Jane Clayton and the Beasts of the Jungle
Mugambi, after his successful break for liberty, had fallen upon hard
times. His way had led him through a country with which he was
unfamiliar, a jungle country in which he could find no water, and but
little food, so that after several days of wandering he found himself
so reduced in strength that he could barely drag himself along.
It was with growing difficulty that he found the strength necessary to
construct a shelter by night wherein he might be reasonably safe from
the large carnivora, and by day he still further exhausted his strength
in digging for edible roots, and searching for water.
A few stagnant pools at considerable distances apart saved him from
death by thirst; but his was a pitiable state when finally he stumbled
by accident upon a large river in a country where fruit was abundant,
and small game which he might bag by means of a combination of stealth,
cunning, and a crude knob-stick which he had fashioned from a fallen
limb.
Realizing that he still had a long march ahead of him before he could
reach even the outskirts of the Waziri country, Mugambi wisely decided
to remain where he was until he had recuperated his strength and
health. A few days’ rest would accomplish wonders for him, he knew, and
he could ill afford to sacrifice his chances for a safe return by
setting forth handicapped by weakness.
And so it was that he constructed a substantial thorn boma, and rigged
a thatched shelter within it, where he might sleep by night in
security, and from which he sallied forth by day to hunt the flesh
which alone could return to his giant thews their normal prowess.
One day, as he hunted, a pair of savage eyes discovered him from the
concealment of the branches of a great tree beneath which the black
warrior passed. Bloodshot, wicked eyes they were, set in a fierce and
hairy face.
They watched Mugambi make his little kill of a small rodent, and they
followed him as he returned to his hut, their owner moving quietly
through the trees upon the trail of the Negro.
The creature was Chulk, and he looked down upon the unconscious man
more in curiosity than in hate. The wearing of the Arab burnoose which
Tarzan had placed upon his person had aroused in the mind of the
anthropoid a desire for similar mimicry of the Tarmangani. The
burnoose, though, had obstructed his movements and proven such a
nuisance that the ape had long since torn it from him and thrown it
away.
Now, however, he saw a Gomangani arrayed in less cumbersome apparel—a
loin cloth, a few copper ornaments and a feather headdress. These were
more in line with Chulk’s desires than a flowing robe which was
constantly getting between one’s legs, and catching upon every limb and
bush along the leafy trail.
Chulk eyed the pouch, which, suspended over Mugambi’s shoulder, swung
beside his black hip. This took his fancy, for it was ornamented with
feathers and a fringe, and so the ape hung about Mugambi’s boma,
waiting an opportunity to seize either by stealth or might some object
of the black’s apparel.
Nor was it long before the opportunity came. Feeling safe within his
thorny enclosure, Mugambi was wont to stretch himself in the shade of
his shelter during the heat of the day, and sleep in peaceful security
until the declining sun carried with it the enervating temperature of
midday.
Watching from above, Chulk saw the black warrior stretched thus in the
unconsciousness of sleep one sultry afternoon. Creeping out upon an
overhanging branch the anthropoid dropped to the ground within the
boma. He approached the sleeper upon padded feet which gave forth no
sound, and with an uncanny woodcraft that rustled not a leaf or a grass
blade.
Pausing beside the man, the ape bent over and examined his belongings.
Great as was the strength of Chulk there lay in the back of his little
brain a something which deterred him from arousing the man to combat—a
sense that is inherent in all the lower orders, a strange fear of man,
that rules even the most powerful of the jungle creatures at times.
To remove Mugambi’s loin cloth without awakening him would be
impossible, and the only detachable things were the knob-stick and the
pouch, which had fallen from the black’s shoulder as he rolled in
sleep.
Seizing these two articles, as better than nothing at all, Chulk
retreated with haste, and every indication of nervous terror, to the
safety of the tree from which he had dropped, and, still haunted by
that indefinable terror which the close proximity of man awakened in
his breast, fled precipitately through the jungle. Aroused by attack,
or supported by the presence of another of his kind, Chulk could have
braved the presence of a score of human beings, but alone—ah, that was
a different matter—alone, and unenraged.
It was some time after Mugambi awoke that he missed the pouch.
Instantly he was all excitement. What could have become of it? It had
been at his side when he lay down to sleep—of that he was certain, for
had he not pushed it from beneath him when its bulging bulk, pressing
against his ribs, caused him discomfort? Yes, it had been there when he
lay down to sleep. How then had it vanished?
Mugambi’s savage imagination was filled with visions of the spirits of
departed friends and enemies, for only to the machinations of such as
these could he attribute the disappearance of his pouch and knob-stick
in the first excitement of the discovery of their loss; but later and
more careful investigation, such as his woodcraft made possible,
revealed indisputable evidence of a more material explanation than his
excited fancy and superstition had at first led him to accept.
In the trampled turf beside him was the faint impress of huge, manlike
feet. Mugambi raised his brows as the truth dawned upon him. Hastily
leaving the boma he searched in all directions about the enclosure for
some further sign of the tell-tale spoor. He climbed trees and sought
for evidence of the direction of the thief’s flight; but the faint
signs left by a wary ape who elects to travel through the trees eluded
the woodcraft of Mugambi. Tarzan might have followed them; but no
ordinary mortal could perceive them, or perceiving, translate.
The black, now strengthened and refreshed by his rest, felt ready to
set out again for Waziri, and finding himself another knob-stick,
turned his back upon the river and plunged into the mazes of the
jungle.
As Taglat struggled with the bonds which secured the ankles and wrists
of his captive, the great lion that eyed the two from behind a nearby
clump of bushes wormed closer to his intended prey.
The ape’s back was toward the lion. He did not see the broad head,
fringed by its rough mane, protruding through the leafy wall. He could
not know that the powerful hind paws were gathering close beneath the
tawny belly preparatory to a sudden spring, and his first intimation of
impending danger was the thunderous and triumphant roar which the
charging lion could no longer suppress.
Scarce pausing for a backward glance, Taglat abandoned the unconscious
woman and fled in the opposite direction from the horrid sound which
had broken in so unexpected and terrifying a manner upon his startled
ears; but the warning had come too late to save him, and the lion, in
his second bound, alighted full upon the broad shoulders of the
anthropoid.
As the great bull went down there was awakened in him to the full all
the cunning, all the ferocity, all the physical prowess which obey the
mightiest of the fundamental laws of nature, the law of
self-preservation, and turning upon his back he closed with the
carnivore in a death struggle so fearless and abandoned, that for a
moment the great Numa himself may have trembled for the outcome.
Seizing the lion by the mane, Taglat buried his yellowed fangs deep in
the monster’s throat, growling hideously through the muffled gag of
blood and hair. Mixed with the ape’s voice the lion’s roars of rage and
pain reverberated through the jungle, till the lesser creatures of the
wild, startled from their peaceful pursuits, scurried fearfully away.
Rolling over and over upon the turf the two battled with demoniac fury,
until the colossal cat, by doubling his hind paws far up beneath his
belly sank his talons deep into Taglat’s chest, then, ripping downward
with all his strength, Numa accomplished his design, and the
disemboweled anthropoid, with a last spasmodic struggle, relaxed in
limp and bloody dissolution beneath his titanic adversary.
Scrambling to his feet, Numa looked about quickly in all directions, as
though seeking to detect the possible presence of other foes; but only
the still and unconscious form of the girl, lying a few paces from him
met his gaze, and with an angry growl he placed a forepaw upon the body
of his kill and raising his head gave voice to his savage victory cry.
For another moment he stood with fierce eyes roving to and fro about
the clearing. At last they halted for a second time upon the girl. A
low growl rumbled from the lion’s throat. His lower jaw rose and fell,
and the slaver drooled and dripped upon the dead face of Taglat.
Like two yellow-green augurs, wide and unblinking, the terrible eyes
remained fixed upon Jane Clayton. The erect and majestic pose of the
great frame shrank suddenly into a sinister crouch as, slowly and
gently as one who treads on eggs, the devil-faced cat crept forward
toward the girl.
Beneficent Fate maintained her in happy unconsciousness of the dread
presence sneaking stealthily upon her. She did not know when the lion
paused at her side. She did not hear the sniffing of his nostrils as he
smelled about her. She did not feel the heat of the fetid breath upon
her face, nor the dripping of the saliva from the frightful jaws half
opened so close above her.
Finally the lion lifted a forepaw and turned the body of the girl half
over, then he stood again eyeing her as though still undetermined
whether life was extinct or not. Some noise or odor from the nearby
jungle attracted his attention for a moment. His eyes did not again
return to Jane Clayton, and presently he left her, walked over to the
remains of Taglat, and crouching down upon his kill with his back
toward the girl, proceeded to devour the ape.
It was upon this scene that Jane Clayton at last opened her eyes.
Inured to danger, she maintained her self-possession in the face of the
startling surprise which her new-found consciousness revealed to her.
She neither cried out nor moved a muscle, until she had taken in every
detail of the scene which lay within the range of her vision.
She saw that the lion had killed the ape, and that he was devouring his
prey less than fifty feet from where she lay; but what could she do?
Her hands and feet were bound. She must wait then, in what patience she
could command, until Numa had eaten and digested the ape, when, without
doubt, he would return to feast upon her, unless, in the meantime, the
dread hyenas should discover her, or some other of the numerous
prowling carnivora of the jungle.
As she lay tormented by these frightful thoughts, she suddenly became
conscious that the bonds at her wrists and ankles no longer hurt her,
and then of the fact that her hands were separated, one lying upon
either side of her, instead of both being confined at her back.
Wonderingly she moved a hand. What miracle had been performed? It was
not bound! Stealthily and noiselessly she moved her other limbs, only
to discover that she was free. She could not know how the thing had
happened, that Taglat, gnawing upon them for sinister purposes of his
own, had cut them through but an instant before Numa had frightened him
from his victim.
For a moment Jane Clayton was overwhelmed with joy and thanksgiving;
but only for a moment. What good was her new-found liberty in the face
of the frightful beast crouching so close beside her? If she could have
had this chance under different conditions, how happily she would have
taken advantage of it; but now it was given to her when escape was
practically impossible.
The nearest tree was a hundred feet away, the lion less than fifty. To
rise and attempt to reach the safety of those tantalizing branches
would be but to invite instant destruction, for Numa would doubtless be
too jealous of this future meal to permit it to escape with ease. And
yet, too, there was another possibility—a chance which hinged entirely
upon the unknown temper of the great beast.
His belly already partially filled, he might watch with indifference
the departure of the girl; yet could she afford to chance so improbable
a contingency? She doubted it. Upon the other hand she was no more
minded to allow this frail opportunity for life to entirely elude her
without taking or attempting to take some advantage from it.
She watched the lion narrowly. He could not see her without turning his
head more than halfway around. She would attempt a ruse. Silently she
rolled over in the direction of the nearest tree, and away from the
lion, until she lay again in the same position in which Numa had left
her, but a few feet farther from him.
Here she lay breathless watching the lion; but the beast gave no
indication that he had heard aught to arouse his suspicions. Again she
rolled over, gaining a few more feet and again she lay in rigid
contemplation of the beast’s back.
During what seemed hours to her tense nerves, Jane Clayton continued
these tactics, and still the lion fed on in apparent unconsciousness
that his second prey was escaping him. Already the girl was but a few
paces from the tree—a moment more and she would be close enough to
chance springing to her feet, throwing caution aside and making a
sudden, bold dash for safety. She was halfway over in her turn, her
face away from the lion, when he suddenly turned his great head and
fastened his eyes upon her. He saw her roll over upon her side away
from him, and then her eyes were turned again toward him, and the cold
sweat broke from the girl’s every pore as she realized that with life
almost within her grasp, death had found her out.
For a long time neither the girl nor the lion moved. The beast lay
motionless, his head turned upon his shoulders and his glaring eyes
fixed upon the rigid victim, now nearly fifty yards away. The girl
stared back straight into those cruel orbs, daring not to move even a
muscle.
The strain upon her nerves was becoming so unbearable that she could
scarcely restrain a growing desire to scream, when Numa deliberately
turned back to the business of feeding; but his back-layed ears
attested a sinister regard for the actions of the girl behind him.
Realizing that she could not again turn without attracting his
immediate and perhaps fatal attention, Jane Clayton resolved to risk
all in one last attempt to reach the tree and clamber to the lower
branches.
Gathering herself stealthily for the effort, she leaped suddenly to her
feet, but almost simultaneously the lion sprang up, wheeled and with
wide-distended jaws and terrific roars, charged swiftly down upon her.
Those who have spent lifetimes hunting the big game of Africa will tell
you that scarcely any other creature in the world attains the speed of
a charging lion. For the short distance that the great cat can maintain
it, it resembles nothing more closely than the onrushing of a giant
locomotive under full speed, and so, though the distance that Jane
Clayton must cover was relatively small, the terrific speed of the lion
rendered her hopes of escape almost negligible.
Yet fear can work wonders, and though the upward spring of the lion as
he neared the tree into which she was scrambling brought his talons in
contact with her boots she eluded his raking grasp, and as he hurtled
against the bole of her sanctuary, the girl drew herself into the
safety of the branches above his reach.
For some time the lion paced, growling and moaning, beneath the tree in
which Jane Clayton crouched, panting and trembling. The girl was a prey
to the nervous reaction from the frightful ordeal through which she had
so recently passed, and in her overwrought state it seemed that never
again should she dare descend to the ground among the fearsome dangers
which infested the broad stretch of jungle that she knew must lie
between herself and the nearest village of her faithful Waziri.
It was almost dark before the lion finally quit the clearing, and even
had his place beside the remnants of the mangled ape not been
immediately usurped by a pack of hyenas, Jane Clayton would scarcely
have dared venture from her refuge in the face of impending night, and
so she composed herself as best she could for the long and tiresome
wait, until daylight might offer some means of escape from the dread
vicinity in which she had witnessed such terrifying adventures.
Tired nature at last overcame even her fears, and she dropped into a
deep slumber, cradled in a comparatively safe, though rather
uncomfortable, position against the bole of the tree, and supported by
two large branches which grew outward, almost horizontally, but a few
inches apart.
The sun was high in the heavens when she at last awoke, and beneath her
was no sign either of Numa or the hyenas. Only the clean-picked bones
of the ape, scattered about the ground, attested the fact of what had
transpired in this seemingly peaceful spot but a few hours before.
Both hunger and thirst assailed her now, and realizing that she must
descend or die of starvation, she at last summoned courage to undertake
the ordeal of continuing her journey through the jungle.
Descending from the tree, she set out in a southerly direction, toward
the point where she believed the plains of Waziri lay, and though she
knew that only ruin and desolation marked the spot where once her happy
home had stood, she hoped that by coming to the broad plain she might
eventually reach one of the numerous Waziri villages that were
scattered over the surrounding country, or chance upon a roving band of
these indefatigable huntsmen.
The day was half spent when there broke unexpectedly upon her startled
ears the sound of a rifle shot not far ahead of her. As she paused to
listen, this first shot was followed by another and another and
another. What could it mean? The first explanation which sprung to her
mind attributed the firing to an encounter between the Arab raiders and
a party of Waziri; but as she did not know upon which side victory
might rest, or whether she were behind friend or foe, she dared not
advance nearer on the chance of revealing herself to an enemy.
After listening for several minutes she became convinced that no more
than two or three rifles were engaged in the fight, since nothing
approximating the sound of a volley reached her ears; but still she
hesitated to approach, and at last, determining to take no chance, she
climbed into the concealing foliage of a tree beside the trail she had
been following and there fearfully awaited whatever might reveal
itself.
As the firing became less rapid she caught the sound of men’s voices,
though she could distinguish no words, and at last the reports of the
guns ceased, and she heard two men calling to each other in loud tones.
Then there was a long silence which was finally broken by the stealthy
padding of footfalls on the trail ahead of her, and in another moment a
man appeared in view backing toward her, a rifle ready in his hands,
and his eyes directed in careful watchfulness along the way that he had
come.
Almost instantly Jane Clayton recognized the man as M. Jules Frecoult,
who so recently had been a guest in her home. She was upon the point of
calling to him in glad relief when she saw him leap quickly to one side
and hide himself in the thick verdure at the trail’s side. It was
evident that he was being followed by an enemy, and so Jane Clayton
kept silent, lest she distract Frecoult’s attention, or guide his foe
to his hiding place.
Scarcely had Frecoult hidden himself than the figure of a white-robed
Arab crept silently along the trail in pursuit. From her hiding place,
Jane Clayton could see both men plainly. She recognized Achmet Zek as
the leader of the band of ruffians who had raided her home and made her
a prisoner, and as she saw Frecoult, the supposed friend and ally,
raise his gun and take careful aim at the Arab, her heart stood still
and every power of her soul was directed upon a fervent prayer for the
accuracy of his aim.
Achmet Zek paused in the middle of the trail. His keen eyes scanned
every bush and tree within the radius of his vision. His tall figure
presented a perfect target to the perfidious assassin. There was a
sharp report, and a little puff of smoke arose from the bush that hid
the Belgian, as Achmet Zek stumbled forward and pitched, face down,
upon the trail.
As Werper stepped back into the trail, he was startled by the sound of
a glad cry from above him, and as he wheeled about to discover the
author of this unexpected interruption, he saw Jane Clayton drop
lightly from a nearby tree and run forward with outstretched hands to
congratulate him upon his victory.