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[pg/etext93/2tarz10.txt]
September, 1993 Etext #81
This etext was typed by Judy Boss in Omaha, Nebraska.
And proofread by some of our anonymous volunteers.
The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
To Joan Burroughs
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
1 Kidnapped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Marooned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3 Beasts at Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4 Sheeta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5 Mugambi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6 A Hideous Crew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7 Betrayed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8 The Dance of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
9 Chivalry or Villainy . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10 The Swede . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
11 Tambudza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12 A Black Scoundrel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13 Escape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
14 Alone in the Jungle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
15 Down the Ugambi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
16 In the Darkness of the Night . . . . . . . . 132
17 On the Deck of the "Kincaid" . . . . . . . . 140
18 Paulvitch Plots Revenge . . . . . . . . . . . 147
19 The Last of the "Kincaid" . . . . . . . . . . 158
20 Jungle Island Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
21 The Law of the Jungle . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Chapter 1
Kidnapped
"The entire affair is shrouded in mystery," said D'Arnot.
"I have it on the best of authority that neither the police
nor the special agents of the general staff have the faintest
conception of how it was accomplished. All they know,
all that anyone knows, is that Nikolas Rokoff has escaped."
John Clayton, Lord Greystoke--he who had been "Tarzan of the Apes"--
sat in silence in the apartments of his friend, Lieutenant Paul D'Arnot,
in Paris, gazing meditatively at the toe of his immaculate boot.
His mind revolved many memories, recalled by the escape of
his arch-enemy from the French military prison to which he
had been sentenced for life upon the testimony of the ape-man.
He thought of the lengths to which Rokoff had once gone
to compass his death, and he realized that what the man had
already done would doubtless be as nothing by comparison with
what he would wish and plot to do now that he was again free.
Tarzan had recently brought his wife and infant son to London
to escape the discomforts and dangers of the rainy season upon
their vast estate in Uziri--the land of the savage Waziri warriors
whose broad African domains the ape-man had once ruled.
He had run across the Channel for a brief visit with his old friend,
but the news of the Russian's escape had already cast a shadow
upon his outing, so that though he had but just arrived he was
already contemplating an immediate return to London.
"It is not that I fear for myself, Paul," he said at last.
"Many times in the past have I thwarted Rokoff's designs
upon my life; but now there are others to consider.
Unless I misjudge the man, he would more quickly strike
at me through my wife or son than directly at me, for he
doubtless realizes that in no other way could he inflict
greater anguish upon me. I must go back to them at once,
and remain with them until Rokoff is recaptured--or dead."
As these two talked in Paris, two other men were talking
together in a little cottage upon the outskirts of London.
Both were dark, sinister-looking men.
One was bearded, but the other, whose face wore the pallor
of long confinement within doors, had but a few days' growth
of black beard upon his face. It was he who was speaking.
"You must needs shave off that beard of yours, Alexis,"
he said to his companion. "With it he would recognize you
on the instant. We must separate here in the hour, and when
we meet again upon the deck of the Kincaid, let us hope that
we shall have with us two honoured guests who little anticipate
the pleasant voyage we have planned for them.
"In two hours I should be upon my way to Dover with one of them,
and by tomorrow night, if you follow my instructions carefully,
you should arrive with the other, provided, of course,
that he returns to London as quickly as I presume he will.
"There should be both profit and pleasure as well as other
good things to reward our efforts, my dear Alexis. Thanks to
the stupidity of the French, they have gone to such lengths
to conceal the fact of my escape for these many days that I
have had ample opportunity to work out every detail of our
little adventure so carefully that there is little chance
of the slightest hitch occurring to mar our prospects.
And now good-bye, and good luck!"
Three hours later a messenger mounted the steps to the
apartment of Lieutenant D'Arnot.
"A telegram for Lord Greystoke," he said to the servant
who answered his summons. "Is he here?"
The man answered in the affirmative, and, signing for
the message, carried it within to Tarzan, who was already
preparing to depart for London.
Tarzan tore open the envelope, and as he read his face went white.
"Read it, Paul," he said, handing the slip of paper to D'Arnot.
"It has come already."
The Frenchman took the telegram and read:
"Jack stolen from the garden through complicity of new servant.
Come at once.--JANE."
As Tarzan leaped from the roadster that had met him at the
station and ran up the steps to his London town house he
was met at the door by a dry-eyed but almost frantic woman.
Quickly Jane Porter Clayton narrated all that she had been
able to learn of the theft of the boy.
The baby's nurse had been wheeling him in the sunshine
on the walk before the house when a closed taxicab drew up
at the corner of the street. The woman had paid but passing
attention to the vehicle, merely noting that it discharged no
passenger, but stood at the kerb with the motor running as though
waiting for a fare from the residence before which it had stopped.
Almost immediately the new houseman, Carl, had come
running from the Greystoke house, saying that the girl's
mistress wished to speak with her for a moment, and that she
was to leave little Jack in his care until she returned.
The woman said that she entertained not the slightest suspicion
of the man's motives until she had reached the doorway of the house,
when it occurred to her to warn him not to turn the carriage so as
to permit the sun to shine in the baby's eyes.
As she turned about to call this to him she was somewhat
surprised to see that he was wheeling the carriage rapidly
toward the corner, and at the same time she saw the door of
the taxicab open and a swarthy face framed for a moment in
the aperture.
Intuitively, the danger to the child flashed upon her, and
with a shriek she dashed down the steps and up the walk
toward the taxicab, into which Carl was now handing the
baby to the swarthy one within.
Just before she reached the vehicle, Carl leaped in beside
his confederate, slamming the door behind him. At the same
time the chauffeur attempted to start his machine, but it was
evident that something had gone wrong, as though the gears
refused to mesh, and the delay caused by this, while he
pushed the lever into reverse and backed the car a few inches
before again attempting to go ahead, gave the nurse time to
reach the side of the taxicab.
Leaping to the running-board, she had attempted to snatch
the baby from the arms of the stranger, and here, screaming
and fighting, she had clung to her position even after the
taxicab had got under way; nor was it until the machine had
passed the Greystoke residence at good speed that Carl, with
a heavy blow to her face, had succeeded in knocking her to
the pavement.
Her screams had attracted servants and members of the
families from residences near by, as well as from the
Greystoke home. Lady Greystoke had witnessed the girl's brave
battle, and had herself tried to reach the rapidly passing
vehicle, but had been too late.
That was all that anyone knew, nor did Lady Greystoke
dream of the possible identity of the man at the bottom of
the plot until her husband told her of the escape of Nikolas
Rokoff from the French prison where they had hoped he was
permanently confined.
As Tarzan and his wife stood planning the wisest course to pursue,
the telephone bell rang in the library at their right. Tarzan quickly
answered the call in person.
"Lord Greystoke?" asked a man's voice at the other end of the line.
"Yes."
"Your son has been stolen," continued the voice, "and I alone
may help you to recover him. I am conversant with the plot
of those who took him. In fact, I was a party to it, and was
to share in the reward, but now they are trying to ditch me,
and to be quits with them I will aid you to recover him
on condition that you will not prosecute me for my part in
the crime. What do you say?"
"If you lead me to where my son is hidden," replied the
ape-man, "you need fear nothing from me."
"Good," replied the other. "But you must come alone to meet me,
for it is enough that I must trust you. I cannot take the
chance of permitting others to learn my identity."
"Where and when may I meet you?" asked Tarzan.
The other gave the name and location of a public-house
on the water-front at Dover--a place frequented by sailors.
"Come," he concluded, "about ten o'clock tonight. It would
do no good to arrive earlier. Your son will be safe enough
in the meantime, and I can then lead you secretly to where
he is hidden. But be sure to come alone, and under no
circumstances notify Scotland Yard, for I know you well and
shall be watching for you.
"Should any other accompany you, or should I see suspicious
characters who might be agents of the police, I shall not meet you,
and your last chance of recovering your son will be gone."
Without more words the man rang off.
Tarzan repeated the gist of the conversation to his wife.
She begged to be allowed to accompany him, but he insisted
that it might result in the man's carrying out his threat of
refusing to aid them if Tarzan did not come alone, and so
they parted, he to hasten to Dover, and she, ostensibly to wait
at home until he should notify her of the outcome of his mission.
Little did either dream of what both were destined to pass
through before they should meet again, or the far-distant--
but why anticipate?
For ten minutes after the ape-man had left her Jane Clayton walked
restlessly back and forth across the silken rugs of the library.
Her mother heart ached, bereft of its firstborn. Her mind was
in an anguish of hopes and fears.
Though her judgment told her that all would be well were
her Tarzan to go alone in accordance with the mysterious
stranger's summons, her intuition would not permit her to
lay aside suspicion of the gravest dangers to both her husband
and her son.
The more she thought of the matter, the more convinced
she became that the recent telephone message might be but
a ruse to keep them inactive until the boy was safely hidden
away or spirited out of England. Or it might be that it had
been simply a bait to lure Tarzan into the hands of the
implacable Rokoff.
With the lodgment of this thought she stopped in wide-
eyed terror. Instantly it became a conviction. She glanced at
the great clock ticking the minutes in the corner of the library.
It was too late to catch the Dover train that Tarzan was to take.
There was another, later, however, that would bring her to
the Channel port in time to reach the address the stranger
had given her husband before the appointed hour.
Summoning her maid and chauffeur, she issued instructions rapidly.
Ten minutes later she was being whisked through the crowded
streets toward the railway station.
It was nine-forty-five that night that Tarzan entered the
squalid "pub" on the water-front in Dover. As he passed
into the evil-smelling room a muffled figure brushed past him
toward the street.
"Come, my lord!" whispered the stranger.
The ape-man wheeled about and followed the other into the
ill-lit alley, which custom had dignified with the title
of thoroughfare. Once outside, the fellow led the way into the
darkness, nearer a wharf, where high-piled bales, boxes, and
casks cast dense shadows. Here he halted.
"Where is the boy?" asked Greystoke.
"On that small steamer whose lights you can just see yonder,"
replied the other.
In the gloom Tarzan was trying to peer into the features of
his companion, but he did not recognize the man as one
whom he had ever before seen. Had he guessed that his guide
was Alexis Paulvitch he would have realized that naught but
treachery lay in the man's heart, and that danger lurked in
the path of every move.
"He is unguarded now," continued the Russian. "Those who
took him feel perfectly safe from detection, and with
the exception of a couple of members of the crew, whom I
have furnished with enough gin to silence them effectually
for hours, there is none aboard the Kincaid. We can go
aboard, get the child, and return without the slightest fear."
Tarzan nodded.
"Let's be about it, then," he said.
His guide led him to a small boat moored alongside the wharf.
The two men entered, and Paulvitch pulled rapidly toward
the steamer. The black smoke issuing from her funnel did
not at the time make any suggestion to Tarzan's mind. All his
thoughts were occupied with the hope that in a few moments
he would again have his little son in his arms.
At the steamer's side they found a monkey-ladder dangling
close above them, and up this the two men crept stealthily.
Once on deck they hastened aft to where the Russian pointed
to a hatch.
"The boy is hidden there," he said. "You had better go
down after him, as there is less chance that he will cry in
fright than should he find himself in the arms of a stranger.
I will stand on guard here."
So anxious was Tarzan to rescue the child that he gave not
the slightest thought to the strangeness of all the conditions
surrounding the Kincaid. That her deck was deserted, though
she had steam up, and from the volume of smoke pouring
from her funnel was all ready to get under way made no
impression upon him.
With the thought that in another instant he would fold that
precious little bundle of humanity in his arms, the ape-man
swung down into the darkness below. Scarcely had he released
his hold upon the edge of the hatch than the heavy
covering fell clattering above him.
Instantly he knew that he was the victim of a plot, and that
far from rescuing his son he had himself fallen into the hands
of his enemies. Though he immediately endeavoured to reach
the hatch and lift the cover, he was unable to do so.
Striking a match, he explored his surroundings, finding
that a little compartment had been partitioned off from the
main hold, with the hatch above his head the only means of
ingress or egress. It was evident that the room had been
prepared for the very purpose of serving as a cell for himself.
There was nothing in the compartment, and no other occupant.
If the child was on board the Kincaid he was confined elsewhere.
For over twenty years, from infancy to manhood, the ape-man
had roamed his savage jungle haunts without human companionship
of any nature. He had learned at the most impressionable period
of his life to take his pleasures and his sorrows as the beasts
take theirs.
So it was that he neither raved nor stormed against fate,
but instead waited patiently for what might next befall him,
though not by any means without an eye to doing the utmost to
succour himself. To this end he examined his prison carefully,
tested the heavy planking that formed its walls, and measured
the distance of the hatch above him.
And while he was thus occupied there came suddenly to him
the vibration of machinery and the throbbing of the propeller.
The ship was moving! Where to and to what fate was it carrying him?
And even as these thoughts passed through his mind there
came to his ears above the din of the engines that which
caused him to go cold with apprehension.
Clear and shrill from the deck above him rang the scream
of a frightened woman.
Chapter 2
Marooned
As Tarzan and his guide had disappeared into the shadows
upon the dark wharf the figure of a heavily veiled woman
had hurried down the narrow alley to the entrance of the
drinking-place the two men had just quitted.
Here she paused and looked about, and then as though
satisfied that she had at last reached the place she sought,
she pushed bravely into the interior of the vile den.
A score of half-drunken sailors and wharf-rats looked up at
the unaccustomed sight of a richly gowned woman in their midst.
Rapidly she approached the slovenly barmaid who stared half
in envy, half in hate, at her more fortunate sister.
"Have you seen a tall, well-dressed man here, but a minute
since," she asked, "who met another and went away with him?"
The girl answered in the affirmative, but could not tell
which way the two had gone. A sailor who had approached
to listen to the conversation vouchsafed the information that
a moment before as he had been about to enter the "pub"
he had seen two men leaving it who walked toward the wharf.
"Show me the direction they went," cried the woman,
slipping a coin into the man's hand.
The fellow led her from the place, and together they walked
quickly toward the wharf and along it until across the water
they saw a small boat just pulling into the shadows of a
nearby steamer.
"There they be," whispered the man.
"Ten pounds if you will find a boat and row me to that steamer,"
cried the woman.
"Quick, then," he replied, "for we gotta go it if we're goin'
to catch the Kincaid afore she sails. She's had steam up
for three hours an' jest been a-waitin' fer that one passenger.
I was a-talkin' to one of her crew 'arf an hour ago."
As he spoke he led the way to the end of the wharf where
he knew another boat lay moored, and, lowering the woman
into it, he jumped in after and pushed off. The two were
soon scudding over the water.
At the steamer's side the man demanded his pay and,
without waiting to count out the exact amount, the woman
thrust a handful of bank-notes into his outstretched hand.
A single glance at them convinced the fellow that he had been
more than well paid. Then he assisted her up the ladder,
holding his skiff close to the ship's side against the chance
that this profitable passenger might wish to be taken ashore later.
But presently the sound of the donkey engine and the rattle
of a steel cable on the hoisting-drum proclaimed the fact that
the Kincaid's anchor was being raised, and a moment later
the waiter heard the propellers revolving, and slowly the little
steamer moved away from him out into the channel.
As he turned to row back to shore he heard a woman's
shriek from the ship's deck.
"That's wot I calls rotten luck," he soliloquized. "I might
jest as well of 'ad the whole bloomin' wad."
When Jane Clayton climbed to the deck of the Kincaid she
found the ship apparently deserted. There was no sign of
those she sought nor of any other aboard, and so she went
about her search for her husband and the child she hoped
against hope to find there without interruption.
Quickly she hastened to the cabin, which was half above and
half below deck. As she hurried down the short companion-ladder
into the main cabin, on either side of which were the smaller
rooms occupied by the officers, she failed to note the quick
closing of one of the doors before her. She passed the
full length of the main room, and then retracing her steps
stopped before each door to listen, furtively trying each latch.
All was silence, utter silence there, in which the throbbing
of her own frightened heart seemed to her overwrought
imagination to fill the ship with its thunderous alarm.
One by one the doors opened before her touch, only to reveal
empty interiors. In her absorption she did not note the
sudden activity upon the vessel, the purring of the engines,
the throbbing of the propeller. She had reached the last door
upon the right now, and as she pushed it open she was seized
from within by a powerful, dark-visaged man, and drawn
hastily into the stuffy, ill-smelling interior.
The sudden shock of fright which the unexpected attack
had upon her drew a single piercing scream from her throat;
then the man clapped a hand roughly over the mouth.
"Not until we are farther from land, my dear," he said.
"Then you may yell your pretty head off."
Lady Greystoke turned to look into the leering, bearded
face so close to hers. The man relaxed the pressure of his
fingers upon her lips, and with a little moan of terror as she
recognized him the girl shrank away from her captor.
"Nikolas Rokoff! M. Thuran!" she exclaimed.
"Your devoted admirer," replied the Russian, with a low bow.
"My little boy," she said next, ignoring the terms of endearment--
"where is he? Let me have him. How could you be so cruel--even as you--
Nikolas Rokoff--cannot be entirely devoid of mercy and compassion?
Tell me where he is. Is he aboard this ship? Oh, please, if such a
thing as a heart beats within your breast, take me to my baby!"
"If you do as you are bid no harm will befall him," replied Rokoff.
"But remember that it is your own fault that you are here.
You came aboard voluntarily, and you may take the consequences.
I little thought," he added to himself, "that any such
good luck as this would come to me."
He went on deck then, locking the cabin-door upon his prisoner,
and for several days she did not see him. The truth of the
matter being that Nikolas Rokoff was so poor a sailor
that the heavy seas the Kincaid encountered from the very
beginning of her voyage sent the Russian to his berth with a
bad attack of sea-sickness.
During this time her only visitor was an uncouth Swede,
the Kincaid's unsavoury cook, who brought her meals to her.
His name was Sven Anderssen, his one pride being that his
patronymic was spelt with a double "s."
The man was tall and raw-boned, with a long yellow
moustache, an unwholesome complexion, and filthy nails.
The very sight of him with one grimy thumb buried deep in
the lukewarm stew, that seemed, from the frequency of its
repetition, to constitute the pride of his culinary art,
was sufficient to take away the girl's appetite.
His small, blue, close-set eyes never met hers squarely.
There was a shiftiness of his whole appearance that even
found expression in the cat-like manner of his gait, and to it
all a sinister suggestion was added by the long slim knife that
always rested at his waist, slipped through the greasy cord
that supported his soiled apron. Ostensibly it was but an
implement of his calling; but the girl could never free herself
of the conviction that it would require less provocation to
witness it put to other and less harmless uses.
His manner toward her was surly, yet she never failed to
meet him with a pleasant smile and a word of thanks when
he brought her food to her, though more often than not she
hurled the bulk of it through the tiny cabin port the moment
that the door closed behind him.
During the days of anguish that followed Jane Clayton's
imprisonment, but two questions were uppermost in her
mind--the whereabouts of her husband and her son. She fully
believed that the baby was aboard the Kincaid, provided that
he still lived, but whether Tarzan had been permitted to live
after having been lured aboard the evil craft she could not guess.
She knew, of course, the deep hatred that the Russian felt
for the Englishman, and she could think of but one reason
for having him brought aboard the ship--to dispatch him in
comparative safety in revenge for his having thwarted
Rokoff's pet schemes, and for having been at last the
means of landing him in a French prison.
Tarzan, on his part, lay in the darkness of his cell, ignorant
of the fact that his wife was a prisoner in the cabin almost
above his head.
The same Swede that served Jane brought his meals to him,
but, though on several occasions Tarzan had tried to
draw the man into conversation, he had been unsuccessful.
He had hoped to learn through this fellow whether his little
son was aboard the Kincaid, but to every question upon this
or kindred subjects the fellow returned but one reply,
"Ay tank it blow purty soon purty hard." So after several
attempts Tarzan gave it up.
For weeks that seemed months to the two prisoners the little
steamer forged on they knew not where. Once the Kincaid
stopped to coal, only immediately to take up the seemingly
interminable voyage.
Rokoff had visited Jane Clayton but once since he had locked
her in the tiny cabin. He had come gaunt and hollow-eyed
from a long siege of sea-sickness. The object of his visit
was to obtain from her her personal cheque for a large sum in
return for a guarantee of her personal safety and return to England.
"When you set me down safely in any civilized port,
together with my son and my husband," she replied, "I will
pay you in gold twice the amount you ask; but until then you
shall not have a cent, nor the promise of a cent under any
other conditions."
"You will give me the cheque I ask," he replied with a snarl,
"or neither you nor your child nor your husband will ever
again set foot within any port, civilized or otherwise."
"I would not trust you," she replied. "What guarantee
have I that you would not take my money and then do as you
pleased with me and mine regardless of your promise?"
"I think you will do as I bid," he said, turning to leave
the cabin. "Remember that I have your son--if you chance
to hear the agonized wail of a tortured child it may console
you to reflect that it is because of your stubbornness that
the baby suffers--and that it is your baby."
"You would not do it!" cried the girl. "You would not--
could not be so fiendishly cruel!"
"It is not I that am cruel, but you," he returned,
"for you permit a paltry sum of money to stand between
your baby and immunity from suffering."
The end of it was that Jane Clayton wrote out a cheque
of large denomination and handed it to Nikolas Rokoff,
who left her cabin with a grin of satisfaction upon his lips.
The following day the hatch was removed from Tarzan's cell,
and as he looked up he saw Paulvitch's head framed in
the square of light above him.
"Come up," commanded the Russian. "But bear in mind
that you will be shot if you make a single move to attack me
or any other aboard the ship."
The ape-man swung himself lightly to the deck. About him,
but at a respectful distance, stood a half-dozen sailors
armed with rifles and revolvers. Facing him was Paulvitch.
Tarzan looked about for Rokoff, who he felt sure must be
aboard, but there was no sign of him.
"Lord Greystoke," commenced the Russian, "by your continued
and wanton interference with M. Rokoff and his plans
you have at last brought yourself and your family to this
unfortunate extremity. You have only yourself to thank.
As you may imagine, it has cost M. Rokoff a large amount
of money to finance this expedition, and, as you are the sole
cause of it, he naturally looks to you for reimbursement.
"Further, I may say that only by meeting M. Rokoff's just
demands may you avert the most unpleasant consequences to
your wife and child, and at the same time retain your own
life and regain your liberty."
"What is the amount?" asked Tarzan. "And what assurance
have I that you will live up to your end of the agreement?
I have little reason to trust two such scoundrels as you
and Rokoff, you know."
The Russian flushed.
"You are in no position to deliver insults," he said.
"You have no assurance that we will live up to our agreement
other than my word, but you have before you the assurance that
we can make short work of you if you do not write out the
cheque we demand.
"Unless you are a greater fool than I imagine, you should
know that there is nothing that would give us greater pleasure
than to order these men to fire. That we do not is because
we have other plans for punishing you that would be entirely
upset by your death."
"Answer one question," said Tarzan. "Is my son on board this ship?"
"No," replied Alexis Paulvitch, "your son is quite safe elsewhere;
nor will he be killed until you refuse to accede to our fair demands.
If it becomes necessary to kill you, there will be no reason for
not killing the child, since with you gone the one whom we wish
to punish through the boy will be gone, and he will then be to us
only a constant source of danger and embarrassment. You see,
therefore, that you may only save the life of your son by
saving your own, and you can only save your own by giving
us the cheque we ask."
"Very well," replied Tarzan, for he knew that he could trust
them to carry out any sinister threat that Paulvitch had made,
and there was a bare chance that by conceding their demands
he might save the boy.
That they would permit him to live after he had appended
his name to the cheque never occurred to him as being within
the realms of probability. But he was determined to give them
such a battle as they would never forget, and possibly to take
Paulvitch with him into eternity. He was only sorry that it
was not Rokoff.
He took his pocket cheque-book and fountain-pen from his pocket.
"What is the amount?" he asked.
Paulvitch named an enormous sum. Tarzan could scarce restrain a smile.
Their very cupidity was to prove the means of their undoing,
in the matter of the ransom at least. Purposely he hesitated
and haggled over the amount, but Paulvitch was obdurate.
Finally the ape-man wrote out his cheque for a larger sum
than stood to his credit at the bank.
As he turned to hand the worthless slip of paper to the
Russian his glance chanced to pass across the starboard bow
of the Kincaid. To his surprise he saw that the ship lay within
a few hundred yards of land. Almost down to the water's
edge ran a dense tropical jungle, and behind was higher land
clothed in forest.
Paulvitch noted the direction of his gaze.
"You are to be set at liberty here," he said.
Tarzan's plan for immediate physical revenge upon the
Russian vanished. He thought the land before him the
mainland of Africa, and he knew that should they liberate him
here he could doubtless find his way to civilization with
comparative ease.
Paulvitch took the cheque.
"Remove your clothing," he said to the ape-man.
"Here you will not need it."
Tarzan demurred.
Paulvitch pointed to the armed sailors. Then the Englishman
slowly divested himself of his clothing.
A boat was lowered, and, still heavily guarded, the ape-man
was rowed ashore. Half an hour later the sailors had returned
to the Kincaid, and the steamer was slowly getting under way.
As Tarzan stood upon the narrow strip of beach watching the
departure of the vessel he saw a figure appear at the rail
and call aloud to attract his attention.
The ape-man had been about to read a note that one of
the sailors had handed him as the small boat that bore him
to the shore was on the point of returning to the steamer,
but at the hail from the vessel's deck he looked up.
He saw a black-bearded man who laughed at him in derision
as he held high above his head the figure of a little child.
Tarzan half started as though to rush through the surf and
strike out for the already moving steamer; but realizing the
futility of so rash an act he halted at the water's edge.
Thus he stood, his gaze riveted upon the Kincaid until it
disappeared beyond a projecting promontory of the coast.
From the jungle at his back fierce bloodshot eyes glared
from beneath shaggy overhanging brows upon him.
Little monkeys in the tree-tops chattered and scolded, and from
the distance of the inland forest came the scream of a leopard.
But still John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, stood deaf and
unseeing, suffering the pangs of keen regret for the
opportunity that he had wasted because he had been so
gullible as to place credence in a single statement of
the first lieutenant of his arch-enemy.
"I have at least," he thought, "one consolation--the
knowledge that Jane is safe in London. Thank Heaven she,
too, did not fall into the clutches of those villains."
Behind him the hairy thing whose evil eyes had been
watching his as a cat watches a mouse was creeping
stealthily toward him.
Where were the trained senses of the savage ape-man?
Where the acute hearing?
Where the uncanny sense of scent?
Chapter 3
Beasts at Bay
Slowly Tarzan unfolded the note the sailor had thrust into
his hand, and read it. At first it made little impression on
his sorrow-numbed senses, but finally the full purport of the
hideous plot of revenge unfolded itself before his imagination.
"This will explain to you" [the note read] "the exact nature
of my intentions relative to your offspring and to you.
"You were born an ape. You lived naked in the jungles--
to your own we have returned you; but your son shall rise a
step above his sire. It is the immutable law of evolution.
"The father was a beast, but the son shall be a man--he
shall take the next ascending step in the scale of progress.
He shall be no naked beast of the jungle, but shall wear a
loincloth and copper anklets, and, perchance, a ring in his
nose, for he is to be reared by men--a tribe of savage cannibals.
"I might have killed you, but that would have curtailed the
full measure of the punishment you have earned at my hands.
"Dead, you could not have suffered in the knowledge of
your son's plight; but living and in a place from which you
may not escape to seek or succour your child, you shall suffer
worse than death for all the years of your life in contemplation
of the horrors of your son's existence.
"This, then, is to be a part of your punishment for having
dared to pit yourself against
N. R.
"P.S.--The balance of your punishment has to do with
what shall presently befall your wife--that I shall
leave to your imagination."
As he finished reading, a slight sound behind him brought
him back with a start to the world of present realities.
Instantly his senses awoke, and he was again Tarzan of the Apes.
As he wheeled about, it was a beast at bay, vibrant with
the instinct of self-preservation, that faced a huge bull-ape
that was already charging down upon him.
The two years that had elapsed since Tarzan had come out
of the savage forest with his rescued mate had witnessed
slight diminution of the mighty powers that had made him
the invincible lord of the jungle. His great estates in Uziri
had claimed much of his time and attention, and there he
had found ample field for the practical use and retention of
his almost superhuman powers; but naked and unarmed to do
battle with the shaggy, bull-necked beast that now confronted
him was a test that the ape-man would scarce have welcomed
at any period of his wild existence.
But there was no alternative other than to meet the rage-
maddened creature with the weapons with which nature had
endowed him.
Over the bull's shoulder Tarzan could see now the heads
and shoulders of perhaps a dozen more of these mighty fore-
runners of primitive man.
He knew, however, that there was little chance that they
would attack him, since it is not within the reasoning powers
of the anthropoid to be able to weigh or appreciate the value
of concentrated action against an enemy--otherwise they
would long since have become the dominant creatures of
their haunts, so tremendous a power of destruction lies in
their mighty thews and savage fangs.
With a low snarl the beast now hurled himself at Tarzan,
but the ape-man had found, among other things in the haunts
of civilized man, certain methods of scientific warfare that
are unknown to the jungle folk.
Whereas, a few years since, he would have met the brute
rush with brute force, he now sidestepped his antagonist's
headlong charge, and as the brute hurtled past him swung a
mighty right to the pit of the ape's stomach.
With a howl of mingled rage and anguish the great anthropoid
bent double and sank to the ground, though almost
instantly he was again struggling to his feet.
Before he could regain them, however, his white-skinned
foe had wheeled and pounced upon him, and in the act there
dropped from the shoulders of the English lord the last shred
of his superficial mantle of civilization.
Once again he was the jungle beast revelling in bloody
conflict with his kind. Once again he was Tarzan,
son of Kala the she-ape.
His strong, white teeth sank into the hairy throat of his
enemy as he sought the pulsing jugular.
Powerful fingers held the mighty fangs from his own flesh,
or clenched and beat with the power of a steam-hammer
upon the snarling, foam-flecked face of his adversary.
In a circle about them the balance of the tribe of apes stood
watching and enjoying the struggle. They muttered low gutturals
of approval as bits of white hide or hairy bloodstained
skin were torn from one contestant or the other. But they
were silent in amazement and expectation when they saw the
mighty white ape wriggle upon the back of their king, and,
with steel muscles tensed beneath the armpits of his antagonist,
bear down mightily with his open palms upon the back of the
thick bullneck, so that the king ape could but shriek in agony
and flounder helplessly about upon the thick mat of jungle grass.
As Tarzan had overcome the huge Terkoz that time years
before when he had been about to set out upon his quest for
human beings of his own kind and colour, so now he overcame
this other great ape with the same wrestling hold upon
which he had stumbled by accident during that other combat.
The little audience of fierce anthropoids heard the creaking
of their king's neck mingling with his agonized shrieks
and hideous roaring.
Then there came a sudden crack, like the breaking of a
stout limb before the fury of the wind. The bullet-head
crumpled forward upon its flaccid neck against the great
hairy chest--the roaring and the shrieking ceased.
The little pig-eyes of the onlookers wandered from the still
form of their leader to that of the white ape that was rising
to its feet beside the vanquished, then back to their king as
though in wonder that he did not arise and slay this
presumptuous stranger.
They saw the new-comer place a foot upon the neck of the quiet
figure at his feet and, throwing back his head, give vent to
the wild, uncanny challenge of the bull-ape that has made a kill.
Then they knew that their king was dead.
Across the jungle rolled the horrid notes of the victory cry.
The little monkeys in the tree-tops ceased their chattering.
The harsh-voiced, brilliant-plumed birds were still. From afar
came the answering wail of a leopard and the deep roar of a lion.
It was the old Tarzan who turned questioning eyes upon
the little knot of apes before him. It was the old Tarzan who
shook his head as though to toss back a heavy mane that had
fallen before his face--an old habit dating from the days that
his great shock of thick, black hair had fallen about his
shoulders, and often tumbled before his eyes when it had meant
life or death to him to have his vision unobstructed.
The ape-man knew that he might expect an immediate
attack on the part of that particular surviving bull-ape who
felt himself best fitted to contend for the kingship of the tribe.
Among his own apes he knew that it was not unusual for an
entire stranger to enter a community and, after having
dispatched the king, assume the leadership of the tribe himself,
together with the fallen monarch's mates.
On the other hand, if he made no attempt to follow them,
they might move slowly away from him, later to fight among
themselves for the supremacy. That he could be king of them,
if he so chose, he was confident; but he was not sure he cared
to assume the sometimes irksome duties of that position,
for he could see no particular advantage to be gained thereby.
One of the younger apes, a huge, splendidly muscled brute,
was edging threateningly closer to the ape-man. Through his
bared fighting fangs there issued a low, sullen growl.
Tarzan watched his every move, standing rigid as a statue.
To have fallen back a step would have been to precipitate an
immediate charge; to have rushed forward to meet the other
might have had the same result, or it might have put the
bellicose one to flight--it all depended upon the young bull's
stock of courage.
To stand perfectly still, waiting, was the middle course.
In this event the bull would, according to custom, approach
quite close to the object of his attention, growling hideously
and baring slavering fangs. Slowly he would circle about the other,
as though with a chip upon his shoulder; and this he did,
even as Tarzan had foreseen.
It might be a bluff royal, or, on the other hand, so unstable is
the mind of an ape, a passing impulse might hurl the hairy mass,
tearing and rending, upon the man without an instant's warning.
As the brute circled him Tarzan turned slowly, keeping
his eyes ever upon the eyes of his antagonist. He had
appraised the young bull as one who had never quite felt equal
to the task of overthrowing his former king, but who one day
would have done so. Tarzan saw that the beast was of wondrous
proportions, standing over seven feet upon his short, bowed legs.
His great, hairy arms reached almost to the ground even
when he stood erect, and his fighting fangs, now quite close
to Tarzan's face, were exceptionally long and sharp. Like the
others of his tribe, he differed in several minor essentials
from the apes of Tarzan's boyhood.
At first the ape-man had experienced a thrill of hope at
sight of the shaggy bodies of the anthropoids--a hope that
by some strange freak of fate he had been again returned to
his own tribe; but a closer inspection had convinced him that
these were another species.
As the threatening bull continued his stiff and jerky
circling of the ape-man, much after the manner that you have
noted among dogs when a strange canine comes among them,
it occurred to Tarzan to discover if the language of his own
tribe was identical with that of this other family, and so he
addressed the brute in the language of the tribe of Kerchak.
"Who are you," he asked, "who threatens Tarzan of the Apes?"
The hairy brute looked his surprise.
"I am Akut," replied the other in the same simple, primal
tongue which is so low in the scale of spoken languages that,
as Tarzan had surmised, it was identical with that of the tribe
in which the first twenty years of his life had been spent.
"I am Akut," said the ape. "Molak is dead. I am king.
Go away or I shall kill you!"
"You saw how easily I killed Molak," replied Tarzan. "So I
could kill you if I cared to be king. But Tarzan of the
Apes would not be king of the tribe of Akut. All he wishes
is to live in peace in this country. Let us be friends.
Tarzan of the Apes can help you, and you can help Tarzan
of the Apes."
"You cannot kill Akut," replied the other. "None is so
great as Akut. Had you not killed Molak, Akut would have
done so, for Akut was ready to be king."
For answer the ape-man hurled himself upon the great brute
who during the conversation had slightly relaxed his vigilance.
In the twinkling of an eye the man had seized the wrist of
the great ape, and before the other could grapple with him
had whirled him about and leaped upon his broad back.
Down they went together, but so well had Tarzan's plan
worked out that before ever they touched the ground he had
gained the same hold upon Akut that had broken Molak's neck.
Slowly he brought the pressure to bear, and then as in days
gone by he had given Kerchak the chance to surrender and
live, so now he gave to Akut--in whom he saw a possible
ally of great strength and resource--the option of living in
amity with him or dying as he had just seen his savage and
heretofore invincible king die.
"Ka-Goda?" whispered Tarzan to the ape beneath him.
It was the same question that he had whispered to Kerchak,
and in the language of the apes it means, broadly,
"Do you surrender?"
Akut thought of the creaking sound he had heard just
before Molak's thick neck had snapped, and he shuddered.
He hated to give up the kingship, though, so again he struggled
to free himself; but a sudden torturing pressure upon his
vertebra brought an agonized "ka-goda!" from his lips.
Tarzan relaxed his grip a trifle.
"You may still be king, Akut," he said. "Tarzan told you
that he did not wish to be king. If any question your right,
Tarzan of the Apes will help you in your battles."
The ape-man rose, and Akut came slowly to his feet.
Shaking his bullet head and growling angrily, he waddled toward
his tribe, looking first at one and then at another of the
larger bulls who might be expected to challenge his leadership.
But none did so; instead, they drew away as he approached,
and presently the whole pack moved off into the jungle,
and Tarzan was left alone once more upon the beach.
The ape-man was sore from the wounds that Molak had
inflicted upon him, but he was inured to physical suffering
and endured it with the calm and fortitude of the wild beasts
that had taught him to lead the jungle life after the manner
of all those that are born to it.
His first need, he realized, was for weapons of offence and defence,
for his encounter with the apes, and the distant notes of the savage
voices of Numa the lion, and Sheeta, the panther, warned him that
his was to be no life of indolent ease and security.
It was but a return to the old existence of constant bloodshed
and danger--to the hunting and the being hunted. Grim beasts
would stalk him, as they had stalked him in the past,
and never would there be a moment, by savage day or by
cruel night, that he might not have instant need of such crude
weapons as he could fashion from the materials at hand.
Upon the shore he found an out-cropping of brittle, igneous rock.
By dint of much labour he managed to chip off a narrow sliver some
twelve inches long by a quarter of an inch thick. One edge was quite
thin for a few inches near the tip. It was the rudiment of a knife.
With it he went into the jungle, searching until he found a
fallen tree of a certain species of hardwood with which he
was familiar. From this he cut a small straight branch,
which he pointed at one end.
Then he scooped a small, round hole in the surface of the
prostrate trunk. Into this he crumbled a few bits of dry bark,
minutely shredded, after which he inserted the tip of his
pointed stick, and, sitting astride the bole of the tree, spun
the slender rod rapidly between his palms.
After a time a thin smoke rose from the little mass of
tinder, and a moment later the whole broke into flame.
Heaping some larger twigs and sticks upon the tiny fire,
Tarzan soon had quite a respectable blaze roaring in the
enlarging cavity of the dead tree.
Into this he thrust the blade of his stone knife, and as it
became superheated he would withdraw it, touching a spot
near the thin edge with a drop of moisture. Beneath the
wetted area a little flake of the glassy material would
crack and scale away.
Thus, very slowly, the ape-man commenced the tedious
operation of putting a thin edge upon his primitive hunting-knife.
He did not attempt to accomplish the feat all in one sitting.
At first he was content to achieve a cutting edge of a couple
of inches, with which he cut a long, pliable bow, a handle
for his knife, a stout cudgel, and a goodly supply of arrows.
These he cached in a tall tree beside a little stream,
and here also he constructed a platform with a roof of
palm-leaves above it.
When all these things had been finished it was growing dusk,
and Tarzan felt a strong desire to eat.
He had noted during the brief incursion he had made into
the forest that a short distance up-stream from his tree there
was a much-used watering place, where, from the trampled
mud of either bank, it was evident beasts of all sorts and in
great numbers came to drink. To this spot the hungry ape-man
made his silent way.
Through the upper terrace of the tree-tops he swung with
the grace and ease of a monkey. But for the heavy burden
upon his heart he would have been happy in this return to the
old free life of his boyhood.
Yet even with that burden he fell into the little habits and
manners of his early life that were in reality more a part of
him than the thin veneer of civilization that the past three
years of his association with the white men of the outer world
had spread lightly over him--a veneer that only hid the
crudities of the beast that Tarzan of the Apes had been.
Could his fellow-peers of the House of Lords have seen him
then they would have held up their noble hands in holy horror.
Silently he crouched in the lower branches of a great forest
giant that overhung the trail, his keen eyes and sensitive ears
strained into the distant jungle, from which he knew his dinner
would presently emerge.
Nor had he long to wait.
Scarce had he settled himself to a comfortable position,
his lithe, muscular legs drawn well up beneath him as the
panther draws his hindquarters in preparation for the spring,
than Bara, the deer, came daintily down to drink.
But more than Bara was coming. Behind the graceful buck
came another which the deer could neither see nor scent, but
whose movements were apparent to Tarzan of the Apes because
of the elevated position of the ape-man's ambush.
He knew not yet exactly the nature of the thing that moved
so stealthily through the jungle a few hundred yards behind
the deer; but he was convinced that it was some great beast
of prey stalking Bara for the selfsame purpose as that which
prompted him to await the fleet animal. Numa, perhaps, or
Sheeta, the panther.
In any event, Tarzan could see his repast slipping from his
grasp unless Bara moved more rapidly toward the ford than
at present.
Even as these thoughts passed through his mind some noise
of the stalker in his rear must have come to the buck, for
with a sudden start he paused for an instant, trembling, in
his tracks, and then with a swift bound dashed straight for
the river and Tarzan. It was his intention to flee through the
shallow ford and escape upon the opposite side of the river.
Not a hundred yards behind him came Numa.
Tarzan could see him quite plainly now. Below the ape-man
Bara was about to pass. Could he do it? But even as he
asked himself the question the hungry man launched himself
from his perch full upon the back of the startled buck.
In another instant Numa would be upon them both, so if
the ape-man were to dine that night, or ever again,
he must act quickly.
Scarcely had he touched the sleek hide of the deer with a
momentum that sent the animal to its knees than he had
grasped a horn in either hand, and with a single quick wrench
twisted the animal's neck completely round, until he felt the
vertebrae snap beneath his grip.
The lion was roaring in rage close behind him as he swung
the deer across his shoulder, and, grasping a foreleg between
his strong teeth, leaped for the nearest of the lower branches
that swung above his head.
With both hands he grasped the limb, and, at the instant
that Numa sprang, drew himself and his prey out of reach of
the animal's cruel talons.
There was a thud below him as the baffled cat fell back to
earth, and then Tarzan of the Apes, drawing his dinner
farther up to the safety of a higher limb, looked down with
grinning face into the gleaming yellow eyes of the other wild
beast that glared up at him from beneath, and with taunting
insults flaunted the tender carcass of his kill in the face of
him whom he had cheated of it.
With his crude stone knife he cut a juicy steak from the
hindquarters, and while the great lion paced, growling, back
and forth below him, Lord Greystoke filled his savage belly,
nor ever in the choicest of his exclusive London clubs had a
meal tasted more palatable.
The warm blood of his kill smeared his hands and face
and filled his nostrils with the scent that the savage
carnivora love best.
And when he had finished he left the balance of the carcass
in a high fork of the tree where he had dined, and with Numa
trailing below him, still keen for revenge, he made his way
back to his tree-top shelter, where he slept until the sun was
high the following morning.
Chapter 4
Sheeta
The next few days were occupied by Tarzan in completing
his weapons and exploring the jungle. He strung his
bow with tendons from the buck upon which he had dined
his first evening upon the new shore, and though he would
have preferred the gut of Sheeta for the purpose, he was
content to wait until opportunity permitted him to kill
one of the great cats.
He also braided a long grass rope--such a rope as he had
used so many years before to tantalize the ill-natured Tublat,
and which later had developed into a wondrous effective
weapon in the practised hands of the little ape-boy.
A sheath and handle for his hunting-knife he fashioned,
and a quiver for arrows, and from the hide of Bara a belt
and loin-cloth. Then he set out to learn something of the
strange land in which he found himself. That it was not his
old familiar west coast of the African continent he knew from
the fact that it faced east--the rising sun came up out of the
sea before the threshold of the jungle.
But that it was not the east coast of Africa he was equally
positive, for he felt satisfied that the Kincaid had not
passed through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the Red Sea,
nor had she had time to round the Cape of Good Hope. So he was
quite at a loss to know where he might be.
Sometimes he wondered if the ship had crossed the broad
Atlantic to deposit him upon some wild South American
shore; but the presence of Numa, the lion, decided him that
such could not be the case.
As Tarzan made his lonely way through the jungle paralleling
the shore, he felt strong upon him a desire for companionship,
so that gradually he commenced to regret that he had not cast
his lot with the apes. He had seen nothing of them since that
first day, when the influences of civilization were still
paramount within him.
Now he was more nearly returned to the Tarzan of old,
and though he appreciated the fact that there could be
little in common between himself and the great anthropoids,
still they were better than no company at all.
Moving leisurely, sometimes upon the ground and again
among the lower branches of the trees, gathering an occasional
fruit or turning over a fallen log in search of the larger
bugs, which he still found as palatable as of old, Tarzan had
covered a mile or more when his attention was attracted by
the scent of Sheeta up-wind ahead of him.
Now Sheeta, the panther, was one of whom Tarzan was exceptionally
glad to fall in with, for he had it in mind not only to utilize
the great cat's strong gut for his bow, but also to fashion
a new quiver and loin-cloth from pieces of his hide.
So, whereas the ape-man had gone carelessly before,
he now became the personification of noiseless stealth.
Swiftly and silently he glided through the forest in the wake
of the savage cat, nor was the pursuer, for all his noble birth,
one whit less savage than the wild, fierce thing he stalked.
As he came closer to Sheeta he became aware that the panther
on his part was stalking game of his own, and even as he realized
this fact there came to his nostrils, wafted from his right by a
vagrant breeze, the strong odour of a company of great apes.
The panther had taken to a large tree as Tarzan came within
sight of him, and beyond and below him Tarzan saw the tribe
of Akut lolling in a little, natural clearing. Some of them
were dozing against the boles of trees, while others roamed
about turning over bits of bark from beneath which they
transferred the luscious grubs and beetles to their mouths.
Akut was the closest to Sheeta.
The great cat lay crouched upon a thick limb, hidden from
the ape's view by dense foliage, waiting patiently until the
anthropoid should come within range of his spring.
Tarzan cautiously gained a position in the same tree with the
panther and a little above him. In his left hand he grasped
his slim stone blade. He would have preferred to use his noose,
but the foliage surrounding the huge cat precluded the possibility
of an accurate throw with the rope.
Akut had now wandered quite close beneath the tree wherein
lay the waiting death. Sheeta slowly edged his hind paws
along the branch still further beneath him, and then with
a hideous shriek he launched himself toward the great ape.
The barest fraction of a second before his spring another
beast of prey above him leaped, its weird and savage cry
mingling with his.
As the startled Akut looked up he saw the panther almost
above him, and already upon the panther's back the white
ape that had bested him that day near the great water.
The teeth of the ape-man were buried in the back of Sheeta's
neck and his right arm was round the fierce throat, while
the left hand, grasping a slender piece of stone, rose and fell
in mighty blows upon the panther's side behind the left shoulder.
Akut had just time to leap to one side to avoid being
pinioned beneath these battling monsters of the jungle.
With a crash they came to earth at his feet. Sheeta was screaming,
snarling, and roaring horribly; but the white ape clung
tenaciously and in silence to the thrashing body of his quarry.
Steadily and remorselessly the stone knife was driven home
through the glossy hide--time and again it drank deep, until
with a final agonized lunge and shriek the great feline rolled
over upon its side and, save for the spasmodic jerking of its
muscles, lay quiet and still in death.
Then the ape-man raised his head, as he stood over the
carcass of his kill, and once again through the jungle rang
his wild and savage victory challenge.
Akut and the apes of Akut stood looking in startled wonder
at the dead body of Sheeta and the lithe, straight figure of
the man who had slain him.
Tarzan was the first to speak.
He had saved Akut's life for a purpose, and, knowing the
limitations of the ape intellect, he also knew that he must
make this purpose plain to the anthropoid if it were to serve
him in the way he hoped.
"I am Tarzan of the Apes," he said, "Mighty hunter. Mighty fighter.
By the great water I spared Akut's life when I might have taken it
and become king of the tribe of Akut. Now I have saved Akut from
death beneath the rending fangs of Sheeta.
"When Akut or the tribe of Akut is in danger, let them
call to Tarzan thus"--and the ape-man raised the hideous
cry with which the tribe of Kerchak had been wont to summon
its absent members in times of peril.
"And," he continued, "when they hear Tarzan call to them,
let them remember what he has done for Akut and come to him
with great speed. Shall it be as Tarzan says?"
"Huh!" assented Akut, and from the members of his tribe
there rose a unanimous "Huh."
Then, presently, they went to feeding again as though
nothing had happened, and with them fed John Clayton,
Lord Greystoke.
He noticed, however, that Akut kept always close to him,
and was often looking at him with a strange wonder in his
little bloodshot eyes, and once he did a thing that Tarzan
during all his long years among the apes had never before
seen an ape do--he found a particularly tender morsel and
handed it to Tarzan.
As the tribe hunted, the glistening body of the ape-man
mingled with the brown, shaggy hides of his companions.
Oftentimes they brushed together in passing, but the apes
had already taken his presence for granted, so that he was
as much one of them as Akut himself.
If he came too close to a she with a young baby, the former
would bare her great fighting fangs and growl ominously,
and occasionally a truculent young bull would snarl a warning
if Tarzan approached while the former was eating. But in
those things the treatment was no different from that which
they accorded any other member of the tribe.
Tarzan on his part felt very much at home with these fierce,
hairy progenitors of primitive man. He skipped nimbly out
of reach of each threatening female--for such is the way of
apes, if they be not in one of their occasional fits of bestial
rage--and he growled back at the truculent young bulls, baring
his canine teeth even as they. Thus easily he fell back into
the way of his early life, nor did it seem that he had
ever tasted association with creatures of his own kind.
For the better part of a week he roamed the jungle with
his new friends, partly because of a desire for companionship
and partially through a well-laid plan to impress himself
indelibly upon their memories, which at best are none too long;
for Tarzan from past experience knew that it might serve him
in good stead to have a tribe of these powerful and terrible
beasts at his call.
When he was convinced that he had succeeded to some extent
in fixing his identity upon them he decided to again take up
his exploration. To this end he set out toward the north
early one day, and, keeping parallel with the shore,
travelled rapidly until almost nightfall.
When the sun rose the next morning he saw that it lay almost
directly to his right as he stood upon the beach instead
of straight out across the water as heretofore, and so he
reasoned that the shore line had trended toward the west.
All the second day he continued his rapid course, and when
Tarzan of the Apes sought speed, he passed through the middle
terrace of the forest with the rapidity of a squirrel.
That night the sun set straight out across the water opposite
the land, and then the ape-man guessed at last the truth that
he had been suspecting.
Rokoff had set him ashore upon an island.
He might have known it! If there was any plan that would
render his position more harrowing he should have known
that such would be the one adopted by the Russian, and what
could be more terrible than to leave him to a lifetime of
suspense upon an uninhabited island?
Rokoff doubtless had sailed directly to the mainland, where
it would be a comparatively easy thing for him to find the
means of delivering the infant Jack into the hands of the cruel
and savage foster-parents, who, as his note had threatened,
would have the upbringing of the child.
Tarzan shuddered as he thought of the cruel suffering the
little one must endure in such a life, even though he might
fall into the hands of individuals whose intentions toward
him were of the kindest. The ape-man had had sufficient
experience with the lower savages of Africa to know that even
there may be found the cruder virtues of charity and humanity;
but their lives were at best but a series of terrible privations,
dangers, and sufferings.
Then there was the horrid after-fate that awaited the child
as he grew to manhood. The horrible practices that would
form a part of his life-training would alone be sufficient
to bar him forever from association with those of his own race
and station in life.
A cannibal! His little boy a savage man-eater! It was too
horrible to contemplate.
The filed teeth, the slit nose, the little face painted hideously.
Tarzan groaned. Could he but feel the throat of the Russ fiend
beneath his steel fingers!
And Jane!
What tortures of doubt and fear and uncertainty she must
be suffering. He felt that his position was infinitely less
terrible than hers, for he at least knew that one of his
loved ones was safe at home, while she had no idea of the
whereabouts of either her husband or her son.
It is well for Tarzan that he did not guess the truth, for the
knowledge would have but added a hundredfold to his suffering.
As he moved slowly through the jungle his mind absorbed
by his gloomy thoughts, there presently came to his ears a
strange scratching sound which he could not translate.
Cautiously he moved in the direction from which it emanated,
presently coming upon a huge panther pinned beneath a fallen tree.
As Tarzan approached, the beast turned, snarling, toward him,
struggling to extricate itself; but one great limb across
its back and the smaller entangling branches pinioning its
legs prevented it from moving but a few inches in any direction.
The ape-man stood before the helpless cat fitting an arrow
to his bow that he might dispatch the beast that otherwise
must die of starvation; but even as he drew back the shaft a
sudden whim stayed his hand.
Why rob the poor creature of life and liberty, when it would
be so easy a thing to restore both to it! He was sure from
the fact that the panther moved all its limbs in its futile
struggle for freedom that its spine was uninjured, and for
the same reason he knew that none of its limbs were broken.
Relaxing his bowstring, he returned the arrow to the quiver and,
throwing the bow about his shoulder, stepped closer to
the pinioned beast.
On his lips was the soothing, purring sound that the great
cats themselves made when contented and happy. It was the
nearest approach to a friendly advance that Tarzan could
make in the language of Sheeta.
The panther ceased his snarling and eyed the ape-man closely.
To lift the tree's great weight from the animal it was
necessary to come within reach of those long, strong talons,
and when the tree had been removed the man would be totally
at the mercy of the savage beast; but to Tarzan of the Apes
fear was a thing unknown.
Having decided, he acted promptly.
Unhesitatingly, he stepped into the tangle of branches close to the
panther's side, still voicing his friendly and conciliatory purr.
The cat turned his head toward the man, eyeing him steadily--questioningly.
The long fangs were bared, but more in preparedness than threat.
Tarzan put a broad shoulder beneath the bole of the tree,
and as he did so his bare leg pressed against the cat's silken side,
so close was the man to the great beast.
Slowly Tarzan extended his giant thews.
The great tree with its entangling branches rose gradually
from the panther, who, feeling the encumbering weight diminish,
quickly crawled from beneath. Tarzan let the tree fall back to earth,
and the two beasts turned to look upon one another.
A grim smile lay upon the ape-man's lips, for he knew that he had
taken his life in his hands to free this savage jungle fellow;
nor would it have surprised him had the cat sprung upon him
the instant that it had been released.
But it did not do so. Instead, it stood a few paces from the tree
watching the ape-man clamber out of the maze of fallen branches.
Once outside, Tarzan was not three paces from the panther.
He might have taken to the higher branches of the trees
upon the opposite side, for Sheeta cannot climb to the heights
to which the ape-man can go; but something, a spirit of bravado
perhaps, prompted him to approach the panther as though to
discover if any feeling of gratitude would prompt the beast
to friendliness.
As he approached the mighty cat the creature stepped
warily to one side, and the ape-man brushed past him within
a foot of the dripping jaws, and as he continued on through
the forest the panther followed on behind him, as a hound
follows at heel.
For a long time Tarzan could not tell whether the beast
was following out of friendly feelings or merely stalking him
against the time he should be hungry; but finally he was
forced to believe that the former incentive it was that
prompted the animal's action.
Later in the day the scent of a deer sent Tarzan into the trees,
and when he had dropped his noose about the animal's neck he
called to Sheeta, using a purr similar to that which he had
utilized to pacify the brute's suspicions earlier in the day,
but a trifle louder and more shrill.
It was similar to that which he had heard panthers use after
a kill when they had been hunting in pairs.
Almost immediately there was a crashing of the underbrush
close at hand, and the long, lithe body of his strange
companion broke into view.
At sight of the body of Bara and the smell of blood the panther
gave forth a shrill scream, and a moment later two beasts were
feeding side by side upon the tender meat of the deer.
For several days this strangely assorted pair roamed
the jungle together.
When one made a kill he called the other,
and thus they fed well and often.
On one occasion as they were dining upon the carcass of a boar
that Sheeta had dispatched, Numa, the lion, grim and terrible,
broke through the tangled grasses close beside them.
With an angry, warning roar he sprang forward to chase them
from their kill. Sheeta bounded into a near-by thicket,
while Tarzan took to the low branches of an overhanging tree.
Here the ape-man unloosed his grass rope from about his neck, and
as Numa stood above the body of the boar, challenging head erect,
he dropped the sinuous noose about the maned neck,
drawing the stout strands taut with a sudden jerk.
At the same time he called shrilly to Sheeta, as he drew the
struggling lion upward until only his hind feet touched the ground.
Quickly he made the rope fast to a stout branch, and as
the panther, in answer to his summons, leaped into sight,
Tarzan dropped to the earth beside the struggling and
infuriated Numa, and with a long sharp knife sprang upon him
at one side even as Sheeta did upon the other.
The panther tore and rent Numa upon the right, while the
ape-man struck home with his stone knife upon the other,
so that before the mighty clawing of the king of beasts had
succeeded in parting the rope he hung quite dead and harmless
in the noose.
And then upon the jungle air there rose in unison from two savage
throats the victory cry of the bull-ape and the panther,
blended into one frightful and uncanny scream.
As the last notes died away in a long-drawn, fearsome wail,
a score of painted warriors, drawing their long war-canoe
upon the beach, halted to stare in the direction of the
jungle and to listen.
Chapter 5
Mugambi
By the time that Tarzan had travelled entirely about the coast
of the island, and made several trips inland from various points,
he was sure that he was the only human being upon it.
Nowhere had he found any sign that men had stopped even
temporarily upon this shore, though, of course, he knew that
so quickly does the rank vegetation of the tropics erase all
but the most permanent of human monuments that he might
be in error in his deductions.
The day following the killing of Numa, Tarzan and Sheeta came upon
the tribe of Akut. At sight of the panther the great apes
took to flight, but after a time Tarzan succeeded in recalling them.
It had occurred to him that it would be at least an interesting
experiment to attempt to reconcile these hereditary enemies.
He welcomed anything that would occupy his time and his mind
beyond the filling of his belly and the gloomy thoughts to which
he fell prey the moment that he became idle.
To communicate his plan to the apes was not a particularly
difficult matter, though their narrow and limited vocabulary
was strained in the effort; but to impress upon the little,
wicked brain of Sheeta that he was to hunt with and not for
his legitimate prey proved a task almost beyond the powers
of the ape-man.
Tarzan, among his other weapons, possessed a long, stout
cudgel, and after fastening his rope about the panther's neck
he used this instrument freely upon the snarling beast,
endeavouring in this way to impress upon its memory that
it must not attack the great, shaggy manlike creatures that
had approached more closely once they had seen the purpose
of the rope about Sheeta's neck.
That the cat did not turn and rend Tarzan is something of
a miracle which may possibly be accounted for by the fact
that twice when it turned growling upon the ape-man he had
rapped it sharply upon its sensitive nose, inculcating in its
mind thereby a most wholesome fear of the cudgel and the
ape-beasts behind it.
It is a question if the original cause of his attachment for
Tarzan was still at all clear in the mind of the panther,
though doubtless some subconscious suggestion, superinduced by
this primary reason and aided and abetted by the habit of the past
few days, did much to compel the beast to tolerate treatment at his
hands that would have sent it at the throat of any other creature.
Then, too, there was the compelling force of the manmind exerting
its powerful influence over this creature of a lower order, and,
after all, it may have been this that proved the most potent factor
in Tarzan's supremacy over Sheeta and the other beasts of the jungle
that had from time to time fallen under his domination.
Be that as it may, for days the man, the panther, and the
great apes roamed their savage haunts side by side, making
their kills together and sharing them with one another, and
of all the fierce and savage band none was more terrible than
the smooth-skinned, powerful beast that had been but a few
short months before a familiar figure in many a London
drawing room.
Sometimes the beasts separated to follow their own inclinations
for an hour or a day, and it was upon one of these occasions when
the ape-man had wandered through the tree-tops toward the beach,
and was stretched in the hot sun upon the sand, that from the low
summit of a near-by promontory a pair of keen eyes discovered him.
For a moment the owner of the eyes looked in astonishment
at the figure of the savage white man basking in the
rays of that hot, tropic sun; then he turned, making a sign to
some one behind him. Presently another pair of eyes were
looking down upon the ape-man, and then another and another,
until a full score of hideously trapped, savage warriors
were lying upon their bellies along the crest of the ridge
watching the white-skinned stranger.
They were down wind from Tarzan, and so their scent was
not carried to him, and as his back was turned half toward
them he did not see their cautious advance over the edge of
the promontory and down through the rank grass toward the
sandy beach where he lay.
Big fellows they were, all of them, their barbaric
headdresses and grotesquely painted faces, together with their
many metal ornaments and gorgeously coloured feathers,
adding to their wild, fierce appearance.
Once at the foot of the ridge, they came cautiously to their feet,
and, bent half-double, advanced silently upon the unconscious white man,
their heavy war-clubs swinging menacingly in their brawny hands.
The mental suffering that Tarzan's sorrowful thoughts induced had the
effect of numbing his keen, perceptive faculties, so that the
advancing savages were almost upon him before he became aware
that he was no longer alone upon the beach.
So quickly, though, were his mind and muscles wont to
react in unison to the slightest alarm that he was upon his
feet and facing his enemies, even as he realized that
something was behind him. As he sprang to his feet the warriors
leaped toward him with raised clubs and savage yells, but the
foremost went down to sudden death beneath the long, stout
stick of the ape-man, and then the lithe, sinewy figure was
among them, striking right and left with a fury, power, and
precision that brought panic to the ranks of the blacks.
For a moment they withdrew, those that were left of them,
and consulted together at a short distance from the ape-man,
who stood with folded arms, a half-smile upon his handsome
face, watching them. Presently they advanced upon him once
more, this time wielding their heavy war-spears. They were
between Tarzan and the jungle, in a little semicircle that
closed in upon him as they advanced.
There seemed to the ape-man but slight chance to escape
the final charge when all the great spears should be hurled
simultaneously at him; but if he had desired to escape
there was no way other than through the ranks of the savages
except the open sea behind him.
His predicament was indeed most serious when an idea
occurred to him that altered his smile to a broad grin.
The warriors were still some little distance away,
advancing slowly, making, after the manner of their kind,
a frightful din with their savage yells and the pounding
of their naked feet upon the ground as they leaped up and
down in a fantastic war dance.
Then it was that the ape-man lifted his voice in a series of
wild, weird screams that brought the blacks to a sudden,
perplexed halt. They looked at one another questioningly,
for here was a sound so hideous that their own frightful din
faded into insignificance beside it. No human throat could
have formed those bestial notes, they were sure, and yet with
their own eyes they had seen this white man open his mouth
to pour forth his awful cry.
But only for a moment they hesitated, and then with one accord
they again took up their fantastic advance upon their prey;
but even then a sudden crashing in the jungle behind them
brought them once more to a halt, and as they turned to look
in the direction of this new noise there broke upon their
startled visions a sight that may well have frozen the blood
of braver men than the Wagambi.
Leaping from the tangled vegetation of the jungle's rim
came a huge panther, with blazing eyes and bared fangs, and
in his wake a score of mighty, shaggy apes lumbering rapidly
toward them, half erect upon their short, bowed legs, and
with their long arms reaching to the ground, where their
horny knuckles bore the weight of their ponderous bodies as
they lurched from side to side in their grotesque advance.
The beasts of Tarzan had come in answer to his call.
Before the Wagambi could recover from their astonishment
the frightful horde was upon them from one side and
Tarzan of the Apes from the other. Heavy spears were hurled
and mighty war-clubs wielded, and though apes went down
never to rise, so, too, went down the men of Ugambi.
Sheeta's cruel fangs and tearing talons ripped and tore at
the black hides. Akut's mighty yellow tusks found the jugular
of more than one sleek-skinned savage, and Tarzan of the Apes
was here and there and everywhere, urging on his fierce allies
and taking a heavy toll with his long, slim knife.
In a moment the blacks had scattered for their lives, but
of the score that had crept down the grassy sides of the
promontory only a single warrior managed to escape the horde
that had overwhelmed his people.
This one was Mugambi, chief of the Wagambi of Ugambi,
and as he disappeared in the tangled luxuriousness of the
rank growth upon the ridge's summit only the keen eyes of
the ape-man saw the direction of his flight.
Leaving his pack to eat their fill upon the flesh of their
victims--flesh that he could not touch--Tarzan of the Apes
pursued the single survivor of the bloody fray. Just beyond
the ridge he came within sight of the fleeing black, making
with headlong leaps for a long war-canoe that was drawn
well up upon the beach above the high tide surf.
Noiseless as the fellow's shadow, the ape-man raced after the
terror-stricken black. In the white man's mind was a new plan,
awakened by sight of the war-canoe. If these men had
come to his island from another, or from the mainland,
why not utilize their craft to make his way to the country from
which they had come? Evidently it was an inhabited country,
and no doubt had occasional intercourse with the mainland,
if it were not itself upon the continent of Africa.
A heavy hand fell upon the shoulder of the escaping Mugambi
before he was aware that he was being pursued, and as he
turned to do battle with his assailant giant fingers closed
about his wrists and he was hurled to earth with a giant
astride him before he could strike a blow in his own defence.
In the language of the West Coast, Tarzan spoke to the
prostrate man beneath him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Mugambi, chief of the Wagambi," replied the black.
"I will spare your life," said Tarzan, "if you will promise
to help me to leave this island. What do you answer?"
"I will help you," replied Mugambi. "But now that you
have killed all my warriors, I do not know that even I can
leave your country, for there will be none to wield the paddles,
and without paddlers we cannot cross the water."
Tarzan rose and allowed his prisoner to come to his feet.
The fellow was a magnificent specimen of manhood--a black
counterpart in physique of the splendid white man whom he faced.
"Come!" said the ape-man, and started back in the direction
from which they could hear the snarling and growling
of the feasting pack. Mugambi drew back.
"They will kill us," he said.
"I think not," replied Tarzan. "They are mine."
Still the black hesitated, fearful of the consequences of
approaching the terrible creatures that were dining upon the
bodies of his warriors; but Tarzan forced him to accompany him,
and presently the two emerged from the jungle in full view
of the grisly spectacle upon the beach. At sight of the
men the beasts looked up with menacing growls, but Tarzan
strode in among them, dragging the trembling Wagambi with him.
As he had taught the apes to accept Sheeta, so he taught
them to adopt Mugambi as well, and much more easily; but
Sheeta seemed quite unable to understand that though he had
been called upon to devour Mugambi's warriors he was not
to be allowed to proceed after the same fashion with Mugambi.
However, being well filled, he contented himself with
walking round the terror-stricken savage, emitting low,
menacing growls the while he kept his flaming, baleful
eyes riveted upon the black.
Mugambi, on his part, clung closely to Tarzan, so that the
ape-man could scarce control his laughter at the pitiable
condition to which the chief's fear had reduced him; but at length
the white took the great cat by the scruff of the neck and,
dragging it quite close to the Wagambi, slapped it sharply
upon the nose each time that it growled at the stranger.
At the sight of the thing--a man mauling with his bare
hands one of the most relentless and fierce of the jungle
carnivora--Mugambi's eyes bulged from their sockets, and
from entertaining a sullen respect for the giant white man
who had made him prisoner, the black felt an almost
worshipping awe of Tarzan.
The education of Sheeta progressed so well that in a short
time Mugambi ceased to be the object of his hungry attention,
and the black felt a degree more of safety in his society.
To say that Mugambi was entirely happy or at ease in his
new environment would not be to adhere strictly to the truth.
His eyes were constantly rolling apprehensively from side to
side as now one and now another of the fierce pack chanced
to wander near him, so that for the most of the time it was
principally the whites that showed.
Together Tarzan and Mugambi, with Sheeta and Akut, lay
in wait at the ford for a deer, and when at a word from the
ape-man the four of them leaped out upon the affrighted animal
the black was sure that the poor creature died of fright
before ever one of the great beasts touched it.
Mugambi built a fire and cooked his portion of the kill;
but Tarzan, Sheeta, and Akut tore theirs, raw, with their
sharp teeth, growling among themselves when one ventured
to encroach upon the share of another.
It was not, after all, strange that the white man's ways
should have been so much more nearly related to those of
the beasts than were the savage blacks. We are, all of us,
creatures of habit, and when the seeming necessity for
schooling ourselves in new ways ceases to exist, we fall
naturally and easily into the manners and customs which long
usage has implanted ineradicably within us.
Mugambi from childhood had eaten no meat until it had
been cooked, while Tarzan, on the other hand, had never
tasted cooked food of any sort until he had grown almost to
manhood, and only within the past three or four years had
he eaten cooked meat. Not only did the habit of a lifetime
prompt him to eat it raw, but the craving of his palate as well;
for to him cooked flesh was spoiled flesh when compared
with the rich and juicy meat of a fresh, hot kill.
That he could, with relish, eat raw meat that had been
buried by himself weeks before, and enjoy small rodents and
disgusting grubs, seems to us who have been always "civilized"
a revolting fact; but had we learned in childhood to
eat these things, and had we seen all those about us eat them,
they would seem no more sickening to us now than do many
of our greatest dainties, at which a savage African cannibal
would look with repugnance and turn up his nose.
For instance, there is a tribe in the vicinity of Lake Rudolph
that will eat no sheep or cattle, though its next neighbors
do so. Near by is another tribe that eats donkey-meat--a
custom most revolting to the surrounding tribes that do not
eat donkey. So who may say that it is nice to eat snails and
frogs' legs and oysters, but disgusting to feed upon grubs
and beetles, or that a raw oyster, hoof, horns, and tail, is less
revolting than the sweet, clean meat of a fresh-killed buck?
The next few days Tarzan devoted to the weaving of a barkcloth
sail with which to equip the canoe, for he despaired of being able
to teach the apes to wield the paddles, though he did manage to get
several of them to embark in the frail craft which he and Mugambi
paddled about inside the reef where the water was quite smooth.
During these trips he had placed paddles in their hands,
when they attempted to imitate the movements of him and
Mugambi, but so difficult is it for them long to concentrate
upon a thing that he soon saw that it would require weeks of
patient training before they would be able to make any
effective use of these new implements, if, in fact,
they should ever do so.
There was one exception, however, and he was Akut. Almost from
the first he showed an interest in this new sport that
revealed a much higher plane of intelligence than that
attained by any of his tribe. He seemed to grasp the purpose
of the paddles, and when Tarzan saw that this was so he took
much pains to explain in the meagre language of the anthropoid
how they might be used to the best advantage.
From Mugambi Tarzan learned that the mainland lay but
a short distance from the island. It seemed that the Wagambi
warriors had ventured too far out in their frail craft,
and when caught by a heavy tide and a high wind from offshore
they had been driven out of sight of land. After paddling
for a whole night, thinking that they were headed for home,
they had seen this land at sunrise, and, still taking it for
the mainland, had hailed it with joy, nor had Mugambi been
aware that it was an island until Tarzan had told him that
this was the fact.
The Wagambi chief was quite dubious as to the sail, for
he had never seen such a contrivance used. His country lay
far up the broad Ugambi River, and this was the first occasion
that any of his people had found their way to the ocean.
Tarzan, however, was confident that with a good west wind he
could navigate the little craft to the mainland. At any rate,
he decided, it would be preferable to perish on the way than to
remain indefinitely upon this evidently uncharted island to
which no ships might ever be expected to come.
And so it was that when the first fair wind rose he embarked
upon his cruise, and with him he took as strange and
fearsome a crew as ever sailed under a savage master.
Mugambi and Akut went with him, and Sheeta, the panther,
and a dozen great males of the tribe of Akut.
Chapter 6
A Hideous Crew
The war-canoe with its savage load moved slowly toward the
break in the reef through which it must pass to gain the
open sea. Tarzan, Mugambi, and Akut wielded the paddles,
for the shore kept the west wind from the little sail.
Sheeta crouched in the bow at the ape-man's feet, for it
had seemed best to Tarzan always to keep the wicked beast
as far from the other members of the party as possible,
since it would require little or no provocation to send him
at the throat of any than the white man, whom he evidently
now looked upon as his master.
In the stern was Mugambi, and just in front of him squatted
Akut, while between Akut and Tarzan the twelve hairy apes
sat upon their haunches, blinking dubiously this way and that,
and now and then turning their eyes longingly back toward shore.
All went well until the canoe had passed beyond the reef.
Here the breeze struck the sail, sending the rude craft
lunging among the waves that ran higher and higher as
they drew away from the shore.
With the tossing of the boat the apes became panic-stricken.
They first moved uneasily about, and then commenced grumbling
and whining. With difficulty Akut kept them in hand for a time;
but when a particularly large wave struck the dugout
simultaneously with a little squall of wind their terror
broke all bounds, and, leaping to their feet, they
all but overturned the boat before Akut and Tarzan together
could quiet them. At last calm was restored, and eventually
the apes became accustomed to the strange antics of their craft,
after which no more trouble was experienced with them.
The trip was uneventful, the wind held, and after ten hours'
steady sailing the black shadows of the coast loomed close
before the straining eyes of the ape-man in the bow. It was
far too dark to distinguish whether they had approached close
to the mouth of the Ugambi or not, so Tarzan ran in through
the surf at the closest point to await the dawn.
The dugout turned broadside the instant that its nose
touched the sand, and immediately it rolled over, with all its
crew scrambling madly for the shore. The next breaker rolled
them over and over, but eventually they all succeeded in
crawling to safety, and in a moment more their ungainly craft
had been washed up beside them.
The balance of the night the apes sat huddled close to one
another for warmth; while Mugambi built a fire close to them
over which he crouched. Tarzan and Sheeta, however, were
of a different mind, for neither of them feared the jungle
night, and the insistent craving of their hunger sent them off
into the Stygian blackness of the forest in search of prey.
Side by side they walked when there was room for two abreast.
At other times in single file, first one and then the
other in advance. It was Tarzan who first caught the scent of
meat--a bull buffalo--and presently the two came stealthily
upon the sleeping beast in the midst of a dense jungle of
reeds close to a river.
Closer and closer they crept toward the unsuspecting beast,
Sheeta upon his right side and Tarzan upon his left nearest
the great heart. They had hunted together now for some time,
so that they worked in unison, with only low, purring sounds
as signals.
For a moment they lay quite silent near their prey, and
then at a sign from the ape-man Sheeta sprang upon the
great back, burying his strong teeth in the bull's neck.
Instantly the brute sprang to his feet with a bellow of
pain and rage, and at the same instant Tarzan rushed in
upon his left side with the stone knife, striking repeatedly
behind the shoulder.
One of the ape-man's hands clutched the thick mane, and
as the bull raced madly through the reeds the thing striking
at his life was dragged beside him. Sheeta but clung
tenaciously to his hold upon the neck and back, biting deep in
an effort to reach the spine.
For several hundred yards the bellowing bull carried his two
savage antagonists, until at last the blade found his heart,
when with a final bellow that was half-scream he plunged headlong
to the earth. Then Tarzan and Sheeta feasted to repletion.
After the meal the two curled up together in a thicket, the
man's black head pillowed upon the tawny side of the panther.
Shortly after dawn they awoke and ate again, and then
returned to the beach that Tarzan might lead the balance of
the pack to the kill.
When the meal was done the brutes were for curling up to sleep,
so Tarzan and Mugambi set off in search of the Ugambi River.
They had proceeded scarce a hundred yards when they came
suddenly upon a broad stream, which the Negro instantly
recognized as that down which he and his warriors
had paddled to the sea upon their ill-starred expedition.
The two now followed the stream down to the ocean, finding
that it emptied into a bay not over a mile from the point upon
the beach at which the canoe had been thrown the night before.
Tarzan was much elated by the discovery, as he knew that
in the vicinity of a large watercourse he should find natives,
and from some of these he had little doubt but that he should
obtain news of Rokoff and the child, for he felt reasonably
certain that the Russian would rid himself of the baby as
quickly as possible after having disposed of Tarzan.
He and Mugambi now righted and launched the dugout, though
it was a most difficult feat in the face of the surf which
rolled continuously in upon the beach; but at last they were
successful, and soon after were paddling up the coast toward
the mouth of the Ugambi. Here they experienced considerable
difficulty in making an entrance against the combined
current and ebb tide, but by taking advantage of eddies close
in to shore they came about dusk to a point nearly opposite
the spot where they had left the pack asleep.
Making the craft fast to an overhanging bough, the two
made their way into the jungle, presently coming upon some
of the apes feeding upon fruit a little beyond the reeds where
the buffalo had fallen. Sheeta was not anywhere to be seen,
nor did he return that night, so that Tarzan came to believe
that he had wandered away in search of his own kind.
Early the next morning the ape-man led his band down to the river,
and as he walked he gave vent to a series of shrill cries.
Presently from a great distance and faintly there came
an answering scream, and a half-hour later the lithe form of
Sheeta bounded into view where the others of the pack were
clambering gingerly into the canoe.
The great beast, with arched back and purring like a
contented tabby, rubbed his sides against the ape-man, and then
at a word from the latter sprang lightly to his former place in
the bow of the dugout.
When all were in place it was discovered that two of the
apes of Akut were missing, and though both the king ape
and Tarzan called to them for the better part of an hour, there
was no response, and finally the boat put off without them.
As it happened that the two missing ones were the very same
who had evinced the least desire to accompany the expedition
from the island, and had suffered the most from fright during
the voyage, Tarzan was quite sure that they had absented
themselves purposely rather than again enter the canoe.
As the party were putting in for the shore shortly after
noon to search for food a slender, naked savage watched
them for a moment from behind the dense screen of verdure
which lined the river's bank, then he melted away up-stream
before any of those in the canoe discovered him.
Like a deer he bounded along the narrow trail until, filled
with the excitement of his news, he burst into a native village
several miles above the point at which Tarzan and his pack
had stopped to hunt.
"Another white man is coming!" he cried to the chief
who squatted before the entrance to his circular hut.
"Another white man, and with him are many warriors.
They come in a great war-canoe to kill and rob as did
the black-bearded one who has just left us."
Kaviri leaped to his feet. He had but recently had a taste
of the white man's medicine, and his savage heart was filled
with bitterness and hate. In another moment the rumble of
the war-drums rose from the village, calling in the hunters
from the forest and the tillers from the fields.
Seven war-canoes were launched and manned by paint-daubed,
befeathered warriors. Long spears bristled from the rude
battle-ships, as they slid noiselessly over the bosom of the water,
propelled by giant muscles rolling beneath glistening, ebony hides.
There was no beating of tom-toms now, nor blare of native
horn, for Kaviri was a crafty warrior, and it was in his mind
to take no chances, if they could be avoided. He would swoop
noiselessly down with his seven canoes upon the single one
of the white man, and before the guns of the latter could
inflict much damage upon his people he would have overwhelmed
the enemy by force of numbers.
Kaviri's own canoe went in advance of the others a short
distance, and as it rounded a sharp bend in the river where
the swift current bore it rapidly on its way it came suddenly
upon the thing that Kaviri sought.
So close were the two canoes to one another that the black
had only an opportunity to note the white face in the bow of
the oncoming craft before the two touched and his own men
were upon their feet, yelling like mad devils and thrusting
their long spears at the occupants of the other canoe.
But a moment later, when Kaviri was able to realize the
nature of the crew that manned the white man's dugout, he
would have given all the beads and iron wire that he
possessed to have been safely within his distant village.
Scarcely had the two craft come together than the frightful apes of
Akut rose, growling and barking, from the bottom of the
canoe, and, with long, hairy arms far outstretched, grasped
the menacing spears from the hands of Kaviri's warriors.
The blacks were overcome with terror, but there was nothing
to do other than to fight. Now came the other war-canoes
rapidly down upon the two craft. Their occupants were eager
to join the battle, for they thought that their foes were white
men and their native porters.
They swarmed about Tarzan's craft; but when they saw the nature
of the enemy all but one turned and paddled swiftly upriver.
That one came too close to the ape-man's craft before
its occupants realized that their fellows were pitted
against demons instead of men. As it touched Tarzan spoke
a few low words to Sheeta and Akut, so that before the
attacking warriors could draw away there sprang upon them
with a blood-freezing scream a huge panther, and into the
other end of their canoe clambered a great ape.
At one end the panther wrought fearful havoc with his
mighty talons and long, sharp fangs, while Akut at the other
buried his yellow canines in the necks of those that came
within his reach, hurling the terror-stricken blacks overboard
as he made his way toward the centre of the canoe.
Kaviri was so busily engaged with the demons that had
entered his own craft that he could offer no assistance to his
warriors in the other. A giant of a white devil had wrested
his spear from him as though he, the mighty Kaviri, had been
but a new-born babe. Hairy monsters were overcoming his
fighting men, and a black chieftain like himself was fighting
shoulder to shoulder with the hideous pack that opposed him.
Kaviri battled bravely against his antagonist, for he felt
that death had already claimed him, and so the least that he
could do would be to sell his life as dearly as possible; but it
was soon evident that his best was quite futile when pitted
against the superhuman brawn and agility of the creature that
at last found his throat and bent him back into the bottom of
the canoe.
Presently Kaviri's head began to whirl--objects became
confused and dim before his eyes--there was a great pain in
his chest as he struggled for the breath of life that the thing
upon him was shutting off for ever. Then he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes once more he found, much to
his surprise, that he was not dead. He lay, securely bound,
in the bottom of his own canoe. A great panther sat upon its
haunches, looking down upon him.
Kaviri shuddered and closed his eyes again, waiting for
the ferocious creature to spring upon him and put him out of
his misery of terror.
After a moment, no rending fangs having buried themselves
in his trembling body, he again ventured to open his eyes.
Beyond the panther kneeled the white giant who had
overcome him.
The man was wielding a paddle, while directly behind him
Kaviri saw some of his own warriors similarly engaged.
Back of them again squatted several of the hairy apes.
Tarzan, seeing that the chief had regained consciousness,
addressed him.
"Your warriors tell me that you are the chief of a
numerous people, and that your name is Kaviri," he said.
"Yes," replied the black.
"Why did you attack me? I came in peace."
"Another white man `came in peace' three moons ago,"
replied Kaviri; "and after we had brought him presents of a
goat and cassava and milk, he set upon us with his guns and
killed many of my people, and then went on his way, taking
all of our goats and many of our young men and women."
"I am not as this other white man," replied Tarzan.
"I should not have harmed you had you not set upon me.
Tell me, what was the face of this bad white man like? I am
searching for one who has wronged me. Possibly this may
be the very one."
"He was a man with a bad face, covered with a great,
black beard, and he was very, very wicked--yes, very
wicked indeed."
"Was there a little white child with him?" asked Tarzan,
his heart almost stopped as he awaited the black's answer.
"No, bwana," replied Kaviri, "the white child was not
with this man's party--it was with the other party."
"Other party!" exclaimed Tarzan. "What other party?"
"With the party that the very bad white man was pursuing.
There was a white man, woman, and the child, with six
Mosula porters. They passed up the river three days ahead
of the very bad white man. I think that they were running
away from him."
A white man, woman, and child! Tarzan was puzzled. The child
must be his little Jack; but who could the woman be--and the man?
Was it possible that one of Rokoff's confederates had conspired
with some woman--who had accompanied the Russian--to steal
the baby from him?
If this was the case, they had doubtless purposed returning
the child to civilization and there either claiming a reward or
holding the little prisoner for ransom.
But now that Rokoff had succeeded in chasing them far inland,
up the savage river, there could be little doubt but
that he would eventually overhaul them, unless, as was still
more probable, they should be captured and killed by the
very cannibals farther up the Ugambi, to whom, Tarzan was now
convinced, it had been Rokoff's intention to deliver the baby.
As he talked to Kaviri the canoes had been moving steadily
up-river toward the chief's village. Kaviri's warriors plied the
paddles in the three canoes, casting sidelong, terrified glances
at their hideous passengers. Three of the apes of Akut had
been killed in the encounter, but there were, with Akut, eight
of the frightful beasts remaining, and there was Sheeta, the
panther, and Tarzan and Mugambi.
Kaviri's warriors thought that they had never seen so terrible
a crew in all their lives. Momentarily they expected to
be pounced upon and torn asunder by some of their captors;
and, in fact, it was all that Tarzan and Mugambi and Akut
could do to keep the snarling, ill-natured brutes from snapping
at the glistening, naked bodies that brushed against them
now and then with the movements of the paddlers, whose
very fear added incitement to the beasts.
At Kaviri's camp Tarzan paused only long enough to eat
the food that the blacks furnished, and arrange with the
chief for a dozen men to man the paddles of his canoe.
Kaviri was only too glad to comply with any demands that
the ape-man might make if only such compliance would hasten
the departure of the horrid pack; but it was easier, he
discovered, to promise men than to furnish them, for when
his people learned his intentions those that had not already
fled into the jungle proceeded to do so without loss of time,
so that when Kaviri turned to point out those who were to
accompany Tarzan, he discovered that he was the only member
of his tribe left within the village.
Tarzan could not repress a smile.
"They do not seem anxious to accompany us," he said;
"but just remain quietly here, Kaviri, and presently you
shall see your people flocking to your side."
Then the ape-man rose, and, calling his pack about him,
commanded that Mugambi remain with Kaviri, and disappeared
in the jungle with Sheeta and the apes at his heels.
For half an hour the silence of the grim forest was broken
only by the ordinary sounds of the teeming life that but adds
to its lowering loneliness. Kaviri and Mugambi sat alone in
the palisaded village, waiting.
Presently from a great distance came a hideous sound.
Mugambi recognized the weird challenge of the ape-man.
Immediately from different points of the compass rose a
horrid semicircle of similar shrieks and screams, punctuated
now and again by the blood-curdling cry of a hungry panther.
Chapter 7
Betrayed
The two savages, Kaviri and Mugambi, squatting before
the entrance to Kaviri's hut, looked at one another--
Kaviri with ill-concealed alarm.
"What is it?" he whispered.
"It is Bwana Tarzan and his people," replied Mugambi.
"But what they are doing I know not, unless it be that they
are devouring your people who ran away."
Kaviri shuddered and rolled his eyes fearfully toward the jungle.
In all his long life in the savage forest he had never
heard such an awful, fearsome din.
Closer and closer came the sounds, and now with them were
mingled the terrified shrieks of women and children and
of men. For twenty long minutes the blood-curdling cries
continued, until they seemed but a stone's throw from
the palisade. Kaviri rose to flee, but Mugambi seized and
held him, for such had been the command of Tarzan.
A moment later a horde of terrified natives burst from the jungle,
racing toward the shelter of their huts. Like frightened sheep
they ran, and behind them, driving them as sheep might be driven,
came Tarzan and Sheeta and the hideous apes of Akut.
Presently Tarzan stood before Kaviri, the old quiet smile upon his lips.
"Your people have returned, my brother," he said, "and
now you may select those who are to accompany me and
paddle my canoe."
Tremblingly Kaviri tottered to his feet, calling to his people
to come from their huts; but none responded to his summons.
"Tell them," suggested Tarzan, "that if they do not come
I shall send my people in after them."
Kaviri did as he was bid, and in an instant the entire
population of the village came forth, their wide and frightened
eyes rolling from one to another of the savage creatures that
wandered about the village street.
Quickly Kaviri designated a dozen warriors to accompany Tarzan.
The poor fellows went almost white with terror at the
prospect of close contact with the panther and the apes in
the narrow confines of the canoes; but when Kaviri explained
to them that there was no escape--that Bwana Tarzan
would pursue them with his grim horde should they attempt
to run away from the duty--they finally went gloomily down
to the river and took their places in the canoe.
It was with a sigh of relief that their chieftain saw the party
disappear about a headland a short distance up-river.
For three days the strange company continued farther and
farther into the heart of the savage country that lies on either
side of the almost unexplored Ugambi. Three of the twelve
warriors deserted during that time; but as several of the apes
had finally learned the secret of the paddles, Tarzan felt no
dismay because of the loss.
As a matter of fact, he could have travelled much more
rapidly on shore, but he believed that he could hold his own
wild crew together to better advantage by keeping them to
the boat as much as possible. Twice a day they landed to hunt
and feed, and at night they slept upon the bank of the mainland
or on one of the numerous little islands that dotted the river.
Before them the natives fled in alarm, so that they found
only deserted villages in their path as they proceeded.
Tarzan was anxious to get in touch with some of the savages
who dwelt upon the river's banks, but so far he had been unable
to do so.
Finally he decided to take to the land himself, leaving his
company to follow after him by boat. He explained to Mugambi
the thing that he had in mind, and told Akut to follow
the directions of the black.
"I will join you again in a few days," he said. "Now I go
ahead to learn what has become of the very bad white man
whom I seek."
At the next halt Tarzan took to the shore, and was soon
lost to the view of his people.
The first few villages he came to were deserted, showing
that news of the coming of his pack had travelled rapidly;
but toward evening he came upon a distant cluster of thatched
huts surrounded by a rude palisade, within which were a
couple of hundred natives.
The women were preparing the evening meal as Tarzan of
the Apes poised above them in the branches of a giant tree
which overhung the palisade at one point.
The ape-man was at a loss as to how he might enter into
communication with these people without either frightening
them or arousing their savage love of battle. He had no desire
to fight now, for he was upon a much more important mission
than that of battling with every chance tribe that he
should happen to meet with.
At last he hit upon a plan, and after seeing that he was
concealed from the view of those below, he gave a few hoarse
grunts in imitation of a panther. All eyes immediately turned
upward toward the foliage above.
It was growing dark, and they could not penetrate the leafy
screen which shielded the ape-man from their view. The moment
that he had won their attention he raised his voice to
the shriller and more hideous scream of the beast he personated,
and then, scarce stirring a leaf in his descent, dropped
to the ground once again outside the palisade, and, with the
speed of a deer, ran quickly round to the village gate.
Here he beat upon the fibre-bound saplings of which the
barrier was constructed, shouting to the natives in their own
tongue that he was a friend who wished food and shelter for
the night.
Tarzan knew well the nature of the black man. He was
aware that the grunting and screaming of Sheeta in the tree
above them would set their nerves on edge, and that his
pounding upon their gate after dark would still further add
to their terror.
That they did not reply to his hail was no surprise, for
natives are fearful of any voice that comes out of the night
from beyond their palisades, attributing it always to some
demon or other ghostly visitor; but still he continued to call.
"Let me in, my friends!" he cried. "I am a white man
pursuing the very bad white man who passed this way a few
days ago. I follow to punish him for the sins he has committed
against you and me.
"If you doubt my friendship, I will prove it to you by going
into the tree above your village and driving Sheeta back into
the jungle before he leaps among you. If you will not promise
to take me in and treat me as a friend I shall let Sheeta stay
and devour you."
For a moment there was silence. Then the voice of an old
man came out of the quiet of the village street.
"If you are indeed a white man and a friend, we will let
you come in; but first you must drive Sheeta away."
"Very well," replied Tarzan. "Listen, and you shall hear
Sheeta fleeing before me."
The ape-man returned quickly to the tree, and this time he
made a great noise as he entered the branches, at the same
time growling ominously after the manner of the panther, so that
those below would believe that the great beast was still there.
When he reached a point well above the village street he
made a great commotion, shaking the tree violently, crying
aloud to the panther to flee or be killed, and punctuating his
own voice with the screams and mouthings of an angry beast.
Presently he raced toward the opposite side of the tree and
off into the jungle, pounding loudly against the boles of trees
as he went, and voicing the panther's diminishing growls as
he drew farther and farther away from the village.
A few minutes later he returned to the village gate, calling
to the natives within.
"I have driven Sheeta away," he said. "Now come and
admit me as you promised."
For a time there was the sound of excited discussion within
the palisade, but at length a half-dozen warriors came and
opened the gates, peering anxiously out in evident trepidation
as to the nature of the creature which they should find
waiting there. They were not much relieved at sight of an
almost naked white man; but when Tarzan had reassured
them in quiet tones, protesting his friendship for them,
they opened the barrier a trifle farther and admitted him.
When the gates had been once more secured the self-confidence
of the savages returned, and as Tarzan walked up the village street
toward the chief's hut he was surrounded by a host of curious men,
women, and children.
From the chief he learned that Rokoff had passed up the
river a week previous, and that he had horns growing from
his forehead, and was accompanied by a thousand devils.
Later the chief said that the very bad white man had remained
a month in his village.
Though none of these statements agreed with Kaviri's, that
the Russian was but three days gone from the chieftain's
village and that his following was much smaller than now stated,
Tarzan was in no manner surprised at the discrepancies, for
he was quite familiar with the savage mind's strange manner
of functioning.
What he was most interested in knowing was that he was upon
the right trail, and that it led toward the interior. In this
circumstance he knew that Rokoff could never escape him.
After several hours of questioning and cross-questioning
the ape-man learned that another party had preceded the
Russian by several days--three whites--a man, a woman,
and a little man-child, with several Mosulas.
Tarzan explained to the chief that his people would follow
him in a canoe, probably the next day, and that though he
might go on ahead of them the chief was to receive them
kindly and have no fear of them, for Mugambi would see
that they did not harm the chief's people, if they were
accorded a friendly reception.
"And now," he concluded, "I shall lie down beneath this
tree and sleep. I am very tired. Permit no one to disturb me."
The chief offered him a hut, but Tarzan, from past experience
of native dwellings, preferred the open air, and, further,
he had plans of his own that could be better carried out
if he remained beneath the tree. He gave as his reason a
desire to be close at hand should Sheeta return, and after this
explanation the chief was very glad to permit him to sleep
beneath the tree.
Tarzan had always found that it stood him in good stead
to leave with natives the impression that he was to some
extent possessed of more or less miraculous powers. He might
easily have entered their village without recourse to the
gates, but he believed that a sudden and unaccountable
disappearance when he was ready to leave them would result
in a more lasting impression upon their childlike minds, and
so as soon as the village was quiet in sleep he rose, and,
leaping into the branches of the tree above him, faded silently
into the black mystery of the jungle night.
All the balance of that night the ape-man swung rapidly
through the upper and middle terraces of the forest. When the
going was good there he preferred the upper branches of the
giant trees, for then his way was better lighted by the moon;
but so accustomed were all his senses to the grim world of
his birth that it was possible for him, even in the dense,
black shadows near the ground, to move with ease and rapidity.
You or I walking beneath the arcs of Main Street, or Broadway,
or State Street, could not have moved more surely or with
a tenth the speed of the agile ape-man through the
gloomy mazes that would have baffled us entirely.
At dawn he stopped to feed, and then he slept for several
hours, taking up the pursuit again toward noon.
Twice he came upon natives, and, though he had considerable
difficulty in approaching them, he succeeded in each
instance in quieting both their fears and bellicose intentions
toward him, and learned from them that he was upon the trail
of the Russian.
Two days later, still following up the Ugambi, he came
upon a large village. The chief, a wicked-looking fellow with
the sharp-filed teeth that often denote the cannibal, received
him with apparent friendliness.
The ape-man was now thoroughly fatigued, and had determined
to rest for eight or ten hours that he might be fresh
and strong when he caught up with Rokoff, as he was sure
he must do within a very short time.
The chief told him that the bearded white man had left his
village only the morning before, and that doubtless he would
be able to overtake him in a short time. The other party the
chief had not seen or heard of, so he said.
Tarzan did not like the appearance or manner of the fellow,
who seemed, though friendly enough, to harbour a certain
contempt for this half-naked white man who came with no
followers and offered no presents; but he needed the rest and
food that the village would afford him with less effort than
the jungle, and so, as he knew no fear of man, beast, or
devil, he curled himself up in the shadow of a hut and was
soon asleep.
Scarcely had he left the chief than the latter called two of
his warriors, to whom he whispered a few instructions.
A moment later the sleek, black bodies were racing along the
river path, up-stream, toward the east.
In the village the chief maintained perfect quiet. He would
permit no one to approach the sleeping visitor, nor any
singing, nor loud talking. He was remarkably solicitous
lest his guest be disturbed.
Three hours later several canoes came silently into view
from up the Ugambi. They were being pushed ahead rapidly
by the brawny muscles of their black crews. Upon the bank
before the river stood the chief, his spear raised in a
horizontal position above his head, as though in some
manner of predetermined signal to those within the boats.
And such indeed was the purpose of his attitude--which
meant that the white stranger within his village still
slept peacefully.
In the bows of two of the canoes were the runners that the
chief had sent forth three hours earlier. It was evident that
they had been dispatched to follow and bring back this party,
and that the signal from the bank was one that had been
determined upon before they left the village.
In a few moments the dugouts drew up to the verdure-clad bank.
The native warriors filed out, and with them a half-dozen
white men. Sullen, ugly-looking customers they were,
and none more so than the evil-faced, black-bearded man
who commanded them.
"Where is the white man your messengers report to be
with you?" he asked of the chief.
"This way, bwana," replied the native. "Carefully have
I kept silence in the village that he might be still asleep when
you returned. I do not know that he is one who seeks you to
do you harm, but he questioned me closely about your coming
and your going, and his appearance is as that of the one
you described, but whom you believed safe in the country
which you called Jungle Island.
"Had you not told me this tale I should not have recognized
him, and then he might have gone after and slain you.
If he is a friend and no enemy, then no harm has been done,
bwana; but if he proves to be an enemy, I should like very
much to have a rifle and some ammunition."
"You have done well," replied the white man, "and you
shall have the rifle and ammunition whether he be a friend
or enemy, provided that you stand with me."
"I shall stand with you, bwana," said the chief,
"and now come and look upon the stranger, who sleeps
within my village."
So saying, he turned and led the way toward the hut, in the
shadow of which the unconscious Tarzan slept peacefully.
Behind the two men came the remaining whites and a score
of warriors; but the raised forefingers of the chief and
his companion held them all to perfect silence.
As they turned the corner of the hut, cautiously and upon
tiptoe, an ugly smile touched the lips of the white as his eyes
fell upon the giant figure of the sleeping ape-man.
The chief looked at the other inquiringly. The latter nodded
his head, to signify that the chief had made no mistake
in his suspicions. Then he turned to those behind him and,
pointing to the sleeping man, motioned for them to seize
and bind him.
A moment later a dozen brutes had leaped upon the surprised
Tarzan, and so quickly did they work that he was securely
bound before he could make half an effort to escape.
Then they threw him down upon his back, and as his eyes
turned toward the crowd that stood near, they fell upon the
malign face of Nikolas Rokoff.
A sneer curled the Russian's lips. He stepped quite close
to Tarzan.
"Pig!" he cried. "Have you not learned sufficient
wisdom to keep away from Nikolas Rokoff?"
Then he kicked the prostrate man full in the face.
"That for your welcome," he said.
"Tonight, before my Ethiop friends eat you, I shall tell
you what has already befallen your wife and child, and what
further plans I have for their futures."
Chapter 8
The Dance of Death
Through the luxuriant, tangled vegetation of the Stygian
jungle night a great lithe body made its way sinuously
and in utter silence upon its soft padded feet. Only two
blazing points of yellow-green flame shone occasionally with
the reflected light of the equatorial moon that now and again
pierced the softly sighing roof rustling in the night wind.
Occasionally the beast would stop with high-held nose,
sniffing searchingly. At other times a quick, brief incursion
into the branches above delayed it momentarily in its steady
journey toward the east. To its sensitive nostrils came the
subtle unseen spoor of many a tender four-footed creature,
bringing the slaver of hunger to the cruel, drooping jowl.
But steadfastly it kept on its way, strangely ignoring the
cravings of appetite that at another time would have sent
the rolling, fur-clad muscles flying at some soft throat.
All that night the creature pursued its lonely way, and the
next day it halted only to make a single kill, which it tore
to fragments and devoured with sullen, grumbling rumbles as
though half famished for lack of food.
It was dusk when it approached the palisade that surrounded
a large native village. Like the shadow of a swift and silent
death it circled the village, nose to ground, halting at last
close to the palisade, where it almost touched the backs
of several huts. Here the beast sniffed for a moment, and then,
turning its head upon one side, listened with up-pricked ears.
What it heard was no sound by the standards of human ears,
yet to the highly attuned and delicate organs of the beast
a message seemed to be borne to the savage brain. A wondrous
transformation was wrought in the motionless mass of
statuesque bone and muscle that had an instant before stood
as though carved out of the living bronze.
As if it had been poised upon steel springs, suddenly released,
it rose quickly and silently to the top of the palisade,
disappearing, stealthily and catlike, into the dark space
between the wall and the back of an adjacent hut.
In the village street beyond women were preparing many little
fires and fetching cooking-pots filled with water, for a great
feast was to be celebrated ere the night was many hours older.
About a stout stake near the centre of the circling fires
a little knot of black warriors stood conversing, their bodies
smeared with white and blue and ochre in broad and grotesque bands.
Great circles of colour were drawn about their eyes and lips,
their breasts and abdomens, and from their clay-plastered
coiffures rose gay feathers and bits of long, straight wire.
The village was preparing for the feast, while in a hut at
one side of the scene of the coming orgy the bound victim of
their bestial appetites lay waiting for the end. And such an end!
Tarzan of the Apes, tensing his mighty muscles, strained
at the bonds that pinioned him; but they had been re-enforced
many times at the instigation of the Russian, so that not even
the ape-man's giant brawn could budge them.
Death!
Tarzan had looked the Hideous Hunter in the face many a time,
and smiled. And he would smile again tonight when he knew
the end was coming quickly; but now his thoughts were not
of himself, but of those others--the dear ones who must
suffer most because of his passing.
Jane would never know the manner of it. For that he thanked Heaven;
and he was thankful also that she at least was safe in the heart of
the world's greatest city. Safe among kind and loving friends who
would do their best to lighten her misery.
But the boy!
Tarzan writhed at the thought of him. His son! And now
he--the mighty Lord of the Jungle--he, Tarzan, King of the
Apes, the only one in all the world fitted to find and save the
child from the horrors that Rokoff's evil mind had planned--
had been trapped like a silly, dumb creature. He was to die
in a few hours, and with him would go the child's last chance
of succour.
Rokoff had been in to see and revile and abuse him several
times during the afternoon; but he had been able to wring no
word of remonstrance or murmur of pain from the lips of the
giant captive.
So at last he had given up, reserving his particular bit of
exquisite mental torture for the last moment, when, just
before the savage spears of the cannibals should for e