Usanga's Reward
For two days Tarzan of the Apes had been hunting leisurely to the
north, and swinging in a wide circle, he had returned to within
a short distance of the clearing where he had left Bertha Kircher
and the young lieutenant. He had spent the night in a large tree
that overhung the river only a short distance from the clearing,
and now in the early morning hours he was crouching at the water's
edge waiting for an opportunity to capture Pisah, the fish, thinking
that he would take it back with him to the hut where the girl could
cook it for herself and her companion.
Motionless as a bronze statue was the wily ape-man, for well he knew
how wary is Pisah, the fish. The slightest movement would frighten
him away and only by infinite patience might he be captured at
all. Tarzan depended upon his own quickness and the suddenness of
his attack, for he had no bait or hook. His knowledge of the ways
of the denizens of the water told him where to wait for Pisah. It
might be a minute or it might be an hour before the fish would swim
into the little pool above which he crouched, but sooner or later
one would come. That the ape-man knew, so with the patience of the
beast of prey he waited for his quarry.
At last there was a glint of shiny scales. Pisah was coming. In a
moment he would be within reach and then with the swiftness of light
two strong, brown hands would plunge into the pool and seize him,
but, just at the moment that the fish was about to come within reach,
there was a great crashing in the underbrush behind the ape-man.
Instantly Pisah was gone and Tarzan, growling, had wheeled about
to face whatever creature might be menacing him. The moment that
he turned he saw that the author of the disturbance was Zu-tag.
"What does Zu-tag want?" asked the ape-man.
"Zu-tag comes to the water to drink," replied the ape.
"Where is the tribe?" asked Tarzan.
"They are hunting for pisangs and scimatines farther back in the
forest," replied Zu-tag.
"And the Tarmangani she and bull--" asked Tarzan, "are they safe?"
"They have gone away," replied Zu-tag. "Kudu has come out of his
lair twice since they left."
"Did the tribe chase them away?" asked Tarzan.
"No," replied the ape. "We did not see them go. We do not know why
they left."
Tarzan swung quickly through the trees toward the clearing. The
hut and boma were as he had left them, but there was no sign of
either the man or the woman. Crossing the clearing, he entered the
boma and then the hut. Both were empty, and his trained nostrils
told him that they had been gone for at least two days. As he was
about to leave the hut he saw a paper pinned upon the wall with a
sliver of wood and taking it down, he read:
After what you told me about Miss Kircher, and knowing that you
dislike her, I feel that it is not fair to her and to you that we
should impose longer upon you. I know that our presence is keeping
you from continuing your journey to the west coast, and so I
have decided that it is better for us to try and reach the white
settlements immediately without imposing further upon you. We both
thank you for your kindness and protection. If there was any way
that I might repay the obligation I feel, I should be only too glad
to do so.
It was signed by Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick.
Tarzan shrugged his shoulders, crumpled the note in his hand and
tossed it aside. He felt a certain sense of relief from responsibility
and was glad that they had taken the matter out of his hands. They
were gone and would forget, but somehow he could not forget. He
walked out across the boma and into the clearing. He felt uneasy
and restless. Once he started toward the north in response to
a sudden determination to continue his way to the west coast. He
would follow the winding river toward the north a few miles where
its course turned to the west and then on toward its source across
a wooded plateau and up into the foothills and the mountains. Upon
the other side of the range he would search for a stream running
downward toward the west coast, and thus following the rivers he
would be sure of game and water in plenty.
But he did not go far. A dozen steps, perhaps, and he came to
a sudden stop. "He is an Englishman," he muttered, "and the other
is a woman. They can never reach the settlements without my help.
I could not kill her with my own hands when I tried, and if I let
them go on alone, I will have killed her just as surely as though
I had run my knife into her heart. No," and again he shook his
head. "Tarzan of the Apes is a fool and a weak, old woman," and he
turned back toward the south.
Manu, the monkey, had seen the two Tarmangani pass two days before.
Chattering and scolding, he told Tarzan all about it. They had
gone in the direction of the village of the Gomangani, that much
had Manu seen with his own eyes, so the ape-man swung on through
the jungle in a southerly direction and though with no concentrated
effort to follow the spoor of those he trailed, he passed numerous
evidences that they had gone this way--faint suggestions of their
scent spoor clung lightly to leaf or branch or bole that one
or the other had touched, or in the earth of the trail their feet
had trod, and where the way wound through the gloomy depth of dank
forest, the impress of their shoes still showed occasionally in
the damp mass of decaying vegetation that floored the way.
An inexplicable urge spurred Tarzan to increasing, speed. The
same still, small voice that chided him for having neglected them
seemed constantly whispering that they were in dire need of him
now. Tarzan's conscience was troubling him, which accounted for
the fact that he compared himself to a weak, old woman, for the
ape-man, reared in savagery and inured to hardships and cruelty,
disliked to admit any of the gentler traits that in reality were
his birthright.
The trail made a detour to the east of the village of the Wamabos,
and then returned to the wide elephant path nearer to the river,
where it continued in a southerly direction for several miles. At
last there came to the ears of the ape-man a peculiar whirring,
throbbing sound. For an instant he paused, listening intently, "An
aeroplane!" he muttered, and hastened forward at greatly increased
speed.
When Tarzan of the Apes finally reached the edge of the meadowland
where Smith-Oldwick's plane had landed, he took in the entire scene
in one quick glance and grasped the situation, although he could
scarce give credence to the things he saw. Bound and helpless,
the English officer lay upon the ground at one side of the meadow,
while around him stood a number of the black deserters from the
German command. Tarzan had seen these men before and knew who they
were. Coming toward him down the meadow was an aeroplane piloted
by the black Usanga and in the seat behind the pilot was the white
girl, Bertha Kircher. How it befell that the ignorant savage could
operate the plane, Tarzan could not guess nor had he time in which
to speculate upon the subject. His knowledge of Usanga, together
with the position of the white man, told him that the black sergeant
was attempting to carry off the white girl. Why he should be doing
this when he had her in his power and had also captured and secured
the only creature in the jungle who might wish to defend her in so
far as the black could know, Tarzan could not guess, for he knew
nothing of Usanga's twenty-four dream wives nor of the black's
fear of the horrid temper of Naratu, his present mate. He did not
know, then, that Usanga had determined to fly away with the white
girl never to return, and to put so great a distance between himself
and Naratu that the latter never could find him again; but it was
this very thing that was in the black's mind although not even his
own warriors guessed it. He had told them that he would take the
captive to a sultan of the north and there obtain a great price for
her and that when he returned they should have some of the spoils.
These things Tarzan did not know. All he knew was what he saw--a
Negro attempting to fly away with a white girl. Already the
machine was slowly leaving the ground. In a moment more it would
rise swiftly out of reach. At first Tarzan thought of fitting an
arrow to his bow and slaying Usanga, but as quickly he abandoned
the idea because he knew that the moment the pilot was slain the
machine, running wild, would dash the girl to death among the trees.
There was but one way in which he might hope to succor her--a way
which if it failed must send him to instant death and yet he did
not hesitate in an attempt to put it into execution.
Usanga did not see him, being too intent upon the unaccustomed duties
of a pilot, but the blacks across the meadow saw him and they ran
forward with loud and savage cries and menacing rifles to intercept
him. They saw a giant white man leap from the branches of a tree
to the turf and race rapidly toward the plane. They saw him take
a long grass rope from about his shoulders as he ran. They saw the
noose swinging in an undulating circle above his head. They saw
the white girl in the machine glance down and discover him.
Twenty feet above the running ape-man soared the huge plane. The
open noose shot up to meet it, and the girl, half guessing the
ape-man's intentions, reached out and caught the noose and, bracing
herself, clung tightly to it with both hands. Simultaneously Tarzan
was dragged from his feet and the plane lurched sideways in response
to the new strain. Usanga clutched wildly at the control and the
machine shot upward at a steep angle. Dangling at the end of the
rope the ape-man swung pendulum-like in space. The Englishman, lying
bound upon the ground, had been a witness of all these happenings.
His heart stood still as he saw Tarzan's body hurtling through the
air toward the tree tops among which it seemed he must inevitably
crash; but the plane was rising rapidly, so that the beast-man
cleared the top-most branches. Then slowly, hand over hand, he
climbed toward the fuselage. The girl, clinging desperately to the
noose, strained every muscle to hold the great weight dangling at
the lower end of the rope.
Usanga, all unconscious of what was going on behind him, drove the
plane higher and higher into the air.
Tarzan glanced downward. Below him the tree tops and the river
passed rapidly to the rear and only a slender grass rope and the
muscles of a frail girl stood between him and the death yawning
there thousands of feet below.
It seemed to Bertha Kircher that the fingers of her hands were dead.
The numbness was running up her arms to her elbows. How much longer
she could cling to the straining strands she could not guess. It
seemed to her that those lifeless fingers must relax at any instant
and then, when she had about given up hope, she saw a strong brown
hand reach up and grasp the side of the fuselage. Instantly the
weight upon the rope was removed and a moment later Tarzan of the
Apes raised his body above the side and threw a leg over the edge.
He glanced forward at Usanga and then, placing his mouth close to
the girl's ear he cried: "Have you ever piloted a plane?" The girl
nodded a quick affirmative.
"Have you the courage to climb up there beside the black and seize
the control while I take care of him?"
The girl looked toward Usanga and shuddered. "Yes," she replied,
"but my feet are bound."
Tarzan drew his hunting knife from its sheath and reaching down,
severed the thongs that bound her ankles. Then the girl unsnapped
the strap that held her to her seat. With one hand Tarzan grasped
the girl's arm and steadied her as the two crawled slowly across
the few feet which intervened between the two seats. A single slight
tip of the plane would have cast them both into eternity. Tarzan
realized that only through a miracle of chance could they reach
Usanga and effect the change in pilots and yet he knew that that
chance must be taken, for in the brief moments since he had first
seen the plane, he had realized that the black was almost without
experience as a pilot and that death surely awaited them in any
event should the black sergeant remain at the control.
The first intimation Usanga had that all was not well with him was
when the girl slipped suddenly to his side and grasped the control
and at the same instant steel-like fingers seized his throat. A brown
hand shot down with a keen blade and severed the strap about his
waist and giant muscles lifted him bodily from his seat. Usanga
clawed the air and shrieked but he was helpless as a babe. Far
below the watchers in the meadow could see the aeroplane careening
in the sky, for with the change of control it had taken a sudden
dive. They saw it right itself and, turning in a short circle, return
in their direction, but it was so far above them and the light of
the sun so strong that they could see nothing of what was going on
within the fuselage; but presently Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick gave
a gasp of dismay as he saw a human body plunge downward from the
plane. Turning and twisting in mid-air it fell with ever-increasing
velocity and the Englishman held his breath as the thing hurtled
toward them.
With a muffled thud it flattened upon the turf near the center of
the meadow, and when at last the Englishman could gain the courage
to again turn his eyes upon it, he breathed a fervent prayer of
thanks, for the shapeless mass that lay upon the blood-stained turf
was covered with an ebon hide. Usanga had reaped his reward.
Again and again the plane circled above the meadow. The blacks, at
first dismayed at the death of their leader, were now worked to a
frenzy of rage and a determination to be avenged. The girl and the
ape-man saw them gather in a knot about the body of their fallen
chief. They saw as they circled above the meadow the black fists
shaken at them, and the rifles brandishing a menace toward them.
Tarzan still clung to the fuselage directly behind the pilot's seat.
His face was close beside Bertha Kircher's, and at the top of his
voice, above the noise of propeller, engine and exhaust, he screamed
a few words of instruction into her ear.
As the girl grasped the significance of his words she paled, but
her lips set in a hard line and her eyes shone with a sudden fire
of determination as she dropped the plane to within a few feet of
the ground and at the opposite end of the meadow from the blacks
and then at full speed bore down upon the savages. So quickly the
plane came that Usanga's men had no time to escape it after they
realized its menace. It touched the ground just as it struck among
them and mowed through them, a veritable juggernaut of destruction.
When it came to rest at the edge of the forest the ape-man leaped
quickly to the ground and ran toward the young lieutenant, and as
he went he glanced at the spot where the warriors had stood, ready
to defend himself if necessary, but there was none there to oppose
him. Dead and dying they lay strewn for fifty feet along the turf.
By the time Tarzan had freed the Englishman the girl joined them.
She tried to voice her thanks to the ape-man but he silenced her
with a gesture.
"You saved yourself," he insisted, "for had you been unable to
pilot the plane, I could not have helped you, and now," he said,
"you two have the means of returning to the settlements. The day
is still young. You can easily cover the distance in a few hours
if you have sufficient petrol." He looked inquiringly toward the
aviator.
Smith-Oldwick nodded his head affirmatively. "I have plenty," he
replied.
"Then go at once," said the ape-man. "Neither of you belong in the
jungle." A slight smile touched his lips as he spoke.
The girl and the Englishman smiled too. "This jungle is no place
for us at least," said Smith-Oldwick, "and it is no place for any
other white man. Why don't you come back to civilization with us?"
Tarzan shook his head. "I prefer the jungle," he said.
The aviator dug his toe into the ground and still looking down,
blurted something which he evidently hated to say. "If it is a
matter of living, old top," he said, "er--money, er--you know--"
Tarzan laughed. "No," he said. "I know what you are trying to say.
It is not that. I was born in the jungle. I have lived all my life
in the jungle, and I shall die in the jungle. I do not wish to
live or die elsewhere."
The others shook their heads. They could not understand him.
"Go," said the ape-man. "The quicker you go, the quicker you will
reach safety."
They walked to the plane together. Smith-Oldwick pressed the
ape-man's hand and clambered into the pilot's seat. "Good-bye,"
said the girl as she extended her hand to Tarzan. "Before I go
won't you tell me you don't hate me any more?" Tarzan's face clouded.
Without a word he picked her up and lifted her to her place behind
the Englishman. An expression of pain crossed Bertha Kircher's
face. The motor started and a moment later the two were being borne
rapidly toward the east.
In the center of the meadow stood the ape-man watching them. "It
is too bad that she is a German and a spy," he said, "for she is
very hard to hate."