The great bull gorilla carried Naomi Madison south along the wooded
crest of the mountains toward the southern end of the valley. When they
came to open spaces he scurried quickly across them, and he looked
behind him often as though fearing pursuit.
The girl's first terror had subsided, to be replaced by a strange
apathy that she could not understand. It was as though her nervous
system was under the effects of an anesthetic that deadened her
susceptibility to fear but left all her other faculties unimpaired.
Perhaps she had undergone so much that she no longer cared what befell
her.
That she could converse in English with this brutal beast lent an
unreality to the adventure that probably played a part in inducing the
mental state in which she found herself. After this, anything might be,
anything might happen.
The uncomfortable position in which she was being carried and her
hunger presently became matters of the most outstanding importance,
relegating danger to the background.
"Let me walk," she said.
Buckingham grunted and lowered her to her feet. "Do not try to run away
from me," he warned.
They continued on through the woods towards the south, the beast
sometimes stopping to look back and listen. He was moving into the
wind; so his nose was useless in apprehending danger from the rear.
During one of these stops Naomi saw fruit growing upon a tree. "I am
hungry," she said. "Is this fruit good to eat?"
"Yes," he replied and permitted her to gather some; then he pushed on
again.
They had come almost to the end of the valley and were crossing a space
almost devoid of trees at a point where the mountains fell in a series
of precipitous cliffs down to the floor of the valley when the gorilla
paused as usual under such circumstances to glance back.
The girl, thinking he feared pursuit by the Arabs, always looked
hopefully back at such times. Even the leering countenance of Atewy
would have been a welcome sight under the circumstances. Heretofore
they had seen no sign of pursuit, but this time a figure emerged from
the patch of wood they had just quitted--it was the lumbering figure of
a bull gorilla.
With a snarl, Buckingham lifted the girl from her feet and broke into a
lumbering run. A short distance within the forest beyond the clearing
he turned abruptly toward the cliff; and when he reached the edge he
swung the girl to his back, telling her to put her arms about his neck
and hang on.
Naomi Madison glanced once into the abyss below; then shut her eyes and
prayed for strength to hang onto the hairy creature making its way down
the sheer face of the rocky escarpment.
What he found to cling to she did not know, for she did not open her
eyes until he loosed her hands by main strength and let her drop to her
feet behind him.
"I'll come back for you when I have thrown Suffolk off the trail," said
the beast and was gone.
The Madison found herself in a small natural cave in the face of the
cliff. A tiny stream of water trickled from a hidden spring, formed a
little pool at the front of the cave, and ran over the edge down the
face of the cliff. A part of the floor of the cave was dry; but there
was no covering upon it, only the bare rock.
The girl approached the ledge and looked down. The great height of the
seemingly bare cliff face made her shrink back, giddy. Then she tried
it again and looked up. There seemed scarcely a hand- or foothold in
any direction. She marvelled that the heavy gorilla had been able to
make his way to the cave safely, burdened by her weight.
As she examined her situation, Buckingham clambered quickly to the
summit of the cliff and continued on toward the south. He moved slowly,
and it was not long before the pursuing beast overtook him.
The creature upon his trail hailed him. "Where is the hairless she?" he
demanded.
"I do not know," replied the other. "She has run away from me. I am
looking for her."
"Why did you run away from me, Buckingham?"
"I did not know it was you, Suffolk. I thought you were one of Wolsey's
men trying to rob me of the she so that I could not take her to the
king."
Suffolk grunted. "We had better find her. The king is not in a good
humor. How do you suppose she escaped from God?"
"She did not escape from God--this is a different she, though they look
much alike." The two passed on through the forest, searching for the
Madison.
For two nights and two days the girl lay alone in the rocky cave. She
could neither ascend nor descend the vertical cliff. If the beast did
not return for her, she must starve. This she knew, yet she hoped that
it would not return.
The third night fell. Naomi was suffering from hunger. Fortunately
the little trickle of water through the cave saved her from suffering
from thirst also. She heard the savage sounds of the night life of
the wilderness, but she was not afraid. The cave had at least that
advantage. If she had food she could live there in safety indefinitely,
but she had no food.
The first pangs of hunger had passed. She did not suffer. She only
knew that she was growing weaker. It seemed strange to her that she,
Naomi Madison, should be dying of hunger--and alone! Why, in all the
world the only creature that could save her from starvation, the only
creature that knew where she was was a great, savage gorilla--she who
numbered her admirers by the millions, whose whereabouts, whose every
act was chronicled in a hundred newspapers and magazines. She felt very
small and insignificant now. Here was no room for arrogant egotism.
During the long hours she had had more opportunity for self-scrutiny
than ever before, and what she discovered was not very flattering.
She realized that she had already changed much during the past two
weeks--she had learned much from the attitude of the other members of
the safari toward her but most from the example that Rhonda Terry had
set her. If she were to have the chance, she knew that she would be a
very different woman; but she did not expect the chance. She did not
want life at the price she would have to pay. She prayed that she might
die before the gorilla returned to claim his prize.
She slept fitfully through the third night--the rocky floor that was
her bed was torture to her soft flesh. The morning sun, shining full
into the mouth of her cave, gave her renewed hope even though her
judgment told her that there was no hope.
She drank, and bathed her hands and face; then she sat and looked out
over the valley of diamonds. She should have hated it, for it had
aroused the avarice that had brought her to this sorry pass; but she
did not--it was too beautiful.
Presently her attention was attracted by a scraping sound outside the
cave and above it. She listened intently. What could it be?
A moment later a black, hairy leg appeared below the top of the mouth
of the cave; and then the gorilla dropped to the narrow ledge before
it. The thing had returned! The girl crouched against the back wall,
shuddering.
The brute stooped and peered into the gloomy cavern. "Come here!"
it commanded. "I see you. Hurry--we have no time to waste. They may
have followed me. Suffolk has had me watched for two days. He did not
believe that you had run away. He guessed that I had hidden you. Come!
Hurry!"
"Go away and leave me," she begged. "I would rather stay here and die."
He made no answer at once, but stooped and came toward her. Seizing her
roughly by the arm he dragged her to the mouth of the cave. "So I'm not
good enough for you?" he growled. "Don't you know that I am the Duke of
Buckingham? Get on my back, and hold tight."
He swung her up into position, and she clung about his neck. She wanted
to hurl herself over the edge of the cliff, but she could not raise her
courage to the point. Against her will she clung to the shaggy brute as
he climbed the sheer face of the cliff toward the summit. She did not
dare even to look down.
At the top he lowered her to her feet and started on southward toward
the lower end of the valley, dragging her after him.
She was weak; and she staggered, stumbling often. Then he would jerk
her roughly to her feet and growl at her, using strange, medieval oaths.
"I can't go on," she said. "I am weak. I have had nothing to eat for
two days."
"You are just trying to delay me so that Suffolk can overtake us. You
would rather belong to the king, but you won't. You'll never see the
king. He is just waiting for an excuse to have my head, but he won't
ever get it. We're never going back to London, you and I. We'll go out
of the valley and find a place below the falls."
Again she stumbled and fell. The beast became enraged. He kicked her
as she lay on the ground; then he seized her by the hair and dragged
her after him.
But he did not go far thus. He had taken but a few steps when he came
to a sudden halt. With a savage growl and upturned lips baring powerful
yellow fangs he faced a figure that had dropped from a tree directly in
his path.
The girl saw too, and her eyes went wide. "Stanley!" she cried. "Oh,
Stanley, save me, save me!"
It was the startled cry of a forlorn hope, but in the instant of
voicing it she knew that she could expect no help from Stanley Obroski,
the coward. Her heart sank, and the horror of her position seemed
suddenly more acute because of this brief instant of false reprieve.
The gorilla released his hold upon her hair and dropped her to the
ground, where she lay too weak to rise, watching the great beast at her
side and the bronzed white giant facing it.
"Go away, Bolgani!" commanded Tarzan in the language of the great apes.
"The she is mine. Go away, or I kill!"
Buckingham did not understand the tongue of this stranger, but he
understood the menace of his attitude. "Go away!" he cried in English.
"Go away, or I will kill you!" Thus a beast spoke in English to an
Englishman who spoke the language of beasts!
Tarzan of the Apes is not easily astonished; but when he heard Bolgani,
the gorilla, speak to him in English he at first questioned his hearing
and then his sanity. But whatever the condition of either it could not
conceal the evident intent of the bull gorilla advancing menacingly
toward him as it beat its breast and screamed its threats.
Naomi Madison watched with horror-wide, fascinated eyes. She saw the
man she thought to be Stanley Obroski crouch slightly as though waiting
to receive the charge. She wondered why he did not turn and run--that
was what all who knew him, including herself, would have expected of
Stanley Obroski.
Suddenly the gorilla charged, and still the man held his ground.
Great hairy paws reached out to seize him; but he eluded them with
quick, pantherlike movements. Stooping, he sprang beneath a swinging
arm; and before the beast could turn leaped upon its back. A bronzed
arm encircled the squat neck of the hairy Buckingham. In a frenzy of
rage the beast swung around, clawing futilely to rid himself of his
antagonist.
He felt the steel thews of the ape-man's arm tightening, and realized
that he was coping with muscles far beyond what he had expected. He
threw himself to the ground in an effort to crush his foe with his
great weight, but Tarzan broke the fall with his feet and slipped
partially from beneath the hairy body.
Then Buckingham felt powerful jaws close upon his neck near the
jugular, he heard savage growls mingling with his own. Naomi Madison
heard too, and a new horror filled her soul. Now she knew why Stanley
Obroski had not fled in terror--he had gone mad! Fear and suffering had
transformed him into a maniac.
She shuddered at the thought, she shrank within herself as she saw his
strong white teeth sink into the black hide of the gorilla and heard
the bestial growls rumbling from that handsome mouth.
The two beasts rolled over and over upon the ground, the roars of the
gorilla mingling with the growls of the man; and the girl, leaning upon
her hands, watched through fascinated, horror stricken eyes.
She knew that there could be but one outcome--even though the man
appeared to have a slight initial advantage, the giant strength of
the mighty bull must prevail in the end. Then she saw a knife flash,
reflecting the rays of the morning sun. She saw it driven into the
great bull's side. She heard his agonized shriek of pain and rage. She
saw him redouble his efforts to dislodge the creature clinging to his
back.
Again and again the knife was driven home. Suddenly the maddened
struggles of the bull grew weaker; then they ceased, and with a
convulsive shudder the great form relaxed and lay inert.
The man leaped erect; he paid no attention to the girl; upon his face
was the savage snarl of a wild beast. Naomi was terrified; she tried
to crawl away and hide from him, but she was too weak. He placed a
foot upon the carcass of the dead bull and threw back his head; then
from his parted lips burst a cry that made her flesh creep. It was
the victory cry of the bull ape, and as its echoes died away in the
distance the man turned toward her.
All the savagery had vanished from his face; his gaze was intent and
earnest. She looked for a maniacal light in his eyes, but they seemed
sane and normal.
"Are you injured?" he asked.
"No," she said and tried to rise, but she had not the strength.
He came and lifted her to her feet. He was so strong! A sense of
security swept over her and unnerved her. She threw her arms about his
neck and commenced to sob.
"Oh, Stanley! Stanley!" she gasped. She tried to say more, but her sobs
choked her.
Obroski had told Tarzan a great deal about the members of the company.
He knew the names of all of them, and had identified most of them from
having seen them while he had watched the safari in the past. He knew
of the budding affair between Obroski and Naomi Madison, and he guessed
now from the girl's manner that she must be Naomi. It suited him that
these people should think him Stanley Obroski, for the sometimes grim
and terrible life that he led required the antidote of occasional humor.
He lifted her in his arms. "Why are you so weak?" he asked. "Is it from
hunger?"
She sobbed a scarcely audible "Yes," and buried her face in the hollow
of his neck. She was still half afraid of him. It was true that he did
not act like a madman, but what else could account for the remarkable
accession of courage and strength that had transformed him in the short
time since she had last seen him.
She had known that he was muscular; but she had never attributed to him
such superhuman strength as that which he had displayed during his
duel with the gorilla, and she had known that he was a coward. But this
man was no coward.
He carried her for a short distance, and then put her down on a bed of
soft grasses. "I will get you something to eat," he said.
She saw him swing lightly into the trees and disappear, and again
she was afraid. What a difference it made when he was near her! She
puckered her brows to a sudden thought. Why did she feel so safe with
Stanley Obroski now? She had never looked upon him as a protector or
as able to protect. Every one had considered him a coward. Whatever
metamorphosis had occurred had been sufficiently deeprooted to carry
its impression to her subconscious mind imparting this new feeling of
confidence.
He was gone but a short time, returning with some nuts and fruit. He
came and squatted beside her. "Eat a little at a time," he cautioned.
"After a while I will get flesh for you; that will bring back your
strength."
As she ate she studied him. "You have changed, Stanley," she said.
"Yes?"
"But I like you better. To think that you killed that terrible creature
single-handed! It was marvellous."
"What sort of a beast was it?" he asked. "It spoke English."
"It is a mystery to me. It called itself an Englishman and said that
it was the Duke of Buckingham. Another one pursued it whom it called
Suffolk. A great number of them attacked us at the time that this one
took me from the Arabs. They live in a city called London--he pointed
it out to me. And Rhonda is a captive there in a castle on a ledge a
little above the main part of the city--he said that she was with God
in his castle."
"I thought Rhonda had been killed by a lion," said Tarzan.
"So did I until that creature told me differently. Oh, the poor dear!
Perhaps it would have been better had the lion killed her. Think of
being in the power of those frightful half-men!"
"Where is this city?" asked Tarzan.
"It is back there a way at the foot of the cliff--one can see it
plainly from the summit."
The man rose and lifted the girl into his arms again. "Where are you
going?" she asked.
"I am going to take you to Orman and West. They should be at the falls
before night."
"Oh! They are alive?"
"They were looking for you, and they got lost. They have been hungry,
but otherwise they have gotten along all right. They will be glad to
see you."
"And then we can get out of this awful country?" she asked.
"First we must find out what became of the others and save Rhonda," he
replied.
"Oh, but she can't be saved!" exclaimed the girl. "You should see how
those devils fight--the Arabs, even with their guns, were helpless
against them. There isn't a chance in the world of saving poor Rhonda,
even if she is alive--which I doubt."
"We must try--and, anyway, I wish to see this gorilla city of London."
"You mean you would go there!"
"How else can I see it?"
"Oh, Stanley, please don't go back there!"
"I came here for you."
"Well, then, let Bill West go after Rhonda."
"Do you think he could get her?"
"I don't think any one can get her."
"Perhaps not," he said, "but at least I shall see the city and possibly
learn something about these gorillas that talk English. There is a
mystery worth solving."
They had reached the south end of the valley where the hills drop down
almost to the level of the river. The current here, above the falls,
was not swift; and Tarzan waded in with the girl still in his arms.
"Where are you going?" she cried, frightened.
"We have got to cross the river, and it is easier to cross here than
below the falls. There the current is much swifter, and there are
hippopotamuses and crocodiles. Take hold of my shoulders and hold
tight."
He plunged in and struck for the opposite shore, while the terrified
girl clung to him in desperation. The farther bank looked far away
indeed. Below she could hear the roar of the falls. They seemed to be
drifting down toward them.
But presently the strong, even strokes of the swimmer reassured her. He
seemed unhurried and unexcited, and gradually she relaxed as though she
had absorbed a portion of his confidence. But she sighed in relief as
he clambered out on solid ground.
Her terror at the river crossing was nothing to that which she
experienced in the descent of the escarpment to the foot of the
falls--it froze her to silent horror.
The man descended as nimbly as a monkey; the burden of her weight
seemed nothing to him. Where had Stanley Obroski acquired this facility
that almost put to shame the mountain goat and the monkey?
Half way down he called her attention to three figures near the foot of
the cliff. "There are Orman and West and the Arab," he said, but she
did not dare look down.
The three men below them were watching in astonishment--they had just
recognized that of the two descending toward them one was Obroski and
the other a girl, but whether Naomi or Rhonda they could not be sure.
Orman and West ran forward to meet them as they neared the foot of the
cliff. Tears came to Orman's eyes as he took Naomi in his arms; and
West was glad to see her too, but he was saddened when he discovered
that it was not Rhonda.
"Poor girl!" he muttered as they walked back to their little camp.
"Poor Rhonda! What an awful death!"
"But she is not dead," said Naomi.
"Not dead! How do you know?"
"She is worse than dead, Bill," and then Naomi told all that she knew
of Rhonda's fate.
When she was through, Tarzan rose. "You have enough of that buck left
to last until you can make a kill?" he asked.
"Yes," replied Orman.
"Then I'll be going," said the ape-man.
"Where?" asked the director.
"To find Rhonda."
West leaped to his feet. "I'll go with you, Stanley," he cried.
"But, my God, man! you can't save her now. After what Eyad has told us
of those beasts and Naomi's experience with them you must know that you
haven't a chance." Orman spoke with great seriousness.
"It is my duty to go anyway," said West, "not Stanley's; and I'm going."
"You'd better stay here," advised Tarzan. "You wouldn't have a chance."
"Why wouldn't I have as good a chance as you?" demanded West.
"Perhaps you would, but you would delay me." Tarzan turned away and
walked toward the foot of the escarpment.
Naomi Madison watched him through half closed eyes. "Good-bye,
Stanley!" she called.
"Oh, good-bye!" replied the ape-man and continued on.
They saw him seize a trailing liana and climb to another handhold; the
quick equatorial night engulfed him before he reached the top.
West had stood silently watching him, stunned by his grief. "I'm going
with him," he said finally and started for the escarpment.
"Why, you couldn't climb that place in the daytime, let alone after
dark," warned Orman.
"Don't be foolish, Bill," counselled Naomi. "We know how you feel, but
there's no sense throwing away another life uselessly. Even Stanley'll
never come back." She commenced to sob.
"Then I won't either," said West; "but I'm goin'."