It was not yet dark when he
reached the tribe, though he
stopped to exhume and devour
the remains of the wild boar
he had cached the preceding day,
and again to take Kulonga's bow
and arrows from the tree top
in which he had
hidden them.
It was a well-laden Tarzan
who dropped from the branches
into the midst of the tribe of
Kerchak.
With swelling chest he narrated
the glories of his adventure
and exhibited the spoils of conquest.
Kerchak grunted and turned
away, for he was jealous of this
strange member of his band. In
his little evil brain he sought
for some excuse to wreak his
hatred upon Tarzan.
The next day Tarzan was practicing
with his bow and arrows at the
first gleam of dawn. At first
he lost nearly every bolt he
shot, but finally he learned
to guide the little shafts with
fair accuracy, and ere a month
had passed he was no mean shot;
but his proficiency had cost
him nearly his entire supply
of arrows.
The tribe continued to find
the hunting good in the vicinity
of the beach, and so Tarzan of
the Apes varied his archery practice
with further investigation of
his father's choice though little
store of books.
It was during this period that
the young English lord found
hidden in the back of one of
the cupboards in the cabin a
small metal box. The key was
in the lock, and a few moments
of investigation and experimentation
were rewarded with the successful
opening of the receptacle.
In it he found a faded photograph
of a smooth faced young man,
a golden locket studded with
diamonds, linked to a small gold
chain, a few letters and a small
book.
Tarzan examined these all minutely.
The photograph he liked most
of all, for the eyes were smiling,
and the face was open and frank.
It was his father.
The locket, too, took his fancy,
and he placed the chain about
his neck in imitation of the
ornamentation he had seen to
be so common among the black
men he had visited. The brilliant
stones gleamed strangely against
his smooth, brown hide.
The letters he could scarcely
decipher for he had learned little
or nothing of script, so he put
them back in the box with the
photograph and turned his attention
to the book.
This was almost entirely filled
with fine script, but while the
little bugs were all familiar
to him, their arrangement and
the combinations in which they
occurred were strange, and entirely
incomprehensible.
Tarzan had long since learned
the use of the dictionary, but
much to his sorrow and perplexity
it proved of no avail to him
in this emergency. Not a word
of all that was writ in the book
could he find, and so he put
it back in the metal box, but
with a determination to work
out the mysteries of it later
on.
Little did he know that this
book held between its covers
the key to his origin--the answer
to the strange riddle of his
strange life. It was the diary
of John Clayton, Lord Greystoke--kept
in French, as had always been
his custom.
Tarzan replaced the box in
the cupboard, but always thereafter
he carried the features of the
strong, smiling face of his father
in his heart, and in his head
a fixed determination to solve
the mystery of the strange words
in the little black book.
At present he had more important
business in hand, for his supply
of arrows was exhausted, and
he must needs journey to the
black men's village and renew
it.
Early the following morning
he set out, and, traveling rapidly,
he came before midday to the
clearing. Once more he took up
his position in the great tree,
and, as before, he saw the women
in the fields and the village
street, and the cauldron of bubbling
poison directly beneath him.
For hours he lay awaiting his
opportunity to drop down unseen
and gather up the arrows for
which he had come; but nothing
now occurred to call the villagers
away from their homes. The day
wore on, and still Tarzan of
the Apes crouched above the unsuspecting
woman at the cauldron.
Presently the workers in the
fields returned. The hunting
warriors emerged from the forest,
and when all were within the
palisade the gates were closed
and barred.
Many cooking pots were now
in evidence about the village.
Before each hut a woman presided
over a boiling stew, while little
cakes of plantain, and cassava
puddings were to be seen on every
hand.
Suddenly there came a hail
from the edge of the clearing.
Tarzan looked.
It was a party of belated hunters
returning from the north, and
among them they half led, half
carried a struggling animal.
As they approached the village
the gates were thrown open to
admit them, and then, as the
people saw the victim of the
chase, a savage cry rose to the
heavens, for the quarry was a
man.
As he was dragged, still resisting,
into the village street, the
women and children set upon him
with sticks and stones, and Tarzan
of the Apes, young and savage
beast of the jungle, wondered
at the cruel brutality of his
own kind.
Sheeta, the leopard, alone
of all the jungle folk, tortured
his prey. The ethics of all the
others meted a quick and merciful
death to their victims.
Tarzan had learned from his
books but scattered fragments
of the ways of human beings.
When he had followed Kulonga
through the forest he had expected
to come to a city of strange
houses on wheels, puffing clouds
of black smoke from a huge tree
stuck in the roof of one of them--or
to a sea covered with mighty
floating buildings which he had
learned were called, variously,
ships and boats and steamers
and craft.
He had been sorely disappointed
with the poor little village
of the blacks, hidden away in
his own jungle, and with not
a single house as large as his
own cabin upon the distant beach.
He saw that these people were
more wicked than his own apes,
and as savage and cruel as Sabor,
herself. Tarzan began to hold
his own kind in low esteem.
Now they had tied their poor
victim to a great post near the
center of the village, directly
before Mbonga's hut, and here
they formed a dancing, yelling
circle of warriors about him,
alive with flashing knives and
menacing spears.
In a larger circle squatted
the women, yelling and beating
upon drums. It reminded Tarzan
of the Dum-Dum, and so he knew
what to expect. He wondered if
they would spring upon their
meat while it was still alive.
The Apes did not do such things
as that.
The circle of warriors about
the cringing captive drew closer
and closer to their prey as they
danced in wild and savage abandon
to the maddening music of the
drums. Presently a spear reached
out and pricked the victim. It
was the signal for fifty others.
Eyes, ears, arms and legs were
pierced; every inch of the poor
writhing body that did not cover
a vital organ became the target
of the cruel lancers.
The women and children shrieked
their delight.
The warriors licked their hideous
lips in anticipation of the feast
to come, and vied with one another
in the savagery and loathsomeness
of the cruel indignities with
which they tortured the still
conscious prisoner.
Then it was that Tarzan of
the Apes saw his chance. All
eyes were fixed upon the thrilling
spectacle at the stake. The light
of day had given place to the
darkness of a moonless night,
and only the fires in the immediate
vicinity of the orgy had been
kept alight to cast a restless
glow upon the restless scene.
Gently the lithe boy dropped
to the soft earth at the end
of the village street. Quickly
he gathered up the arrows--all
of them this time, for he had
brought a number of long fibers
to bind them into a bundle.
Without haste he wrapped them
securely, and then, ere he turned
to leave, the devil of capriciousness
entered his heart. He looked
about for some hint of a wild
prank to play upon these strange,
grotesque creatures that they
might be again aware of his presence
among them.
Dropping his bundle of arrows
at the foot of the tree, Tarzan
crept among the shadows at the
side of the street until he came
to the same hut he had entered
on the occasion of his first
visit.
Inside all was darkness, but
his groping hands soon found
the object for which he sought,
and without further delay he
turned again toward the door.
He had taken but a step, however,
ere his quick ear caught the
sound of approaching footsteps
immediately without. In another
instant the figure of a woman
darkened the entrance of the
hut.
Tarzan drew back silently to
the far wall, and his hand sought
the long, keen hunting knife
of his father. The woman came
quickly to the center of the
hut. There she paused for an
instant feeling about with her
hands for the thing she sought.
Evidently it was not in its accustomed
place, for she explored ever
nearer and nearer the wall where
Tarzan stood.
So close was
she now that the ape-man felt
the animal warmth
of her naked body. Up went the
hunting knife, and then the woman
turned to one side and soon a
guttural "ah" proclaimed that
her search had at last been successful.
Immediately she turned and
left the hut, and as she passed
through the doorway Tarzan saw
that she carried a cooking pot
in her hand.
He followed closely after her,
and as he reconnoitered from
the shadows of the doorway he
saw that all the women of the
village were hastening to and
from the various huts with pots
and kettles. These they were
filling with water and placing
over a number of fires near the
stake where the dying victim
now hung, an inert and bloody
mass of suffering.
Choosing a moment when none
seemed near, Tarzan hastened
to his bundle of arrows beneath
the great tree at the end of
the village street. As on the
former occasion he overthrew
the cauldron before leaping,
sinuous and catlike, into the
lower branches of the forest
giant.
Silently he climbed to a great
height until he found a point
where he could look through a
leafy opening upon the scene
beneath him.
The women were now preparing
the prisoner for their cooking
pots, while the men stood about
resting after the fatigue of
their mad revel. Comparative
quiet reigned in the village.
Tarzan raised aloft the thing
he had pilfered from the hut,
and, with aim made true by years
of fruit and coconut throwing,
launched it toward the group
of savages.
Squarely among them it fell,
striking one of the warriors
full upon the head and felling
him to the ground. Then it rolled
among the women and stopped beside
the half-butchered thing they
were preparing to feast upon.
All gazed in consternation
at it for an instant, and then,
with one accord, broke and ran
for their huts.
It was a grinning human skull
which looked up at them from
the ground. The dropping of the
thing out of the open sky was
a miracle well aimed to work
upon their superstitious fears.
Thus Tarzan of the Apes left
them filled with terror at this
new manifestation of the presence
of some unseen and unearthly
evil power which lurked in the
forest about their village.
Later, when they discovered
the overturned cauldron, and
that once more their arrows had
been pilfered, it commenced to
dawn upon them that they had
offended some great god by placing
their village in this part of
the jungle without propitiating
him. From then on an offering
of food was daily placed below
the great tree from whence the
arrows had disappeared in an
effort to conciliate the mighty
one.
But the seed of fear was deep
sown, and had he but known it,
Tarzan of the Apes had laid the
foundation for much future misery
for himself and his tribe.
That night he slept in the
forest not far from the village,
and early the next morning set
out slowly on his homeward march,
hunting as he traveled. Only
a few berries and an occasional
grub worm rewarded his search,
and he was half famished when,
looking up from a log he had
been rooting beneath, he saw
Sabor, the lioness, standing
in the center of the trail not
twenty paces from him.
The great yellow eyes were
fixed upon him with a wicked
and baleful gleam, and the red
tongue licked the longing lips
as Sabor crouched, worming her
stealthy way with belly flattened
against the earth.
Tarzan did not attempt to escape.
He welcomed the opportunity for
which, in fact, he had been searching
for days past, now that he was
armed with something more than
a rope of grass.
Quickly he unslung his bow
and fitted a well-daubed arrow,
and as Sabor sprang, the tiny
missile leaped to meet her in
mid-air. At the same instant
Tarzan of the Apes jumped to
one side, and as the great cat
struck the ground beyond him
another death-tipped arrow sunk
deep into Sabor's loin.
With a mighty roar the beast
turned and charged once more,
only to be met with a third arrow
full in one eye; but this time
she was too close to the ape-man
for the latter to sidestep the
onrushing body.
Tarzan of the Apes went down
beneath the great body of his
enemy, but with gleaming knife
drawn and striking home. For
a moment they lay there, and
then Tarzan realized that the
inert mass lying upon him was
beyond power ever again to injure
man or ape.
With difficulty he wriggled
from beneath the great weight,
and as he stood erect and gazed
down upon the trophy of his skill,
a mighty wave of exultation swept
over him.
With swelling breast, he placed
a foot upon the body of his powerful
enemy, and throwing back his
fine young head, roared out the
awful challenge of the victorious
bull ape.
The forest echoed to the savage
and triumphant paean. Birds fell
still, and the larger animals
and beasts of prey slunk stealthily
away, for few there were of all
the jungle who sought for trouble
with the great anthropoids.
And in London another Lord
Greystoke was speaking to HIS
kind in the House of Lords, but
none trembled at the sound of
his soft voice.
Sabor proved unsavory eating
even to Tarzan of the Apes, but
hunger served as a most efficacious
disguise to toughness and rank
taste, and ere long, with well-filled
stomach, the ape-man was ready
to sleep again. First, however,
he must remove the hide, for
it was as much for this as for
any other purpose that he had
desired to destroy Sabor.
Deftly he removed the great
pelt, for he had practiced often
on smaller animals. When the
task was finished he carried
his trophy to the fork of a high
tree, and there, curling himself
securely in a crotch, he fell
into deep and dreamless slumber.
What with loss of sleep, arduous
exercise, and a full belly, Tarzan
of the Apes slept the sun around,
awakening about noon of the following
day. He straightway repaired
to the carcass of Sabor, but
was angered to find the bones
picked clean by other hungry
denizens of the jungle.
Half an hour's leisurely progress
through the forest brought to
sight a young deer, and before
the little creature knew that
an enemy was near a tiny arrow
had lodged in its neck.
So quickly the virus worked
that at the end of a dozen leaps
the deer plunged headlong into
the undergrowth, dead. Again
did Tarzan feast well, but this
time he did not sleep.
Instead, he hastened on toward
the point where he had left the
tribe, and when he had found
them proudly exhibited the skin
of Sabor, the lioness.
"Look!" he cried, "Apes of
Kerchak. See what Tarzan, the
mighty killer, has done. Who
else among you has ever killed
one of Numa's people? Tarzan
is mightiest amongst you for
Tarzan is no ape. Tarzan is--" But
here he stopped, for in the language
of the anthropoids there was
no word for man, and Tarzan could
only write the word in English;
he could not pronounce it.
The tribe had gathered about
to look upon the proof of his
wondrous prowess, and to listen
to his words.
Only Kerchak hung back, nursing
his hatred and his rage.
Suddenly something snapped
in the wicked little brain of
the anthropoid. With a frightful
roar the great beast sprang among
the assemblage.
Biting, and striking with his
huge hands, he killed and maimed
a dozen ere the balance could
escape to the upper terraces
of the forest.
Frothing and shrieking in the
insanity of his fury, Kerchak
looked about for the object of
his greatest hatred, and there,
upon a near-by limb, he saw him
sitting.
"Come down, Tarzan, great killer," cried
Kerchak. "Come down and feel
the fangs of a greater! Do mighty
fighters fly to the trees at
the first approach of danger?" And
then Kerchak emitted the volleying
challenge of his kind.
Quietly Tarzan dropped to the
ground. Breathlessly the tribe
watched from their lofty perches
as Kerchak, still roaring, charged
the relatively puny figure.
Nearly seven feet stood Kerchak
on his short legs. His enormous
shoulders were bunched and rounded
with huge muscles. The back of
his short neck was as a single
lump of iron sinew which bulged
beyond the base of his skull,
so that his head seemed like
a small ball protruding from
a huge mountain of flesh.
His back-drawn, snarling lips
exposed his great fighting fangs,
and his little, wicked, blood-shot
eyes gleamed in horrid reflection
of his madness.
Awaiting him stood Tarzan,
himself a mighty muscled animal,
but his six feet of height and
his great rolling sinews seemed
pitifully inadequate to the ordeal
which awaited them.
His bow and arrows lay some
distance away where he had dropped
them while showing Sabor's hide
to his fellow apes, so that he
confronted Kerchak now with only
his hunting knife and his superior
intellect to offset the ferocious
strength of his enemy.
As his antagonist came roaring
toward him, Lord Greystoke tore
his long knife from its sheath,
and with an answering challenge
as horrid and bloodcurdling as
that of the beast he faced, rushed
swiftly to meet the attack. He
was too shrewd to allow those
long hairy arms to encircle him,
and just as their bodies were
about to crash together, Tarzan
of the Apes grasped one of the
huge wrists of his assailant,
and, springing lightly to one
side, drove his knife to the
hilt into Kerchak's body, below
the heart.
Before he could wrench the
blade free again, the bull's
quick lunge to seize him in those
awful arms had torn the weapon
from Tarzan's grasp.
Kerchak aimed a terrific blow
at the ape-man's head with the
flat of his hand, a blow which,
had it landed, might easily have
crushed in the side of Tarzan's
skull.
The man was too quick, and,
ducking beneath it, himself delivered
a mighty one, with clenched fist,
in the pit of Kerchak's stomach.
The ape was staggered, and
what with the mortal wound in
his side had almost collapsed,
when, with one mighty effort
he rallied for an instant--just
long enough to enable him to
wrest his arm free from Tarzan's
grasp and close in a terrific
clinch with his wiry opponent.
Straining the ape-man close
to him, his great jaws sought
Tarzan's throat, but the young
lord's sinewy fingers were at
Kerchak's own before the cruel
fangs could close on the sleek
brown skin.
Thus they struggled, the one
to crush out his opponent's life
with those awful teeth, the other
to close forever the windpipe
beneath his strong grasp while
he held the snarling mouth from
him.
The greater strength of the
ape was slowly prevailing, and
the teeth of the straining beast
were scarce an inch from Tarzan's
throat when, with a shuddering
tremor, the great body stiffened
for an instant and then sank
limply to the ground.
Kerchak was dead.
Withdrawing the knife that
had so often rendered him master
of far mightier muscles than
his own, Tarzan of the Apes placed
his foot upon the neck of his
vanquished enemy, and once again,
loud through the forest rang
the fierce, wild cry of the conqueror.
And thus came the young Lord
Greystoke into the kingship of
the Apes.
|