Ska, perched upon the horn of dead Gorgo, became suddenly aware of
a movement in a nearby thicket. He turned his head in the direction
of the sound and saw Sabor the lioness emerge from the foliage and
walk slowly toward him. Ska was not terrified. He would leave, but he
would leave with dignity. He crouched to spring upward, and extended
his great wings to aid him in taking off. But Ska, the vulture, never
rose. As he essayed to do so, something pulled suddenly upon his neck
and held him down. He scrambled to his feet and, violently this time,
strove to fly away. Again he was dragged back. Now Ska was terrified.
The hateful thing that had been dangling about his neck for so long was
holding him to earth--the swinging loop of the golden chain had caught
around the horn of Gorgo, the buffalo. Ska was trapped.
He struggled, beating his wings. Sabor stopped to regard him and his
wild antics. Ska was flopping around in a most surprising manner.
Sabor had never seen Ska behave thus before, and lions are sensitive,
temperamental animals; so Sabor was not surprised only, she was
inclined to be frightened. For another moment she watched the
unaccountable antics of Ska and then she turned tail and slunk back
into the undergrowth, turning an occasional growling countenance back
upon the vulture, as much as to say; "Pursue me at your peril!" But Ska
had no thought of pursuing Sabor. Never again would Ska, the vulture,
pursue aught.
"They are coming!" announced Komodoflorensal, prince of Trohanadalmakus.
As Tarzan looked out across the rolling country in the direction of the
enemy, he presently saw, from his greater height, the advance of the
Veltopismakusians.
"Our scouts are falling back," he announced to Komodoflorensal.
"You can see the enemy?" demanded the prince.
"Yes."
"Keep me advised as to their movements."
"They are advancing in several long lines, deployed over a considerable
front," reported the ape-man. "The scouts are falling back upon the
outpost which seems to be standing its ground to receive them. It will
be overwhelmed--if not by the first line then by those that succeed it."
Komodoflorensal gave a short command. A thousand mounted men leaped
forward, urging their diadets into bounding leaps that cleared five,
six and even seven feet at a time. Straight for the outpost ahead of
them they raced, deploying as they went.
Another thousand moved quickly toward the right and a third toward the
left of the advance cavalry's position following Tarzan's announcement
that the enemy had divided into two bodies just before it engaged the
outpost, and that one of these was moving as though with the intention
of turning the right flank of the main cavalry of Trohanadalmakus,
while the other circled in the direction of the left flank.
"They are striking boldly and quickly for prisoners," said the prince
to Tarzan.
"Their second and third lines are ploying upon the center and moving
straight for us," said Tarzan. "They have reached the outpost, which is
racing forward with them, giving battle vigorously with rapiers."
Komodoflorensal was dispatching messengers toward the rear. "It is thus
that we fight," he said, evidently in explanation of the action of the
outpost. "It is time that you returned to the rear, for in another few
moments you will be surrounded by the enemy if you remain. When they
reach us we, too, will turn and fight them hand-to-hand back toward the
city. If it still is their intention to enter the city the battle will
resemble more a race than aught else, for the speed will be too great
for effective fighting; but if they have abandoned that idea and intend
contenting themselves with prisoners there will be plenty of fighting
before we reach the infantry, past which I doubt if they will advance.
"With their greatly superior numbers they will take some prisoners,
and we shall take some--but, quick! you must get back to the city, if
already it is not too late."
"I think I shall remain here," replied the ape-man.
"But they will take you prisoner, or kill you."
Tarzan of the Apes smiled and shook his leafy branch. "I do not fear
them," he said, simply.
"That is because you do not know them," replied the prince. "Your great
size makes you over-confident, but remember that you are only four
times the size of a Minunian and there may be thirty thousand seeking
to overthrow you."
The Veltopismakusians were driving swiftly forward. The prince could
give no more time to what he saw was but a futile attempt to persuade
Tarzan to retreat, and while he admired the strange giant's courage
he likewise deplored his ignorance. Komodoflorensal had grown fond of
their strange guest and he would have saved him had it been possible,
but now he must turn to the command of his troops, since the enemy was
almost upon them.
Tarzan watched the coming of the little men on their agile, wiry
mounts. Line after line poured across the rolling country toward
him, carrying to his mind a suggestion of their similarity to the
incoming rollers of the ocean's surf, each drop of which was soft and
harmless, but in their countless numbers combined into a relentless and
terrifying force of destruction, and the ape-man glanced at his leafy
bough and smiled, albeit a trifle ruefully.
But now his whole attention was riveted by the fighting in the first
two lines of the advancing horde. Racing neck and neck with the
Veltopismakusian warriors were the men of Adendrohahkis' outpost and
the thousands who had reinforced them. Each had selected an enemy
rider whom he sought to strike from his saddle, and at top speed each
duel was carried on with keen rapiers, though here and there was a
man wielding his spear, and sometimes to good effect. A few riderless
diadets leaped forward with the vanguard, while others, seeking to
break back or to the flanks, fouled the racing ranks, often throwing
beasts and riders to the ground; but more frequently the warriors
leaped their mounts entirely over these terrified beasts. The riding
of the Minunians was superb, and their apparently effortless control
of their swift and nervous steeds bordered upon the miraculous. Now a
warrior, lifting his mount high into the air, cleared an adversary and
as he rose above him cut down viciously with his rapier at his foeman's
head, striking him from the saddle; but there was scarce time to catch
more than a fleeting, kaleidoscopic impression of the swift moving
spectacle before the great horde swarmed down upon him.
With his leafy bough, Tarzan had thought to sweep the little men from
his path, but now friend and foe were so intermingled that he dared not
attempt it for fear of unseating and injuring some of the warriors of
his hosts. He raised the bough above their heads and waited until the
first lines should have passed him and then, with only the enemies of
Adendrohahkis about him, he would brush them aside and break the center
of their charge.
He saw the surprised expressions upon the faces of the men of
Veltopismakus as they passed near him--surprise, but no fear--and he
heard their shouts as one more fortunate than his fellows was able
to rein closer to him and cut viciously at his legs as he sped past.
Then indeed it became naught other than a matter of self-preservation
to attempt to fend these off with his bough, nor was this impossible
as the first lines moved past in loose ranks; but presently the solid
mass of the Veltopismakusian cavalry was upon him. There was no veering
aside to avoid him. In unbroken ranks, file after file, they bore
down upon him. He threw his useless bough before him to impede their
progress and grappled them with his fingers, tearing the riders from
their mounts and hurling them back upon their onrushing fellows; but
still they came.
They jumped their diadets over every obstruction. One rider, leaping
straight for him, struck him head on in the pit of the stomach, half
winding him and sending him back a step. Another and another struck his
legs and sides. Again and again the needlelike points of their rapiers
pierced his brown hide until from hips to feet he was red with his own
blood, and always there were more thousands bearing down upon him. His
weapons, useless against them, he made no attempt to use and though
he wrought havoc among them with his bare hands there were always a
hundred to take the place of each that he disposed of.
He smiled grimly as he realized that in these little people,
scarce one-fourth his size, he, the incomparable Tarzan, the Lord
of the Jungle, had met his Wellington. He realized that he was
entirely surrounded by the Veltopismakusians now, the warriors of
Trohanadalmakus having engaged the advancing enemy were racing onward
with them toward the seven thousand dismounted men who were to receive
the brunt of that terrific charge. Tarzan wished that he might have
witnessed this phase of the battle, but he had fighting enough and to
spare to engage all his attention where he was.
Again he was struck in the stomach by a charging rider and again the
blow staggered him. Before he could recover himself another struck
him in the same place and this time he went down, and instantly he
was covered, buried by warriors and diadets, swarming over him, like
ants, in countless numbers. He tried to rise and that was the last he
remembered before he sank into unconsciousness.
Uhha, daughter of Khamis the witch doctor of the tribe of Obebe the
cannibal, lay huddled upon a little pile of grasses in a rude thorn
shelter in an open jungle. It was night but she was not asleep. Through
narrowed lids she watched a giant white man who squatted just outside
the shelter before a tiny fire. The girl's lids were narrowed in hate
as her smoldering eyes rested upon the man. There was no fear of the
supernatural in her expression--just hate, undying hate.
Long since had Uhha ceased to think of Esteban Miranda as The River
Devil. His obvious fear of the greater beasts of the jungle and of the
black men-beasts had at first puzzled and later assured her that her
companion was an impostor; River Devils do not fear anything. She was
even commencing to doubt that the fellow was Tarzan, of whom she had
heard so many fabulous stories during her childhood that she had come
to look upon him as almost a devil himself--her people had no gods,
only devils--which answer just as good a purpose among the ignorant
and superstitious as do gods among the educated and superstitious.
And when Esteban Miranda quite conclusively proved by his actions that
he feared lions and that he was lost in the jungle these things did
not square at all with her preconceived estimate of the powers and
attributes of the famous Tarzan.
With the loss of her respect for him she lost, also, nearly all her
fear. He was stronger than she and brutal. He could and would hurt her
if she angered him, but he could not harm her in any other way than
physically and not at all if she could keep out of his clutches. Many
times had she rehearsed plans for escape, but always she had hesitated
because of the terrible fear she had of being alone in the jungle.
Recently, however, she had been coming to realize more and more clearly
that the white man was little or no protection to her. In fact, she
might be better off without him, for at the first hint of danger it had
been Miranda's habit to bolt for the nearest tree, and where trees were
not numerous this habit of his had always placed Uhha under a handicap
in the race for self-preservation, since Esteban, being stronger, could
push her aside if she impeded his progress towards safety.
Yes, she would be as well off alone in the jungle as in the company of
this man whom she thoroughly despised and hated, but before she left
him she must, her savage little brain assured her, revenge herself
upon him for having tricked her into aiding him in his escape from
the village of Obebe the chief as well as for having forced her to
accompany him.
Uhha was sure that she could find her way to the village, albeit they
had traveled long and far, and she was sure too that she could find the
means for subsistence along the way and elude the fiercer beasts of
prey that might beset the way. Only man she feared; but in this she was
not unlike all other created things. Man alone of all the creations of
God is universally hated and feared and not only by the lower orders
but by his own kind, for of them all man alone joys in the death of
others--the great coward who, of all creation, fears death the most.
And so the little negro girl lay watching the Spaniard and her eyes
glittered, for in his occupation she saw a means to her revenge.
Squatting before his fire, leaning far forward, Esteban Miranda,
gloated over the contents of a small buck-skin bag which he had
partially emptied into the palm of one of his hands. Little Uhha knew
how highly the white man prized these glittering stones, though she
was entirely ignorant of their intrinsic worth. She did not even know
them for diamonds. All she knew was that the white man loved them, that
he valued them more highly than his other possessions and that he had
repeatedly told her that he would die sooner than he would part with
them.
For a long time Miranda played with the diamonds and for a long time
Uhha watched him; but at last he returned them to their bag, which he
fastened securely inside his loin-cloth. Then he crawled beneath the
thorn shelter, dragged a pile of thorns into the entrance to close it
against the inroads of prowling beasts, and lay down upon the grasses
beside Uhha.
How was this little girl going to accomplish the theft of the diamonds
from the huge, Tarzanian Spaniard? She could not filch them by stealth
for the bag that contained them was so fastened inside his loin-cloth
that it would be impossible to remove it without awakening him; and
certainly this frail child could never wrest the jewels from Esteban
by physical prowess. No, the whole scheme must die where it was
born--inside Uhha's thick little skull.
Outside the shelter the fire flickered, lighting the jungle grasses
about it and casting weird, fantastic shadows that leaped and danced in
the jungle night. Something moved stealthily among the lush vegetation
a score of paces from the tiny camp. It was something large, for the
taller grasses spread to its advance. They parted and a lion's head
appeared. The yellow-green eyes gazed uneasily at the fire. From
beyond came the odor of man and Numa was hungry; too, upon occasion
he had eaten of man and found him good--also of all his prey the
slowest and the least able to protect himself; but Numa did not like
the looks of things here and so he turned and disappeared from whence
he had come. He was not afraid of the fire. Had he been he would have
been afraid of the sun by day, for the sun he could not even look at
without discomfort, and to Numa the fire and the sun might have been
one, for he had no way of knowing which was sixty feet away and which
ninety-three million miles. It was the dancing shadows that caused his
nervous apprehension. Huge, grotesque creatures of which he had had no
experience seemed to be leaping all about him, threatening him from
every side.
But Uhha paid no attention to the dancing shadows and she had not seen
Numa the lion. She lay very still now, listening. The fire flared less
high as the slow minutes dragged their leaden feet along. It was not
so very long that she lay thus, but it seemed long to Uhha, for she
had her plan all matured and ready for execution. A civilized girl of
twelve might have conceived it, but it is doubtful that she would have
carried it to its conclusion. Uhha, however, was not civilized and
being what she was she was not hampered by any qualms of conscience.
Presently the Spaniard's breathing indicated that he was asleep. Uhha
waited a little longer to make assurance doubly sure, then she reached
beneath the grasses just beside her and when she withdrew her hand
again she brought forth a short, stout cudgel. Slowly and cautiously
she rose until she kneeled beside the recumbent form of the sleeping
Spaniard. Then she raised her weapon above her head and brought it
down once, heavily, upon Esteban's skull. She did not continue to
beat him--the one blow was enough. She hoped that she had not killed
him, for he must live if her scheme of revenge was to be realized; he
must live and know that Uhha had stolen the bag of pebbles that he so
worshiped. Uhha appropriated the knife that swung at Miranda's hip
and with it she cut away his loin-cloth and took possession of the
buck-skin bag and its contents. Then she removed the thorns from the
entrance to the shelter, slipped out into the night and vanished into
the jungle. During all her wanderings with the Spaniard she had not
once lost her sense of the direction which pointed toward her home,
and now, free, she set her face resolutely toward the southwest and
the village of Obebe the cannibal. An elephant trail formed a jungle
highway along which she moved at a swinging walk, her way lighted by
the rays of a full moon that filtered through the foliage of a sparse
forest. She feared the jungle night and the nocturnal beasts of prey,
but she knew that she must take this chance that she might put as great
a distance as possible between herself and the white man before he
regained consciousness and started in pursuit.
A hundred yards ahead of her, in the dense thicket that bordered the
trail, Numa the lion sniffed, and listened with up-pricked ears bent
in her direction. No dancing shadows here to suggest menacing forms to
Numa's high-strung nervous system--only the scent of man coming closer
and closer--a young she-man, most tender of its kind. Numa licked his
slavering jowls and waited.
The girl came rapidly along the trail. Now she was abreast the lion,
but the king of beasts did not spring. There is something in the
scent of the man-thing and the sight of the man-thing that awakens
strange terrors in the breast of Numa. When he stalks Horta the boar
or Bara the deer there is nothing in the near presence of either that
arouses a similar sensation in the savage carnivore; then he knows no
hesitancy when the instant comes to spring upon his prey. It is only
the man-thing, helpless and leaden-footed, that causes him to pause in
indecision at the crucial moment.
Uhha passed, ignorant of the fact that a great lion, hunting and
hungry, stood within two paces of her. When she had passed Numa slunk
into the trail behind her, and there he followed, stalking his tender
quarry until the moment should come when the mists of his indecision
should be dispelled. And so they went through the jungle night--the
great lion, creeping on stealthy, noiseless pads, and just ahead of
him the little black girl, unconscious of the grim death stalking her
through the dappled moonlight.