11
Tarzan Becomes a Beast Again
For a moment Werper had stood above the sleeping ape-man, his
murderous knife poised for the fatal thrust; but fear stayed his
hand. What if the first blow should fail to drive the point to his
victim's heart? Werper shuddered in contemplation of the disastrous
consequences to himself. Awakened, and even with a few moments
of life remaining, the giant could literally tear his assailant
to pieces should he choose, and the Belgian had no doubt but that
Tarzan would so choose.
Again came the soft sound of padded footsteps in the reeds--closer
this time. Werper abandoned his design. Before him stretched the
wide plain and escape. The jewels were in his possession. To
remain longer was to risk death at the hands of Tarzan, or the
jaws of the hunter creeping ever nearer. Turning, he slunk away
through the night, toward the distant forest.
Tarzan slept on. Where were those uncanny, guardian powers that had
formerly rendered him immune from the dangers of surprise? Could
this dull sleeper be the alert, sensitive Tarzan of old?
Perhaps the blow upon his head had numbed his senses, temporarily--who
may say? Closer crept the stealthy creature through the reeds.
The rustling curtain of vegetation parted a few paces from where
the sleeper lay, and the massive head of a lion appeared. The beast
surveyed the ape-man intently for a moment, then he crouched, his
hind feet drawn well beneath him, his tail lashing from side to
side.
It was the beating of the beast's tail against the reeds which
awakened Tarzan. Jungle folk do not awaken slowly--instantly, full
consciousness and full command of their every faculty returns to
them from the depth of profound slumber.
Even as Tarzan opened his eyes he was upon his feet, his spear
grasped firmly in his hand and ready for attack. Again was he
Tarzan of the Apes, sentient, vigilant, ready.
No two lions have identical characteristics, nor does the same lion
invariably act similarly under like circumstances. Whether it was
surprise, fear or caution which prompted the lion crouching ready
to spring upon the man, is immaterial--the fact remains that he did
not carry out his original design, he did not spring at the man at
all, but, instead, wheeled and sprang back into the reeds as Tarzan
arose and confronted him.
The ape-man shrugged his broad shoulders and looked about for his
companion. Werper was nowhere to be seen. At first Tarzan suspected
that the man had been seized and dragged off by another lion, but
upon examination of the ground he soon discovered that the Belgian
had gone away alone out into the plain.
For a moment he was puzzled; but presently came to the conclusion
that Werper had been frightened by the approach of the lion,
and had sneaked off in terror. A sneer touched Tarzan's lips as
he pondered the man's act--the desertion of a comrade in time of
danger, and without warning. Well, if that was the sort of creature
Werper was, Tarzan wished nothing more of him. He had gone, and
for all the ape-man cared, he might remain away--Tarzan would not
search for him.
A hundred yards from where he stood grew a large tree, alone upon
the edge of the reedy jungle. Tarzan made his way to it, clambered
into it, and finding a comfortable crotch among its branches,
reposed himself for uninterrupted sleep until morning.
And when morning came Tarzan slept on long after the sun had
risen. His mind, reverted to the primitive, was untroubled by any
more serious obligations than those of providing sustenance, and
safeguarding his life. Therefore, there was nothing to awaken for
until danger threatened, or the pangs of hunger assailed. It was
the latter which eventually aroused him.
Opening his eyes, he stretched his giant thews, yawned, rose and
gazed about him through the leafy foliage of his retreat. Across
the wasted meadowlands and fields of John Clayton, Lord Greystoke,
Tarzan of the Apes looked, as a stranger, upon the moving figures
of Basuli and his braves as they prepared their morning meal and
made ready to set out upon the expedition which Basuli had planned
after discovering the havoc and disaster which had befallen the
estate of his dead master.
The ape-man eyed the blacks with curiosity. In the back of his
brain loitered a fleeting sense of familiarity with all that he
saw, yet he could not connect any of the various forms of life,
animate and inanimate, which had fallen within the range of his
vision since he had emerged from the darkness of the pits of Opar,
with any particular event of the past.
Hazily he recalled a grim and hideous form, hairy, ferocious. A
vague tenderness dominated his savage sentiments as this phantom
memory struggled for recognition. His mind had reverted to his
childhood days--it was the figure of the giant she-ape, Kala, that
he saw; but only half recognized. He saw, too, other grotesque,
manlike forms. They were of Terkoz, Tublat, Kerchak, and a smaller,
less ferocious figure, that was Neeta, the little playmate of his
boyhood.
Slowly, very slowly, as these visions of the past animated his
lethargic memory, he came to recognize them. They took definite
shape and form, adjusting themselves nicely to the various incidents
of his life with which they had been intimately connected. His
boyhood among the apes spread itself in a slow panorama before him,
and as it unfolded it induced within him a mighty longing for the
companionship of the shaggy, low-browed brutes of his past.
He watched the blacks scatter their cook fire and depart; but though
the face of each of them had but recently been as familiar to him
as his own, they awakened within him no recollections whatsoever.
When they had gone, he descended from the tree and sought food. Out
upon the plain grazed numerous herds of wild ruminants. Toward a
sleek, fat bunch of zebra he wormed his stealthy way. No intricate
process of reasoning caused him to circle widely until he was down
wind from his prey--he acted instinctively. He took advantage of
every form of cover as he crawled upon all fours and often flat
upon his stomach toward them.
A plump young mare and a fat stallion grazed nearest to him as he
neared the herd. Again it was instinct which selected the former
for his meat. A low bush grew but a few yards from the unsuspecting
two. The ape-man reached its shelter. He gathered his spear
firmly in his grasp. Cautiously he drew his feet beneath him. In
a single swift move he rose and cast his heavy weapon at the mare's
side. Nor did he wait to note the effect of his assault, but leaped
cat-like after his spear, his hunting knife in his hand.
For an instant the two animals stood motionless. The tearing of
the cruel barb into her side brought a sudden scream of pain and
fright from the mare, and then they both wheeled and broke for
safety; but Tarzan of the Apes, for a distance of a few yards,
could equal the speed of even these, and the first stride of the
mare found her overhauled, with a savage beast at her shoulder. She
turned, biting and kicking at her foe. Her mate hesitated for an
instant, as though about to rush to her assistance; but a backward
glance revealed to him the flying heels of the balance of the herd,
and with a snort and a shake of his head he wheeled and dashed
away.
Clinging with one hand to the short mane of his quarry, Tarzan
struck again and again with his knife at the unprotected heart.
The result had, from the first, been inevitable. The mare fought
bravely, but hopelessly, and presently sank to the earth, her heart
pierced. The ape-man placed a foot upon her carcass and raised his
voice in the victory call of the Mangani. In the distance, Basuli
halted as the faint notes of the hideous scream broke upon his
ears.
"The great apes," he said to his companion. "It has been long
since I have heard them in the country of the Waziri. What could
have brought them back?"
Tarzan grasped his kill and dragged it to the partial seclusion
of the bush which had hidden his own near approach, and there
he squatted upon it, cut a huge hunk of flesh from the loin and
proceeded to satisfy his hunger with the warm and dripping meat.
Attracted by the shrill screams of the mare, a pair of hyenas slunk
presently into view. They trotted to a point a few yards from the
gorging ape-man, and halted. Tarzan looked up, bared his fighting
fangs and growled. The hyenas returned the compliment, and withdrew
a couple of paces. They made no move to attack; but continued to
sit at a respectful distance until Tarzan had concluded his meal.
After the ape-man had cut a few strips from the carcass to carry
with him, he walked slowly off in the direction of the river to
quench his thirst. His way lay directly toward the hyenas, nor
did he alter his course because of them.
With all the lordly majesty of Numa, the lion, he strode straight
toward the growling beasts. For a moment they held their ground,
bristling and defiant; but only for a moment, and then slunk away
to one side while the indifferent ape-man passed them on his lordly
way. A moment later they were tearing at the remains of the zebra.
Back to the reeds went Tarzan, and through them toward the river.
A herd of buffalo, startled by his approach, rose ready to charge
or to fly. A great bull pawed the ground and bellowed as his bloodshot
eyes discovered the intruder; but the ape-man passed across their
front as though ignorant of their existence. The bull's bellowing
lessened to a low rumbling, he turned and scraped a horde of flies
from his side with his muzzle, cast a final glance at the ape-man
and resumed his feeding. His numerous family either followed his
example or stood gazing after Tarzan in mild-eyed curiosity, until
the opposite reeds swallowed him from view.
At the river, Tarzan drank his fill and bathed. During the heat
of the day he lay up under the shade of a tree near the ruins of
his burned barns. His eyes wandered out across the plain toward
the forest, and a longing for the pleasures of its mysterious
depths possessed his thoughts for a considerable time. With the
next sun he would cross the open and enter the forest! There was
no hurry--there lay before him an endless vista of tomorrows with
naught to fill them but the satisfying of the appetites and caprices
of the moment.
The ape-man's mind was untroubled by regret for the past, or
aspiration for the future. He could lie at full length along a
swaying branch, stretching his giant limbs, and luxuriating in the
blessed peace of utter thoughtlessness, without an apprehension
or a worry to sap his nervous energy and rob him of his peace of
mind. Recalling only dimly any other existence, the ape-man was
happy. Lord Greystoke had ceased to exist.
For several hours Tarzan lolled upon his swaying, leafy couch until
once again hunger and thirst suggested an excursion. Stretching
lazily he dropped to the ground and moved slowly toward the river.
The game trail down which he walked had become by ages of use a
deep, narrow trench, its walls topped on either side by impenetrable
thicket and dense-growing trees closely interwoven with thick-stemmed
creepers and lesser vines inextricably matted into two solid
ramparts of vegetation. Tarzan had almost reached the point where
the trail debouched upon the open river bottom when he saw a family
of lions approaching along the path from the direction of the river.
The ape-man counted seven--a male and two lionesses, full grown,
and four young lions as large and quite as formidable as their
parents. Tarzan halted, growling, and the lions paused, the great
male in the lead baring his fangs and rumbling forth a warning
roar. In his hand the ape-man held his heavy spear; but he had no
intention of pitting his puny weapon against seven lions; yet he
stood there growling and roaring and the lions did likewise. It was
purely an exhibition of jungle bluff. Each was trying to frighten
off the other. Neither wished to turn back and give way, nor did
either at first desire to precipitate an encounter. The lions were
fed sufficiently so as not to be goaded by pangs of hunger and as
for Tarzan he seldom ate the meat of the carnivores; but a point
of ethics was at stake and neither side wished to back down. So
they stood there facing one another, making all sorts of hideous
noises the while they hurled jungle invective back and forth. How
long this bloodless duel would have persisted it is difficult to
say, though eventually Tarzan would have been forced to yield to
superior numbers.
There came, however, an interruption which put an end to the deadlock
and it came from Tarzan's rear. He and the lions had been making
so much noise that neither could hear anything above their concerted
bedlam, and so it was that Tarzan did not hear the great bulk bearing
down upon him from behind until an instant before it was upon him,
and then he turned to see Buto, the rhinoceros, his little, pig
eyes blazing, charging madly toward him and already so close that
escape seemed impossible; yet so perfectly were mind and muscles
coordinated in this unspoiled, primitive man that almost simultaneously
with the sense perception of the threatened danger he wheeled and
hurled his spear at Buto's chest. It was a heavy spear shod with
iron, and behind it were the giant muscles of the ape-man, while
coming to meet it was the enormous weight of Buto and the momentum
of his rapid rush. All that happened in the instant that Tarzan
turned to meet the charge of the irascible rhinoceros might take
long to tell, and yet would have taxed the swiftest lens to record.
As his spear left his hand the ape-man was looking down upon the
mighty horn lowered to toss him, so close was Buto to him. The
spear entered the rhinoceros' neck at its junction with the left
shoulder and passed almost entirely through the beast's body, and
at the instant that he launched it, Tarzan leaped straight into
the air alighting upon Buto's back but escaping the mighty horn.
Then Buto espied the lions and bore madly down upon them while
Tarzan of the Apes leaped nimbly into the tangled creepers at one
side of the trail. The first lion met Buto's charge and was tossed
high over the back of the maddened brute, torn and dying, and then
the six remaining lions were upon the rhinoceros, rending and tearing
the while they were being gored or trampled. From the safety of
his perch Tarzan watched the royal battle with the keenest interest,
for the more intelligent of the jungle folk are interested in such
encounters. They are to them what the racetrack and the prize
ring, the theater and the movies are to us. They see them often;
but always they enjoy them for no two are precisely alike.
For a time it seemed to Tarzan that Buto, the rhinoceros, would
prove victor in the gory battle. Already had he accounted for four
of the seven lions and badly wounded the three remaining when in
a momentary lull in the encounter he sank limply to his knees and
rolled over upon his side. Tarzan's spear had done its work. It
was the man-made weapon which killed the great beast that might
easily have survived the assault of seven mighty lions, for Tarzan's
spear had pierced the great lungs, and Buto, with victory almost
in sight, succumbed to internal hemorrhage.
Then Tarzan came down from his sanctuary and as the wounded lions,
growling, dragged themselves away, the ape-man cut his spear from
the body of Buto, hacked off a steak and vanished into the jungle.
The episode was over. It had been all in the day's work--something
which you and I might talk about for a lifetime Tarzan dismissed
from his mind the moment that the scene passed from his sight.
