Three persons stepped from the veranda of Lord Greystoke's African
bungalow and walked slowly toward the gate along a rose embowered
path that swung in a graceful curve through the well-ordered, though
unpretentious, grounds surrounding the ape-man's rambling, one-story
home. There were two men and a woman, all in khaki, the older man
carrying a flier's helmet and a pair of goggles in one hand. He was
smiling quietly as he listened to the younger man.
"You wouldn't be doing this now if mother were here," said the latter,
"she would never permit it."
"I'm afraid you are right, my son," replied Tarzan; "but only this
one flight alone and then I'll promise not to go up again until she
returns. You have said yourself that I am an apt pupil and if you are
any sort of an instructor you should have perfect confidence in me
after having said that I was perfectly competent to pilot a ship alone.
Eh, Meriem, isn't that true?" he demanded of the young woman.
She shook her head. "Like My Dear, I am always afraid for you, _mon
père_," she replied. "You take such risks that one would think you
considered yourself immortal. You should be more careful."
The younger man threw his arm about his wife's shoulders. "Meriem is
right," he said; "you _should_ be more careful, Father."
Tarzan shrugged. "If you and mother had your way my nerves and muscles
would have atrophied long since. They were given me to use and I intend
using them--with discretion. Doubtless I shall be old and useless soon
enough, and long enough, as it is."
A child burst suddenly from the bungalow, pursued by a perspiring
governess, and raced to Meriem's side.
"Muvver," he cried, "Dackie doe? Dackie doe?"
"Let him come along," urged Tarzan.
"Dare!" exclaimed the boy, turning triumphantly upon the governess;
"Dackie do doe yalk!"
Out on the level plain, that stretched away from the bungalow to the
distant jungle the verdant masses and deep shadows of which were
vaguely discernible to the northwest, lay a biplane, in the shade of
which lolled two Waziri warriors who had been trained by Korak, the
son of Tarzan, in the duties of mechanicians, and, later, to pilot the
ship themselves; a fact that had not been without weight in determining
Tarzan of the Apes to perfect himself in the art of flying, since,
as chief of the Waziri, it was not mete that the lesser warriors of
his tribe should excel him in any particular. Adjusting his helmet and
goggles Tarzan climbed into the cockpit.
"Better take me along," advised Korak.
Tarzan shook his head, smiling good-naturedly.
"Then one of the boys, here," urged his son. "You might develop some
trouble that would force you to make a landing and if you have no
mechanician along to make repairs what are you going to do?"
"Walk," replied the ape-man. "Turn her over, Andua!" he directed one of
the blacks.
A moment later the ship was bumping over the veldt, from which,
directly, it rose in smooth and graceful flight; circled, climbing to
a greater altitude, and then sped away in an air line, while on the
ground below the six strained their eyes until the wavering speck that
it had dwindled to disappeared entirely from their view.
"Where do you suppose he is going?" asked Meriem.
Korak shook his head. "He isn't supposed to be going anywhere in
particular," he replied; "just making his first practice flight alone;
but, knowing him as I do, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he had
taken it into his head to fly to London and see mother."
"But he could never do it!" cried Meriem.
"No ordinary man could, with no more experience than he has had; but
then, you will have to admit, father is no ordinary man."
For an hour and a half Tarzan flew without altering his course and
without realizing the flight of time or the great distance he had
covered, so delighted was he with the ease with which he controlled the
ship, and so thrilled by this new power that gave him the freedom and
mobility of the birds, the only denizens of his beloved jungle that he
ever had had cause to envy.
Presently, ahead, he discerned a great basin, or what might better
be described as a series of basins, surrounded by wooded hills, and
immediately he recognized to the left of it the winding Ugogo; but the
country of the basins was new to him and he was puzzled. He recognized,
simultaneously, another fact; that he was over a hundred miles from
home, and he determined to put back at once; but the mystery of the
basins lured him on--he could not bring himself to return home without
a closer view of them. Why was it that he had never come upon this
country in his many wanderings? Why had he never even heard of it from
the natives living within easy access to it. He dropped to a lower
level the better to inspect the basins, which now appeared to him as a
series of shallow craters of long extinct volcanoes. He saw forests,
lakes and rivers, the very existence of which he had never dreamed,
and then quite suddenly he discovered a solution of the seeming mystery
that there should exist in a country with which he was familiar so
large an area of which he had been in total ignorance, in common with
the natives of the country surrounding it. He recognized it now--the
so-called Great Thorn Forest. For years he had been familiar with
that impenetrable thicket that was supposed to cover a vast area of
territory into which only the smallest of animals might venture, and
now he saw it was but a relatively narrow fringe encircling a pleasant,
habitable country, but a fringe so cruelly barbed as to have forever
protected the secret that it held from the eyes of man.
Tarzan determined to circle this long hidden land of mystery before
setting the nose of his ship toward home, and, to obtain a closer view,
he accordingly dropped nearer the earth. Beneath him was a great forest
and beyond that an open veldt that ended at the foot of precipitous,
rocky hills. He saw that absorbed as he had been in the strange, new
country he had permitted the plane to drop too low. Coincident with the
realization and before he could move the control within his hand, the
ship touched the leafy crown of some old monarch of the jungle, veered,
swung completely around and crashed downward through the foliage amidst
the snapping and rending of broken branches and the splintering of its
own wood-work. Just for a second this and then silence.
Along a forest trail slouched a mighty creature, manlike in its
physical attributes, yet vaguely inhuman; a great brute that walked
erect upon two feet and carried a club in one horny, calloused hand.
Its long hair fell, unkempt, about its shoulders, and there was hair
upon its chest and a little upon its arms and legs, though no more
than is found upon many males of civilized races. A strip of hide
about its waist supported the ends of a narrow G-string as well as
numerous rawhide strands to the lower ends of which were fastened
round stones from one to two inches in diameter. Close to each stone
were attached several small feathers, for the most part of brilliant
hues. The strands supporting the stones being fastened to the belt at
intervals of one to two inches and the strands themselves being about
eighteen inches long the whole formed a skeleton skirt, fringed with
round stones and feathers, that fell almost to the creature's knees.
Its large feet were bare and its white skin tanned to a light brown by
exposure to the elements. The illusion of great size was suggested more
by the massiveness of the shoulders and the development of the muscles
of the back and arms than by height, though the creature measured close
to six feet. Its face was massive, with a broad nose and a wide,
full-lipped mouth, the eyes, of normal size, being set beneath heavy,
beetling brows, topped by a wide, low forehead. As it walked it flapped
its large, flat ears and occasionally moved rapidly portions of its
skin on various parts of its head and body to dislodge flies, as you
have seen a horse do with the muscles along its sides and flanks.
It moved silently, its dark eyes constantly on the alert, while the
flapping ears were often momentarily stilled as the woman listened for
sounds of quarry or foe.
She stopped now, her ears bent forward, her nostrils, expanded,
sniffing the air. Some scent or sound that our dead sensitory organs
could not have perceived had attracted her attention. Warily she crept
forward along the trail until, at a turning, she saw before her a
figure lying face downward in the path. It was Tarzan of the Apes.
Unconscious he lay while above him the splintered wreckage of his plane
was wedged among the branches of the great tree that had caused its
downfall.
The woman gripped her club more firmly and approached. Her expression
reflected the puzzlement the discovery of this strange creature had
engendered in her elementary mind, but she evinced no fear. She walked
directly to the side of the prostrate man, her club raised to strike;
but something stayed her hand. She knelt beside him and fell to
examining his clothing. She turned him over on his back and placed
one of her ears above his heart. Then she fumbled with the front of
his shirt for a moment and suddenly taking it in her two mighty hands
tore it apart. Again she listened, her ear this time against his
naked flesh. She arose and looked about, sniffing and listening, then
she stooped and lifting the body of the ape-man she swung it lightly
across one of her broad shoulders and continued along the trail in the
direction she had been going. The trail, winding through the forest,
broke presently from the leafy shade into an open, parklike strip of
rolling land that stretched at the foot of rocky hills, and, crossing
this, disappeared within the entrance of a narrow gorge eroded by the
elements, from the native sandstone, fancifully as the capricious
architecture of a dream, among whose grotesque domes and miniature
rocks the woman bore her burden.
A half mile from the entrance to the gorge the trail entered a roughly
circular amphitheater, the precipitous walls of which were pierced by
numerous cave-mouths before several of which squatted creatures similar
to that which bore Tarzan into this strange, savage environment.
As she entered the amphitheater all eyes were upon her, for the
large, sensitive ears had warned them of her approach long before she
had arrived within scope of their vision. Immediately they beheld
her and her burden several of them arose and came to meet her. All
females, these, similar in physique and scant garb to the captor of
the ape-man, though differing in proportions and physiognomy as do
the individuals of all races differ from their fellows. They spoke no
words nor uttered any sounds, nor did she whom they approached, as she
moved straight along her way which was evidently directed toward one
of the cave-mouths, but she gripped her bludgeon firmly and swung it
to and fro, while her eyes, beneath their scowling brows, kept sullen
surveillance upon the every move of her fellows.
She had approached close to the cave, which was quite evidently her
destination, when one of those who followed her darted suddenly
forward and clutched at Tarzan. With the quickness of a cat the woman
dropped her burden, turned upon the temerarious one, and swinging her
bludgeon with lightninglike celerity felled her with a heavy blow to
the head, and then, standing astride the prostrate Tarzan, she glared
about her like a lioness at bay, questioning dumbly who would be next
to attempt to wrest her prize from her; but the others slunk back to
their caves, leaving the vanquished one lying, unconscious, in the hot
sand and the victor to shoulder her burden, undisputed, and continue
her way to her cave, where she dumped the ape-man unceremoniously upon
the ground just within the shadow of the entranceway, and, squatting
beside him, facing outward that she might not be taken unaware by any
of her fellows, she proceeded to examine her find minutely. Tarzan's
clothing either piqued her curiosity or aroused her disgust, for she
began almost immediately to divest him of it, and having had no former
experience of buttons and buckles, she tore it away by main force. The
heavy, cordovan boots troubled her for a moment, but finally their
seams gave way to her powerful muscles.
Only the diamond studded, golden locket that had been his mother's she
left untouched upon its golden chain about his neck.
For a moment she sat contemplating him and then she arose and tossing
him once more to her shoulder she walked toward the center of the
amphitheater, the greater portion of which was covered by low buildings
constructed of enormous slabs of stone, some set on edge to form the
walls while others, lying across these, constituted the roofs. Joined
end to end, with occasional wings at irregular intervals running out
into the amphitheater, they enclosed a rough oval of open ground that
formed a large courtyard.
The several outer entrances to the buildings were closed with two slabs
of stone, one of which, standing on edge, covered the aperture, while
the other, leaning against the first upon the outside held it securely
in place against any efforts that might be made to dislodge it from
the interior of the building.
To one of these entrances the woman carried her unconscious captive,
laid him on the ground, removed the slabs that closed the aperture and
dragged him into the dim and gloomy interior, where she deposited him
upon the floor and clapped her palms together sharply three times with
the result that there presently slouched into the room six or seven
children of both sexes, who ranged in age from one year to sixteen
or seventeen. The very youngest of them walked easily and seemed as
fit to care for itself as the young of most lower orders at a similar
age. The girls, even the youngest, were armed with clubs, but the boys
carried no weapons either of offense or defense. At sight of them the
woman pointed to Tarzan, struck her head with her clenched fist and
then gestured toward herself, touching her breast several times with
a calloused thumb. She made several other motions with her hands,
so eloquent of meaning that one entirely unfamiliar with her sign
language could almost guess their purport, then she turned and left
the building, replaced the stones before the entrance, and slouched
back to her cave, passing, apparently without notice, the woman she had
recently struck down and who was now rapidly regaining consciousness.
As she took her seat before her cave mouth her victim suddenly sat
erect, rubbed her head for a moment and then, after looking about
dully, rose unsteadily to her feet. For just an instant she swayed and
staggered, but presently she mastered herself, and with only a glance
at the author of her hurt moved off in the direction of her own cave.
Before she had reached it her attention, together with that of all
the others of this strange community, or at least of all those who
were in the open, was attracted by the sound of approaching footsteps.
She halted in her tracks, her great ears up-pricked, listening, her
eyes directed toward the trail leading up from the valley. The others
were similarly watching and listening and a moment later their vigil
was rewarded by sight of another of their kind as she appeared in the
entrance to the amphitheater. A huge creature this, even larger than
she who captured the ape-man--broader and heavier, though little, if
any, taller--carrying upon one shoulder the carcass of an antelope and
upon the other the body of a creature that might have been half human
and half beast, yet, assuredly, not entirely either the one or the
other.
The antelope was dead, but not so the other creature. It wriggled
weakly--its futile movements could not have been termed struggles--as
it hung, its middle across the bare brown shoulder of its captor, its
arms and legs dangling limply before and behind, either in partial
unconsciousness or in the paralysis of fear.
The woman who had brought Tarzan to the amphitheater rose and stood
before the entrance to her cave. We shall have to call her The First
Woman, for she had no name; in the muddy convolutions of her sluggish
brain she never had sensed even the need for a distinctive specific
appellation and among her fellows she was equally nameless, as were
they, and so, that we may differentiate her from the others, we shall
call her The First Woman, and, similarly, we shall know the creature
that she felled with her bludgeon as The Second Woman, and she who
now entered the amphitheater with a burden upon each shoulder, as
The Third Woman. So The First Woman rose, her eyes fixed upon the
newcomer, her ears up-pricked. And The Second Woman rose, and all the
others that were in sight, and all stood glaring at The Third Woman
who moved steadily along with her burden, her watchful eyes ever upon
the menacing figures of her fellows. She was very large, this Third
Woman, so for a while the others only stood and glared at her, but
presently The First Woman took a step forward and turning, cast a long
look at The Second Woman, and then she took another step forward and
stopped and looked again at The Second Woman, and this time she pointed
at herself, at The Second Woman and then at The Third Woman who now
quickened her pace in the direction of her cave, for she understood
the menace in the attitude of The First Woman. The Second Woman
understood, too, and moved forward now with The First Woman. No word
was spoken, no sound issued from those savage lips; lips that never had
parted to a smile; lips that never had known laughter, nor ever would.
As the two approached her The Third Woman dropped her spoils in a heap
at her feet, gripped her cudgel more firmly and prepared to defend her
rights. The others, brandishing their own weapons, charged her. The
remaining women were now but on-lookers, their hands stayed, perhaps,
by some ancient tribal custom that gauged the number of attackers
by the quantity of spoil, awarding the right of contest to whoever
initiated it. When The First Woman had been attacked by The Second
Woman the others had all held aloof, for it had been The Second Woman
that had advanced first to try conclusions for the possession of
Tarzan. And now The Third Woman had come with two prizes, and since The
First Woman and The Second Woman had stepped out to meet her the others
had held back.
As the three women came together it seemed inevitable that The Third
Woman would go down beneath the bludgeons of the others, but she warded
both blows with the skill and celerity of a trained fencer and stepping
quickly into the opening she had made dealt The First Woman a terrific
blow upon the head that stretched her motionless upon the ground, where
a little pool of blood and brains attested the terrible strength of
the wielder of the bludgeon the while it marked the savage, unmourned
passing of The First Woman.
And now The Third Woman could devote her undivided attention to The
Second Woman, but The Second Woman seeing the fate of her companion did
not wait to discuss the matter further, and instead of remaining to
continue the fight she broke and ran for her cave, while the creature
that The Third Woman had been carrying along with the carcass of the
antelope apparently believing that it saw a chance for escape while its
captor was engaged with her assailants was crawling stealthily away in
the opposite direction. Its attempt might have proved successful had
the fight lasted longer; but the skill and ferocity of The Third Woman
had terminated the whole thing in a matter of seconds, and now, turning
about, she espied a portion of her prey seeking to escape and sprang
quickly after it. As she did so The Second Woman wheeled and darted
back to seize the carcass of the antelope, while the crawling fugitive
leaped to its feet and raced swiftly down the trail that led through
the mouth of the amphitheater toward the valley.
As the thing rose to its feet it became apparent that it was a man,
or at least a male, and evidently of the same species as the women
of this peculiar race, though much shorter and of proportionately
lighter build. It stood about five feet in height, had a few hairs
on its upper lip and chin, a much lower forehead than the women, and
its eyes were set closer together. Its legs were much longer and more
slender than those of the women, who seemed to have been designed for
strength rather than speed, and the result was that it was apparent
from the start that The Third Woman could have no hope of overhauling
her escaping quarry, and then it was that the utility of the strange
skirt of thongs and pebbles and feathers became apparent. Seizing one
of the thongs she disengaged it easily and quickly from the girdle
that supported them about her hips, and grasping the end of the thong
between a thumb and forefinger she whirled it rapidly in a vertical
plane until the feathered pebble at its end was moving with great
rapidity--then she let go the thong. Like an arrow the missile sped
toward the racing fugitive, the pebble, a fairly good-sized one as
large as an English walnut, struck the man upon the back of his head
dropping him, unconscious, to the ground. Then The Third Woman turned
upon The Second Woman who, by this time, had seized the antelope,
and brandishing her bludgeon bore down upon her. The Second Woman,
possessing more courage than good sense, prepared to defend her stolen
flesh and took her stand, her bludgeon ready. As The Third Woman bore
down upon her, a veritable mountain of muscle, The Second Woman met
her with threatening cudgel, but so terrific was the blow dealt by
her mighty adversary that her weapon, splintered, was swept from her
hands and she found herself at the mercy of the creature she would have
robbed. Evidently she knew how much of mercy she might expect. She
did not fall upon her knees in an attitude of supplication--not she.
Instead she tore a handful of the pebble-missiles from her girdle in
a vain attempt to defend herself. Futilest of futilities! The huge,
destroying bludgeon had not even paused, but swinging in a great circle
fell crushingly upon the skull of The Second Woman.
The Third Woman paused and looked about questioningly as if to ask:
"Is there another who wishes to take from me my antelope or my man? If
so, let her step forward." But no one accepted the gage and presently
the woman turned and walked back to the prostrate man. Roughly she
jerked him to his feet and shook him. Consciousness was returning
slowly and he tried to stand. His efforts, however, were a failure and
so she threw him across her shoulder again and walked back to the dead
antelope, which she flung to the opposite shoulder and, continuing
her interrupted way to her cave, dumped the two unceremoniously to
the ground. Here, in the cave-mouth, she kindled a fire, twirling a
fire-stick dexterously amidst dry tinder in a bit of hollowed wood,
and cutting generous strips from the carcase of the antelope ate
ravenously. While she was thus occupied the man regained consciousness
and sitting up looked about, dazed. Presently his nostrils caught the
aroma of the cooking meat and he pointed at it. The woman handed him
the rude stone knife that she had tossed back to the floor of the cave
and motioned toward the meat. The man seized the implement and was
soon broiling a generous cut above the fire. Half burned and half raw
as it was he ate it with seeming relish, and as he ate the woman sat
and watched him. He was not much to look at, yet she may have thought
him handsome. Unlike the women, who wore no ornaments, the man had
bracelets and anklets as well as a necklace of teeth and pebbles, while
in his hair, which was wound into a small knot above his forehead,
were thrust several wooden skewers ten or twelve inches long, which
protruded in various directions in a horizontal plane.
When the man had eaten his fill the woman rose and seizing him by the
hair dragged him into the cave. He scratched and bit at her, trying to
escape, but he was no match for his captor.
Upon the floor of the amphitheater, before the entrances to the caves,
lay the bodies of The First Woman and The Second Woman and black upon
them swarmed the circling scavengers of the sky. Ska, the vulture, was
first always to the feast.