10
The Battle for Teeka
THE DAY WAS perfect. A cool breeze tempered the heat
of the equatorial sun. Peace had reigned within the tribe
for weeks and no alien enemy had trespassed upon its
preserves from without. To the ape-mind all this was
sufficient evidence that the future would be identical
with the immediate past--that Utopia would persist.
The sentinels, now from habit become a fixed tribal custom,
either relaxed their vigilance or entirely deserted
their posts, as the whim seized them. The tribe was
far scattered in search of food. Thus may peace and
prosperity undermine the safety of the most primitive
community even as it does that of the most cultured.
Even the individuals became less watchful and alert,
so that one might have thought Numa and Sabor and Sheeta
entirely deleted from the scheme of things. The shes
and the balus roamed unguarded through the sullen jungle,
while the greedy males foraged far afield, and thus it
was that Teeka and Gazan, her balu, hunted upon the extreme
southern edge of the tribe with no great male near them.
Still farther south there moved through the forest
a sinister figure--a huge bull ape, maddened by solitude
and defeat. A week before he had contended for the
kingship of a tribe far distant, and now battered,
and still sore, he roamed the wilderness an outcast.
Later he might return to his own tribe and submit to the
will of the hairy brute he had attempted to dethrone;
but for the time being he dared not do so, since he
had sought not only the crown but the wives, as well,
of his lord and master. It would require an entire moon
at least to bring forgetfulness to him he had wronged,
and so Toog wandered a strange jungle, grim, terrible,
hate-filled.
It was in this mental state that Toog came unexpectedly upon
a young she feeding alone in the jungle--a stranger she,
lithe and strong and beautiful beyond compare.
Toog caught his breath and slunk quickly to one side
of the trail where the dense foliage of the tropical
underbrush concealed him from Teeka while permitting
him to feast his eyes upon her loveliness.
But not alone were they concerned with Teeka--they roved
the surrounding jungle in search of the bulls and cows
and balus of her tribe, though principally for the bulls.
When one covets a she of an alien tribe one must take
into consideration the great, fierce, hairy guardians
who seldom wander far from their wards and who will
fight a stranger to the death in protection of the mate
or offspring of a fellow, precisely as they would fight
for their own.
Toog could see no sign of any ape other than the strange
she and a young balu playing near by. His wicked,
blood-shot eyes half closed as they rested upon the charms
of the former--as for the balu, one snap of those great
jaws upon the back of its little neck would prevent
it from raising any unnecessary alarm.
Toog was a fine, big male, resembling in many ways
Teeka's mate, Taug. Each was in his prime, and each was
wonderfully muscled, perfectly fanged and as horrifyingly
ferocious as the most exacting and particular she could wish.
Had Toog been of her own tribe, Teeka might as readily have
yielded to him as to Taug when her mating time arrived;
but now she was Taug's and no other male could claim
her without first defeating Taug in personal combat.
And even then Teeka retained some rights in the matter.
If she did not favor a correspondent, she could enter
the lists with her rightful mate and do her part toward
discouraging his advances, a part, too, which would prove
no mean assistance to her lord and master, for Teeka,
even though her fangs were smaller than a male's, could use
them to excellent effect.
Just now Teeka was occupied in a fascinating search
for beetles, to the exclusion of all else. She did not
realize how far she and Gazan had become separated from
the balance of the tribe, nor were her defensive senses upon
the alert as they should have been. Months of immunity from
danger under the protecting watchfulness of the sentries,
which Tarzan had taught the tribe to post, had lulled them
all into a sense of peaceful security based on that fallacy
which has wrecked many enlightened communities in the past
and will continue to wreck others in the future--that
because they have not been attacked they never will be.
Toog, having satisfied himself that only the she and her balu
were in the immediate vicinity, crept stealthily forward.
Teeka's back was toward him when he finally rushed upon her;
but her senses were at last awakened to the presence
of danger and she wheeled to face the strange bull just
before he reached her. Toog halted a few paces from her.
His anger had fled before the seductive feminine charms
of the stranger. He made conciliatory noises--a species
of clucking sound with his broad, flat lips--that were,
too, not greatly dissimilar to that which might be produced
in an osculatory solo.
But Teeka only bared her fangs and growled. Little Gazan
started to run toward his mother, but she warned him away
with a quick "Kreeg-ah!" telling him to run high into
a tall tree. Evidently Teeka was not favorably impressed
by her new suitor. Toog realized this and altered
his methods accordingly. He swelled his giant chest,
beat upon it with his calloused knuckles and swaggered
to and fro before her.
"I am Toog," he boasted. "Look at my fighting fangs.
Look at my great arms and my mighty legs. With one bite I
can slay your biggest bull. Alone have I slain Sheeta.
I am Toog. Toog wants you." Then he waited for the effect,
nor did he have long to wait. Teeka turned with a
swiftness which belied her great weight and bolted
in the opposite direction. Toog, with an angry growl,
leaped in pursuit; but the smaller, lighter female was too
fleet for him. He chased her for a few yards and then,
foaming and barking, he halted and beat upon the ground
with his hard fists.
From the tree above him little Gazan looked down and
witnessed the stranger bull's discomfiture. Being young,
and thinking himself safe above the reach of the heavy male,
Gazan screamed an ill-timed insult at their tormentor.
Toog looked up. Teeka had halted at a little distance--she
would not go far from her balu; that Toog quickly realized
and as quickly determined to take advantage of. He saw
that the tree in which the young ape squatted was isolated
and that Gazan could not reach another without coming
to earth. He would obtain the mother through her love
for her young.
He swung himself into the lower branches of the tree.
Little Gazan ceased to insult him; his expression of
deviltry changed to one of apprehension, which was quickly
followed by fear as Toog commenced to ascend toward him.
Teeka screamed to Gazan to climb higher, and the little
fellow scampered upward among the tiny branches which would
not support the weight of the great bull; but nevertheless
Toog kept on climbing. Teeka was not fearful. She knew
that he could not ascend far enough to reach Gazan,
so she sat at a little distance from the tree and applied
jungle opprobrium to him. Being a female, she was a past
master of the art.
But she did not know the malevolent cunning of Toog's
little brain. She took it for granted that the bull
would climb as high as he could toward Gazan and then,
finding that he could not reach him, resume his pursuit
of her, which she knew would prove equally fruitless.
So sure was she of the safety of her balu and her own ability
to take care of herself that she did not voice the cry
for help which would soon have brought the other members
of the tribe flocking to her side.
Toog slowly reached the limit to which he dared risk
his great weight to the slender branches. Gazan was
still fifteen feet above him. The bull braced himself
and seized the main branch in his powerful hands, then he
commenced shaking it vigorously. Teeka was appalled.
Instantly she realized what the bull purposed.
Gazan clung far out upon a swaying limb. At the first
shake he lost his balance, though he did not quite fall,
clinging still with his four hands; but Toog redoubled
his efforts; the shaking produced a violent snapping
of the limb to which the young ape clung. Teeka saw
all too plainly what the outcome must be and forgetting
her own danger in the depth of her mother love,
rushed forward to ascend the tree and give battle to the
fearsome creature that menaced the life of her little one.
But before ever she reached the bole, Toog had succeeded,
by violent shaking of the branch, to loosen Gazan's hold.
With a cry the little fellow plunged down through the foliage,
clutching futilely for a new hold, and alighted with
a sickening thud at his mother's feet, where he lay
silent and motionless. Moaning, Teeka stooped to lift
the still form in her arms; but at the same instant Toog
was upon her.
Struggling and biting she fought to free herself; but the giant
muscles of the great bull were too much for her lesser strength.
Toog struck and choked her repeatedly until finally,
half unconscious, she lapsed into quasi submission.
Then the bull lifted her to his shoulder and turned
back to the trail toward the south from whence he had come.
Upon the ground lay the quiet form of little Gazan.
He did not moan. He did not move. The sun rose slowly
toward meridian. A mangy thing, lifting its nose to
scent the jungle breeze, crept through the underbrush.
It was Dango, the hyena. Presently its ugly muzzle broke
through some near-by foliage and its cruel eyes fastened
upon Gazan.
Early that morning, Tarzan of the Apes had gone to
the cabin by the sea, where he passed many an hour at
such times as the tribe was ranging in the vicinity.
On the floor lay the skeleton of a man--all that remained
of the former Lord Greystoke--lay as it had fallen
some twenty years before when Kerchak, the great ape,
had thrown it, lifeless, there. Long since had the
termites and the small rodents picked clean the sturdy
English bones. For years Tarzan had seen it lying there,
giving it no more attention than he gave the countless
thousand bones that strewed his jungle haunts.
On the bed another, smaller, skeleton reposed and the
youth ignored it as he ignored the other. How could he
know that the one had been his father, the other his
mother? The little pile of bones in the rude cradle,
fashioned with such loving care by the former Lord Greystoke,
meant nothing to him-- that one day that little skull
was to help prove his right to a proud title was as far
beyond his ken as the satellites of the suns of Orion.
To Tarzan they were bones--just bones. He did not
need them, for there was no meat left upon them, and they
were not in his way, for he knew no necessity for a bed,
and the skeleton upon the floor he easily could step over.
Today he was restless. He turned the pages first of one
book and then of another. He glanced at pictures which he
knew by heart, and tossed the books aside. He rummaged
for the thousandth time in the cupboard. He took out a bag
which contained several small, round pieces of metal.
He had played with them many times in the years gone by;
but always he replaced them carefully in the bag,
and the bag in the cupboard, upon the very shelf where
first he had discovered it. In strange ways did heredity
manifest itself in the ape-man. Come of an orderly race,
he himself was orderly without knowing why. The apes
dropped things wherever their interest in them waned--in
the tall grass or from the high-flung branches of the trees.
What they dropped they sometimes found again, by accident;
but not so the ways of Tarzan. For his few belongings
he had a place and scrupulously he returned each
thing to its proper place when he was done with it.
The round pieces of metal in the little bag always
interested him. Raised pictures were upon either side,
the meaning of which he did not quite understand.
The pieces were bright and shiny. It amused him to arrange
them in various figures upon the table. Hundreds of times
had he played thus. Today, while so engaged, he dropped
a lovely yellow piece-- an English sovereign--which rolled
beneath the bed where lay all that was mortal of the once
beautiful Lady Alice.
True to form, Tarzan at once dropped to his hands and knees
and searched beneath the bed for the lost gold piece.
Strange as it might appear, he had never before looked
beneath the bed. He found the gold piece, and something
else he found, too--a small wooden box with a loose cover.
Bringing them both out he returned the sovereign to
its bag and the bag to its shelf within the cupboard;
then he investigated the box. It contained a quantity
of cylindrical bits of metal, cone-shaped at one
end and flat at the other, with a projecting rim.
They were all quite green and dull, coated with years
of verdigris.
Tarzan removed a handful of them from the box and examined them.
He rubbed one upon another and discovered that the green
came off, leaving a shiny surface for two-thirds of
their length and a dull gray over the cone-shaped end.
Finding a bit of wood he rubbed one of the cylinders rapidly
and was rewarded by a lustrous sheen which pleased him.
At his side hung a pocket pouch taken from the body
of one of the numerous black warriors he had slain.
Into this pouch he put a handful of the new playthings,
thinking to polish them at his leisure; then he replaced
the box beneath the bed, and finding nothing more to
amuse him, left the cabin and started back in the direction
of the tribe.
Shortly before he reached them he heard a great commotion
ahead of him--the loud screams of shes and balus,
the savage, angry barking and growling of the great bulls.
Instantly he increased his speed, for the "Kreeg-ahs"
that came to his ears warned him that something was amiss
with his fellows.
While Tarzan had been occupied with his own devices
in the cabin of his dead sire, Taug, Teeka's mighty mate,
had been hunting a mile to the north of the tribe.
At last, his belly filled, he had turned lazily back toward
the clearing where he had last seen the tribe and presently
commenced passing its members scattered alone or in twos
or threes. Nowhere did he see Teeka or Gazan, and soon
he began inquiring of the other apes where they might be;
but none had seen them recently.
Now the lower orders are not highly imaginative.
They do not, as you and I, paint vivid mental pictures
of things which might have occurred, and so Taug did
not now apprehend that any misfortune had overtaken
his mate and their off-spring-- he merely knew that he
wished to find Teeka that he might lie down in the shade
and have her scratch his back while his breakfast digested;
but though he called to her and searched for her and
asked each whom he met, he could find no trace of Teeka,
nor of Gazan either.
He was beginning to become peeved and had about made up
his mind to chastise Teeka for wandering so far afield
when he wanted her. He was moving south along a game trail,
his calloused soles and knuckles giving forth no sound,
when he came upon Dango at the opposite side of a
small clearing. The eater of carrion did not see Taug,
for all his eyes were for something which lay in the grass
beneath a tree--something upon which he was sneaking
with the cautious stealth of his breed.
Taug, always cautious himself, as it behooves one to be
who fares up and down the jungle and desires to survive,
swung noiselessly into a tree, where he could have
a better view of the clearing. He did not fear Dango;
but he wanted to see what it was that Dango stalked.
In a way, possibly, he was actuated as much by curiosity
as by caution.
And when Taug reached a place in the branches from
which he could have an unobstructed view of the clearing
he saw Dango already sniffing at something directly
beneath him-- something which Taug instantly recognized
as the lifeless form of his little Gazan.
With a cry so frightful, so bestial, that it momentarily
paralyzed the startled Dango, the great ape launched his
mighty bulk upon the surprised hyena. With a cry and a snarl,
Dango, crushed to earth, turned to tear at his assailant;
but as effectively might a sparrow turn upon a hawk.
Taug's great, gnarled fingers closed upon the hyena's
throat and back, his jaws snapped once on the mangy neck,
crushing the vertebrae, and then he hurled the dead body
contemptuously aside.
Again he raised his voice in the call of the bull ape
to its mate, but there was no reply; then he leaned down to
sniff at the body of Gazan. In the breast of this savage,
hideous beast there beat a heart which was moved,
however slightly, by the same emotions of paternal love
which affect us. Even had we no actual evidence of this,
we must know it still, since only thus might be explained
the survival of the human race in which the jealousy
and selfishness of the bulls would, in the earliest
stages of the race, have wiped out the young as rapidly
as they were brought into the world had not God implanted
in the savage bosom that paternal love which evidences
itself most strongly in the protective instinct of the male.
In Taug the protective instinct was not alone highly developed;
but affection for his offspring as well, for Taug was an
unusually intelligent specimen of these great, manlike apes
which the natives of the Gobi speak of in whispers;
but which no white man ever had seen, or, if seeing,
lived to tell of until Tarzan of the Apes came among them.
And so Taug felt sorrow as any other father might feel
sorrow at the loss of a little child. To you little
Gazan might have seemed a hideous and repulsive creature,
but to Taug and Teeka he was as beautiful and as cute
as is your little Mary or Johnnie or Elizabeth Ann to you,
and he was their firstborn, their only balu, and a he--three
things which might make a young ape the apple of any fond
father's eye.
For a moment Taug sniffed at the quiet little form.
With his muzzle and his tongue he smoothed and caressed
the rumpled coat. From his savage lips broke a low moan;
but quickly upon the heels of sorrow came the overmastering
desire for revenge.
Leaping to his feet he screamed out a volley of "Kreegahs,"
punctuated from time to time by the blood-freezing
cry of an angry, challenging bull--a rage-mad bull
with the blood lust strong upon him.
Answering his cries came the cries of the tribe as they swung
through the trees toward him. It was these that Tarzan
heard on his return from his cabin, and in reply to them he
raised his own voice and hurried forward with increased speed
until he fairly flew through the middle terraces of the forest.
When at last he came upon the tribe he saw their members
gathered about Taug and something which lay quietly upon
the ground. Dropping among them, Tarzan approached
the center of the group. Taug was stiff roaring
out his challenges; but when he saw Tarzan he ceased
and stooping picked up Gazan in his arms and held him
out for Tarzan to see. Of all the bulls of the tribe,
Taug held affection for Tarzan only. Tarzan he trusted
and looked up to as one wiser and more cunning.
To Tarzan he came now--to the playmate of his balu days,
the companion of innumerable battles of his maturity.
When Tarzan saw the still form in Taug's arms, a low growl
broke from his lips, for he too loved Teeka's little balu.
"Who did it?" he asked. "Where is Teeka?"
"I do not know," replied Taug. "I found him lying here
with Dango about to feed upon him; but it was not Dango
that did it--there are no fang marks upon him."
Tarzan came closer and placed an ear against Gazan's breast.
"He is not dead," he said. "Maybe he will not die."
He pressed through the crowd of apes and circled once
about them, examining the ground step by step. Suddenly he
stopped and placing his nose close to the earth sniffed.
Then he sprang to his feet, giving a peculiar cry.
Taug and the others pressed forward, for the sound told them
that the hunter had found the spoor of his quarry.
"A stranger bull has been here," said Tarzan. "It was he
that hurt Gazan. He has carried off Teeka."
Taug and the other bulls commenced to roar and threaten;
but they did nothing. Had the stranger bull been within
sight they would have torn him to pieces; but it did not
occur to them to follow him.
"If the three bulls had been watching around the tribe
this would not have happened," said Tarzan. "Such things
will happen as long as you do not keep the three bulls
watching for an enemy. The jungle is full of enemies,
and yet you let your shes and your balus feed where they will,
alone and unprotected. Tarzan goes now--he goes to find
Teeka and bring her back to the tribe."
The idea appealed to the other bulls. "We will all go,"
they cried.
"No," said Tarzan, "you will not all go. We cannot
take shes and balus when we go out to hunt and fight.
You must remain to guard them or you will lose them all."
They scratched their heads. The wisdom of his advice
was dawning upon them, but at first they had been carried
away by the new idea--the idea of following up an enemy
offender to wrest his prize from him and punish him.
The community instinct was ingrained in their characters
through ages of custom. They did not know why they had not
thought to pursue and punish the offender--they could not know
that it was because they had as yet not reached a mental
plane which would permit them to work as individuals.
In times of stress, the community instinct sent them
huddling into a compact herd where the great bulls,
by the weight of their combined strength and ferocity,
could best protect them from an enemy. The idea of separating
to do battle with a foe had not yet occurred to them--it was
too foreign to custom, too inimical to community interests;
but to Tarzan it was the first and most natural thought.
His senses told him that there was but a single bull
connected with the attack upon Teeka and Gazan. A single
enemy did not require the entire tribe for his punishment.
Two swift bulls could quickly overhaul him and rescue Teeka.
In the past no one ever had thought to go forth in search
of the shes that were occasionally stolen from the tribe.
If Numa, Sabor, Sheeta or a wandering bull ape from another
tribe chanced to carry off a maid or a matron while no
one was looking, that was the end of it--she was gone,
that was all. The bereaved husband, if the victim chanced
to have been mated, growled around for a day or two and then,
if he were strong enough, took another mate within the tribe,
and if not, wandered far into the jungle on the chance
of stealing one from another community.
In the past Tarzan of the Apes had condoned this
practice for the reason that he had had no interest
in those who had been stolen; but Teeka had been
his first love and Teeka's balu held a place in his
heart such as a balu of his own would have held.
Just once before had Tarzan wished to follow and revenge.
That had been years before when Kulonga, the son of Mbonga,
the chief, had slain Kala. Then, single-handed, Tarzan
had pursued and avenged. Now, though to a lesser degree,
he was moved by the same passion.
He turned toward Taug. "Leave Gazan with Mumga," he said.
"She is old and her fangs are broken and she is no good;
but she can take care of Gazan until we return with Teeka,
and if Gazan is dead when we come back," he turned to
address Mumga, "I will kill you, too."
"Where are we going?" asked Taug.
"We are going to get Teeka," replied the ape-man, "and
kill the bull who has stolen her. Come!"
He turned again to the spoor of the stranger bull,
which showed plainly to his trained senses, nor did he
glance back to note if Taug followed. The latter laid
Gazan in Mumga's arms with a parting: "If he dies Tarzan
will kill you," and he followed after the brown-skinned
figure that already was moving at a slow trot along
the jungle trail.
No other bull of the tribe of Kerchak was so good a
trailer as Tarzan, for his trained senses were aided
by a high order of intelligence. His judgment told him
the natural trail for a quarry to follow, so that he
need but note the most apparent marks upon the way,
and today the trail of Toog was as plain to him as type
upon a printed page to you or me.
Following close behind the lithe figure of the ape-man came
the huge and shaggy bull ape. No words passed between them.
They moved as silently as two shadows among the myriad
shadows of the forest. Alert as his eyes and ears,
was Tarzan's patrician nose. The spoor was fresh, and now
that they had passed from the range of the strong ape odor
of the tribe he had little difficulty in following Toog
and Teeka by scent alone. Teeka's familiar scent spoor
told both Tarzan and Taug that they were upon her trail,
and soon the scent of Toog became as familiar as the other.
They were progressing rapidly when suddenly dense
clouds overcast the sun. Tarzan accelerated his pace.
Now he fairly flew along the jungle trail, or, where Toog
had taken to the trees, followed nimbly as a squirrel along
the bending, undulating pathway of the foliage branches,
swinging from tree to tree as Toog had swung before them;
but more rapidly because they were not handicapped by a
burden such as Toog's.
Tarzan felt that they must be almost upon the quarry,
for the scent spoor was becoming stronger and stronger,
when the jungle was suddenly shot by livid lightning,
and a deafening roar of thunder reverberated through the
heavens and the forest until the earth trembled and shook.
Then came the rain--not as it comes to us of the
temperate zones, but as a mighty avalanche of water--a
deluge which spills tons instead of drops upon the bending
forest giants and the terrified creatures which haunt
their shade.
And the rain did what Tarzan knew that it would do-- it
wiped the spoor of the quarry from the face of the earth.
For a half hour the torrents fell--then the sun burst forth,
jeweling the forest with a million scintillant gems;
but today the ape-man, usually alert to the changing wonders
of the jungle, saw them not. Only the fact that the spoor
of Teeka and her abductor was obliterated found lodgment
in his thoughts.
Even among the branches of the trees there are well-worn trails,
just as there are trails upon the surface of the ground;
but in the trees they branch and cross more often,
since the way is more open than among the dense undergrowth
at the surface. Along one of these well-marked trails
Tarzan and Taug continued after the rain had ceased,
because the ape-man knew that this was the most logical
path for the thief to follow; but when they came to a fork,
they were at a loss. Here they halted, while Tarzan
examined every branch and leaf which might have been
touched by the fleeing ape.
He sniffed the bole of the tree, and with his keen eyes
he sought to find upon the bark some sign of the way
the quarry had taken. It was slow work and all the time,
Tarzan knew, the bull of the alien tribe was forging
steadily away from them--gaining precious minutes that might
carry him to safety before they could catch up with him.
First along one fork he went, and then another, applying every
test that his wonderful junglecraft was cognizant of;
but again and again he was baffled, for the scent had been
washed away by the heavy downpour, in every exposed place.
For a half hour Tarzan and Taug searched, until at last,
upon the bottom of a broad leaf, Tarzan's keen nose caught
the faint trace of the scent spoor of Toog, where the leaf
had brushed a hairy shoulder as the great ape passed
through the foliage.
Once again the two took up the trail, but it was slow
work now and there were many discouraging delays when
the spoor seemed lost beyond recovery. To you or me
there would have been no spoor, even before the coming
of the rain, except, possibly, where Toog had come
to earth and followed a game trail. In such places
the imprint of a huge handlike foot and the knuckles
of one great hand were sometimes plain enough for an
ordinary mortal to read. Tarzan knew from these and
other indications that the ape was yet carrying Teeka.
The depth of the imprint of his feet indicated a much greater
weight than that of any of the larger bulls, for they
were made under the combined weight of Toog and Teeka,
while the fact that the knuckles of but one hand touched
the ground at any time showed that the other hand was
occupied in some other business--the business of holding
the prisoner to a hairy shoulder. Tarzan could follow,
in sheltered places, the changing of the burden from one
shoulder to another, as indicated by the deepening of the
foot imprint upon the side of the load, and the changing
of the knuckle imprints from one side of the trail to the other.
There were stretches along the surface paths where the ape had
gone for considerable distances entirely erect upon his hind
feet--walking as a man walks; but the same might have been
true of any of the great anthropoids of the same species,
for, unlike the chimpanzee and the gorilla, they walk
without the aid of their hands quite as readily as with.
It was such things, however, which helped to identify
to Tarzan and to Taug the appearance of the abductor,
and with his individual scent characteristic already
indelibly impressed upon their memories, they were in a
far better position to know him when they came upon him,
even should he have disposed of Teeka before, than is a modern
sleuth with his photographs and Bertillon measurements,
equipped to recognize a fugitive from civilized justice.
But with all their high-strung and delicately attuned
perceptive faculties the two bulls of the tribe of Kerchak
were often sore pressed to follow the trail at all,
and at best were so delayed that in the afternoon of the
second day, they still had not overhauled the fugitive.
The scent was now strong, for it had been made since the rain,
and Tarzan knew that it would not be long before they
came upon the thief and his loot. Above them, as they
crept stealthily forward, chattered Manu, the monkey,
and his thousand fellows; squawked and screamed the
brazen-throated birds of plumage; buzzed and hummed the
countless insects amid the rustling of the forest leaves,
and, as they passed, a little gray-beard, squeaking and
scolding upon a swaying branch, looked down and saw them.
Instantly the scolding and squeaking ceased, and off
tore the long-tailed mite as though Sheeta, the panther,
had been endowed with wings and was in close pursuit of him.
To all appearances he was only a very much frightened
little monkey, fleeing for his life--there seemed nothing
sinister about him.
And what of Teeka during all this time? Was she at last
resigned to her fate and accompanying her new mate
in the proper humility of a loving and tractable spouse?
A single glance at the pair would have answered these
questions to the utter satisfaction of the most captious.
She was torn and bleeding from many wounds, inflicted by the
sullen Toog in his vain efforts to subdue her to his will,
and Toog too was disfigured and mutilated; but with
stubborn ferocity, he still clung to his now useless prize.
On through the jungle he forced his way in the direction
of the stamping ground of his tribe. He hoped that his
king would have forgotten his treason; but if not he
was still resigned to his fate--any fate would be better
than suffering longer the sole companionship of this
frightful she, and then, too, he wished to exhibit
his captive to his fellows. Maybe he could wish her
on the king--it is possible that such a thought urged him on.
At last they came upon two bulls feeding in a parklike
grove--a beautiful grove dotted with huge boulders half
embedded in the rich loam--mute monuments, possibly, to a
forgotten age when mighty glaciers rolled their slow course
where now a torrid sun beats down upon a tropic jungle.
The two bulls looked up, baring long fighting fangs,
as Toog appeared in the distance. The latter recognized
the two as friends. "It is Toog," he growled. "Toog has
come back with a new she."
The apes waited his nearer approach. Teeka turned a snarling,
fanged face toward them. She was not pretty to look upon,
yet through the blood and hatred upon her countenance
they realized that she was beautiful, and they envied
Toog--alas! they did not know Teeka.
As they squatted looking at one another there raced through
the trees toward them a long-tailed little monkey with
gray whiskers. He was a very excited little monkey when he
came to a halt upon the limb of a tree directly overhead.
"Two strange bulls come," he cried. One is a Mangani,
the other a hideous ape without hair upon his body.
They follow the spoor of Toog. I saw them."
The four apes turned their eyes backward along the trail
Toog had just come; then they looked at one another for
a minute. "Come," said the larger of Toog's two friends,
"we will wait for the strangers in the thick bushes beyond
the clearing."
He turned and waddled away across the open place,
the others following him. The little monkey danced about,
all excitement. His chief diversion in life was to bring
about bloody encounters between the larger denizens of
the forest, that he might sit in the safety of the trees
and witness the spectacles. He was a glutton for gore,
was this little, whiskered, gray monkey, so long as it was
the gore of others-- a typical fight fan was the graybeard.
The apes hid themselves in the shrubbery beside the
trail along which the two stranger bulls would pass.
Teeka trembled with excitement. She had heard the words
of Manu, and she knew that the hairless ape must be Tarzan,
while the other was, doubtless, Taug. Never, in her
wildest hopes, had she expected succor of this sort.
Her one thought had been to escape and find her way back
to the tribe of Kerchak; but even this had appeared to her
practically impossible, so closely did Toog watch her.
As Taug and Tarzan reached the grove where Toog had come
upon his friends, the ape scent became so strong that
both knew the quarry was but a short distance ahead.
And so they went even more cautiously, for they wished
to come upon the thief from behind if they could
and charge him before he was aware of their presence.
That a little gray-whiskered monkey had forestalled them
they did not know, nor that three pairs of savage eyes
were already watching their every move and waiting for them
to come within reach of itching paws and slavering jowls.
On they came across the grove, and as they entered
the path leading into the dense jungle beyond, a sudden
"Kreeg-ah!" shrilled out close before them--a "Kreeg-ah"
in the familiar voice of Teeka. The small brains
of Toog and his companions had not been able to foresee
that Teeka might betray them, and now that she had,
they went wild with rage. Toog struck the she a mighty
blow that felled her, and then the three rushed forth
to do battle with Tarzan and Taug. The little monkey
danced upon his perch and screamed with delight.
And indeed he might well be delighted, for it was a
lovely fight. There were no preliminaries, no formalities,
no introductions-- the five bulls merely charged and clinched.
They rolled in the narrow trail and into the thick
verdure beside it. They bit and clawed and scratched
and struck, and all the while they kept up the most
frightful chorus of growlings and barkings and roarings.
In five minutes they were torn and bleeding, and the little
graybeard leaped high, shrilling his primitive bravos;
but always his attitude was "thumbs down." He wanted
to see something killed. He did not care whether it
were friend or foe. It was blood he wanted--blood and death.
Taug had been set upon by Toog and another of the apes,
while Tarzan had the third--a huge brute with the strength
of a buffalo. Never before had Tarzan's assailant beheld
so strange a creature as this slippery, hairless bull with
which he battled. Sweat and blood covered Tarzan's sleek,
brown hide. Again and again he slipped from the clutches
of the great bull, and all the while he struggled to free
his hunting knife from the scabbard in which it had stuck.
At length he succeeded--a brown hand shot out and clutched
a hairy throat, another flew upward clutching the sharp blade.
Three swift, powerful strokes and the bull relaxed
with a groan, falling limp beneath his antagonist.
Instantly Tarzan broke from the clutches of the dying bull
and sprang to Taug's assistance. Toog saw him coming
and wheeled to meet him. In the impact of the charge,
Tarzan's knife was wrenched from his hand and then Toog
closed with him. Now was the battle even--two against
two--while on the verge, Teeka, now recovered from the blow
that had felled her, slunk waiting for an opportunity
to aid. She saw Tarzan's knife and picked it up.
She never had used it, but knew how Tarzan used it.
Always had she been afraid of the thing which dealt death
to the mightiest of the jungle people with the ease that
Tantor's great tusks deal death to Tantor's enemies.
She saw Tarzan's pocket pouch torn from his side,
and with the curiosity of an ape, that even danger and
excitement cannot entirely dispel, she picked this up, too.
Now the bulls were standing--the clinches had been broken.
Blood streamed down their sides--their faces were crimsoned
with it. Little graybeard was so fascinated that at last
he had even forgotten to scream and dance; but sat rigid
with delight in the enjoyment of the spectacle.
Back across the grove Tarzan and Taug forced their adversaries.
Teeka followed slowly. She scarce knew what to do.
She was lame and sore and exhausted from the frightful
ordeal through which she had passed, and she had
the confidence of her sex in the prowess of her mate
and the other bull of her tribe--they would not need
the help of a she in their battle with these two strangers.
The roars and screams of the fighters reverberated through
the jungle, awakening the echoes in the distant hills.
From the throat of Tarzan's antagonist had come a score
of "Kreeg-ahs!" and now from behind came the reply he
had awaited. Into the grove, barking and growling,
came a score of huge bull apes--the fighting men of
Toog's tribe.
Teeka saw them first and screamed a warning to Tarzan and Taug.
Then she fled past the fighters toward the opposite
side of the clearing, fear for a moment claiming her.
Nor can one censure her after the frightful ordeal from
which she was still suffering.
Down upon them came the great apes. In a moment Tarzan
and Taug would be torn to shreds that would later form
the PIECE DE RESISTANCE of the savage orgy of a Dum-Dum.
Teeka turned to glance back. She saw the impending
fate of her defenders and there sprung to life in her
savage bosom the spark of martyrdom, that some common
forbear had transmitted alike to Teeka, the wild ape,
and the glorious women of a higher order who have invited
death for their men. With a shrill scream she ran toward
the battlers who were rolling in a great mass at the foot
of one of the huge boulders which dotted the grove;
but what could she do? The knife she held she could
not use to advantage because of her lesser strength.
She had seen Tarzan throw missiles, and she had learned
this with many other things from her childhood playmate.
She sought for something to throw and at last her fingers
touched upon the hard objects in the pouch that had been
torn from the ape-man. Tearing the receptacle open,
she gathered a handful of shiny cylinders--heavy for
their size, they seemed to her, and good missiles.
With all her strength she hurled them at the apes battling
in front of the granite boulder.
The result surprised Teeka quite as much as it did the apes.
There was a loud explosion, which deafened the fighters,
and a puff of acrid smoke. Never before had one there
heard such a frightful noise. Screaming with terror,
the stranger bulls leaped to their feet and fled back
toward the stamping ground of their tribe, while Taug
and Tarzan slowly gathered themselves together and arose,
lame and bleeding, to their feet. They, too, would have
fled had they not seen Teeka standing there before them,
the knife and the pocket pouch in her hands.
"What was it?" asked Tarzan.
Teeka shook her head. "I hurled these at the stranger bulls,"
and she held forth another handful of the shiny metal
cylinders with the dull gray, cone-shaped ends.
Tarzan looked at them and scratched his head.
"What are they?" asked Taug.
"I do not know," said Tarzan. "I found them."
The little monkey with the gray beard halted among the trees
a mile away and huddled, terrified, against a branch.
He did not know that the dead father of Tarzan of the Apes,
reaching back out of the past across a span of twenty years,
had saved his son's life.
Nor did Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, know it either.
