Vengeance and Mercy
It was an hour later that Sheeta, the panther, hunting, chanced to
glance upward into the blue sky where his attention was attracted
by Ska, the vulture, circling slowly above the bush a mile away and
downwind. For a long minute the yellow eyes stared intently at the
gruesome bird. They saw Ska dive and rise again to continue his
ominous circling and in these movements their woodcraft read that
which, while obvious to Sheeta, would doubtless have meant nothing
to you or me.
The hunting cat guessed that on the ground beneath Ska was some
living thing of flesh--either a beast feeding upon its kill or a
dying animal that Ska did not yet dare attack. In either event it
might prove meat for Sheeta, and so the wary feline stalked by a
circuitous route, upon soft, padded feet that gave forth no sound,
until the circling aasvogel and his intended prey were upwind. Then,
sniffing each vagrant zephyr, Sheeta, the panther, crept cautiously
forward, nor had he advanced any considerable distance before his
keen nostrils were rewarded with the scent of man--a Tarmangani.
Sheeta paused. He was not a hunter of men. He was young and in his
prime; but always before he had avoided this hated presence. Of
late he had become more accustomed to it with the passing of many
soldiers through his ancient hunting ground, and as the soldiers
had frightened away a great part of the game Sheeta had been wont
to feed upon, the days had been lean, and Sheeta was hungry.
The circling Ska suggested that this Tarmangani might be helpless
and upon the point of dying, else Ska would not have been interested
in him, and so easy prey for Sheeta. With this thought in mind the
cat resumed his stalking. Presently he pushed through the thick
bush and his yellow-green eyes rested gloatingly upon the body of
an almost naked Tarmangani lying face down in a narrow game trail.
Numa, sated, rose from the carcass of Bertha Kircher's horse and
seized the partially devoured body by the neck and dragged it into
the bush; then he started east toward the lair where he had left
his mate. Being uncomfortably full he was inclined to be sleepy
and far from belligerent. He moved slowly and majestically with no
effort at silence or concealment. The king walked abroad, unafraid.
With an occasional regal glance to right or left he moved along a
narrow game trail until at a turn he came to a sudden stop at what
lay revealed before him--Sheeta, the panther, creeping stealthily
upon the almost naked body of a Tarmangani lying face down in the
deep dust of the pathway. Numa glared intently at the quiet body
in the dust. Recognition came. It was his Tarmangani. A low growl
of warning rumbled from his throat and Sheeta halted with one paw
upon Tarzan's back and turned suddenly to eye the intruder.
What passed within those savage brains? Who may say? The panther
seemed debating the wisdom of defending his find, for he growled
horribly as though warning Numa away from the prey. And Numa? Was
the idea of property rights dominating his thoughts? The Tarmangani
was his, or he was the Tarmangani's. Had not the Great White Ape
mastered and subdued him and, too, had he not fed him? Numa recalled
the fear that he had felt of this man-thing and his cruel spear;
but in savage brains fear is more likely to engender respect than
hatred and so Numa found that he respected the creature who had
subdued and mastered him. He saw Sheeta, upon whom he looked with
contempt, daring to molest the master of the lion. Jealousy and
greed alone might have been sufficient to prompt Numa to drive Sheeta
away, even though the lion was not sufficiently hungry to devour
the flesh that he thus wrested from the lesser cat; but then, too,
there was in the little brain within the massive head a sense of
loyalty, and perhaps this it was that sent Numa quickly forward,
growling, toward the spitting Sheeta.
For a moment the latter stood his ground with arched back and
snarling face, for all the world like a great, spotted tabby.
Numa had not felt like fighting; but the sight of Sheeta daring
to dispute his rights kindled his ferocious brain to sudden fire.
His rounded eyes glared with rage, his undulating tail snapped to
stiff erectness as, with a frightful roar, he charged this presuming
vassal.
It came so suddenly and from so short a distance that Sheeta had
no chance to turn and flee the rush, and so he met it with raking
talons and snapping jaws; but the odds were all against him. To
the larger fangs and the more powerful jaws of his adversary were
added huge talons and the preponderance of the lion's great weight.
At the first clash Sheeta was crushed and, though he deliberately
fell upon his back and drew up his powerful hind legs beneath Numa
with the intention of disemboweling him, the lion forestalled him
and at the same time closed his awful jaws upon Sheeta's throat.
It was soon over. Numa rose, shaking himself, and stood above the
torn and mutilated body of his foe. His own sleek coat was cut and
the red blood trickled down his flank; though it was but a minor
injury, it angered him. He glared down at the dead panther and
then, in a fit of rage, he seized and mauled the body only to drop
it in a moment, lower his head, voice a single terrific roar, and
turn toward the ape-man.
Approaching the still form he sniffed it over from head to foot.
Then he placed a huge paw upon it and turned it over with its face
up. Again he smelled about the body and at last with his rough tongue
licked Tarzan's face. It was then that Tarzan opened his eyes.
Above him towered the huge lion, its hot breath upon his face, its
rough tongue upon his cheek. The ape-man had often been close to
death; but never before so close as this, he thought, for he was
convinced that death was but a matter of seconds. His brain was
still numb from the effects of the blow that had felled him, and
so he did not, for a moment, recognize the lion that stood over
him as the one he had so recently encountered.
Presently, however, recognition dawned upon him and with it
a realization of the astounding fact that Numa did not seem bent
on devouring him--at least not immediately. His position was a
delicate one. The lion stood astraddle Tarzan with his front paws.
The ape-man could not rise, therefore, without pushing the lion away
and whether Numa would tolerate being pushed was an open question.
Too, the beast might consider him already dead and any movement that
indicated the contrary was true would, in all likelihood, arouse
the killing instinct of the man-eater.
But Tarzan was tiring of the situation. He was in no mood to lie
there forever, especially when he contemplated the fact that the
girl spy who had tried to brain him was undoubtedly escaping as
rapidly as possible.
Numa was looking right into his eyes now evidently aware that he was
alive. Presently the lion cocked his head on one side and whined.
Tarzan knew the note, and he knew that it spelled neither rage nor
hunger, and then he risked all on a single throw, encouraged by
that low whine.
"Move, Numa!" he commanded and placing a palm against the tawny
shoulder he pushed the lion aside. Then he rose and with a hand
on his hunting knife awaited that which might follow. It was then
that his eyes fell for the first time on the torn body of Sheeta.
He looked from the dead cat to the live one and saw the marks of
conflict upon the latter, too, and in an instant realized something
of what had happened--Numa had saved him from the panther!
It seemed incredible and yet the evidence pointed clearly to the
fact. He turned toward the lion and without fear approached and
examined his wounds which he found superficial, and as Tarzan knelt
beside him Numa rubbed an itching ear against the naked, brown
shoulder. Then the ape-man stroked the great head, picked up his
spear, and looked about for the trail of the girl. This he soon
found leading toward the east, and as he set out upon it something
prompted him to feel for the locket he had hung about his neck. It
was gone!
No trace of anger was apparent upon the ape-man's face unless it
was a slight tightening of the jaws; but he put his hand ruefully
to the back of his head where a bump marked the place where the
girl had struck him and a moment later a half-smile played across
his lips. He could not help but admit that she had tricked him
neatly, and that it must have taken nerve to do the thing she did
and to set out armed only with a pistol through the trackless waste
that lay between them and the railway and beyond into the hills
where Wilhelmstal lies.
Tarzan admired courage. He was big enough to admit it and admire
it even in a German spy, but he saw that in this case it only added
to her resourcefulness and made her all the more dangerous and the
necessity for putting her out of the way paramount. He hoped to
overtake her before she reached Wilhelmstal and so he set out at
the swinging trot that he could hold for hours at a stretch without
apparent fatigue.
That the girl could hope to reach the town on foot in less than two
days seemed improbable, for it was a good thirty miles and part
of it hilly. Even as the thought crossed his mind he heard the
whistle of a locomotive to the east and knew that the railway was
in operation again after a shutdown of several days. If the train
was going south the girl would signal it if she had reached the
right of way. His keen ears caught the whining of brake shoes on
wheels and a few minutes later the signal blast for brakes off.
The train had stopped and started again and, as it gained headway
and greater distance, Tarzan could tell from the direction of the
sound that it was moving south.
The ape-man followed the trail to the railway where it ended
abruptly on the west side of the track, showing that the girl had
boarded the train, just as he thought. There was nothing now but
to follow on to Wilhelmstal, where he hoped to find Captain Fritz
Schneider, as well as the girl, and to recover his diamond-studded
locket.
It was dark when Tarzan reached the little hill town of Wilhelmstal.
He loitered on the outskirts, getting his bearings and trying to
determine how an almost naked white man might explore the village
without arousing suspicion. There were many soldiers about and
the town was under guard, for he could see a lone sentinel walking
his post scarce a hundred yards from him. To elude this one would
not be difficult; but to enter the village and search it would be
practically impossible, garbed, or un-garbed, as he was.
Creeping forward, taking advantage of every cover, lying flat and
motionless when the sentry's face was toward him, the ape-man at
last reached the sheltering shadows of an outhouse just inside the
lines. From there he moved stealthily from building to building
until at last he was discovered by a large dog in the rear of one of
the bungalows. The brute came slowly toward him, growling. Tarzan
stood motionless beside a tree. He could see a light in the bungalow
and uniformed men moving about and he hoped that the dog would not
bark. He did not; but he growled more savagely and, just at the
moment that the rear door of the bungalow opened and a man stepped
out, the animal charged.
He was a large dog, as large as Dango, the hyena, and he charged
with all the vicious impetuosity of Numa, the lion. As he came
Tarzan knelt and the dog shot through the air for his throat; but
he was dealing with no man now and he found his quickness more
than matched by the quickness of the Tarmangani. His teeth never
reached the soft flesh--strong fingers, fingers of steel, seized
his neck. He voiced a single startled yelp and clawed at the naked
breast before him with his talons; but he was powerless. The mighty
fingers closed upon his throat; the man rose, snapped the clawing
body once, and cast it aside. At the same time a voice from the
open bungalow door called: "Simba!"
There was no response. Repeating the call the man descended the
steps and advanced toward the tree. In the light from the doorway
Tarzan could see that he was a tall, broad-shouldered man in the
uniform of a German officer. The ape-man withdrew into the shadow
of the tree's stem. The man came closer, still calling the dog--he
did not see the savage beast, crouching now in the shadow, awaiting
him. When he had approached within ten feet of the Tarmangani,
Tarzan leaped upon him--as Sabor springs to the kill, so sprang the
ape-man. The momentum and weight of his body hurled the German to
the ground, powerful fingers prevented an outcry and, though the
officer struggled, he had no chance and a moment later lay dead
beside the body of the dog.
As Tarzan stood for a moment looking down upon his kill and regretting
that he could not risk voicing his beloved victory cry, the sight
of the uniform suggested a means whereby he might pass to and
fro through Wilhelmstal with the minimum chance of detection. Ten
minutes later a tall, broad-shouldered officer stepped from the
yard of the bungalow leaving behind him the corpses of a dog and
a naked man.
He walked boldly along the little street and those who passed him
could not guess that beneath Imperial Germany's uniform beat a
savage heart that pulsed with implacable hatred for the Hun. Tarzan's
first concern was to locate the hotel, for here he guessed he would
find the girl, and where the girl was doubtless would be Hauptmann
Fritz Schneider, who was either her confederate, her sweetheart,
or both, and there, too, would be Tarzan's precious locket.
He found the hotel at last, a low, two-storied building with
a veranda. There were lights on both floors and people, mostly
officers, could be seen within. The ape-man considered entering
and inquiring for those he sought; but his better judgment finally
prompted him to reconnoiter first. Passing around the building he
looked into all the lighted rooms on the first floor and, seeing
neither of those for whom he had come, he swung lightly to the roof
of the veranda and continued his investigations through windows of
the second story.
At one corner of the hotel in a rear room the blinds were drawn;
but he heard voices within and once he saw a figure silhouetted
momentarily against the blind. It appeared to be the figure
of a woman; but it was gone so quickly that he could not be sure.
Tarzan crept close to the window and listened. Yes, there was a
woman there and a man--he heard distinctly the tones of their voices
although he could overhear no words, as they seemed to be whispering.
The adjoining room was dark. Tarzan tried the window and found it
unlatched. All was quiet within. He raised the sash and listened
again--still silence. Placing a leg over the sill he slipped within
and hurriedly glanced about. The room was vacant. Crossing to the
door he opened it and looked out into the hall. There was no one
there, either, and he stepped out and approached the door of the
adjoining room where the man and woman were.
Pressing close to the door he listened. Now he distinguished
words, for the two had raised their voices as though in argument.
The woman was speaking.
"I have brought the locket," she said, "as was agreed upon between
you and General Kraut, as my identification. I carry no other
credentials. This was to be enough. You have nothing to do but give
me the papers and let me go."
The man replied in so low a tone that Tarzan could not catch the
words and then the woman spoke again--a note of scorn and perhaps
a little of fear in her voice.
"You would not dare, Hauptmann Schneider," she said, and then: "Do
not touch me! Take your hands from me!"
It was then that Tarzan of the Apes opened the door and stepped
into the room. What he saw was a huge, bull-necked German officer
with one arm about the waist of Fraulein Bertha Kircher and a hand
upon her forehead pushing her head back as he tried to kiss her
on the mouth. The girl was struggling against the great brute; but
her efforts were futile. Slowly the man's lips were coming closer
to hers and slowly, step by step, she was being carried backward.
Schneider heard the noise of the opening and closing door behind
him and turned. At sight of this strange officer he dropped the
girl and straightened up.
"What is the meaning of this intrusion, Lieutenant?" he demanded,
noting the other's epaulettes. "Leave the room at once."
Tarzan made no articulate reply; but the two there with him heard
a low growl break from those firm lips--a growl that sent a shudder
through the frame of the girl and brought a pallor to the red face
of the Hun and his hand to his pistol but even as he drew his weapon
it was wrested from him and hurled through the blind and window to
the yard beyond. Then Tarzan backed against the door and slowly
removed the uniform coat.
"You are Hauptmann Schneider," he said to the German.
"What of it?" growled the latter.
"I am Tarzan of the Apes," replied the ape-man. "Now you know why
I intrude."
The two before him saw that he was naked beneath the coat which he
threw upon the floor and then he slipped quickly from the trousers
and stood there clothed only in his loin cloth. The girl had
recognized him by this time, too.
"Take your hand off that pistol," Tarzan admonished her. Her hand
dropped at her side. "Now come here!"
She approached and Tarzan removed the weapon and hurled it after
the other. At the mention of his name Tarzan had noted the sickly
pallor that overspread the features of the Hun. At last he had found
the right man. At last his mate would be partially avenged--never
could she be entirely avenged. Life was too short and there were
too many Germans.
"What do you want of me?" demanded Schneider.
"You are going to pay the price for the thing you did at the little
bungalow in the Waziri country," replied the ape-man.
Schneider commenced to bluster and threaten. Tarzan turned the key
in the lock of the door and hurled the former through the window
after the pistols. Then he turned to the girl. "Keep out of the
way," he said in a low voice. "Tarzan of the Apes is going to kill."
The Hun ceased blustering and began to plead. "I have a wife and
children at home," he cried. "I have done nothing, I--"
"You are going to die as befits your kind," said Tarzan, "with blood
on your hands and a lie on your lips." He started across the room
toward the burly Hauptmann. Schneider was a large and powerful
man--about the height of the ape-man but much heavier. He saw that
neither threats nor pleas would avail him and so he prepared to
fight as a cornered rat fights for its life with all the maniacal
rage, cunning, and ferocity that the first law of nature imparts
to many beasts.
Lowering his bull head he charged for the ape-man and in the center
of the floor the two clinched. There they stood locked and swaying
for a moment until Tarzan succeeded in forcing his antagonist backward
over a table which crashed to the floor, splintered by the weight
of the two heavy bodies.
The girl stood watching the battle with wide eyes. She saw the two
men rolling hither and thither across the floor and she heard with
horror the low growls that came from the lips of the naked giant.
Schneider was trying to reach his foe's throat with his fingers
while, horror of horrors, Bertha Kircher could see that the other
was searching for the German's jugular with his teeth!
Schneider seemed to realize this too, for he redoubled his efforts
to escape and finally succeeded in rolling over on top of the ape-man
and breaking away. Leaping to his feet he ran for the window; but
the ape-man was too quick for him and before he could leap through
the sash a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder and he was jerked
back and hurled across the room to the opposite wall. There Tarzan
followed him, and once again they locked, dealing each other terrific
blows, until Schneider in a piercing voice screamed, "Kamerad!
Kamerad!"
Tarzan grasped the man by the throat and drew his hunting knife.
Schneider's back was against the wall so that though his knees
wobbled he was held erect by the ape-man. Tarzan brought the sharp
point to the lower part of the German's abdomen.
"Thus you slew my mate," he hissed in a terrible voice. "Thus
shall you die!"
The girl staggered forward. "Oh, God, no!" she cried. "Not that.
You are too brave--you cannot be such a beast as that!"
Tarzan turned at her. "No," he said, "you are right, I cannot do
it--I am no German," and he raised the point of his blade and sunk
it deep into the putrid heart of Hauptmann Fritz Schneider, putting
a bloody period to the Hun's last gasping cry: "I did not do it!
She is not--"
Then Tarzan turned toward the girl and held out his hand. "Give
me my locket," he said.
She pointed toward the dead officer. "He has it." Tarzan searched
him and found the trinket. "Now you may give me the papers," he said
to the girl, and without a word she handed him a folded document.
For a long time he stood looking at her before ho spoke again.
"I came for you, too," he said. "It would be difficult to take you
back from here and so I was going to kill you, as I have sworn to
kill all your kind; but you were right when you said that I was
not such a beast as that slayer of women. I could not slay him as
he slew mine, nor can I slay you, who are a woman."
He crossed to the window, raised the sash and an instant later he
had stepped out and disappeared into the night. And then Fraulein
Bertha Kircher stepped quickly to the corpse upon the floor, slipped
her hand inside the blouse and drew forth a little sheaf of papers
which she tucked into her waist before she went to the window and
called for help.