Finding the Airplane
Tarzan of the Apes, returning from a successful hunt, with the
body of Bara, the deer, across one sleek, brown shoulder, paused
in the branches of a great tree at the edge of a clearing and gazed
ruefully at two figures walking from the river to the boma-encircled
hut a short distance away.
The ape-man shook his tousled head and sighed. His eyes wandered
toward the west and his thoughts to the far-away cabin by the
land-locked harbor of the great water that washed the beach of his
boyhood home--to the cabin of his long-dead father to which the
memories and treasures of a happy childhood lured him. Since the
loss of his mate, a great longing had possessed him to return to
the haunts of his youth--to the untracked jungle wilderness where
he had lived the life he loved best long before man had invaded
the precincts of his wild stamping grounds. There he hoped in a
renewal of the old life under the old conditions to win surcease
from sorrow and perhaps some measure of forgetfulness.
But the little cabin and the land-locked harbor were many long,
weary marches away, and he was handicapped by the duty which he
felt he owed to the two figures walking in the clearing before him.
One was a young man in a worn and ragged uniform of the British Royal
Air Forces, the other, a young woman in the even more disreputable
remnants of what once had been trim riding togs.
A freak of fate had thrown these three radically different types
together. One was a savage, almost naked beast-man, one an English
army officer, and the woman, she whom the ape-man knew and hated
as a German spy.
How he was to get rid of them Tarzan could not imagine unless
he accompanied them upon the weary march back to the east coast,
a march that would necessitate his once more retracing the long,
weary way he already had covered towards his goal, yet what else
could be done? These two had neither the strength, endurance, nor
jungle-craft to accompany him through the unknown country to the
west, nor did he wish them with him. The man he might have tolerated,
but he could not even consider the presence of the girl in the
far-off cabin, which had in a way become sacred to him through
its memories, without a growl or anger rising to his lips. There
remained, then, but the one way, since he could not desert them.
He must move by slow and irksome marches back to the east coast,
or at least to the first white settlement in that direction.
He had, it is true, contemplated leaving the girl to her fate but
that was before she had been instrumental in saving him from torture
and death at the hands of the black Wamabos. He chafed under the
obligation she had put upon him, but no less did he acknowledge
it and as he watched the two, the rueful expression upon his face
was lightened by a smile as he thought of the helplessness of them.
What a puny thing, indeed, was man! How ill equipped to combat the
savage forces of nature and of nature's jungle. Why, even the tiny
balu of the tribe of Go-lat, the great ape, was better fitted to
survive than these, for a balu could at least escape the numerous
creatures that menaced its existence, while with the possible
exception of Kota, the tortoise, none moved so slowly as did helpless
and feeble man.
Without him these two doubtless would starve in the midst of plenty,
should they by some miracle escape the other forces of destruction
which constantly threatened them. That morning Tarzan had brought
them fruit, nuts, and plantain, and now he was bringing them the
flesh of his kill, while the best that they might do was to fetch
water from the river. Even now, as they walked across the clearing
toward the boma, they were in utter ignorance of the presence
of Tarzan near them. They did not know that his sharp eyes were
watching them, nor that other eyes less friendly were glaring at
them from a clump of bushes close beside the boma entrance. They
did not know these things, but Tarzan did. No more than they could
he see the creature crouching in the concealment of the foliage, yet
he knew that it was there and what it was and what its intentions,
precisely as well as though it had been lying in the open.
A slight movement of the leaves at the top of a single stem had
apprised him of the presence of a creature there, for the movement
was not that imparted by the wind. It came from pressure at the
bottom of the stem which communicates a different movement to the
leaves than does the wind passing among them, as anyone who has
lived his lifetime in the jungle well knows, and the same wind that
passed through the foliage of the bush brought to the ape-man's
sensitive nostrils indisputable evidence of the fact that Sheeta,
the panther, waited there for the two returning from the river.
They had covered half the distance to the boma entrance when Tarzan
called to them to stop. They looked in surprise in the direction
from which his voice had come to see him drop lightly to the ground
and advance toward them.
"Come slowly toward me," he called to them. "Do not run for if you
run Sheeta will charge."
They did as he bid, their faces filled with questioning wonderment.
"What do you mean?" asked the young Englishman. "Who is Sheeta?"
but for answer the ape-man suddenly hurled the carcass of Bara, the
deer, to the ground and leaped quickly toward them, his eyes upon
something in their rear; and then it was that the two turned and
learned the identity of Sheeta, for behind them was a devil-faced
cat charging rapidly toward them.
Sheeta with rising anger and suspicion had seen the ape-man leap
from the tree and approach the quarry. His life's experiences backed
by instinct told him that the Tarmangani was about to rob him of
his prey and as Sheeta was hungry, he had no intention of being
thus easily deprived of the flesh he already considered his own.
The girl stifled an involuntary scream as she saw the proximity
of the fanged fury bearing down upon them. She shrank close to the
man and clung to him and all unarmed and defenseless as he was, the
Englishman pushed her behind him and shielding her with his body,
stood squarely in the face of the panther's charge. Tarzan noted
the act, and though accustomed as he was to acts of courage, he
experienced a thrill from the hopeless and futile bravery of the
man.
The charging panther moved rapidly, and the distance which separated
the bush in which he had concealed himself from the objects of his
desire was not great. In the time that one might understandingly
read a dozen words the strong-limbed cat could have covered the
entire distance and made his kill, yet if Sheeta was quick, quick
too was Tarzan. The English lieutenant saw the ape-man flash by him
like the wind. He saw the great cat veer in his charge as though
to elude the naked savage rushing to meet him, as it was evidently
Sheeta's intention to make good his kill before attempting to
protect it from Tarzan.
Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick saw these things and then with increasing
wonder he saw the ape-man swerve, too, and leap for the spotted cat
as a football player leaps for a runner. He saw the strong, brown
arms encircling the body of the carnivore, the left arm in front
of the beast's left shoulder and the right arm behind his right
foreleg, and with the impact the two together rolling over and over
upon the turf. He heard the snarls and growls of bestial combat,
and it was with a feeling of no little horror that he realized that
the sounds coming from the human throat of the battling man could
scarce be distinguished from those of the panther.
The first momentary shock of terror over, the girl released her
grasp upon the Englishman's arm. "Cannot we do something?" she
asked. "Cannot we help him before the beast kills him?"
The Englishman looked upon the ground for some missile with which
to attack the panther and then the girl uttered an exclamation and
started at a run toward the hut. "Wait there," she called over her
shoulder. "I will fetch the spear that he left me."
Smith-Oldwick saw the raking talons of the panther searching for
the flesh of the man and the man on his part straining every muscle
and using every artifice to keep his body out of range of them. The
muscles of his arms knotted under the brown hide. The veins stood
out upon his neck and forehead as with ever-increasing power he
strove to crush the life from the great cat. The ape-man's teeth
were fastened in the back of Sheeta's neck and now he succeeded
in encircling the beast's torso with his legs which he crossed and
locked beneath the cat's belly. Leaping and snarling, Sheeta sought
to dislodge the ape-man's hold upon him. He hurled himself upon
the ground and rolled over and over. He reared upon his hind legs
and threw himself backwards but always the savage creature upon
his back clung tenaciously to him, and always the mighty brown arms
crushed tighter and tighter about his chest.
And then the girl, panting from her quick run, returned with the
short spear Tarzan had left her as her sole weapon of protection.
She did not wait to hand it to the Englishman who ran forward to
receive it, but brushed past him and leaped into close quarters
beside the growling, tumbling mass of yellow fur and smooth brown
hide. Several times she attempted to press the point home into
the cat's body, but on both occasions the fear of endangering the
ape-man caused her to desist, but at last the two lay motionless
for a moment as the carnivore sought a moment's rest from the
strenuous exertions of battle, and then it was that Bertha Kircher
pressed the point of the spear to the tawny side and drove it deep
into the savage heart.
Tarzan rose from the dead body of Sheeta and shook himself after
the manner of beasts that are entirely clothed with hair. Like
many other of his traits and mannerisms this was the result of
environment rather than heredity or reversion, and even though he
was outwardly a man, the Englishman and the girl were both impressed
with the naturalness of the act. It was as though Numa, emerging
from a fight, had shaken himself to straighten his rumpled mane and
coat, and yet, too, there was something uncanny about it as there
had been when the savage growls and hideous snarls issued from
those clean-cut lips.
Tarzan looked at the girl, a quizzical expression upon his face.
Again had she placed him under obligations to her, and Tarzan of
the Apes did not wish to be obligated to a German spy; yet in his
honest heart he could not but admit a certain admiration for her
courage, a trait which always greatly impressed the ape-man, he
himself the personification of courage.
"Here is the kill," he said, picking the carcass of Bara from the
ground. "You will want to cook your portion, I presume, but Tarzan
does not spoil his meat with fire."
They followed him to the boma where he cut several pieces of meat
from the carcass for them, retaining a joint for himself. The
young lieutenant prepared a fire, and the girl presided over the
primitive culinary rights of their simple meal. As she worked some
little way apart from them, the lieutenant and the ape-man watched
her.
"She is wonderful. Is she not?" murmured Smith-Oldwick.
"She is a German and a spy," replied Tarzan.
The Englishman turned quickly upon him. "What do you mean?" he
cried.
"I mean what I say," replied the ape-man. "She is a German and a
spy."
"I do not believe it!" exclaimed the aviator.
"You do not have to," Tarzan assured him. "It is nothing to me
what you believe. I saw her in conference with the Boche general
and his staff at the camp near Taveta. They all knew her and called
her by name and she handed him a paper. The next time I saw her
she was inside the British lines in disguise, and again I saw her
bearing word to a German officer at Wilhelmstal. She is a German
and a spy, but she is a woman and therefore I cannot destroy her."
"You really believe that what you say is true?" asked the young
lieutenant. "My God! I cannot believe it. She is so sweet and brave
and good."
The ape-man shrugged his shoulders. "She is brave," he said, "but
even Pamba, the rat, must have some good quality, but she is what
I have told you and therefore I hate her and you should hate her."
Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick buried his face in his hands.
"God forgive me," he said at last. "I cannot hate her."
The ape-man cast a contemptuous look at his companion and arose.
"Tarzan goes again to hunt," he said. "You have enough food for
two days. By that time he will return."
The two watched him until he had disappeared in the foliage of the
trees at the further side of the clearing.
When he had gone the girl felt a vague sense of apprehension that
she never experienced when Tarzan was present. The invisible menaces
lurking in the grim jungle seemed more real and much more imminent
now that the ape-man was no longer near. While he had been there
talking with them, the little thatched hut and its surrounding
thorn boma had seemed as safe a place as the world might afford.
She wished that he had remained--two days seemed an eternity in
contemplation--two days of constant fear, two days, every moment of
which would be fraught with danger. She turned toward her companion.
"I wish that he had remained," she said. "I always feel so much
safer when he is near. He is very grim and very terrible, and yet
I feel safer with him than with any man I ever have known. He seems
to dislike me and yet I know that he would let no harm befall me.
I cannot understand him."
"Neither do I understand him," replied the Englishman; "but I know
this much--our presence here is interfering with his plans. He would
like to be rid of us, and I half imagine that he rather hopes to
find when he returns that we have succumbed to one of the dangers
which must always confront us in this savage land.
"I think that we should try to return to the white settlements. This
man does not want us here, nor is it reasonable to assume that we
could long survive in such a savage wilderness. I have traveled and
hunted in several parts of Africa, but never have I seen or heard
of any single locality so overrun with savage beasts and dangerous
natives. If we set out for the east coast at once we would be in
but little more danger than we are here, and if we could survive
a day's march, I believe that we will find the means of reaching
the coast in a few hours, for my plane must still be in the same
place that I landed just before the blacks captured me. Of course
there is no one here who could operate it nor is there any reason
why they should have destroyed it. As a matter of fact, the natives
would be so fearful and suspicious of so strange and incomprehensible
a thing that the chances are they would not dare approach it. Yes,
it must be where I left it and all ready to carry us safely to the
settlements."
"But we cannot leave," said the girl, "until he returns. We could
not go away like that without thanking him or bidding him farewell.
We are under too great obligations to him."
The man looked at her in silence for a moment. He wondered if
she knew how Tarzan felt toward her and then he himself began to
speculate upon the truth of the ape-man's charges. The longer he
looked at the girl, the less easy was it to entertain the thought
that she was an enemy spy. He was upon the point of asking
her point-blank but he could not bring himself to do so, finally
determining to wait until time and longer acquaintance should reveal
the truth or falsity of the accusation.
"I believe," he said as though there had been no pause in their
conversation, "that the man would be more than glad to find us
gone when he returns. It is not necessary to jeopardize our lives
for two more days in order that we may thank him, however much
we may appreciate his services to us. You have more than balanced
your obligations to him and from what he told me I feel that you
especially should not remain here longer."
The girl looked up at him in astonishment. "What do you mean?" she
asked.
"I do not like to tell," said the Englishman, digging nervously at
the turf with the point of a stick, "but you have my word that he
would rather you were not here."
"Tell me what he said," she insisted, "I have a right to know."
Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick squared his shoulders and raised his eyes
to those of the girl. "He said that he hated you," he blurted. "He
has only aided you at all from a sense of duty because you are a
woman."
The girl paled and then flushed. "I will be ready to go," she said,
"in just a moment. We had better take some of this meat with us.
There is no telling when we will be able to get more."
And so the two set out down the river toward the south. The man
carried the short spear that Tarzan had left with the girl, while
she was entirely unarmed except for a stick she had picked up from
among those left after the building of the hut. Before departing
she had insisted that the man leave a note for Tarzan thanking him
for his care of them and bidding him goodbye. This they left pinned
to the inside wall of the hut with a little sliver of wood.
It was necessary that they be constantly on the alert since they
never knew what might confront them at the next turn of the winding
jungle trail or what might lie concealed in the tangled bushes at
either side. There was also the ever-present danger of meeting some
of Numabo's black warriors and as the village lay directly in their
line of march, there was the necessity for making a wide detour
before they reached it in order to pass around it without being
discovered.
"I am not so much afraid of the native blacks," said the girl, "as
I am of Usanga and his people. He and his men were all attached
to a German native regiment. They brought me along with them when
they deserted, either with the intention of holding me ransom or
selling me into the harem of one of the black sultans of the north.
Usanga is much more to be feared than Numabo for he has had the
advantage of European military training and is armed with more or
less modern weapons and ammunition."
"It is lucky for me," remarked the Englishman, "that it was the
ignorant Numabo who discovered and captured me rather than the
worldly wise Usanga. He would have felt less fear of the giant
flying machine and would have known only too well how to wreck it."
"Let us pray that the black sergeant has not discovered it," said
the girl.
They made their way to a point which they guessed was about a mile
above the village, then they turned into the trackless tangle of
undergrowth to the east. So dense was the verdure at many points
that it was with the utmost difficulty they wormed their way through,
sometimes on hands and knees and again by clambering over numerous
fallen tree trunks. Interwoven with dead limbs and living branches
were the tough and ropelike creepers which formed a tangled network
across their path.
South of them in an open meadowland a number of black warriors were
gathered about an object which elicited much wondering comment. The
blacks were clothed in fragments of what had once been uniforms of
a native German command. They were a most unlovely band and chief
among them in authority and repulsiveness was the black sergeant
Usanga. The object of their interest was a British aeroplane.
Immediately after the Englishman had been brought to Numabo's village
Usanga had gone out in search of the plane, prompted partially by
curiosity and partially by an intention to destroy it, but when he
had found it, some new thought had deterred him from carrying out
his design. The thing represented considerable value as he well
knew and it had occurred to him that in some way he might turn his
prize to profit. Every day he had returned to it, and while at
first it had filled him with considerable awe, he eventually came
to look upon it with the accustomed eye of a proprietor, so that
he now clambered into the fuselage and even advanced so far as to
wish that he might learn to operate it.
What a feat it would be indeed to fly like a bird far above the
highest tree top! How it would fill his less favored companions
with awe and admiration! If Usanga could but fly, so great would be
the respect of all the tribesmen throughout the scattered villages
of the great interior, they would look upon him as little less than
a god.
Usanga rubbed his palms together and smacked his thick lips. Then
indeed, would he be very rich, for all the villages would pay
tribute to him and he could even have as many as a dozen wives.
With that thought, however, came a mental picture of Naratu, the
black termagant, who ruled him with an iron hand. Usanga made a
wry face and tried to forget the extra dozen wives, but the lure of
the idea remained and appealed so strongly to him that he presently
found himself reasoning most logically that a god would not be much
of a god with less than twenty-four wives.
He fingered the instruments and the control, half hoping and half
fearing that he would alight upon the combination that would put
the machine in flight. Often had he watched the British air-men
soaring above the German lines and it looked so simple he was quite
sure that he could do it himself if there was somebody who could
but once show him how. There was, of course, always the hope that
the white man who came in the machine and who had escaped from
Numabo's village might fall into Usanga's hands and then indeed
would he be able to learn how to fly. It was in this hope that
Usanga spent so much time in the vicinity of the plane, reasoning
as he did that eventually the white man would return in search of
it.
And at last he was rewarded, for upon this very day after he had
quit the machine and entered the jungle with his warriors, he heard
voices to the north and when he and his men had hidden in the dense
foliage upon either side of the trail, Usanga was presently filled
with elation by the appearance of the British officer and the white
girl whom the black sergeant had coveted and who had escaped him.
The Negro could scarce restrain a shout of elation, for he had not
hoped that fate would be so kind as to throw these two whom he most
desired into his power at the same time.
As the two came down the trail all unconscious of impending danger,
the man was explaining that they must be very close to the point
at which the plane had landed. Their entire attention was centered
on the trail directly ahead of them, as they momentarily expected
it to break into the meadowland where they were sure they would
see the plane that would spell life and liberty for them.
The trail was broad, and they were walking side by side so that at
a sharp turn the park-like clearing was revealed to them simultaneously
with the outlines of the machine they sought.
Exclamations of relief and delight broke from their lips, and at
the same instant Usanga and his black warriors rose from the bushes
all about them.