The Flight from Xuja
As Metak bore Bertha Kircher toward the edge of the pool, the girl
at first had no conception of the deed he contemplated but when, as
they approached the edge, he did not lessen his speed she guessed
the frightful truth. As he leaped head foremost with her into the
water, she closed her eyes and breathed a silent prayer, for she
was confident that the maniac had no other purpose than to drown
himself and her. And yet, so potent is the first law of nature that
even in the face of certain death, as she surely believed herself,
she clung tenaciously to life, and while she struggled to free
herself from the powerful clutches of the madman, she held her
breath against the final moment when the asphyxiating waters must
inevitably flood her lungs.
Through the frightful ordeal she maintained absolute control of
her senses so that, after the first plunge, she was aware that the
man was swimming with her beneath the surface. He took perhaps not
more than a dozen strokes directly toward the end wall of the pool
and then he arose; and once again she knew that her head was above
the surface. She opened her eyes to see that they were in a corridor
dimly lighted by gratings set in its roof--a winding corridor,
water filled from wall to wall.
Along this the man was swimming with easy powerful strokes, at the
same time holding her chin above the water. For ten minutes he swam
thus without stopping and the girl heard him speak to her, though
she could not understand what he said, as he evidently immediately
realized, for, half floating, he shifted his hold upon her so that
he could touch her nose and mouth with the fingers of one hand. She
grasped what he meant and immediately took a deep breath, whereat
he dove quickly beneath the surface pulling her down with him and
again for a dozen strokes or more he swam thus wholly submerged.
When they again came to the surface, Bertha Kircher saw that they
were in a large lagoon and that the bright stars were shining high
above them, while on either hand domed and minareted buildings were
silhouetted sharply against the starlit sky. Metak swam swiftly to
the north side of the lagoon where, by means of a ladder, the two
climbed out upon the embankment. There were others in the plaza
but they paid but little if any attention to the two bedraggled
figures. As Metak walked quickly across the pavement with the girl
at his side, Bertha Kircher could only guess at the man's intentions.
She could see no way in which to escape and so she went docilely
with him, hoping against hope that some fortuitous circumstance
might eventually arise that would give her the coveted chance for
freedom and life.
Metak led her toward a building which, as she entered, she recognized
as the same to which she and Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick had been led
when they were brought into the city. There was no man sitting
behind the carved desk now, but about the room were a dozen or more
warriors in the tunics of the house to which they were attached, in
this case white with a small lion in the form of a crest or badge
upon the breast and back of each.
As Metak entered and the men recognized him they arose, and in answer
to a query he put, they pointed to an arched doorway at the rear
of the room. Toward this Metak led the girl, and then, as though
filled with a sudden suspicion, his eyes narrowed cunningly and
turning toward the soldiery he issued an order which resulted in
their all preceding him through the small doorway and up a flight
of stairs a short distance beyond.
The stairway and the corridor above were lighted by small flares
which revealed several doors in the walls of the upper passageway.
To one of these the men led the prince. Bertha Kircher saw them
knock upon the door and heard a voice reply faintly through the
thick door to the summons. The effect upon those about her was
electrical. Instantly excitement reigned, and in response to orders
from the king's son the soldiers commenced to beat heavily upon the
door, to throw their bodies against it and to attempt to hew away
the panels with their sabers. The girl wondered at the cause of
the evident excitement of her captors.
She saw the door giving to each renewed assault, but what she did
not see just before it crashed inward was the figures of the two
men who alone, in all the world, might have saved her, pass between
the heavy hangings in an adjoining alcove and disappear into a dark
corridor.
As the door gave and the warriors rushed into the apartment followed
by the prince, the latter became immediately filled with baffled
rage, for the rooms were deserted except for the dead body of the
owner of the palace, and the still form of the black slave, Otobu,
where they lay stretched upon the floor of the alcove.
The prince rushed to the windows and looked out, but as the suite
overlooked the barred den of lions from which, the prince thought,
there could be no escape, his puzzlement was only increased. Though
he searched about the room for some clue to the whereabouts of its
former occupants he did not discover the niche behind the hangings.
With the fickleness of insanity he quickly tired of the search,
and, turning to the soldiers who had accompanied him from the floor
below, dismissed them.
After setting up the broken door as best they could, the men left
the apartment and when they were again alone Metak turned toward
the girl. As he approached her, his face distorted by a hideous
leer, his features worked rapidly in spasmodic twitches. The girl,
who was standing at the entrance of the alcove, shrank back, her
horror reflected in her face. Step by step she backed across the
room, while the crouching maniac crept stealthily after her with
claw-like fingers poised in anticipation of the moment they should
leap forth and seize her.
As she passed the body of the Negro, her foot touched some obstacle
at her side, and glancing down she saw the spear with which Otobu
had been supposed to hold the prisoners. Instantly she leaned forward
and snatched it from the floor with its sharp point directed at
the body of the madman. The effect upon Metak was electrical. From
stealthy silence he broke into harsh peals of laughter, and drawing
his saber danced to and fro before the girl, but whichever way he
went the point of the spear still threatened him.
Gradually the girl noticed a change in the tone of the creature's
screams that was also reflected in the changing expression upon his
hideous countenance. His hysterical laughter was slowly changing
into cries of rage while the silly leer upon his face was supplanted
by a ferocious scowl and up-curled lips, which revealed the sharpened
fangs beneath.
He now ran rapidly in almost to the spear's point, only to jump
away, run a few steps to one side and again attempt to make an
entrance, the while he slashed and hewed at the spear with such
violence that it was with difficulty the girl maintained her guard,
and all the time was forced to give ground step by step. She had
reached the point where she was standing squarely against the couch
at the side of the room when, with an incredibly swift movement,
Metak stooped and grasping a low stool hurled it directly at her
head.
She raised the spear to fend off the heavy missile, but she was
not entirely successful, and the impact of the blow carried her
backward upon the couch, and instantly Metak was upon her.
Tarzan and Smith-Oldwick gave little thought as to what had become
of the other two occupants of the room. They were gone, and so far
as these two were concerned they might never return. Tarzan's one
desire was to reach the street again, where, now that both of them
were in some sort of disguise, they should be able to proceed with
comparative safety to the palace and continue their search for the
girl.
Smith-Oldwick preceded Tarzan along the corridor and as they reached
the ladder he climbed aloft to remove the trap. He worked for a
moment and then, turning, addressed Tarzan.
"Did we replace the cover on this trap when we came down? I don't
recall that we did."
"No," said Tarzan, "it was left open."
"So I thought," said Smith-Oldwick, "but it's closed now and locked.
I cannot move it. Possibly you can," and he descended the ladder.
Even Tarzan's immense strength, however, had no effect other than
to break one of the rungs of the ladder against which he was pushing,
nearly precipitating him to the floor below. After the rung broke
he rested for a moment before renewing his efforts, and as he stood
with his head near the cover of the trap, he distinctly heard voices
on the roof above him.
Dropping down to Oldwick's side he told him what he had heard. "We
had better find some other way out," he said, and the two started
to retrace their steps toward the alcove. Tarzan was again in the
lead, and as he opened the door in the back of the niche, he was
suddenly startled to hear, in tones of terror and in a woman's
voice, the words: "O God, be merciful" from just beyond the hangings.
Here was no time for cautious investigation and, not even waiting
to find the aperture and part the hangings, but with one sweep of
a brawny hand dragging them from their support, the ape-man leaped
from the niche into the alcove.
At the sound of his entry the maniac looked up, and as he saw at
first only a man in the uniform of his father's soldiers, he shrieked
forth an angry order, but at the second glance, which revealed the
face of the newcomer, the madman leaped from the prostrate form
of his victim and, apparently forgetful of the saber which he had
dropped upon the floor beside the couch as he leaped to grapple
with the girl, closed with bare hands upon his antagonist, his
sharp-filed teeth searching for the other's throat.
Metak, the son of Herog, was no weakling. Powerful by nature and
rendered still more so in the throes of one of his maniacal fits
of fury he was no mean antagonist, even for the mighty ape-man,
and to this a distinct advantage for him was added by the fact that
almost at the outset of their battle Tarzan, in stepping backward,
struck his heel against the corpse of the man whom Smith-Oldwick
had killed, and fell heavily backward to the floor with Metak upon
his breast.
With the quickness of a cat the maniac made an attempt to fasten
his teeth in Tarzan's jugular, but a quick movement of the latter
resulted in his finding a hold only upon the Tarmangani's shoulder.
Here he clung while his fingers sought Tarzan's throat, and it was
then that the ape-man, realizing the possibility of defeat, called
to Smith-Oldwick to take the girl and seek to escape.
The Englishman looked questioningly at Bertha Kircher, who had now
risen from the couch, shaking and trembling. She saw the question
in his eyes and with an effort she drew herself to her full height.
"No," she cried, "if he dies here I shall die with him. Go if you
wish to. You can do nothing here, but I--I cannot go."
Tarzan had now regained his feet, but the maniac still clung to
him tenaciously. The girl turned suddenly to Smith-Oldwick. "Your
pistol!" she cried. "Why don't you shoot him?"
The man drew the weapon from his pocket and approached the two
antagonists, but by this time they were moving so rapidly that there
was no opportunity for shooting one without the danger of hitting
the other. At the same time Bertha Kircher circled about them with
the prince's saber, but neither could she find an opening. Again
and again the two men fell to the floor, until presently Tarzan
found a hold upon the other's throat, against which contingency
Metak had been constantly battling, and slowly, as the giant fingers
closed, the other's mad eyes protruded from his livid face, his jaws
gaped and released their hold upon Tarzan's shoulder, and then in
a sudden excess of disgust and rage the ape-man lifted the body
of the prince high above his head and with all the strength of his
great arms hurled it across the room and through the window where
it fell with a sickening thud into the pit of lions beneath.
As Tarzan turned again toward his companions, the girl was standing
with the saber still in her hand and an expression upon her face
that he never had seen there before. Her eyes were wide and misty
with unshed tears, while her sensitive lips trembled as though she
were upon the point of giving way to some pent emotion which her
rapidly rising and falling bosom plainly indicated she was fighting
to control.
"If we are going to get out of here," said the ape-man, "we can't
lose any time. We are together at last and nothing can be gained by
delay. The question now is the safest way. The couple who escaped
us evidently departed through the passageway to the roof and secured
the trap against us so that we are cut off in that direction. What
chance have we below? You came that way," and he turned toward
the girl.
"At the foot of the stairs," she said, "is a room full of armed
men. I doubt if we could pass that way."
It was then that Otobu raised himself to a sitting posture. "So
you are not dead after all," exclaimed the ape-man. "Come, how
badly are you hurt?"
The Negro rose gingerly to his feet, moved his arms and legs and
felt of his head.
"Otobu does not seem to be hurt at all, Bwana," he replied, "only
for a great ache in his head."
"Good," said the ape-man. "You want to return to the Wamabo country?"
"Yes, Bwana."
"Then lead us from the city by the safest way."
"There is no safe way," replied the black, "and even if we reach
the gates we shall have to fight. I can lead you from this building
to a side street with little danger of meeting anyone on the way.
Beyond that we must take our chance of discovery. You are all
dressed as are the people of this wicked city so perhaps we may
pass unnoticed, but at the gate it will be a different matter, for
none is permitted to leave the city at night."
"Very well," replied the ape-man, "let us be on our way."
Otobu led them through the broken door of the outer room, and part
way down the corridor he turned into another apartment at the right.
This they crossed to a passageway beyond, and, finally, traversing
several rooms and corridors, he led them down a flight of steps
to a door which opened directly upon a side street in rear of the
palace.
Two men, a woman, and a black slave were not so extraordinary
a sight upon the streets of the city as to arouse comment. When
passing beneath the flares the three Europeans were careful to
choose a moment when no chance pedestrian might happen to get a view
of their features, but in the shadow of the arcades there seemed
little danger of detection. They had covered a good portion of the
distance to the gate without mishap when there came to their ears
from the central portion of the city sounds of a great commotion.
"What does that mean?" Tarzan asked of Otobu, who was now trembling
violently.
"Master," he replied, "they have discovered that which has happened
in the palace of Veza, mayor of the city. His son and the girl
escaped and summoned soldiers who have now doubtless discovered
the body of Veza."
"I wonder," said Tarzan, "if they have discovered the party I threw
through the window."
Bertha Kircher, who understood enough of the dialect to follow their
conversation, asked Tarzan if he knew that the man he had thrown
from the window was the king's son. The ape-man laughed. "No," he
said, "I did not. That rather complicates matters--at least if they
have found him."
Suddenly there broke above the turmoil behind them the clear strains
of a bugle. Otobu increased his pace. "Hurry, Master," he cried,
"it is worse than I had thought."
"What do you mean?" asked Tarzan.
"For some reason the king's guard and the king's lions are being
called out. I fear, O Bwana, that we cannot escape them. But why
they should be called out for us I do not know."
But if Otobu did not know, Tarzan at least guessed that they had
found the body of the king's son. Once again the notes of the bugle
rose high and clear upon the night air. "Calling more lions?" asked
Tarzan.
"No, Master," replied Otobu. "It is the parrots they are calling."
They moved on rapidly in silence for a few minutes when their
attention was attracted by the flapping of the wings of a bird
above them. They looked up to discover a parrot circling about over
their heads.
"Here are the parrots, Otobu," said Tarzan with a grin. "Do they
expect to kill us with parrots?"
The Negro moaned as the bird darted suddenly ahead of them toward
the city wall. "Now indeed are we lost, Master," cried the black.
"The bird that found us has flown to the gate to warn the guard."
"Come, Otobu, what are you talking about?" exclaimed Tarzan irritably.
"Have you lived among these lunatics so long that you are yourself
mad?"
"No, Master," replied Otobu. "I am not mad. You do not know them.
These terrible birds are like human beings without hearts or souls.
They speak the language of the people of this city of Xuja. They
are demons, Master, and when in sufficient numbers they might even
attack and kill us."
"How far are we from the gate?" asked Tarzan.
"We are not very far," replied the Negro. "Beyond this next turn
we will see it a few paces ahead of us. But the bird has reached
it before us and by now they are summoning the guard," the truth
of which statement was almost immediately indicated by sounds of
many voices raised evidently in commands just ahead of them, while
from behind came increased evidence of approaching pursuit--loud
screams and the roars of lions.
A few steps ahead a narrow alley opened from the east into the
thoroughfare they were following and as they approached it there
emerged from its dark shadows the figure of a mighty lion. Otobu
halted in his tracks and shrank back against Tarzan. "Look, Master,"
he whimpered, "a great black lion of the forest!"
Tarzan drew the saber which still hung at his side. "We cannot go
back," he said. "Lions, parrots, or men, it must be all the same,"
and he moved steadily forward in the direction of the gate. What
wind was stirring in the city street moved from Tarzan toward the
lion and when the ape-man had approached to within a few yards
of the beast, who had stood silently eyeing them up to this time,
instead of the expected roar, a whine broke from the beast's throat.
The ape-man was conscious of a very decided feeling of relief. "It's
Numa of the pit," he called back to his companions, and to Otobu,
"Do not fear, this lion will not harm us."
Numa moved forward to the ape-man's side and then turning, paced
beside him along the narrow street. At the next turn they came in
sight of the gate, where, beneath several flares, they saw a group
of at least twenty warriors prepared to seize them, while from the
opposite direction the roars of the pursuing lions sounded close
upon them, mingling with the screams of numerous parrots which now
circled about their heads. Tarzan halted and turned to the young
aviator. "How many rounds of ammunition have you left?" he asked.
"I have seven in the pistol," replied Smith-Oldwick, "and perhaps
a dozen more cartridges in my blouse pocket."
"I'm going to rush them," said Tarzan. "Otobu, you stay at the side
of the woman. Oldwick, you and I will go ahead, you upon my left.
I think we need not try to tell Numa what to do," for even then
the great lion was baring his fangs and growling ferociously at the
guardsmen, who appeared uneasy in the face of this creature which,
above all others, they feared.
"As we advance, Oldwick," said the ape-man, "fire one shot. It
may frighten them, and after that fire only when necessary. All
ready? Let's go!" and he moved forward toward the gate. At the
same time, Smith-Oldwick discharged his weapon and a yellow-coated
warrior screamed and crumpled forward upon his face. For a minute
the others showed symptoms of panic but one, who seemed to be an
officer, rallied them. "Now," said Tarzan, "all together!" and he
started at a run for the gate. Simultaneously the lion, evidently
scenting the purpose of the Tarmangani, broke into a full charge
toward the guard.
Shaken by the report of the unfamiliar weapon, the ranks of the
guardsmen broke before the furious assault of the great beast.
The officer screamed forth a volley of commands in a mad fury of
uncontrolled rage but the guardsmen, obeying the first law of nature
as well as actuated by their inherent fear of the black denizen of
the forest scattered to right and left to elude the monster. With
ferocious growls Numa wheeled to the right, and with raking talons
struck right and left among a little handful of terrified guardsmen
who were endeavoring to elude him, and then Tarzan and Smith-Oldwick
closed with the others.
For a moment their most formidable antagonist was the officer in
command. He wielded his curved saber as only an adept might as he
faced Tarzan, to whom the similar weapon in his own hand was most
unfamiliar. Smith-Oldwick could not fire for fear of hitting the
ape-man when suddenly to his dismay he saw Tarzan's weapon fly from
his grasp as the Xujan warrior neatly disarmed his opponent. With
a scream the fellow raised his saber for the final cut that would
terminate the earthly career of Tarzan of the Apes when, to the
astonishment of both the ape-man and Smith-Oldwick, the fellow
stiffened rigidly, his weapon dropped from the nerveless fingers
of his upraised hand, his mad eyes rolled upward and foam flecked
his bared lip. Gasping as though in the throes of strangulation
the fellow pitched forward at Tarzan's feet.
Tarzan stooped and picked up the dead man's weapon, a smile upon
his face as he turned and glanced toward the young Englishman.
"The fellow is an epileptic," said Smith-Oldwick. "I suppose
many of them are. Their nervous condition is not without its good
points--a normal man would have gotten you."
The other guardsmen seemed utterly demoralized at the loss of their
leader. They were huddled upon the opposite side of the street at
the left of the gate, screaming at the tops of their voices and
looking in the direction from which sounds of reinforcements were
coming, as though urging on the men and lions that were already too
close for the comfort of the fugitives. Six guardsmen still stood
with their backs against the gate, their weapons flashing in the
light of the flares and their parchment-like faces distorted in
horrid grimaces of rage and terror.
Numa had pursued two fleeing warriors down the street which paralleled
the wall for a short distance at this point. The ape-man turned to
Smith-Oldwick. "You will have to use your pistol now," he said, "and
we must get by these fellows at once;" and as the young Englishman
fired, Tarzan rushed in to close quarters as though he had not
already discovered that with the saber he was no match for these
trained swordsmen. Two men fell to Smith-Oldwick's first two shots
and then he missed, while the four remaining divided, two leaping
for the aviator and two for Tarzan.
The ape-man rushed in in an effort to close with one of his
antagonists where the other's saber would be comparatively useless.
Smith-Oldwick dropped one of his assailants with a bullet through
the chest and pulled his trigger on the second, only to have the
hammer fall futilely upon an empty chamber. The cartridges in his
weapon were exhausted and the warrior with his razor-edged, gleaming
saber was upon him.
Tarzan raised his own weapon but once and that to divert a vicious
cut for his head. Then he was upon one of his assailants and
before the fellow could regain his equilibrium and leap back after
delivering his cut, the ape-man had seized him by the neck and
crotch. Tarzan's other antagonist was edging around to one side
where he might use his weapon, and as he raised the blade to strike
at the back of the Tarmangani's neck, the latter swung the body of
his comrade upward so that it received the full force of the blow.
The blade sank deep into the body of the warrior, eliciting a single
frightful scream, and then Tarzan hurled the dying man in the face
of his final adversary.
Smith-Oldwick, hard pressed and now utterly defenseless, had given
up all hope in the instant that he realized his weapon was empty,
when, from his left, a living bolt of black-maned ferocity shot
past him to the breast of his opponent. Down went the Xujan, his
face bitten away by one snap of the powerful jaws of Numa of the
pit.
In the few seconds that had been required for the consummation
of these rapidly ensuing events, Otobu had dragged Bertha Kircher
to the gate which he had unbarred and thrown open, and with the
vanquishing of the last of the active guardsmen, the party passed
out of the maniac city of Xuja into the outer darkness beyond. At
the same moment a half dozen lions rounded the last turn in the
road leading back toward the plaza, and at sight of them Numa of
the pit wheeled and charged. For a moment the lions of the city
stood their ground, but only for a moment, and then before the
black beast was upon them, they turned and fled, while Tarzan and
his party moved rapidly toward the blackness of the forest beyond
the garden.
"Will they follow us out of the city?" Tarzan asked Otobu.
"Not at night," replied the black. "I have been a slave here for
five years but never have I known these people to leave the city
by night. If they go beyond the forest in the daytime they usually
wait until the dawn of another day before they return, as they fear
to pass through the country of the black lions after dark. No, I
think, Master, that they will not follow us tonight, but tomorrow
they will come, and, O Bwana, then will they surely get us, or
those that are left of us, for at least one among us must be the
toll of the black lions as we pass through their forest."
As they crossed the garden, Smith-Oldwick refilled the magazine
of his pistol and inserted a cartridge in the chamber. The girl
moved silently at Tarzan's left, between him and the aviator. Suddenly
the ape-man stopped and turned toward the city, his mighty frame,
clothed in the yellow tunic of Herog's soldiery, plainly visible
to the others beneath the light of the stars. They saw him raise
his head and they heard break from his lips the plaintive note of
a lion calling to his fellows. Smith-Oldwick felt a distinct shudder
pass through his frame, while Otobu, rolling the whites of his eyes
in terrified surprise, sank tremblingly to his knees. But the girl
thrilled and she felt her heart beat in a strange exultation, and
then she drew nearer to the beast-man until her shoulder touched his
arm. The act was involuntary and for a moment she scarce realized
what she had done, and then she stepped silently back, thankful
that the light of the stars was not sufficient to reveal to the
eyes of her companions the flush which she felt mantling her cheek.
Yet she was not ashamed of the impulse that had prompted her, but
rather of the act itself which she knew, had Tarzan noticed it,
would have been repulsive to him.
From the open gate of the city of maniacs came the answering cry
of a lion. The little group waited where they stood until presently
they saw the majestic proportions of the black lion as he approached
them along the trail. When he had rejoined them Tarzan fastened
the fingers of one hand in the black mane and started on once more
toward the forest. Behind them, from the city, rose a bedlam of
horrid sounds, the roaring of lions mingling with the raucous voices
of the screaming parrots and the mad shrieks of the maniacs. As
they entered the Stygian darkness of the forest the girl once again
involuntarily shrank closer to the ape-man, and this time Tarzan
was aware of the contact.
Himself without fear, he yet instinctively appreciated how terrified
the girl must be. Actuated by a sudden kindly impulse he found
her hand and took it in his own and thus they continued upon their
way, groping through the blackness of the trail. Twice they were
approached by forest lions, but upon both occasions the deep growls
of Numa of the pit drove off their assailants. Several times they
were compelled to rest, for Smith-Oldwick was constantly upon the
verge of exhaustion, and toward morning Tarzan was forced to carry
him on the steep ascent from the bed of the valley.