Tarzan the Terrible
By Edgar Rice Burroughs
1
The Pithecanthropus
Silent as the shadows through which he moved, the great beast
slunk through the midnight jungle, his yellow-green eyes round and
staring, his sinewy tail undulating behind him, his head lowered
and flattened, and every muscle vibrant to the thrill of the hunt.
The jungle moon dappled an occasional clearing which the great cat
was always careful to avoid. Though he moved through thick verdure
across a carpet of innumerable twigs, broken branches, and leaves,
his passing gave forth no sound that might have been apprehended
by dull human ears.
Apparently less cautious was the hunted thing moving even as silently
as the lion a hundred paces ahead of the tawny carnivore, for
instead of skirting the moon-splashed natural clearings it passed
directly across them, and by the tortuous record of its spoor
it might indeed be guessed that it sought these avenues of least
resistance, as well it might, since, unlike its grim stalker, it
walked erect upon two feet--it walked upon two feet and was hairless
except for a black thatch upon its head; its arms were well shaped
and muscular; its hands powerful and slender with long tapering
fingers and thumbs reaching almost to the first joint of the index
fingers. Its legs too were shapely but its feet departed from the
standards of all races of men, except possibly a few of the lowest
races, in that the great toes protruded at right angles from the
foot.
Pausing momentarily in the full light of the gorgeous African moon
the creature turned an attentive ear to the rear and then, his
head lifted, his features might readily have been discerned in the
moonlight. They were strong, clean cut, and regular--features that
would have attracted attention for their masculine beauty in any
of the great capitals of the world. But was this thing a man? It
would have been hard for a watcher in the trees to have decided
as the lion's prey resumed its way across the silver tapestry that
Luna had laid upon the floor of the dismal jungle, for from beneath
the loin cloth of black fur that girdled its thighs there depended
a long hairless, white tail.
In one hand the creature carried a stout club, and suspended at its
left side from a shoulder belt was a short, sheathed knife, while
a cross belt supported a pouch at its right hip. Confining these
straps to the body and also apparently supporting the loin cloth
was a broad girdle which glittered in the moonlight as though
encrusted with virgin gold, and was clasped in the center of the
belly with a huge buckle of ornate design that scintillated as with
precious stones.
Closer and closer crept Numa, the lion, to his intended victim,
and that the latter was not entirely unaware of his danger was
evidenced by the increasing frequency with which he turned his
ear and his sharp black eyes in the direction of the cat upon his
trail. He did not greatly increase his speed, a long swinging walk
where the open places permitted, but he loosened the knife in its
scabbard and at all times kept his club in readiness for instant
action.
Forging at last through a narrow strip of dense jungle vegetation
the man-thing broke through into an almost treeless area of
considerable extent. For an instant he hesitated, glancing quickly
behind him and then up at the security of the branches of the great
trees waving overhead, but some greater urge than fear or caution
influenced his decision apparently, for he moved off again across
the little plain leaving the safety of the trees behind him.
At greater or less intervals leafy sanctuaries dotted the grassy
expanse ahead of him and the route he took, leading from one to
another, indicated that he had not entirely cast discretion to the
winds. But after the second tree had been left behind the distance
to the next was considerable, and it was then that Numa walked from
the concealing cover of the jungle and, seeing his quarry apparently
helpless before him, raised his tail stiffly erect and charged.
Two months--two long, weary months filled with hunger, with thirst,
with hardships, with disappointment, and, greater than all, with
gnawing pain--had passed since Tarzan of the Apes learned from
the diary of the dead German captain that his wife still lived. A
brief investigation in which he was enthusiastically aided by the
Intelligence Department of the British East African Expedition
revealed the fact that an attempt had been made to keep Lady Jane
in hiding in the interior, for reasons of which only the German
High Command might be cognizant.
In charge of Lieutenant Obergatz and a detachment of native German
troops she had been sent across the border into the Congo Free
State.
Starting out alone in search of her, Tarzan had succeeded in finding the
village in which she had been incarcerated only to learn that she
had escaped months before, and that the German officer had disappeared
at the same time. From there on the stories of the chiefs and the
warriors whom he quizzed, were vague and often contradictory. Even
the direction that the fugitives had taken Tarzan could only guess
at by piecing together bits of fragmentary evidence gleaned from
various sources.
Sinister conjectures were forced upon him by various observations
which he made in the village. One was incontrovertible proof that
these people were man-eaters; the other, the presence in the village
of various articles of native German uniforms and equipment. At
great risk and in the face of surly objection on the part of the
chief, the ape-man made a careful inspection of every hut in the
village from which at least a little ray of hope resulted from the
fact that he found no article that might have belonged to his wife.
Leaving the village he had made his way toward the southwest,
crossing, after the most appalling hardships, a vast waterless
steppe covered for the most part with dense thorn, coming at last
into a district that had probably never been previously entered
by any white man and which was known only in the legends of the
tribes whose country bordered it. Here were precipitous mountains,
well-watered plateaus, wide plains, and vast swampy morasses,
but neither the plains, nor the plateaus, nor the mountains were
accessible to him until after weeks of arduous effort he succeeded
in finding a spot where he might cross the morasses--a hideous
stretch infested by venomous snakes and other larger dangerous
reptiles. On several occasions he glimpsed at distances or by night
what might have been titanic reptilian monsters, but as there were
hippopotami, rhinoceri, and elephants in great numbers in and about
the marsh he was never positive that the forms he saw were not of
these.
When at last he stood upon firm ground after crossing the morasses
he realized why it was that for perhaps countless ages this territory
had defied the courage and hardihood of the heroic races of the
outer world that had, after innumerable reverses and unbelievable
suffering penetrated to practically every other region, from pole
to pole.
From the abundance and diversity of the game it might have appeared
that every known species of bird and beast and reptile had sought
here a refuge wherein they might take their last stand against the
encroaching multitudes of men that had steadily spread themselves
over the surface of the earth, wresting the hunting grounds from
the lower orders, from the moment that the first ape shed his hair
and ceased to walk upon his knuckles. Even the species with which
Tarzan was familiar showed here either the results of a divergent
line of evolution or an unaltered form that had been transmitted
without variation for countless ages.
Too, there were many hybrid strains, not the least interesting
of which to Tarzan was a yellow and black striped lion. Smaller
than the species with which Tarzan was familiar, but still a most
formidable beast, since it possessed in addition to sharp saber-like
canines the disposition of a devil. To Tarzan it presented evidence
that tigers had once roamed the jungles of Africa, possibly giant
saber-tooths of another epoch, and these apparently had crossed with
lions with the resultant terrors that he occasionally encountered
at the present day.
The true lions of this new, Old World differed but little from
those with which he was familiar; in size and conformation they
were almost identical, but instead of shedding the leopard spots
of cubhood, they retained them through life as definitely marked
as those of the leopard.
Two months of effort had revealed no slightest evidence that
she he sought had entered this beautiful yet forbidding land. His
investigation, however, of the cannibal village and his questioning
of other tribes in the neighborhood had convinced him that if Lady
Jane still lived it must be in this direction that he seek her,
since by a process of elimination he had reduced the direction of
her flight to only this possibility. How she had crossed the morass
he could not guess and yet something within seemed to urge upon him
belief that she had crossed it, and that if she still lived it was
here that she must be sought. But this unknown, untraversed wild
was of vast extent; grim, forbidding mountains blocked his way,
torrents tumbling from rocky fastnesses impeded his progress, and
at every turn he was forced to match wits and muscles with the
great carnivora that he might procure sustenance.
Time and again Tarzan and Numa stalked the same quarry and now one,
now the other bore off the prize. Seldom however did the ape-man
go hungry for the country was rich in game animals and birds and
fish, in fruit and the countless other forms of vegetable life upon
which the jungle-bred man may subsist.
Tarzan often wondered why in so rich a country he found no evidences
of man and had at last come to the conclusion that the parched,
thorn-covered steppe and the hideous morasses had formed a sufficient
barrier to protect this country effectively from the inroads of
mankind.
After days of searching he had succeeded finally in discovering a
pass through the mountains and, coming down upon the opposite side,
had found himself in a country practically identical with that which
he had left. The hunting was good and at a water hole in the mouth
of a canon where it debouched upon a tree-covered plain Bara, the
deer, fell an easy victim to the ape-man's cunning.
It was just at dusk. The voices of great four-footed hunters rose
now and again from various directions, and as the canon afforded
among its trees no comfortable retreat the ape-man shouldered the
carcass of the deer and started downward onto the plain. At its
opposite side rose lofty trees--a great forest which suggested to
his practiced eye a mighty jungle. Toward this the ape-man bent
his step, but when midway of the plain he discovered standing alone
such a tree as best suited him for a night's abode, swung lightly
to its branches and, presently, a comfortable resting place.
Here he ate the flesh of Bara and when satisfied carried the balance
of the carcass to the opposite side of the tree where he deposited
it far above the ground in a secure place. Returning to his crotch
he settled himself for sleep and in another moment the roars of
the lions and the howlings of the lesser cats fell upon deaf ears.
The usual noises of the jungle composed rather than disturbed the
ape-man but an unusual sound, however imperceptible to the awakened
ear of civilized man, seldom failed to impinge upon the consciousness
of Tarzan, however deep his slumber, and so it was that when the
moon was high a sudden rush of feet across the grassy carpet in
the vicinity of his tree brought him to alert and ready activity.
Tarzan does not awaken as you and I with the weight of slumber still
upon his eyes and brain, for did the creatures of the wild awaken
thus, their awakenings would be few. As his eyes snapped open,
clear and bright, so, clear and bright upon the nerve centers of his
brain, were registered the various perceptions of all his senses.
Almost beneath him, racing toward his tree was what at first glance
appeared to be an almost naked white man, yet even at the first
instant of discovery the long, white tail projecting rearward did
not escape the ape-man. Behind the fleeing figure, escaping, came
Numa, the lion, in full charge. Voiceless the prey, voiceless the
killer; as two spirits in a dead world the two moved in silent
swiftness toward the culminating tragedy of this grim race.
Even as his eyes opened and took in the scene beneath him--even in
that brief instant of perception, followed reason, judgment, and
decision, so rapidly one upon the heels of the other that almost
simultaneously the ape-man was in mid-air, for he had seen a
white-skinned creature cast in a mold similar to his own, pursued
by Tarzan's hereditary enemy. So close was the lion to the fleeing
man-thing that Tarzan had no time carefully to choose the method
of his attack. As a diver leaps from the springboard headforemost
into the waters beneath, so Tarzan of the Apes dove straight for
Numa, the lion; naked in his right hand the blade of his father
that so many times before had tasted the blood of lions.
A raking talon caught Tarzan on the side, inflicting a long, deep
wound and then the ape-man was on Numa's back and the blade was
sinking again and again into the savage side. Nor was the man-thing
either longer fleeing, or idle. He too, creature of the wild, had
sensed on the instant the truth of the miracle of his saving, and
turning in his tracks, had leaped forward with raised bludgeon to
Tarzan's assistance and Numa's undoing. A single terrific blow upon
the flattened skull of the beast laid him insensible and then as
Tarzan's knife found the wild heart a few convulsive shudders and
a sudden relaxation marked the passing of the carnivore.
Leaping to his feet the ape-man placed his foot upon the carcass
of his kill and, raising his face to Goro, the moon, voiced the
savage victory cry that had so often awakened the echoes of his
native jungle.
As the hideous scream burst from the ape-man's lips the man-thing
stepped quickly back as in sudden awe, but when Tarzan returned his
hunting knife to its sheath and turned toward him the other saw in
the quiet dignity of his demeanor no cause for apprehension.
For a moment the two stood appraising each other, and then the
man-thing spoke. Tarzan realized that the creature before him was
uttering articulate sounds which expressed in speech, though in a
language with which Tarzan was unfamiliar, the thoughts of a man
possessing to a greater or less extent the same powers of reason
that he possessed. In other words, that though the creature before
him had the tail and thumbs and great toes of a monkey, it was, in
all other respects, quite evidently a man.
The blood, which was now flowing down Tarzan's side, caught the
creature's attention. From the pocket-pouch at his side he took a
small bag and approaching Tarzan indicated by signs that he wished
the ape-man to lie down that he might treat the wound, whereupon,
spreading the edges of the cut apart, he sprinkled the raw flesh
with powder from the little bag. The pain of the wound was as
nothing to the exquisite torture of the remedy but, accustomed to
physical suffering, the ape-man withstood it stoically and in a
few moments not only had the bleeding ceased but the pain as well.
In reply to the soft and far from unpleasant modulations of
the other's voice, Tarzan spoke in various tribal dialects of the
interior as well as in the language of the great apes, but it was
evident that the man understood none of these. Seeing that they
could not make each other understood, the pithecanthropus advanced
toward Tarzan and placing his left hand over his own heart laid
the palm of his right hand over the heart of the ape-man. To the
latter the action appeared as a form of friendly greeting and, being
versed in the ways of uncivilized races, he responded in kind as
he realized it was doubtless intended that he should. His action
seemed to satisfy and please his new-found acquaintance, who
immediately fell to talking again and finally, with his head tipped
back, sniffed the air in the direction of the tree above them
and then suddenly pointing toward the carcass of Bara, the deer,
he touched his stomach in a sign language which even the densest
might interpret. With a wave of his hand Tarzan invited his guest
to partake of the remains of his savage repast, and the other, leaping
nimbly as a little monkey to the lower branches of the tree, made
his way quickly to the flesh, assisted always by his long, strong
sinuous tail.
The pithecanthropus ate in silence, cutting small strips from the
deer's loin with his keen knife. From his crotch in the tree Tarzan
watched his companion, noting the preponderance of human attributes
which were doubtless accentuated by the paradoxical thumbs, great
toes, and tail.
He wondered if this creature was representative of some strange race
or if, what seemed more likely, but an atavism. Either supposition
would have seemed preposterous enough did he not have before him
the evidence of the creature's existence. There he was, however, a
tailed man with distinctly arboreal hands and feet. His trappings,
gold encrusted and jewel studded, could have been wrought only by
skilled artisans; but whether they were the work of this individual
or of others like him, or of an entirely different race, Tarzan
could not, of course, determine.
His meal finished, the guest wiped his fingers and lips with leaves
broken from a nearby branch, looked up at Tarzan with a pleasant
smile that revealed a row of strong white teeth, the canines of
which were no longer than Tarzan's own, spoke a few words which
Tarzan judged were a polite expression of thanks and then sought
a comfortable place in the tree for the night.
The earth was shadowed in the darkness which precedes the dawn when
Tarzan was awakened by a violent shaking of the tree in which he
had found shelter. As he opened his eyes he saw that his companion
was also astir, and glancing around quickly to apprehend the cause
of the disturbance, the ape-man was astounded at the sight which
met his eyes.
The dim shadow of a colossal form reared close beside the tree
and he saw that it was the scraping of the giant body against the
branches that had awakened him. That such a tremendous creature
could have approached so closely without disturbing him filled
Tarzan with both wonderment and chagrin. In the gloom the ape-man
at first conceived the intruder to be an elephant; yet, if so, one
of greater proportions than any he had ever before seen, but as the
dim outlines became less indistinct he saw on a line with his eyes
and twenty feet above the ground the dim silhouette of a grotesquely
serrated back that gave the impression of a creature whose each
and every spinal vertebra grew a thick, heavy horn. Only a portion
of the back was visible to the ape-man, the rest of the body being
lost in the dense shadows beneath the tree, from whence there now
arose the sound of giant jaws powerfully crunching flesh and bones.
From the odors that rose to the ape-man's sensitive nostrils he
presently realized that beneath him was some huge reptile feeding
upon the carcass of the lion that had been slain there earlier in
the night.
As Tarzan's eyes, straining with curiosity, bored futilely into the
dark shadows he felt a light touch upon his shoulder, and, turning,
saw that his companion was attempting to attract his attention.
The creature, pressing a forefinger to his own lips as to enjoin
silence, attempted by pulling on Tarzan's arm to indicate that they
should leave at once.
Realizing that he was in a strange country, evidently infested by
creatures of titanic size, with the habits and powers of which he
was entirely unfamiliar, the ape-man permitted himself to be drawn
away. With the utmost caution the pithecanthropus descended the
tree upon the opposite side from the great nocturnal prowler, and,
closely followed by Tarzan, moved silently away through the night
across the plain.
The ape-man was rather loath thus to relinquish an opportunity to
inspect a creature which he realized was probably entirely different
from anything in his past experience; yet he was wise enough to
know when discretion was the better part of valor and now, as in
the past, he yielded to that law which dominates the kindred of the
wild, preventing them from courting danger uselessly, whose lives
are sufficiently filled with danger in their ordinary routine of
feeding and mating.
As the rising sun dispelled the shadows of the night, Tarzan found
himself again upon the verge of a great forest into which his guide
plunged, taking nimbly to the branches of the trees through which
he made his way with the celerity of long habitude and hereditary
instinct, but though aided by a prehensile tail, fingers, and
toes, the man-thing moved through the forest with no greater ease
or surety than did the giant ape-man.
It was during this journey that Tarzan recalled the wound in his
side inflicted upon him the previous night by the raking talons
of Numa, the lion, and examining it was surprised to discover that
not only was it painless but along its edges were no indications
of inflammation, the results doubtless of the antiseptic powder
his strange companion had sprinkled upon it.
They had proceeded for a mile or two when Tarzan's companion came
to earth upon a grassy slope beneath a great tree whose branches
overhung a clear brook. Here they drank and Tarzan discovered
the water to be not only deliciously pure and fresh but of an icy
temperature that indicated its rapid descent from the lofty mountains
of its origin.
Casting aside his loin cloth and weapons Tarzan entered the little
pool beneath the tree and after a moment emerged, greatly refreshed
and filled with a keen desire to breakfast. As he came out of the
pool he noticed his companion examining him with a puzzled expression
upon his face. Taking the ape-man by the shoulder he turned him
around so that Tarzan's back was toward him and then, touching the
end of Tarzan's spine with his forefinger, he curled his own tail
up over his shoulder and, wheeling the ape-man about again, pointed
first at Tarzan and then at his own caudal appendage, a look of
puzzlement upon his face, the while he jabbered excitedly in his
strange tongue.
The ape-man realized that probably for the first time his companion
had discovered that he was tailless by nature rather than by
accident, and so he called attention to his own great toes and thumbs
to further impress upon the creature that they were of different
species.
The fellow shook his head dubiously as though entirely unable
to comprehend why Tarzan should differ so from him but at last,
apparently giving the problem up with a shrug, he laid aside his
own harness, skin, and weapons and entered the pool.
His ablutions completed and his meager apparel redonned he seated
himself at the foot of the tree and motioning Tarzan to a place
beside him, opened the pouch that hung at his right side taking from
it strips of dried flesh and a couple of handfuls of thin-shelled
nuts with which Tarzan was unfamiliar. Seeing the other break them
with his teeth and eat the kernel, Tarzan followed the example thus
set him, discovering the meat to be rich and well flavored. The
dried flesh also was far from unpalatable, though it had evidently
been jerked without salt, a commodity which Tarzan imagined might
be rather difficult to obtain in this locality.
As they ate Tarzan's companion pointed to the nuts, the dried meat,
and various other nearby objects, in each instance repeating what
Tarzan readily discovered must be the names of these things in the
creature's native language. The ape-man could but smile at this
evident desire upon the part of his new-found acquaintance to impart
to him instructions that eventually might lead to an exchange of
thoughts between them. Having already mastered several languages
and a multitude of dialects the ape-man felt that he could readily
assimilate another even though this appeared one entirely unrelated
to any with which he was familiar.
So occupied were they with their breakfast and the lesson that
neither was aware of the beady eyes glittering down upon them from
above; nor was Tarzan cognizant of any impending danger until the
instant that a huge, hairy body leaped full upon his companion from
the branches above them.
