A Waziri, returning from the village of Obebe the cannibal, saw a bone
lying beside the trail. This, in itself, was nothing remarkable. Many
bones lie along savage trails in Africa. But this bone caused him to
pause. It was the bone of a child. Nor was that alone enough to give
pause to a warrior hastening through an unfriendly country back toward
his own people.
But Usula had heard strange tales in the village of Obebe the cannibal
where rumor had brought him in search of his beloved master, The Big
Bwana. Obebe had seen nor heard nothing of Tarzan of the Apes. Not for
years had he seen the giant white. He assured Usula of this fact many
times; but from other members of the tribe the Waziri learned that a
white man had been kept a prisoner by Obebe for a year or more and that
some time since he had escaped. At first Usula thought this white man
might have been Tarzan but when he verified the statement of the time
that had elapsed since the man was captured he knew that it could not
have been his master, and so he turned back along the trail toward
home; but when he saw the child's bone along the trail several days
out he recalled the story of the missing Uhha and he paused, just for a
moment, to look at the bone. And as he looked he saw something else--a
small skin bag, lying among some more bones a few feet off the trail.
Usula stooped and picked up the bag. He opened it and poured some of
the contents into his palm. He knew what the things were and he knew
that they had belonged to his master, for Usula was a head-man who knew
much about his master's affairs. These were the diamonds that had been
stolen from The Big Bwana many moons before by the white men who had
found Opar. He would take them back to The Big Bwana's lady.
Three days later as he moved silently along the trail close to the
great thorn forest he came suddenly to a halt, the hand grasping his
heavy spear tensing in readiness. In a little open place he saw a man,
an almost naked man, lying upon the ground. The man was alive--he saw
him move--but what was he doing? Usula crept closer, making no noise.
He moved around until he could observe the man from another angle and
then he saw a horrid sight. The man was white and he lay beside the
carcass of long-dead buffalo, greedily devouring the remnants of hide
that clung to the bleaching bones.
The man raised his head a little and Usula, catching a better view of
his face, gave a cry of horror. Then the man looked up and grinned. It
was The Big Bwana!
Usula ran to him and raised him upon his knees, but the man only
laughed and babbled like a child. At his side, caught over one of the
horns of the buffalo, was The Big Bwana's golden locket with the great
diamonds set in it. Usula replaced it about the man's neck. He built
a strong shelter for him nearby and hunted food, and for many days he
remained until the man's strength came back; but his mind did not come
back. And thus, in this condition, the faithful Usula led home his
master.
They found many wounds and bruises upon his body and his head, some
old, some new, some trivial, some serious; and they sent to England for
a great surgeon to come out to Africa and seek to mend the poor thing
that once had been Tarzan of the Apes.
The dogs that had once loved Lord Greystoke slunk from this brainless
creature. Jad-bal-ja, the Golden Lion, growled when the man was wheeled
near his cage.
Korak, the killer, paced the floor in dumb despair, for his mother was
on her way from England, and what would be the effect upon her of this
awful blow? He hesitated even to contemplate it.
Khamis, the witch doctor, had searched untiringly for Uhha, his
daughter, since the River Devil had stolen her from the village of
Obebe the cannibal. He had made pilgrimages to other villages, some of
them remote from his own country, but he had found no trace of her or
her abductor.
He was returning from another fruitless search that had extended far to
the east of the village of Obebe, skirting the Great Thorn Forest a few
miles north of the Ugogo. It was early morning. He had but just broken
his lonely camp and set out upon the last leg of his homeward journey
when his keen old eyes discovered something lying at the edge of a
small open space a hundred yards to his right. He had just a glimpse
of something that was not of the surrounding vegetation. He did not
know what it was; but instinct bade him investigate. Moving cautiously
nearer he presently identified the thing as a human knee just showing
above the low grass that covered the clearing. He crept closer and
suddenly his eyes narrowed and his breath made a single, odd little
sound as it sucked rapidly between his lips in mechanical reaction to
surprise, for what he saw was the body of The River Devil lying upon
its back, one knee flexed--the knee that he had seen above the grasses.
His spear advanced and ready he approached until he stood above the
motionless body. Was The River Devil dead, or was he asleep? Placing
the point of his spear against the brown breast Khamis prodded. The
Devil did not awaken. He was not asleep, then! nor did he appear to be
dead. Khamis knelt and placed an ear above the other's heart. He was
not dead!
The witch doctor thought quickly. In his heart he did not believe in
River Devils, yet there was a chance that there might be such things
and perhaps this one was shamming unconsciousness, or temporarily
absent from the flesh it assumed as a disguise that it might go among
men without arousing suspicion. But, too, it was the abductor of his
daughter. That thought filled him with rage and with courage. He must
force the truth from those lips even though the creature were a Devil.
He unwound a bit of fiber rope from about his waist and, turning the
body over upon its back, quickly bound the wrists behind it. Then he
sat down beside it to wait. It was an hour before signs of returning
consciousness appeared, then The River Devil opened his eyes.
"Where is Uhha, my daughter?" demanded the witch doctor.
The River Devil tried to free his arms, but they were too tightly
bound. He made no reply to Khamis' question. It was as though he had
not heard it. He ceased struggling and lay back again, resting. After
a while he opened his eyes once more and lay looking at Khamis, but he
did not speak.
"Get up!" commanded the witch doctor and prodded him with a spear.
The River Devil rolled over on his side, flexed his right knee, raised
on one elbow and finally got to his feet. Khamis prodded him in the
direction of the trail. Toward dusk they arrived at the village of
Obebe.
When the warriors and the women and the children saw who it was that
Khamis was bringing to the village they became very much excited, and
had it not been for the witch doctor, of whom they were afraid, they
would have knifed and stoned the prisoner to death before he was fairly
inside the village gates; but Khamis did not want The River Devil
killed--not yet. He wanted first to force from him the truth concerning
Uhha. So far he had been unable to get a word out of his prisoner.
Incessant questioning, emphasized by many prods of the spear point had
elicited nothing.
Khamis threw his prisoner into the same hut from which The River Devil
had escaped; but he bound him securely and placed two warriors on
guard. He had no mind to lose him again. Obebe came to see him. He,
too, questioned him; but The River Devil only looked blankly in the
face of the chief.
"I will make him speak," said Obebe. "After we have finished eating we
will have him out and make him speak. I know many ways."
"You must not kill him," said the witch doctor. "He knows what became
of Uhha, and until he tells me no one shall kill him."
"He will speak before he dies," said Obebe.
"He is a River Devil and will never die," said Khamis, reverting to the
old controversy.
"He is Tarzan," cried Obebe, and the two were still arguing after they
had passed out of hearing of the prisoner lying in the filth of the hut.
After they had eaten he saw them heating irons in a fire near the hut
of the witch doctor, who was squatting before the entrance working
rapidly with numerous charms--bits of wood wrapped in leaves, pieces of
stone, some pebbles, a Zebra's tail.
Villagers were congregating about Khamis until presently the prisoner
could no longer see him. A little later a black boy came and spoke to
his guards, and he was taken out and pushed roughly toward the hut of
the witch doctor.
Obebe was there, as he saw after the guards had opened a way through
the throng and he stood beside the fire in the center of the circle. It
was only a small fire; just enough to keep a couple of irons hot.
"Where is Uhha, my daughter?" demanded Khamis.
The River Devil did not answer. Not once had he spoken since Khamis had
captured him.
"Burn out one of his eyes," said Obebe. "That will make him speak."
"Cut out his tongue!" screamed a woman, "Cut out his tongue."
"Then he cannot speak at all, you fool," cried Khamis.
The witch doctor arose and put the question again, but received no
reply. Then he struck The River Devil a heavy blow in the face. Khamis
had lost his temper, so that he did not fear even a river devil.
"You will answer me now!" he screamed, and stooping he seized a red-hot
iron.
"The right eye first!" shrilled Obebe.
The doctor came to the bungalow of the ape-man--Lady Greystoke brought
him with her. They were three tired and dusty travelers as they
dismounted at last before the rose embowered entrance--the famous
London surgeon, Lady Greystoke, and Flora Hawkes, her maid. The surgeon
and Lady Greystoke went immediately to the room where Tarzan sat in an
improvised wheel-chair. He looked up at them blankly as they entered.
"Don't you know me, John?" asked the woman.
Her son took her by the shoulders and led her away, weeping.
"He does not know any of us," he said. "Wait until after the operation,
mother, before you see him again. You can do him no good and to see him
this way is too hard upon you."
The great surgeon made his examination. There was pressure on the
brain from a recent fracture of the skull. An operation would relieve
the pressure and might restore the patient's mind and memory. It was
worth attempting.
Nurses and two doctors from Nairobi, engaged the day they arrived
there, followed Lady Greystoke and the London surgeon, reaching the
bungalow the day after their arrival. The operation took place the
following morning.
Lady Greystoke, Korak and Meriem were awaiting, in an adjoining room,
the verdict of the surgeon. Was the operation a failure or a success?
They sat mutely staring at the door leading into the improvised
operating room. At last it opened, after what seemed ages, but was only
perhaps an hour. The surgeon entered the room where they sat. Their
eyes, dumbly pleading, asked him the question that their lips dared not
voice.
"I cannot tell you anything as yet," he said, "other than that the
operation, as an operation, was successful. What the result of it will
be only time will tell. I have given orders that no one is to enter
his room, other than the nurses, for ten days. They are instructed not
to speak to him or allow him to speak for the same length of time; but
he will not wish to speak, for I shall keep him in a semi-conscious
condition, by means of drugs, until the ten days have elapsed. Until
then, Lady Greystoke, we may only hope for the best; but I can assure
you that your husband has every chance for complete recovery. I think
you may safely hope for the best."
The witch doctor laid his left hand upon the shoulder of The River
Devil; in his right hand was clutched a red-hot iron.
"The right eye first," shrilled Obebe.
Suddenly the muscles upon the back and shoulders of the prisoner leaped
into action, rolling beneath his brown hide. For just an instant he
appeared to exert terrific physical force, there was a snapping sound
at his back as the strands about his wrists parted, and an instant
later steel-thewed fingers fell upon the right wrist of the witch
doctor. Blazing eyes burned into his. He dropped the red-hot rod, his
fingers paralyzed by the pressure upon his wrist, and he screamed, for
he saw death in the angry face of the god.
Obebe leaped to his feet. Warriors pressed forward, but not near enough
to be within reach of the River Devil. They had never been certain of
the safety of tempting providence in any such manner as Khamis and
Obebe had been about to do. Now here was the result! The wrath of the
River Devil would fall upon them all. They fell back, some of them, and
that was a cue for others to fall back. In the minds of all was the
same thought--if I have no hand in this The River Devil will not be
angry with me. Then they turned and fled to their huts, stumbling over
their women and their children who were trying to out-distance their
lords and masters.
Obebe turned now to flee also and The River Devil picked Khamis up,
and held him in two hands high above his head, and ran after Obebe the
chief. The latter dodged into his own hut. He had scarce reached the
center of it when there came a terrific crash upon the light, thatched
roof, which gave way beneath a heavy weight. A body descending upon the
chief filled him with terror. The River Devil had leaped in through
the roof of his hut to destroy him! The instinct of self-preservation
rose momentarily above his fear of the supernatural, for now he was
convinced that Khamis had been right and the creature they had so long
held prisoner was indeed The River Devil. And Obebe drew the knife at
his side and lunged it again and again into the body of the creature
that had leaped upon him, and when he knew that life was extinct he
rose and dragging the body after him stepped out of his hut into the
light of the moon and the fires.
"Come, my people!" he cried. "You have nothing to fear, for I, Obebe,
your chief, have slain The River Devil with my own hands," and then he
looked down at the thing trailing behind him, and gave a gasp, and sat
down suddenly in the dirt of the village street, for the body at his
heels was that of Khamis, the witch doctor.
His people came and when they saw what had happened they said nothing,
but looked terrified. Obebe examined his hut and the ground around
it. He took several warriors and searched the village. The stranger
had departed. He went to the gates. They were closed; but in the dust
before them was the imprint of naked feet--the naked feet of a white
man. Then he came back to his hut, where his frightened people stood
waiting him.
"Obebe was right," he said. "The creature was not The River Devil--it
was Tarzan of the Apes, for only he could hurl Khamis so high above his
head that he would fall through the roof of a hut, and only he could
pass unaided over our gates."
The tenth day had come. The great surgeon was still at the Greystoke
bungalow awaiting the outcome of the operation. The patient was slowly
emerging from under the influence of the last dose of drugs that had
been given him during the preceding night, but he was regaining his
consciousness more slowly than the surgeon had hoped. The long hours
dragged by, morning ran into afternoon, and evening came, and still
there was no word from the sick-room.
It was dark. The lamps were lighted. The family were congregated in
the big living-room. Suddenly the door opened and a nurse appeared.
Behind her was the patient. There was a puzzled look upon his face; but
the face of the nurse was wreathed in smiles. The surgeon came behind,
assisting the man, who was weak from long inactivity.
"I think Lord Greystoke will recover rapidly now," he said. "There are
many things that you may have to tell him. He did not know who he was,
when he regained consciousness; but that is not unusual in such cases."
The patient took a few steps into the room, looking wonderingly about.
"There is your wife, Greystoke," said the surgeon, kindly.
Lady Greystoke rose and crossed the room toward her husband, her arms
outstretched. A smile crossed the face of the invalid, as he stepped
forward to meet her and take her in his arms; but suddenly someone was
between them, holding them apart. It was Flora Hawkes.
"My Gawd, Lady Greystoke!" she cried. "He ain't your husband. It's
Miranda, Esteban Miranda! Don't you suppose I'd know him in a million?
I ain't seen him since we came back, never havin' been in the sick
chamber, but I suspicioned something the minute he stepped into this
room and when he smiled, I knew."
"Flora!" cried the distracted wife. "Are you sure? No! no! you must be
wrong! God has not given me back my husband only to steal him away
again. John! tell me, is it you? You would not lie to me?"
For a moment the man before them was silent. He swayed to and fro, as
in weakness. The surgeon stepped forward and supported him.
"I have been very sick," he said. "Possibly I have changed; but I am
Lord Greystoke. I do not remember this woman," and he indicated Flora
Hawkes.
"He lies!" cried the girl.
"Yes, he lies," said a quiet voice behind them, and they all turned to
see the figure of a giant white standing in the open French windows
leading to the veranda.
"John!" cried Lady Greystoke, running toward him, "how could I have
been mistaken? I--" but the rest of the sentence was lost as Tarzan of
the Apes sprang into the room and taking his mate in his arms covered
her lips with kisses.
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|Transcriber's note: |
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|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. |
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