Mysterious Footprints
As the British plane piloted by Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick
rose above the jungle wilderness where Bertha Kircher's life had
so often been upon the point of extinction, and sped toward the
east, the girl felt a sudden contraction of the muscles of her
throat. She tried very hard to swallow something that was not there.
It seemed strange to her that she should feel regret in leaving
behind her such hideous perils, and yet it was plain to her that
such was the fact, for she was also leaving behind something beside
the dangers that had menaced her--a unique figure that had entered
her life, and for which she felt an unaccountable attraction.
Before her in the pilot's seat sat an English officer and gentleman
whom, she knew, loved her, and yet she dared to feel regret in his
company at leaving the stamping ground of a wild beast!
Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick, on his part, was in the seventh heaven
of elation. He was in possession again of his beloved ship, he was
flying swiftly in the direction of his comrades and his duty, and
with him was the woman he loved. The fly in the ointment, however,
was the accusation Tarzan had made against this woman. He had said
that she was a German, and a spy, and from the heights of bliss the
English officer was occasionally plunged to the depths of despair
in contemplation of the inevitable, were the ape-man's charges to
prove true. He found himself torn between sentiments of love and
honor. On the one hand he could not surrender the woman he loved
to the certain fate that must be meted out to her if she were in
truth an enemy spy, while on the other it would be equally impossible
for him as an Englishman and an officer to give her aid or protection.
The young man contented himself therefore with repeated mental
denials of her guilt. He tried to convince himself that Tarzan was
mistaken, and when he conjured upon the screen of recollection the
face of the girl behind him, he was doubly reassured that those
lines of sweet femininity and character, those clear and honest
eyes, could not belong to one of the hated alien race.
And so they sped toward the east, each wrapped in his own thoughts.
Below them they saw the dense vegetation of the jungle give place
to the scantier growth upon the hillside, and then before them
there spread the wide expanse of arid wastelands marked by the deep
scarring of the narrow gorges that long-gone rivers had cut there
in some forgotten age.
Shortly after they passed the summit of the ridge which formed
the boundary between the desert and the fertile country, Ska, the
vulture, winging his way at a high altitude toward his aerie, caught
sight of a strange new bird of gigantic proportions encroaching upon
the preserves of his aerial domain. Whether with intent to give
battle to the interloper or merely impelled by curiosity, Ska rose
suddenly upward to meet the plane. Doubtless he misjudged the speed
of the newcomer, but be that as it may, the tip of the propeller
blade touched him and simultaneously many things happened. The
lifeless body of Ska, torn and bleeding, dropped plummet-like toward
the ground; a bit of splintered spruce drove backward to strike
the pilot on the forehead; the plane shuddered and trembled and
as Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick sank forward in momentary
unconsciousness the ship dived headlong toward the earth.
Only for an instant was the pilot unconscious, but that instant
almost proved their undoing. When he awoke to a realization of
their peril it was also to discover that his motor had stalled.
The plane had attained frightful momentum, and the ground seemed
too close for him to hope to flatten out in time to make a safe
landing. Directly beneath him was a deep rift in the plateau, a
narrow gorge, the bottom of which appeared comparatively level and
sand covered.
In the brief instant in which he must reach a decision, the safest
plan seemed to attempt a landing in the gorge, and this he did, but
not without considerable damage to the plane and a severe shaking-up
for himself and his passenger.
Fortunately neither of them was injured but their condition seemed
indeed a hopeless one. It was a grave question as to whether the
man could repair his plane and continue the journey, and it seemed
equally questionable as to their ability either to proceed on foot
to the coast or retrace their way to the country they had just
left. The man was confident that they could not hope to cross the
desert country to the east in the face of thirst and hunger, while
behind them in the valley of plenty lay almost equal danger in the
form of carnivores and the warlike natives.
After the plane came to its sudden and disastrous stop, Smith-Oldwick
turned quickly to see what the effect of the accident had been on
the girl. He found her pale but smiling, and for several seconds
the two sat looking at each other in silence.
"This is the end?" the girl asked.
The Englishman shook his head. "It is the end of the first leg,
anyway," he replied.
"But you can't hope to make repairs here," she said dubiously.
"No," he said, "not if they amount to anything, but I may be able
to patch it up. I will have to look her over a bit first. Let us
hope there is nothing serious. It's a long, long way to the Tanga
railway."
"We would not get far," said the girl, a slight note of hopelessness
in her tone. "Entirely unarmed as we are, it would be little less
than a miracle if we covered even a small fraction of the distance."
"But we are not unarmed," replied the man. "I have an extra pistol
here, that the beggars didn't discover," and, removing the cover
of a compartment, he drew forth an automatic.
Bertha Kircher leaned back in her seat and laughed aloud, a mirthless,
half-hysterical laugh. "That popgun!" she exclaimed. "What earthly
good would it do other than to infuriate any beast of prey you
might happen to hit with it?"
Smith-Oldwick looked rather crestfallen. "But it is a weapon," he
said. "You will have to admit that, and certainly I could kill a
man with it."
"You could if you happened to hit him," said the girl, "or the
thing didn't jam. Really, I haven't much faith in an automatic. I
have used them myself."
"Oh, of course," he said ironically, "an express rifle would be
better, for who knows but we might meet an elephant here in the
desert."
The girl saw that he was hurt, and she was sorry, for she realized
that there was nothing he would not do in her service or protection,
and that it was through no fault of his that he was so illy armed.
Doubtless, too, he realized as well as she the futility of his
weapon, and that he had only called attention to it in the hope of
reassuring her and lessening her anxiety.
"Forgive me," she said. "I did not mean to be nasty, but this
accident is the proverbial last straw. It seems to me that I have
borne all that I can. Though I was willing to give my life in the
service of my country, I did not imagine that my death agonies would
be so long drawn out, for I realize now that I have been dying for
many weeks."
"What do you mean!" he exclaimed; "what do you mean by that! You
are not dying. There is nothing the matter with you."
"Oh, not that," she said, "I did not mean that. What I mean is that
at the moment the black sergeant, Usanga, and his renegade German
native troops captured me and brought me inland, my death warrant
was signed. Sometimes I have imagined that a reprieve has been
granted. Sometimes I have hoped that I might be upon the verge of
winning a full pardon, but really in the depths of my heart I have
known that I should never live to regain civilization. I have done
my bit for my country, and though it was not much I can at least
go with the realization that it was the best I was able to offer.
All that I can hope for now, all that I ask for, is a speedy
fulfillment of the death sentence. I do not wish to linger any more
to face constant terror and apprehension. Even physical torture
would be preferable to what I have passed through. I have no doubt
that you consider me a brave woman, but really my terror has been
boundless. The cries of the carnivores at night fill me with a dread
so tangible that I am in actual pain. I feel the rending talons
in my flesh and the cruel fangs munching upon my bones--it is as
real to me as though I were actually enduring the horrors of such
a death. I doubt if you can understand it--men are so different."
"Yes," he said, "I think I can understand it, and because I understand
I can appreciate more than you imagine the heroism you have shown
in your endurance of all that you have passed through. There can
be no bravery where there is no fear. A child might walk into a
lion's den, but it would take a very brave man to go to its rescue."
"Thank you," she said, "but I am not brave at all, and now I am
very much ashamed of my thoughtlessness for your own feelings. I
will try and take a new grip upon myself and we will both hope for
the best. I will help you all I can if you will tell me what I may
do."
"The first thing," he replied, "is to find out just how serious
our damage is, and then to see what we can do in the way of repairs."
For two days Smith-Oldwick worked upon the damaged plane--worked
in the face of the fact that from the first he realized the case
was hopeless. And at last he told her.
"I knew it," she said, "but I believe that I felt much as you must
have; that however futile our efforts here might be, it would be
infinitely as fatal to attempt to retrace our way to the jungle we
just left or to go on toward the coast. You know and I know that we
could not reach the Tanga railway on foot. We should die of thirst
and starvation before we had covered half the distance, and if we
return to the jungle, even were we able to reach it, it would be
but to court an equally certain, though different, fate."
"So we might as well sit here and wait for death as to uselessly
waste our energies in what we know would be a futile attempt at
escape?" he asked.
"No," she replied, "I shall never give up like that. What I meant
was that it was useless to attempt to reach either of the places
where we know that there is food and water in abundance, so we
must strike out in a new direction. Somewhere there may be water
in this wilderness and if there is, the best chance of our finding
it would be to follow this gorge downward. We have enough food and
water left, if we are careful of it, for a couple of days and in
that time we might stumble upon a spring or possibly even reach
the fertile country which I know lies to the south. When Usanga
brought me to the Wamabo country from the coast he took a southerly
route along which there was usually water and game in plenty. It
was not until we neared our destination that the country became
overrun with carnivores. So there is hope if we can reach the
fertile country south of us that we can manage to pull through to
the coast."
The man shook his head dubiously. "We can try it," he said.
"Personally, I do not fancy sitting here waiting for death."
Smith-Oldwick was leaning against the ship, his dejected gaze
directed upon the ground at his feet. The girl was looking south
down the gorge in the direction of their one slender chance of
life. Suddenly she touched him on the arm.
"Look," she whispered.
The man raised his eyes quickly in the direction of her gaze to
see the massive head of a great lion who was regarding them from
beyond a rocky projection at the first turning of the gorge.
"Phew!" he exclaimed, "the beggars are everywhere."
"They do not go far from water do they," asked the girl hopefully.
"I should imagine not," he replied; "a lion is not particularly
strong on endurance."
"Then he is a harbinger of hope," she exclaimed.
The man laughed. "Cute little harbinger of hope!" he said. "Reminds
me of Cock Robin heralding spring."
The girl cast a quick glance at him. "Don't be silly, and I don't
care if you do laugh. He fills me with hope."
"It is probably mutual," replied Smith-Oldwick, "as we doubtless
fill him with hope."
The lion evidently having satisfied himself as to the nature of
the creatures before him advanced slowly now in their direction.
"Come," said the man, "let's climb aboard," and he helped the girl
over the side of the ship.
"Can't he get in here?" she asked.
"I think he can," said the man.
"You are reassuring," she returned.
"I don't feel so." He drew his pistol.
"For heaven's sake," she cried, "don't shoot at him with that thing.
You might hit him."
"I don't intend to shoot at him but I might succeed in frightening
him away if he attempts to reach us here. Haven't you ever seen a
trainer work with lions? He carries a silly little pop-gun loaded
with blank cartridges. With that and a kitchen chair he subdues
the most ferocious of beasts."
"But you haven't a kitchen chair," she reminded him.
"No," he said, "Government is always muddling things. I have always
maintained that airplanes should be equipped with kitchen chairs."
Bertha Kircher laughed as evenly and with as little hysteria as
though she were moved by the small talk of an afternoon tea.
Numa, the lion, came steadily toward them; his attitude seemed
more that of curiosity than of belligerency. Close to the side of
the ship he stopped and stood gazing up at them.
"Magnificent, isn't he?" exclaimed the man.
"I never saw a more beautiful creature," she replied, "nor one with
such a dark coat. Why, he is almost black."
The sound of their voices seemed not to please the lord of the
jungle, for he suddenly wrinkled his great face into deep furrows
as he bared his fangs beneath snarling lips and gave vent to an
angry growl. Almost simultaneously he crouched for a spring and
immediately Smith-Oldwick discharged his pistol into the ground in
front of the lion. The effect of the noise upon Numa seemed but to
enrage him further, and with a horrid roar he sprang for the author
of the new and disquieting sound that had outraged his ears.
Simultaneously Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick vaulted nimbly
out of the cockpit on the opposite side of his plane, calling to
the girl to follow his example. The girl, realizing the futility
of leaping to the ground, chose the remaining alternative and
clambered to the top of the upper plane.
Numa, unaccustomed to the idiosyncrasies of construction of an
airship and having gained the forward cockpit, watched the girl
clamber out of his reach without at first endeavoring to prevent
her. Having taken possession of the plane his anger seemed suddenly
to leave him and he made no immediate move toward following
Smith-Oldwick. The girl, realizing the comparative safety of her
position, had crawled to the outer edge of the wing and was calling
to the man to try and reach the opposite end of the upper plane.
It was this scene upon which Tarzan of the Apes looked as he
rounded the bend of the gorge above the plane after the pistol shot
had attracted his attention. The girl was so intent upon watching
the efforts of the Englishman to reach a place of safety, and the
latter was so busily occupied in attempting to do so that neither
at once noticed the silent approach of the ape-man.
It was Numa who first noticed the intruder. The lion immediately
evinced his displeasure by directing toward him a snarling countenance
and a series of warning growls. His action called the attention of
the two upon the upper plane to the newcomer, eliciting a stifled
"Thank God!" from the girl, even though she could scarce credit the
evidence of her own eyes that it was indeed the savage man, whose
presence always assured her safety, who had come so providentially
in the nick of time.
Almost immediately both were horrified to see Numa leap from the
cockpit and advance upon Tarzan. The ape-man, carrying his stout
spear in readiness, moved deliberately onward to meet the carnivore,
which he had recognized as the lion of the Wamabos' pit. He knew
from the manner of Numa's approach what neither Bertha Kircher nor
Smith-Oldwick knew--that there was more of curiosity than belligerency
in it, and he wondered if in that great head there might not be a
semblance of gratitude for the kindness that Tarzan had done him.
There was no question in Tarzan's mind but that Numa recognized
him, for he knew his fellows of the jungle well enough to know that
while they oft-times forgot certain sensations more quickly than
man there are others which remain in their memories for years. A
well-defined scent spoor might never be forgotten by a beast if it
had first been sensed under unusual circumstances, and so Tarzan
was confident that Numa's nose had already reminded him of all the
circumstances of their brief connection.
Love of the sporting chance is inherent in the Anglo-Saxon race and
it was not now Tarzan of the Apes but rather John Clayton, Lord
Greystoke, who smilingly welcomed the sporting chance which he must
take to discover how far-reaching was Numa's gratitude.
Smith-Oldwick and the girl saw the two nearing each other. The
former swore softly beneath his breath while he nervously fingered
the pitiful weapon at his hip. The girl pressed her open palms to
her cheeks as she leaned forward in stony-eyed, horror-stricken
silence. While she had every confidence in the prowess of the godlike
creature who thus dared brazenly to face the king of beasts, she
had no false conception of what must certainly happen when they
met. She had seen Tarzan battle with Sheeta, the panther, and she
had realized then that powerful as the man was, it was only agility,
cunning, and chance that placed him upon anywhere near an equal
footing with his savage adversary, and that of the three factors
upon his side chance was the greatest.
She saw the man and the lion stop simultaneously, not more than
a yard apart. She saw the beast's tail whipping from side to side
and she could hear his deep-throated growls rumbling from his
cavernous breast, but she could read correctly neither the movement
of the lashing tail nor the notes of the growl.
To her they seemed to indicate nothing but bestial rage while to
Tarzan of the Apes they were conciliatory and reassuring in the
extreme. And then she saw Numa move forward again until his nose
touched the man's naked leg and she closed her eyes and covered
them with her palms. For what seemed an eternity she waited for
the horrid sound of the conflict which she knew must come, but all
she heard was an explosive sigh of relief from Smith-Oldwick and
a half-hysterical "By Jove! Just fancy it!"
She looked up to see the great lion rubbing his shaggy head against
the man's hip, and Tarzan's free hand entangled in the black mane
as he scratched Numa, the lion, behind a back-laid ear.
Strange friendships are often formed between the lower animals
of different species, but less often between man and the savage
felidae, because of the former's inherent fear of the great cats.
And so after all, therefore, the friendship so suddenly developed
between the savage lion and the savage man was not inexplicable.
As Tarzan approached the plane Numa walked at his side, and when
Tarzan stopped and looked up at the girl and the man Numa stopped
also.
"I had about given up hope of finding you," said the ape-man, "and
it is evident that I found you just in time."
"But how did you know we were in trouble?" asked the English officer.
"I saw your plane fall," replied Tarzan. "I was watching you from
a tree beside the clearing where you took off. I didn't have much
to locate you by other than the general direction, but it seems
that you volplaned a considerable distance toward the south after
you disappeared from my view behind the hills. I have been looking
for you further toward the north. I was just about to turn back
when I heard your pistol shot. Is your ship beyond repair?"
"Yes," replied Smith-Oldwick, "it is hopeless."
"What are your plans, then? What do you wish to do?" Tarzan directed
his question to the girl.
"We want to reach the coast," she said, "but it seems impossible
now."
"I should have thought so a little while ago," replied the ape-man,
"but if Numa is here there must be water within a reasonable
distance. I ran across this lion two days ago in the Wamabo country.
I liberated him from one of their pits. To have reached this spot
he must have come by some trail unknown to me--at least I crossed
no game trail and no spoor of any animal after I came over the hills
out of the fertile country. From which direction did he come upon
you?"
"It was from the south," replied the girl. "We thought, too, that
there must be water in that direction."
"Let's find out then," said Tarzan.
"But how about the lion?" asked Smith-Oldwick.
"That we will have to discover," replied the ape-man, "and we can
only do so if you will come down from your perch."
The officer shrugged his shoulders. The girl turned her gaze upon
him to note the effect of Tarzan's proposal. The Englishman grew
suddenly very white, but there was a smile upon his lips as without
a word he slipped over the edge of the plane and clambered to the
ground behind Tarzan.
Bertha Kircher realized that the man was afraid nor did she blame
him, and she also realized the remarkable courage that he had shown
in thus facing a danger that was very real to him.
Numa standing close to Tarzan's side raised his head and glared at
the young Englishman, growled once, and looked up at the ape-man.
Tarzan retained a hold upon the beast's mane and spoke to him in
the language of the great apes. To the girl and Smith-Oldwick the
growling gutturals falling from human lips sounded uncanny in the
extreme, but whether Numa understood them or not they appeared to
have the desired effect upon him, as he ceased growling, and as
Tarzan walked to Smith-Oldwick's side Numa accompanied him, nor
did he offer to molest the officer.
"What did you say to him?" asked the girl.
Tarzan smiled. "I told him," he replied, "that I am Tarzan of the
Apes, mighty hunter, killer of beasts, lord of the jungle, and that
you are my friends. I have never been sure that all of the other
beasts understand the language of the Mangani. I know that Manu,
the monkey, speaks nearly the same tongue and I am sure that Tantor,
the elephant, understands all that I say to him. We of the jungle
are great boasters. In our speech, in our carriage, in every detail
of our demeanor we must impress others with our physical power and
our ferocity. That is why we growl at our enemies. We are telling
them to beware or we shall fall upon them and tear them to pieces.
Perhaps Numa does not understand the words that I use but I believe
that my tones and my manner carry the impression that I wish them
to convey. Now you may come down and be introduced."
It required all the courage that Bertha Kircher possessed to lower
herself to the ground within reach of the talons and fangs of this
untamed forest beast, but she did it. Nor did Numa do more than
bare his teeth and growl a little as she came close to the ape-man.
"I think you are safe from him as long as I am present," said the
ape-man. "The best thing to do is simply to ignore him. Make no
advances, but be sure to give no indication of fear and, if possible
always keep me between you and him. He will go away presently I am
sure and the chances are that we shall not see him again."
At Tarzan's suggestion Smith-Oldwick removed the remaining water
and provisions from the plane and, distributing the burden among
them, they set off toward the south. Numa did not follow them, but
stood by the plane watching until they finally disappeared from
view around a bend in the gorge.
Tarzan had picked up Numa's trail with the intention of following
it southward in the belief that it would lead to water. In the sand
that floored the bottom of the gorge tracks were plain and easily
followed. At first only the fresh tracks of Numa were visible, but
later in the day the ape-man discovered the older tracks of other
lions and just before dark he stopped suddenly in evident surprise.
His two companions looked at him questioningly, and in answer to
their implied interrogations he pointed at the ground directly in
front of him.
"Look at those," he exclaimed.
At first neither Smith-Oldwick nor the girl saw anything but a
confusion of intermingled prints of padded feet in the sand, but
presently the girl discovered what Tarzan had seen, and an exclamation
of surprise broke from her lips.
"The imprint of human feet!" she cried.
Tarzan nodded.
"But there are no toes," the girl pointed out.
"The feet were shod with a soft sandal," explained Tarzan.
"Then there must be a native village somewhere in the vicinity,"
said Smith-Oldwick.
"Yes," replied the ape-man, "but not the sort of natives which we
would expect to find here in this part of Africa where others all
go unshod with the exception of a few of Usanga's renegade German
native troops who wear German army shoes. I don't know that you can
notice it, but it is evident to me that the foot inside the sandal
that made these imprints were not the foot of a Negro. If you will
examine them carefully you will notice that the impression of the
heel and ball of the foot are well marked even through the sole of
the sandal. The weight comes more nearly in the center of a Negro's
footprint."
"Then you think these were made by a white person?"
"It looks that way," replied Tarzan, and suddenly, to the surprise
of both the girl and Smith-Oldwick, he dropped to his hands and
knees and sniffed at the tracks--again a beast utilizing the senses
and woodcraft of a beast. Over an area of several square yards his
keen nostrils sought the identity of the makers of the tracks. At
length he rose to his feet.
"It is not the spoor of the Gomangani," he said, "nor is it exactly
like that of white men. There were three who came this way. They
were men, but of what race I do not know."
There was no apparent change in the nature of the gorge except that
it had steadily grown deeper as they followed it downward until now
the rocky and precipitous sides rose far above them. At different
points natural caves, which appeared to have been eroded by the action
of water in some forgotten age, pitted the side walls at various
heights. Near them was such a cavity at the ground's level--an
arched cavern floored with white sand. Tarzan indicated it with a
gesture of his hand.
"We will lair here tonight," he said, and then with one of his
rare, slow smiles: "We will CAMP here tonight."
Having eaten their meager supper Tarzan bade the girl enter the
cavern.
"You will sleep inside," he said. "The lieutenant and I will lie
outside at the entrance."