"Naomi! What became of her?"
"She is with Orman and West and one of the Arabs at the foot of
the falls. I came here to find you and take you to them; but it is
commencing to look as though I had made a mess of it--getting captured
myself."
"But how did Naomi get away from Buckingham?" demanded the girl.
"I killed him."
"_You_ killed _Buckingham_!" She looked at him with wide, unbelieving
eyes.
From the reactions of the others toward his various exploits Tarzan
had already come to understand that Obroski's friends had not held his
courage in very high esteem, and so it amused him all the more that
they should mistake him for this unquestioned coward.
The girl surveyed him in silence through level eyes for several moments
as though she were trying to read his soul and learn the measure of his
imposture; then she shook her head.
"You're not a bad kid, Stanley," she said; "but you mustn't tell
naughty stories to your Aunt Rhonda."
One of the ape-man's rare smiles bared his strong, white teeth. "No one
can fool you, can they?" he asked admiringly.
"Well, I'll admit that they'd have to get up pretty early in the
morning to put anything over on Rhonda Terry. But what I can't
understand is that make-up of yours--the scenery--where did you get it
and why? I should think you'd freeze."
"You will have to ask Rungula, chief of the Bansutos," replied Tarzan.
"What has he to do with it?"
"He appropriated the Obroski wardrobe."
"I commence to see the light. But if you were captured by the Bansutos,
how did you escape?"
"If I told you you would not believe me. You do not believe that I
killed Buckingham."
"How could I, unless you sneaked up on him while he was asleep? It
just isn't in the cards, Stanley, for any man to have killed that big
gorilla unless he had a rifle--that's it! You shot him."
"And then threw my rifle away?" inquired the ape-man.
"M-m-m, that doesn't sound reasonable, does it? No, I guess you're just
a plain damn liar, Stanley."
"Thank you."
"Don't get sore. I really like you and always have; but I have seen
too much of life to believe in miracles, and the idea of you killing
Buckingham single-handed would be nothing short of a miracle."
Tarzan turned away and commenced to examine the room in which they
were confined. The flickering light of the torch in the adjoining room
lighted it dimly. He found a square chamber the walls of which were
faced with roughly hewn stone. The ceiling was of planking supported by
huge beams. The far end of the room was so dark that he could not see
the ceiling at that point; the last beam cast a heavy shadow there upon
the ceiling. He thought he detected a steady current of air moving from
the barred doorway of the other room to this far corner of their cell,
suggesting an opening there; but he could find none, and abandoned the
idea.
Having finished his inspection he came and sat down on the straw beside
Rhonda. "You say you have been here a week?" he inquired.
"In the city--not right here," she replied. "Why?"
"I was thinking--they must feed you, then?" he inquired.
"Yes; celery, bamboo tips, fruit, and nuts--it gets monotonous."
"I was not thinking of _what_ they fed you but of how. How is your food
brought to you and when? I mean since you have been in this room."
"When they brought me here yesterday they gave me enough food for the
day; this morning they brought me another day's supply. They bring
it into that next room and shove it through the bars--no dishes or
anything like that--they just shove it through onto the floor with
their dirty, bare hands, or paws. All except the water--they bring
water in that gourd there in the corner."
"They don't open the door, then, and come into the room?"
"No."
"That is too bad."
"Why?"
"If they opened the door we might have a chance to escape," explained
the ape-man.
"Not a chance--the food is brought by a big bull gorilla. Oh, I
forgot!" she exclaimed, laughing. "You'd probably break him in two and
throw him in the waste basket like you did Buckingham."
Tarzan laughed with her. "I keep forgetting that I am a coward," he
said. "You must be sure to remind me if any danger threatens us."
"I guess you won't have to be reminded, Stanley." She was looking at
him again closely. "But you have changed in some way," she ventured
finally. "I don't know just how to explain it, but you seem to have
more assurance. And you sure put up a good front when you were talking
to God. Say! Do you suppose what you've been through the past few weeks
has affected your mind?"
Further conversation was interrupted by the return of God. He pulled a
chair up in front of the barred door and sat down.
"Henry is a fool," he announced. "He's trying to work his followers up
to a pitch that will make it possible for him to induce them to attack
heaven and kill God. Henry wants to be God. I made him a king, and now
he wants to be God. But he gave them too much to drink; and now most of
them are asleep in the palace courtyard, including Henry. They won't
bother me tonight; so I thought I'd come down and have a pleasant visit
with you. There won't be many more opportunities, for you will have to
serve your purpose before something happens to prevent it. I can't take
any chances."
"What is this strange purpose we are to serve?" asked Rhonda.
"It is purely scientific; but it is a long story and I shall have to
start at the beginning," explained God.
"The beginning!" he repeated dreamily. "How long ago it was! It was
while I was still an undergraduate at Oxford that I first had a
glimmering of the light that finally dawned. Let me see--that must have
been about 1855. No, it was before that--I graduated in '55. That's
right, I was born in '33 and I was twenty-two when I graduated.
"I had always been intrigued by Lamarck's investigations and later
by Darwin's. They were on the right track, but they did not go far
enough; then, shortly after my graduation, I was travelling in Austria
when I met a priest at Brunn who was working along lines similar to
mine. His name was Mendel. We exchanged ideas. He was the only man in
the world who could appreciate me, but he could not go all the way with
me. I got some help from him; but, doubtless, he got more from me;
though I never heard anything more about him before I left England.
"In 1857 I felt that I had practically solved the mystery of heredity,
and in that year I published a monograph on the subject. I will explain
the essence of my discoveries in as simple language as possible, so
that you may understand the purpose you are to serve.
"Briefly, there are two types of cells that we inherit from our
parents--body cells and germ cells. These cells are composed of
chromosomes containing genes--a separate gene for each mental and
physical characteristic. The body cells, dividing, multiplying,
changing, growing, determine the sort of individual we are to be;
the germ cells, remaining practically unchanged from our conception,
determine what characteristics our progeny will inherit, through us,
from our progenitors and from us.
"I determined that heredity could be controlled through the
transference of these genes from one individual to another. I learned
that the genes never die; they are absolutely indestructible--the
basis of all life on earth, the promise of immortality throughout all
eternity.
"I was certain of all this, but I could carry on no experiments.
Scientists scoffed at me, the public laughed at me, the authorities
threatened to lock me up in a madhouse. The church wished to crucify me.
"I hid, and carried on my research in secret. I obtained genes from
living subjects--young men and women whom I enticed to my laboratory on
various pretexts. I drugged them and extracted germ cells from them. I
had not discovered at that time, or, I should say, I had not perfected
the technic of recovering body cells.
"In 1858 I managed, through bribery, to gain access to a number of
tombs in Westminster Abbey; and from the corpses of former kings and
queens of England and many a noble lord and lady I extracted the
deathless genes.
"It was the rape of Henry the Eighth that caused my undoing. I was
discovered in the act by one who had not been bribed. He did not turn
me over to the authorities, but he commenced to blackmail me. Because
of him I faced either financial ruin or a long term in prison.
"My fellow scientists had flouted me; the government would punish
me; I saw that my only rewards for my labors for mankind were to be
ingratitude and persecution. I grew to hate man, with his bigotry, his
hypocrisy, and his ignorance. I still hate him.
"I fled England. My plans were already made. I came to Africa and
employed a white guide to lead me to gorilla country. He brought me
here; then I killed him, so that no one might learn of my whereabouts.
"There were hundreds of gorillas here, yes, thousands. I poisoned their
food, I shot them with poisoned arrows; but I used a poison that only
anesthetized them. Then I removed their germ cells and substituted
human cells that I had brought with me from England in a culture medium
that encouraged their multiplication."
The strange creature seemed warmed by some mysterious inner fire as
he discoursed on this, his favorite subject. The man and the girl
listening to him almost forgot the incongruity of his cultured English
diction and his hideous, repulsive appearance--far more hideous and
repulsive than that of the gorillas; for he seemed neither beast nor
man but rather some horrid hybrid born of an unholy union. Yet the mind
within that repellant skull held them fascinated.
"For years I watched them," he continued, "with increasing
disappointment. From generation to generation I could note no outward
indication that the human germ cells had exerted the slightest
influence upon the anthropoids; then I commenced to note indications of
greater intelligence among them. Also, they quarrelled more, were more
avaricious, more vindictive--they were revealing more and more the
traits of man. I felt that I was approaching my goal.
"I captured some of the young and started to train them. Very shortly
after this training commenced I heard them repeating English words
among themselves--words that they had heard me speak. Of course they
did not know the meaning of the words; but that was immaterial--they
had revealed the truth to me. My gorillas had inherited the minds and
vocal organs of their synthetic human progenitors.
"The exact reason why they inherited these human attributes and not
others is still a mystery that I have not solved. But I had proved the
correctness of my theory. Now I set to work to educate my wards. It was
not difficult. I sent these first out as missionaries and teachers.
"As the gorillas learned and came to me for further instruction, I
taught them agriculture, architecture, and building--among other
things. Under my direction they built this city, which I named London,
upon the river that I have called Thames. We English always take
England wherever we go.
"I gave them laws, I became their god, I gave them a royal family and a
nobility. They owe everything to me, and now some of them want to turn
upon me and destroy me--yes, they have become very human. They have
become ambitious, treacherous, cruel--they are almost men."
"But you?" asked the girl. "You are not human. You are part gorilla.
How could you have been an Englishman?"
"I am an Englishman, nevertheless," replied the creature. "Once I was
a very handsome Englishman. But old age overtook me. I felt my powers
failing. I saw the grave beckoning. I did not wish to die, for I felt
that I had only commenced to learn the secrets of life.
"I sought some means to prolong my own and to bring back youth. At last
I was successful. I discovered how to segregate body cells and transfer
them from one individual to another. I used young gorillas of both
sexes and transplanted their virile, youthful body cells to my own body.
"I achieved success in so far as staying the ravages of old age is
concerned and renewing youth, but as the body cells of the gorillas
multiplied within me I began to acquire the physical characteristics of
gorillas. My skin turned black, hair grew upon all parts of my body,
my hands changed, my teeth; some day I shall be, to all intent and
purpose, a gorilla. Or rather I should have been had it not been for
the fortunate circumstance that brought you to me."
"I do not understand," said Rhonda.
"You will. With the body cells from you and this young man I shall not
only insure my youth, but I shall again take on the semblance of man."
His eyes burned with a mad fire.
The girl shuddered. "It is horrible!" she exclaimed.
The creature chuckled. "You will be serving a noble purpose--a far
more noble purpose than as though you had merely fulfilled the prosaic
biological destiny for which you were born."
"But you will not have to kill us!" she exclaimed. "You take the germ
cells from gorillas without killing them. When you have taken some from
us, you will let us go?"
The creature rose and came close to the bars. His yellow fangs were
bared, in a fiendish grin. "You do not know all," he said. A mad light
shone in his blazing eyes. "I have not told you all that I have learned
about rejuvenation. The new body cells are potent, but they work
slowly. I have found that by eating the flesh and the glands of youth
the speed of the metamorphosis is accelerated.
"I leave you now to meditate upon the great service that you are to
render science!" He backed toward the far door of the other apartment.
"But I will return. Later I shall eat you--eat you both. I shall eat
the man first; and then, my beauty, I shall eat you! But before I eat
you--ah, before I eat you!"
Chuckling, he backed through the doorway and closed the door after him.