sheeta, the panther, or Numa, the lion. Of all their enemies there was none the=
y gave
a wider berth than they gave Histah, the snake.
Tarzan knew that
Teeka was peculiarly fearful of this silent, repulsive foe, and as the scene
broke upon his vision, it was the action of Teeka which filled him with the
greatest wonder, for at the moment that he saw her, the she-ape leaped upon=
the
glistening body of the snake, and as the mighty folds encircled her as well=
as
her offspring, she made no effort to escape, but instead grasped the writhi=
ng
body in a futile effort to tear it from her screaming balu.
Tarzan knew all t=
oo
well how deep-rooted was Teeka's terror of Histah. He scarce could believe =
the
testimony of his own eyes then, when they told him that she had voluntarily
rushed into that deadly embrace. N=
or was
Teeka's innate dread of the monster much greater than Tarzan's own. Never,
willingly, had he touched a snake. Why,
he could not say, for he would admit fear of nothing; nor was it fear, but
rather an inherent repulsion bequeathed to him by many generations of civil=
ized
ancestors, and back of them, perhaps, by countless myriads of such as Teeka=
, in
the breasts of each of which had lurked the same nameless terror of the sli=
my
reptile.
Yet Tarzan did not
hesitate more than had Teeka, but leaped upon Histah with all the speed and
impetuosity that he would have shown had he been springing upon Bara, the d=
eer,
to make a kill for food. Thus bese=
t the snake
writhed and twisted horribly; but not for an instant did it loose its hold =
upon
any of its intended victims, for it had included the ape-man in its cold
embrace the minute that he had fallen upon it.
Still clinging to=
the
tree, the mighty reptile held the three as though they had been without wei=
ght,
the while it sought to crush the life from them. Tarzan had drawn his knife and this he =
now
plunged rapidly into the body of the enemy; but the encircling folds promis=
ed
to sap his life before he had inflicted a death wound upon the snake. Yet on he fought, nor once did he seek =
to
escape the horrid death that confronted him--his sole aim was to slay Histah
and thus free Teeka and her balu.
The great,
wide-gaping jaws of the snake turned and hovered above him. The elastic maw,
which could accommodate a rabbit or a horned buck with equal facility, yawn=
ed
for him; but Histah, in turning his attention upon the ape-man, brought his
head within reach of Tarzan's blade. Instantly a brown hand leaped forth and
seized the mottled neck, and another drove the heavy hunting knife to the h=
ilt
into the little brain.
Convulsively Hist=
ah
shuddered and relaxed, tensed and relaxed again, whipping and striking with=
his
great body; but no longer sentient or sensible.
Histah was dead, but in his death throes he might easily dispatch a
dozen apes or men.
Quickly Tarzan se=
ized
Teeka and dragged her from the loosened embrace, dropping her to the ground
beneath, then he extricated the balu and tossed it to its mother. Still Histah whipped about, clinging to=
the ape-man;
but after a dozen efforts Tarzan succeeded in wriggling free and leaping to=
the
ground out of range of the mighty battering of the dying snake.
A circle of apes
surrounded the scene of the battle; but the moment that Tarzan broke safely
from the enemy they turned silently away to resume their interrupted feedin=
g,
and Teeka turned with them, apparently forgetful of all but her balu and the
fact that when the interruption had occurred she just had discovered an
ingeniously hidden nest containing three perfectly good eggs.
Tarzan, equally
indifferent to a battle that was over, merely cast a parting glance at the
still writhing body of Histah and wandered off toward the little pool which
served to water the tribe at this point. Strangely, he did not give the vic=
tory
cry over the vanquished Histah. Why, he could not have told you, other than
that to him Histah was not an animal. He
differed in some peculiar way from the other denizens of the jungle. Tarzan only knew that he hated him.
At the pool Tarzan
drank his fill and lay stretched upon the soft grass beneath the shade of a
tree. His mind reverted to the bat=
tle
with Histah, the snake. It seemed
strange to him that Teeka should have placed herself within the folds of the
horrid monster. Why had she done i=
t?
Why, indeed, had he? Teeka did not belong to him, nor did Teeka's balu. They were both Taug's. Why then had he =
done
this thing? Histah was not food for him when he was dead. There seemed to Tarzan, now that he gav=
e the
matter thought, no reason in the world why he should have done the thing he
did, and presently it occurred to him that he had acted almost involuntaril=
y,
just as he had acted when he had released the old Gomangani the previous
evening.
What made him do =
such
things? Somebody more powerful than he must force him to act at times. "All-powerful," thought
Tarzan. "The little bugs say =
that
God is all-powerful. It must be that God made me do these things, for I nev=
er
did them by myself. It was God who=
made
Teeka rush upon Histah. Teeka would
never go near Histah of her own volition.
It was God who held my knife from the throat of the old Gomangani. God accomplishes strange things for he =
is
'all-powerful.' I cannot see Him; but I know that it must be God who does t=
hese
things. No Mangani, no Gomangani, =
no
Tarmangani could do them."
And the flowers--=
who
made them grow? Ah, now it was all explained--the flowers, the trees, the m=
oon,
the sun, himself, every living creature in the jungle--they were all made by
God out of nothing.
And what was God?
What did God look like? Of that he had no conception; but he was sure that
everything that was good came from God.
His good act in refraining from slaying the poor, defenseless old
Gomangani; Teeka's love that had hurled her into the embrace of death; his =
own loyalty
to Teeka which had jeopardized his life that she might live. The flowers and
the trees were good and beautiful. God
had made them. He made the other creatures, too, that each might have food =
upon
which to live. He had made Sheeta,=
the
panther, with his beautiful coat; and Numa, the lion, with his noble head a=
nd
his shaggy mane. He had made Bara,=
the
deer, lovely and graceful.
Yes, Tarzan had f=
ound
God, and he spent the whole day in attributing to Him all of the good and
beautiful things of nature; but there was one thing which troubled him. He could not quite reconcile it to his =
conception
of his new-found God.
Who made Histah, =
the
snake?
TARZAN OF THE Apes
sat at the foot of a great tree braiding a new grass rope. Beside him lay the frayed remnants of t=
he old
one, torn and severed by the fangs and talons of Sheeta, the panther. Only half the original rope was there, =
the
balance having been carried off by the angry cat as he bounded away through=
the
jungle with the noose still about his savage neck and the loose end dragging
among the underbrush.
Tarzan smiled as =
he
recalled Sheeta's great rage, his frantic efforts to free himself from the
entangling strands, his uncanny screams that were part hate, part anger, pa=
rt
terror. He smiled in retrospection=
at the
discomfiture of his enemy, and in anticipation of another day as he added an
extra strand to his new rope.
This would be the
strongest, the heaviest rope that Tarzan of the Apes ever had fashioned.
As Tarzan worked,
Gazan, Teeka's little balu, played about him while Teeka sought food upon t=
he
opposite side of the clearing. No =
more did
Teeka, the mother, or Taug, the sullen sire, harbor suspicions of Tarzan's
intentions toward their first-born. Had he not courted death to save their
Gazan from the fangs and talons of Sheeta? Did he not fondle and cuddle the
little one with even as great a show of affection as Teeka herself displaye=
d?
Their fears were allayed and Tarzan now found himself often in the role of
nursemaid to a tiny anthropoid--an avocation which he found by no means
irksome, since Gazan was a never-failing fount of surprises and entertainme=
nt.
Just now the apel=
ing
was developing those arboreal tendencies which were to stand him in such go=
od
stead during the years of his youth, when rapid flight into the upper terra=
ces
was of far more importance and value than his undeveloped muscles and untri=
ed
fighting fangs. Backing off fifteen or twenty feet from the bole of the tree
beneath the branches of which Tarzan worked upon his rope, Gazan scampered =
quickly
forward, scrambling nimbly upward to the lower limbs. Here he would squat for a moment or two,
quite proud of his achievement, then clamber to the ground again and
repeat. Sometimes, quite often in =
fact,
for he was an ape, his attention was distracted by other things, a beetle, a
caterpillar, a tiny field mouse, and off he would go in pursuit; the
caterpillars he always caught, and sometimes the beetles; but the field mic=
e,
never.
Now he discovered=
the
tail of the rope upon which Tarzan was working. Grasping it in one small ha=
nd
he bounced away, for all the world like an animated rubber ball, snatching =
it
from the ape-man's hand and running off across the clearing. Tarzan leaped to his feet and was in pu=
rsuit
in an instant, no trace of anger on his face or in his voice as he called to
the roguish little balu to drop his rope.
Straight toward h=
is
mother raced Gazan, and after him came Tarzan. Teeka looked up from her
feeding, and in the first instant that she realized that Gazan was fleeing =
and
that another was in pursuit, she bared her fangs and bristled; but when she=
saw
that the pursuer was Tarzan she turned back to the business that had been
occupying her attention. At her ve=
ry
feet the ape-man overhauled the balu and, though the youngster squealed and
fought when Tarzan seized him, Teeka only glanced casually in their directi=
on. No longer did she fear harm to her firs=
t-born
at the hands of the ape-man. Had he not saved Gazan on two occasions?
Rescuing his rope,
Tarzan returned to his tree and resumed his labor; but thereafter it was
necessary to watch carefully the playful balu, who was now possessed to ste=
al
it whenever he thought his great, smooth-skinned cousin was momentarily off=
his
guard.
But even under th=
is
handicap Tarzan finally completed the rope, a long, pliant weapon, stronger
than any he ever had made before. =
The discarded
piece of his former one he gave to Gazan for a plaything, for Tarzan had it=
in
his mind to instruct Teeka's balu after ideas of his own when the youngster
should be old and strong enough to profit by his precepts. At present the little ape's innate apti=
tude
for mimicry would be sufficient to familiarize him with Tarzan's ways and
weapons, and so the ape-man swung off into the jungle, his new rope coiled =
over
one shoulder, while little Gazan hopped about the clearing dragging the old=
one
after him in childish glee.
As Tarzan travele=
d,
dividing his quest for food with one for a sufficiently noble quarry whereu=
pon
to test his new weapon, his mind often was upon Gazan. The ape-man had realized a deep affecti=
on for
Teeka's balu almost from the first, partly because the child belonged to Te=
eka,
his first love, and partly for the little ape's own sake, and Tarzan's human
longing for some sentient creature upon which to expend those natural
affections of the soul which are inherent to all normal members of the GENUS
HOMO. Tarzan envied Teeka. It was =
true
that Gazan evidenced a considerable reciprocation of Tarzan's fondness for =
him,
even preferring him to his own surly sire; but to Teeka the little one turn=
ed
when in pain or terror, when tired or hungry.
Then it was that Tarzan felt quite alone in the world and longed
desperately for one who should turn first to him for succor and protection.=
Taug had Teeka; T=
eeka
had Gazan; and nearly every other bull and cow of the tribe of Kerchak had =
one
or more to love and by whom to be loved. Of course Tarzan could scarcely
formulate the thought in precisely this way--he only knew that he craved
something which was denied him; something which seemed to be represented by
those relations which existed between Teeka and her balu, and so he envied
Teeka and longed for a balu of his own.
He saw Sheeta and=
his
mate with their little family of three; and deeper inland toward the rocky
hills, where one might lie up during the heat of the day, in the dense shad=
e of
a tangled thicket close under the cool face of an overhanging rock, Tarzan =
had
found the lair of Numa, the lion, and of Sabor, the lioness. Here he had watched them with their lit=
tle
balus--playful creatures, spotted leopard-like. And he had seen the young f=
awn
with Bara, the deer, and with Buto, the rhinoceros, its ungainly little
one. Each of the creatures of the =
jungle
had its own--except Tarzan. It mad=
e the
ape-man sad to think upon this thing, sad and lonely; but presently the sce=
nt
of game cleared his young mind of all other considerations, as catlike he c=
rawled
far out upon a bending limb above the game trail which led down to the anci=
ent
watering place of the wild things of this wild world.
How many thousand=
s of
times had this great, old limb bent to the savage form of some blood-thirsty
hunter in the long years that it had spread its leafy branches above the
deep-worn jungle path! Tarzan, the ape-man, Sheeta, the panther, and Histah,
the snake, it knew well. They had worn smooth the bark upon its upper surfa=
ce.
Today it was Hort=
a,
the boar, which came down toward the watcher in the old tree--Horta, the bo=
ar,
whose formidable tusks and diabolical temper preserved him from all but the
most ferocious or most famished of the largest carnivora.
But to Tarzan, me=
at
was meat; naught that was edible or tasty might pass a hungry Tarzan
unchallenged and unattacked. In hu=
nger,
as in battle, the ape-man out-savaged the dreariest denizens of the jungle.=
He
knew neither fear nor mercy, except upon rare occasions when some strange,
inexplicable force stayed his hand--a force inexplicable to him, perhaps,
because of his ignorance of his own origin and of all the forces of
humanitarianism and civilization that were his rightful heritage because of
that origin.
So today, instead=
of
staying his hand until a less formidable feast found its way toward him, Ta=
rzan
dropped his new noose about the neck of Horta, the boar. It was an excellent test for the untried
strands. The angered boar bolted this way and that; but each time the new r=
ope held
him where Tarzan had made it fast about the stem of the tree above the bran=
ch
from which he had cast it.
As Horta grunted =
and
charged, slashing the sturdy jungle patriarch with his mighty tusks until t=
he
bark flew in every direction, Tarzan dropped to the ground behind him. In the ape-man's hand was the long, kee=
n blade
that had been his constant companion since that distant day upon which chan=
ce
had directed its point into the body of Bolgani, the gorilla, and saved the
torn and bleeding man-child from what else had been certain death.
Tarzan walked in
toward Horta, who swung now to face his enemy.
Mighty and muscled as was the young giant, it yet would have appeared
but the maddest folly for him to face so formidable a creature as Horta, th=
e boar,
armed only with a slender hunting knife.
So it would have seemed to one who knew Horta even slightly and Tarz=
an
not at all.
For a moment Horta
stood motionless facing the ape-man. His
wicked, deep-set eyes flashed angrily.
He shook his lowered head.
"Mud-eater!&=
quot;
jeered the ape-man. "Wallower in filth.
Even your meat stinks, but it is juicy and makes Tarzan strong. Today I shall eat your heart, O Lord of=
the
Great Tusks, that it shall keep savage that which pounds against my own
ribs."
Horta, understand=
ing
nothing of what Tarzan said, was none the less enraged because of that. He saw only a naked man-thing, hairless=
and futile,
pitting his puny fangs and soft muscles against his own indomitable savager=
y,
and he charged.
Tarzan of the Apes
waited until the upcut of a wicked tusk would have laid open his thigh, the=
n he
moved--just the least bit to one side; but so quickly that lightning was a
sluggard by comparison, and as he moved, he stooped low and with all the gr=
eat
power of his right arm drove the long blade of his father's hunting knife
straight into the heart of Horta, the boar.
A quick leap carried him from the zone of the creature's death throe=
s,
and a moment later the hot and dripping heart of Horta was in his grasp.
His hunger satisf=
ied,
Tarzan did not seek a lying-up place for sleep, as was sometimes his way, b=
ut
continued on through the jungle more in search of adventure than of food, f=
or
today he was restless. And so it c=
ame
that he turned his footsteps toward the village of Mbonga, the black chief,
whose people Tarzan had baited remorselessly since that day upon which Kulo=
nga,
the chief's son, had slain Kala.
A river winds clo=
se
beside the village of the black men.
Tarzan reached its side a little below the clearing where squat the =
thatched
huts of the Negroes. The river lif=
e was
ever fascinating to the ape-man. He found pleasure in watching the ungainly
antics of Duro, the hippopotamus, and keen sport in tormenting the sluggish
crocodile, Gimla, as he basked in the sun.
Then, too, there were the shes and the balus of the black men of the
Gomangani to frighten as they squatted by the river, the shes with their me=
ager
washing, the balus with their primitive toys.
This day he came =
upon
a woman and her child farther down stream than usual. The former was searching for a species =
of
shellfish which was to be found in the mud close to the river bank. She was a young black woman of about
thirty. Her teeth were filed to sh=
arp
points, for her people ate the flesh of man.
Her under lip was slit that it might support a rude pendant of copper
which she had worn for so many years that the lip had been dragged downward=
to
prodigious lengths, exposing the teeth and gums of her lower jaw. Her nose, too, was slit, and through th=
e slit
was a wooden skewer. Metal ornamen=
ts
dangled from her ears, and upon her forehead and cheeks; upon her chin and =
the
bridge of her nose were tattooings in colors that were mellowed now by
age. She was naked except for a gi=
rdle
of grasses about her waist. Altoge=
ther she
was very beautiful in her own estimation and even in the estimation of the =
men
of Mbonga's tribe, though she was of another people--a trophy of war seized=
in
her maidenhood by one of Mbonga's fighting men.
Her child was a b=
oy
of ten, lithe, straight and, for a black, handsome. Tarzan looked upon the =
two
from the concealing foliage of a near-by bush.
He was about to leap forth before them with a terrifying scream, tha=
t he
might enjoy the spectacle of their terror and their incontinent flight; but=
of
a sudden a new whim seized him. He=
re was
a balu fashioned as he himself was fashioned.
Of course this one's skin was black; but what of it? Tarzan had never seen a white man. In so far as he knew, he was the sole
representative of that strange form of life upon the earth. The black boy should make an excellent =
balu
for Tarzan, since he had none of his own.
He would tend him carefully, feed him well, protect him as only Tarz=
an
of the Apes could protect his own, and teach him out of his half human, half
bestial lore the secrets of the jungle from its rotting surface vegetation =
to
the high tossed pinnacles of the forest's upper terraces.
* * *
Tarzan uncoiled h=
is
rope, and shook out the noose. The=
two
before him, all ignorant of the near presence of that terrifying form,
continued preoccupied in the search for shellfish, poking about in the mud =
with
short sticks.
Tarzan stepped fr=
om
the jungle behind them; his noose lay open upon the ground beside him. There was a quick movement of the right=
arm
and the noose rose gracefully into the air, hovered an instant above the he=
ad of
the unsuspecting youth, then settled. As
it encompassed his body below the shoulders, Tarzan gave a quick jerk that
tightened it about the boy's arms, pinioning them to his sides. A scream of terror broke from the lad's=
lips,
and as his mother turned, affrighted at his cry, she saw him being dragged
quickly toward a great white giant who stood just beneath the shade of a
near-by tree, scarcely a dozen long paces from her.
With a savage cry=
of
terror and rage, the woman leaped fearlessly toward the ape-man. In her mien
Tarzan saw determination and courage which would shrink not even from death
itself. She was very hideous and
frightful even when her face was in repose; but convulsed by passion, her
expression became terrifyingly fiendish.
Even the ape-man drew back, but more in revulsion than fear--fear he
knew not.
Biting and kicking
was the black she's balu as Tarzan tucked him beneath his arm and vanished =
into
the branches hanging low above him, just as the infuriated mother dashed
forward to seize and do battle with him.
And as he melted away into the depth of the jungle with his still
struggling prize, he meditated upon the possibilities which might lie in the
prowess of the Gomangani were the hes as formidable as the shes.
Once at a safe
distance from the despoiled mother and out of earshot of her screams and
menaces, Tarzan paused to inspect his prize, now so thoroughly terrorized t=
hat
he had ceased his struggles and his outcries.
The frightened ch=
ild
rolled his eyes fearfully toward his captor, until the whites showed gleami=
ng
all about the irises.
"I am
Tarzan," said the ape-man, in the vernacular of the anthropoids. "=
;I
will not harm you. You are to be
Tarzan's balu. Tarzan will protect
you. He will feed you. The best in the jungle shall be for Tar=
zan's
balu, for Tarzan is a mighty hunter.
None need you fear, not even Numa, the lion, for Tarzan is a mighty
fighter. None so great as Tarzan, =
son of
Kala. Do not fear."
But the child only
whimpered and trembled, for he did not understand the tongue of the great a=
pes,
and the voice of Tarzan sounded to him like the barking and growling of a
beast. Then, too, he had heard sto=
ries
of this bad, white forest god. It =
was he
who had slain Kulonga and others of the warriors of Mbonga, the chief. It was he who entered the village steal=
thily,
by magic, in the darkness of the night, to steal arrows and poison, and
frighten the women and the children and even the great warriors. Doubtless this wicked god fed upon litt=
le boys. Had his mother not said as much when he=
was
naughty and she threatened to give him to the white god of the jungle if he
were not good? Little black Tibo shook as with ague.
"Are you col=
d,
Go-bu-balu?" asked Tarzan, using the simian equivalent of black he-bab=
y in
lieu of a better name. "The s=
un is
hot; why do you shiver?"
Tibo could not
understand; but he cried for his mamma and begged the great, white god to l=
et
him go, promising always to be a good boy thereafter if his plea were
granted. Tarzan shook his head. It sounded quite as senseless as the
chattering of the silly birds. It =
would
be best, thought the ape-man, quickly to get him among the tribe of Kerchak=
where
he would hear the Mangani talking among themselves. Thus he would soon learn an intelligibl=
e form
of speech.
Tarzan rose to his
feet upon the swaying branch where he had halted far above the ground, and
motioned to the child to follow him; but Tibo only clung tightly to the bol=
e of
the tree and wept. Being a boy, an=
d a
native African, he had, of course, climbed into trees many times before thi=
s;
but the idea of racing off through the forest, leaping from one branch to
another, as his captor, to his horror, had done when he had carried Tibo aw=
ay
from his mother, filled his childish heart with terror.
Tarzan sighed.
So far the terrib=
le
white god of the jungle had offered him no harm. He could not expect even t=
his
much consideration from the frightful, green-eyed man-eaters. It would be the lesser of two evils, th=
en, to
let the white god carry him away without scratching and biting, as he had d=
one
at first.
As Tarzan swung
rapidly through the trees, little Tibo closed his eyes in terror rather than
look longer down into the frightful abysses beneath. Never before in all his life had Tibo b=
een so
frightened, yet as the white giant sped on with him through the forest there
stole over the child an inexplicable sensation of security as he saw how tr=
ue
were the leaps of the ape-man, how unerring his grasp upon the swaying limb=
s which
gave him hand-hold, and then, too, there was safety in the middle terraces =
of
the forest, far above the reach of the dreaded lions.
And so Tarzan cam=
e to
the clearing where the tribe fed, dropping among them with his new balu
clinging tightly to his shoulders. He
was fairly in the midst of them before Tibo spied a single one of the great=
hairy
forms, or before the apes realized that Tarzan was not alone. When they saw=
the
little Gomangani perched upon his back some of them came forward in curiosi=
ty
with upcurled lips and snarling mien.
An hour before li=
ttle
Tibo would have said that he knew the uttermost depths of fear; but now, as=
he
saw these fearsome beasts surrounding him, he realized that all that had go=
ne
before was as nothing by comparison. Why
did the great white giant stand there so unconcernedly? Why did he not flee before these horrid,
hairy, tree men fell upon them both and tore them to pieces? And then there
came to Tibo a numbing recollection. It
was none other than the story he had heard passed from mouth to mouth,
fearfully, by the people of Mbonga, the chief, that this great white demon =
of
the jungle was naught other than a hairless ape, for had not he been seen in
company with these?
Tibo could only s=
tare
in wide-eyed horror at the approaching apes.
He saw their beetling brows, their great fangs, their wicked eyes. He noted their mighty muscles rolling b=
eneath
their shaggy hides. Their every at=
titude
and expression was a menace. Tarza=
n saw
this, too. He drew Tibo around in =
front
of him.
"This is
Tarzan's Go-bu-balu," he said.
"Do not harm him, or Tarzan will kill you," and he bared h=
is
own fangs in the teeth of the nearest ape.
"It is a
Gomangani," replied the ape.
"Let me kill it. It is=
a Gomangani. The Gomangani are our enemies. Let me kill it."
"Go away,&qu=
ot;
snarled Tarzan. "I tell you, =
Gunto,
it is Tarzan's balu. Go away or Tarzan will kill you," and the ape-man
took a step toward the advancing ape.
The latter sidled
off, quite stiff and haughty, after the manner of a dog which meets another=
and
is too proud to fight and too fearful to turn his back and run.
Next came Teeka,
prompted by curiosity. At her side
skipped little Gazan. They were fi=
lled
with wonder like the others; but Teeka did not bare her fangs. Tarzan saw this and motioned that she
approach.
"Tarzan has a
balu now," he said. "He =
and
Teeka's balu can play together."
"It is a
Gomangani," replied Teeka. &q=
uot;It
will kill my balu. Take it away,
Tarzan."
Tarzan laughed. "It could not harm Pamba, the rat,=
"
he said. "It is but a little =
balu
and very frightened. Let Gazan pla=
y with
it."
Teeka still was
fearful, for with all their mighty ferocity the great anthropoids are timid;
but at last, assured by her great confidence in Tarzan, she pushed Gazan
forward toward the little black boy. The
small ape, guided by instinct, drew back toward its mother, baring its small
fangs and screaming in mingled fear and rage.
Tibo, too, showed=
no
signs of desiring a closer acquaintance with Gazan, so Tarzan gave up his
efforts for the time.
During the week w=
hich
followed, Tarzan found his time much occupied. His balu was a greater
responsibility than he had counted upon.
Not for a moment did he dare leave it, since of all the tribe, Teeka
alone could have been depended upon to refrain from slaying the hapless bla=
ck had
it not been for Tarzan's constant watchfulness.
When the ape-man hunted, he must carry Go-bu-balu about with him.
Also, he saw that=
the
little fellow often refused food and was growing thinner day by day. At times he surprised the boy sobbing s=
oftly
to himself. Tarzan tried to comfor=
t him,
even as fierce Kala had comforted Tarzan when the ape-man was a balu, but a=
ll
to no avail. Go-bu-balu merely no longer feared Tarzan--that was all. He feared every other living thing with=
in the
jungle. He feared the jungle days =
with
their long excursions through the dizzy tree tops. He feared the jungle nights with their
swaying, perilous couches far above the ground, and the grunting and coughi=
ng
of the great carnivora prowling beneath him.
Tarzan did not kn=
ow
what to do. His heritage of English
blood rendered it a difficult thing even to consider a surrender of his
project, though he was forced to admit to himself that his balu was not all
that he had hoped. Though he was
faithful to his self-imposed task, and even found that he had grown to like
Go-bu-balu, he could not deceive himself into believing that he felt for it
that fierce heat of passionate affection which Teeka revealed for Gazan, and
which the black mother had shown for Go-bu-balu.
The little black =
boy
from cringing terror at the sight of Tarzan passed by degrees into trustful=
ness
and admiration. Only kindness had =
he
ever received at the hands of the great white devil-god, yet he had seen wi=
th
what ferocity his kindly captor could deal with others. He had seen him leap upon a certain he-=
ape
which persisted in attempting to seize and slay Go-bu-balu. He had seen the
strong, white teeth of the ape-man fastened in the neck of his adversary, a=
nd
the mighty muscles tensed in battle. He
had heard the savage, bestial snarls and roars of combat, and he had realiz=
ed
with a shudder that he could not differentiate between those of his guardian
and those of the hairy ape.
He had seen Tarzan
bring down a buck, just as Numa, the lion, might have done, leaping upon its
back and fastening his fangs in the creature's neck. Tibo had shuddered at the sight, but he=
had
thrilled, too, and for the first time there entered his dull, Negroid mind =
a vague
desire to emulate his savage foster parent.
But Tibo, the little black boy, lacked the divine spark which had
permitted Tarzan, the white boy, to benefit by his training in the ways of =
the
fierce jungle. In imagination he was wanting, and imagination is but another
name for super-intelligence.
Imagination it is
which builds bridges, and cities, and empires.
The beasts know it not, the blacks only a little, while to one in a
hundred thousand of earth's dominant race it is given as a gift from heaven=
that
man may not perish from the earth.
While Tarzan pond=
ered
his problem concerning the future of his balu, Fate was arranging to take t=
he matter
out of his hands. Momaya, Tibo's m=
other,
grief-stricken at the loss of her boy, had consulted the tribal witch-docto=
r,
but to no avail. The medicine he m=
ade
was not good medicine, for though Momaya paid him two goats for it, it did =
not
bring back Tibo, nor even indicate where she might search for him with reas=
onable
assurance of finding him. Momaya, =
being
of a short temper and of another people, had little respect for the
witch-doctor of her husband's tribe, and so, when he suggested that a furth=
er
payment of two more fat goats would doubtless enable him to make stronger m=
edicine,
she promptly loosed her shrewish tongue upon him, and with such good effect
that he was glad to take himself off with his zebra's tail and his pot of
magic.
When he had gone =
and
Momaya had succeeded in partially subduing her anger, she gave herself over=
to
thought, as she so often had done since the abduction of her Tibo, in the h=
ope
that she finally might discover some feasible means of locating him, or at
least assuring herself as to whether he were alive or dead.
It was known to t=
he
blacks that Tarzan did not eat the flesh of man, for he had slain more than=
one
of their number, yet never tasted the flesh of any. Too, the bodies always had been found,
sometimes dropping as though from the clouds to alight in the center of the=
village. As Tibo's body had not been found, Moma=
ya
argued that he still lived, but where?
Then it was that
there came to her mind a recollection of Bukawai, the unclean, who dwelt in=
a
cave in the hillside to the north, and who it was well known entertained de=
vils
in his evil lair. Few, if any, had=
the
temerity to visit old Bukawai, firstly because of fear of his black magic a=
nd
the two hyenas who dwelt with him and were commonly known to be devils masq=
uerading,
and secondly because of the loathsome disease which had caused Bukawai to b=
e an
outcast--a disease which was slowly eating away his face.
Now it was that
Momaya reasoned shrewdly that if any might know the whereabouts of her Tibo=
, it
would be Bukawai, who was in friendly intercourse with gods and demons, sin=
ce a
demon or a god it was who had stolen her baby; but even her great mother lo=
ve
was sorely taxed to find the courage to send her forth into the black jungle
toward the distant hills and the uncanny abode of Bukawai, the unclean, and=
his
devils.
Mother love, howe=
ver,
is one of the human passions which closely approximates to the dignity of an
irresistible force. It drives the =
frail
flesh of weak women to deeds of heroic measure.
Momaya was neither frail nor weak, physically, but she was a woman, =
an
ignorant, superstitious, African savage.
She believed in devils, in black magic, and in witchcraft. To Momaya, the jungle was inhabited by =
far
more terrifying things than lions and leopards--horrifying, nameless things=
which
possessed the power of wreaking frightful harm under various innocent guise=
s.
From one of the
warriors of the village, whom she knew to have once stumbled upon the lair =
of
Bukawai, the mother of Tibo learned how she might find it--near a spring of
water which rose in a small rocky canon between two hills, the easternmost =
of
which was easily recognizable because of a huge granite boulder which rested
upon its summit. The westerly hill=
was
lower than its companion, and was quite bare of vegetation except for a sin=
gle
mimosa tree which grew just a little below its summit.
These two hills, =
the
man assured her, could be seen for some distance before she reached them, a=
nd
together formed an excellent guide to her destination. He warned her, however, to abandon so f=
oolish
and dangerous an adventure, emphasizing what she already quite well knew, t=
hat
if she escaped harm at the hands of Bukawai and his demons, the chances were
that she would not be so fortunate with the great carnivora of the jungle
through which she must pass going and returning.
The warrior even =
went
to Momaya's husband, who, in turn, having little authority over the vixenish
lady of his choice, went to Mbonga, the chief.
The latter summoned Momaya, threatening her with the direst punishme=
nt
should she venture forth upon so unholy an excursion. The old chief's interest in the matter =
was
due solely to that age-old alliance which exists between church and state.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The local witch-doctor, knowing his own
medicine better than any other knew it, was jealous of all other pretenders=
to
accomplishments in the black art. =
He
long had heard of the power of Bukawai, and feared lest, should he succeed =
in
recovering Momaya's lost child, much of the tribal patronage and consequent
fees would be diverted to the unclean one.
As Mbonga received, as chief, a certain proportion of the witch-doct=
or's
fees and could expect nothing from Bukawai, his heart and soul were, quite
naturally, wrapped up in the orthodox church.
But if Momaya cou=
ld
view with intrepid heart an excursion into the jungle and a visit to the
fear-haunted abode of Bukawai, she was not likely to be deterred by threats=
of
future punishment at the hands of old Mbonga, whom she secretly despised. Yet she appeared to accede to his
injunctions, returning to her hut in silence.
She would have
preferred starting upon her quest by day-light, but this was now out of the
question, since she must carry food and a weapon of some sort--things which=
she
never could pass out of the village with by day without being subjected to
curious questioning that surely would come immediately to the ears of Mbong=
a.
So Momaya bided h=
er
time until night, and just before the gates of the village were closed, she
slipped through into the darkness and the jungle. She was much frightened, but she set he=
r face
resolutely toward the north, and though she paused often to listen,
breathlessly, for the huge cats which, here, were her greatest terror, she =
nevertheless
continued her way staunchly for several hours, until a low moan a little to=
her
right and behind her brought her to a sudden stop.
With palpitating
heart the woman stood, scarce daring to breathe, and then, very faintly but
unmistakable to her keen ears, came the stealthy crunching of twigs and gra=
sses
beneath padded feet.
All about Momaya =
grew
the giant trees of the tropical jungle, festooned with hanging vines and
mosses. She seized upon the neares=
t and
started to clamber, apelike, to the branches above. As she did so, there was a sudden rush =
of a
great body behind her, a menacing roar that caused the earth to tremble, and
something crashed into the very creepers to which she was clinging--but bel=
ow
her.
Momaya drew herse=
lf
to safety among the leafy branches and thanked the foresight which had prom=
pted
her to bring along the dried human ear which hung from a cord about her
neck. She always had known that th=
at ear
was good medicine. It had been giv=
en
her, when a girl, by the witch-doctor of her town tribe, and was nothing li=
ke
the poor, weak medicine of Mbonga's witch-doctor.
All night Momaya
clung to her perch, for although the lion sought other prey after a short t=
ime,
she dared not descend into the darkness again, for fear she might encounter=
him
or another of his kind; but at daylight she clambered down and resumed her =
way.
Tarzan of the Ape=
s,
finding that his balu never ceased to give evidence of terror in the presen=
ce
of the apes of the tribe, and also that most of the adult apes were a const=
ant
menace to Go-bu-balu's life, so that Tarzan dared not leave him alone with
them, took to hunting with the little black boy farther and farther from the
stamping grounds of the anthropoids.
Little by little his absences from the t=
ribe
grew in length as he wandered farther away from them, until finally he found
himself a greater distance to the north than he ever before had hunted, and
with water and ample game and fruit, he felt not at all inclined to return =
to
the tribe.
Little Go-bu-balu
gave evidences of a greater interest in life, an interest which varied in
direct proportion to the distance he was from the apes of Kerchak. He now trotted along behind Tarzan when=
the ape-man
went upon the ground, and in the trees he even did his best to follow his
mighty foster parent. The boy was =
still
sad and lonely. His thin, little body had grown steadily thinner since he h=
ad
come among the apes, for while, as a young cannibal, he was not overnice in=
the
matter of diet, he found it not always to his taste to stomach the weird th=
ings
which tickled the palates of epicures among the apes.
His large eyes we=
re
very large indeed now, his cheeks sunken, and every rib of his emaciated bo=
dy
plainly discernible to whomsoever should care to count them. Constant terror, perhaps, had had as mu=
ch to
do with his physical condition as had improper food. Tarzan noticed the change and was
worried. He had hoped to see his b=
alu
wax sturdy and strong. His disappointment was great. In only one respect did Go-bu-balu seem=
to
progress--he readily was mastering the language of the apes. Even now he and Tarzan could converse i=
n a
fairly satisfactory manner by supplementing the meager ape speech with sign=
s;
but for the most part, Go-bu-balu was silent other than to answer questions=
put
to him. His great sorrow was yet t=
oo new
and too poignant to be laid aside even momentarily. Always he pined for Momaya--shrewish,
hideous, repulsive, perhaps, she would have been to you or me, but to Tibo =
she
was mamma, the personification of that one great love which knows no
selfishness and which does not consume itself in its own fires.
As the two hunted=
, or
rather as Tarzan hunted and Go-bu-balu tagged along in his wake, the ape-man
noticed many things and thought much. Once they came upon Sabor moaning in =
the
tall grasses. About her romped and=
played
two little balls of fur, but her eyes were for one which lay between her gr=
eat
forepaws and did not romp, one who never would romp again.
Tarzan read aright
the anguish and the suffering of the huge mother cat. He had been minded to bait her. It was to do this that he had sneaked
silently through the trees until he had come almost above her, but something
held the ape-man as he saw the lioness grieving over her dead cub. With the acquisition of Go-bu-balu, Tar=
zan
had come to realize the responsibilities and sorrows of parentage, without =
its joys. His heart went out to Sabor as it might=
not
have done a few weeks before. As he
watched her, there rose quite unbidden before him a vision of Momaya, the
skewer through the septum of her nose, her pendulous under lip sagging bene=
ath
the weight which dragged it down. Tarzan saw not her unloveliness; he saw o=
nly
the same anguish that was Sabor's, and he winced. That strange functioning of the mind wh=
ich sometimes
is called association of ideas snapped Teeka and Gazan before the ape-man's
mental vision. What if one should =
come
and take Gazan from Teeka. Tarzan
uttered a low and ominous growl as though Gazan were his own. Go-bu-balu glanced here and there
apprehensively, thinking that Tarzan had espied an enemy. Sabor sprang suddenly to her feet, her
yellow-green eyes blazing, her tail lashing as she cocked her ears, and rai=
sing
her muzzle, sniffed the air for possible danger. The two little cubs, which had been pla=
ying,
scampered quickly to her, and standing beneath her, peered out from between=
her
forelegs, their big ears upstanding, their little heads cocked first upon o=
ne
side and then upon the other.
With a shake of h=
is
black shock, Tarzan turned away and resumed his hunting in another directio=
n;
but all day there rose one after another, above the threshold of his object=
ive
mind, memory portraits of Sabor, of Momaya, and of Teeka--a lioness, a
cannibal, and a she-ape, yet to the ape-man they were identical through
motherhood.
It was noon of the
third day when Momaya came within sight of the cave of Bukawai, the
unclean. The old witch-doctor had =
rigged
a framework of interlaced boughs to close the mouth of the cave from predat=
ory beasts. This was now set to one side, and the b=
lack
cavern beyond yawned mysterious and repellent.
Momaya shivered as from a cold wind of the rainy season. No sign of life appeared about the cave=
, yet Momaya
experienced that uncanny sensation as of unseen eyes regarding her
malevolently. Again she shuddered.=
She tried to force her unwilling feet o=
nward
toward the cave, when from its depths issued an uncanny sound that was neit=
her
brute nor human, a weird sound that was akin to mirthless laughter.
With a stifled
scream, Momaya turned and fled into the jungle.
For a hundred yards she ran before she could control her terror, and
then she paused, listening. Was al=
l her
labor, were all the terrors and dangers through which she had passed to go =
for
naught? She tried to steel herself to return to the cave, but again fright
overcame her.
Saddened,
disheartened, she turned slowly upon the back trail toward the village of
Mbonga. Her young shoulders now we=
re
drooped like those of an old woman who bears a great burden of many years w=
ith
their accumulated pains and sorrows, and she walked with tired feet and a h=
alting
step. The spring of youth was gone=
from
Momaya.
For another hundr=
ed
yards she dragged her weary way, her brain half paralyzed from dumb terror =
and
suffering, and then there came to her the memory of a little babe that suck=
led
at her breast, and of a slim boy who romped, laughing, about her, and they =
were
both Tibo--her Tibo!
Her shoulders
straightened. She shook her savage=
head,
and she turned about and walked boldly back to the mouth of the cave of
Bukawai, the unclean--of Bukawai, the witch-doctor.
Again, from the
interior of the cave came the hideous laughter that was not laughter. This time Momaya recognized it for what=
it
was, the strange cry of a hyena. N=
o more
did she shudder, but she held her spear ready and called aloud to Bukawai to
come out.
Instead of Bukawai
came the repulsive head of a hyena.
Momaya poked at it with her spear, and the ugly, sullen brute drew b=
ack
with an angry growl. Again Momaya =
called
Bukawai by name, and this time there came an answer in mumbling tones that =
were
scarce more human than those of the beast.
"Who comes to
Bukawai?" queried the voice.
"It is
Momaya," replied the woman; "Momaya from the village of Mbonga, t=
he
chief.
"What do you
want?"
"I want good
medicine, better medicine than Mbonga's witch-doctor can make," replied
Momaya. "The great, white, ju=
ngle
god has stolen my Tibo, and I want medicine to bring him back, or to find w=
here
he is hidden that I may go and get him."
"Who is
Tibo?" asked Bukawai.
Momaya told him.<= o:p>
"Bukawai's m=
edicine
is very strong," said the voice.
"Five goats and a new sleeping mat are scarce enough in exchange
for Bukawai's medicine."
"Two goats a=
re
enough," said Momaya, for the spirit of barter is strong in the breast=
s of
the blacks.
The pleasure of h=
aggling
over the price was a sufficiently potent lure to draw Bukawai to the mouth =
of
the cave. Momaya was sorry when sh=
e saw
him that he had not remained within.
There are some things too horrible, too hideous, too repulsive for
description--Bukawai's face was of these.
When Momaya saw him she understood why it was that he was almost
inarticulate.
Beside him were t=
wo
hyenas, which rumor had said were his only and constant companions. They made an excellent trio--the most
repulsive of beasts with the most repulsive of humans.
"Five goats =
and
a new sleeping mat," mumbled Bukawai.
"Two fat goa=
ts
and a sleeping mat." Momaya raised her bid; but Bukawai was obdurate.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He stuck for the five goats and the sle=
eping
mat for a matter of half an hour, while the hyenas sniffed and growled and =
laughed
hideously. Momaya was determined t=
o give
all that Bukawai asked if she could do no better, but haggling is second na=
ture
to black barterers, and in the end it partly repaid her, for a compromise f=
inally
was reached which included three fat goats, a new sleeping mat, and a piece=
of
copper wire.
"Come back
tonight," said Bukawai, "when the moon is two hours in the sky. Then will I make the strong medicine wh=
ich
shall bring Tibo back to you. Brin=
g with
you the three fat goats, the new sleeping mat, and the piece of copper wire=
the
length of a large man's forearm."
"I cannot br=
ing
them," said Momaya. "You=
will
have to come after them. When you have restored Tibo to me, you shall have =
them
all at the village of Mbonga."
Bukawai shook his
head.
"I will make=
no
medicine," he said, "until I have the goats and the mat and the
copper wire."
Momaya pleaded and
threatened, but all to no avail.
Finally, she turned away and started off through the jungle toward t=
he
village of Mbonga. How she could g=
et
three goats and a sleeping mat out of the village and through the jungle to=
the
cave of Bukawai, she did not know, but that she would do it somehow she was
quite positive--she would do it or die.
Tibo must be restored to her.
Tarzan coming laz=
ily
through the jungle with little Go-bu-balu, caught the scent of Bara, the
deer. Tarzan hungered for the fles=
h of
Bara. Naught tickled his palate so greatly; but to stalk Bara with Go-bu-ba=
lu at
his heels, was out of the question, so he hid the child in the crotch of a =
tree
where the thick foliage screened him from view, and set off swiftly and
silently upon the spoor of Bara.
Tibo alone was mo=
re
terrified than Tibo even among the apes.
Real and apparent dangers are less disconcerting than those which we
imagine, and only the gods of his people knew how much Tibo imagined.
He had been but a
short time in his hiding place when he heard something approaching through =
the
jungle. He crouched closer to the =
limb
upon which he lay and prayed that Tarzan would return quickly. His wide eyes
searched the jungle in the direction of the moving creature.
What if it was a
leopard that had caught his scent! It would be upon him in a minute. Hot tears flowed from the large eyes of
little Tibo. The curtain of jungle foliage rustled close at hand. The thing was but a few paces from his
tree! His eyes fairly popped from =
his
black face as he watched for the appearance of the dread creature which
presently would thrust a snarling countenance from between the vines and
creepers.
And then the curt=
ain
parted and a woman stepped into full view.
With a gasping cry, Tibo tumbled from his perch and raced toward
her. Momaya suddenly started back =
and
raised her spear, but a second later she cast it aside and caught the thin =
body
in her strong arms.
Crushing it to he=
r,
she cried and laughed all at one and the same time, and hot tears of joy,
mingled with the tears of Tibo, trickled down the crease between her naked
breasts.
Disturbed by the
noise so close at hand, there arose from his sleep in a near-by thicket Num=
a,
the lion. He looked through the ta=
ngled underbrush
and saw the black woman and her young.
He licked his chops and measured the distance between them and
himself. A short charge and a long=
leap
would carry him upon them. He flic=
ked
the end of his tail and sighed.
A vagrant breeze,
swirling suddenly in the wrong direction, carried the scent of Tarzan to the
sensitive nostrils of Bara, the deer.
There was a startled tensing of muscles and cocking of ears, a sudde=
n dash,
and Tarzan's meat was gone. The ap=
e-man
angrily shook his head and turned back toward the spot where he had left
Go-bu-balu. He came softly, as was his way.
Before he reached the spot he heard strange sounds--the sound of a w=
oman
laughing and of a woman weeping, and the two which seemed to come from one
throat were mingled with the convulsive sobbing of a child. Tarzan hastened, and when Tarzan hasten=
ed,
only the birds and the wind went faster.
And as Tarzan
approached the sounds, he heard another, a deep sigh. Momaya did not hear i=
t,
nor did Tibo; but the ears of Tarzan were as the ears of Bara, the deer.
Numa, the lion, d=
id
not rush madly to attack. He reaso=
ned
again, and reason told him that already the prey was his, so he pushed his
great bulk through the foliage and stood eyeing his meat with baleful, glar=
ing
eyes.
Momaya saw him and
shrieked, drawing Tibo closer to her breast.
To have found her child and to lose him, all in a moment! She raised her spear, throwing her hand=
far
back of her shoulder. Numa roared =
and stepped
slowly forward. Momaya cast her
weapon. It grazed the tawny should=
er,
inflicting a flesh wound which aroused all the terrific bestiality of the
carnivore, and the lion charged.
Momaya tried to c=
lose
her eyes, but could not. She saw t=
he
flashing swiftness of the huge, oncoming death, and then she saw something
else. She saw a mighty, naked white man drop as from the heavens into the p=
ath
of the charging lion. She saw the
muscles of a great arm flash in the light of the equatorial sun as it filte=
red,
dappling, through the foliage above. She
saw a heavy hunting spear hurtle through the air to meet the lion in midlea=
p.
Numa brought up u=
pon
his haunches, roaring terribly and striking at the spear which protruded fr=
om
his breast. His great blows bent a=
nd twisted
the weapon. Tarzan, crouching and =
with
hunting knife in hand, circled warily about the frenzied cat. Momaya, wide-eyed, stood rooted to the =
spot,
watching, fascinated.
In sudden fury Nu=
ma
hurled himself toward the ape-man, but the wiry creature eluded the blunder=
ing
charge, side-stepping quickly only to rush in upon his foe. Twice the hunting blade flashed in the =
air. Twice
it fell upon the back of Numa, already weakening from the spear point so ne=
ar
his heart. The second stroke of the
blade pierced far into the beast's spine, and with a last convulsive sweep =
of
the fore-paws, in a vain attempt to reach his tormentor, Numa sprawled upon=
the
ground, paralyzed and dying.
Bukawai, fearful =
lest
he should lose any recompense, followed Momaya with the intention of persua=
ding
her to part with her ornaments of copper and iron against her return with t=
he
price of the medicine--to pay, as it were, for an option on his services as=
one
pays a retaining fee to an attorney, for, like an attorney, Bukawai knew the
value of his medicine and that it was well to collect as much as possible i=
n advance.
The witch-doctor =
came
upon the scene as Tarzan leaped to meet the lion's charge. He saw it all and marveled, guessing
immediately that this must be the strange white demon concerning whom he had
heard vague rumors before Momaya came to him.
Momaya, now that =
the
lion was past harming her or hers, gazed with new terror upon Tarzan. It was he who had stolen her Tibo. Doubtless he would attempt to steal him
again. Momaya hugged the boy close=
to
her. She was determined to die this time rather than suffer Tibo to be take=
n from
her again.
Tarzan eyed them =
in
silence. The sight of the boy clin=
ging,
sobbing, to his mother aroused within his savage breast a melancholy
loneliness. There was none thus to cling to Tarzan, who yearned so for the =
love
of someone, of something.
At last Tibo look=
ed up,
because of the quiet that had fallen upon the jungle, and saw Tarzan. He did not shrink.
"Tarzan,&quo=
t;
he said, in the speech of the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak, "do =
not
take me from Momaya, my mother. Do=
not
take me again to the lair of the hairy, tree men, for I fear Taug and Gunto=
and
the others. Let me stay with Momay=
a, O
Tarzan, God of the Jungle! Let me stay with Momaya, my mother, and to the e=
nd
of our days we will bless you and put food before the gates of the village =
of
Mbonga that you may never hunger."
Tarzan sighed.
"Go," he
said, "back to the village of Mbonga, and Tarzan will follow to see th=
at
no harm befalls you."
Tibo translated t=
he
words to his mother, and the two turned their backs upon the ape-man and
started off toward home. In the he=
art of
Momaya was a great fear and a great exultation, for never before had she wa=
lked
with God, and never had she been so happy.
She strained little Tibo to her, stroking his thin cheek. Tarzan saw and sighed again.
"For Teeka t=
here
is Teeka's balu," he soliloquized; "for Sabor there are balus, and
for the she-Gomangani, and for Bara, and for Manu, and even for Pamba, the =
rat;
but for Tarzan there can be none--neither a she nor a balu. Tarzan of the Apes is a man, and it mus=
t be
that man walks alone."
Bukawai saw them =
go,
and he mumbled through his rotting face, swearing a great oath that he would
yet have the three fat goats, the new sleeping mat, and the bit of copper w=
ire.
LORD GREYSTOKE wa=
s hunting,
or, to be more accurate, he was shooting pheasants at Chamston-Hedding. Lord
Greystoke was immaculately and appropriately garbed--to the minutest detail=
he
was vogue. To be sure, he was amon=
g the
forward guns, not being considered a sporting shot, but what he lacked in s=
kill
he more than made up in appearance. At
the end of the day he would, doubtless, have many birds to his credit, sinc=
e he
had two guns and a smart loader--many more birds than he could eat in a yea=
r,
even had he been hungry, which he was not, having but just arisen from the
breakfast table.
The beaters--there
were twenty-three of them, in white smocks--had but just driven the birds i=
nto
a patch of gorse, and were now circling to the opposite side that they might
drive down toward the guns. Lord G=
reystoke
was quite as excited as he ever permitted himself to become. There was an
exhilaration in the sport that would not be denied. He felt his blood tingling through his =
veins
as the beaters approached closer and closer to the birds. In a vague and stupid sort of way Lord =
Greystoke
felt, as he always felt upon such occasions, that he was experiencing a
sensation somewhat akin to a reversion to a prehistoric type--that the bloo=
d of
an ancient forbear was coursing hot through him, a hairy, half-naked forbear
who had lived by the hunt.
And far away in a
matted equatorial jungle another Lord Greystoke, the real Lord Greystoke,
hunted. By the standards which he =
knew,
he, too, was vogue--utterly vogue, as was the primal ancestor before the fi=
rst eviction. The day being sultry, the leopard skin =
had
been left behind. The real Lord Greystoke had not two guns, to be sure, nor
even one, neither did he have a smart loader; but he possessed something in=
finitely
more efficacious than guns, or loaders, or even twenty-three beaters in whi=
te
smocks--he possessed an appetite, an uncanny woodcraft, and muscles that we=
re
as steel springs.
Later that day, in
England, a Lord Greystoke ate bountifully of things he had not killed, and =
he
drank other things which were uncorked to the accompaniment of much noise.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He patted his lips with snowy linen to =
remove
the faint traces of his repast, quite ignorant of the fact that he was an
impostor and that the rightful owner of his noble title was even then finis=
hing
his own dinner in far-off Africa. =
He was
not using snowy linen, though. Ins=
tead
he drew the back of a brown forearm and hand across his mouth and wiped his
bloody fingers upon his thighs. Then he moved slowly through the jungle to =
the
drinking place, where, upon all fours, he drank as drank his fellows, the o=
ther
beasts of the jungle.
As he quenched his
thirst, another denizen of the gloomy forest approached the stream along the
path behind him. It was Numa, the =
lion,
tawny of body and black of mane, scowling and sinister, rumbling out low,
coughing roars. Tarzan of the Apes=
heard
him long before he came within sight, but the ape-man went on with his drin=
king
until he had had his fill; then he arose, slowly, with the easy grace of a =
creature
of the wilds and all the quiet dignity that was his birthright.
Numa halted as he=
saw
the man standing at the very spot where the king would drink. His jaws were parted, and his cruel eyes
gleamed. He growled and advanced
slowly. The man growled, too, back=
ing
slowly to one side, and watching, not the lion's face, but its tail. Should that commence to move from side =
to
side in quick, nervous jerks, it would be well to be upon the alert, and sh=
ould
it rise suddenly erect, straight and stiff, then one might prepare to fight=
or
flee; but it did neither, so Tarzan merely backed away and the lion came do=
wn
and drank scarce fifty feet from where the man stood.
Tomorrow they mig=
ht
be at one another's throats, but today there existed one of those strange a=
nd
inexplicable truces which so often are seen among the savage ones of the
jungle. Before Numa had finished d=
rinking,
Tarzan had returned into the forest, and was swinging away in the direction=
of
the village of Mbonga, the black chief.
It had been at le=
ast
a moon since the ape-man had called upon the Gomangani. Not since he had restored little Tibo t=
o his
grief-stricken mother had the whim seized him to do so. The incident of the adopted balu was a =
closed
one to Tarzan. He had sought to fi=
nd
something upon which to lavish such an affection as Teeka lavished upon her
balu, but a short experience of the little black boy had made it quite plai=
n to
the ape-man that no such sentiment could exist between them.
The fact that he =
had
for a time treated the little black as he might have treated a real balu of=
his
own had in no way altered the vengeful sentiments with which he considered =
the
murderers of Kala. The Gomangani w=
ere
his deadly enemies, nor could they ever be aught else. Today he looked forw=
ard
to some slight relief from the monotony of his existence in such excitement=
as
he might derive from baiting the blacks.
It was not yet da=
rk
when he reached the village and took his place in the great tree overhanging
the palisade. From beneath came a =
great wailing
out of the depths of a near-by hut. The
noise fell disagreeably upon Tarzan's ears--it jarred and grated. He did not like it, so he decided to go=
away
for a while in the hopes that it might cease; but though he was gone for a
couple of hours the wailing still continued when he returned.
With the intentio=
n of
putting a violent termination to the annoying sound, Tarzan slipped silently
from the tree into the shadows beneath. Creeping stealthily and keeping wel=
l in
the cover of other huts, he approached that from which rose the sounds of
lamentation. A fire burned brightly
before the doorway as it did before other doorways in the village. A few females squatted about, occasiona=
lly
adding their own mournful howlings to those of the master artist within.
The ape-man smile=
d a
slow smile as he thought of the consternation which would follow the quick =
leap
that would carry him among the females and into the full light of the
fire. Then he would dart into the =
hut
during the excitement, throttle the chief screamer, and be gone into the ju=
ngle
before the blacks could gather their scattered nerves for an assault.
Many times had Ta=
rzan
behaved similarly in the village of Mbonga, the chief. His mysterious and unexpected appearanc=
es
always filled the breasts of the poor, superstitious blacks with the panic =
of
terror; never, it seemed, could they accustom themselves to the sight of hi=
m. It
was this terror which lent to the adventures the spice of interest and
amusement which the human mind of the ape-man craved. Merely to kill was not in itself
sufficient. Accustomed to the sigh=
t of
death, Tarzan found no great pleasure in it.
Long since had he avenged the death of Kala, but in the accomplishme=
nt
of it, he had learned the excitement and the pleasure to be derived from the
baiting of the blacks. Of this he =
never
tired.
It was just as he=
was
about to spring forward with a savage roar that a figure appeared in the
doorway of the hut. It was the fig=
ure of
the wailer whom he had come to still, the figure of a young woman with a wo=
oden
skewer through the split septum of her nose, with a heavy metal ornament
depending from her lower lip, which it had dragged down to hideous and
repulsive deformity, with strange tattooing upon forehead, cheeks, and brea=
sts,
and a wonderful coiffure built up with mud and wire.
A sudden flare of=
the
fire threw the grotesque figure into high relief, and Tarzan recognized her=
as
Momaya, the mother of Tibo. The fi=
re
also threw out a fitful flame which carried to the shadows where Tarzan lur=
ked,
picking out his light brown body from the surrounding darkness. Momaya saw =
him
and knew him. With a cry, she leap=
ed
forward and Tarzan came to meet her. The
other women, turning, saw him, too; but they did not come toward him. Instead they rose as one, shrieked as o=
ne, fled
as one.
Momaya threw hers=
elf
at Tarzan's feet, raising supplicating hands toward him and pouring forth f=
rom
her mutilated lips a perfect cataract of words, not one of which the ape-man
comprehended. For a moment he look=
ed
down upon the upturned, frightful face of the woman. He had come to slay, but that overwhelm=
ing
torrent of speech filled him with consternation and with awe. He glanced about him apprehensively, th=
en back
at the woman. A revulsion of feeli=
ng
seized him. He could not kill litt=
le Tibo's
mother, nor could he stand and face this verbal geyser. With a quick gesture of impatience at t=
he
spoiling of his evening's entertainment, he wheeled and leaped away into the
darkness. A moment later he was swinging through the black jungle night, th=
e cries
and lamentations of Momaya growing fainter in the distance.
It was with a sig=
h of
relief that he finally reached a point from which he could no longer hear t=
hem,
and finding a comfortable crotch high among the trees, composed himself for=
a
night of dreamless slumber, while a prowling lion moaned and coughed beneath
him, and in far-off England the other Lord Greystoke, with the assistance o=
f a
valet, disrobed and crawled between spotless sheets, swearing irritably as =
a cat
meowed beneath his window.
As Tarzan followed
the fresh spoor of Horta, the boar, the following morning, he came upon the
tracks of two Gomangani, a large one and a small one. The ape-man, accustomed as he was to
questioning closely all that fell to his perceptions, paused to read the st=
ory
written in the soft mud of the game trail.
You or I would have seen little of interest there, even if, by chanc=
e,
we could have seen aught. Perhaps =
had
one been there to point them out to us, we might have noted indentations in=
the
mud, but there were countless indentations, one overlapping another into a
confusion that would have been entirely meaningless to us. To Tarzan each told its own story. Tantor, the elephant, had passed that w=
ay as
recently as three suns since. Numa=
had
hunted here the night just gone, and Horta, the boar, had walked slowly alo=
ng
the trail within an hour; but what held Tarzan's attention was the spoor ta=
le
of the Gomangani. It told him that=
the
day before an old man had gone toward the north in company with a little bo=
y,
and that with them had been two hyenas.
Tarzan scratched =
his
head in puzzled incredulity. He co=
uld
see by the overlapping of the footprints that the beasts had not been follo=
wing
the two, for sometimes one was ahead of them and one behind, and again both
were in advance, or both were in the rear.
It was very strange and quite inexplicable, especially where the spo=
or
showed where the hyenas in the wider portions of the path had walked one on
either side of the human pair, quite close to them. Then Tarzan read in the spoor of the sm=
aller
Gomangani a shrinking terror of the beast that brushed his side, but in tha=
t of
the old man was no sign of fear.
At first Tarzan h=
ad
been solely occupied by the remarkable juxtaposition of the spoor of Dango =
and
Gomangani, but now his keen eyes caught something in the spoor of the little
Gomangani which brought him to a sudden stop.
It was as though, finding a letter in the road, you suddenly had
discovered in it the familiar handwriting of a friend.
"Go-bu-balu!=
"
exclaimed the ape-man, and at once memory flashed upon the screen of
recollection the supplicating attitude of Momaya as she had hurled herself
before him in the village of Mbonga the night before. Instantly all was explained--the wailin=
g and
lamentation, the pleading of the black mother, the sympathetic howling of t=
he
shes about the fire. Little Go-bu-=
balu
had been stolen again, and this time by another than Tarzan. Doubtless the mother had thought that h=
e was again
in the power of Tarzan of the Apes, and she had been beseeching him to retu=
rn
her balu to her.
Yes, it was all q=
uite
plain now; but who could have stolen Go-bu-balu this time? Tarzan wondered,=
and
he wondered, too, about the presence of Dango.
He would investigate. The s=
poor
was a day old and it ran toward the north.
Tarzan set out to follow it. In
places it was totally obliterated by the passage of many beasts, and where =
the
way was rocky, even Tarzan of the Apes was almost baffled; but there was st=
ill
the faint effluvium which clung to the human spoor, appreciable only to such
highly trained perceptive powers as were Tarzan's.
It had all happened to little Tibo very
suddenly and unexpectedly within the brief span of two suns. First had come Bukawai, the witch-docto=
r--Bukawai,
the unclean--with the ragged bit of flesh which still clung to his rotting
face. He had come alone and by day=
to
the place at the river where Momaya went daily to wash her body and that of=
Tibo,
her little boy. He had stepped out=
from
behind a great bush quite close to Momaya, frightening little Tibo so that =
he
ran screaming to his mother's protecting arms.
But Momaya, though
startled, had wheeled to face the fearsome thing with all the savage feroci=
ty
of a she-tiger at bay. When she sa=
w who it
was, she breathed a sigh of partial relief, though she still clung tightly =
to
Tibo.
"I have
come," said Bukawai without preliminary, "for the three fat goats,
the new sleeping mat, and the bit of copper wire as long as a tall man's
arm."
"I have no g=
oats
for you," snapped Momaya, "nor a sleeping mat, nor any wire. Your medicine was never made. The white jungle god gave me back my
Tibo. You had nothing to do with
it."
"But I
did," mumbled Bukawai through his fleshless jaws. "It was I who commanded the white =
jungle
god to give back your Tibo."
Momaya laughed in=
his
face. "Speaker of lies,"=
she
cried, "go back to your foul den and your hyenas. Go back and hide your stinking face in =
the
belly of the mountain, lest the sun, seeing it, cover his face with a black
cloud."
"I have come=
,"
reiterated Bukawai, "for the three fat goats, the new sleeping mat, and
the bit of copper wire the length of a tall man's arm, which you were to pa=
y me
for the return of your Tibo."
"It was to be
the length of a man's forearm," corrected Momaya, "but you shall =
have
nothing, old thief. You would not =
make
medicine until I had brought the payment in advance, and when I was returni=
ng
to my village the great, white jungle god gave me back my Tibo--gave him to=
me
out of the jaws of Numa. His medic=
ine is
true medicine--yours is the weak medicine of an old man with a hole in his
face."
"I have
come," repeated Bukawai patiently, "for the three fat--" But=
Momaya
had not waited to hear more of what she already knew by heart. Clasping Tibo
close to her side, she was hurrying away toward the palisaded village of
Mbonga, the chief.
And the next day,
when Momaya was working in the plantain field with others of the women of t=
he
tribe, and little Tibo had been playing at the edge of the jungle, casting a
small spear in anticipation of the distant day when he should be a full-fle=
dged
warrior, Bukawai had come again.
Tibo had seen a
squirrel scampering up the bole of a great tree. His childish mind had transformed it in=
to the
menacing figure of a hostile warrior.
Little Tibo had raised his tiny spear, his heart filled with the sav=
age
blood lust of his race, as he pictured the night's orgy when he should dance
about the corpse of his human kill as the women of his tribe prepared the m=
eat
for the feast to follow.
But when he cast =
the
spear, he missed both squirrel and tree, losing his missile far among the
tangled undergrowth of the jungle.
However, it could be but a few steps within the forbidden
labyrinth. The women were all abou=
t in
the field. There were warriors on =
guard
within easy hail, and so little Tibo boldly ventured into the dark place.
Just behind the
screen of creepers and matted foliage lurked three horrid figures--an old, =
old
man, black as the pit, with a face half eaten away by leprosy, his sharp-fi=
led
teeth, the teeth of a cannibal, showing yellow and repulsive through the gr=
eat
gaping hole where his mouth and nose had been.
And beside him, equally hideous, stood two powerful
hyenas--carrion-eaters consorting with carrion.
Tibo did not see =
them
until, head down, he had forced his way through the thickly growing vines in
search of his little spear, and then it was too late. As he looked up into the face of Bukawa=
i, the
old witch-doctor seized him, muffling his screams with a palm across his mo=
uth. Tibo struggled futilely.
A moment later he=
was
being hustled away through the dark and terrible jungle, the frightful old =
man
still muffling his screams, and the two hideous hyenas pacing now on either
side, now before, now behind, always prowling, always growling, snapping,
snarling, or, worst of all, laughing hideously.
To little Tibo, w=
ho
within his brief existence had passed through such experiences as are given=
to
few to pass through in a lifetime, the northward journey was a nightmare of
terror. He thought now of the time=
that
he had been with the great, white jungle god, and he prayed with all his li=
ttle
soul that he might be back again with the white-skinned giant who consorted
with the hairy tree men. Terror-stricken he had been then, but his surround=
ings
had been nothing by comparison with those which he now endured.
The old man seldom
addressed Tibo, though he kept up an almost continuous mumbling throughout =
the
long day. Tibo caught repeated ref=
erences
to fat goats, sleeping mats, and pieces of copper wire. "Ten fat goats,
ten fat goats," the old Negro would croon over and over again. By this little Tibo guessed that the pr=
ice of
his ransom had risen. Ten fat goat=
s?
Where would his mother get ten fat goats, or thin ones, either, for that
matter, to buy back just a poor little boy? Mbonga would never let her have
them, and Tibo knew that his father never had owned more than three goats at
the same time in all his life. Ten fat goats! Tibo sniffled. The putrid old man would kill him and e=
at
him, for the goats would never be forthcoming.
Bukawai would throw his bones to the hyenas. The little black boy shuddered and beca=
me so weak
that he almost fell in his tracks.
Bukawai cuffed him on an ear and jerked him along.
After what seemed=
an
eternity to Tibo, they arrived at the mouth of a cave between two rocky
hills. The opening was low and
narrow. A few saplings bound toget=
her
with strips of rawhide closed it against stray beasts. Bukawai removed the primitive door and =
pushed
Tibo within. The hyenas, snarling, rushed past him and were lost to view in=
the
blackness of the interior. Bukawai
replaced the saplings and seizing Tibo roughly by the arm, dragged him alon=
g a
narrow, rocky passage. The floor was comparatively smooth, for the dirt whi=
ch
lay thick upon it had been trodden and tramped by many feet until few
inequalities remained.
The passage was
tortuous, and as it was very dark and the walls rough and rocky, Tibo was
scratched and bruised from the many bumps he received. Bukawai walked as rapidly through the w=
inding
gallery as one would traverse a familiar lane by daylight. He knew every twist and turn as a mother
knows the face of her child, and he seemed to be in a hurry. He jerked poor little Tibo possibly a t=
rifle
more ruthlessly than necessary even at the pace Bukawai set; but the old
witch-doctor, an outcast from the society of man, diseased, shunned, hated,
feared, was far from possessing an angelic temper. Nature had given him few of the kindlier
characteristics of man, and these few Fate had eradicated entirely. Shrewd, cunning, cruel, vindictive, was
Bukawai, the witch-doctor.
Frightful tales w=
ere
whispered of the cruel tortures he inflicted upon his victims. Children were frightened into obedience=
by
the threat of his name. Often had =
Tibo
been thus frightened, and now he was reaping a grisly harvest of terror from
the seeds his mother had innocently sown.
The darkness, the presence of the dreaded witch-doctor, the pain of =
the
contusions, with a haunting premonition of the future, and the fear of the
hyenas combined to almost paralyze the child.
He stumbled and reeled until Bukawai was dragging rather than leading
him.
Presently Tibo sa=
w a
faint lightness ahead of them, and a moment later they emerged into a rough=
ly
circular chamber to which a little daylight filtered through a rift in the
rocky ceiling. The hyenas were the=
re ahead
of them, waiting. As Bukawai enter=
ed
with Tibo, the beasts slunk toward them, baring yellow fangs. They were hungry. Toward Tibo they came, and one snapped =
at his
naked legs. Bukawai seized a stick=
from the
floor of the chamber and struck a vicious blow at the beast, at the same ti=
me
mumbling forth a volley of execrations.
The hyena dodged and ran to the side of the chamber, where he stood
growling. Bukawai took a step towa=
rd the
creature, which bristled with rage at his approach. Fear and hatred shot fr=
om
its evil eyes, but, fortunately for Bukawai, fear predominated.
Seeing that he was
unnoticed, the second beast made a short, quick rush for Tibo. The child screamed and darted after the
witch-doctor, who now turned his attention to the second hyena. This one he reached with his heavy stic=
k,
striking it repeatedly and driving it to the wall. There the two carrion-ea=
ters
commenced to circle the chamber while the human carrion, their master, now =
in a
perfect frenzy of demoniacal rage, ran to and fro in an effort to intercept
them, striking out with his cudgel and lashing them with his tongue, calling
down upon them the curses of whatever gods and demons he could summon to
memory, and describing in lurid figures the ignominy of their ancestors.
Several times one=
or
the other of the beasts would turn to make a stand against the witch-doctor,
and then Tibo would hold his breath in agonized terror, for never in his br=
ief
life had he seen such frightful hatred depicted upon the countenance of man=
or
beast; but always fear overcame the rage of the savage creatures, so that t=
hey
resumed their flight, snarling and bare-fanged, just at the moment that Tibo
was certain they would spring at Bukawai's throat.
At last the
witch-doctor tired of the futile chase.
With a snarl quite as bestial as those of the beast, he turned toward
Tibo. "I go to collect the te=
n fat
goats, the new sleeping mat, and the two pieces of copper wire that your mo=
ther
will pay for the medicine I shall make to bring you back to her," he
said. "You will stay here.
He cast aside the
stick and called to the beasts. Th=
ey
came, snarling and slinking, their tails between their legs. Bukawai led them to the passage and dro=
ve
them into it. Then he dragged a ru=
de
lattice into place before the opening after he, himself, had left the chamb=
er. "This
will keep them from you," he said.
"If I do not get the ten fat goats and the other things, they s=
hall
at least have a few bones after I am through." And he left the boy to
think over the meaning of his all-too-suggestive words.
When he was gone,
Tibo threw himself upon the earth floor and broke into childish sobs of ter=
ror
and loneliness. He knew that his m=
other had
no ten fat goats to give and that when Bukawai returned, little Tibo would =
be
killed and eaten. How long he lay =
there
he did not know, but presently he was aroused by the growling of the
hyenas. They had returned through =
the
passage and were glaring at him from beyond the lattice. He could see their yellow eyes blazing
through the darkness. They reared up and clawed at the barrier. Tibo shivered and withdrew to the oppos=
ite
side of the chamber. He saw the la=
ttice
sag and sway to the attacks of the beasts.
Momentarily he expected that it would fall inward, letting the creat=
ures
upon him.
Wearily the
horror-ridden hours dragged their slow way.
Night came, and for a time Tibo slept, but it seemed that the hungry
beasts never slept. Always they st=
ood
just beyond the lattice growling their hideous growls or laughing their hid=
eous
laughs. Through the narrow rift in=
the
rocky roof above him, Tibo could see a few stars, and once the moon
crossed. At last daylight came
again. Tibo was very hungry and th=
irsty,
for he had not eaten since the morning before, and only once upon the long
march had he been permitted to drink, but even hunger and thirst were almost
forgotten in the terror of his position.
It was after dayl=
ight
that the child discovered a second opening in the walls of the subterranean
chamber, almost opposite that at which the hyenas still stood glaring hungr=
ily
at him. It was only a narrow slit =
in the
rocky wall. It might lead in but a=
few
feet, or it might lead to freedom! Tibo approached it and looked within.
To the boy's fear=
of
the actual dangers which menaced him--Bukawai and the two hyenas--his
superstition added countless others quite too horrible even to name, for in=
the
lives of the blacks, through the shadows of the jungle day and the black
horrors of the jungle night, flit strange, fantastic shapes peopling the
already hideously peopled forests with menacing figures, as though the lion=
and
the leopard, the snake and the hyena, and the countless poisonous insects w=
ere
not quite sufficient to strike terror to the hearts of the poor, simple
creatures whose lot is cast in earth's most fearsome spot.
And so it was that little Tibo cringed n=
ot
only from real menaces but from imaginary ones.
He was afraid even to venture upon a road that might lead to escape,
lest Bukawai had set to watch it some frightful demon of the jungle.
But the real mena=
ces
suddenly drove the imaginary ones from the boy's mind, for with the coming =
of
daylight the half-famished hyenas renewed their efforts to break down the f=
rail
barrier which kept them from their prey.
Rearing upon their hind feet they clawed and struck at the lattice.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> With wide eyes Tibo saw it sag and rock=
. Not for long, he knew, could it withsta=
nd the
assaults of these two powerful and determined brutes. Already one corner had been forced past=
the
rocky protuberance of the entrance way which had held it in place. A shaggy forearm protruded into the
chamber. Tibo trembled as with agu=
e, for
he knew that the end was near.
Backing against t=
he
farther wall he stood flattened out as far from the beasts as he could
get. He saw the lattice give still=
more. He saw a savage, snarling head forced p=
ast
it, and grinning jaws snapping and gaping toward him. In another instant the pitiful fabric w=
ould
fall inward, and the two would be upon him, rending his flesh from his bone=
s,
gnawing the bones themselves, fighting for possession of his entrails.
* * *
Bukawai came upon
Momaya outside the palisade of Mbonga, the chief. At sight of him the woman drew back in
revulsion, then she flew at him, tooth and nail; but Bukawai threatening her
with a spear held her at a safe distance.
"Where is my
baby?" she cried. "Where=
is my
little Tibo?"
Bukawai opened his
eyes in well-simulated amazement.
"Your baby!" he exclaimed.
"What should I know of him, other than that I rescued him from =
the
white god of the jungle and have not yet received my pay. I come for the goats and the sleeping m=
at and
the piece of copper wire the length of a tall man's arm from the shoulder to
the tips of his fingers." "Offal of a hyena!" shrieked
Momaya. "My child has been st=
olen,
and you, rotting fragment of a man, have taken him. Return him to me or I shall tear your e=
yes
from your head and feed your heart to the wild hogs."
Bukawai shrugged =
his
shoulders. "What do I know ab=
out
your child?" he asked. "=
I have
not taken him. If he is stolen aga=
in,
what should Bukawai know of the matter? Did Bukawai steal him before? No, t=
he
white jungle god stole him, and if he stole him once he would steal him aga=
in. It is nothing to me. I returned him to you before and I have=
come
for my pay. If he is gone and you =
would
have him returned, Bukawai will return him--for ten fat goats, a new sleepi=
ng
mat and two pieces of copper wire the length of a tall man's arm from the
shoulder to the tips of his fingers, and Bukawai will say nothing more about
the goats and the sleeping mat and the copper wire which you were to pay for
the first medicine."
"Ten fat
goats!" screamed Momaya. &quo=
t;I
could not pay you ten fat goats in as many years. Ten fat goats, indeed!"
"Ten fat
goats," repeated Bukawai. &qu=
ot;Ten
fat goats, the new sleeping mat and two pieces of copper wire the length
of--"
Momaya stopped him
with an impatient gesture.
"Wait!" she cried.
"I have no goats. You =
waste
your breath. Stay here while I go =
to my
man. He has but three goats, yet something may be done. Wait!"
Bukawai sat down
beneath a tree. He felt quite cont=
ent,
for he knew that he should have either payment or revenge. He did not fear harm at the hands of th=
ese
people of another tribe, although he well knew that they must fear and hate
him. His leprosy alone would preve=
nt
their laying hands upon him, while his reputation as a witch-doctor rendere=
d him
doubly immune from attack. He was
planning upon compelling them to drive the ten goats to the mouth of his ca=
ve
when Momaya returned. With her were three warriors--Mbonga, the chief, Rabba
Kega, the village witch-doctor, and Ibeto, Tibo's father. They were not pretty men even under ord=
inary
circumstances, and now, with their faces marked by anger, they well might h=
ave
inspired terror in the heart of anyone; but if Bukawai felt any fear, he did
not betray it. Instead he greeted =
them
with an insolent stare, intended to awe them, as they came and squatted in a
semi-circle before him.
"Where is
Ibeto's son?" asked Mbonga.
"How should I
know?" returned Bukawai.
"Doubtless the white devil-god has him. If I am paid I will make strong medicin=
e and
then we shall know where is Ibeto's son, and shall get him back again. It was my medicine which got him back t=
he
last time, for which I got no pay."
"I have my o=
wn
witch-doctor to make medicine," replied Mbonga with dignity.
Bukawai sneered a=
nd
rose to his feet. "Very well,=
"
he said, "let him make his medicine and see if he can bring Ibeto's son
back." He took a few steps away from them, and then he turned angrily =
back. "His medicine will not bring the c=
hild
back--that I know, and I also know that when you find him it will be too la=
te
for any medicine to bring him back, for he will be dead. This have I just found out, the ghost o=
f my
father's sister but now came to me and told me."
Now Mbonga and Ra=
bba
Kega might not take much stock in their own magic, and they might even be
skeptical as to the magic of another; but there was always a chance of
SOMETHING being in it, especially if it were not their own. Was it not well known that old Bukawai =
had
speech with the demons themselves and that two even lived with him in the f=
orms
of hyenas! Still they must not accede too hastily. There was the price to be considered, a=
nd
Mbonga had no intention of parting lightly with ten goats to obtain the ret=
urn
of a single little boy who might die of smallpox long before he reached a
warrior's estate.
"Wait,"
said Mbonga. "Let us see some=
of
your magic, that we may know if it be good magic. Then we can talk about payment. Rabba Kega will make some magic, too. We will see who makes the best magic. Sit down, Bukawai."
"The payment
will be ten goats--fat goats--a new sleeping mat and two pieces of copper w=
ire
the length of a tall man's arm from the shoulder to the ends of his fingers,
and it will be made in advance, the goats being driven to my cave. Then will I make the medicine, and on t=
he second
day the boy will be returned to his mother.
It cannot be done more quickly than that because it takes time to ma=
ke
such strong medicine."
"Make us some
medicine now," said Mbonga.
"Let us see what sort of medicine you make."
"Bring me
fire," replied Bukawai, "and I will make you a little magic."=
;
Momaya was dispat=
ched
for the fire, and while she was away Mbonga dickered with Bukawai about the
price. Ten goats, he said, was a h=
igh price
for an able-bodied warrior. He also
called Bukawai's attention to the fact that he, Mbonga, was very poor, that=
his
people were very poor, and that ten goats were at least eight too many, to =
say
nothing of a new sleeping mat and the copper wire; but Bukawai was adamant.=
His
medicine was very expensive and he would have to give at least five goats to
the gods who helped him make it. T=
hey
were still arguing when Momaya returned with the fire.
Bukawai placed a
little on the ground before him, took a pinch of powder from a pouch at his
side and sprinkled it on the embers. A cloud
of smoke rose with a puff. Bukawai
closed his eyes and rocked back and forth.
Then he made a few passes in the air and pretended to swoon. Mbonga and the others were much
impressed. Rabba Kega grew nervous=
. He saw his reputation waning. There was some fire left in the vessel =
which
Momaya had brought. He seized the
vessel, dropped a handful of dry leaves into it while no one was watching a=
nd
then uttered a frightful scream which drew the attention of Bukawai's audie=
nce
to him. It also brought Bukawai qu=
ite
miraculously out of his swoon, but when the old witch-doctor saw the reason=
for
the disturbance he quickly relapsed into unconsciousness before anyone
discovered his FAUX PAS.
Rabba Kega, seeing
that he had the attention of Mbonga, Ibeto, and Momaya, blew suddenly into =
the
vessel, with the result that the leaves commenced to smolder, and smoke iss=
ued
from the mouth of the receptacle. =
Rabba
Kega was careful to hold it so that none might see the dry leaves. Their eyes opened wide at this remarkab=
le demonstration
of the village witch-doctor's powers.
The latter, greatly elated, let himself out. He shouted, jumped up and down, and made
frightful grimaces; then he put his face close over the mouth of the vessel=
and
appeared to be communing with the spirits within.
It was while he w=
as
thus engaged that Bukawai came out of his trance, his curiosity finally hav=
ing
gotten the better of him. No one w=
as paying
him the slightest attention. He bl=
inked
his one eye angrily, then he, too, let out a loud roar, and when he was sure
that Mbonga had turned toward him, he stiffened rigidly and made spasmodic
movements with his arms and legs.
"I see
him!" he cried. "He is f=
ar
away. The white devil-god did not =
get
him. He is alone and in great dang=
er;
but," he added, "if the ten fat goats and the other things are pa=
id
to me quickly there is yet time to save him."
Rabba Kega had pa= used to listen. Mbonga looked toward him. The chief was in a quandary.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He did not know which medicine was the better. "What does your magic tell you?" he asked of Rabba Kega.<= o:p>
"I, too, see
him," screamed Rabba Kega; "but he is not where Bukawai says he
is. He is dead at the bottom of the
river."
At this Momaya
commenced to howl loudly.
Tarzan had followed the spoor of the old=
man,
the two hyenas, and the little black boy to the mouth of the cave in the ro=
cky
canon between the two hills. Here =
he
paused a moment before the sapling barrier which Bukawai had set up, listen=
ing
to the snarls and growls which came faintly from the far recesses of the
cavern.
Presently, mingled
with the beastly cries, there came faintly to the keen ears of the ape-man,=
the
agonized moan of a child. No longe=
r did Tarzan
hesitate. Hurling the door aside, =
he
sprang into the dark opening. Narr=
ow and
black was the corridor; but long use of his eyes in the Stygian blackness of
the jungle nights had given to the ape-man something of the nocturnal visio=
nary
powers of the wild things with which he had consorted since babyhood.
He moved rapidly =
and
yet with caution, for the place was dark, unfamiliar and winding. As he advanced, he heard more and more =
loudly
the savage snarls of the two hyenas, mingled with the scraping and scratchi=
ng
of their paws upon wood. The moans=
of a
child grew in volume, and Tarzan recognized in them the voice of the little
black boy he once had sought to adopt as his balu.
There was no hyst=
eria
in the ape-man's advance. Too accu=
stomed
was he to the passing of life in the jungle to be greatly wrought even by t=
he death
of one whom he knew; but the lust for battle spurred him on. He was only a wild beast at heart and h=
is
wild beast's heart beat high in anticipation of conflict.
In the rocky cham=
ber
of the hill's center, little Tibo crouched low against the wall as far from=
the
hunger-crazed beasts as he could drag himself.
He saw the lattice giving to the frantic clawing of the hyenas. He knew that in a few minutes his littl=
e life
would flicker out horribly beneath the rending, yellow fangs of these loath=
some
creatures.
Beneath the
buffetings of the powerful bodies, the lattice sagged inward, until, with a
crash it gave way, letting the carnivora in upon the boy. Tibo cast one affrighted glance toward =
them,
then closed his eyes and buried his face in his arms, sobbing piteously.
For a moment the
hyenas paused, caution and cowardice holding them from their prey. They stood thus glaring at the lad, then
slowly, stealthily, crouching, they crept toward him. It was thus that Tarzan came upon them,
bursting into the chamber swiftly and silently; but not so silently that the
keen-eared beasts did not note his coming.
With angry growls they turned from Tibo upon the ape-man, as, with a
smile upon his lips, he ran toward them.
For an instant one of the animals stood its ground; but the ape-man =
did
not deign even to draw his hunting knife against despised Dango. Rushing in upon the brute he grasped it=
by
the scruff of the neck, just as it attempted to dodge past him, and hurled =
it
across the cavern after its fellow which already was slinking into the
corridor, bent upon escape.
Then Tarzan picked
Tibo from the floor, and when the child felt human hands upon him instead of
the paws and fangs of the hyenas, he rolled his eyes upward in surprise and
incredulity, and as they fell upon Tarzan, sobs of relief broke from the
childish lips and his hands clutched at his deliverer as though the white
devil-god was not the most feared of jungle creatures.
When Tarzan came =
to
the cave mouth the hyenas were nowhere in sight, and after permitting Tibo =
to
quench his thirst in the spring which rose near by, he lifted the boy to his
shoulders and set off toward the jungle at a rapid trot, determined to still
the annoying howlings of Momaya as quickly as possible, for he shrewdly had
guessed that the absence of her balu was the cause of her lamentation.
"He is not dead at the bottom of the
river," cried Bukawai. "=
What
does this fellow know about making magic? Who is he, anyway, that he dare s=
ay
Bukawai's magic is not good magic? Bukawai sees Momaya's son. He is far away and alone and in great
danger. Hasten then with the ten f=
at
goats, the--"
But he got no
further. There was a sudden interr=
uption
from above, from the branches of the very tree beneath which they squatted,=
and
as the five blacks looked up they almost swooned in fright as they saw the =
great,
white devil-god looking down upon them; but before they could flee they saw
another face, that of the lost little Tibo, and his face was laughing and v=
ery
happy.
And then Tarzan
dropped fearlessly among them, the boy still upon his back, and deposited h=
im
before his mother. Momaya, Ibeto, =
Rabba
Kega, and Mbonga were all crowding around the lad trying to question him at=
the
same time. Suddenly Momaya turned
ferociously to fall upon Bukawai, for the boy had told her all that he had
suffered at the hands of the cruel old man; but Bukawai was no longer there=
--he
had required no recourse to black art to assure him that the vicinity of Mo=
maya
would be no healthful place for him after Tibo had told his story, and now =
he
was running through the jungle as fast as his old legs would carry him towa=
rd
the distant lair where he knew no black would dare pursue him.
Tarzan, too, had
vanished, as he had a way of doing, to the mystification of the blacks. Then Momaya's eyes lighted upon Rabba K=
ega. The village witch-doctor saw something =
in
those eyes of hers which boded no good to him, and backed away.
"So my Tibo =
is dead
at the bottom of the river, is he?" the woman shrieked. "And he's far away and alone and in
great danger, is he? Magic!" The scorn which Momaya crowded into that
single word would have done credit to a Thespian of the first magnitude.
Thus it was that =
to his
host of passive enemies, Tarzan of the Apes added that day two active foes,
both of whom remained awake long into the night planning means of revenge u=
pon
the white devil-god who had brought them into ridicule and disrepute, but w=
ith
their most malevolent schemings was mingled a vein of real fear and awe that
would not down.
Young Lord Greyst=
oke
did not know that they planned against him, nor, knowing, would have
cared. He slept as well that night=
as he
did on any other night, and though there was no roof above him, and no door=
s to
lock against intruders, he slept much better than his noble relative in
England, who had eaten altogether too much lobster and drank too much wine =
at
dinner that night.
WHEN TARZAN OF th=
e Apes
was still but a boy he had learned, among other things, to fashion pliant r=
opes
of fibrous jungle grass. Strong an=
d tough
were the ropes of Tarzan, the little Tarmangani. Tublat, his foster father, would have t=
old
you this much and more. Had you te=
mpted him
with a handful of fat caterpillars he even might have sufficiently unbended=
to
narrate to you a few stories of the many indignities which Tarzan had heaped
upon him by means of his hated rope; but then Tublat always worked himself =
into
such a frightful rage when he devoted any considerable thought either to the
rope or to Tarzan, that it might not have proved comfortable for you to have
remained close enough to him to hear what he had to say.
So often had that
snakelike noose settled unexpectedly over Tublat's head, so often had he be=
en
jerked ridiculously and painfully from his feet when he was least looking f=
or
such an occurrence, that there is little wonder he found scant space in his
savage heart for love of his white-skinned foster child, or the inventions
thereof. There had been other time=
s,
too, when Tublat had swung helplessly in midair, the noose tightening about=
his
neck, death staring him in the face, and little Tarzan dancing upon a near-=
by
limb, taunting him and making unseemly grimaces.
Then there had be=
en
another occasion in which the rope had figured prominently--an occasion, and
the only one connected with the rope, which Tublat recalled with pleasure.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Tarzan, as active in brain as he was in=
body,
was always inventing new ways in which to play.
It was through the medium of play that he learned much during his
childhood. This day he learned something, and that he did not lose his life=
in
the learning of it, was a matter of great surprise to Tarzan, and the fly in
the ointment, to Tublat.
The man-child had=
, in
throwing his noose at a playmate in a tree above him, caught a projecting
branch instead. When he tried to s=
hake
it loose it but drew the tighter. =
Then
Tarzan started to climb the rope to remove it from the branch. When he was part way up a frolicsome pl=
aymate
seized that part of the rope which lay upon the ground and ran off with it =
as
far as he could go. When Tarzan sc=
reamed
at him to desist, the young ape released the rope a little and then drew it
tight again. The result was to imp=
art a
swinging motion to Tarzan's body which the ape-boy suddenly realized was a =
new
and pleasurable form of play. He u=
rged
the ape to continue until Tarzan was swinging to and fro as far as the short
length of rope would permit, but the distance was not great enough, and, to=
o,
he was not far enough above the ground to give the necessary thrills which =
add
so greatly to the pastimes of the young.
So he clambered to
the branch where the noose was caught and after removing it carried the rope
far aloft and out upon a long and powerful branch. Here he again made it fast, and taking =
the
loose end in his hand, clambered quickly down among the branches as far as =
the
rope would permit him to go; then he swung out upon the end of it, his lith=
e,
young body turning and twisting--a human bob upon a pendulum of grass--thir=
ty
feet above the ground.
Ah, how delectabl=
e!
This was indeed a new play of the first magnitude. Tarzan was entranced.
Had it been you o=
r I
swinging there at the end of that grass rope, the thing which presently
happened would not have happened, for we could not have hung on so long as =
to
have made it possible; but Tarzan was quite as much at home swinging by his
hands as he was standing upon his feet, or, at least, almost. At any rate he felt no fatigue long aft=
er the
time that an ordinary mortal would have been numb with the strain of the
physical exertion. And this was his
undoing.
Tublat was watchi=
ng
him as were others of the tribe. O=
f all
the creatures of the wild, there was none Tublat so cordially hated as he d=
id
this hideous, hairless, white-skinned, caricature of an ape. But for Tarzan's nimbleness, and the ze=
alous
watchfulness of savage Kala's mother love, Tublat would long since have rid
himself of this stain upon his family escutcheon. So long had it been since Tarzan became=
a member
of the tribe, that Tublat had forgotten the circumstances surrounding the
entrance of the jungle waif into his family, with the result that he now im=
agined
that Tarzan was his own offspring, adding greatly to his chagrin.
Wide and far swung Tarzan of the Apes, u=
ntil
at last, as he reached the highest point of the arc the rope, which rapidly=
had
frayed on the rough bark of the tree limb, parted suddenly. The watching apes saw the smooth, brown=
body
shoot outward, and down, plummet-like. Tublat leaped high in the air, emitt=
ing
what in a human being would have been an exclamation of delight. This would be the end of Tarzan and mos=
t of Tublat's
troubles. From now on he could lea=
d his
life in peace and security.
Tarzan fell quite
forty feet, alighting on his back in a thick bush. Kala was the first to re=
ach
his side--ferocious, hideous, loving Kala. She had seen the life crushed fr=
om
her own balu in just such a fall years before.
Was she to lose this one too in the same way? Tarzan was lying quite
still when she found him, embedded deeply in the bush. It took Kala several minutes to disenta=
ngle
him and drag him forth; but he was not killed.
He was not even badly injured.
The bush had broken the force of the fall. A cut upon the back of his head showed =
where
he had struck the tough stem of the shrub and explained his unconsciousness=
.
In a few minutes =
he
was as active as ever. Tublat was
furious. In his rage he snapped at=
a
fellow-ape without first discovering the identity of his victim, and was ba=
dly
mauled for his ill temper, having chosen to vent his spite upon a husky and
belligerent young bull in the full prime of his vigor.
But Tarzan had
learned something new. He had lear=
ned
that continued friction would wear through the strands of his rope, though =
it
was many years before this knowledge did more for him than merely to keep h=
im from
swinging too long at a time, or too far above the ground at the end of his
rope.
The day came,
however, when the very thing that had once all but killed him proved the me=
ans
of saving his life.
He was no longer a
child, but a mighty jungle male. T=
here
was none now to watch over him, solicitously, nor did he need such. Kala was dead. Dead, too, was Tublat, and
though with Kala passed the one creature that ever really had loved him, th=
ere
were still many who hated him after Tublat departed unto the arms of his
fathers. It was not that he was mo=
re
cruel or more savage than they that they hated him, for though he was both
cruel and savage as were the beasts, his fellows, yet too was he often tend=
er,
which they never were. No, the thi=
ng
which brought Tarzan most into disrepute with those who did not like him, w=
as the
possession and practice of a characteristic which they had not and could not
understand--the human sense of humor. In
Tarzan it was a trifle broad, perhaps, manifesting itself in rough and pain=
ful practical
jokes upon his friends and cruel baiting of his enemies. But to neither of
these did he owe the enmity of Bukawai, the witch-doctor, who dwelt in the =
cave
between the two hills far to the north of the village of Mbonga, the
chief. Bukawai was jealous of Tarz=
an,
and Bukawai it was who came near proving the undoing of the ape-man. For mo=
nths
Bukawai had nursed his hatred while revenge seemed remote indeed, since Tar=
zan
of the Apes frequented another part of the jungle, miles away from the lair=
of
Bukawai. Only once had the black w=
itch-doctor
seen the devil-god, as he was most often called among the blacks, and upon =
that
occasion Tarzan had robbed him of a fat fee, at the same time putting the l=
ie
in the mouth of Bukawai, and making his medicine seem poor medicine. All this Bukawai never could forgive, t=
hough it
seemed unlikely that the opportunity would come to be revenged. Yet it did come, =
and
quite unexpectedly. Tarzan was hun=
ting
far to the north. He had wandered =
away
from the tribe, as he did more and more often as he approached maturity, to
hunt alone for a few days. As a ch=
ild he
had enjoyed romping and playing with the young apes, his companions; but now
these play-fellows of his had grown to surly, lowering bulls, or to touchy,
suspicious mothers, jealously guarding helpless balus. So Tarzan found in his own man-mind a g=
reater
and a truer companionship than any or all of the apes of Kerchak could affo=
rd him. This day, as Tarz=
an
hunted, the sky slowly became overcast.
Torn clouds, whipped to ragged streamers, fled low above the tree to=
ps. They
reminded Tarzan of frightened antelope fleeing the charge of a hungry
lion. But though the light clouds =
raced
so swiftly, the jungle was motionless.
Not a leaf quivered and the silence was a great, dead weight--insupp=
ortable. Even the insects seemed stilled by
apprehension of some frightful thing impending, and the larger things were =
soundless. Such a forest, such a jungle might have=
stood
there in the beginning of that unthinkably far-gone age before God peopled =
the
world with life, when there were no sounds because there were no ears to he=
ar. And over all lay a
sickly, pallid ocher light through which the scourged clouds raced. Tarzan had seen all these conditions ma=
ny
times before, yet he never could escape a strange feeling at each recurrenc=
e of
them. He knew no fear, but in the =
face
of Nature's manifestations of her cruel, immeasurable powers, he felt very
small--very small and very lonely. Now he heard a low
moaning, far away. "The lions=
seek
their prey," he murmured to himself, looking up once again at the
swift-flying clouds. The moaning rose to a great volume of sound. "They come!" said Tarzan of t=
he
Apes, and sought the shelter of a thickly foliaged tree. Quite suddenly the trees bent their tops
simultaneously as though God had stretched a hand from the heavens and pres=
sed
His flat palm down upon the world.
"They pass!" whispered Tarzan.
"The lions pass." Then came a vivid flash of lightning,
followed by deafening thunder. &qu=
ot;The
lions have sprung," cried Tarzan, "and now they roar above the bo=
dies
of their kills." The trees were wa=
ving
wildly in all directions now, a perfectly demoniacal wind threshed the jung=
le
pitilessly. In the midst of it the=
rain
came--not as it comes upon us of the northlands, but in a sudden, choking,
blinding deluge. "The blood o=
f the
kill," thought Tarzan, huddling himself closer to the bole of the great
tree beneath which he stood. He was close to t=
he
edge of the jungle, and at a little distance he had seen two hills before t=
he
storm broke; but now he could see nothing. It amused him to look out into t=
he
beating rain, searching for the two hills and imagining that the torrents f=
rom
above had washed them away, yet he knew that presently the rain would cease,
the sun come out again and all be as it was before, except where a few bran=
ches
had fallen and here and there some old and rotted patriarch had crashed bac=
k to
enrich the soil upon which he had fatted for, maybe, centuries. All about him branches and leaves fille=
d the
air or fell to earth, torn away by the strength of the tornado and the weig=
ht
of the water upon them. A gaunt co=
rpse
toppled and fell a few yards away; but Tarzan was protected from all these
dangers by the wide-spreading branches of the sturdy young giant beneath wh=
ich
his jungle craft had guided him. H=
ere
there was but a single danger, and that a remote one. Yet it came.
Without warning the tree above him was riven by lightning, and when =
the
rain ceased and the sun came out Tarzan lay stretched as he had fallen, upo=
n his
face amidst the wreckage of the jungle giant that should have shielded him.=
Bukawai came to t=
he
entrance of his cave after the rain and the storm had passed and looked out
upon the scene. From his one eye B=
ukawai
could see; but had he had a dozen eyes he could have found no beauty in the
fresh sweetness of the revivified jungle, for to such things, in the chemis=
try
of temperament, his brain failed to react; nor, even had he had a nose, whi=
ch
he had not for years, could he have found enjoyment or sweetness in the
clean-washed air. At either side of=
the
leper stood his sole and constant companions, the two hyenas, sniffing the
air. Presently one of them uttered=
a low
growl and with flattened head started, sneaking and wary, toward the jungle=
. The other followed. Bukawai, his curiosity aroused, trailed=
after
them, in his hand a heavy knob-stick. The hyenas halted=
a
few yards from the prostrate Tarzan, sniffing and growling. Then came Bukawai, and at first he coul=
d not
believe the witness of his own eyes; but when he did and saw that it was in=
deed
the devil-god his rage knew no bounds, for he thought him dead and himself =
cheated
of the revenge he had so long dreamed upon. The hyenas approa=
ched
the ape-man with bared fangs. Buka=
wai,
with an inarticulate scream, rushed upon them, striking cruel and heavy blo=
ws with
his knob-stick, for there might still be life in the apparently lifeless
form. The beasts, snapping and sna=
rling,
half turned upon their master and their tormentor, but long fear still held
them from his putrid throat. They =
slunk
away a few yards and squatted upon their haunches, hatred and baffled hunger
gleaming from their savage eyes. Bukawai stooped a=
nd
placed his ear above the ape-man's heart.
It still beat. As well as h=
is
sloughed features could register pleasure they did so; but it was not a pre=
tty
sight. At the ape-man's side lay h=
is long,
grass rope. Quickly Bukawai bound =
the
limp arms behind his prisoner's back, then he raised him to one of his
shoulders, for, though Bukawai was old and diseased, he was still a strong
man. The hyenas fell in behind as =
the
witch-doctor set off toward the cave, and through the long black corridors =
they
followed as Bukawai bore his victim into the bowels of the hills. Through subterranean chambers, connecte=
d by
winding passageways, Bukawai staggered with his load. At a sudden turning of the corridor, da=
ylight
flooded them and Bukawai stepped out into a small, circular basin in the hi=
ll,
apparently the crater of an ancient volcano, one of those which never reach=
ed
the dignity of a mountain and are little more than lava-rimmed pits closed =
to
the earth's surface. Steep walls rimmed
the cavity. The only exit was thro=
ugh
the passageway by which Bukawai had entered.
A few stunted trees grew upon the rocky floor. A hundred feet above could be seen the =
ragged
lips of this cold, dead mouth of hell. Bukawai propped
Tarzan against a tree and bound him there with his own grass rope, leaving =
his
hands free but securing the knots in such a way that the ape-man could not
reach them. The hyenas slunk to an=
d fro,
growling. Bukawai hated them and t=
hey
hated him. He knew that they but w=
aited
for the time when he should be helpless, or when their hatred should rise to
such a height as to submerge their cringing fear of him. In his own heart =
was
not a little fear of these repulsive creatures, and because of that fear,
Bukawai always kept the beasts well fed, often hunting for them when their =
own
forages for food failed, but ever was he cruel to them with the cruelty of a
little brain, diseased, bestial, primitive. He had had them since they were puppies.=
They had known no other life than that =
with
him, and though they went abroad to hunt, always they returned. Of late Bukawai had come to believe tha=
t they
returned not so much from habit as from a fiendish patience which would sub=
mit
to every indignity and pain rather than forego the final vengeance, and Buk=
awai
needed but little imagination to picture what that vengeance would be. Today he would see for himself what his=
end
would be; but another should impersonate Bukawai. When he had truss=
ed
Tarzan securely, Bukawai went back into the corridor, driving the hyenas ah=
ead
of him, and pulling across the opening a lattice of laced branches, which s=
hut
the pit from the cave during the night that Bukawai might sleep in security,
for then the hyenas were penned in the crater that they might not sneak upo=
n a sleeping
Bukawai in the darkness. Bukawai returned =
to
the outer cave mouth, filled a vessel with water at the spring which rose in
the little canon close at hand and returned toward the pit. The hyenas stood before the lattice loo=
king
hungrily toward Tarzan. They had b=
een
fed in this manner before. With his water, t=
he
witch-doctor approached Tarzan and threw a portion of the contents of the
vessel in the ape-man's face. Ther=
e was fluttering
of the eyelids, and at the second application Tarzan opened his eyes and lo=
oked
about. "Devil-god,&=
quot;
cried Bukawai, "I am the great witch-doctor. My medicine is strong. Yours is weak. If it is not, why do you stay tied here=
like
a goat that is bait for lions?" Tarzan understood
nothing the witch-doctor said, therefore he did not reply, but only stared
straight at Bukawai with cold and level gaze. The hyenas crept up behind
him. He heard them growl; but he d=
id not
even turn his head. He was a beast=
with
a man's brain. The beast in him re=
fused
to show fear in the face of a death which the man-mind already admitted to =
be
inevitable. Bukawai, not yet
ready to give his victim to the beasts, rushed upon the hyenas with his
knob-stick. There was a short scrimmage in which the brutes came off second
best, as they always did. Tarzan w=
atched
it. He saw and realized the hatred=
which
existed between the two animals and the hideous semblance of a man. With the hyenas
subdued, Bukawai returned to the baiting of Tarzan; but finding that the
ape-man understood nothing he said, the witch-doctor finally desisted. Then he withdrew into the corridor and =
pulled
the latticework barrier across the opening.
He went back into the cave and got a sleeping mat, which he brought =
to
the opening, that he might lie down and watch the spectacle of his revenge =
in
comfort. The hyenas were
sneaking furtively around the ape-man.
Tarzan strained at his bonds for a moment, but soon realized that th=
e rope
he had braided to hold Numa, the lion, would hold him quite as successfully=
. He
did not wish to die; but he could look death in the face now as he had many
times before without a quaver. As he pulled upon=
the
rope he felt it rub against the small tree about which it was passed. Like a flash of the cinematograph upon =
the screen,
a picture was flashed before his mind's eye from the storehouse of his
memory. He saw a lithe, boyish fig=
ure
swinging high above the ground at the end of a rope. He saw many apes watching from below, a=
nd then
he saw the rope part and the boy hurtle downward toward the ground. Tarzan smiled. Immediately he commenced to draw the ro=
pe rapidly
back and forth across the tree trunk. The hyenas, gaini=
ng
courage, came closer. They sniffed=
at
his legs; but when he struck at them with his free arms they slunk off. He knew that with the growth of hunger =
they
would attack. Coolly, methodically,
without haste, Tarzan drew the rope back and forth against the rough trunk =
of
the small tree. In the entrance to
the cavern Bukawai fell asleep. He
thought it would be some time before the beasts gained sufficient courage or
hunger to attack the captive. Their
growls and the cries of the victim would awaken him. In the meantime he might as well rest, =
and he
did. Thus the day wore=
on,
for the hyenas were not famished, and the rope with which Tarzan was bound =
was
a stronger one than that of his boyhood, which had parted so quickly to the
chafing of the rough tree bark. Ye=
t, all
the while hunger was growing upon the beasts and the strands of the grass r=
ope
were wearing thinner and thinner.
Bukawai slept. It was late after=
noon
before one of the beasts, irritated by the gnawing of appetite, made a quic=
k,
growling dash at the ape-man. The noise awoke Bukawai. He sat up quickly and watched what went=
on
within the crater. He saw the hung=
ry
hyena charge the man, leaping for the unprotected throat. He saw Tarzan reach out and seize the
growling animal, and then he saw the second beast spring for the devil-god'=
s shoulder. There was a mighty heave of the great,
smooth-skinned body. Rounded muscles shot into great, tensed piles beneath =
the
brown hide--the ape-man surged forward with all his weight and all his grea=
t strength--the
bonds parted, and the three were rolling upon the floor of the crater snarl=
ing,
snapping, and rending. Bukawai leaped to=
his
feet. Could it be that the devil-g=
od was
to prevail against his servants? Impossible! The creature was unarmed, and =
he
was down with two hyenas on top of him; but Bukawai did not know Tarzan. The ape-man faste=
ned
his fingers upon the throat of one of the hyenas and rose to one knee, thou=
gh
the other beast tore at him frantically in an effort to pull him down. With a single hand Tarzan held the one,=
and
with the other hand he reached forth and pulled toward him the second beast=
. And then Bukawai,
seeing the battle going against his forces, rushed forward from the cavern
brandishing his knob-stick. Tarzan=
saw
him coming, and rising now to both feet, a hyena in each hand, he hurled on=
e of
the foaming beasts straight at the witch-doctor's head. Down went the two in a snarling, biting
heap. Tarzan tossed the second hye=
na
across the crater, while the first gnawed at the rotting face of its master;
but this did not suit the ape-man. With
a kick he sent the beast howling after its companion, and springing to the =
side
of the prostrate witch-doctor, dragged him to his feet. Bukawai, still
conscious, saw death, immediate and terrible, in the cold eyes of his capto=
r, so
he turned upon Tarzan with teeth and nails. The ape-man shuddered at the
proximity of that raw face to his. The hyenas
had had enough and disappeared through the small aperture leading into the
cave. Tarzan had little difficulty=
in
overpowering and binding Bukawai. =
Then
he led him to the very tree to which he had been bound; but in binding Buka=
wai,
Tarzan saw to it that escape after the same fashion that he had escaped wou=
ld
be out of the question; then he left him. As he passed thro=
ugh
the winding corridors and the subterranean apartments, Tarzan saw nothing of
the hyenas. "They will
return," he said to himself. In the crater bet=
ween
the towering walls Bukawai, cold with terror, trembled, trembled as with ag=
ue. "They will
return!" he cried, his voice rising to a fright-filled shriek. And they did. NUMA, THE LION,
crouched behind a thorn bush close beside the drinking pool where the river
eddied just below the bend. There =
was a
ford there and on either bank a well-worn trail, broadened far out at the r=
iver's
brim, where, for countless centuries, the wild things of the jungle and of =
the
plains beyond had come down to drink, the carnivora with bold and fearless
majesty, the herbivora timorous, hesitating, fearful. Numa, the lion, w=
as
hungry, he was very hungry, and so he was quite silent now. On his way to the drinking place he had
moaned often and roared not a little; but as he neared the spot where he wo=
uld
lie in wait for Bara, the deer, or Horta, the boar, or some other of the ma=
ny luscious-fleshed
creatures who came hither to drink, he was silent. It was a grim, a terrible silence, shot
through with yellow-green light of ferocious eyes, punctuated with undulati=
ng
tremors of sinuous tail. It was Pacco, the
zebra, who came first, and Numa, the lion, could scarce restrain a roar of
anger, for of all the plains people, none are more wary than Pacco, the
zebra. Behind the black-striped st=
allion
came a herd of thirty or forty of the plump and vicious little horselike
beasts. As he neared the river, the
leader paused often, cocking his ears and raising his muzzle to sniff the
gentle breeze for the tell-tale scent spoor of the dread flesh-eaters. Numa shifted
uneasily, drawing his hind quarters far beneath his tawny body, gathering h=
imself
for the sudden charge and the savage assault. His eyes shot hungry fire.
Chapter 8 - The Lion
Pacco came a litt=
le
nearer, halted, snorted, and wheeled.
There was a pattering of scurrying hoofs and the herd was gone; but
Numa, the lion, moved not. He was
familiar with the ways of Pacco, the zebra.
He knew that he would return, though many times he might wheel and f=
ly
before he summoned the courage to lead his harem and his offspring to the w=
ater. There was the chance that Pacco might be
frightened off entirely. Numa had =
seen
this happen before, and so he became almost rigid lest he be the one to send
them galloping, waterless, back to the plain.
Again and again c=
ame
Pacco and his family, and again and again did they turn and flee; but each =
time
they came closer to the river, until at last the plump stallion dipped his
velvet muzzle daintily into the water.
The others, stepping warily, approached their leader. Numa selected a sleek, fat filly and his
flaming eyes burned greedily as they feasted upon her, for Numa, the lion,
loves scarce anything better than the meat of Pacco, perhaps because Pacco =
is,
of all the grass-eaters, the most difficult to catch.
Slowly the lion r=
ose,
and as he rose, a twig snapped beneath one of his great, padded paws. Like a shot from a rifle he charged upo=
n the filly;
but the snapped twig had been enough to startle the timorous quarry, so that
they were in instant flight simultaneously with Numa's charge.
The stallion was
last, and with a prodigious leap, the lion catapulted through the air to se=
ize
him; but the snapping twig had robbed Numa of his dinner, though his mighty
talons raked the zebra's glossy rump, leaving four crimson bars across the
beautiful coat.
It was an angry N=
uma that
quitted the river and prowled, fierce, dangerous, and hungry, into the
jungle. Far from particular now wa=
s his
appetite. Even Dango, the hyena, w=
ould
have seemed a tidbit to that ravenous maw.
And in this temper it was that the lion came upon the tribe of Kerch=
ak,
the great ape.
One does not look=
for
Numa, the lion, this late in the morning.
He should be lying up asleep beside his last night's kill by now; but
Numa had made no kill last night. =
He was
still hunting, hungrier than ever.
The anthropoids w=
ere
idling about the clearing, the first keen desire of the morning's hunger ha=
ving
been satisfied. Numa scented them =
long before
he saw them. Ordinarily he would h=
ave
turned away in search of other game, for even Numa respected the mighty mus=
cles
and the sharp fangs of the great bulls of the tribe of Kerchak, but today he
kept on steadily toward them, his bristled snout wrinkled into a savage sna=
rl.
Without an instan=
t's
hesitation, Numa charged the moment he reached a point from where the apes =
were
visible to him. There were a dozen=
or more
of the hairy, manlike creatures upon the ground in a little glade. In a tre=
e at
one side sat a brown-skinned youth. He
saw Numa's swift charge; he saw the apes turn and flee, huge bulls trampling
upon little balus; only a single she held her ground to meet the charge, a
young she inspired by new motherhood to the great sacrifice that her balu m=
ight
escape.
Tarzan leaped from
his perch, screaming at the flying bulls beneath and at those who squatted =
in
the safety of surrounding trees. H=
ad the
bulls stood their ground, Numa would not have carried through that charge
unless goaded by great rage or the gnawing pangs of starvation. Even then he
would not have come off unscathed.
If the bulls hear=
d,
they were too slow in responding, for Numa had seized the mother ape and
dragged her into the jungle before the males had sufficiently collected the=
ir
wits and their courage to rally in defense of their fellow. Tarzan's angry voice aroused similar an=
ger in
the breasts of the apes. Snarling =
and
barking they followed Numa into the dense labyrinth of foliage wherein he
sought to hide himself from them. =
The
ape-man was in the lead, moving rapidly and yet with caution, depending even
more upon his ears and nose than upon his eyes for information of the lion's
whereabouts.
The spoor was eas=
y to
follow, for the dragged body of the victim left a plain trail, blood-spatte=
red
and scentful. Even such dull creat=
ures
as you or I might easily have followed it.
To Tarzan and the apes of Kerchak it was as obvious as a cement
sidewalk.
Tarzan knew that =
they
were nearing the great cat even before he heard an angry growl of warning j=
ust
ahead. Calling to the apes to foll=
ow his
example, he swung into a tree and a moment later Numa was surrounded by a r=
ing
of growling beasts, well out of reach of his fangs and talons but within pl=
ain
sight of him. The carnivore crouch=
ed
with his fore-quarters upon the she-ape. Tarzan could see that the latter w=
as
already dead; but something within him made it seem quite necessary to resc=
ue
the useless body from the clutches of the enemy and to punish him.
He shrieked taunts
and insults at Numa, and tearing dead branches from the tree in which he
danced, hurled them at the lion. T=
he
apes followed his example. Numa ro=
ared
out in rage and vexation. He was h=
ungry,
but under such conditions he could not feed.
The apes, if they=
had
been left to themselves, would doubtless soon have left the lion to peaceful
enjoyment of his feast, for was not the she dead? They could not restore he=
r to
life by throwing sticks at Numa, and they might even now be feeding in quiet
themselves; but Tarzan was of a different mind.
Numa must be punished and driven away. He must be taught that even
though he killed a Mangani, he would not be permitted to feed upon his
kill. The man-mind looked into the
future, while the apes perceived only the immediate present. They would be content to escape today t=
he
menace of Numa, while Tarzan saw the necessity, and the means as well, of
safeguarding the days to come.
So he urged the g=
reat
anthropoids on until Numa was showered with missiles that kept his head dod=
ging
and his voice pealing forth its savage protest; but still he clung desperat=
ely
to his kill.
The twigs and
branches hurled at Numa, Tarzan soon realized, did not hurt him greatly even
when they struck him, and did not injure him at all, so the ape-man looked
about for more effective missiles, nor did he have to look long. An out-cropping of decomposed granite n=
ot far
from Numa suggested ammunition of a much more painful nature. Calling to the apes to watch him, Tarzan
slipped to the ground and gathered a handful of small fragments. He knew that when once they had seen hi=
m carry
out his idea they would be much quicker to follow his lead than to obey his
instructions, were he to command them to procure pieces of rock and hurl th=
em
at Numa, for Tarzan was not then king of the apes of the tribe of Kerchak.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> That came in later years. Now he was but a youth, though one who
already had wrested for himself a place in the councils of the savage beasts
among whom a strange fate had cast him. The sullen bulls of the older
generation still hated him as beasts hate those of whom they are suspicious,
whose scent characteristic is the scent characteristic of an alien order an=
d,
therefore, of an enemy order. The
younger bulls, those who had grown up through childhood as his playmates, w=
ere
as accustomed to Tarzan's scent as to that of any other member of the
tribe. They felt no greater suspic=
ion of
him than of any other bull of their acquaintance; yet they did not love him,
for they loved none outside the mating season, and the animosities aroused =
by
other bulls during that season lasted well over until the next. They were a
morose and peevish band at best, though here and there were those among the=
m in
whom germinated the primal seeds of humanity--reversions to type, these,
doubtless; reversions to the ancient progenitor who took the first step out=
of
ape-hood toward humanness, when he walked more often upon his hind feet and
discovered other things for idle hands to do.
So now Tarzan led
where he could not yet command. He=
had
long since discovered the apish propensity for mimicry and learned to make =
use
of it. Having filled his arms with
fragments of rotted granite, he clambered again into a tree, and it pleased=
him
to see that the apes had followed his example.
During the brief
respite while they were gathering their ammunition, Numa had settled himsel=
f to
feed; but scarce had he arranged himself and his kill when a sharp piece of
rock hurled by the practiced hand of the ape-man struck him upon the
cheek. His sudden roar of pain and=
rage
was smothered by a volley from the apes, who had seen Tarzan's act. Numa shook his massive head and glared =
upward
at his tormentors. For a half hour they pursued him with rocks and broken
branches, and though he dragged his kill into densest thickets, yet they al=
ways
found a way to reach him with their missiles, giving him no opportunity to =
feed,
and driving him on and on.
The hairless
ape-thing with the man scent was worst of all, for he had even the temerity=
to
advance upon the ground to within a few yards of the Lord of the Jungle, th=
at
he might with greater accuracy and force hurl the sharp bits of granite and=
the
heavy sticks at him. Time and agai=
n did
Numa charge--sudden, vicious charges--but the lithe, active tormentor always
managed to elude him and with such insolent ease that the lion forgot even =
his
great hunger in the consuming passion of his rage, leaving his meat for
considerable spaces of time in vain efforts to catch his enemy.
The apes and Tarz=
an
pursued the great beast to a natural clearing, where Numa evidently determi=
ned
to make a last stand, taking up his position in the center of the open spac=
e,
which was far enough from any tree to render him practically immune from the
rather erratic throwing of the apes, though Tarzan still found him with most
persistent and aggravating frequency.
This, however, did
not suit the ape-man, since Numa now suffered an occasional missile with no
more than a snarl, while he settled himself to partake of his delayed
feast. Tarzan scratched his head,
pondering some more effective method of offense, for he had determined to
prevent Numa from profiting in any way through his attack upon the tribe. The man-mind reasoned against the futur=
e,
while the shaggy apes thought only of their present hatred of this ancestral
enemy. Tarzan guessed that should =
Numa
find it an easy thing to snatch a meal from the tribe of Kerchak, it would =
be
but a short time before their existence would be one living nightmare of
hideous watchfulness and dread. Nu=
ma
must be taught that the killing of an ape brought immediate punishment and =
no
rewards. It would take but a few l=
essons
to insure the former safety of the tribe.
This must be some old lion whose failing strength and agility had fo=
rced
him to any prey that he could catch; but even a single lion, undisputed, co=
uld
exterminate the tribe, or at least make its existence so precarious and so =
terrifying
that life would no longer be a pleasant condition.
"Let him hunt among the Gomangani," thought Tarzan. "He will find them easier prey. I will teach ferocious Numa that he may not hunt the Mangani."<= o:p>
But how to wrest =
the
body of his victim from the feeding lion was the first question to be
solved. At last Tarzan hit upon a
plan. To anyone but Tarzan of the =
Apes
it might have seemed rather a risky plan, and perhaps it did even to him; b=
ut
Tarzan rather liked things that contained a considerable element of
danger. At any rate, I rather doub=
t that
you or I would have chosen a similar plan for foiling an angry and a hungry
lion.
Tarzan required
assistance in the scheme he had hit upon and his assistant must be equally =
as
brave and almost as active as he. =
The ape-man's
eyes fell upon Taug, the playmate of his childhood, the rival in his first =
love
and now, of all the bulls of the tribe, the only one that might be thought =
to
hold in his savage brain any such feeling toward Tarzan as we describe amon=
g ourselves
as friendship. At least, Tarzan kn=
ew,
Taug was courageous, and he was young and agile and wonderfully muscled.
"Taug!"
cried the ape-man. The great ape looked up from a dead limb he was attempti=
ng
to tear from a lightning-blasted tree.
"Go close to Numa and worry him," said Tarzan. "Worry him until he charges. Lead him away from the body of Mamka. Keep him away as long as you can."=
Taug nodded. He was across the clearing from Tarzan.=
Wresting the limb at last from the tree=
he
dropped to the ground and advanced toward Numa, growling and barking out his
insults. The worried lion looked u=
p and
rose to his feet. His tail went st=
iffly
erect and Taug turned in flight, for he knew that warming signal of the cha=
rge.
From behind the l=
ion,
Tarzan ran quickly toward the center of the clearing and the body of
Mamka. Numa, all his eyes for Taug=
, did
not see the ape-man. Instead he shot forward after the fleeing bull, who had
turned in flight not an instant too soon, since he reached the nearest tree=
but
a yard or two ahead of the pursuing demon.
Like a cat the heavy anthropoid scampered up the bole of his
sanctuary. Numa's talons missed hi=
m by
little more than inches.
For a moment the = lion paused beneath the tree, glaring up at the ape and roaring until the earth trembled, then he turned back again toward his kill, and as he did so, his = tail shot once more to rigid erectness and he charged back even more ferociously than he had come, for what he saw was the naked man-thing running toward the farther trees with the bloody carcass of his prey across a giant shoulder.<= o:p>
The apes, watching
the grim race from the safety of the trees, screamed taunts at Numa and
warnings to Tarzan. The high sun, =
hot
and brilliant, fell like a spotlight upon the actors in the little clearing,
portraying them in glaring relief to the audience in the leafy shadows of t=
he
surrounding trees. The light-brown=
body
of the naked youth, all but hidden by the shaggy carcass of the killed ape,=
the
red blood streaking his smooth hide, his muscles rolling, velvety, beneath.=
Behind him the black-maned lion, head
flattened, tail extended, racing, a jungle thoroughbred, across the sunlit
clearing.
Ah, but this was
life! With death at his heels, Tarzan thrilled with the joy of such living =
as
this; but would he reach the trees ahead of the rampant death so close behi=
nd?
Gunto swung from a
limb in a tree before him. Gunto w=
as
screaming warnings and advice.
"Catch me!&q=
uot;
cried Tarzan, and with his heavy burden leaped straight for the big bull
hanging there by his hind feet and one forepaw.
And Gunto caught them--the big ape-man and the dead weight of the sl=
ain she-ape--caught
them with one great, hairy paw and whirled them upward until Tarzan's finge=
rs
closed upon a near-by branch.
Beneath, Numa lea=
ped;
but Gunto, heavy and awkward as he may have appeared, was as quick as Manu,=
the
monkey, so that the lion's talons but barely grazed him, scratching a bloody
streak beneath one hairy arm.
Tarzan carried
Mamka's corpse to a high crotch, where even Sheeta, the panther, could not =
get
it. Numa paced angrily back and fo=
rth
beneath the tree, roaring frightfully.
He had been robbed of his kill and his revenge also. He was very savage indeed; but his desp=
oilers
were well out of his reach, and after hurling a few taunts and missiles at =
him they
swung away through the trees, fiercely reviling him.
Tarzan thought mu=
ch
upon the little adventure of that day.
He foresaw what might happen should the great carnivora of the jungle
turn their serious attention upon the tribe of Kerchak, the great ape, but
equally he thought upon the wild scramble of the apes for safety when Numa =
first
charged among them. There is little
humor in the jungle that is not grim and awful.
The beasts have little or no conception of humor; but the young
Englishman saw humor in many things which presented no humorous angle to his
associates.
Since earliest
childhood he had been a searcher after fun, much to the sorrow of his
fellow-apes, and now he saw the humor of the frightened panic of the apes a=
nd
the baffled rage of Numa even in this grim jungle adventure which had robbed
Mamka of life, and jeopardized that of many members of the tribe.
It was but a few
weeks later that Sheeta, the panther, made a sudden rush among the tribe and
snatched a little balu from a tree where it had been hidden while its mother
sought food. Sheeta got away with =
his small
prize unmolested. Tarzan was very
wroth. He spoke to the bulls of th=
e ease
with which Numa and Sheeta, in a single moon, had slain two members of the
tribe.
"They will t=
ake
us all for food," he cried.
"We hunt as we will through the jungle, paying no heed to
approaching enemies. Even Manu, the
monkey, does not so. He keeps two =
or
three always watching for enemies.
Pacco, the zebra, and Wappi, the antelope, have those about the herd=
who
keep watch while the others feed, while we, the great Mangani, let Numa, and
Sabor, and Sheeta come when they will and carry us off to feed their balus.=
"Gr-r-rmph,&=
quot;
said Numgo.
"What are we=
to
do?" asked Taug.
"We, too, sh=
ould
have two or three always watching for the approach of Numa, and Sabor, and
Sheeta," replied Tarzan. &quo=
t;No
others need we fear, except Histah, the snake, and if we watch for the othe=
rs
we will see Histah if he comes, though gliding ever so silently."
And so it was that
the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak posted sentries thereafter, who watc=
hed
upon three sides while the tribe hunted, scattered less than had been their
wont.
But Tarzan went
abroad alone, for Tarzan was a man-thing and sought amusement and adventure=
and
such humor as the grim and terrible jungle offers to those who know it and =
do
not fear it--a weird humor shot with blazing eyes and dappled with the crim=
son
of lifeblood. While others sought =
only
food and love, Tarzan of the Apes sought food and joy.
One day he hovered
above the palisaded village of Mbonga, the chief, the jet cannibal of the
jungle primeval. He saw, as he had=
seen
many times before, the witch-doctor, Rabba Kega, decked out in the head and=
hide
of Gorgo, the buffalo. It amused T=
arzan
to see a Gomangani parading as Gorgo; but it suggested nothing in particula=
r to
him until he chanced to see stretched against the side of Mbonga's hut the =
skin
of a lion with the head still on. =
Then a
broad grin widened the handsome face of the savage beast-youth.
Back into the jun=
gle
he went until chance, agility, strength, and cunning backed by his marvelous
powers of perception, gave him an easy meal.
If Tarzan felt that the world owed him a living he also realized tha=
t it
was for him to collect it, nor was there ever a better collector than this =
son
of an English lord, who knew even less of the ways of his forbears than he =
did
of the forbears themselves, which was nothing.
It was quite dark
when Tarzan returned to the village of Mbonga and took his now polished per=
ch
in the tree which overhangs the palisade upon one side of the walled
enclosure. As there was nothing in=
particular
to feast upon in the village there was little life in the single street, for
only an orgy of flesh and native beer could draw out the people of Mbonga.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Tonight they sat gossiping about their
cooking fires, the older members of the tribe; or, if they were young, pair=
ed off
in the shadows cast by the palm-thatched huts.
Tarzan dropped
lightly into the village, and sneaking stealthily in the concealment of the
denser shadows, approached the hut of the chief, Mbonga. Here he found that which he sought. There were warriors all about him; but =
they
did not know that the feared devil-god slunk noiselessly so near them, nor =
did
they see him possess himself of that which he coveted and depart from their
village as noiselessly as he had come.
Later that night,=
as
Tarzan curled himself for sleep, he lay for a long time looking up at the
burning planets and the twinkling stars and at Goro the moon, and he
smiled. He recalled how ludicrous =
the
great bulls had appeared in their mad scramble for safety that day when Num=
a had
charged among them and seized Mamka, and yet he knew them to be fierce and
courageous. It was the sudden shoc=
k of
surprise that always sent them into a panic; but of this Tarzan was not as =
yet
fully aware. That was something he was to learn in the near future.
He fell asleep wi=
th a
broad grin upon his face.
Manu, the monkey,
awoke him in the morning by dropping discarded bean pods upon his upturned =
face
from a branch a short distance above him. Tarzan looked up and smiled. He had been awakened thus before many t=
imes. He and Manu were fairly good friends, t=
heir
friendship operating upon a reciprocal basis.
Sometimes Manu would come running early in the morning to awaken Tar=
zan
and tell him that Bara, the deer, was feeding close at hand, or that Horta,=
the
boar, was asleep in a mudhole hard by, and in return Tarzan broke open the
shells of the harder nuts and fruits for Manu, or frightened away Histah, t=
he
snake, and Sheeta, the panther.
The sun had been =
up
for some time, and the tribe had already wandered off in search of food.
"Come, Manu," said Tarzan, "and you will see that which shall make you d= ance for joy and squeal your wrinkled little head off. Come, follow Tarzan of the Apes."<= o:p>
With that he set =
off
in the direction Manu had indicated and above him, chattering, scolding and
squealing, skipped Manu, the monkey.
Across Tarzan's shoulders was the thing he had stolen from the villa=
ge
of Mbonga, the chief, the evening before.
The tribe was fee=
ding
in the forest beside the clearing where Gunto, and Taug, and Tarzan had so
harassed Numa and finally taken away from him the fruit of his kill. Some of them were in the clearing itsel=
f. In
peace and content they fed, for were there not three sentries, each watching
upon a different side of the herd? Tarzan had taught them this, and though =
he
had been away for several days hunting alone, as he often did, or visiting =
at
the cabin by the sea, they had not as yet forgotten his admonitions, and if
they continued for a short time longer to post sentries, it would become a
habit of their tribal life and thus be perpetuated indefinitely.
But Tarzan, who k=
new
them better than they knew themselves, was confident that they had ceased to
place the watchers about them the moment that he had left them, and now he
planned not only to have a little fun at their expense but to teach them a
lesson in preparedness, which, by the way, is even a more vital issue in the
jungle than in civilized places. T=
hat
you and I exist today must be due to the preparedness of some shaggy anthro=
poid
of the Oligocene. Of course the ap=
es of
Kerchak were always prepared, after their own way--Tarzan had merely sugges=
ted
a new and additional safeguard.
Gunto was posted
today to the north of the clearing. He
squatted in the fork of a tree from where he might view the jungle for quit=
e a distance
about him. It was he who first
discovered the enemy. A rustling i=
n the
undergrowth attracted his attention, and a moment later he had a partial vi=
ew
of a shaggy mane and tawny yellow back.
Just a glimpse it was through the matted foliage beneath him; but it
brought from Gunto's leathern lungs a shrill "Kreeg-ah!" which is=
the
ape for beware, or danger.
Instantly the tri=
be
took up the cry until "Kreeg-ahs!" rang through the jungle about =
the
clearing as apes swung quickly to places of safety among the lower branches=
of
the trees and the great bulls hastened in the direction of Gunto.
And then into the
clearing strode Numa, the lion--majestic and mighty, and from a deep chest
issued the moan and the cough and the rumbling roar that set stiff hairs to
bristling from shaggy craniums down the length of mighty spines.
Inside the cleari=
ng,
Numa paused and on the instant there fell upon him from the trees near by a
shower of broken rock and dead limbs torn from age-old trees. A dozen times he was hit, and then the =
apes
ran down and gathered other rocks, pelting him unmercifully.
Numa turned to fl=
ee,
but his way was barred by a fusilade of sharp-cornered missiles, and then, =
upon
the edge of the clearing, great Taug met him with a huge fragment of rock as
large as a man's head, and down went the Lord of the Jungle beneath the
stunning blow.
With shrieks and
roars and loud barkings the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak rushed upon =
the
fallen lion. Sticks and stones and
yellow fangs menaced the still form. In
another moment, before he could regain consciousness, Numa would be battered
and torn until only a bloody mass of broken bones and matted hair remained =
of
what had once been the most dreaded of jungle creatures. But even as the
sticks and stones were raised above him and the great fangs bared to tear h=
im,
there descended like a plummet from the trees above a diminutive figure with
long, white whiskers and a wrinkled face.
Square upon the body of Numa it alighted and there it danced and scr=
eamed
and shrieked out its challenge against the bulls of Kerchak. For an instant th=
ey
paused, paralyzed by the wonder of the thing.
It was Manu, the monkey, Manu, the little coward, and here he was da=
ring
the ferocity of the great Mangani, hopping about upon the carcass of Numa, =
the
lion, and crying out that they must not strike it again. And when the bulls
paused, Manu reached down and seized a tawny ear. With all his little might=
he
tugged upon the heavy head until slowly it turned back, revealing the tousl=
ed,
black head and clean-cut profile of Tarzan of the Apes. Some of the older
apes were for finishing what they had commenced; but Taug, sullen, mighty T=
aug,
sprang quickly to the ape-man's side and straddling the unconscious form wa=
rned
back those who would have struck his childhood playmate. And Teeka, his mate, came too, taking h=
er place
with bared fangs at Taug's side. O=
thers
followed their example, until at last Tarzan was surrounded by a ring of ha=
iry
champions who would permit no enemy to approach him. It was a surprised
and chastened Tarzan who opened his eyes to consciousness a few minutes
later. He looked about him at the =
surrounding
apes and slowly there returned to him a realization of what had occurred. Gradually a broad
grin illuminated his features. His
bruises were many and they hurt; but the good that had come from his advent=
ure
was worth all that it had cost. He=
had
learned, for instance, that the apes of Kerchak had heeded his teaching, an=
d he
had learned that he had good friends among the sullen beasts whom he had
thought without sentiment. He had discovered that Manu, the monkey--even
little, cowardly Manu--had risked his life in his defense. It made Tarzan ve=
ry
glad to know these things; but at the other lesson he had been taught he
reddened. He had always been a jok=
er,
the only joker in the grim and terrible company; but now as he lay there ha=
lf dead
from his hurts, he almost swore a solemn oath forever to forego practical
joking--almost; but not quite. THE BLACKS OF the
village of Mbonga, the chief, were feasting, while above them in a large tr=
ee
sat Tarzan of the Apes--grim, terrible, empty, and envious. Hunting had proved poor that day, for t=
here
are lean days as well as fat ones for even the greatest of the jungle hunte=
rs. Oftentimes Tarzan went empty for more t=
han a
full sun, and he had passed through entire moons during which he had been b=
ut
barely able to stave off starvation; but such times were infrequent. There once had be=
en a
period of sickness among the grass-eaters which had left the plains almost =
bare
of game for several years, and again the great cats had increased so rapidly
and so overrun the country that their prey, which was also Tarzan's, had be=
en
frightened off for a considerable time. But for the most =
part
Tarzan had fed well always. Today,
though, he had gone empty, one misfortune following another as rapidly as h=
e raised
new quarry, so that now, as he sat perched in the tree above the feasting
blacks, he experienced all the pangs of famine and his hatred for his lifel=
ong
enemies waxed strong in his breast. It
was tantalizing, indeed, to sit there hungry while these Gomangani filled t=
hemselves
so full of food that their stomachs seemed almost upon the point of burstin=
g,
and with elephant steaks at that! It was true that
Tarzan and Tantor were the best of friends, and that Tarzan never yet had
tasted of the flesh of the elephant; but the Gomangani evidently had slain =
one,
and as they were eating of the flesh of their kill, Tarzan was assailed by =
no
doubts as to the ethics of his doing likewise, should he have the
opportunity. Had he known that the=
elephant
had died of sickness several days before the blacks discovered the carcass,=
he
might not have been so keen to partake of the feast, for Tarzan of the Apes=
was
no carrion-eater. Hunger, however, may blunt the most epicurean taste, and
Tarzan was not exactly an epicure. What he was at th=
is
moment was a very hungry wild beast whom caution was holding in leash, for =
the
great cooking pot in the center of the village was surrounded by black
warriors, through whom not even Tarzan of the Apes might hope to pass
unharmed. It would be necessary, t=
herefore,
for the watcher to remain there hungry until the blacks had gorged themselv=
es
to stupor, and then, if they had left any scraps, to make the best meal he
could from such; but to the impatient Tarzan it seemed that the greedy
Gomangani would rather burst than leave the feast before the last morsel had
been devoured. For a time they bro=
ke the
monotony of eating by executing portions of a hunting dance, a maneuver whi=
ch
sufficiently stimulated digestion to permit them to fall to once more with
renewed vigor; but with the consumption of appalling quantities of elephant
meat and native beer they presently became too loggy for physical exertion =
of
any sort, some reaching a stage where they no longer could rise from the
ground, but lay conveniently close to the great cooking pot, stuffing
themselves into unconsciousness. It was well past
midnight before Tarzan even could begin to see the end of the orgy. The blacks were now falling asleep rapi=
dly;
but a few still persisted. From be=
fore
their condition Tarzan had no doubt but that he easily could enter the vill=
age
and snatch a handful of meat from before their noses; but a handful was not
what he wanted. Nothing less than a
stomachful would allay the gnawing craving of that great emptiness. He must therefore have ample time to fo=
rage
in peace. At last but a sin=
gle
warrior remained true to his ideals--an old fellow whose once wrinkled belly
was now as smooth and as tight as the head of a drum. With evidences of great discomfort, and=
even
pain, he would crawl toward the pot and drag himself slowly to his knees, f=
rom which
position he could reach into the receptacle and seize a piece of meat. Then he would roll over on his back wit=
h a
loud groan and lie there while he slowly forced the food between his teeth =
and
down into his gorged stomach. It was evident to
Tarzan that the old fellow would eat until he died, or until there was no m=
ore
meat. The ape-man shook his head i=
n disgust. What foul creatures were these Gomangan=
i? Yet
of all the jungle folk they alone resembled Tarzan closely in form. Tarzan was a man, and they, too, must b=
e some
manner of men, just as the little monkeys, and the great apes, and Bolgani,=
the
gorilla, were quite evidently of one great family, though differing in size=
and
appearance and customs. Tarzan was
ashamed, for of all the beasts of the jungle, then, man was the most
disgusting--man and Dango, the hyena.
Only man and Dango ate until they swelled up like a dead rat. Tarzan had seen Dango eat his way into =
the
carcass of a dead elephant and then continue to eat so much that he had been
unable to get out of the hole through which he had entered. Now he could readily believe that man, =
given
the opportunity, would do the same. Man,
too, was the most unlovely of creatures--with his skinny legs and his big
stomach, his filed teeth, and his thick, red lips. Man was disgusting. Tarzan's gaze was riveted upon the hide=
ous
old warrior wallowing in filth beneath him. There! the thing =
was
struggling to its knees to reach for another morsel of flesh. It groaned aloud in pain and yet it per=
sisted
in eating, eating, ever eating. Ta=
rzan
could endure it no longer--neither his hunger nor his disgust. Silently he slipped to the ground with =
the bole
of the great tree between himself and the feaster. The man was still
kneeling, bent almost double in agony, before the cooking pot. His back was toward the ape-man. Swiftly and noiselessly Tarzan approach=
ed
him. There was no sound as steel f=
ingers
closed about the black throat. The
struggle was short, for the man was old and already half stupefied from the
effects of the gorging and the beer. Tarzan dropped the
inert mass and scooped several large pieces of meat from the cooking
pot--enough to satisfy even his great hunger--then he raised the body of the
feaster and shoved it into the vessel.
When the other blacks awoke they would have something to think about!
Tarzan grinned. As he turned towar=
d the
tree with his meat, he picked up a vessel containing beer and raised it to =
his
lips, but at the first taste he spat the stuff from his mouth and tossed the
primitive tankard aside. He was qu=
ite
sure that even Dango would draw the line at such filthy tasting drink as th=
at,
and his contempt for man increased with the conviction. Tarzan swung off =
into
the jungle some half mile or so before he paused to partake of his stolen
food. He noticed that it gave fort=
h a
strange and unpleasant odor, but assumed that this was due to the fact that=
it had
stood in a vessel of water above a fire.
Tarzan was, of course, unaccustomed to cooked food. He did not like it; but he was very hun=
gry
and had eaten a considerable portion of his haul before it was really borne=
in
upon him that the stuff was nauseating.
It required far less than he had imagined it would to satisfy his
appetite. Throwing the bala=
nce
to the ground he curled up in a convenient crotch and sought slumber; but
slumber seemed difficult to woo.
Ordinarily Tarzan of the Apes was asleep as quickly as a dog after it
curls itself upon a hearthrug before a roaring blaze; but tonight he squirm=
ed
and twisted, for at the pit of his stomach was a peculiar feeling that rese=
mbled
nothing more closely than an attempt upon the part of the fragments of elep=
hant
meat reposing there to come out into the night and search for their elephan=
t;
but Tarzan was adamant. He gritted=
his teeth
and held them back. He was not to =
be
robbed of his meal after waiting so long to obtain it. He had succeeded =
in
dozing when the roaring of a lion awoke him.
He sat up to discover that it was broad daylight. Tarzan rubbed his eyes. Could it be tha=
t he
had really slept? He did not feel particularly refreshed as he should have
after a good sleep. A noise attrac=
ted
his attention, and he looked down to see a lion standing at the foot of the=
tree
gazing hungrily at him. Tarzan mad=
e a face
at the king of beasts, whereat Numa, greatly to the ape-man's surprise, sta=
rted
to climb up into the branches toward him.
Now, never before had Tarzan seen a lion climb a tree, yet, for some
unaccountable reason, he was not greatly surprised that this particular lion
should do so. As the lion climb=
ed
slowly toward him, Tarzan sought higher branches; but to his chagrin, he
discovered that it was with the utmost difficulty that he could climb at
all. Again and again he slipped ba=
ck,
losing all that he had gained, while the lion kept steadily at his climbing,
coming ever closer and closer to the ape-man. Tarzan could see the hungry l=
ight
in the yellow-green eyes. He could=
see
the slaver on the drooping jowls, and the great fangs agape to seize and de=
stroy
him. Clawing desperately, the ape-=
man at
last succeeded in gaining a little upon his pursuer. He reached the more slender branches far
aloft where he well knew no lion could follow; yet on and on came devil-fac=
ed
Numa. It was incredible; but it wa=
s true. Yet what most amazed Tarzan was that th=
ough
he realized the incredibility of it all, he at the same time accepted it as=
a
matter of course, first that a lion should climb at all and second that he
should enter the upper terraces where even Sheeta, the panther, dared not
venture. To the very top o=
f a
tall tree the ape-man clawed his awkward way and after him came Numa, the l=
ion,
moaning dismally. At last Tarzan s=
tood balanced
upon the very utmost pinnacle of a swaying branch, high above the forest.
He could go no farther. Below him the lion came steadily upward=
, and
Tarzan of the Apes realized that at last the end had come. He could not do
battle upon a tiny branch with Numa, the lion, especially with such a Numa,=
to
which swaying branches two hundred feet above the ground provided as
substantial footing as the ground itself.
Nearer and nearer
came the lion. Another moment and =
he
could reach up with one great paw and drag the ape-man downward to those aw=
ful
jaws. A whirring noise above his head caused Tarzan to glance apprehensivel=
y upward. A great bird was circling close above
him. He never had seen so large a =
bird
in all his life, yet he recognized it immediately, for had he not seen it
hundreds of times in one of the books in the little cabin by the land-locked
bay--the moss-grown cabin that with its contents was the sole heritage left=
by
his dead and unknown father to the young Lord Greystoke?
In the picture-bo=
ok
the great bird was shown flying far above the ground with a small child in =
its
talons while, beneath, a distracted mother stood with uplifted hands. The lion was already reaching forth a t=
aloned
paw to seize him when the bird swooped and buried no less formidable talons=
in
Tarzan's back. The pain was numbin=
g; but
it was with a sense of relief that the ape-man felt himself snatched from t=
he clutches
of Numa.
With a great whir=
ring
of wings the bird rose rapidly until the forest lay far below. It made Tarzan sick and dizzy to look d=
own
upon it from so great a height, so he closed his eyes tight and held his
breath. Higher and higher climbed the huge bird. Tarzan opened his eyes. The jungle was so far away that he coul=
d see
only a dim, green blur below him, but just above and quite close was the
sun. Tarzan reached out his hands =
and
warmed them, for they were very cold.
Then a sudden madness seized him.
Where was the bird taking him? Was he to submit thus passively to a
feathered creature however enormous? Was he, Tarzan of the Apes, mighty
fighter, to die without striking a blow in his own defense? Never!
He snatched the
hunting blade from his gee-string and thrusting upward drove it once, twice,
thrice into the breast above him. =
The
mighty wings fluttered a few more times, spasmodically, the talons relaxed =
their
hold, and Tarzan of the Apes fell hurtling downward toward the distant jung=
le.
It seemed to the
ape-man that he fell for many minutes before he crashed through the leafy
verdure of the tree tops. The smal=
ler branches
broke his fall, so that he came to rest for an instant upon the very branch
upon which he had sought slumber the previous night. For an instant he topp=
led
there in a frantic attempt to regain his equilibrium; but at last he rolled
off, yet, clutching wildly, he succeeded in grasping the branch and hanging=
on.
Once more he open=
ed
his eyes, which he had closed during the fall. Again it was night. With all his old agility he clambered b=
ack to
the crotch from which he had toppled.
Below him a lion roared, and, looking downward, Tarzan could see the
yellow-green eyes shining in the moonlight as they bored hungrily upward
through the darkness of the jungle night toward him.
The ape-man gasped
for breath. Cold sweat stood out f=
rom
every pore, there was a great sickness at the pit of Tarzan's stomach. Tarzan of the Apes had dreamed his first
dream.
For a long time he
sat watching for Numa to climb into the tree after him, and listening for t=
he
sound of the great wings from above, for to Tarzan of the Apes his dream wa=
s a
reality.
He could not beli=
eve
what he had seen and yet, having seen even these incredible things, he could
not disbelieve the evidence of his own perceptions. Never in all his life had Tarzan's sens=
es
deceived him badly, and so, naturally, he had great faith in them. Each perception which ever had been tra=
nsmitted
to Tarzan's brain had been, with varying accuracy, a true perception. He could not conceive of the possibilit=
y of
apparently having passed through such a weird adventure in which there was =
no
grain of truth. That a stomach,
disordered by decayed elephant flesh, a lion roaring in the jungle, a
picture-book, and sleep could have so truly portrayed all the clear-cut det=
ails
of what he had seemingly experienced was quite beyond his knowledge; yet he
knew that Numa could not climb a tree, he knew that there existed in the ju=
ngle
no such bird as he had seen, and he knew, too, that he could not have falle=
n a
tiny fraction of the distance he had hurtled downward, and lived.
To say the least,=
he
was a very puzzled Tarzan as he tried to compose himself once more for
slumber--a very puzzled and a very nauseated Tarzan.
As he thought dee=
ply
upon the strange occurrences of the night, he witnessed another remarkable
happening. It was indeed quite pre=
posterous,
yet he saw it all with his own eyes--it was nothing less than Histah, the
snake, wreathing his sinuous and slimy way up the bole of the tree below
him--Histah, with the head of the old man Tarzan had shoved into the cooking
pot--the head and the round, tight, black, distended stomach. As the old man's frightful face, with
upturned eyes, set and glassy, came close to Tarzan, the jaws opened to sei=
ze him. The ape-man struck furiously at the hid=
eous
face, and as he struck the apparition disappeared.
Tarzan sat straig=
ht
up upon his branch trembling in every limb, wide-eyed and panting. He looked all around him with his keen,=
jungle-trained
eyes, but he saw naught of the old man with the body of Histah, the snake, =
but
on his naked thigh the ape-man saw a caterpillar, dropped from a branch abo=
ve
him. With a grimace he flicked it =
off
into the darkness beneath.
And so the night =
wore
on, dream following dream, nightmare following nightmare, until the distrac=
ted
ape-man started like a frightened deer at the rustling of the wind in the t=
rees
about him, or leaped to his feet as the uncanny laugh of a hyena burst sudd=
enly
upon a momentary jungle silence. B=
ut at
last the tardy morning broke and a sick and feverish Tarzan wound sluggishly
through the dank and gloomy mazes of the forest in search of water. His whole body seemed on fire, a great =
sickness
surged upward to his throat. He sa=
w a
tangle of almost impenetrable thicket, and, like the wild beast he was, he
crawled into it to die alone and unseen, safe from the attacks of predatory=
carnivora.
But he did not
die. For a long time he wanted to;=
but
presently nature and an outraged stomach relieved themselves in their own
therapeutic manner, the ape-man broke into a violent perspiration and then =
fell
into a normal and untroubled sleep which persisted well into the afternoon.=
When he awoke he found himself weak but=
no
longer sick.
Once more he soug=
ht
water, and after drinking deeply, took his way slowly toward the cabin by t=
he
sea. In times of loneliness and tr=
ouble it
had long been his custom to seek there the quiet and restfulness which he c=
ould
find nowhere else.
As he approached =
the
cabin and raised the crude latch which his father had fashioned so many yea=
rs
before, two small, blood-shot eyes watched him from the concealing foliage =
of
the jungle close by. From beneath =
shaggy,
beetling brows they glared maliciously upon him, maliciously and with a keen
curiosity; then Tarzan entered the cabin and closed the door after him. Here, with all the world shut out from =
him,
he could dream without fear of interruption.
He could curl up and look at the pictures in the strange things which
were books, he could puzzle out the printed word he had learned to read wit=
hout
knowledge of the spoken language it represented, he could live in a wonderf=
ul
world of which he had no knowledge beyond the covers of his beloved books.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Numa and Sabor might prowl about close =
to
him, the elements might rage in all their fury; but here at least, Tarzan m=
ight
be entirely off his guard in a delightful relaxation which gave him all his
faculties for the uninterrupted pursuit of this greatest of all his pleasur=
es.
Today he turned to
the picture of the huge bird which bore off the little Tarmangani in its
talons. Tarzan puckered his brows =
as he examined
the colored print. Yes, this was t=
he
very bird that had carried him off the day before, for to Tarzan the dream =
had
been so great a reality that he still thought another day and a night had p=
assed
since he had lain down in the tree to sleep.
But the more he
thought upon the matter the less positive he was as to the verity of the
seeming adventure through which he had passed, yet where the real had ceased
and the unreal commenced he was quite unable to determine. Had he really then been to the village =
of the
blacks at all, had he killed the old Gomangani, had he eaten of the elephan=
t meat,
had he been sick? Tarzan scratched his tousled black head and wondered. It was all very strange, yet he knew th=
at he
never had seen Numa climb a tree, or Histah with the head and belly of an o=
ld
black man whom Tarzan already had slain.
Finally, with a s=
igh
he gave up trying to fathom the unfathomable, yet in his heart of hearts he
knew that something had come into his life that he never before had
experienced, another life which existed when he slept and the consciousness=
of
which was carried over into his waking hours.
Then he commenced=
to
wonder if some of these strange creatures which he met in his sleep might n=
ot
slay him, for at such times Tarzan of the Apes seemed to be a different Tar=
zan,
sluggish, helpless and timid--wishing to flee his enemies as fled Bara, the
deer, most fearful of creatures.
Thus, with a drea=
m,
came the first faint tinge of a knowledge of fear, a knowledge which Tarzan,
awake, had never experienced, and perhaps he was experiencing what his early
forbears passed through and transmitted to posterity in the form of
superstition first and religion later; for they, as Tarzan, had seen things=
at
night which they could not explain by the daylight standards of sense
perception or of reason, and so had built for themselves a weird explanation
which included grotesque shapes, possessed of strange and uncanny powers, to
whom they finally came to attribute all those inexplicable phenomena of nat=
ure
which with each recurrence filled them with awe, with wonder, or with terro=
r.
And as Tarzan
concentrated his mind on the little bugs upon the printed page before him, =
the
active recollection of the strange adventures presently merged into the tex=
t of
that which he was reading--a story of Bolgani, the gorilla, in captivity. There was a more or less lifelike illus=
tration
of Bolgani in colors and in a cage, with many remarkable looking Tarmangani
standing against a rail and peering curiously at the snarling brute. Tarzan wondered not a little, as he alw=
ays
did, at the odd and seemingly useless array of colored plumage which covered
the bodies of the Tarmangani. It a=
lways
caused him to grin a trifle when he looked at these strange creatures. He wondered if they so covered their bo=
dies
from shame of their hairlessness or because they thought the odd things they
wore added any to the beauty of their appearance. Particularly was Tarzan
amused by the grotesque headdresses of the pictured people. He wondered how some of the shes succee=
ded in
balancing theirs in an upright position, and he came as near to laughing al=
oud
as he ever had, as he contemplated the funny little round things upon the h=
eads
of the hes.
Slowly the ape-man
picked out the meaning of the various combinations of letters on the printed
page, and as he read, the little bugs, for as such he always thought of the
letters, commenced to run about in a most confusing manner, blurring his vi=
sion
and befuddling his thoughts. Twice he brushed the back of a hand smartly ac=
ross
his eyes; but only for a moment could he bring the bugs back to coherent and
intelligible form. He had slept il=
l the
night before and now he was exhausted from loss of sleep, from sickness, and
from the slight fever he had had, so that it became more and more difficult=
to
fix his attention, or to keep his eyes open.
Tarzan realized t=
hat
he was falling asleep, and just as the realization was borne in upon him an=
d he
had decided to relinquish himself to an inclination which had assumed almost
the proportions of a physical pain, he was aroused by the opening of the ca=
bin
door. Turning quickly toward the
interruption Tarzan was amazed, for a moment, to see bulking large in the
doorway the huge and hairy form of Bolgani, the gorilla.
Now there was
scarcely a denizen of the great jungle with whom Tarzan would rather not ha=
ve
been cooped up inside the small cabin than Bolgani, the gorilla, yet he fel=
t no
fear, even though his quick eye noted that Bolgani was in the throes of that
jungle madness which seizes upon so many of the fiercer males. Ordinarily the huge gorillas avoid conf=
lict,
hide themselves from the other jungle folk, and are generally the best of
neighbors; but when they are attacked, or the madness seizes them, there is=
no
jungle denizen so bold and fierce as to deliberately seek a quarrel with th=
em.
But for Tarzan th=
ere
was no escape. Bolgani was gloweri=
ng at
him from red-rimmed, wicked eyes. =
In a
moment he would rush in and seize the ape-man. Tarzan reached for the hunti=
ng
knife where he had lain it on the table beside him; but as his fingers did =
not
immediately locate the weapon, he turned a quick glance in search of it.
Not again would h=
e be
fooled by empty things which came while he slept! In a moment, no doubt,
Bolgani would turn into Pamba, the rat, with the head of Tantor, the
elephant. Tarzan had seen enough o=
f such
strange happenings recently to have some idea as to what he might expect; b=
ut this
time Bolgani did not alter his form as he came slowly toward the young ape-=
man.
Tarzan was a bit
puzzled, too, that he felt no desire to rush frantically to some place of
safety, as had been the sensation most conspicuous in the other of his new =
and
remarkable adventures. He was just
himself now, ready to fight, if necessary; but still sure that no flesh and
blood gorilla stood before him.
The thing should =
be
fading away into thin air by now, thought Tarzan, or changing into something
else; yet it did not. Instead it l=
oomed clear-cut
and real as Bolgani himself, the magnificent dark coat glistening with life=
and
health in a bar of sunlight which shot across the cabin through the high wi=
ndow
behind the young Lord Greystoke. This was quite the most realistic of his s=
leep
adventures, thought Tarzan, as he passively awaited the next amusing incide=
nt.
And then the gori=
lla
charged. Two mighty, calloused han=
ds
seized upon the ape-man, great fangs were bared close to his face, a hideous
growl burst from the cavernous throat and hot breath fanned Tarzan's cheek,=
and
still he sat grinning at the apparition.
Tarzan might be fooled once or twice, but not for so many times in s=
uccession! He knew that this Bolgani was no real
Bolgani, for had he been he never could have gained entrance to the cabin,
since only Tarzan knew how to operate the latch.
The gorilla seemed
puzzled by the strange passivity of the hairless ape. He paused an instant with his jaws snar=
ling
close to the other's throat, then he seemed suddenly to come to some
decision. Whirling the ape-man acr=
oss a
hairy shoulder, as easily as you or I might lift a babe in arms, Bolgani tu=
rned
and dashed out into the open, racing toward the great trees.
Now, indeed, was
Tarzan sure that this was a sleep adventure, and so grinned largely as the
giant gorilla bore him, unresisting, away. Presently, reasoned Tarzan, he w=
ould
awaken and find himself back in the cabin where he had fallen asleep. He glanced back at the thought and saw =
the
cabin door standing wide open. This
would never do! Always had he been careful to close and latch it against wi=
ld
intruders. Manu, the monkey, would make sad havoc there among Tarzan's
treasures should he have access to the interior for even a few minutes. The question which arose in Tarzan's mi=
nd was
a baffling one. Where did sleep
adventures end and reality commence? How was he to be sure that the cabin d=
oor
was not really open? Everything ab=
out
him appeared quite normal--there were none of the grotesque exaggerations of
his former sleep adventures. It wo=
uld be
better then to be upon the safe side and make sure that the cabin door was
closed--it would do no harm even if all that seemed to be happening were not
happening at all.
Tarzan essayed to
slip from Bolgani's shoulder; but the great beast only growled ominously and
gripped him tighter. With a mighty
effort the ape-man wrenched himself loose, and as he slid to the ground, th=
e dream
gorilla turned ferociously upon him, seized him once more and buried great
fangs in a sleek, brown shoulder.
The grin of deris=
ion
faded from Tarzan's lips as the pain and the hot blood aroused his fighting
instincts. Asleep or awake, this t=
hing
was no longer a joke! Biting, tearing, and snarling, the two rolled over up=
on
the ground. The gorilla now was fr=
antic
with insane rage. Again and again =
he
loosed his hold upon the ape-man's shoulder in an attempt to seize the jugu=
lar;
but Tarzan of the Apes had fought before with creatures who struck first for
the vital vein, and each time he wriggled out of harm's way as he strove to=
get
his fingers upon his adversary's throat.
At last he succeeded--his great muscles tensed and knotted beneath h=
is
smooth hide as he forced with every ounce of his mighty strength to push the
hairy torso from him. And as he ch=
oked Bolgani
and strained him away, his other hand crept slowly upward between them until
the point of the hunting knife rested over the savage heart--there was a qu=
ick
movement of the steel-thewed wrist and the blade plunged to its goal.
Bolgani, the gori=
lla,
voiced a single frightful shriek, tore himself loose from the grasp of the
ape-man, rose to his feet, staggered a few steps and then plunged to
earth. There were a few spasmodic
movements of the limbs and the brute was still.
Tarzan of the Apes
stood looking down upon his kill, and as he stood there he ran his fingers
through his thick, black shock of hair. Presently he stooped and touched the
dead body. Some of the red life-bl=
ood of
the gorilla crimsoned his fingers. He
raised them to his nose and sniffed.
Then he shook his head and turned toward the cabin. The door was sti=
ll
open. He closed it and fastened the
latch. Returning toward the body of his kill he again paused and scratched =
his head.
If this was a sle=
ep
adventure, what then was reality? How was he to know the one from the other?
How much of all that had happened in his life had been real and how much
unreal?
He placed a foot =
upon
the prostrate form and raising his face to the heavens gave voice to the ki=
ll
cry of the bull ape. Far in the di=
stance
a lion answered. It was very real =
and,
yet, he did not know. Puzzled, he turned away into the jungle.
No, he did not kn=
ow
what was real and what was not; but there was one thing that he did know--n=
ever
again would he eat of the flesh of Tantor, the elephant.
THE DAY WAS
perfect. A cool breeze tempered th=
e heat
of the equatorial sun. Peace had r=
eigned
within the tribe for weeks and no alien enemy had trespassed upon its prese=
rves
from without. To the ape-mind all =
this
was sufficient evidence that the future would be identical with the immedia=
te
past--that Utopia would persist.
The sentinels, now
from habit become a fixed tribal custom, either relaxed their vigilance or
entirely deserted their posts, as the whim seized them. The tribe was far scattered in search of
food. Thus may peace and prosperity
undermine the safety of the most primitive community even as it does that of
the most cultured.
Even the individu=
als
became less watchful and alert, so that one might have thought Numa and Sab=
or
and Sheeta entirely deleted from the scheme of things. The shes and the balus roamed unguarded
through the sullen jungle, while the greedy males foraged far afield, and t=
hus
it was that Teeka and Gazan, her balu, hunted upon the extreme southern edg=
e of
the tribe with no great male near them.
Still farther sou=
th
there moved through the forest a sinister figure--a huge bull ape, maddened=
by
solitude and defeat. A week before=
he
had contended for the kingship of a tribe far distant, and now battered, and
still sore, he roamed the wilderness an outcast. Later he might return to his own tribe =
and
submit to the will of the hairy brute he had attempted to dethrone; but for=
the
time being he dared not do so, since he had sought not only the crown but t=
he
wives, as well, of his lord and master.
It would require an entire moon at least to bring forgetfulness to h=
im
he had wronged, and so Toog wandered a strange jungle, grim, terrible,
hate-filled.
It was in this me= ntal state that Toog came unexpectedly upon a young she feeding alone in the jungle--a stranger she, lithe and strong and beautiful beyond compare. Toog caught his breath and slunk quickl= y to one side of the trail where the dense foliage of the tropical underbrush concea= led him from Teeka while permitting him to feast his eyes upon her loveliness.<= o:p>
But not alone were
they concerned with Teeka--they roved the surrounding jungle in search of t=
he
bulls and cows and balus of her tribe, though principally for the bulls.
Toog could see no
sign of any ape other than the strange she and a young balu playing near
by. His wicked, blood-shot eyes ha=
lf
closed as they rested upon the charms of the former--as for the balu, one s=
nap
of those great jaws upon the back of its little neck would prevent it from =
raising
any unnecessary alarm.
Toog was a fine, =
big
male, resembling in many ways Teeka's mate, Taug. Each was in his prime, and
each was wonderfully muscled, perfectly fanged and as horrifyingly ferociou=
s as
the most exacting and particular she could wish. Had Toog been of her own tribe, Teeka m=
ight as
readily have yielded to him as to Taug when her mating time arrived; but now
she was Taug's and no other male could claim her without first defeating Ta=
ug
in personal combat. And even then =
Teeka
retained some rights in the matter. If
she did not favor a correspondent, she could enter the lists with her right=
ful
mate and do her part toward discouraging his advances, a part, too, which w=
ould
prove no mean assistance to her lord and master, for Teeka, even though her
fangs were smaller than a male's, could use them to excellent effect.
Just now Teeka was
occupied in a fascinating search for beetles, to the exclusion of all
else. She did not realize how far =
she
and Gazan had become separated from the balance of the tribe, nor were her
defensive senses upon the alert as they should have been. Months of immunity from danger under the
protecting watchfulness of the sentries, which Tarzan had taught the tribe =
to
post, had lulled them all into a sense of peaceful security based on that
fallacy which has wrecked many enlightened communities in the past and will
continue to wreck others in the future--that because they have not been
attacked they never will be.
Toog, having
satisfied himself that only the she and her balu were in the immediate
vicinity, crept stealthily forward.
Teeka's back was toward him when he finally rushed upon her; but her
senses were at last awakened to the presence of danger and she wheeled to f=
ace
the strange bull just before he reached her.
Toog halted a few paces from her. His anger had fled before the
seductive feminine charms of the stranger.
He made conciliatory noises--a species of clucking sound with his br=
oad,
flat lips--that were, too, not greatly dissimilar to that which might be
produced in an osculatory solo.
But Teeka only ba=
red
her fangs and growled. Little Gazan
started to run toward his mother, but she warned him away with a quick
"Kreeg-ah!" telling him to run high into a tall tree. Evidently Teeka was not favorably impre=
ssed
by her new suitor. Toog realized t=
his
and altered his methods accordingly. He
swelled his giant chest, beat upon it with his calloused knuckles and swagg=
ered
to and fro before her.
"I am
Toog," he boasted. "Look=
at my
fighting fangs. Look at my great a=
rms
and my mighty legs. With one bite =
I can
slay your biggest bull. Alone have I slain Sheeta. I am Toog. Toog wants you." Then he waited for=
the
effect, nor did he have long to wait.
Teeka turned with a swiftness which belied her great weight and bolt=
ed
in the opposite direction. Toog, w=
ith an
angry growl, leaped in pursuit; but the smaller, lighter female was too fle=
et
for him. He chased her for a few y=
ards
and then, foaming and barking, he halted and beat upon the ground with his =
hard
fists.
From the tree abo=
ve
him little Gazan looked down and witnessed the stranger bull's
discomfiture. Being young, and thi=
nking
himself safe above the reach of the heavy male, Gazan screamed an ill-timed
insult at their tormentor. Toog lo=
oked
up. Teeka had halted at a little d=
istance--she
would not go far from her balu; that Toog quickly realized and as quickly
determined to take advantage of. H=
e saw
that the tree in which the young ape squatted was isolated and that Gazan c=
ould
not reach another without coming to earth.
He would obtain the mother through her love for her young.
He swung himself =
into
the lower branches of the tree. Li=
ttle
Gazan ceased to insult him; his expression of deviltry changed to one of ap=
prehension,
which was quickly followed by fear as Toog commenced to ascend toward him.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Teeka screamed to Gazan to climb higher=
, and
the little fellow scampered upward among the tiny branches which would not =
support
the weight of the great bull; but nevertheless Toog kept on climbing. Teeka was not fearful. She knew that he could not ascend far e=
nough
to reach Gazan, so she sat at a little distance from the tree and applied
jungle opprobrium to him. Being a
female, she was a past master of the art.
But she did not k=
now
the malevolent cunning of Toog's little brain. She took it for granted that=
the
bull would climb as high as he could toward Gazan and then, finding that he
could not reach him, resume his pursuit of her, which she knew would prove
equally fruitless. So sure was she=
of
the safety of her balu and her own ability to take care of herself that she=
did
not voice the cry for help which would soon have brought the other members =
of
the tribe flocking to her side.
Toog slowly reach=
ed
the limit to which he dared risk his great weight to the slender branches.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Gazan was still fifteen feet above him.=
The bull braced himself and seized the =
main
branch in his powerful hands, then he commenced shaking it vigorously. Teeka was appalled. Instantly she reali=
zed
what the bull purposed. Gazan clun=
g far
out upon a swaying limb. At the fi=
rst
shake he lost his balance, though he did not quite fall, clinging still with
his four hands; but Toog redoubled his efforts; the shaking produced a viol=
ent
snapping of the limb to which the young ape clung. Teeka saw all too plainly what the outc=
ome
must be and forgetting her own danger in the depth of her mother love, rush=
ed
forward to ascend the tree and give battle to the fearsome creature that
menaced the life of her little one.
But before ever s=
he
reached the bole, Toog had succeeded, by violent shaking of the branch, to
loosen Gazan's hold. With a cry the
little fellow plunged down through the foliage, clutching futilely for a ne=
w hold,
and alighted with a sickening thud at his mother's feet, where he lay silent
and motionless. Moaning, Teeka sto=
oped
to lift the still form in her arms; but at the same instant Toog was upon h=
er.
Struggling and bi=
ting
she fought to free herself; but the giant muscles of the great bull were too
much for her lesser strength. Toog
struck and choked her repeatedly until finally, half unconscious, she lapse=
d into
quasi submission. Then the bull li=
fted
her to his shoulder and turned back to the trail toward the south from when=
ce
he had come.
Upon the ground l=
ay
the quiet form of little Gazan. He=
did
not moan. He did not move. The sun=
rose
slowly toward meridian. A mangy th=
ing, lifting
its nose to scent the jungle breeze, crept through the underbrush. It was Dango, the hyena. Presently its ugly muzzle broke through=
some
near-by foliage and its cruel eyes fastened upon Gazan.
Early that mornin=
g,
Tarzan of the Apes had gone to the cabin by the sea, where he passed many an
hour at such times as the tribe was ranging in the vicinity. On the floor lay the skeleton of a man-=
-all that
remained of the former Lord Greystoke--lay as it had fallen some twenty yea=
rs
before when Kerchak, the great ape, had thrown it, lifeless, there. Long since had the termites and the sma=
ll
rodents picked clean the sturdy English bones.
For years Tarzan had seen it lying there, giving it no more attention
than he gave the countless thousand bones that strewed his jungle haunts. On the bed another, smaller, skeleton r=
eposed
and the youth ignored it as he ignored the other. How could he know that the one had been=
his
father, the other his mother? The little pile of bones in the rude cradle,
fashioned with such loving care by the former Lord Greystoke, meant nothing=
to him--that
one day that little skull was to help prove his right to a proud title was =
as
far beyond his ken as the satellites of the suns of Orion. To Tarzan they were bones--just bones.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He did not need them, for there was no =
meat
left upon them, and they were not in his way, for he knew no necessity for a
bed, and the skeleton upon the floor he easily could step over.
Today he was
restless. He turned the pages firs=
t of
one book and then of another. He g=
lanced
at pictures which he knew by heart, and tossed the books aside. He rummaged for the thousandth time in =
the
cupboard. He took out a bag which contained several small, round pieces of
metal. He had played with them many times in the years gone by; but always =
he replaced
them carefully in the bag, and the bag in the cupboard, upon the very shelf
where first he had discovered it. =
In
strange ways did heredity manifest itself in the ape-man. Come of an orderly
race, he himself was orderly without knowing why. The apes dropped things wherever their
interest in them waned--in the tall grass or from the high-flung branches of
the trees. What they dropped they
sometimes found again, by accident; but not so the ways of Tarzan. For his few belongings he had a place a=
nd
scrupulously he returned each thing to its proper place when he was done wi=
th
it. The round pieces of metal in t=
he
little bag always interested him. =
Raised
pictures were upon either side, the meaning of which he did not quite
understand. The pieces were bright=
and
shiny. It amused him to arrange th=
em in
various figures upon the table. Hu=
ndreds
of times had he played thus. Today=
, while
so engaged, he dropped a lovely yellow piece--an English sovereign--which
rolled beneath the bed where lay all that was mortal of the once beautiful =
Lady
Alice.
True to form, Tar=
zan
at once dropped to his hands and knees and searched beneath the bed for the
lost gold piece. Strange as it mig=
ht appear,
he had never before looked beneath the bed.
He found the gold piece, and something else he found, too--a small
wooden box with a loose cover. Bri=
nging
them both out he returned the sovereign to its bag and the bag to its shelf
within the cupboard; then he investigated the box. It contained a quantity of cylindrical =
bits
of metal, cone-shaped at one end and flat at the other, with a projecting r=
im. They
were all quite green and dull, coated with years of verdigris.
Tarzan removed a
handful of them from the box and examined them.
He rubbed one upon another and discovered that the green came off,
leaving a shiny surface for two-thirds of their length and a dull gray over=
the
cone-shaped end. Finding a bit of =
wood
he rubbed one of the cylinders rapidly and was rewarded by a lustrous sheen
which pleased him.
At his side hung a
pocket pouch taken from the body of one of the numerous black warriors he h=
ad
slain. Into this pouch he put a ha=
ndful of
the new playthings, thinking to polish them at his leisure; then he replaced
the box beneath the bed, and finding nothing more to amuse him, left the ca=
bin
and started back in the direction of the tribe.
Shortly before he
reached them he heard a great commotion ahead of him--the loud screams of s=
hes
and balus, the savage, angry barking and growling of the great bulls. Instantly he increased his speed, for t=
he "Kreeg-ahs"
that came to his ears warned him that something was amiss with his fellows.=
While Tarzan had =
been
occupied with his own devices in the cabin of his dead sire, Taug, Teeka's
mighty mate, had been hunting a mile to the north of the tribe. At last, his belly filled, he had turned
lazily back toward the clearing where he had last seen the tribe and presen=
tly commenced
passing its members scattered alone or in twos or threes. Nowhere did he see
Teeka or Gazan, and soon he began inquiring of the other apes where they mi=
ght
be; but none had seen them recently.
Now the lower ord=
ers
are not highly imaginative. They d=
o not,
as you and I, paint vivid mental pictures of things which might have occurr=
ed, and
so Taug did not now apprehend that any misfortune had overtaken his mate and
their off-spring--he merely knew that he wished to find Teeka that he might=
lie
down in the shade and have her scratch his back while his breakfast digeste=
d;
but though he called to her and searched for her and asked each whom he met=
, he
could find no trace of Teeka, nor of Gazan either.
He was beginning =
to
become peeved and had about made up his mind to chastise Teeka for wanderin=
g so
far afield when he wanted her. He =
was moving
south along a game trail, his calloused soles and knuckles giving forth no
sound, when he came upon Dango at the opposite side of a small clearing.
Taug, always caut=
ious
himself, as it behooves one to be who fares up and down the jungle and desi=
res
to survive, swung noiselessly into a tree, where he could have a better vie=
w of
the clearing. He did not fear Dang=
o; but
he wanted to see what it was that Dango stalked. In a way, possibly, he was actuated as =
much
by curiosity as by caution.
And when Taug rea=
ched
a place in the branches from which he could have an unobstructed view of th=
e clearing
he saw Dango already sniffing at something directly beneath him--something
which Taug instantly recognized as the lifeless form of his little Gazan.
With a cry so
frightful, so bestial, that it momentarily paralyzed the startled Dango, the
great ape launched his mighty bulk upon the surprised hyena. With a cry and a snarl, Dango, crushed =
to
earth, turned to tear at his assailant; but as effectively might a sparrow =
turn
upon a hawk. Taug's great, gnarled
fingers closed upon the hyena's throat and back, his jaws snapped once on t=
he
mangy neck, crushing the vertebrae, and then he hurled the dead body
contemptuously aside.
Again he raised h=
is
voice in the call of the bull ape to its mate, but there was no reply; then=
he
leaned down to sniff at the body of Gazan. In the breast of this savage,
hideous beast there beat a heart which was moved, however slightly, by the =
same
emotions of paternal love which affect us.
Even had we no actual evidence of this, we must know it still, since
only thus might be explained the survival of the human race in which the
jealousy and selfishness of the bulls would, in the earliest stages of the
race, have wiped out the young as rapidly as they were brought into the wor=
ld
had not God implanted in the savage bosom that paternal love which evidences
itself most strongly in the protective instinct of the male.
In Taug the
protective instinct was not alone highly developed; but affection for his
offspring as well, for Taug was an unusually intelligent specimen of these
great, manlike apes which the natives of the Gobi speak of in whispers; but
which no white man ever had seen, or, if seeing, lived to tell of until Tar=
zan
of the Apes came among them.
And so Taug felt
sorrow as any other father might feel sorrow at the loss of a little
child. To you little Gazan might h=
ave
seemed a hideous and repulsive creature, but to Taug and Teeka he was as be=
autiful
and as cute as is your little Mary or Johnnie or Elizabeth Ann to you, and =
he
was their firstborn, their only balu, and a he--three things which might ma=
ke a
young ape the apple of any fond father's eye.
For a moment Taug
sniffed at the quiet little form. =
With
his muzzle and his tongue he smoothed and caressed the rumpled coat. From his savage lips broke a low moan; =
but
quickly upon the heels of sorrow came the overmastering desire for revenge.=
Leaping to his fe=
et
he screamed out a volley of "Kreegahs," punctuated from time to t=
ime
by the blood-freezing cry of an angry, challenging bull--a rage-mad bull wi=
th
the blood lust strong upon him.
Answering his cri=
es
came the cries of the tribe as they swung through the trees toward him. It was these that Tarzan heard on his r=
eturn from
his cabin, and in reply to them he raised his own voice and hurried forward
with increased speed until he fairly flew through the middle terraces of the
forest.
When at last he c=
ame
upon the tribe he saw their members gathered about Taug and something which=
lay
quietly upon the ground. Dropping =
among them,
Tarzan approached the center of the group.
Taug was still roaring out his challenges; but when he saw Tarzan he
ceased and stooping picked up Gazan in his arms and held him out for Tarzan=
to see. Of all the bulls of the tribe, Taug held
affection for Tarzan only. Tarzan =
he
trusted and looked up to as one wiser and more cunning. To Tarzan he came now--to the playmate =
of his
balu days, the companion of innumerable battles of his maturity.
When Tarzan saw t=
he
still form in Taug's arms, a low growl broke from his lips, for he too loved
Teeka's little balu.
"Who did
it?" he asked. "Where is
Teeka?"
"I do not
know," replied Taug. "I =
found
him lying here with Dango about to feed upon him; but it was not Dango that=
did
it--there are no fang marks upon him."
Tarzan came closer
and placed an ear against Gazan's breast.
"He is not dead," he said.
"Maybe he will not die." He pressed through the crowd of a=
pes
and circled once about them, examining the ground step by step. Suddenly he stopped and placing his nose
close to the earth sniffed. Then he
sprang to his feet, giving a peculiar cry.
Taug and the others pressed forward, for the sound told them that the
hunter had found the spoor of his quarry.
"A stranger =
bull
has been here," said Tarzan.
"It was he that hurt Gazan.
He has carried off Teeka."
Taug and the other bulls commenced to roar and threaten; but they did nothing. Had the stranger bull been within sight= they would have torn him to pieces; but it did not occur to them to follow him.<= o:p>
"If the three
bulls had been watching around the tribe this would not have happened,"
said Tarzan. "Such things will
happen as long as you do not keep the three bulls watching for an enemy. Tarzan goes now--he goes to find Teeka =
and
bring her back to the tribe."
The idea appealed=
to
the other bulls. "We will all
go," they cried.
"No," s=
aid
Tarzan, "you will not all go. We
cannot take shes and balus when we go out to hunt and fight. You must remain to guard them or you wi=
ll
lose them all."
They scratched th=
eir
heads. The wisdom of his advice was
dawning upon them, but at first they had been carried away by the new idea-=
-the
idea of following up an enemy offender to wrest his prize from him and puni=
sh him. The community instinct was ingrained in=
their
characters through ages of custom. They
did not know why they had not thought to pursue and punish the offender--th=
ey
could not know that it was because they had as yet not reached a mental pla=
ne
which would permit them to work as individuals.
In times of stress, the community instinct sent them huddling into a
compact herd where the great bulls, by the weight of their combined strength
and ferocity, could best protect them from an enemy. The idea of separating to do battle wit=
h a
foe had not yet occurred to them--it was too foreign to custom, too inimica=
l to
community interests; but to Tarzan it was the first and most natural though=
t. His senses told him that there was but a
single bull connected with the attack upon Teeka and Gazan. A single enemy did not require the enti=
re
tribe for his punishment. Two swift
bulls could quickly overhaul him and rescue Teeka.
In the past no one
ever had thought to go forth in search of the shes that were occasionally s=
tolen
from the tribe. If Numa, Sabor, Sh=
eeta or
a wandering bull ape from another tribe chanced to carry off a maid or a ma=
tron
while no one was looking, that was the end of it--she was gone, that was
all. The bereaved husband, if the =
victim
chanced to have been mated, growled around for a day or two and then, if he
were strong enough, took another mate within the tribe, and if not, wandere=
d far
into the jungle on the chance of stealing one from another community.
In the past Tarza=
n of
the Apes had condoned this practice for the reason that he had had no inter=
est
in those who had been stolen; but Teeka had been his first love and Teeka's
balu held a place in his heart such as a balu of his own would have held. Just once before had Tarzan wished to f=
ollow
and revenge. That had been years b=
efore
when Kulonga, the son of Mbonga, the chief, had slain Kala. Then, single-handed, Tarzan had pursued=
and
avenged. Now, though to a lesser d=
egree,
he was moved by the same passion.
He turned toward
Taug. "Leave Gazan with
Mumga," he said. "She is=
old and
her fangs are broken and she is no good; but she can take care of Gazan unt=
il
we return with Teeka, and if Gazan is dead when we come back," he turn=
ed
to address Mumga, "I will kill you, too."
"Where are we
going?" asked Taug.
"We are goin=
g to
get Teeka," replied the ape-man, "and kill the bull who has stolen
her. Come!"
He turned again to
the spoor of the stranger bull, which showed plainly to his trained senses,=
nor
did he glance back to note if Taug followed. The latter laid Gazan in Mumga=
's
arms with a parting: "If he dies Tarzan will kill you," and he
followed after the brown-skinned figure that already was moving at a slow t=
rot
along the jungle trail.
No other bull of =
the
tribe of Kerchak was so good a trailer as Tarzan, for his trained senses we=
re
aided by a high order of intelligence.
His judgment told him the natural trail for a quarry to follow, so t=
hat
he need but note the most apparent marks upon the way, and today the trail =
of
Toog was as plain to him as type upon a printed page to you or me.
Following close
behind the lithe figure of the ape-man came the huge and shaggy bull ape. No words passed between them. They moved as silently as two shadows a=
mong
the myriad shadows of the forest. =
Alert as
his eyes and ears, was Tarzan's patrician nose.
The spoor was fresh, and now that they had passed from the range of =
the
strong ape odor of the tribe he had little difficulty in following Toog and
Teeka by scent alone. Teeka's fami=
liar
scent spoor told both Tarzan and Taug that they were upon her trail, and so=
on
the scent of Toog became as familiar as the other.
They were progres=
sing
rapidly when suddenly dense clouds overcast the sun. Tarzan accelerated his pace. Now he fairly flew along the jungle tra=
il, or,
where Toog had taken to the trees, followed nimbly as a squirrel along the
bending, undulating pathway of the foliage branches, swinging from tree to =
tree
as Toog had swung before them; but more rapidly because they were not
handicapped by a burden such as Toog's.
Tarzan felt that =
they
must be almost upon the quarry, for the scent spoor was becoming stronger a=
nd
stronger, when the jungle was suddenly shot by livid lightning, and a deafe=
ning
roar of thunder reverberated through the heavens and the forest until the e=
arth
trembled and shook. Then came the rain--not as it comes to us of the temper=
ate
zones, but as a mighty avalanche of water--a deluge which spills tons inste=
ad
of drops upon the bending forest giants and the terrified creatures which h=
aunt
their shade.
And the rain did =
what
Tarzan knew that it would do--it wiped the spoor of the quarry from the fac=
e of
the earth. For a half hour the tor=
rents fell--then
the sun burst forth, jeweling the forest with a million scintillant gems; b=
ut
today the ape-man, usually alert to the changing wonders of the jungle, saw
them not. Only the fact that the s=
poor
of Teeka and her abductor was obliterated found lodgment in his thoughts.
Even among the
branches of the trees there are well-worn trails, just as there are trails =
upon
the surface of the ground; but in the trees they branch and cross more ofte=
n,
since the way is more open than among the dense undergrowth at the
surface. Along one of these well-m=
arked trails
Tarzan and Taug continued after the rain had ceased, because the ape-man kn=
ew
that this was the most logical path for the thief to follow; but when they =
came
to a fork, they were at a loss. He=
re
they halted, while Tarzan examined every branch and leaf which might have b=
een
touched by the fleeing ape.
He sniffed the bo=
le
of the tree, and with his keen eyes he sought to find upon the bark some si=
gn
of the way the quarry had taken. I=
t was slow
work and all the time, Tarzan knew, the bull of the alien tribe was forging
steadily away from them--gaining precious minutes that might carry him to
safety before they could catch up with him.
First along one f=
ork
he went, and then another, applying every test that his wonderful junglecra=
ft
was cognizant of; but again and again he was baffled, for the scent had been
washed away by the heavy downpour, in every exposed place. For a half hour Tarzan and Taug searche=
d, until
at last, upon the bottom of a broad leaf, Tarzan's keen nose caught the fai=
nt
trace of the scent spoor of Toog, where the leaf had brushed a hairy should=
er
as the great ape passed through the foliage.
Once again the two
took up the trail, but it was slow work now and there were many discouraging
delays when the spoor seemed lost beyond recovery. To you or me there would have been no s=
poor,
even before the coming of the rain, except, possibly, where Toog had come to
earth and followed a game trail. I=
n such
places the imprint of a huge handlike foot and the knuckles of one great ha=
nd
were sometimes plain enough for an ordinary mortal to read. Tarzan knew from these and other indica=
tions
that the ape was yet carrying Teeka. The
depth of the imprint of his feet indicated a much greater weight than that =
of
any of the larger bulls, for they were made under the combined weight of To=
og and
Teeka, while the fact that the knuckles of but one hand touched the ground =
at
any time showed that the other hand was occupied in some other business--the
business of holding the prisoner to a hairy shoulder. Tarzan could follow, in sheltered place=
s, the
changing of the burden from one shoulder to another, as indicated by the
deepening of the foot imprint upon the side of the load, and the changing of
the knuckle imprints from one side of the trail to the other.
There were stretc=
hes
along the surface paths where the ape had gone for considerable distances
entirely erect upon his hind feet--walking as a man walks; but the same mig=
ht
have been true of any of the great anthropoids of the same species, for, un=
like
the chimpanzee and the gorilla, they walk without the aid of their hands qu=
ite
as readily as with. It was such th=
ings,
however, which helped to identify to Tarzan and to Taug the appearance of t=
he
abductor, and with his individual scent characteristic already indelibly
impressed upon their memories, they were in a far better position to know h=
im
when they came upon him, even should he have disposed of Teeka before, than=
is
a modern sleuth with his photographs and Bertillon measurements, equipped to
recognize a fugitive from civilized justice.
But with all their
high-strung and delicately attuned perceptive faculties the two bulls of the
tribe of Kerchak were often sore pressed to follow the trail at all, and at
best were so delayed that in the afternoon of the second day, they still had
not overhauled the fugitive. The s=
cent
was now strong, for it had been made since the rain, and Tarzan knew that it
would not be long before they came upon the thief and his loot. Above them, as they crept stealthily fo=
rward,
chattered Manu, the monkey, and his thousand fellows; squawked and screamed=
the
brazen-throated birds of plumage; buzzed and hummed the countless insects a=
mid
the rustling of the forest leaves, and, as they passed, a little gray-beard,
squeaking and scolding upon a swaying branch, looked down and saw them. Instantly the scolding and squeaking ce=
ased,
and off tore the long-tailed mite as though Sheeta, the panther, had been
endowed with wings and was in close pursuit of him. To all appearances he w=
as
only a very much frightened little monkey, fleeing for his life--there seem=
ed
nothing sinister about him.
And what of Teeka
during all this time? Was she at last resigned to her fate and accompanying=
her
new mate in the proper humility of a loving and tractable spouse? A single glance at the pair would have
answered these questions to the utter satisfaction of the most captious.
On through the ju=
ngle
he forced his way in the direction of the stamping ground of his tribe. He hoped that his king would have forgo=
tten
his treason; but if not he was still resigned to his fate--any fate would b=
e better
than suffering longer the sole companionship of this frightful she, and the=
n,
too, he wished to exhibit his captive to his fellows. Maybe he could wish her on the king--it=
is
possible that such a thought urged him on.
At last they came
upon two bulls feeding in a parklike grove--a beautiful grove dotted with h=
uge
boulders half embedded in the rich loam--mute monuments, possibly, to a
forgotten age when mighty glaciers rolled their slow course where now a tor=
rid
sun beats down upon a tropic jungle.
The two bulls loo=
ked
up, baring long fighting fangs, as Toog appeared in the distance. The latter recognized the two as
friends. "It is Toog," he
growled. "Toog has come back =
with a
new she."
The apes waited h=
is
nearer approach. Teeka turned a
snarling, fanged face toward them. She
was not pretty to look upon, yet through the blood and hatred upon her
countenance they realized that she was beautiful, and they envied Toog--ala=
s!
they did not know Teeka.
As they squatted
looking at one another there raced through the trees toward them a long-tai=
led
little monkey with gray whiskers. =
He was
a very excited little monkey when he came to a halt upon the limb of a tree
directly overhead. "Two stran=
ge
bulls come," he cried. "=
One is
a Mangani, the other a hideous ape without hair upon his body. They follow the spoor of Toog. I saw them."
The four apes tur=
ned
their eyes backward along the trail Toog had just come; then they looked at=
one
another for a minute. "Come,&=
quot;
said the larger of Toog's two friends, "we will wait for the strangers=
in
the thick bushes beyond the clearing."
He turned and wad=
dled
away across the open place, the others following him. The little monkey danced about, all
excitement. His chief diversion in=
life
was to bring about bloody encounters between the larger denizens of the for=
est,
that he might sit in the safety of the trees and witness the spectacles.
The apes hid
themselves in the shrubbery beside the trail along which the two stranger b=
ulls
would pass. Teeka trembled with
excitement. She had heard the words of Manu, and she knew that the hairless=
ape
must be Tarzan, while the other was, doubtless, Taug. Never, in her wildest hopes, had she ex=
pected
succor of this sort. Her one thoug=
ht had
been to escape and find her way back to the tribe of Kerchak; but even this=
had
appeared to her practically impossible, so closely did Toog watch her.
As Taug and Tarzan
reached the grove where Toog had come upon his friends, the ape scent becam=
e so
strong that both knew the quarry was but a short distance ahead. And so they went even more cautiously, =
for they
wished to come upon the thief from behind if they could and charge him befo=
re
he was aware of their presence. Th=
at a
little gray-whiskered monkey had forestalled them they did not know, nor th=
at three
pairs of savage eyes were already watching their every move and waiting for
them to come within reach of itching paws and slavering jowls.
On they came acro=
ss
the grove, and as they entered the path leading into the dense jungle beyon=
d, a
sudden "Kreeg-ah!" shrilled out close before them--a
"Kreeg-ah" in the familiar voice of Teeka. The small brains of Toog and his compan=
ions
had not been able to foresee that Teeka might betray them, and now that she
had, they went wild with rage. Toog
struck the she a mighty blow that felled her, and then the three rushed for=
th
to do battle with Tarzan and Taug. The little
monkey danced upon his perch and screamed with delight.
And indeed he mig=
ht
well be delighted, for it was a lovely fight. There were no preliminaries, =
no
formalities, no introductions--the five bulls merely charged and clinched.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> They rolled in the narrow trail and int=
o the
thick verdure beside it. They bit =
and
clawed and scratched and struck, and all the while they kept up the most
frightful chorus of growlings and barkings and roarings. In five minutes they were torn and blee=
ding,
and the little graybeard leaped high, shrilling his primitive bravos; but
always his attitude was "thumbs down." He wanted to see something
killed. He did not care whether it=
were
friend or foe. It was blood he
wanted--blood and death.
Taug had been set
upon by Toog and another of the apes, while Tarzan had the third--a huge br=
ute
with the strength of a buffalo. Ne=
ver before
had Tarzan's assailant beheld so strange a creature as this slippery, hairl=
ess
bull with which he battled. Sweat =
and
blood covered Tarzan's sleek, brown hide.
Again and again he slipped from the clutches of the great bull, and =
all
the while he struggled to free his hunting knife from the scabbard in which=
it
had stuck.
At length he
succeeded--a brown hand shot out and clutched a hairy throat, another flew
upward clutching the sharp blade. =
Three
swift, powerful strokes and the bull relaxed with a groan, falling limp ben=
eath
his antagonist. Instantly Tarzan b=
roke
from the clutches of the dying bull and sprang to Taug's assistance. Toog saw him coming and wheeled to meet
him. In the impact of the charge,
Tarzan's knife was wrenched from his hand and then Toog closed with him.
She saw Tarzan's
pocket pouch torn from his side, and with the curiosity of an ape, that even
danger and excitement cannot entirely dispel, she picked this up, too.
Now the bulls were
standing--the clinches had been broken.
Blood streamed down their sides--their faces were crimsoned with
it. Little graybeard was so fascin=
ated
that at last he had even forgotten to scream and dance; but sat rigid with
delight in the enjoyment of the spectacle.
Back across the g=
rove
Tarzan and Taug forced their adversaries.
Teeka followed slowly. She =
scarce
knew what to do. She was lame and =
sore and
exhausted from the frightful ordeal through which she had passed, and she h=
ad
the confidence of her sex in the prowess of her mate and the other bull of =
her
tribe--they would not need the help of a she in their battle with these two
strangers.
The roars and scr=
eams
of the fighters reverberated through the jungle, awakening the echoes in the
distant hills. From the throat of
Tarzan's antagonist had come a score of "Kreeg-ahs!" and now from
behind came the reply he had awaited.
Into the grove, barking and growling, came a score of huge bull
apes--the fighting men of Toog's tribe.
Teeka saw them fi=
rst
and screamed a warning to Tarzan and Taug.
Then she fled past the fighters toward the opposite side of the
clearing, fear for a moment claiming her.
Nor can one censure her after the frightful ordeal from which she was
still suffering.
Down upon them ca=
me
the great apes. In a moment Tarzan=
and
Taug would be torn to shreds that would later form the PIECE DE RESISTANCE =
of
the savage orgy of a Dum-Dum. Teeka
turned to glance back. She saw the=
impending
fate of her defenders and there sprung to life in her savage bosom the spar=
k of
martyrdom, that some common forbear had transmitted alike to Teeka, the wild
ape, and the glorious women of a higher order who have invited death for th=
eir
men. With a shrill scream she ran =
toward
the battlers who were rolling in a great mass at the foot of one of the huge
boulders which dotted the grove; but what could she do? The knife she held =
she
could not use to advantage because of her lesser strength. She had seen Tarzan throw missiles, and=
she
had learned this with many other things from her childhood playmate. She sought for something to throw and a=
t last
her fingers touched upon the hard objects in the pouch that had been torn f=
rom
the ape-man. Tearing the receptacle open, she gathered a handful of shiny
cylinders--heavy for their size, they seemed to her, and good missiles. With all her strength she hurled them a=
t the
apes battling in front of the granite boulder.
The result surpri=
sed
Teeka quite as much as it did the apes.
There was a loud explosion, which deafened the fighters, and a puff =
of
acrid smoke. Never before had one =
there
heard such a frightful noise. Screaming with terror, the stranger bulls lea=
ped
to their feet and fled back toward the stamping ground of their tribe, while
Taug and Tarzan slowly gathered themselves together and arose, lame and
bleeding, to their feet. They, too,
would have fled had they not seen Teeka standing there before them, the kni=
fe
and the pocket pouch in her hands.
"What was
it?" asked Tarzan.
Teeka shook her
head. "I hurled these at the
stranger bulls," and she held forth another handful of the shiny metal
cylinders with the dull gray, cone-shaped ends.
Tarzan looked at =
them
and scratched his head.
"What are
they?" asked Taug.
"I do not
know," said Tarzan. "I f=
ound
them."
The little monkey
with the gray beard halted among the trees a mile away and huddled, terrifi=
ed,
against a branch. He did not know =
that the
dead father of Tarzan of the Apes, reaching back out of the past across a s=
pan
of twenty years, had saved his son's life.
Nor did Tarzan, L=
ord
Greystoke, know it either.
TIME SELDOM HUNG
heavily upon Tarzan's hands. Even =
where
there is sameness there cannot be monotony if most of the sameness consists=
in dodging
death first in one form and then in another; or in inflicting death upon
others. There is a spice to such an
existence; but even this Tarzan of the Apes varied in activities of his own
invention.
He was full grown
now, with the grace of a Greek god and the thews of a bull, and, by all the
tenets of apedom, should have been sullen, morose, and brooding; but he was
not. His spirits seemed not to age=
at all--he
was still a playful child, much to the discomfiture of his fellow-apes. They
could not understand him or his ways, for with maturity they quickly forgot
their youth and its pastimes.
Nor could Tarzan
quite understand them. It seemed s=
trange
to him that a few moons since, he had roped Taug about an ankle and dragged=
him
screaming through the tall jungle grasses, and then rolled and tumbled in
good-natured mimic battle when the young ape had freed himself, and that to=
day
when he had come up behind the same Taug and pulled him over backward upon =
the
turf, instead of the playful young ape, a great, snarling beast had whirled=
and
leaped for his throat.
Easily Tarzan elu=
ded the
charge and quickly Taug's anger vanished, though it was not replaced with
playfulness; yet the ape-man realized that Taug was not amused nor was he
amusing. The big bull ape seemed t=
o have
lost whatever sense of humor he once may have possessed. With a grunt of disappointment, young L=
ord
Greystoke turned to other fields of endeavor.
A strand of black hair fell across one eye. He brushed it aside with the palm of a =
hand
and a toss of his head. It suggest=
ed something
to do, so he sought his quiver which lay cached in the hollow bole of a
lightning-riven tree. Removing the
arrows he turned the quiver upside down, emptying upon the ground the conte=
nts
of its bottom--his few treasures. =
Among
them was a flat bit of stone and a shell which he had picked up from the be=
ach
near his father's cabin.
With great care he
rubbed the edge of the shell back and forth upon the flat stone until the s=
oft
edge was quite fine and sharp. He =
worked
much as a barber does who hones a razor, and with every evidence of similar
practice; but his proficiency was the result of years of painstaking
effort. Unaided he had worked out a
method of his own for putting an edge upon the shell--he even tested it with
the ball of his thumb--and when it met with his approval he grasped a wisp =
of
hair which fell across his eyes, grasped it between the thumb and first fin=
ger
of his left hand and sawed upon it with the sharpened shell until it was
severed. All around his head he we=
nt
until his black shock was rudely bobbed with a ragged bang in front. For the appearance of it he cared nothi=
ng;
but in the matter of safety and comfort it meant everything. A lock of hair falling in one's eyes at=
the
wrong moment might mean all the difference between life and death, while
straggly strands, hanging down one's back were most uncomfortable, especial=
ly
when wet with dew or rain or perspiration.
As Tarzan labored=
at
his tonsorial task, his active mind was busy with many things. He recalled his recent battle with Bolg=
ani,
the gorilla, the wounds of which were but just healed. He pondered the strange sleep adventure=
s of
his first dreams, and he smiled at the painful outcome of his last practical
joke upon the tribe, when, dressed in the hide of Numa, the lion, he had co=
me
roaring upon them, only to be leaped upon and almost killed by the great bu=
lls
whom he had taught how to defend themselves from an attack of their ancient
enemy.
His hair lopped o=
ff
to his entire satisfaction, and seeing no possibility of pleasure in the
company of the tribe, Tarzan swung leisurely into the trees and set off in =
the
direction of his cabin; but when part way there his attention was attracted=
by
a strong scent spoor coming from the north.
It was the scent of the Gomangani.
Curiosity, that
best-developed, common heritage of man and ape, always prompted Tarzan to
investigate where the Gomangani were concerned. There was that about them w=
hich
aroused his imagination. Possibly =
it was
because of the diversity of their activities and interests. The apes lived to eat and sleep and
propagate. The same was true of al=
l the
other denizens of the jungle, save the Gomangani.
These black fello=
ws
danced and sang, scratched around in the earth from which they had cleared =
the
trees and underbrush; they watched things grow, and when they had ripened, =
they
cut them down and put them in straw-thatched huts. They made bows and spears and arrows, p=
oison,
cooking pots, things of metal to wear around their arms and legs. If it hadn't been for their black faces,
their hideously disfigured features, and the fact that one of them had slain
Kala, Tarzan might have wished to be one of them. At least he sometimes thought so, but a=
lways
at the thought there rose within him a strange revulsion of feeling, which =
he
could not interpret or understand--he simply knew that he hated the Gomanga=
ni,
and that he would rather be Histah, the snake, than one of these.
But their ways we=
re
interesting, and Tarzan never tired of spying upon them, and from them he
learned much more than he realized, though always his principal thought was=
of
some new way in which he could render their lives miserable. The baiting of the blacks was Tarzan's =
chief
divertissement.
Tarzan realized n=
ow
that the blacks were very near and that there were many of them, so he went
silently and with great caution.
Noiselessly he moved through the lush grasses of the open spaces, and
where the forest was dense, swung from one swaying branch to another, or le=
aped
lightly over tangled masses of fallen trees where there was no way through =
the
lower terraces, and the ground was choked and impassable.
And so presently =
he
came within sight of the black warriors of Mbonga, the chief. They were engaged in a pursuit with whi=
ch
Tarzan was more or less familiar, having watched them at it upon other occa=
sions. They were placing and baiting a trap for
Numa, the lion. In a cage upon whe=
els
they were tying a kid, so fastening it that when Numa seized the unfortunate
creature, the door of the cage would drop behind him, making him a prisoner=
.
These things the
blacks had learned in their old home, before they escaped through the untra=
cked
jungle to their new village. Forme=
rly they
had dwelt in the Belgian Congo until the cruelties of their heartless
oppressors had driven them to seek the safety of unexplored solitudes beyond
the boundaries of Leopold's domain.
In their old life
they often had trapped animals for the agents of European dealers, and had
learned from them certain tricks, such as this one, which permitted them to
capture even Numa without injuring him, and to transport him in safety and =
with
comparative ease to their village.
No longer was the=
re a
white market for their savage wares; but there was still a sufficient incen=
tive
for the taking of Numa--alive. First was the necessity for ridding the jung=
le
of man-eaters, and it was only after depredations by these grim and terrible
scourges that a lion hunt was organized.
Secondarily was the excuse for an orgy of celebration was the hunt
successful, and the fact that such fetes were rendered doubly pleasurable by
the presence of a live creature that might be put to death by torture.
Tarzan had witnes=
sed
these cruel rites in the past. Bei=
ng
himself more savage than the savage warriors of the Gomangani, he was not so
shocked by the cruelty of them as he should have been, yet they did shock h=
im. He
could not understand the strange feeling of revulsion which possessed him at
such times. He had no love for Num=
a, the
lion, yet he bristled with rage when the blacks inflicted upon his enemy su=
ch indignities
and cruelties as only the mind of the one creature molded in the image of G=
od
can conceive.
Upon two occasion=
s he
had freed Numa from the trap before the blacks had returned to discover the
success or failure of their venture. He would
do the same today--that he decided immediately he realized the nature of th=
eir
intentions.
Leaving the trap = in the center of a broad elephant trail near the drinking hole, the warriors turned back toward their village. = On the morrow they would come again. Tarz= an looked after them, upon his lips an unconscious sneer--the heritage of unguessed caste. He saw them file = along the broad trail, beneath the overhanging verdure of leafy branch and looped= and festooned creepers, brushing ebon shoulders against gorgeous blooms which i= nscrutable Nature has seen fit to lavish most profusely farthest from the eye of man.<= o:p>
As Tarzan watched,
through narrowed lids, the last of the warriors disappear beyond a turn in =
the
trail, his expression altered to the urge of a newborn thought. A slow, grim smile touched his lips.
Dropping to the
ground, Tarzan approached the trap and entered. Without disturbing the fiber
cord, which was adjusted to drop the door at the proper time, he loosened t=
he
living bait, tucked it under an arm and stepped out of the cage.
With his hunting
knife he quieted the frightened animal, severing its jugular; then he dragg=
ed
it, bleeding, along the trail down to the drinking hole, the half smile
persisting upon his ordinarily grave face.
At the water's edge the ape-man stooped and with hunting knife and q=
uick
strong fingers deftly removed the dead kid's viscera. Scraping a hole in the
mud, he buried these parts which he did not eat, and swinging the body to h=
is
shoulder took to the trees.
For a short dista=
nce
he pursued his way in the wake of the black warriors, coming down presently=
to
bury the meat of his kill where it would be safe from the depredations of
Dango, the hyena, or the other meat-eating beasts and birds of the jungle.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He was hungry. Had he been all beast he would have eat=
en;
but his man-mind could entertain urges even more potent than those of the
belly, and now he was concerned with an idea which kept a smile upon his li=
ps
and his eyes sparkling in anticipation.
An idea, it was, which permitted him to forget that he was hungry.
The meat safely
cached, Tarzan trotted along the elephant trail after the Gomangani. Two or three miles from the cage he ove=
rtook
them and then he swung into the trees and followed above and behind them--w=
aiting
his chance.
Among the blacks =
was
Rabba Kega, the witch-doctor. Tarzan hated them all; but Rabba Kega he
especially hated. As the blacks fi=
led
along the winding path, Rabba Kega, being lazy, dropped behind. This Tarzan noted, and it filled him wi=
th
satisfaction--his being radiated a grim and terrible content. Like an angel of death he hovered above=
the unsuspecting
black.
Rabba Kega, knowi=
ng
that the village was but a short distance ahead, sat down to rest. Rest well, O Rabba Kega! It is thy last
opportunity.
Tarzan crept
stealthily among the branches of the tree above the well-fed, self-satisfied
witch-doctor. He made no noise tha=
t the
dull ears of man could hear above the soughing of the gentle jungle breeze =
among
the undulating foliage of the upper terraces, and when he came close above =
the
black man he halted, well concealed by leafy branch and heavy creeper.
Rabba Kega sat wi=
th
his back against the bole of a tree, facing Tarzan. The position was not su=
ch
as the waiting beast of prey desired, and so, with the infinite patience of=
the
wild hunter, the ape-man crouched motionless and silent as a graven image u=
ntil
the fruit should be ripe for the plucking.
A poisonous insect buzzed angrily out of space. It loitered, circling, close to Tarzan's
face. The ape-man saw and recogniz=
ed
it. The virus of its sting spelled=
death
for lesser things than he--for him it would mean days of anguish. He did not move. His glittering eyes remained fixed upon=
Rabba
Kega after acknowledging the presence of the winged torture by a single
glance. He heard and followed the
movements of the insect with his keen ears, and then he felt it alight upon=
his
forehead. No muscle twitched, for =
the
muscles of such as he are the servants of the brain. Down across his face crept the horrid
thing--over nose and lips and chin. Upon
his throat it paused, and turning, retraced its steps. Tarzan watched Rabba Kega. Now not even=
his
eyes moved. So motionless he crouc=
hed
that only death might counterpart his movelessness. The insect crawled upward over the nut-=
brown
cheek and stopped with its antennae brushing the lashes of his lower lid. You or I would have started back, closi=
ng our
eyes and striking at the thing; but you and I are the slaves, not the maste=
rs
of our nerves. Had the thing crawl=
ed
upon the eyeball of the ape-man, it is believable that he could yet have
remained wide-eyed and rigid; but it did not.
For a moment it loitered there close to the lower lid, then it rose =
and
buzzed away.
Down toward Rabba
Kega it buzzed and the black man heard it, saw it, struck at it, and was st=
ung
upon the cheek before he killed it. Then
he rose with a howl of pain and anger, and as he turned up the trail toward=
the
village of Mbonga, the chief, his broad, black back was exposed to the sile=
nt
thing waiting above him.
And as Rabba Kega
turned, a lithe figure shot outward and downward from the tree above upon h=
is
broad shoulders. The impact of the
springing creature carried Rabba Kega to the ground. He felt strong jaws close upon his neck=
, and
when he tried to scream, steel fingers throttled his throat. The powerful black warrior struggled to=
free
himself; but he was as a child in the grip of his adversary.
Presently Tarzan
released his grip upon the other's throat; but each time that Rabba Kega
essayed a scream, the cruel fingers choked him painfully. At last the warrior desisted. Then Tarzan half rose and kneeled upon =
his
victim's back, and when Rabba Kega struggled to arise, the ape-man pushed h=
is
face down into the dirt of the trail.
With a bit of the rope that had secured the kid, Tarzan made Rabba
Kega's wrists secure behind his back, then he rose and jerked his prisoner =
to his
feet, faced him back along the trail and pushed him on ahead.
Not until he came=
to
his feet did Rabba Kega obtain a square look at his assailant. When he saw that it was the white devil=
-god
his heart sank within him and his knees trembled; but as he walked along th=
e trail
ahead of his captor and was neither injured nor molested his spirits slowly
rose, so that he took heart again.
Possibly the devil-god did not intend to kill him after all. Had he not had little Tibo in his power=
for
days without harming him, and had he not spared Momaya, Tibo's mother, when=
he
easily might have slain her?
And then they came upon the cage which Rabba Kega, with the other black warriors of the villag= e of Mbonga, the chief, had placed and baited for Numa. Rabba Kega saw that the bait was gone, = though there was no lion within the cage, nor was the door dropped. He saw and he was filled with wonder not unmixed with apprehension. It ente= red his dull brain that in some way this combination of circumstances had a connection with his presence there as the prisoner of the white devil-god.<= o:p>
Nor was he
wrong. Tarzan pushed him roughly i=
nto
the cage, and in another moment Rabba Kega understood. Cold sweat broke from every pore of his
body--he trembled as with ague--for the ape-man was binding him securely in=
the
very spot the kid had previously occupied.
The witch-doctor pleaded, first for his life, and then for a death l=
ess cruel;
but he might as well have saved his pleas for Numa, since already they were
directed toward a wild beast who understood no word of what he said.
But his constant
jabbering not only annoyed Tarzan, who worked in silence, but suggested that
later the black might raise his voice in cries for succor, so he stepped ou=
t of
the cage, gathered a handful of grass and a small stick and returning, jamm=
ed
the grass into Rabba Kega's mouth, laid the stick crosswise between his tee=
th
and fastened it there with the thong from Rabba Kega's loin cloth. Now could the witch-doctor but roll his=
eyes
and sweat. Thus Tarzan left him.
The ape-man went
first to the spot where he had cached the body of the kid. Digging it up, he ascended into a tree =
and
proceeded to satisfy his hunger. W=
hat
remained he again buried; then he swung away through the trees to the water
hole, and going to the spot where fresh, cold water bubbled from between two
rocks, he drank deeply. The other =
beasts
might wade in and drink stagnant water; but not Tarzan of the Apes. In such matters he was fastidious. From his hands he washed every trace of=
the repugnant
scent of the Gomangani, and from his face the blood of the kid. Rising, he stretched himself not unlike=
some huge,
lazy cat, climbed into a near-by tree and fell asleep.
When he awoke it =
was
dark, though a faint luminosity still tinged the western heavens. A lion moaned and coughed as it strode
through the jungle toward water. I=
t was
approaching the drinking hole. Tar=
zan grinned
sleepily, changed his position and fell asleep again.
When the blacks of
Mbonga, the chief, reached their village they discovered that Rabba Kega was
not among them. When several hours=
had elapsed
they decided that something had happened to him, and it was the hope of the
majority of the tribe that whatever had happened to him might prove fatal.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> They did not love the witch-doctor. Lov=
e and
fear seldom are playmates; but a warrior is a warrior, and so Mbonga organi=
zed
a searching party. That his own gr=
ief
was not unassuagable might have been gathered from the fact that he remaine=
d at
home and went to sleep. The young =
warriors
whom he sent out remained steadfast to their purpose for fully half an hour,
when, unfortunately for Rabba Kega--upon so slight a thing may the fate of a
man rest--a honey bird attracted the attention of the searchers and led them
off for the delicious store it previously had marked down for betrayal, and
Rabba Kega's doom was sealed.
When the searchers
returned empty handed, Mbonga was wroth; but when he saw the great store of
honey they brought with them his rage subsided. Already Tubuto, young, agile
and evil-minded, with face hideously painted, was practicing the black art =
upon
a sick infant in the fond hope of succeeding to the office and perquisites =
of
Rabba Kega. Tonight the women of the old witch-doctor would moan and howl. =
Tomorrow
he would be forgotten. Such is lif=
e,
such is fame, such is power--in the center of the world's highest civilizat=
ion,
or in the depths of the black, primeval jungle.
Always, everywhere, man is man, nor has he altered greatly beneath h=
is
veneer since he scurried into a hole between two rocks to escape the
tyrannosaurus six million years ago.
The morning follo=
wing
the disappearance of Rabba Kega, the warriors set out with Mbonga, the chie=
f,
to examine the trap they had set for Numa. Long before they reached the cag=
e,
they heard the roaring of a great lion and guessed that they had made a
successful bag, so it was with shouts of joy that they approached the spot
where they should find their captive.
Yes! There he was=
, a
great, magnificent specimen--a huge, black-maned lion. The warriors were frantic with delight.=
They leaped into the air and uttered sa=
vage
cries--hoarse victory cries, and then they came closer, and the cries died =
upon
their lips, and their eyes went wide so that the whites showed all around t=
heir
irises, and their pendulous lower lips drooped with their drooping jaws.
The captured lion= had been too angry and frightened to feed upon the body of his kill; but he had vented upon it much of his rage, until it was a frightful thing to behold.<= o:p>
From his perch in=
a
near-by tree Tarzan of the Apes, Lord Greystoke, looked down upon the black
warriors and grinned. Once again h=
is self-pride
in his ability as a practical joker asserted itself. It had lain dormant for some time follo=
wing
the painful mauling he had received that time he leaped among the apes of
Kerchak clothed in the skin of Numa; but this joke was a decided success.
After a few momen=
ts
of terror, the blacks came closer to the cage, rage taking the place of
fear--rage and curiosity. How had =
Rabba
Kega happened to be in the cage? Where was the kid? There was no sign nor r=
emnant
of the original bait. They looked
closely and they saw, to their horror, that the corpse of their erstwhile
fellow was bound with the very cord with which they had secured the kid.
Tubuto was the fi=
rst
to speak. He had come hopefully ou=
t with
the expedition that morning. Somew=
here
he might find evidence of the death of Rabba Kega. Now he had found it, and he was the fir=
st to
find an explanation.
"The white
devil-god," he whispered. &qu=
ot;It
is the work of the white devil-god!"
No one contradict=
ed
Tubuto, for, indeed, who else could it have been but the great, hairless ape
they all so feared? And so their hatred of Tarzan increased again with an
increased fear of him. And Tarzan =
sat in
his tree and hugged himself.
No one there felt
sorrow because of the death of Rabba Kega; but each of the blacks experienc=
ed a
personal fear of the ingenious mind which might discover for any of them a
death equally horrible to that which the witch-doctor had suffered. It was a subdued and thoughtful company=
which
dragged the captive lion along the broad elephant path back to the village =
of
Mbonga, the chief.
And it was with a
sigh of relief that they finally rolled it into the village and closed the
gates behind them. Each had experi=
enced
the sensation of being spied upon from the moment they left the spot where =
the
trap had been set, though none had seen or heard aught to give tangible foo=
d to
his fears.
At the sight of t=
he
body within the cage with the lion, the women and children of the village s=
et
up a most frightful lamentation, working themselves into a joyous hysteria
which far transcended the happy misery derived by their more civilized
prototypes who make a business of dividing their time between the movies and
the neighborhood funerals of friends and strangers--especially strangers.
From a tree
overhanging the palisade, Tarzan watched all that passed within the
village. He saw the frenzied women
tantalizing the great lion with sticks and stones. The cruelty of the blacks toward a capt=
ive
always induced in Tarzan a feeling of angry contempt for the Gomangani. Had he attempted to analyze this feelin=
g he
would have found it difficult, for during all his life he had been accustom=
ed
to sights of suffering and cruelty. He,
himself, was cruel. All the beasts=
of
the jungle were cruel; but the cruelty of the blacks was of a different
order. It was the cruelty of wanton
torture of the helpless, while the cruelty of Tarzan and the other beasts w=
as
the cruelty of necessity or of passion.
Perhaps, had he k=
nown
it, he might have credited this feeling of repugnance at the sight of
unnecessary suffering to heredity--to the germ of British love of fair play
which had been bequeathed to him by his father and his mother; but, of cour=
se,
he did not know, since he still believed that his mother had been Kala, the
great ape.
And just in
proportion as his anger rose against the Gomangani his savage sympathy went=
out
to Numa, the lion, for, though Numa was his lifetime enemy, there was neith=
er
bitterness nor contempt in Tarzan's sentiments toward him. In the ape-man's mind, therefore, the d=
etermination
formed to thwart the blacks and liberate the lion; but he must accomplish t=
his
in some way which would cause the Gomangani the greatest chagrin and
discomfiture.
As he squatted th=
ere
watching the proceeding beneath him, he saw the warriors seize upon the cage
once more and drag it between two huts. Tarzan knew that it would remain th=
ere
now until evening, and that the blacks were planning a feast and orgy in ce=
lebration
of their capture. When he saw that two warriors were placed beside the cage,
and that these drove off the women and children and young men who would hav=
e eventually
tortured Numa to death, he knew that the lion would be safe until he was ne=
eded
for the evening's entertainment, when he would be more cruelly and
scientifically tortured for the edification of the entire tribe.
Now Tarzan prefer=
red
to bait the blacks in as theatric a manner as his fertile imagination could
evolve. He had some half-formed
conception of their superstitious fears and of their especial dread of nigh=
t,
and so he decided to wait until darkness fell and the blacks partially work=
ed
to hysteria by their dancing and religious rites before he took any steps
toward the freeing of Numa. In the
meantime, he hoped, an idea adequate to the possibilities of the various
factors at hand would occur to him. Nor
was it long before one did.
He had swung off
through the jungle to search for food when the plan came to him. At first it made him smile a little and=
then
look dubious, for he still retained a vivid memory of the dire results that=
had
followed the carrying out of a very wonderful idea along almost identical
lines, yet he did not abandon his intention, and a moment later, food tempo=
rarily
forgotten, he was swinging through the middle terraces in rapid flight towa=
rd
the stamping ground of the tribe of Kerchak, the great ape.
As was his wont, =
he
alighted in the midst of the little band without announcing his approach sa=
ve
by a hideous scream just as he sprang from a branch above them. Fortunate are the apes of Kerchak that =
their
kind is not subject to heart failure, for the methods of Tarzan subjected t=
hem
to one severe shock after another, nor could they ever accustom themselves =
to the
ape-man's peculiar style of humor.
Now, when they saw
who it was they merely snarled and grumbled angrily for a moment and then
resumed their feeding or their napping which he had interrupted, and he, ha=
ving
had his little joke, made his way to the hollow tree where he kept his
treasures hid from the inquisitive eyes and fingers of his fellows and the
mischievous little manus. Here he
withdrew a closely rolled hide--the hide of Numa with the head on; a clever=
bit
of primitive curing and mounting, which had once been the property of the
witch-doctor, Rabba Kega, until Tarzan had stolen it from the village.
With this he made=
his
way back through the jungle toward the village of the blacks, stopping to h=
unt
and feed upon the way, and, in the afternoon, even napping for an hour, so =
that
it was already dusk when he entered the great tree which overhung the palis=
ade
and gave him a view of the entire village.
He saw that Numa was still alive and that the guards were even dozing
beside the cage. A lion is no grea=
t novelty
to a black man in the lion country, and the first keen edge of their desire=
to
worry the brute having worn off, the villagers paid little or no attention =
to
the great cat, preferring now to await the grand event of the night.
Nor was it long a=
fter
dark before the festivities commenced.
To the beating of tom-toms, a lone warrior, crouched half doubled,
leaped into the firelight in the center of a great circle of other warriors,
behind whom stood or squatted the women and the children. The dancer was painted and armed for th=
e hunt
and his movements and gestures suggested the search for the spoor of game.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Bending low, sometimes resting for a mo=
ment
on one knee, he searched the ground for signs of the quarry; again he poise=
d,
statuesque, listening. The warrior=
was
young and lithe and graceful; he was full-muscled and arrow-straight. The f=
irelight
glistened upon his ebon body and brought out into bold relief the grotesque
designs painted upon his face, breasts, and abdomen.
Presently he bent=
low
to the earth, then leaped high in air.
Every line of face and body showed that he had struck the scent. Immediately he leaped toward the circle=
of
warriors about him, telling them of his find and summoning them to the
hunt. It was all in pantomime; but=
so truly
done that even Tarzan could follow it all to the least detail.
He saw the other
warriors grasp their hunting spears and leap to their feet to join in the
graceful, stealthy "stalking dance." It was very interesting; but
Tarzan realized that if he was to carry his design to a successful conclusi=
on
he must act quickly. He had seen t=
hese
dances before and knew that after the stalk would come the game at bay and =
then
the kill, during which Numa would be surrounded by warriors, and unapproach=
able.
With the lion's s=
kin
under one arm the ape-man dropped to the ground in the dense shadows beneath
the tree and then circled behind the huts until he came out directly in the
rear of the cage, in which Numa paced nervously to and fro. The cage was now unguarded, the two war=
riors having
left it to take their places among the other dancers.
Behind the cage
Tarzan adjusted the lion's skin about him, just as he had upon that memorab=
le
occasion when the apes of Kerchak, failing to pierce his disguise, had all =
but
slain him. Then, on hands and knee=
s, he
crept forward, emerged from between the two huts and stood a few paces back=
of
the dusky audience, whose whole attention was centered upon the dancers bef=
ore
them.
Tarzan saw that t=
he
blacks had now worked themselves to a proper pitch of nervous excitement to=
be
ripe for the lion. In a moment the=
ring
of spectators would break at a point nearest the caged lion and the victim =
would
be rolled into the center of the circle.
It was for this moment that Tarzan waited.
At last it came.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> A signal was given by Mbonga, the chief=
, at
which the women and children immediately in front of Tarzan rose and moved =
to
one side, leaving a broad path opening toward the caged lion. At the same instant Tarzan gave voice t=
o the
low, coughing roar of an angry lion and slunk slowly forward through the op=
en
lane toward the frenzied dancers.
A woman saw him f=
irst
and screamed. Instantly there was a
panic in the immediate vicinity of the ape-man. The strong light from the f=
ire
fell full upon the lion head and the blacks leaped to the conclusion, as Ta=
rzan
had known they would, that their captive had escaped his cage.
With another roar,
Tarzan moved forward. The dancing
warriors paused but an instant. Th=
ey had
been hunting a lion securely housed within a strong cage, and now that he w=
as
at liberty among them, an entirely different aspect was placed upon the
matter. Their nerves were not attu=
ned to
this emergency. The women and chil=
dren
already had fled to the questionable safety of the nearest huts, and the
warriors were not long in following their example, so that presently Tarzan=
was
left in sole possession of the village street.
But not for
long. Nor did he wish to be left t=
hus
long alone. It would not comport w=
ith
his scheme. Presently a head peered
forth from a near-by hut, and then another and another until a score or mor=
e of
warriors were looking out upon him, waiting for his next move--waiting for =
the
lion to charge or to attempt to escape from the village.
Their spears were
ready in their hands against either a charge or a bolt for freedom, and then
the lion rose erect upon its hind legs, the tawny skin dropped from it and
there stood revealed before them in the firelight the straight young figure=
of
the white devil-god.
For an instant the
blacks were too astonished to act. They
feared this apparition fully as much as they did Numa, yet they would gladly
have slain the thing could they quickly enough have gathered together their=
wits;
but fear and superstition and a natural mental density held them paralyzed
while the ape-man stooped and gathered up the lion skin. They saw him turn =
then
and walk back into the shadows at the far end of the village. Not until then did they gain courage to
pursue him, and when they had come in force, with brandished spears and loud
war cries, the quarry was gone.
Not an instant did
Tarzan pause in the tree. Throwing=
the
skin over a branch he leaped again into the village upon the opposite side =
of
the great bole, and diving into the shadow of a hut, ran quickly to where l=
ay
the caged lion. Springing to the t=
op of
the cage he pulled upon the cord which raised the door, and a moment later a
great lion in the prime of his strength and vigor leaped out into the villa=
ge.
The warriors,
returning from a futile search for Tarzan, saw him step into the
firelight. Ah! there was the devil=
-god
again, up to his old trick. Did he=
think
he could twice fool the men of Mbonga, the chief, the same way in so short a
time? They would show him! For lon=
g they
had waited for such an opportunity to rid themselves forever of this fearso=
me
jungle demon. As one they rushed f=
orward
with raised spears.
The women and the
children came from the huts to witness the slaying of the devil-god. The li=
on
turned blazing eyes upon them and then swung about toward the advancing
warriors.
With shouts of sa=
vage
joy and triumph they came toward him, menacing him with their spears. The devil-god was theirs!
And then, with a
frightful roar, Numa, the lion, charged.
The men of Mbonga,
the chief, met Numa with ready spears and screams of raillery. In a solid mass of muscled ebony they w=
aited
the coming of the devil-god; yet beneath their brave exteriors lurked a
haunting fear that all might not be quite well with them--that this strange
creature could yet prove invulnerable to their weapons and inflict upon the=
m full
punishment for their effrontery. T=
he
charging lion was all too lifelike--they saw that in the brief instant of t=
he
charge; but beneath the tawny hide they knew was hid the soft flesh of the
white man, and how could that withstand the assault of many war spears?
In their forefront
stood a huge young warrior in the full arrogance of his might and his
youth. Afraid? Not he! He laughed =
as
Numa bore down upon him; he laughed and couched his spear, setting the point
for the broad breast. And then the=
lion
was upon him. A great paw swept aw=
ay the
heavy war spear, splintering it as the hand of man might splinter a dry twi=
g.
Down went the bla=
ck,
his skull crushed by another blow. And
then the lion was in the midst of the warriors, clawing and tearing to right
and left. Not for long did they st=
and
their ground; but a dozen men were mauled before the others made good their
escape from those frightful talons and gleaming fangs.
In terror the vil=
lagers
fled hither and thither. No hut se=
emed a
sufficiently secure asylum with Numa ranging within the palisade. From one to another fled the frightened
blacks, while in the center of the village Numa stood glaring and growling
above his kills.
At last a tribesm=
an
flung wide the gates of the village and sought safety amid the branches of =
the
forest trees beyond. Like sheep hi=
s fellows
followed him, until the lion and his dead remained alone in the village.
From the nearer t=
rees
the men of Mbonga saw the lion lower his great head and seize one of his
victims by the shoulder and then with slow and stately tread move down the
village street past the open gates and on into the jungle. They saw and shuddered, and from anothe=
r tree
Tarzan of the Apes saw and smiled.
A full hour elaps=
ed
after the lion had disappeared with his feast before the blacks ventured do=
wn
from the trees and returned to their village.
Wide eyes rolled from side to side, and naked flesh contracted more =
to
the chill of fear than to the chill of the jungle night.
"It was he a=
ll
the time," murmured one. &quo=
t;It
was the devil-god."
"He changed
himself from a lion to a man, and back again into a lion," whispered
another.
"And he drag=
ged
Mweeza into the forest and is eating him," said a third, shuddering.
"We are no
longer safe here," wailed a fourth.
"Let us take our belongings and search for another village site=
far
from the haunts of the wicked devil-god."
But with morning =
came
renewed courage, so that the experiences of the preceding evening had little
other effect than to increase their fear of Tarzan and strengthen their bel=
ief
in his supernatural origin.
And thus waxed the
fame and the power of the ape-man in the mysterious haunts of the savage ju=
ngle
where he ranged, mightiest of beasts because of the man-mind which directed=
his
giant muscles and his flawless courage.
THE MOON SHONE do=
wn
out of a cloudless sky--a huge, swollen moon that seemed so close to earth =
that
one might wonder that she did not brush the crooning tree tops. It was night, and Tarzan was abroad in =
the jungle--Tarzan,
the ape-man; mighty fighter, mighty hunter.
Why he swung through the dark shadows of the somber forest he could =
not
have told you. It was not that he =
was
hungry--he had fed well this day, and in a safe cache were the remains of h=
is
kill, ready against the coming of a new appetite. Perhaps it was the very joy of living t=
hat
urged him from his arboreal couch to pit his muscles and his senses against=
the
jungle night, and then, too, Tarzan always was goaded by an intense desire =
to
know.
The jungle which =
is
presided over by Kudu, the sun, is a very different jungle from that of Gor=
o,
the moon. The diurnal jungle has i=
ts own
aspect--its own lights and shades, its own birds, its own blooms, its own
beasts; its noises are the noises of the day.
The lights and shades of the nocturnal jungle are as different as one
might imagine the lights and shades of another world to differ from those of
our world; its beasts, its blooms, and its birds are not those of the jungl=
e of
Kudu, the sun.
Because of these
differences Tarzan loved to investigate the jungle by night. Not only was the life another life; but=
it
was richer in numbers and in romance; it was richer in dangers, too, and to=
Tarzan
of the Apes danger was the spice of life.
And the noises of the jungle night--the roar of the lion, the scream=
of
the leopard, the hideous laughter of Dango, the hyena, were music to the ea=
rs
of the ape-man.
The soft padding =
of
unseen feet, the rustling of leaves and grasses to the passage of fierce
beasts, the sheen of opalesque eyes flaming through the dark, the million
sounds which proclaimed the teeming life that one might hear and scent, tho=
ugh
seldom see, constituted the appeal of the nocturnal jungle to Tarzan.
Tonight he had sw= ung a wide circle--toward the east first and then toward the south, and now he = was rounding back again into the north. His eyes, his ears and his keen nostrils were ever on the alert. Mingled with the sounds he knew, there were strange sounds--weird sounds which he never heard until after Kudu had sought his l= air below the far edge of the big water--sounds which belonged to Goro, the moo= n--and to the mysterious period of Goro's supremacy. These sounds often caused Tarzan profound speculation. They baffled him because he thought tha= t he knew his jungle so well that there could be nothing within it unfamiliar to him. Sometimes he thought that as = colors and forms appeared to differ by night from their familiar daylight aspects,= so sounds altered with the passage of Kudu and the coming of Goro, and these thoughts roused within his brain a vague conjecture that perhaps Goro and K= udu influenced these changes. And what= more natural that eventually he came to attribute to the sun and the moon personalities as real as his own? The sun was a living creature and ruled t= he day. The moon, endowed with brains and miraculous powers, ruled the night.<= o:p>
Thus functioned t=
he
untrained man-mind groping through the dark night of ignorance for an
explanation of the things he could not touch or smell or hear and of the gr=
eat,
unknown powers of nature which he could not see.
As Tarzan swung n=
orth
again upon his wide circle the scent of the Gomangani came to his nostrils,
mixed with the acrid odor of wood smoke.
The ape-man moved quickly in the direction from which the scent was
borne down to him upon the gentle night wind.
Presently the ruddy sheen of a great fire filtered through the folia=
ge
to him ahead, and when Tarzan came to a halt in the trees near it, he saw a
party of half a dozen black warriors huddled close to the blaze. It was evidently a hunting party from t=
he
village of Mbonga, the chief, caught out in the jungle after dark. In a rude circle about them they had
constructed a thorn boma which, with the aid of the fire, they apparently h=
oped
would discourage the advances of the larger carnivora.
That hope was not
conviction was evidenced by the very palpable terror in which they crouched,
wide-eyed and trembling, for already Numa and Sabor were moaning through the
jungle toward them. There were oth=
er creatures,
too, in the shadows beyond the firelight.
Tarzan could see their yellow eyes flaming there. The blacks saw them and shivered. Then =
one
arose and grasping a burning branch from the fire hurled it at the eyes, wh=
ich
immediately disappeared. The black=
sat
down again. Tarzan watched and saw that it was several minutes before the e=
yes began
to reappear in twos and fours.
Then came Numa, t=
he
lion, and Sabor, his mate. The oth=
er
eyes scattered to right and left before the menacing growls of the great ca=
ts,
and then the huge orbs of the man-eaters flamed alone out of the darkness.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Some of the blacks threw themselves upon
their faces and moaned; but he who before had hurled the burning branch now
hurled another straight at the faces of the hungry lions, and they, too, di=
sappeared
as had the lesser lights before them.
Tarzan was much interested. He
saw a new reason for the nightly fires maintained by the blacks--a reason in
addition to those connected with warmth and light and cooking. The beasts of the jungle feared fire, a=
nd so
fire was, in a measure, a protection from them.
Tarzan himself knew a certain awe of fire. Once he had, in investigating an abando=
ned
fire in the village of the blacks, picked up a live coal. Since then he had maintained a respectf=
ul
distance from such fires as he had seen.
One experience had sufficed.
For a few minutes
after the black hurled the firebrand no eyes appeared, though Tarzan could =
hear
the soft padding of feet all about him.
Then flashed once more the twin fire spots that marked the return of=
the
lord of the jungle and a moment later, upon a slightly lower level, there
appeared those of Sabor, his mate.
For some time they
remained fixed and unwavering--a constellation of fierce stars in the jungle
night--then the male lion advanced slowly toward the boma, where all but a
single black still crouched in trembling terror. When this lone guardian saw that Numa w=
as
again approaching, he threw another firebrand, and, as before, Numa retreat=
ed and
with him Sabor, the lioness; but not so far, this time, nor for so long.
Again and again t=
he
black warrior hurled his puny brands at the two big cats; but Tarzan noticed
that Numa paid little or no attention to them after the first few
retreats. The ape-man knew by Numa=
's
voice that the lion was hungry and surmised that he had made up his mind to
feed upon a Gomangani; but would he dare a closer approach to the dreaded f=
lames?
Even as the thoug=
ht
was passing in Tarzan's mind, Numa stopped his restless pacing and faced the
boma. For a moment he stood motion=
less, except
for the quick, nervous upcurving of his tail, then he walked deliberately
forward, while Sabor moved restlessly to and fro where he had left her. The black man called to his comrades th=
at the
lion was coming, but they were too far gone in fear to do more than huddle =
closer
together and moan more loudly than before.
Seizing a blazing
branch the man cast it straight into the face of the lion. There was an angry roar, followed by a =
swift
charge. With a single bound the sa=
vage
beast cleared the boma wall as, with almost equal agility, the warrior clea=
red
it upon the opposite side and, chancing the dangers lurking in the darkness,
bolted for the nearest tree.
Numa was out of t=
he
boma almost as soon as he was inside it; but as he went back over the low t=
horn
wall, he took a screaming negro with him. Dragging his victim along the gro=
und
he walked back toward Sabor, the lioness, who joined him, and the two conti=
nued
into the blackness, their savage growls mingling with the piercing shrieks =
of
the doomed and terrified man.
At a little dista=
nce
from the blaze the lions halted, there ensued a short succession of unusual=
ly
vicious growls and roars, during which the cries and moans of the black man
ceased--forever.
Presently Numa
reappeared in the firelight. He ma=
de a
second trip into the boma and the former grisly tragedy was reenacted with
another howling victim.
Tarzan rose and
stretched lazily. The entertainmen=
t was
beginning to bore him. He yawned a=
nd
turned upon his way toward the clearing where the tribe would be sleeping in
the encircling trees.
Yet even when he =
had
found his familiar crotch and curled himself for slumber, he felt no desire=
to
sleep. For a long time he lay awak=
e thinking
and dreaming. He looked up into the
heavens and watched the moon and the stars.
He wondered what they were and what power kept them from falling.
He was never quite
content merely to perceive that things happened--he desired to know WHY they
happened. He wanted to know what m=
ade
things go. The secret of life inte=
rested
him immensely. The miracle of deat=
h he
could not quite fathom. Upon innum=
erable
occasions he had investigated the internal mechanism of his kills, and once=
or
twice he had opened the chest cavity of victims in time to see the heart st=
ill pumping.
He had learned fr=
om
experience that a knife thrust through this organ brought immediate death n=
ine
times out of ten, while he might stab an antagonist innumerable times in ot=
her
places without even disabling him. And
so he had come to think of the heart, or, as he called it, "the red th=
ing
that breathes," as the seat and origin of life.
The brain and its
functionings he did not comprehend at all.
That his sense perceptions were transmitted to his brain and there
translated, classified, and labeled was something quite beyond him. He thought that his fingers knew when t=
hey
touched something, that his eyes knew when they saw, his ears when they hea=
rd,
his nose when it scented.
He considered his
throat, epidermis, and the hairs of his head as the three principal seats o=
f emotion. When Kala had been slain a peculiar cho=
king
sensation had possessed his throat; contact with Histah, the snake, imparte=
d an
unpleasant sensation to the skin of his whole body; while the approach of an
enemy made the hairs on his scalp stand erect.
Imagine, if you c=
an,
a child filled with the wonders of nature, bursting with queries and surrou=
nded
only by beasts of the jungle to whom his questionings were as strange as
Sanskrit would have been. If he as=
ked
Gunto what made it rain, the big old ape would but gaze at him in dumb
astonishment for an instant and then return to his interesting and edifying
search for fleas; and when he questioned Mumga, who was very old and should
have been very wise, but wasn't, as to the reason for the closing of certain
flowers after Kudu had deserted the sky, and the opening of others during t=
he
night, he was surprised to discover that Mumga had never noticed these
interesting facts, though she could tell to an inch just where the fattest
grubworm should be hiding.
To Tarzan these
things were wonders. They appealed=
to
his intellect and to his imagination. He
saw the flowers close and open; he saw certain blooms which turned their fa=
ces
always toward the sun; he saw leaves which moved when there was no breeze; =
he
saw vines crawl like living things up the boles and over the branches of gr=
eat
trees; and to Tarzan of the Apes the flowers and the vines and the trees we=
re
living creatures. He often talked =
to
them, as he talked to Goro, the moon, and Kudu, the sun, and always was he
disappointed that they did not reply. He
asked them questions; but they could not answer, though he knew that the
whispering of the leaves was the language of the leaves--they talked with o=
ne
another.
The wind he
attributed to the trees and grasses. He
thought that they swayed themselves to and fro, creating the wind. In no other way could he account for th=
is
phenomenon. The rain he finally
attributed to the stars, the moon, and the sun; but his hypothesis was enti=
rely
unlovely and unpoetical.
Tonight as Tarzan=
lay
thinking, there sprang to his fertile imagination an explanation of the sta=
rs
and the moon. He became quite exci=
ted about
it. Taug was sleeping in a nearby
crotch. Tarzan swung over beside h=
im.
"Taug!"=
he
cried. Instantly the great bull was
awake and bristling, sensing danger from the nocturnal summons. "Look, Taug!" exclaimed Tarza=
n,
pointing toward the stars. "S=
ee the
eyes of Numa and Sabor, of Sheeta and Dango.
They wait around Goro to leap in upon him for their kill. See the eyes and the nose and the mouth=
of
Goro. And the light that shines up=
on his
face is the light of the great fire he has built to frighten away Numa and
Sabor and Dango and Sheeta.
"All about h=
im
are the eyes, Taug, you can see them! But they do not come very close to the
fire--there are few eyes close to Goro.
They fear the fire! It is the fire that saves Goro from Numa. Do you see them, Taug? Some night Numa =
will
be very hungry and very angry--then he will leap over the thorn bushes which
encircle Goro and we will have no more light after Kudu seeks his lair--the
night will be black with the blackness that comes when Goro is lazy and sle=
eps
late into the night, or when he wanders through the skies by day, forgetting
the jungle and its people."
Taug looked stupi=
dly
at the heavens and then at Tarzan. A
meteor fell, blazing a flaming way through the sky.
"Look!"
cried Tarzan. "Goro has throw=
n a
burning branch at Numa."
Taug grumbled.
Taug fidgeted and=
was
nervous. For a long time he lay
sleepless, watching the stars--the flaming eyes of the beasts of prey
surrounding Goro, the moon--Goro, by whose light the apes danced to the bea=
ting
of their earthen drums. If Goro sh=
ould
be eaten by Numa there could be no more Dum-Dums. Taug was overwhelmed by t=
he
thought. He glanced at Tarzan half
fearfully. Why was his friend so
different from the others of the tribe? No one else whom Taug ever had known
had had such queer thoughts as Tarzan.
The ape scratched his head and wondered, dimly, if Tarzan was a safe
companion, and then he recalled slowly, and by a laborious mental process, =
that
Tarzan had served him better than any other of the apes, even the strong and
wise bulls of the tribe.
Tarzan it was who=
had
freed him from the blacks at the very time that Taug had thought Tarzan wan=
ted
Teeka. It was Tarzan who had saved=
Taug's
little balu from death. It was Tar=
zan
who had conceived and carried out the plan to pursue Teeka's abductor and
rescue the stolen one. Tarzan had =
fought
and bled in Taug's service so many times that Taug, although only a brutal =
ape,
had had impressed upon his mind a fierce loyalty which nothing now could
swerve--his friendship for Tarzan had become a habit, a tradition almost, w=
hich
would endure while Taug endured. He
never showed any outward demonstration of affection--he growled at Tarzan a=
s he
growled at the other bulls who came too close while he was feeding--but he
would have died for Tarzan. He knew it and Tarzan knew it; but of such thin=
gs
apes do not speak--their vocabulary, for the finer instincts, consisting mo=
re
of actions than words. But now Tau=
g was
worried, and he fell asleep again still thinking of the strange words of his
fellow.
The following day=
he
thought of them again, and without any intention of disloyalty he mentioned=
to
Gunto what Tarzan had suggested about the eyes surrounding Goro, and the
possibility that sooner or later Numa would charge the moon and devour
him. To the apes all large things =
in nature
are male, and so Goro, being the largest creature in the heavens by night, =
was,
to them, a bull.
Gunto bit a sliver
from a horny finger and recalled the fact that Tarzan had once said that the
trees talked to one another, and Gozan recounted having seen the ape-man
dancing alone in the moonlight with Sheeta, the panther. They did not know that Tarzan had roped=
the savage
beast and tied him to a tree before he came to earth and leaped about before
the rearing cat, to tantalize him.
Others told of se=
eing
Tarzan ride upon the back of Tantor, the elephant; of his bringing the black
boy, Tibo, to the tribe, and of mysterious things with which he communed in=
the
strange lair by the sea. They had =
never
understood his books, and after he had shown them to one or two of the tribe
and discovered that even the pictures carried no impression to their brains=
, he
had desisted.
"Tarzan is n=
ot
an ape," said Gunto. "He=
will
bring Numa to eat us, as he is bringing him to eat Goro. We should kill him."
Immediately Taug
bristled. Kill Tarzan! "First=
you
will kill Taug," he said, and lumbered away to search for food.
But others joined=
the
plotters. They thought of many thi=
ngs
which Tarzan had done--things which apes did not do and could not understan=
d. Again
Gunto voiced the opinion that the Tarmangani, the white ape, should be slai=
n,
and the others, filled with terror about the stories they had heard, and
thinking Tarzan was planning to slay Goro, greeted the proposal with growls=
of
accord.
Among them was Te=
eka,
listening with all her ears; but her voice was not raised in furtherance of=
the
plan. Instead she bristled, showin=
g her
fangs, and afterward she went away in search of Tarzan; but she could not f=
ind
him, as he was roaming far afield in search of meat. She found Taug, though,
and told him what the others were planning, and the great bull stamped upon=
the
ground and roared. His bloodshot e=
yes blazed
with wrath, his upper lip curled up to expose his fighting fangs, and the h=
air
upon his spine stood erect, and then a rodent scurried across the open and =
Taug
sprang to seize it. In an instant =
he seemed
to have forgotten his rage against the enemies of his friend; but such is t=
he
mind of an ape.
Several miles away
Tarzan of the Apes lolled upon the broad head of Tantor, the elephant. He scratched beneath the great ears wit=
h the point
of a sharp stick, and he talked to the huge pachyderm of everything which
filled his black-thatched head. Li=
ttle,
or nothing, of what he said did Tantor understand; but Tantor is a good
listener. Swaying from side to side he stood there enjoying the companionsh=
ip
of his friend, the friend he loved, and absorbing the delicious sensations =
of
the scratching.
Numa, the lion,
caught the scent of man, and warily stalked it until he came within sight of
his prey upon the head of the mighty tusker; then he turned, growling and
muttering, away in search of more propitious hunting grounds.
The elephant caug=
ht
the scent of the lion, borne to him by an eddying breeze, and lifting his t=
runk
trumpeted loudly. Tarzan stretched=
back luxuriously,
lying supine at full length along the rough hide. Flies swarmed about his face; but with a
leafy branch torn from a tree he lazily brushed them away.
"Tantor,&quo=
t;
he said, "it is good to be alive.
It is good to lie in the cool shadows.
It is good to look upon the green trees and the bright colors of the
flowers--upon everything which Bulamutumumo has put here for us. He is very good to us, Tantor; He has g=
iven
you tender leaves and bark, and rich grasses to eat; to me He has given Bara
and Horta and Pisah, the fruits and the nuts and the roots. He provides for each the food that each=
likes
best. All that He asks is that we =
be
strong enough or cunning enough to go forth and take it. Yes, Tantor, it is good to live. I should hate to die."
Tantor made a lit=
tle
sound in his throat and curled his trunk upward that he might caress the
ape-man's cheek with the finger at its tip.
"Tantor,&quo=
t;
said Tarzan presently, "turn and feed in the direction of the tribe of
Kerchak, the great ape, that Tarzan may ride home upon your head without
walking."
The tusker turned=
and
moved slowly off along a broad, tree-arched trail, pausing occasionally to
pluck a tender branch, or strip the edible bark from an adjacent tree. Tarzan sprawled face downward upon the
beast's head and back, his legs hanging on either side, his head supported =
by
his open palms, his elbows resting on the broad cranium. And thus they made
their leisurely way toward the gathering place of the tribe.
Just before they
arrived at the clearing from the north there reached it from the south anot=
her
figure--that of a well-knit black warrior, who stepped cautiously through t=
he jungle,
every sense upon the alert against the many dangers which might lurk anywhe=
re
along the way. Yet he passed benea=
th the
southernmost sentry that was posted in a great tree commanding the trail fr=
om
the south. The ape permitted the G=
omangani
to pass unmolested, for he saw that he was alone; but the moment that the
warrior had entered the clearing a loud "Kreeg-ah!" rang out from
behind him, immediately followed by a chorus of replies from different
directions, as the great bulls crashed through the trees in answer to the
summons of their fellow.
The black man hal=
ted
at the first cry and looked about him.
He could see nothing, but he knew the voice of the hairy tree men wh=
om
he and his kind feared, not alone because of the strength and ferocity of t=
he savage
beings, but as well through a superstitious terror engendered by the manlike
appearance of the apes.
But Bulabantu was=
no
coward. He heard the apes all abou=
t him;
he knew that escape was probably impossible, so he stood his ground, his sp=
ear ready
in his hand and a war cry trembling on his lips. He would sell his life dearly, would
Bulabantu, under-chief of the village of Mbonga, the chief.
Tarzan and Tantor
were but a short distance away when the first cry of the sentry rang out
through the quiet jungle. Like a f=
lash
the ape-man leaped from the elephant's back to a near-by tree and was swing=
ing rapidly
in the direction of the clearing before the echoes of the first "Kreeg=
-ah"
had died away. When he arrived he =
saw a
dozen bulls circling a single Gomangani.
With a blood-curdling scream Tarzan sprang to the attack. He hated the blacks even more than did =
the
apes, and here was an opportunity for a kill in the open. What had the Gomangani done? Had he sla=
in one
of the tribe?
Tarzan asked the
nearest ape. No, the Gomangani had
harmed none. Gozan, being on watch, had seen him coming through the forest =
and
had warned the tribe--that was all. The
ape-man pushed through the circle of bulls, none of which as yet had worked
himself into sufficient frenzy for a charge, and came where he had a full a=
nd
close view of the black. He recogn=
ized
the man instantly. Only the night =
before
he had seen him facing the eyes in the dark, while his fellows groveled in =
the dirt
at his feet, too terrified even to defend themselves. Here was a brave man, and Tarzan had de=
ep
admiration for bravery. Even his h=
atred of
the blacks was not so strong a passion as his love of courage. He would have joyed in battling with a =
black
warrior at almost any time; but this one he did not wish to kill--he felt,
vaguely, that the man had earned his life by his brave defense of it on the
preceding night, nor did he fancy the odds that were pitted against the lone
warrior.
He turned to the
apes. "Go back to your
feeding," he said, "and let this Gomangani go his way in peace. He has not harmed us, and last night I =
saw
him fighting Numa and Sabor with fire, alone in the jungle. He is brave.
The apes
growled. They were displeased. "Kill the Gomangani!" cried o=
ne.
"Yes," roared another, "kill the Gomangani and the Tarmangani as well."<= o:p>
"Kill the wh=
ite
ape!" screamed Gozan, "he is no ape at all; but a Gomangani with =
his
skin off."
"Kill
Tarzan!" bellowed Gunto. &quo=
t;Kill!
Kill! Kill!"
The bulls were now
indeed working themselves into the frenzy of slaughter; but against Tarzan
rather than the black man. A shagg=
y form
charged through them, hurling those it came in contact with to one side as a
strong man might scatter children. It
was Taug--great, savage Taug.
"Who says 'k=
ill
Tarzan'?" he demanded. "=
Who
kills Tarzan must kill Taug, too. =
Who
can kill Taug? Taug will tear your insides from you and feed them to
Dango."
"We can kill=
you
all," replied Gunto. "Th=
ere
are many of us and few of you," and he was right. Tarzan knew that he was right. Taug knew it; but neither would admit s=
uch a
possibility. It is not the way of =
bull apes.
"I am
Tarzan," cried the ape-man. "I am Tarzan. Mighty hunter; mighty fighter. In all the jungle none so great as
Tarzan."
Then, one by one,=
the
opposing bulls recounted their virtues and their prowess. And all the time the combatants came cl=
oser
and closer to one another. Thus do=
the
bulls work themselves to the proper pitch before engaging in battle.
Gunto came,
stiff-legged, close to Tarzan and sniffed at him, with bared fangs. Tarzan rumbled forth a low, menacing
growl. They might repeat these tac=
tics a
dozen times; but sooner or later one bull would close with another and then=
the
whole hideous pack would be tearing and rending at their prey.
Bulabantu, the bl=
ack
man, had stood wide-eyed in wonder from the moment he had seen Tarzan
approaching through the apes. He h=
ad
heard much of this devil-god who ran with the hairy tree people; but never
before had he seen him in full daylight.
He knew him well enough from the description of those who had seen h=
im
and from the glimpses he had had of the marauder upon several occasions when
the ape-man had entered the village of Mbonga, the chief, by night, in the
perpetration of one of his numerous ghastly jokes.
Bulabantu could n=
ot,
of course, understand anything which passed between Tarzan and the apes; bu=
t he
saw that the ape-man and one of the larger bulls were in argument with the
others. He saw that these two were
standing with their back toward him and between him and the balance of the
tribe, and he guessed, though it seemed improbable, that they might be
defending him. He knew that Tarzan=
had
once spared the life of Mbonga, the chief, and that he had succored Tibo, a=
nd
Tibo's mother, Momaya. So it was n=
ot
impossible that he would help Bulabantu; but how he could accomplish it
Bulabantu could not guess; nor as a matter of fact could Tarzan, for the od=
ds
against him were too great.
Gunto and the oth=
ers
were slowly forcing Tarzan and Taug back toward Bulabantu. The ape-man thought of his words with T=
antor
just a short time before: "Yes, Tantor, it is good to live. I should hate to die." And now he =
knew
that he was about to die, for the temper of the great bulls was mounting
rapidly against him. Always had ma=
ny of
them hated him, and all were suspicious of him.
They knew he was different. Tarzan knew it too; but he was glad that=
he
was--he was a MAN; that he had learned from his picture-books, and he was v=
ery
proud of the distinction. Presentl=
y,
though, he would be a dead man.
Gunto was prepari=
ng
to charge. Tarzan knew the signs.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He knew that the balance of the bulls w=
ould
charge with Gunto. Then it would s=
oon be
over. Something moved among the ve=
rdure
at the opposite side of the clearing.
Tarzan saw it just as Gunto, with the terrifying cry of a challenging
ape, sprang forward. Tarzan voiced=
a
peculiar call and then crouched to meet the assault. Taug crouched, too, and Bulabantu, assu=
red
now that these two were fighting upon his side, couched his spear and sprang
between them to receive the first charge of the enemy.
Simultaneously a =
huge
bulk broke into the clearing from the jungle behind the charging bulls. The trumpeting of a mad tusker rose shr=
ill above
the cries of the anthropoids, as Tantor, the elephant, dashed swiftly across
the clearing to the aid of his friend.
Gunto never closed
upon the ape-man, nor did a fang enter flesh upon either side. The terrific reverberation of Tantor's
challenge sent the bulls scurrying to the trees, jabbering and scolding.
But it was a
surprised Gomangani who saw the mighty elephant come to a sudden halt in fr=
ont
of the ape-man and caress him with his long, sinuous trunk.
Tarzan turned tow=
ard
the black man. "Go!" he =
said
in the language of the apes, and pointed in the direction of the village of
Mbonga. Bulabantu understood the gesture, if not the word, nor did he lose =
time
in obeying. Tarzan stood watching =
him
until he had disappeared. He knew =
that
the apes would not follow. Then he=
said
to the elephant: "Pick me up!" and the tusker swung him lightly to
his head.
"Tarzan goes=
to
his lair by the big water," shouted the ape-man to the apes in the
trees. "All of you are more f=
oolish
than Manu, except Taug and Teeka. =
Taug
and Teeka may come to see Tarzan; but the others must keep away. Tarzan is done with the tribe of
Kerchak."
He prodded Tantor
with a calloused toe and the big beast swung off across the clearing, the a=
pes
watching them until they were swallowed up by the jungle.
Before the night = fell Taug killed Gunto, picking a quarrel with him over his attack upon Tarzan.<= o:p>
For a moon the tr=
ibe
saw nothing of Tarzan of the Apes. Many
of them probably never gave him a thought; but there were those who missed =
him more
than Tarzan imagined. Taug and Tee=
ka
often wished that he was back, and Taug determined a dozen times to go and
visit Tarzan in his seaside lair; but first one thing and then another
interfered.
One night when Ta=
ug
lay sleepless looking up at the starry heavens he recalled the strange thin=
gs
that Tarzan once had suggested to him--that the bright spots were the eyes =
of
the meat-eaters waiting in the dark of the jungle sky to leap upon Goro, the
moon, and devour him. The more he
thought about this matter the more perturbed he became.
And then a strange
thing happened. Even as Taug looke=
d at
Goro, he saw a portion of one edge disappear, precisely as though something=
was
gnawing upon it. Larger and larger
became the hole in the side of Goro.
With a scream, Taug leaped to his feet.
His frenzied "Kreeg-ahs!" brought the terrified tribe
screaming and chattering toward him.
"Look!"
cried Taug, pointing at the moon.
"Look! It is as Tarzan said. Numa has sprung through the fires =
and
is devouring Goro. You called Tarz=
an
names and drove him from the tribe; now see how wise he was. Let one of you=
who
hated Tarzan go to Goro's aid. See=
the
eyes in the dark jungle all about Goro.
He is in danger and none can help him--none except Tarzan. Soon Goro will be devoured by Numa and =
we shall
have no more light after Kudu seeks his lair.
How shall we dance the Dum-Dum without the light of Goro?"
The apes trembled=
and
whimpered. Any manifestation of the
powers of nature always filled them with terror, for they could not underst=
and.
"Go and bring
Tarzan," cried one, and then they all took up the cry of "Tarzan!=
"
"Bring Tarzan!" "He will save Goro." But who was to tra=
vel the
dark jungle by night to fetch him?
"I will
go," volunteered Taug, and an instant later he was off through the Sty=
gian
gloom toward the little land-locked harbor by the sea.
And as the tribe
waited they watched the slow devouring of the moon. Already Numa had eaten =
out
a great semicircular piece. At tha=
t rate
Goro would be entirely gone before Kudu came again. The apes trembled at the thought of per=
petual
darkness by night. They could not =
sleep.
Restlessly they moved here and there among the branches of trees, watching =
Numa
of the skies at his deadly feast, and listening for the coming of Taug with
Tarzan.
Goro was nearly g=
one
when the apes heard the sounds of the approach through the trees of the two
they awaited, and presently Tarzan, followed by Taug, swung into a nearby t=
ree.
The ape-man waste=
d no
time in idle words. In his hand wa=
s his
long bow and at his back hung a quiver full of arrows, poisoned arrows that=
he had
stolen from the village of the blacks; just as he had stolen the bow. Up into a great tree he clambered, high=
er and
higher until he stood swaying upon a small limb which bent low beneath his
weight. Here he had a clear and unobstructed view of the heavens. He saw Goro and the inroads which the h=
ungry
Numa had made into his shining surface.
Raising his face =
to
the moon, Tarzan shrilled forth his hideous challenge. Faintly and from afar came the roar of =
an
answering lion. The apes shivered. Numa
of the skies had answered Tarzan.
Then the ape-man
fitted an arrow to his bow, and drawing the shaft far back, aimed its point=
at
the heart of Numa where he lay in the heavens devouring Goro. There was a loud twang as the released =
bolt
shot into the dark heavens. Again =
and
again did Tarzan of the Apes launch his arrows at Numa, and all the while t=
he
apes of the tribe of Kerchak huddled together in terror.
At last came a cry
from Taug. "Look! Look!"=
he
screamed. "Numa is killed.
And so Tarzan of =
the
Apes came back to the tribe of Kerchak, and in his coming he took a long st=
ride
toward the kingship, which he ultimately won, for now the apes looked up to=
him
as a superior being.
In all the tribe
there was but one who was at all skeptical about the plausibility of Tarzan=
's
remarkable rescue of Goro, and that one, strange as it may seem, was Tarzan=
of
the Apes.