16
Tarzan Again Leads the Mangani
Achmet Zek with two of his followers had circled far to the south
to intercept the flight of his deserting lieutenant, Werper. Others
had spread out in various directions, so that a vast circle had
been formed by them during the night, and now they were beating in
toward the center.
Achmet and the two with him halted for a short rest just before
noon. They squatted beneath the trees upon the southern edge of
a clearing. The chief of the raiders was in ill humor. To have
been outwitted by an unbeliever was bad enough; but to have, at
the same time, lost the jewels upon which he had set his avaricious
heart was altogether too much--Allah must, indeed be angry with
his servant.
Well, he still had the woman. She would bring a fair price in the
north, and there was, too, the buried treasure beside the ruins of
the Englishman's house.
A slight noise in the jungle upon the opposite side of the clearing
brought Achmet Zek to immediate and alert attention. He gathered
his rifle in readiness for instant use, at the same time motioning
his followers to silence and concealment. Crouching behind the
bushes the three waited, their eyes fastened upon the far side of
the open space.
Presently the foliage parted and a woman's face appeared, glancing
fearfully from side to side. A moment later, evidently satisfied
that no immediate danger lurked before her, she stepped out into
the clearing in full view of the Arab.
Achmet Zek caught his breath with a muttered exclamation of
incredulity and an imprecation. The woman was the prisoner he had
thought safely guarded at his camp!
Apparently she was alone, but Achmet Zek waited that he might make
sure of it before seizing her. Slowly Jane Clayton started across
the clearing. Twice already since she had quitted the village
of the raiders had she barely escaped the fangs of carnivora, and
once she had almost stumbled into the path of one of the searchers.
Though she was almost despairing of ever reaching safety she still
was determined to fight on, until death or success terminated her
endeavors.
As the Arabs watched her from the safety of their concealment, and
Achmet Zek noted with satisfaction that she was walking directly
into his clutches, another pair of eyes looked down upon the entire
scene from the foliage of an adjacent tree.
Puzzled, troubled eyes they were, for all their gray and savage
glint, for their owner was struggling with an intangible suggestion
of the familiarity of the face and figure of the woman below him.
A sudden crashing of the bushes at the point from which Jane
Clayton had emerged into the clearing brought her to a sudden stop
and attracted the attention of the Arabs and the watcher in the
tree to the same point.
The woman wheeled about to see what new danger menaced her from
behind, and as she did so a great, anthropoid ape waddled into
view. Behind him came another and another; but Lady Greystoke did
not wait to learn how many more of the hideous creatures were so
close upon her trail.
With a smothered scream she rushed toward the opposite jungle, and
as she reached the bushes there, Achmet Zek and his two henchmen
rose up and seized her. At the same instant a naked, brown giant
dropped from the branches of a tree at the right of the clearing.
Turning toward the astonished apes he gave voice to a short volley
of low gutturals, and without waiting to note the effect of his
words upon them, wheeled and charged for the Arabs.
Achmet Zek was dragging Jane Clayton toward his tethered horse.
His two men were hastily unfastening all three mounts. The woman,
struggling to escape the Arab, turned and saw the ape-man running
toward her. A glad light of hope illuminated her face.
"John!" she cried. "Thank God that you have come in time."
Behind Tarzan came the great apes, wondering, but obedient to his
summons. The Arabs saw that they would not have time to mount and
make their escape before the beasts and the man were upon them.
Achmet Zek recognized the latter as the redoubtable enemy of such
as he, and he saw, too, in the circumstance an opportunity to rid
himself forever of the menace of the ape-man's presence.
Calling to his men to follow his example he raised his rifle and
leveled it upon the charging giant. His followers, acting with no
less alacrity than himself, fired almost simultaneously, and with
the reports of the rifles, Tarzan of the Apes and two of his hairy
henchmen pitched forward among the jungle grasses.
The noise of the rifle shots brought the balance of the apes to a
wondering pause, and, taking advantage of their momentary distraction,
Achmet Zek and his fellows leaped to their horses' backs and galloped
away with the now hopeless and grief-stricken woman.
Back to the village they rode, and once again Lady Greystoke found
herself incarcerated in the filthy, little hut from which she had
thought to have escaped for good. But this time she was not only
guarded by an additional sentry, but bound as well.
Singly and in twos the searchers who had ridden out with Achmet
Zek upon the trail of the Belgian, returned empty handed. With
the report of each the raider's rage and chagrin increased, until
he was in such a transport of ferocious anger that none dared approach
him. Threatening and cursing, Achmet Zek paced up and down the
floor of his silken tent; but his temper served him naught--Werper
was gone and with him the fortune in scintillating gems which had
aroused the cupidity of his chief and placed the sentence of death
upon the head of the lieutenant.
With the escape of the Arabs the great apes had turned their
attention to their fallen comrades. One was dead, but another and
the great white ape still breathed. The hairy monsters gathered
about these two, grumbling and muttering after the fashion of their
kind.
Tarzan was the first to regain consciousness. Sitting up, he looked
about him. Blood was flowing from a wound in his shoulder. The
shock had thrown him down and dazed him; but he was far from dead.
Rising slowly to his feet he let his eyes wander toward the spot
where last he had seen the she, who had aroused within his savage
breast such strange emotions.
"Where is she?" he asked.
"The Tarmangani took her away," replied one of the apes. "Who are
you who speak the language of the Mangani?"
"I am Tarzan," replied the ape-man; "mighty hunter, greatest
of fighters. When I roar, the jungle is silent and trembles with
terror. I am Tarzan of the Apes. I have been away; but now I have
come back to my people."
"Yes," spoke up an old ape, "he is Tarzan. I know him. It is well
that he has come back. Now we shall have good hunting."
The other apes came closer and sniffed at the ape-man. Tarzan
stood very still, his fangs half bared, and his muscles tense and
ready for action; but there was none there to question his right
to be with them, and presently, the inspection satisfactorily
concluded, the apes again returned their attention to the other
survivor.
He too was but slightly wounded, a bullet, grazing his skull,
having stunned him, so that when he regained consciousness he was
apparently as fit as ever.
The apes told Tarzan that they had been traveling toward the east
when the scent spoor of the she had attracted them and they had
stalked her. Now they wished to continue upon their interrupted
march; but Tarzan preferred to follow the Arabs and take the woman
from them. After a considerable argument it was decided that they
should first hunt toward the east for a few days and then return
and search for the Arabs, and as time is of little moment to the
ape folk, Tarzan acceded to their demands, he, himself, having
reverted to a mental state but little superior to their own.
Another circumstance which decided him to postpone pursuit of the
Arabs was the painfulness of his wound. It would be better to
wait until that had healed before he pitted himself again against
the guns of the Tarmangani.
And so, as Jane Clayton was pushed into her prison hut and her hands
and feet securely bound, her natural protector roamed off toward
the east in company with a score of hairy monsters, with whom he
rubbed shoulders as familiarly as a few months before he had mingled
with his immaculate fellow-members of one of London's most select
and exclusive clubs.
But all the time there lurked in the back of his injured brain a
troublesome conviction that he had no business where he was--that
he should be, for some unaccountable reason, elsewhere and among
another sort of creature. Also, there was the compelling urge to
be upon the scent of the Arabs, undertaking the rescue of the woman
who had appealed so strongly to his savage sentiments; though the
thought-word which naturally occurred to him in the contemplation
of the venture, was "capture," rather than "rescue."
To him she was as any other jungle she, and he had set his heart
upon her as his mate. For an instant, as he had approached closer
to her in the clearing where the Arabs had seized her, the subtle
aroma which had first aroused his desires in the hut that had
imprisoned her had fallen upon his nostrils, and told him that
he had found the creature for whom he had developed so sudden and
inexplicable a passion.
The matter of the pouch of jewels also occupied his thoughts to
some extent, so that he found a double urge for his return to the
camp of the raiders. He would obtain possession of both his pretty
pebbles and the she. Then he would return to the great apes with
his new mate and his baubles, and leading his hairy companions into
a far wilderness beyond the ken of man, live out his life, hunting
and battling among the lower orders after the only manner which he
now recollected.
He spoke to his fellow-apes upon the matter, in an attempt to
persuade them to accompany him; but all except Taglat and Chulk
refused. The latter was young and strong, endowed with a greater
intelligence than his fellows, and therefore the possessor of better
developed powers of imagination. To him the expedition savored
of adventure, and so appealed, strongly. With Taglat there was
another incentive--a secret and sinister incentive, which, had
Tarzan of the Apes had knowledge of it, would have sent him at the
other's throat in jealous rage.
Taglat was no longer young; but he was still a formidable beast,
mightily muscled, cruel, and, because of his greater experience,
crafty and cunning. Too, he was of giant proportions, the very
weight of his huge bulk serving ofttimes to discount in his favor
the superior agility of a younger antagonist.
He was of a morose and sullen disposition that marked him even
among his frowning fellows, where such characteristics are the rule
rather than the exception, and, though Tarzan did not guess it,
he hated the ape-man with a ferocity that he was able to hide only
because the dominant spirit of the nobler creature had inspired
within him a species of dread which was as powerful as it was
inexplicable to him.
These two, then, were to be Tarzan's companions upon his return
to the village of Achmet Zek. As they set off, the balance of the
tribe vouchsafed them but a parting stare, and then resumed the
serious business of feeding.
Tarzan found difficulty in keeping the minds of his fellows set
upon the purpose of their adventure, for the mind of an ape lacks
the power of long-sustained concentration. To set out upon a long
journey, with a definite destination in view, is one thing, to
remember that purpose and keep it uppermost in one's mind continually
is quite another. There are so many things to distract one's
attention along the way.
Chulk was, at first, for rushing rapidly ahead as though the
village of the raiders lay but an hour's march before them instead
of several days; but within a few minutes a fallen tree attracted
his attention with its suggestion of rich and succulent forage
beneath, and when Tarzan, missing him, returned in search, he found
Chulk squatting beside the rotting bole, from beneath which he was
assiduously engaged in digging out the grubs and beetles, whose
kind form a considerable proportion of the diet of the apes.
Unless Tarzan desired to fight there was nothing to do but wait
until Chulk had exhausted the storehouse, and this he did, only to
discover that Taglat was now missing. After a considerable search,
he found that worthy gentleman contemplating the sufferings of
an injured rodent he had pounced upon. He would sit in apparent
indifference, gazing in another direction, while the crippled
creature, wriggled slowly and painfully away from him, and then,
just as his victim felt assured of escape, he would reach out a
giant palm and slam it down upon the fugitive. Again and again he
repeated this operation, until, tiring of the sport, he ended the
sufferings of his plaything by devouring it.
Such were the exasperating causes of delay which retarded Tarzan's
return journey toward the village of Achmet Zek; but the ape-man
was patient, for in his mind was a plan which necessitated the
presence of Chulk and Taglat when he should have arrived at his
destination.
It was not always an easy thing to maintain in the vacillating minds
of the anthropoids a sustained interest in their venture. Chulk
was wearying of the continued marching and the infrequency and
short duration of the rests. He would gladly have abandoned this
search for adventure had not Tarzan continually filled his mind
with alluring pictures of the great stores of food which were to
be found in the village of Tarmangani.
Taglat nursed his secret purpose to better advantage than might
have been expected of an ape, yet there were times when he, too,
would have abandoned the adventure had not Tarzan cajoled him on.
It was mid-afternoon of a sultry, tropical day when the keen
senses of the three warned them of the proximity of the Arab camp.
Stealthily they approached, keeping to the dense tangle of growing
things which made concealment easy to their uncanny jungle craft.
First came the giant ape-man, his smooth, brown skin glistening
with the sweat of exertion in the close, hot confines of the jungle.
Behind him crept Chulk and Taglat, grotesque and shaggy caricatures
of their godlike leader.
Silently they made their way to the edge of the clearing which
surrounded the palisade, and here they clambered into the lower
branches of a large tree overlooking the village occupied by the
enemy, the better to spy upon his goings and comings.
A horseman, white burnoosed, rode out through the gateway of the
village. Tarzan, whispering to Chulk and Taglat to remain where
they were, swung, monkey-like, through the trees in the direction
of the trail the Arab was riding. From one jungle giant to the
next he sped with the rapidity of a squirrel and the silence of a
ghost.
The Arab rode slowly onward, unconscious of the danger hovering
in the trees behind him. The ape-man made a slight detour and
increased his speed until he had reached a point upon the trail in
advance of the horseman. Here he halted upon a leafy bough which
overhung the narrow, jungle trail. On came the victim, humming a
wild air of the great desert land of the north. Above him poised
the savage brute that was today bent upon the destruction of a human
life--the same creature who a few months before, had occupied his
seat in the House of Lords at London, a respected and distinguished
member of that august body.
The Arab passed beneath the overhanging bough, there was a slight
rustling of the leaves above, the horse snorted and plunged as
a brown-skinned creature dropped upon its rump. A pair of mighty
arms encircled the Arab and he was dragged from his saddle to the
trail.
Ten minutes later the ape-man, carrying the outer garments of an
Arab bundled beneath an arm, rejoined his companions. He exhibited
his trophies to them, explaining in low gutturals the details of
his exploit. Chulk and Taglat fingered the fabrics, smelled of
them, and, placing them to their ears, tried to listen to them.
Then Tarzan led them back through the jungle to the trail, where
the three hid themselves and waited. Nor had they long to wait
before two of Achmet Zek's blacks, clothed in habiliments similar
to their master's, came down the trail on foot, returning to the
camp.
One moment they were laughing and talking together--the next they
lay stretched in death upon the trail, three mighty engines of
destruction bending over them. Tarzan removed their outer garments
as he had removed those of his first victim, and again retired
with Chulk and Taglat to the greater seclusion of the tree they
had first selected.
Here the ape-man arranged the garments upon his shaggy fellows and
himself, until, at a distance, it might have appeared that three
white-robed Arabs squatted silently among the branches of the
forest.
Until dark they remained where they were, for from his point of
vantage, Tarzan could view the enclosure within the palisade. He
marked the position of the hut in which he had first discovered the
scent spoor of the she he sought. He saw the two sentries standing
before its doorway, and he located the habitation of Achmet Zek,
where something told him he would most likely find the missing
pouch and pebbles.
Chulk and Taglat were, at first, greatly interested in their
wonderful raiment. They fingered the fabric, smelled of it, and
regarded each other intently with every mark of satisfaction and
pride. Chulk, a humorist in his way, stretched forth a long and
hairy arm, and grasping the hood of Taglat's burnoose pulled it
down over the latter's eyes, extinguishing him, snuffer-like, as
it were.
The older ape, pessimistic by nature, recognized no such thing as
humor. Creatures laid their paws upon him for but two things--to
search for fleas and to attack. The pulling of the Tarmangani-scented
thing about his head and eyes could not be for the performance of
the former act; therefore it must be the latter. He was attacked!
Chulk had attacked him.
With a snarl he was at the other's throat, not even waiting to lift
the woolen veil which obscured his vision. Tarzan leaped upon the
two, and swaying and toppling upon their insecure perch the three
great beasts tussled and snapped at one another until the ape-man
finally succeeded in separating the enraged anthropoids.
An apology is unknown to these savage progenitors of man, and
explanation a laborious and usually futile process, Tarzan bridged
the dangerous gulf by distracting their attention from their
altercation to a consideration of their plans for the immediate
future. Accustomed to frequent arguments in which more hair than
blood is wasted, the apes speedily forget such trivial encounters,
and presently Chulk and Taglat were again squatting in close
proximity to each other and peaceful repose, awaiting the moment
when the ape-man should lead them into the village of the Tarmangani.
It was long after darkness had fallen, that Tarzan led his companions
from their hiding place in the tree to the ground and around the
palisade to the far side of the village.
Gathering the skirts of his burnoose, beneath one arm, that his legs
might have free action, the ape-man took a short running start, and
scrambled to the top of the barrier. Fearing lest the apes should
rend their garments to shreds in a similar attempt, he had directed
them to wait below for him, and himself securely perched upon the
summit of the palisade he unslung his spear and lowered one end of
it to Chulk.
The ape seized it, and while Tarzan held tightly to the upper end,
the anthropoid climbed quickly up the shaft until with one paw he
grasped the top of the wall. To scramble then to Tarzan's side was
the work of but an instant. In like manner Taglat was conducted to
their sides, and a moment later the three dropped silently within
the enclosure.
Tarzan led them first to the rear of the hut in which Jane Clayton
was confined, where, through the roughly repaired aperture in the
wall, he sought with his sensitive nostrils for proof that the she
he had come for was within.
Chulk and Taglat, their hairy faces pressed close to that of the
patrician, sniffed with him. Each caught the scent spoor of the
woman within, and each reacted according to his temperament and
his habits of thought.
It left Chulk indifferent. The she was for Tarzan--all that he
desired was to bury his snout in the foodstuffs of the Tarmangani.
He had come to eat his fill without labor--Tarzan had told him that
that should be his reward, and he was satisfied.
But Taglat's wicked, bloodshot eyes, narrowed to the realization of
the nearing fulfillment of his carefully nursed plan. It is true
that sometimes during the several days that had elapsed since they
had set out upon their expedition it had been difficult for Taglat
to hold his idea uppermost in his mind, and on several occasions
he had completely forgotten it, until Tarzan, by a chance word,
had recalled it to him, but, for an ape, Taglat had done well.
Now, he licked his chops, and he made a sickening, sucking noise
with his flabby lips as he drew in his breath.
Satisfied that the she was where he had hoped to find her, Tarzan
led his apes toward the tent of Achmet Zek. A passing Arab and
two slaves saw them, but the night was dark and the white burnooses
hid the hairy limbs of the apes and the giant figure of their leader,
so that the three, by squatting down as though in conversation, were
passed by, unsuspected. To the rear of the tent they made their
way. Within, Achmet Zek conversed with several of his lieutenants.
Without, Tarzan listened.
