Tarzan the Untamed
by
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Part 1 out of 6
Created by Judith Boss, Omaha, NE.
Tarzan the Untamed
By Edgar Rice Burroughs
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I Murder and Pillage
II The Lion's Cave
III In the German Lines
IV When the Lion Fed
V The Golden Locket
VI Vengeance and Mercy
VII When Blood Told
VIII Tarzan and the Great Apes
IX Dropped from the Sky
X In the Hands of Savages
XI Finding the Airplane
XII The Black Flier
XIII Usanga's Reward
XIV The Black Lion
XV Mysterious Footprints
XVI The Night Attack
XVII The Walled City
XVIII Among the Maniacs
XIX The Queen's Story
XX Came Tarzan
XXI In the Alcove
XXII Out of the Niche
XXIII The Flight from Xuja
XXIV The Tommies
Murder and Pillage
Hauptmann Fritz Schneider trudged wearily through the somber aisles
of the dark forest. Sweat rolled down his bullet head and stood
upon his heavy jowls and bull neck. His lieutenant marched beside
him while Underlieutenant von Goss brought up the rear, following
with a handful of askaris the tired and all but exhausted porters
whom the black soldiers, following the example of their white officer,
encouraged with the sharp points of bayonets and the metal-shod
butts of rifles.
There were no porters within reach of Hauptmann Schneider so he
vented his Prussian spleen upon the askaris nearest at hand, yet
with greater circumspection since these men bore loaded rifles--and
the three white men were alone with them in the heart of Africa.
Ahead of the hauptmann marched half his company, behind him the
other half--thus were the dangers of the savage jungle minimized
for the German captain. At the forefront of the column staggered
two naked savages fastened to each other by a neck chain. These
were the native guides impressed into the service of Kultur and upon
their poor, bruised bodies Kultur's brand was revealed in divers
cruel wounds and bruises.
Thus even in darkest Africa was the light of German civilization
commencing to reflect itself upon the undeserving natives just as
at the same period, the fall of 1914, it was shedding its glorious
effulgence upon benighted Belgium.
It is true that the guides had led the party astray; but this is
the way of most African guides. Nor did it matter that ignorance
rather than evil intent had been the cause of their failure. It
was enough for Hauptmann Fritz Schneider to know that he was lost
in the African wilderness and that he had at hand human beings less
powerful than he who could be made to suffer by torture. That he
did not kill them outright was partially due to a faint hope that
they might eventually prove the means of extricating him from his
difficulties and partially that so long as they lived they might
still be made to suffer.
The poor creatures, hoping that chance might lead them at last
upon the right trail, insisted that they knew the way and so led
on through a dismal forest along a winding game trail trodden deep
by the feet of countless generations of the savage denizens of the
jungle.
Here Tantor, the elephant, took his long way from dust wallow to
water. Here Buto, the rhinoceros, blundered blindly in his solitary
majesty, while by night the great cats paced silently upon their
padded feet beneath the dense canopy of overreaching trees toward
the broad plain beyond, where they found their best hunting.
It was at the edge of this plain which came suddenly and unexpectedly
before the eyes of the guides that their sad hearts beat with
renewed hope. Here the hauptmann drew a deep sigh of relief, for
after days of hopeless wandering through almost impenetrable jungle
the broad vista of waving grasses dotted here and there with open
park like woods and in the far distance the winding line of green
shrubbery that denoted a river appeared to the European a veritable
heaven.
The Hun smiled in his relief, passed a cheery word with his lieutenant,
and then scanned the broad plain with his field glasses. Back and
forth they swept across the rolling land until at last they came
to rest upon a point near the center of the landscape and close to
the green-fringed contours of the river.
"We are in luck," said Schneider to his companions. "Do you see
it?"
The lieutenant, who was also gazing through his own glasses,
finally brought them to rest upon the same spot that had held the
attention of his superior.
"Yes," he said, "an English farm. It must be Greystoke's, for there
is none other in this part of British East Africa. God is with us,
Herr Captain."
"We have come upon the English schweinhund long before he can have
learned that his country is at war with ours," replied Schneider.
"Let him be the first to feel the iron hand of Germany."
"Let us hope that he is at home," said the lieutenant, "that we
may take him with us when we report to Kraut at Nairobi. It will
go well indeed with Herr Hauptmann Fritz Schneider if he brings in
the famous Tarzan of the Apes as a prisoner of war."
Schneider smiled and puffed out his chest. "You are right, my
friend," he said, "it will go well with both of us; but I shall
have to travel far to catch General Kraut before he reaches Mombasa.
These English pigs with their contemptible army will make good time
to the Indian Ocean."
It was in a better frame of mind that the small force set out across
the open country toward the trim and well-kept farm buildings of
John Clayton, Lord Greystoke; but disappointment was to be their
lot since neither Tarzan of the Apes nor his son was at home.
Lady Jane, ignorant of the fact that a state of war existed between
Great Britain and Germany, welcomed the officers most hospitably
and gave orders through her trusted Waziri to prepare a feast for
the black soldiers of the enemy.
Far to the east, Tarzan of the Apes was traveling rapidly from
Nairobi toward the farm. At Nairobi he had received news of the
World War that had already started, and, anticipating an immediate
invasion of British East Africa by the Germans, was hurrying homeward
to fetch his wife to a place of greater security. With him were a
score of his ebon warriors, but far too slow for the ape-man was
the progress of these trained and hardened woodsmen.
When necessity demanded, Tarzan of the Apes sloughed the thin
veneer of his civilization and with it the hampering apparel that
was its badge. In a moment the polished English gentleman reverted
to the naked ape man.
His mate was in danger. For the time, that single thought dominated.
He did not think of her as Lady Jane Greystoke, but rather as the
she he had won by the might of his steel thews, and that he must
hold and protect by virtue of the same offensive armament.
It was no member of the House of Lords who swung swiftly and grimly
through the tangled forest or trod with untiring muscles the wide
stretches of open plain--it was a great he ape filled with a single
purpose that excluded all thoughts of fatigue or danger.
Little Manu, the monkey, scolding and chattering in the upper
terraces of the forest, saw him pass. Long had it been since he had
thus beheld the great Tarmangani naked and alone hurtling through
the jungle. Bearded and gray was Manu, the monkey, and to his dim
old eyes came the fire of recollection of those days when Tarzan
of the Apes had ruled supreme, Lord of the Jungle, over all the
myriad life that trod the matted vegetation between the boles of
the great trees, or flew or swung or climbed in the leafy fastness
upward to the very apex of the loftiest terraces.
And Numa, the lion, lying up for the day close beside last night's
successful kill, blinked his yellow-green eyes and twitched his
tawny tail as he caught the scent spoor of his ancient enemy.
Nor was Tarzan senseless to the presence of Numa or Manu or any of
the many jungle beasts he passed in his rapid flight towards the
west. No particle had his shallow probing of English society dulled
his marvelous sense faculties. His nose had picked out the presence
of Numa, the lion, even before the majestic king of beasts was
aware of his passing.
He had heard noisy little Manu, and even the soft rustling of the
parting shrubbery where Sheeta passed before either of these alert
animals sensed his presence.
But however keen the senses of the ape-man, however swift his
progress through the wild country of his adoption, however mighty
the muscles that bore him, he was still mortal. Time and space
placed their inexorable limits upon him; nor was there another who
realized this truth more keenly than Tarzan. He chafed and fretted
that he could not travel with the swiftness of thought and that the
long tedious miles stretching far ahead of him must require hours
and hours of tireless effort upon his part before he would swing
at last from the final bough of the fringing forest into the open
plain and in sight of his goal.
Days it took, even though he lay up at night for but a few hours
and left to chance the finding of meat directly on his trail. If
Wappi, the antelope, or Horta, the boar, chanced in his way when
he was hungry, he ate, pausing but long enough to make the kill
and cut himself a steak.
Then at last the long journey drew to its close and he was passing
through the last stretch of heavy forest that bounded his estate
upon the east, and then this was traversed and he stood upon the
plain's edge looking out across his broad lands towards his home.
At the first glance his eyes narrowed and his muscles tensed. Even
at that distance he could see that something was amiss. A thin
spiral of smoke arose at the right of the bungalow where the barns
had stood, but there were no barns there now, and from the bungalow
chimney from which smoke should have arisen, there arose nothing.
Once again Tarzan of the Apes was speeding onward, this time even
more swiftly than before, for he was goaded now by a nameless fear,
more product of intuition than of reason. Even as the beasts,
Tarzan of the Apes seemed to possess a sixth sense. Long before he
reached the bungalow, he had almost pictured the scene that finally
broke upon his view.
Silent and deserted was the vine-covered cottage. Smoldering embers
marked the site of his great barns. Gone were the thatched huts of
his sturdy retainers, empty the fields, the pastures, and corrals.
Here and there vultures rose and circled above the carcasses of
men and beasts.
It was with a feeling as nearly akin to terror as he ever had
experienced that the ape-man finally forced himself to enter his
home. The first sight that met his eyes set the red haze of hate
and bloodlust across his vision, for there, crucified against the
wall of the living-room, was Wasimbu, giant son of the faithful
Muviro and for over a year the personal bodyguard of Lady Jane.
The overturned and shattered furniture of the room, the brown pools
of dried blood upon the floor, and prints of bloody hands on walls
and woodwork evidenced something of the frightfulness of the battle
that had been waged within the narrow confines of the apartment.
Across the baby grand piano lay the corpse of another black warrior,
while before the door of Lady Jane's boudoir were the dead bodies
of three more of the faithful Greystoke servants.
The door of this room was closed. With drooping shoulders and dull
eyes Tarzan stood gazing dumbly at the insensate panel which hid
from him what horrid secret he dared not even guess.
Slowly, with leaden feet, he moved toward the door. Gropingly his
hand reached for the knob. Thus he stood for another long minute,
and then with a sudden gesture he straightened his giant frame,
threw back his mighty shoulders and, with fearless head held high,
swung back the door and stepped across the threshold into the
room which held for him the dearest memories and associations of
his life. No change of expression crossed his grim and stern-set
features as he strode across the room and stood beside the little
couch and the inanimate form which lay face downward upon it; the
still, silent thing that had pulsed with life and youth and love.
No tear dimmed the eye of the ape-man, but the God who made him alone
could know the thoughts that passed through that still half-savage
brain. For a long time he stood there just looking down upon the
dead body, charred beyond recognition, and then he stooped and lifted
it in his arms. As he turned the body over and saw how horribly
death had been meted he plumbed, in that instant, the uttermost
depths of grief and horror and hatred.
Nor did he require the evidence of the broken German rifle in the
outer room, or the torn and blood-stained service cap upon the
floor, to tell him who had been the perpetrators of this horrid
and useless crime.
For a moment he had hoped against hope that the blackened corpse was
not that of his mate, but when his eyes discovered and recognized
the rings upon her fingers the last faint ray of hope forsook him.
In silence, in love, and in reverence he buried, in the little
rose garden that had been Jane Clayton's pride and love, the poor,
charred form and beside it the great black warriors who had given
their lives so futilely in their mistress' protection.
At one side of the house Tarzan found other newly made graves
and in these he sought final evidence of the identity of the real
perpetrators of the atrocities that had been committed there in
his absence.
Here he disinterred the bodies of a dozen German askaris and found
upon their uniforms the insignia of the company and regiment to
which they had belonged. This was enough for the ape-man. White
officers had commanded these men, nor would it be a difficult task
to discover who they were.
Returning to the rose garden, he stood among the Hun trampled
blooms and bushes above the grave of his dead-with bowed head he
stood there in a last mute farewell. As the sun sank slowly behind
the towering forests of the west, he turned slowly away upon the
still-distinct trail of Hauptmann Fritz Schneider and his blood-stained
company.
His was the suffering of the dumb brute--mute; but though voiceless
no less poignant. At first his vast sorrow numbed his other faculties
of thought--his brain was overwhelmed by the calamity to such an
extent that it reacted to but a single objective suggestion: She is
dead! She is dead! She is dead! Again and again this phrase beat
monotonously upon his brain--a dull, throbbing pain, yet mechanically
his feet followed the trail of her slayer while, subconsciously,
his every sense was upon the alert for the ever-present perils of
the jungle.
Gradually the labor of his great grief brought forth another
emotion so real, so tangible, that it seemed a companion walking
at his side. It was Hate--and it brought to him a measure of solace
and of comfort, for it was a sublime hate that ennobled him as
it has ennobled countless thousands since-hatred for Germany and
Germans. It centered about the slayer of his mate, of course; but
it included everything German, animate or inanimate. As the thought
took firm hold upon him he paused and raising his face to Goro, the
moon, cursed with upraised hand the authors of the hideous crime
that had been perpetrated in that once peaceful bungalow behind
him; and he cursed their progenitors, their progeny, and all their
kind the while he took silent oath to war upon them relentlessly
until death overtook him.
There followed almost immediately a feeling of content, for, where
before his future at best seemed but a void, now it was filled
with possibilities the contemplation of which brought him, if not
happiness, at least a surcease of absolute grief, for before him
lay a great work that would occupy his time.
Stripped not only of all the outward symbols of civilization, Tarzan
had also reverted morally and mentally to the status of the savage
beast he had been reared. Never had his civilization been more than
a veneer put on for the sake of her he loved because he thought it
made her happier to see him thus. In reality he had always held the
outward evidences of so-called culture in deep contempt. Civilization
meant to Tarzan of the Apes a curtailment of freedom in all its
aspects--freedom of action, freedom of thought, freedom of love,
freedom of hate. Clothes he abhorred--uncomfortable, hideous,
confining things that reminded him somehow of bonds securing him to
the life he had seen the poor creatures of London and Paris living.
Clothes were the emblems of that hypocrisy for which civilization
stood--a pretense that the wearers were ashamed of what the clothes
covered, of the human form made in the semblance of God. Tarzan
knew how silly and pathetic the lower orders of animals appeared in
the clothing of civilization, for he had seen several poor creatures
thus appareled in various traveling shows in Europe, and he knew,
too, how silly and pathetic man appears in them since the only men
he had seen in the first twenty years of his life had been, like
himself, naked savages. The ape-man had a keen admiration for a
well-muscled, well-proportioned body, whether lion, or antelope,
or man, and it had ever been beyond him to understand how clothes
could be considered more beautiful than a clear, firm, healthy
skin, or coat and trousers more graceful than the gentle curves of
rounded muscles playing beneath a flexible hide.
In civilization Tarzan had found greed and selfishness and cruelty
far beyond that which he had known in his familiar, savage jungle,
and though civilization had given him his mate and several friends
whom he loved and admired, he never had come to accept it as you
and I who have known little or nothing else; so it was with a sense
of relief that he now definitely abandoned it and all that it stood
for, and went forth into the jungle once again stripped to his loin
cloth and weapons.
The hunting knife of his father hung at his left hip, his bow and
his quiver of arrows were slung across his shoulders, while around
his chest over one shoulder and beneath the opposite arm was coiled
the long grass rope without which Tarzan would have felt quite as
naked as would you should you be suddenly thrust upon a busy highway
clad only in a union suit. A heavy war spear which he sometimes
carried in one hand and again slung by a thong about his neck so
that it hung down his back completed his armament and his apparel.
The diamond-studded locket with the pictures of his mother and
father that he had worn always until he had given it as a token
of his highest devotion to Jane Clayton before their marriage was
missing. She always had worn it since, but it had not been upon
her body when he found her slain in her boudoir, so that now his
quest for vengeance included also a quest for the stolen trinket.
Toward midnight Tarzan commenced to feel the physical strain of
his long hours of travel and to realize that even muscles such as
his had their limitations. His pursuit of the murderers had not
been characterized by excessive speed; but rather more in keeping
with his mental attitude, which was marked by a dogged determination
to require from the Germans more than an eye for an eye and more
than a tooth for a tooth, the element of time entering but slightly
into his calculations.
Inwardly as well as outwardly Tarzan had reverted to beast and in
the lives of beasts, time, as a measurable aspect of duration, has
no meaning. The beast is actively interested only in NOW, and as
it is always NOW and always shall be, there is an eternity of time
for the accomplishment of objects. The ape-man, naturally, had a
slightly more comprehensive realization of the limitations of time;
but, like the beasts, he moved with majestic deliberation when no
emergency prompted him to swift action.
Having dedicated his life to vengeance, vengeance became his natural
state and, therefore, no emergency, so he took his time in pursuit.
That he had not rested earlier was due to the fact that he had
felt no fatigue, his mind being occupied by thoughts of sorrow and
revenge; but now he realized that he was tired, and so he sought
a jungle giant that had harbored him upon more than a single other
jungle night.
Dark clouds moving swiftly across the heavens now and again eclipsed
the bright face of Goro, the moon, and forewarned the ape-man
of impending storm. In the depth of the jungle the cloud shadows
produced a thick blackness that might almost be felt--a blackness
that to you and me might have proven terrifying with its accompaniment
of rustling leaves and cracking twigs, and its even more suggestive
intervals of utter silence in which the crudest of imaginations
might have conjured crouching beasts of prey tensed for the fatal
charge; but through it Tarzan passed unconcerned, yet always alert.
Now he swung lightly to the lower terraces of the overarching
trees when some subtle sense warned him that Numa lay upon a kill
directly in his path, or again he sprang lightly to one side as
Buto, the rhinoceros, lumbered toward him along the narrow, deep-worn
trail, for the ape-man, ready to fight upon necessity's slightest
pretext, avoided unnecessary quarrels.
When he swung himself at last into the tree he sought, the moon was
obscured by a heavy cloud, and the tree tops were waving wildly in
a steadily increasing wind whose soughing drowned the lesser noises
of the jungle. Upward went Tarzan toward a sturdy crotch across which
he long since had laid and secured a little platform of branches.
It was very dark now, darker even than it had been before, for
almost the entire sky was overcast by thick, black clouds.
Presently the man-beast paused, his sensitive nostrils dilating as
he sniffed the air about him. Then, with the swiftness and agility of
a cat, he leaped far outward upon a swaying branch, sprang upward
through the darkness, caught another, swung himself upon it and
then to one still higher. What could have so suddenly transformed
his matter-of-fact ascent of the giant bole to the swift and wary
action of his detour among the branches? You or I could have seen
nothing-not even the little platform that an instant before had
been just above him and which now was immediately below--but as he
swung above it we should have heard an ominous growl; and then as
the moon was momentarily uncovered, we should have seen both the
platform, dimly, and a dark mass that lay stretched upon it--a dark
mass that presently, as our eyes became accustomed to the lesser
darkness, would take the form of Sheeta, the panther.
In answer to the cat's growl, a low and equally ferocious growl
rumbled upward from the ape-man's deep chest--a growl of warning
that told the panther he was trespassing upon the other's lair; but
Sheeta was in no mood to be dispossessed. With upturned, snarling
face he glared at the brown-skinned Tarmangani above him. Very slowly
the ape-man moved inward along the branch until he was directly
above the panther. In the man's hand was the hunting knife of his
long-dead father--the weapon that had first given him his real
ascendancy over the beasts of the jungle; but he hoped not to be
forced to use it, knowing as he did that more jungle battles were
settled by hideous growling than by actual combat, the law of bluff
holding quite as good in the jungle as elsewhere--only in matters
of love and food did the great beasts ordinarily close with fangs
and talons.
Tarzan braced himself against the bole of the tree and leaned closer
toward Sheeta.
"Stealer of balus!" he cried. The panther rose to a sitting position,
his bared fangs but a few feet from the ape-man's taunting face.
Tarzan growled hideously and struck at the cat's face with his
knife. "I am Tarzan of the Apes," he roared. "This is Tarzan's
lair. Go, or I will kill you."
Though he spoke in the language of the great apes of the jungle,
it is doubtful that Sheeta understood the words, though he knew
well enough that the hairless ape wished to frighten him from his
well-chosen station past which edible creatures might be expected
to wander sometime during the watches of the night.
Like lightning the cat reared and struck a vicious blow at his
tormentor with great, bared talons that might well have torn away
the ape-man's face had the blow landed; but it did not land--Tarzan
was even quicker than Sheeta. As the panther came to all fours
again upon the little platform, Tarzan un-slung his heavy spear and
prodded at the snarling face, and as Sheeta warded off the blows,
the two continued their horrid duet of blood-curdling roars and
growls.
Goaded to frenzy the cat presently determined to come up after this
disturber of his peace; but when he essayed to leap to the branch
that held Tarzan he found the sharp spear point always in his
face, and each time as he dropped back he was prodded viciously in
some tender part; but at length, rage having conquered his better
judgment, he leaped up the rough bole to the very branch upon which
Tarzan stood. Now the two faced each other upon even footing and
Sheeta saw a quick revenge and a supper all in one. The hairless
ape-thing with the tiny fangs and the puny talons would be helpless
before him.
The heavy limb bent beneath the weight of the two beasts as Sheeta
crept cautiously out upon it and Tarzan backed slowly away, growling.
The wind had risen to the proportions of a gale so that even the
greatest giants of the forest swayed, groaning, to its force and
the branch upon which the two faced each other rose and fell like
the deck of a storm-tossed ship. Goro was now entirely obscured,
but vivid flashes of lightning lit up the jungle at brief intervals,
revealing the grim tableau of primitive passion upon the swaying
limb.
Tarzan backed away, drawing Sheeta farther from the stem of the
tree and out upon the tapering branch, where his footing became
ever more precarious. The cat, infuriated by the pain of spear
wounds, was overstepping the bounds of caution. Already he had
reached a point where he could do little more than maintain a secure
footing, and it was this moment that Tarzan chose to charge. With
a roar that mingled with the booming thunder from above he leaped
toward the panther, who could only claw futilely with one huge paw
while he clung to the branch with the other; but the ape-man did
not come within that parabola of destruction. Instead he leaped
above menacing claws and snapping fangs, turning in mid-air and
alighting upon Sheeta's back, and at the instant of impact his knife
struck deep into the tawny side. Then Sheeta, impelled by pain and
hate and rage and the first law of Nature, went mad. Screaming
and clawing he attempted to turn upon the ape-thing clinging to
his back. For an instant he toppled upon the now wildly gyrating
limb, clutched frantically to save himself, and then plunged downward
into the darkness with Tarzan still clinging to him. Crashing
through splintering branches the two fell. Not for an instant did
the ape-man consider relinquishing his death-hold upon his adversary.
He had entered the lists in mortal combat and true to the primitive
instincts of the wild--the unwritten law of the jungle--one or both
must die before the battle ended.
Sheeta, catlike, alighted upon four out-sprawled feet, the weight
of the ape-man crushing him to earth, the long knife again imbedded
in his side. Once the panther struggled to rise; but only to sink
to earth again. Tarzan felt the giant muscles relax beneath him.
Sheeta was dead. Rising, the ape-man placed a foot upon the body of
his vanquished foe, raised his face toward the thundering heavens,
and as the lightning flashed and the torrential rain broke upon
him, screamed forth the wild victory cry of the bull ape.
Having accomplished his aim and driven the enemy from his lair,
Tarzan gathered an armful of large fronds and climbed to his dripping
couch. Laying a few of the fronds upon the poles he lay down and
covered himself against the rain with the others, and despite the
wailing of the wind and the crashing of the thunder, immediately
fell asleep.
The Lion's Cave
The rain lasted for twenty-four hours and much of the time it fell
in torrents so that when it ceased, the trail he had been following
was entirely obliterated. Cold and uncomfortable--it was a savage
Tarzan who threaded the mazes of the soggy jungle. Manu, the
monkey, shivering and chattering in the dank trees, scolded and fled
at his approach. Even the panthers and the lions let the growling
Tarmangani pass unmolested.
When the sun shone again upon the second day and a wide, open plain
let the full heat of Kudu flood the chilled, brown body, Tarzan's
spirits rose; but it was still a sullen, surly brute that moved
steadily onward into the south where he hoped again to pick up the
trail of the Germans. He was now in German East Africa and it was
his intention to skirt the mountains west of Kilimanjaro, whose
rugged peaks he was quite willing to give a wide berth, and then
swing eastward along the south side of the range to the railway that
led to Tanga, for his experience among men suggested that it was
toward this railroad that German troops would be likely to converge.
Two days later, from the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro, he heard
the boom of cannon far away to the east. The afternoon had been
dull and cloudy and now as he was passing through a narrow gorge a
few great drops of rain began to splatter upon his naked shoulders.
Tarzan shook his head and growled his disapproval; then he cast his
eyes about for shelter, for he had had quite enough of the cold and
drenching. He wanted to hasten on in the direction of the booming
noise, for he knew that there would be Germans fighting against the
English. For an instant his bosom swelled with pride at the thought
that he was English and then he shook his head again viciously.
"No!" he muttered, "Tarzan of the Apes is not English, for the
English are men and Tarzan is Tarmangani;" but he could not hide
even from his sorrow or from his sullen hatred of mankind in general
that his heart warmed at the thought it was Englishmen who fought
the Germans. His regret was that the English were human and not
great white apes as he again considered himself.
"Tomorrow," he thought, "I will travel that way and find the Germans,"
and then he set himself to the immediate task of discovering some
shelter from the storm. Presently he espied the low and narrow
entrance to what appeared to be a cave at the base of the cliffs
which formed the northern side of the gorge. With drawn knife he
approached the spot warily, for he knew that if it were a cave it
was doubtless the lair of some other beast. Before the entrance lay
many large fragments of rock of different sizes, similar to others
scattered along the entire base of the cliff, and it was in Tarzan's
mind that if he found the cave unoccupied he would barricade the
door and insure himself a quiet and peaceful night's repose within
the sheltered interior. Let the storm rage without-Tarzan would
remain within until it ceased, comfortable and dry. A tiny rivulet
of cold water trickled outward from the opening.
Close to the cave Tarzan kneeled and sniffed the ground. A low
growl escaped him and his upper lip curved to expose his fighting
fangs. "Numa!" he muttered; but he did not stop. Numa might not be
at home--he would investigate. The entrance was so low that the
ape-man was compelled to drop to all fours before he could poke
his head within the aperture; but first he looked, listened, and
sniffed in each direction at his rear--he would not be taken by
surprise from that quarter.
His first glance within the cave revealed a narrow tunnel with
daylight at its farther end. The interior of the tunnel was not so
dark but that the ape-man could readily see that it was untenanted
at present. Advancing cautiously he crawled toward the opposite
end imbued with a full realization of what it would mean if Numa
should suddenly enter the tunnel in front of him; but Numa did not
appear and the ape-man emerged at length into the open and stood
erect, finding himself in a rocky cleft whose precipitous walls
rose almost sheer on every hand, the tunnel from the gorge passing
through the cliff and forming a passageway from the outer world
into a large pocket or gulch entirely enclosed by steep walls of
rock. Except for the small passageway from the gorge, there was no
other entrance to the gulch which was some hundred feet in length
and about fifty in width and appeared to have been worn from the
rocky cliff by the falling of water during long ages. A tiny stream
from Kilimanjaro's eternal snow cap still trickled over the edge
of the rocky wall at the upper end of the gulch, forming a little
pool at the bottom of the cliff from which a small rivulet wound
downward to the tunnel through which it passed to the gorge beyond.
A single great tree flourished near the center of the gulch, while
tufts of wiry grass were scattered here and there among the rocks
of the gravelly floor.
The bones of many large animals lay about and among them were
several human skulls. Tarzan raised his eyebrows. "A man-eater,"
he murmured, "and from appearances he has held sway here for a long
time. Tonight Tarzan will take the lair of the man-eater and Numa
may roar and grumble upon the outside."
The ape-man had advanced well into the gulch as he investigated
his surroundings and now as he stood near the tree, satisfied that
the tunnel would prove a dry and quiet retreat for the night, he
turned to retrace his way to the outer end of the entrance that he
might block it with boulders against Numa's return, but even with
the thought there came something to his sensitive ears that froze
him into statuesque immobility with eyes glued upon the tunnel's
mouth. A moment later the head of a huge lion framed in a great
black mane appeared in the opening. The yellow-green eyes glared,
round and unblinking, straight at the trespassing Tarmangani, a low
growl rumbled from the deep chest, and lips curled back to expose
the mighty fangs.
"Brother of Dango!" shouted Tarzan, angered that Numa's return should
have been so timed as to frustrate his plans for a comfortable
night's repose. "I am Tarzan of the Apes, Lord of the Jungle.
Tonight I lair here--go!"
But Numa did not go. Instead he rumbled forth a menacing roar and
took a few steps in Tarzan's direction. The ape-man picked up a
rock and hurled it at the snarling face. One can never be sure of
a lion. This one might turn tail and run at the first intimation
of attack--Tarzan had bluffed many in his time--but not now. The
missile struck Numa full upon the snout--a tender part of a cat's
anatomy--and instead of causing him to flee it transformed him into
an infuriated engine of wrath and destruction.
Up went his tail, stiff and erect, and with a series of frightful
roars he bore down upon the Tarmangani at the speed of an express
train. Not an instant too soon did Tarzan reach the tree and swing
himself into its branches and there he squatted, hurling insults at
the king of beasts while Numa paced a circle beneath him, growling
and roaring in rage.
It was raining now in earnest adding to the ape-man's discomfort
and disappointment. He was very angry; but as only direct necessity
had ever led him to close in mortal combat with a lion, knowing
as he did that he had only luck and agility to pit against the
frightful odds of muscle, weight, fangs, and talons, he did not now
even consider descending and engaging in so unequal and useless a
duel for the mere reward of a little added creature comfort. And
so he sat perched in the tree while the rain fell steadily and the
lion padded round and round beneath, casting a baleful eye upward
after every few steps.
Tarzan scanned the precipitous walls for an avenue of escape. They
would have baffled an ordinary man; but the ape-man, accustomed
to climbing, saw several places where he might gain a foothold,
precarious possibly; but enough to give him reasonable assurance
of escape if Numa would but betake himself to the far end of the
gulch for a moment. Numa, however, notwithstanding the rain, gave
no evidence of quitting his post so that at last Tarzan really
began to consider seriously if it might not be as well to take the
chance of a battle with him rather than remain longer cold and wet
and humiliated in the tree.
But even as he turned the matter over in his mind Numa turned
suddenly and walked majestically toward the tunnel without even a
backward glance. The instant that he disappeared, Tarzan dropped
lightly to the ground upon the far side of the tree and was away at
top speed for the cliff. The lion had no sooner entered the tunnel
than he backed immediately out again and, pivoting like a flash,
was off across the gulch in full charge after the flying ape-man;
but Tarzan's lead was too great--if he could find finger or foothold
upon the sheer wall he would be safe; but should he slip from the
wet rocks his doom was already sealed as he would fall directly into
Numa's clutches where even the Great Tarmangani would be helpless.
With the agility of a cat Tarzan ran up the cliff for thirty feet
before he paused, and there finding a secure foothold, he stopped
and looked down upon Numa who was leaping upward in a wild and
futile attempt to scale the rocky wall to his prey. Fifteen or
twenty feet from the ground the lion would scramble only to fall
backward again defeated. Tarzan eyed him for a moment and then
commenced a slow and cautious ascent toward the summit. Several
times he had difficulty in finding holds but at last he drew himself
over the edge, rose, picked up a bit of loose rock, hurled it at
Numa and strode away.
Finding an easy descent to the gorge, he was about to pursue his
journey in the direction of the still-booming guns when a sudden
thought caused him to halt and a half-smile to play about his lips.
Turning, he trotted quickly back to the outer opening of Numa's
tunnel. Close beside it he listened for a moment and then rapidly
began to gather large rocks and pile them within the entrance.
He had almost closed the aperture when the lion appeared upon the
inside--a very ferocious and angry lion that pawed and clawed at
the rocks and uttered mighty roars that caused the earth to tremble;
but roars did not frighten Tarzan of the Apes. At Kala's shaggy
breast he had closed his infant eyes in sleep upon countless nights
in years gone by to the savage chorus of similar roars. Scarcely a
day or night of his jungle life--and practically all his life had
been spent in the jungle--had he not heard the roaring of hungry
lions, or angry lions, or love-sick lions. Such sounds affected
Tarzan as the tooting of an automobile horn may affect you--if you
are in front of the automobile it warns you out of the way, if you
are not in front of it you scarcely notice it. Figuratively Tarzan
was not in front of the automobile--Numa could not reach him and
Tarzan knew it, so he continued deliberately to choke the entrance
until there was no possibility of Numa's getting out again. When
he was quite through he made a grimace at the hidden lion beyond
the barrier and resumed his way toward the east. "A man-eater who
will eat no more men," he soliloquized.
That night Tarzan lay up under an overhanging shelf of rock. The
next morning he resumed his journey, stopping only long enough to
make a kill and satisfy his hunger. The other beasts of the wild
eat and lie up; but Tarzan never let his belly interfere with his
plans. In this lay one of the greatest differences between the ape-man
and his fellows of the jungles and forests. The firing ahead rose
and fell during the day. He had noticed that it was highest at
dawn and immediately after dusk and that during the night it almost
ceased. In the middle of the afternoon of the second day he came
upon troops moving up toward the front. They appeared to be raiding
parties, for they drove goats and cows along with them and there
were native porters laden with grain and other foodstuffs. He saw
that these natives were all secured by neck chains and he also saw
that the troops were composed of native soldiers in German uniforms.
The officers were white men. No one saw Tarzan, yet he was here and
there about and among them for two hours. He inspected the insignia
upon their uniforms and saw that they were not the same as that
which he had taken from one of the dead soldiers at the bungalow
and then he passed on ahead of them, unseen in the dense bush. He
had come upon Germans and had not killed them; but it was because
the killing of Germans at large was not yet the prime motive of
his existence--now it was to discover the individual who slew his
mate.
After he had accounted for him he would take up the little matter
of slaying ALL Germans who crossed his path, and he meant that many
should cross it, for he would hunt them precisely as professional
hunters hunt the man-eaters.
As he neared the front lines the troops became more numerous. There
were motor trucks and ox teams and all the impedimenta of a small
army and always there were wounded men walking or being carried
toward the rear. He had crossed the railroad some distance back and
judged that the wounded were being taken to it for transportation
to a base hospital and possibly as far away as Tanga on the coast.
It was dusk when he reached a large camp hidden in the foothills of
the Pare Mountains. As he was approaching from the rear he found
it but lightly guarded and what sentinels there were, were not
upon the alert, and so it was an easy thing for him to enter after
darkness had fallen and prowl about listening at the backs of tents,
searching for some clew to the slayer of his mate.
As he paused at the side of a tent before which sat a number of
native soldiers he caught a few words spoken in native dialect that
riveted his attention instantly: "The Waziri fought like devils;
but we are greater fighters and we killed them all. When we were
through the captain came and killed the woman. He stayed outside
and yelled in a very loud voice until all the men were killed.
Underlieutenant von Goss is braver--he came in and stood beside the
door shouting at us, also in a very loud voice, and bade us nail
one of the Waziri who was wounded to the wall, and then he laughed
loudly because the man suffered. We all laughed. It was very funny."
Like a beast of prey, grim and terrible, Tarzan crouched in the
shadows beside the tent. What thoughts passed through that savage
mind? Who may say? No outward sign of passion was revealed by the
expression of the handsome face; the cold, gray eyes denoted only
intense watchfulness. Presently the soldier Tarzan had heard first
rose and with a parting word turned away. He passed within ten
feet of the ape-man and continued on toward the rear of the camp.
Tarzan followed and in the shadows of a clump of bushes overtook
his quarry. There was no sound as the man beast sprang upon the
back of his prey and bore it to the ground for steel fingers closed
simultaneously upon the soldier's throat, effectually stifling
any outcry. By the neck Tarzan dragged his victim well into the
concealment of the bushes.
"Make no sound," he cautioned in the man's own tribal dialect as
he released his hold upon the other's throat.
The fellow gasped for breath, rolling frightened eyes upward to
see what manner of creature it might be in whose power he was. In
the darkness he saw only a naked brown body bending above him; but
he still remembered the terrific strength of the mighty muscles
that had closed upon his wind and dragged him into the bushes as
though he had been but a little child. If any thought of resistance
had crossed his mind he must have discarded it at once, as he made
no move to escape.
"What is the name of the officer who killed the woman at the bungalow
where you fought with the Waziri?" asked Tarzan.
"Hauptmann Schneider," replied the black when he could again command
his voice.
"Where is he?" demanded the ape-man.
"He is here. It may be that he is at headquarters. Many of the
officers go there in the evening to receive orders."
"Lead me there," commanded Tarzan, "and if I am discovered I will
kill you immediately. Get up!"
The black rose and led the way by a roundabout route back through
the camp. Several times they were forced to hide while soldiers
passed; but at last they reached a great pile of baled hay from about
the corner of which the black pointed out a two-story building in
the distance.
"Headquarters," he said. "You can go no farther unseen. There are
many soldiers about."
Tarzan realized that he could not proceed farther in company with
the black. He turned and looked at the fellow for a moment as though
pondering what disposition to make of him.
"You helped to crucify Wasimbu, the Waziri," he accused in a low
yet none the less terrible tone.
The black trembled, his knees giving beneath him. "He ordered us
to do it," he plead.
"Who ordered it done?" demanded Tarzan.
"Underlieutenant von Goss," replied the soldier. "He, too, is here."
"I shall find him," returned Tarzan, grimly. "You helped to crucify
Wasimbu, the Waziri, and, while he suffered, you laughed."
The fellow reeled. It was as though in the accusation he read also
his death sentence. With no other word Tarzan seized the man again
by the neck. As before there was no outcry. The giant muscles tensed.
The arms swung quickly upward and with them the body of the black
soldier who had helped to crucify Wasimbu, the Waziri, described a
circle in the air--once, twice, three times, and then it was flung
aside and the ape-man turned in the direction of General Kraut's
headquarters.
A single sentinel in the rear of the building barred the way.
Tarzan crawled, belly to the ground, toward him, taking advantage
of cover as only the jungle-bred beast of prey can do. When the
sentinel's eyes were toward him, Tarzan hugged the ground, motionless
as stone; when they were turned away, he moved swiftly forward.
Presently he was within charging distance. He waited until the man
had turned his back once more and then he rose and sped noiselessly
down upon him. Again there was no sound as he carried the dead
body with him toward the building.
The lower floor was lighted, the upper dark. Through the windows
Tarzan saw a large front room and a smaller room in rear of it.
In the former were many officers. Some moved about talking to one
another, others sat at field tables writing. The windows were open
and Tarzan could hear much of the conversation; but nothing that
interested him. It was mostly about the German successes in Africa
and conjectures as to when the German army in Europe would reach
Paris. Some said the Kaiser was doubtlessly already there, and
there was a great deal of damning Belgium.
In the smaller back room a large, red-faced man sat behind a table.
Some other officers were also sitting a little in rear of him,
while two stood at attention before the general, who was questioning
them. As he talked, the general toyed with an oil lamp that stood
upon the table before him. Presently there came a knock upon the
door and an aide entered the room. He saluted and reported: "Fraulein
Kircher has arrived, sir."
"Bid her enter," commanded the general, and then nodded to the two
officers before him in sign of dismissal.
The Fraulein, entering, passed them at the door. The officers in
the little room rose and saluted, the Fraulein acknowledging the
courtesy with a bow and a slight smile. She was a very pretty
girl. Even the rough, soiled riding habit and the caked dust upon
her face could not conceal the fact, and she was young. She could
not have been over nineteen.
She advanced to the table behind which the general stood and, taking
a folded paper from an inside pocket of her coat, handed it to him.
"Be seated, Fraulein," he said, and another officer brought her
a chair. No one spoke while the general read the contents of the
paper.
Tarzan appraised the various people in the room. He wondered if one
might not be Hauptmann Schneider, for two of them were captains.
The girl he judged to be of the intelligence department--a spy.
Her beauty held no appeal for him--without a glimmer of compunction
he could have wrung that fair, young neck. She was German and that
was enough; but he had other and more important work before him.
He wanted Hauptmann Schneider.
Finally the general looked up from the paper.
"Good," he said to the girl, and then to one of his aides, "Send
for Major Schneider."
Major Schneider! Tarzan felt the short hairs at the back of his
neck rise. Already they had promoted the beast who had murdered
his mate--doubtless they had promoted him for that very crime.
The aide left the room and the others fell into a general conversation
from which it became apparent to Tarzan that the German East African
forces greatly outnumbered the British and that the latter were
suffering heavily. The ape-man stood so concealed in a clump of
bushes that he could watch the interior of the room without being
seen from within, while he was at the same time hidden from the view
of anyone who might chance to pass along the post of the sentinel
he had slain. Momentarily he was expecting a patrol or a relief to
appear and discover that the sentinel was missing, when he knew an
immediate and thorough search would be made.
Impatiently he awaited the coming of the man he sought and at
last he was rewarded by the reappearance of the aide who had been
dispatched to fetch him accompanied by an officer of medium size
with fierce, upstanding mustaches. The newcomer strode to the table,
halted and saluted, reporting. The general acknowledged the salute
and turned toward the girl.
"Fraulein Kircher," he said, "allow me to present Major Schneider--"
Tarzan waited to hear no more. Placing a palm upon the sill of
the window he vaulted into the room into the midst of an astounded
company of the Kaiser's officers. With a stride he was at the table
and with a sweep of his hand sent the lamp crashing into the fat
belly of the general who, in his mad effort to escape cremation,
fell over backward, chair and all, upon the floor. Two of the aides
sprang for the ape-man who picked up the first and flung him in the
face of the other. The girl had leaped from her chair and stood
flattened against the wall. The other officers were calling aloud
for the guard and for help. Tarzan's purpose centered upon but
a single individual and him he never lost sight of. Freed from
attack for an instant he seized Major Schneider, threw him over his
shoulder and was out of the window so quickly that the astonished
assemblage could scarce realize what had occurred.
A single glance showed him that the sentinel's post was still vacant
and a moment later he and his burden were in the shadows of the
hay dump. Major Schneider had made no outcry for the very excellent
reason that his wind was shut off. Now Tarzan released his grasp
enough to permit the man to breathe.
"If you make a sound you will be choked again," he said.
Cautiously and after infinite patience Tarzan passed the final
outpost. Forcing his captive to walk before him he pushed on toward
the west until, late into the night, he re-crossed the railway where
he felt reasonably safe from discovery. The German had cursed and
grumbled and threatened and asked questions; but his only reply
was another prod from Tarzan's sharp war spear. The ape-man herded
him along as he would have driven a hog with the difference that
he would have had more respect and therefore more consideration
for a hog.
Until now Tarzan had given little thought to the details of revenge.
Now he pondered what form the punishment should take. Of only one
thing was he certain--it must end in death. Like all brave men
and courageous beasts Tarzan had little natural inclination to
torture--none, in fact; but this case was unique in his experience.
An inherent sense of justice called for an eye for an eye and his
recent oath demanded even more. Yes, the creature must suffer even
as he had caused Jane Clayton to suffer. Tarzan could not hope to
make the man suffer as he had suffered, since physical pain may
never approach the exquisiteness of mental torture.
All through the long night the ape-man goaded on the exhausted and
now terrified Hun. The awful silence of his captor wrought upon the
German's nerves. If he would only speak! Again and again Schneider
tried to force or coax a word from him; but always the result was
the same--continued silence and a vicious and painful prod from the
spear point. Schneider was bleeding and sore. He was so exhausted
that he staggered at every step, and often he fell only to be
prodded to his feet again by that terrifying and remorseless spear.
It was not until morning that Tarzan reached a decision and it came
to him then like an inspiration from above. A slow smile touched
his lips and he immediately sought a place to lie up and rest--he
wished his prisoner to be fit now for what lay in store for him.
Ahead was a stream which Tarzan had crossed the day before. He knew
the ford for a drinking place and a likely spot to make an easy
kill. Cautioning the German to utter silence with a gesture the
two approached the stream quietly. Down the game trail Tarzan saw
some deer about to leave the water. He shoved Schneider into the
brush at one side and, squatting next him, waited. The German
watched the silent giant with puzzled, frightened eyes. In the new
dawn he, for the first time, was able to obtain a good look at his
captor, and, if he had been puzzled and frightened before, those
sensations were nothing to what he experienced now.
Who and what could this almost naked, white savage be? He had
heard him speak but once--when he had cautioned him to silence--and
then in excellent German and the well-modulated tones of culture.
He watched him now as the fascinated toad watches the snake that
is about to devour it. He saw the graceful limbs and symmetrical
body motionless as a marble statue as the creature crouched in the
concealment of the leafy foliage. Not a muscle, not a nerve moved.
He saw the deer coming slowly along the trail, down wind and
unsuspecting. He saw a buck pass--an old buck--and then a young and
plump one came opposite the giant in ambush, and Schneider's eyes
went wide and a scream of terror almost broke from his lips as he
saw the agile beast at his side spring straight for the throat of
the young buck and heard from those human lips the hunting roar of
a wild beast. Down went the buck and Tarzan and his captive had
meat. The ape-man ate his raw, but he permitted the German to build
a fire and cook his portion.
The two lay up until late in the afternoon and then took up the
journey once again--a journey that was so frightful to Schneider
because of his ignorance of its destination that he at times groveled
at Tarzan's feet begging for an explanation and for mercy; but on
and on in silence the ape-man went, prodding the failing Hun whenever
the latter faltered.
It was noon of the third day before they reached their destination.
After a steep climb and a short walk they halted at the edge of
a precipitous cliff and Schneider looked down into a narrow gulch
where a single tree grew beside a tiny rivulet and sparse grass
broke from a rock-strewn soil. Tarzan motioned him over the edge;
but the German drew back in terror. The Ape-man seized him and
pushed him roughly toward the brink. "Descend," he said. It was
the second time he had spoken in three days and perhaps his very
silence, ominous in itself, had done more to arouse terror in the
breast of the Boche than even the spear point, ever ready as it
always was.
Schneider looked fearfully over the edge; but was about to essay
the attempt when Tarzan halted him. "I am Lord Greystoke," he
said. "It was my wife you murdered in the Waziri country. You will
understand now why I came for you. Descend."
The German fell upon his knees. "I did not murder your wife,"
he cried. "Have mercy! I did not murder your wife. I do not know
anything about--"
"Descend!" snapped Tarzan, raising the point of his spear. He knew
that the man lied and was not surprised that he did. A man who
would murder for no cause would lie for less. Schneider still
hesitated and pled. The ape-man jabbed him with the spear and Schneider
slid fearfully over the top and began the perilous descent. Tarzan
accompanied and assisted him over the worst places until at last
they were within a few feet of the bottom.
"Be quiet now," cautioned the ape-man. He pointed at the entrance
to what appeared to be a cave at the far end of the gulch. "There
is a hungry lion in there. If you can reach that tree before
he discovers you, you will have several days longer in which to
enjoy life and then--when you are too weak to cling longer to the
branches of the tree Numa, the man-eater, will feed again for the
last time." He pushed Schneider from his foothold to the ground
below. "Now run," he said.
The German trembling in terror started for the tree. He had almost
reached it when a horrid roar broke from the mouth of the cave and
almost simultaneously a gaunt, hunger mad lion leaped into the
daylight of the gulch. Schneider had but a few yards to cover;
but the lion flew over the ground to circumvent him while Tarzan
watched the race with a slight smile upon his lips.
Schneider won by a slender margin, and as Tarzan scaled the cliff
to the summit, he heard behind him mingled with the roaring of the
baffled cat, the gibbering of a human voice that was at the same
time more bestial than the beast's.
Upon the brink of the cliff the ape-man turned and looked back
into the gulch. High in the tree the German clung frantically to
a branch across which his body lay. Beneath him was Numa--waiting.
The ape-man raised his face to Kudu, the sun, and from his mighty
chest rose the savage victory cry of the bull ape.
In the German Lines
Tarzan was not yet fully revenged. There were many millions of
Germans yet alive--enough to keep Tarzan pleasantly occupied the
balance of his life, and yet not enough, should he kill them all,
to recompense him for the great loss he had suffered--nor could
the death of all those million Germans bring back his loved one.
While in the German camp in the Pare Mountains, which lie just
east of the boundary line between German and British East Africa,
Tarzan had overheard enough to suggest that the British were getting
the worst of the fighting in Africa. At first he had given the
matter but little thought, since, after the death of his wife, the
one strong tie that had held him to civilization, he had renounced
all mankind, considering himself no longer man, but ape.
After accounting for Schneider as satisfactorily as lay within his
power he circled Kilimanjaro and hunted in the foothills to the
north of that mightiest of mountains as he had discovered that in
the neighborhood of the armies there was no hunting at all. Some
pleasure he derived through conjuring mental pictures from time to
time of the German he had left in the branches of the lone tree at
the bottom of the high-walled gulch in which was penned the starving
lion. He could imagine the man's mental anguish as he became weakened
from hunger and maddened by thirst, knowing that sooner or later he
must slip exhausted to the ground where waited the gaunt man-eater.
Tarzan wondered if Schneider would have the courage to descend to
the little rivulet for water should Numa leave the gulch and enter
the cave, and then he pictured the mad race for the tree again
when the lion charged out to seize his prey as he was certain to
do, since the clumsy German could not descend to the rivulet without
making at least some slight noise that would attract Numa's attention.
But even this pleasure palled, and more and more the ape-man found
himself thinking of the English soldiers fighting against heavy
odds and especially of the fact that it was Germans who were beating
them. The thought made him lower his head and growl and it worried
him not a little--a bit, perhaps, because he was finding it difficult
to forget that he was an Englishman when he wanted only to be an
ape. And at last the time came when he could not longer endure the
thought of Germans killing Englishmen while he hunted in safety a
bare march away.
His decision made, he set out in the direction of the German camp,
no well-defined plan formulated; but with the general idea that
once near the field of operations he might find an opportunity to
harass the German command as he so well knew how to do. His way
took him along the gorge close to the gulch in which he had left
Schneider, and, yielding to a natural curiosity, he scaled the cliffs
and made his way to the edge of the gulch. The tree was empty, nor
was there sign of Numa, the lion. Picking up a rock he hurled it
into the gulch, where it rolled to the very entrance to the cave.
Instantly the lion appeared in the aperture; but such a different-looking
lion from the great sleek brute that Tarzan had trapped there two
weeks before. Now he was gaunt and emaciated, and when he walked
he staggered.
"Where is the German?" shouted Tarzan. "Was he good eating, or only
a bag of bones when he slipped and fell from the tree?"
Numa growled. "You look hungry, Numa," continued the ape-man. "You
must have been very hungry to eat all the grass from your lair and
even the bark from the tree as far up as you can reach. Would you
like another German?" and smiling he turned away.
A few minutes later he came suddenly upon Bara, the deer, asleep
beneath a tree, and as Tarzan was hungry he made a quick kill,
and squatting beside his prey proceeded to eat his fill. As he
was gnawing the last morsel from a bone his quick ears caught the
padding of stealthy feet behind him, and turning he confronted
Dango, the hyena, sneaking upon him. With a growl the ape-man
picked up a fallen branch and hurled it at the skulking brute. "Go
away, eater of carrion!" he cried; but Dango was hungry and being
large and powerful he only snarled and circled slowly about as
though watching for an opportunity to charge. Tarzan of the Apes
knew Dango even better than Dango knew himself. He knew that the
brute, made savage by hunger, was mustering its courage for an
attack, that it was probably accustomed to man and therefore more
or less fearless of him and so he un-slung his heavy spear and
laid it ready at his side while he continued his meal, all the time
keeping a watchful eye upon the hyena.
He felt no fear, for long familiarity with the dangers of his wild
world had so accustomed him to them that he took whatever came as
a part of each day's existence as you accept the homely though no
less real dangers of the farm, the range, or the crowded metropolis.
Being jungle bred he was ready to protect his kill from all comers
within ordinary limitations of caution. Under favorable conditions
Tarzan would face even Numa himself and, if forced to seek safety
by flight, he could do so without any feeling of shame. There was
no braver creature roamed those savage wilds and at the same time
there was none more wise--the two factors that had permitted him
to survive.
Dango might have charged sooner but for the savage growls of the
ape-man--growls which, coming from human lips, raised a question
and a fear in the hyena's heart. He had attacked women and children
in the native fields and he had frightened their men about their
fires at night; but he never had seen a man-thing who made this
sound that reminded him more of Numa angry than of a man afraid.
When Tarzan had completed his repast he was about to rise and hurl
a clean-picked bone at the beast before he went his way, leaving
the remains of his kill to Dango; but a sudden thought stayed him
and instead he picked up the carcass of the deer, threw it over
his shoulder, and set off in the direction of the gulch. For a
few yards Dango followed, growling, and then realizing that he was
being robbed of even a taste of the luscious flesh he cast discretion
to the winds and charged. Instantly, as though Nature had given him
eyes in the back of his head, Tarzan sensed the impending danger
and, dropping Bara to the ground, turned with raised spear. Far
back went the brown, right hand and then forward, lightning-like,
backed by the power of giant muscles and the weight of his brawn
and bone. The spear, released at the right instant, drove straight
for Dango, caught him in the neck where it joined the shoulders
and passed through the body.
When he had withdrawn the shaft from the hyena Tarzan shouldered
both carcasses and continued on toward the gulch. Below lay Numa
beneath the shade of the lone tree and at the ape-man's call he
staggered slowly to his feet, yet weak as he was, he still growled
savagely, even essaying a roar at the sight of his enemy. Tarzan
let the two bodies slide over the rim of the cliff. "Eat, Numa!"
he cried. "It may be that I shall need you again." He saw the lion,
quickened to new life at the sight of food, spring upon the body
of the deer and then he left him rending and tearing the flesh as
he bolted great pieces into his empty maw.
The following day Tarzan came within sight of the German lines.
From a wooded spur of the hills he looked down upon the enemy's
left flank and beyond to the British lines. His position gave him
a bird's-eye view of the field of battle, and his keen eyesight
picked out many details that would not have been apparent to a man
whose every sense was not trained to the highest point of perfection
as were the ape-man's. He noted machine-gun emplacements cunningly
hidden from the view of the British and listening posts placed well
out in No Man's Land.
As his interested gaze moved hither and thither from one point of
interest to another he heard from a point upon the hillside below
him, above the roar of cannon and the crack of rifle fire, a single
rifle spit. Immediately his attention was centered upon the spot
where he knew a sniper must be hid. Patiently he awaited the next
shot that would tell him more surely the exact location of the
rifleman, and when it came he moved down the steep hillside with
the stealth and quietness of a panther. Apparently he took no
cognizance of where he stepped, yet never a loose stone was disturbed
nor a twig broken--it was as though his feet saw.
Presently, as he passed through a clump of bushes, he came to the
edge of a low cliff and saw upon a ledge some fifteen feet below
him a German soldier prone behind an embankment of loose rock and
leafy boughs that hid him from the view of the British lines. The
man must have been an excellent shot, for he was well back of the
German lines, firing over the heads of his fellows. His high-powered
rifle was equipped with telescope sights and he also carried
binoculars which he was in the act of using as Tarzan discovered
him, either to note the effect of his last shot or to discover
a new target. Tarzan let his eye move quickly toward that part of
the British line the German seemed to be scanning, his keen sight
revealing many excellent targets for a rifle placed so high above
the trenches.
The Hun, evidently satisfied with his observations, laid aside
his binoculars and again took up his rifle, placed its butt in the
hollow of his shoulder and took careful aim. At the same instant a
brown body sprang outward from the cliff above him. There was no
sound and it is doubtful that the German ever knew what manner of
creature it was that alighted heavily upon his back, for at the
instant of impact the sinewy fingers of the ape-man circled the
hairy throat of the Boche. There was a moment of futile struggling
followed by the sudden realization of dissolution--the sniper was
dead.
Lying behind the rampart of rocks and boughs, Tarzan looked down
upon the scene below. Near at hand were the trenches of the Germans.
He could see officers and men moving about in them and almost in
front of him a well-hidden machine gun was traversing No Man's Land
in an oblique direction, striking the British at such an angle as
to make it difficult for them to locate it.
Tarzan watched, toying idly with the rifle of the dead German.
Presently he fell to examining the mechanism of the piece. He
glanced again toward the German trenches and changed the adjustment
of the sights, then he placed the rifle to his shoulder and took
aim. Tarzan was an excellent shot. With his civilized friends he
had hunted big game with the weapons of civilization and though he
never had killed except for food or in self-defense he had amused
himself firing at inanimate targets thrown into the air and had
perfected himself in the use of firearms without realizing that
he had done so. Now indeed would he hunt big game. A slow smile
touched his lips as his finger closed gradually upon the trigger.
The rifle spoke and a German machine gunner collapsed behind his
weapon. In three minutes Tarzan picked off the crew of that gun.
Then he spotted a German officer emerging from a dugout and the
three men in the bay with him. Tarzan was careful to leave no one
in the immediate vicinity to question how Germans could be shot in
German trenches when they were entirely concealed from enemy view.
Again adjusting his sights he took a long-range shot at a distant
machine-gun crew to his right. With calm deliberation he wiped them
out to a man. Two guns were silenced. He saw men running through
the trenches and he picked off several of them. By this time the
Germans were aware that something was amiss--that an uncanny sniper
had discovered a point of vantage from which this sector of the
trenches was plainly visible to him. At first they sought to discover
his location in No Man's Land; but when an officer looking over
the parapet through a periscope was struck full in the back of the
head with a rifle bullet which passed through his skull and fell
to the bottom of the trench they realized that it was beyond the
parados rather than the parapet that they should search.
One of the soldiers picked up the bullet that had killed his
officer, and then it was that real excitement prevailed in that
particular bay, for the bullet was obviously of German make. Hugging
the parados, messengers carried the word in both directions and
presently periscopes were leveled above the parados and keen eyes
were searching out the traitor. It did not take them long to locate
the position of the hidden sniper and then Tarzan saw a machine
gun being trained upon him. Before it had gotten into action its
crew lay dead about it; but there were other men to take their
places, reluctantly perhaps; but driven on by their officers they
were forced to it and at the same time two other machine guns were
swung around toward the ape-man and put into operation.
Realizing that the game was about up Tarzan with a farewell shot
laid aside the rifle and melted into the hills behind him. For many
minutes he could hear the sputter of machinegun fire concentrated
upon the spot he had just quit and smiled as he contemplated the
waste of German ammunition.
"They have paid heavily for Wasimbu, the Waziri, whom they crucified,
and for his slain fellows," he mused; "but for Jane they can never
pay--no, not if I killed them all."
After dark that night he circled the flanks of both armies and
passed through the British out-guards and into the British lines.
No man saw him come. No man knew that he was there.
Headquarters of the Second Rhodesians occupied a sheltered position
far enough back of the lines to be comparatively safe from enemy
observation. Even lights were permitted, and Colonel Capell sat
before a field table, on which was spread a military map, talking
with several of his officers. A large tree spread above them, a
lantern sputtered dimly upon the table, while a small fire burned
upon the ground close at hand. The enemy had no planes and no other
observers could have seen the lights from the German lines.
The officers were discussing the advantage in numbers possessed by
the enemy and the inability of the British to more than hold their
present position. They could not advance. Already they had sustained
severe losses in every attack and had always been driven back by
overwhelming numbers. There were hidden machine guns, too, that
bothered the colonel considerably. It was evidenced by the fact
that he often reverted to them during the conversation.
"Something silenced them for a while this afternoon," said one of
the younger officers. "I was observing at the time and I couldn't
make out what the fuss was about; but they seemed to be having a
devil of a time in a section of trench on their left. At one time I
could have sworn they were attacked in the rear--I reported it to
you at the time, sir, you'll recall--for the blighters were pepperin'
away at the side of that bluff behind them. I could see the dirt
fly. I don't know what it could have been."
There was a slight rustling among the branches of the tree above
them and simultaneously a lithe, brown body dropped in their midst.
Hands moved quickly to the butts of pistols; but otherwise there
was no movement among the officers. First they looked wonderingly
at the almost naked white man standing there with the firelight
playing upon rounded muscles, took in the primitive attire and
the equally primitive armament and then all eyes turned toward the
colonel.
"Who the devil are you, sir?" snapped that officer.
"Tarzan of the Apes," replied the newcomer.
"Oh, Greystoke!" cried a major, and stepped forward with outstretched
hand.
"Preswick," acknowledged Tarzan as he took the proffered hand.
"I didn't recognize you at first," apologized the major. "The
last time I saw you you were in London in evening dress. Quite a
difference--'pon my word, man, you'll have to admit it."
Tarzan smiled and turned toward the colonel. "I overheard your
conversation," he said. "I have just come from behind the German
lines. Possibly I can help you."
The colonel looked questioningly toward Major Preswick who quickly
rose to the occasion and presented the ape-man to his commanding
officer and fellows. Briefly Tarzan told them what it was that
brought him out alone in pursuit of the Germans.
"And now you have come to join us?" asked the colonel.
Tarzan shook his head. "Not regularly," he replied. "I must fight
in my own way; but I can help you. Whenever I wish I can enter the
German lines."
Capell smiled and shook his head. "It's not so easy as you think,"
he said; "I've lost two good officers in the last week trying it--and
they were experienced men; none better in the Intelligence Department."
"Is it more difficult than entering the British lines?" asked
Tarzan.
The colonel was about to reply when a new thought appeared to occur
to him and he looked quizzically at the ape-man. "Who brought you
here?" he asked. "Who passed you through our out-guards?"
"I have just come through the German lines and yours and passed
through your camp," he replied. "Send word to ascertain if anyone
saw me."
"But who accompanied you?" insisted Capell.
"I came alone," replied Tarzan and then, drawing himself to
his full height, "You men of civilization, when you come into the
jungle, are as dead among the quick. Manu, the monkey, is a sage
by comparison. I marvel that you exist at all--only your numbers,
your weapons, and your power of reasoning save you. Had I a few
hundred great apes with your reasoning power I could drive the
Germans into the ocean as quickly as the remnant of them could
reach the coast. Fortunate it is for you that the dumb brutes cannot
combine. Could they, Africa would remain forever free of men. But
come, can I help you? Would you like to know where several machinegun
emplacements are hidden?"
The colonel assured him that they would, and a moment later Tarzan
had traced upon the map the location of three that had been bothering
the English. "There is a weak spot here," he said, placing a finger
upon the map. "It is held by blacks; but the machine guns out in
front are manned by whites. If--wait! I have a plan. You can fill
that trench with your own men and enfilade the trenches to its
right with their own machine guns."
Colonel Capell smiled and shook his head. "It sounds very easy,"
he said.
"It IS easy--for me," replied the ape-man. "I can empty that section
of trench without a shot. I was raised in the jungle--I know the
jungle folk--the Gomangani as well as the others. Look for me again
on the second night," and he turned to leave.
"Wait," said the colonel. "I will send an officer to pass you
through the lines."
Tarzan smiled and moved away. As he was leaving the little group
about headquarters he passed a small figure wrapped in an officer's
heavy overcoat. The collar was turned up and the visor of the
military cap pulled well down over the eyes; but, as the ape-man
passed, the light from the fire illuminated the features of the
newcomer for an instant, revealing to Tarzan a vaguely familiar
face. Some officer he had known in London, doubtless, he surmised,
and went his way through the British camp and the British lines
all unknown to the watchful sentinels of the out-guard.
Nearly all night he moved across Kilimanjaro's foothills, tracking
by instinct an unknown way, for he guessed that what he sought would
be found on some wooded slope higher up than he had come upon his
other recent journeys in this, to him, little known country. Three
hours before dawn his keen nostrils apprised him that somewhere in
the vicinity he would find what he wanted, and so he climbed into
a tall tree and settled himself for a few hours' sleep.
When the Lion Fed
Kudu, the sun, was well up in the heavens when Tarzan awoke. The
ape-man stretched his giant limbs, ran his fingers through his thick
hair, and swung lightly down to earth. Immediately he took up the
trail he had come in search of, following it by scent down into
a deep ravine. Cautiously he went now, for his nose told him that
the quarry was close at hand, and presently from an overhanging
bough he looked down upon Horta, the boar, and many of his kinsmen.
Un-slinging his bow and selecting an arrow, Tarzan fitted the shaft
and, drawing it far back, took careful aim at the largest of the
great pigs. In the ape-man's teeth were other arrows, and no sooner
had the first one sped, than he had fitted and shot another bolt.
Instantly the pigs were in turmoil, not knowing from whence the
danger threatened. They stood stupidly at first and then commenced
milling around until six of their number lay dead or dying about
them; then with a chorus of grunts and squeals they started off at
a wild run, disappearing quickly in the dense underbrush.
Tarzan then descended from the tree, dispatched those that were not
already dead and proceeded to skin the carcasses. As he worked,
rapidly and with great skill, he neither hummed nor whistled as
does the average man of civilization. It was in numerous little
ways such as these that he differed from other men, due, probably,
to his early jungle training. The beasts of the jungle that he had
been reared among were playful to maturity but seldom thereafter.
His fellow-apes, especially the bulls, became fierce and surly as
they grew older. Life was a serious matter during lean seasons--one
had to fight to secure one's share of food then, and the habit once
formed became lifelong. Hunting for food was the life labor of the
jungle bred, and a life labor is a thing not to be approached with
levity nor prosecuted lightly. So all work found Tarzan serious,
though he still retained what the other beasts lost as they grew
older--a sense of humor, which he gave play to when the mood suited
him. It was a grim humor and sometimes ghastly; but it satisfied
Tarzan.
Then, too, were one to sing and whistle while working on the ground,
concentration would be impossible. Tarzan possessed the ability to
concentrate each of his five senses upon its particular business.
Now he worked at skinning the six pigs and his eyes and his fingers
worked as though there was naught else in all the world than these
six carcasses; but his ears and his nose were as busily engaged
elsewhere--the former ranging the forest all about and the latter
assaying each passing zephyr. It was his nose that first discovered
the approach of Sabor, the lioness, when the wind shifted for a
moment.
As clearly as though he had seen her with his eyes, Tarzan knew
that the lioness had caught the scent of the freshly killed pigs
and immediately had moved down wind in their direction. He knew
from the strength of the scent spoor and the rate of the wind about
how far away she was and that she was approaching from behind him.
He was finishing the last pig and he did not hurry. The five pelts
lay close at hand-he had been careful to keep them thus together
and near him--an ample tree waved its low branches above him.
He did not even turn his head for he knew she was not yet in sight;
but he bent his ears just a bit more sharply for the first sound
of her nearer approach. When the final skin had been removed he
rose. Now he heard Sabor in the bushes to his rear, but not yet
too close. Leisurely he gathered up the six pelts and one of the
carcasses, and as the lioness appeared between the boles of two
trees he swung upward into the branches above him. Here he hung
the hides over a limb, seated himself comfortably upon another with
his back against the bole of the tree, cut a hind quarter from
the carcass he had carried with him and proceeded to satisfy his
hunger. Sabor slunk, growling, from the brush, cast a wary eye
upward toward the ape-man and then fell upon the nearest carcass.
Tarzan looked down upon her and grinned, recalling an argument he
had once had with a famous big-game hunter who had declared that
the king of beasts ate only what he himself had killed. Tarzan knew
better for he had seen Numa and Sabor stoop even to carrion.
Having filled his belly, the ape-man fell to work upon the hides--all
large and strong. First he cut strips from them about half an inch
wide. When he had sufficient number of these strips he sewed two of
the hides together, afterwards piercing holes every three or four
inches around the edges. Running another strip through these
holes gave him a large bag with a drawstring. In similar fashion he
produced four other like bags, but smaller, from the four remaining
hides and had several strips left over.
All this done he threw a large, juicy fruit at Sabor, cached the
remainder of the pig in a crotch of the tree and swung off toward
the southwest through the middle terraces of the forest, carrying
his five bags with him. Straight he went to the rim of the gulch
where he had imprisoned Numa, the lion. Very stealthily he approached
the edge and peered over. Numa was not in sight. Tarzan sniffed
and listened. He could hear nothing, yet he knew that Numa must be
within the cave. He hoped that he slept--much depended upon Numa
not discovering him.
Cautiously he lowered himself over the edge of the cliff, and with
utter noiselessness commenced the descent toward the bottom of the
gulch. He stopped often and turned his keen eyes and ears in the
direction of the cave's mouth at the far end of the gulch, some
hundred feet away. As he neared the foot of the cliff his danger
increased greatly. If he could reach the bottom and cover half
the distance to the tree that stood in the center of the gulch he
would feel comparatively safe for then, even if Numa appeared, he
felt that he could beat him either to the cliff or to the tree,
but to scale the first thirty feet of the cliff rapidly enough to
elude the leaping beast would require a running start of at least
twenty feet as there were no very good hand- or footholds close
to the bottom--he had had to run up the first twenty feet like
a squirrel running up a tree that other time he had beaten an
infuriated Numa to it. He had no desire to attempt it again unless
the conditions were equally favorable at least, for he had escaped
Numa's raking talons by only a matter of inches on the former
occasion.
At last he stood upon the floor of the gulch. Silent as a disembodied
spirit he advanced toward the tree. He was half way there and no
sign of Numa. He reached the scarred bole from which the famished
lion had devoured the bark and even torn pieces of the wood itself
and yet Numa had not appeared. As he drew himself up to the lower
branches he commenced to wonder if Numa were in the cave after
all. Could it be possible that he had forced the barrier of rocks
with which Tarzan had plugged the other end of the passage where
it opened into the outer world of freedom? Or was Numa dead? The
ape-man doubted the verity of the latter suggestion as he had fed
the lion the entire carcasses of a deer and a hyena only a few
days since--he could not have starved in so short a time, while the
little rivulet running across the gulch furnished him with water
a-plenty.
Tarzan started to descend and investigate the cavern when it occurred
to him that it would save effort were he to lure Numa out instead.
Acting upon the thought he uttered a low growl. Immediately he was
rewarded by the sound of a movement within the cave and an instant
later a wild-eyed, haggard lion rushed forth ready to face the
devil himself were he edible. When Numa saw Tarzan, fat and sleek,
perched in the tree he became suddenly the embodiment of frightful
rage. His eyes and his nose told him that this was the creature
responsible for his predicament and also that this creature was
good to eat. Frantically the lion sought to scramble up the bole of
the tree. Twice he leaped high enough to catch the lowest branches
with his paws, but both times he fell backward to the earth. Each
time he became more furious. His growls and roars were incessant
and horrible and all the time Tarzan sat grinning down upon him,
taunting him in jungle billingsgate for his inability to reach
him and mentally exulting that always Numa was wasting his already
waning strength.
Finally the ape-man rose and un-slung his rope. He arranged the
coils carefully in his left hand and the noose in his right, and
then he took a position with each foot on one of two branches that
lay in about the same horizontal plane and with his back pressed
firmly against the stem of the tree. There he stood hurling insults
at Numa until the beast was again goaded into leaping upward at
him, and as Numa rose the noose dropped quickly over his head and
about his neck. A quick movement of Tarzan's rope hand tightened
the coil and when Numa slipped backward to the ground only his hind
feet touched, for the ape-man held him swinging by the neck.
Moving slowly outward upon the two branches Tarzan swung Numa out
so that he could not reach the bole of the tree with his raking
talons, then he made the rope fast after drawing the lion clear
of the ground, dropped his five pigskin sacks to earth and leaped
down himself. Numa was striking frantically at the grass rope with
his fore claws. At any moment he might sever it and Tarzan must,
therefore, work rapidly.
First he drew the larger bag over Numa's head and secured it about
his neck with the draw string, then he managed, after considerable
effort, during which he barely escaped being torn to ribbons by
the mighty talons, to hog-tie Numa--drawing his four legs together
and securing them in that position with the strips trimmed from
the pigskins.
By this time the lion's efforts had almost ceased--it was evident
that he was being rapidly strangled and as that did not at all
suit the purpose of the Tarmangani the latter swung again into the
tree, unfastened the rope from above and lowered the lion to the
ground where he immediately followed it and loosed the noose about
Numa's neck. Then he drew his hunting knife and cut two round holes
in the front of the head bag opposite the lion's eyes for the double
purpose of permitting him to see and giving him sufficient air to
breathe.
This done Tarzan busied himself fitting the other bags, one over
each of Numa's formidably armed paws. Those on the hind feet he
secured not only by tightening the draw strings but also rigged
garters that fastened tightly around the legs above the hocks.
He secured the front-feet bags in place similarly above the great
knees. Now, indeed, was Numa, the lion, reduced to the harmlessness
of Bara, the deer.
By now Numa was showing signs of returning life. He gasped for
breath and struggled; but the strips of pigskin that held his four
legs together were numerous and tough. Tarzan watched and was sure
that they would hold, yet Numa is mightily muscled and there was
the chance, always, that he might struggle free of his bonds after
which all would depend upon the efficacy of Tarzan's bags and draw
strings.
After Numa had again breathed normally and was able to roar
out his protests and his rage, his struggles increased to Titanic
proportions for a short time; but as a lion's powers of endurance
are in no way proportionate to his size and strength he soon tired
and lay quietly. Amid renewed growling and another futile attempt
to free himself, Numa was finally forced to submit to the further
indignity of having a rope secured about his neck; but this time
it was no noose that might tighten and strangle him; but a bowline
knot, which does not tighten or slip under strain.
The other end of the rope Tarzan fastened to the stem of the tree,
then he quickly cut the bonds securing Numa's legs and leaped aside
as the beast sprang to his feet. For a moment the lion stood with
legs far outspread, then he raised first one paw and then another,
shaking them energetically in an effort to dislodge the strange
footgear that Tarzan had fastened upon them. Finally he began to paw
at the bag upon his head. The ape-man, standing with ready spear,
watched Numa's efforts intently. Would the bags hold? He sincerely
hoped so. Or would all his labor prove fruitless?
As the clinging things upon his feet and face resisted his every
effort to dislodge them, Numa became frantic. He rolled upon the
ground, fighting, biting, scratching, and roaring; he leaped to his
feet and sprang into the air; he charged Tarzan, only to be brought
to a sudden stop as the rope securing him to the tree tautened.
Then Tarzan stepped in and rapped him smartly on the head with the
shaft of his spear. Numa reared upon his hind feet and struck at
the are-man and in return received a cuff on one ear that sent him
reeling sideways. When he returned to the attack he was again sent
sprawling. After the fourth effort it appeared to dawn upon the king
of beasts that he had met his master, his head and tail dropped and
when Tarzan advanced upon him he backed away, though still growling.
Leaving Numa tied to the tree Tarzan entered the tunnel and removed
the barricade from the opposite end, after which he returned to
the gulch and strode straight for the tree. Numa lay in his path
and as Tarzan approached growled menacingly. The ape-man cuffed
him aside and unfastened the rope from the tree. Then ensued a
half-hour of stubbornly fought battle while Tarzan endeavored to
drive Numa through the tunnel ahead of him and Numa persistently
refused to be driven. At last, however, by dint of the unrestricted
use of his spear point, the ape-man succeeded in forcing the lion
to move ahead of him and eventually guided him into the passageway.
Once inside, the problem became simpler since Tarzan followed closely
in the rear with his sharp spear point, an unremitting incentive
to forward movement on the part of the lion. If Numa hesitated he
was prodded. If he backed up the result was extremely painful and
so, being a wise lion who was learning rapidly, he decided to keep
on going and at the end of the tunnel, emerging into the outer
world, he sensed freedom, raised his head and tail and started off
at a run.
Tarzan, still on his hands and knees just inside the entrance, was
taken unaware with the result that he was sprawled forward upon
his face and dragged a hundred yards across the rocky ground before
Numa was brought to a stand. It was a scratched and angry Tarzan
who scrambled to his feet. At first he was tempted to chastise
Numa; but, as the ape-man seldom permitted his temper to guide him
in any direction not countenanced by reason, he quickly abandoned
the idea.
Having taught Numa the rudiments of being driven, he now urged him
forward and there commenced as strange a journey as the unrecorded
history of the jungle contains. The balance of that day was eventful
both for Tarzan and for Numa. From open rebellion at first the lion
passed through stages of stubborn resistance and grudging obedience
to final surrender. He was a very tired, hungry, and thirsty lion
when night overtook them; but there was to be no food for him that
day or the next--Tarzan did not dare risk removing the head bag,
though he did cut another hole which permitted Numa to quench his
thirst shortly after dark. Then he tied him to a tree, sought food
for himself, and stretched out among the branches above his captive
for a few hours' sleep.
Early the following morning they resumed their journey, winding over
the low foothills south of Kilimanjaro, toward the east. The beasts
of the jungle who saw them took one look and fled. The scent spoor
of Numa, alone, might have been enough to have provoked flight in
many of the lesser animals, but the sight of this strange apparition
that smelled like a lion, but looked like nothing they ever had
seen before, being led through the jungles by a giant Tarmangani
was too much for even the more formidable denizens of the wild.
Sabor, the lioness, recognizing from a distance the scent of her
lord and master intermingled with that of a Tarmangani and the
hide of Horta, the boar, trotted through the aisles of the forest
to investigate. Tarzan and Numa heard her coming, for she voiced
a plaintive and questioning whine as the baffling mixture of odors
aroused her curiosity and her fears, for lions, however terrible
they may appear, are often timid animals and Sabor, being of the
gentler sex, was, naturally, habitually inquisitive as well.
Tarzan un-slung his spear for he knew that he might now easily have
to fight to retain his prize. Numa halted and turned his outraged
head in the direction of the coming she. He voiced a throaty growl
that was almost a purr. Tarzan was upon the point of prodding him
on again when Sabor broke into view, and behind her the ape-man saw
that which gave him instant pause--four full-grown lions trailing
the lioness.
To have goaded Numa then into active resistance might have brought
the whole herd down upon him and so Tarzan waited to learn first
what their attitude would be. He had no idea of relinquishing his
lion without a battle; but knowing lions as he did, he knew that
there was no assurance as to just what the newcomers would do.
The lioness was young and sleek, and the four males were in their
prime--as handsome lions as he ever had seen. Three of the males
were scantily maned but one, the foremost, carried a splendid,
black mane that rippled in the breeze as he trotted majestically
forward. The lioness halted a hundred feet from Tarzan, while the
lions came on past her and stopped a few feet nearer. Their ears
were upstanding and their eyes filled with curiosity. Tarzan could
not even guess what they might do. The lion at his side faced them
fully, standing silent now and watchful.
Suddenly the lioness gave vent to another little whine, at which
Tarzan's lion voiced a terrific roar and leaped forward straight
toward the beast of the black mane. The sight of this awesome
creature with the strange face was too much for the lion toward
which he leaped, dragging Tarzan after him, and with a growl the
lion turned and fled, followed by his companions and the she.
Numa attempted to follow them; Tarzan held him in leash and when
he turned upon him in rage, beat him unmercifully across the head
with his spear. Shaking his head and growling, the lion at last moved
off again in the direction they had been traveling; but it was an
hour before he ceased to sulk. He was very hungry--half famished
in fact--and consequently of an ugly temper, yet so thoroughly
subdued by Tarzan's heroic methods of lion taming that he was
presently pacing along at the ape-man's side like some huge St.
Bernard.
It was dark when the two approached the British right, after a
slight delay farther back because of a German patrol it had been
necessary to elude. A short distance from the British line of
out-guard sentinels Tarzan tied Numa to a tree and continued on
alone. He evaded a sentinel, passed the out-guard and support, and
by devious ways came again to Colonel Capell's headquarters, where
he appeared before the officers gathered there as a disembodied
spirit materializing out of thin air.
When they saw who it was that came thus unannounced they smiled
and the colonel scratched his head in perplexity.
"Someone should be shot for this," he said. "I might just as well
not establish an out-post if a man can filter through whenever he
pleases."
Tarzan smiled. "Do not blame them," he said, "for I am not a man.
I am Tarmangani. Any Mangani who wished to, could enter your camp
almost at will; but if you have them for sentinels no one could
enter without their knowledge."
"What are the Mangani?" asked the colonel. "Perhaps we might enlist
a bunch of the beggars."
Tarzan shook his head. "They are the great apes," he explained; "my
people; but you could not use them. They cannot concentrate long
enough upon a single idea. If I told them of this they would be
much interested for a short time-I might even hold the interest
of a few long enough to get them here and explain their duties to
them; but soon they would lose interest and when you needed them
most they might be off in the forest searching for beetles instead
of watching their posts. They have the minds of little children
--that is why they remain what they are."
"You call them Mangani and yourself Tarmangani--what is the
difference?" asked Major Preswick.
"Tar means white," replied Tarzan, "and Mangani, great ape. My name--the
name they gave me in the tribe of Kerchak--means White-skin. When
I was a little balu my skin, I presume, looked very white indeed
against the beautiful, black coat of Kala, my foster mother
and so they called me Tarzan, the Tarmangani. They call you, too,
Tarmangani," he concluded, smiling.
Capell smiled. "It is no reproach, Greystoke," he said; "and, by
Jove, it would be a mark of distinction if a fellow could act the
part. And now how about your plan? Do you still think you can empty
the trench opposite our sector?"
"Is it still held by Gomangani?" asked Tarzan.
"What are Gomangani?" inquired the colonel. "It is still held by
native troops, if that is what you mean."
"Yes," replied the ape-man, "the Gomangani are the great black
apes--the Negroes."
"What do you intend doing and what do you want us to do?" asked
Capell.
Tarzan approached the table and placed a finger on the map. "Here
is a listening post," he said; "they have a machine gun in it. A
tunnel connects it with this trench at this point." His finger moved
from place to place on the map as he talked. "Give me a bomb and
when you hear it burst in this listening post let your men start
across No Man's Land slowly. Presently they will hear a commotion
in the enemy trench; but they need not hurry, and, whatever they
do, have them come quietly. You might also warn them that I may be
in the trench and that I do not care to be shot or bayoneted."
"And that is all?" queried Capell, after directing an officer to
give Tarzan a hand grenade; "you will empty the trench alone?"
"Not exactly alone," replied Tarzan with a grim smile; "but I shall
empty it, and, by the way, your men may come in through the tunnel
from the listening post if you prefer. In about half an hour,
Colonel," and he turned and left them.
As he passed through the camp there flashed suddenly upon the screen
of recollection, conjured there by some reminder of his previous
visit to headquarters, doubtless, the image of the officer he had
passed as he quit the colonel that other time and simultaneously
recognition of the face that had been revealed by the light from
the fire. He shook his head dubiously. No, it could not be and
yet the features of the young officer were identical with those of
Fraulein Kircher, the German spy he had seen at German headquarters
the night he took Major Schneider from under the nose of the Hun
general and his staff.
Beyond the last line of sentinels Tarzan moved quickly in the
direction of Numa, the lion. The beast was lying down as Tarzan
approached, but he rose as the ape-man reached his side. A low
whine escaped his muzzled lips. Tarzan smiled for he recognized in
the new note almost a supplication--it was more like the whine of
a hungry dog begging for food than the voice of the proud king of
beasts.
"Soon you will kill--and feed," he murmured in the vernacular of
the great apes.
He unfastened the rope from about the tree and, with Numa close
at his side, slunk into No Man's Land. There was little rifle fire
and only an occasional shell vouched for the presence of artillery
behind the opposing lines. As the shells from both sides were
falling well back of the trenches, they constituted no menace to
Tarzan; but the noise of them and that of the rifle fire had a marked
effect upon Numa who crouched, trembling, close to the Tarmangani
as though seeking protection.
Cautiously the two beasts moved forward toward the listening post
of the Germans. In one hand Tarzan carried the bomb the English had
given him, in the other was the coiled rope attached to the lion.
At last Tarzan could see the position a few yards ahead. His keen
eyes picked out the head and shoulders of the sentinel on watch.
The ape-man grasped the bomb firmly in his right hand. He measured
the distance with his eye and gathered his feet beneath him, then
in a single motion he rose and threw the missile, immediately
flattening himself prone upon the ground.
Five seconds later there was a terrific explosion in the center of
the listening post. Numa gave a nervous start and attempted to break
away; but Tarzan held him and, leaping to his feet, ran forward,
dragging Numa after him. At the edge of the post he saw below him
but slight evidence that the position had been occupied at all,
for only a few shreds of torn flesh remained. About the only thing
that had not been demolished was a machine gun which had been
protected by sand bags.
There was not an instant to lose. Already a relief might be crawling
through the communication tunnel, for it must have been evident to
the sentinels in the Hun trenches that the listening post had been
demolished. Numa hesitated to follow Tarzan into the excavation;
but the ape-man, who was in no mood to temporize, jerked him roughly
to the bottom. Before them lay the mouth of the tunnel that led
back from No Man's Land to the German trenches. Tarzan pushed Numa
forward until his head was almost in the aperture, then as though
it were an afterthought, he turned quickly and, taking the machine
gun from the parapet, placed it in the bottom of the hole close
at hand, after which he turned again to Numa, and with his knife
quickly cut the garters that held the bags upon his front paws.
Before the lion could know that a part of his formidable armament
was again released for action, Tarzan had cut the rope from his
neck and the head bag from his face, and grabbing the lion from
the rear had thrust him partially into the mouth of the tunnel.
Then Numa balked, only to feel the sharp prick of Tarzan's knife
point in his hind quarters. Goading him on the ape-man finally
succeeded in getting the lion sufficiently far into the tunnel
so that there was no chance of his escaping other than by going
forward or deliberately backing into the sharp blade at his rear.
Then Tarzan cut the bags from the great hind feet, placed his
shoulder and his knife point against Numa's seat, dug his toes
into the loose earth that had been broken up by the explosion of
the bomb, and shoved.
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