3
Pan-at-lee
Night had fallen upon unchartered Pal-ul-don. A slender moon, low
in the west, bathed the white faces of the chalk cliffs presented
to her, in a mellow, unearthly glow. Black were the shadows in
Kor-ul-ja, Gorge-of-lions, where dwelt the tribe of the same name
under Es-sat, their chief. From an aperture near the summit of the
lofty escarpment a hairy figure emerged--the head and shoulders
first--and fierce eyes scanned the cliff side in every direction.
It was Es-sat, the chief. To right and left and below he looked
as though to assure himself that he was unobserved, but no other
figure moved upon the cliff face, nor did another hairy body protrude
from any of the numerous cave mouths from the high-flung abode of
the chief to the habitations of the more lowly members of the tribe
nearer the cliff's base. Then he moved outward upon the sheer face
of the white chalk wall. In the half-light of the baby moon it
appeared that the heavy, shaggy black figure moved across the face
of the perpendicular wall in some miraculous manner, but closer
examination would have revealed stout pegs, as large around as a
man's wrist protruding from holes in the cliff into which they were
driven. Es-sat's four handlike members and his long, sinuous tail
permitted him to move with consummate ease whither he chose--a
gigantic rat upon a mighty wall. As he progressed upon his way he
avoided the cave mouths, passing either above or below those that
lay in his path.
The outward appearance of these caves was similar. An opening from
eight to as much as twenty feet long by eight high and four to six
feet deep was cut into the chalklike rock of the cliff, in the back
of this large opening, which formed what might be described as the
front veranda of the home, was an opening about three feet wide
and six feet high, evidently forming the doorway to the interior
apartment or apartments. On either side of this doorway were smaller
openings which it were easy to assume were windows through which
light and air might find their way to the inhabitants. Similar
windows were also dotted over the cliff face between the entrance
porches, suggesting that the entire face of the cliff was honeycombed
with apartments. From many of these smaller apertures small streams
of water trickled down the escarpment, and the walls above others
was blackened as by smoke. Where the water ran the wall was eroded
to a depth of from a few inches to as much as a foot, suggesting
that some of the tiny streams had been trickling downward to the
green carpet of vegetation below for ages.
In this primeval setting the great pithecanthropus aroused no
jarring discord for he was as much a part of it as the trees that
grew upon the summit of the cliff or those that hid their feet
among the dank ferns in the bottom of the gorge.
Now he paused before an entrance-way and listened and then,
noiselessly as the moonlight upon the trickling waters, he merged
with the shadows of the outer porch. At the doorway leading into
the interior he paused again, listening, and then quietly pushing
aside the heavy skin that covered the aperture he passed within a
large chamber hewn from the living rock. From the far end, through
another doorway, shone a light, dimly. Toward this he crept with
utmost stealth, his naked feet giving forth no sound. The knotted
club that had been hanging at his back from a thong about his neck
he now removed and carried in his left hand.
Beyond the second doorway was a corridor running parallel with the
cliff face. In this corridor were three more doorways, one at each
end and a third almost opposite that in which Es-sat stood. The
light was coming from an apartment at the end of the corridor at his
left. A sputtering flame rose and fell in a small stone receptacle
that stood upon a table or bench of the same material, a monolithic
bench fashioned at the time the room was excavated, rising massively
from the floor, of which it was a part.
In one corner of the room beyond the table had been left a dais
of stone about four feet wide and eight feet long. Upon this were
piled a foot or so of softly tanned pelts from which the fur had
not been removed. Upon the edge of this dais sat a young female
Waz-don. In one hand she held a thin piece of metal, apparently
of hammered gold, with serrated edges, and in the other a short,
stiff brush. With these she was occupied in going over her smooth,
glossy coat which bore a remarkable resemblance to plucked sealskin.
Her loin cloth of yellow and black striped jato-skin lay on the
couch beside her with the circular breastplates of beaten gold,
revealing the symmetrical lines of her nude figure in all its beauty
and harmony of contour, for even though the creature was jet black
and entirely covered with hair yet she was undeniably beautiful.
That she was beautiful in the eyes of Es-sat, the chief, was
evidenced by the gloating expression upon his fierce countenance and
the increased rapidity of his breathing. Moving quickly forward he
entered the room and as he did so the young she looked up. Instantly
her eyes filled with terror and as quickly she seized the loin
cloth and with a few deft movements adjusted it about her. As she
gathered up her breastplates Es-sat rounded the table and moved
quickly toward her.
"What do you want?" she whispered, though she knew full well.
"Pan-at-lee," he said, "your chief has come for you."
"It was for this that you sent away my father and my brothers to
spy upon the Kor-ul-lul? I will not have you. Leave the cave of my
ancestors!"
Es-sat smiled. It was the smile of a strong and wicked man who knows
his power--not a pleasant smile at all. "I will leave, Pan-at-lee,"
he said; "but you shall go with me--to the cave of Es-sat, the
chief, to be the envied of the shes of Kor-ul-ja. Come!"
"Never!" cried Pan-at-lee. "I hate you. Sooner would I mate with
a Ho-don than with you, beater of women, murderer of babes."
A frightful scowl distorted the features of the chief. "She-jato!"
he cried. "I will tame you! I will break you! Es-sat, the chief,
takes what he will and who dares question his right, or combat his
least purpose, will first serve that purpose and then be broken
as I break this," and he picked a stone platter from the table and
broke it in his powerful hands. "You might have been first and most
favored in the cave of the ancestors of Es-sat; but now shall you
be last and least and when I am done with you you shall belong to
all of the men of Es-sat's cave. Thus for those who spurn the love
of their chief!"
He advanced quickly to seize her and as he laid a rough hand upon
her she struck him heavily upon the side of his head with her
golden breastplates. Without a sound Es-sat, the chief, sank to
the floor of the apartment. For a moment Pan-at-lee bent over him,
her improvised weapon raised to strike again should he show signs
of returning consciousness, her glossy breasts rising and falling
with her quickened breathing. Suddenly she stooped and removed
Es-sat's knife with its scabbard and shoulder belt. Slipping it
over her own shoulder she quickly adjusted her breastplates and
keeping a watchful glance upon the figure of the fallen chief,
backed from the room.
In a niche in the outer room, just beside the doorway leading to the
balcony, were neatly piled a number of rounded pegs from eighteen
to twenty inches in length. Selecting five of these she made them
into a little bundle about which she twined the lower extremity of
her sinuous tail and thus carrying them made her way to the outer
edge of the balcony. Assuring herself that there was none about
to see, or hinder her, she took quickly to the pegs already set in
the face of the cliff and with the celerity of a monkey clambered
swiftly aloft to the highest row of pegs which she followed in
the direction of the lower end of the gorge for a matter of some
hundred yards. Here, above her head, were a series of small round
holes placed one above another in three parallel rows. Clinging only
with her toes she removed two of the pegs from the bundle carried
in her tail and taking one in either hand she inserted them in
two opposite holes of the outer rows as far above her as she could
reach. Hanging by these new holds she now took one of the three
remaining pegs in each of her feet, leaving the fifth grasped securely
in her tail. Reaching above her with this member she inserted the
fifth peg in one of the holes of the center row and then, alternately
hanging by her tail, her feet, or her hands, she moved the pegs
upward to new holes, thus carrying her stairway with her as she
ascended.
At the summit of the cliff a gnarled tree exposed its time-worn
roots above the topmost holes forming the last step from the sheer
face of the precipice to level footing. This was the last avenue
of escape for members of the tribe hard pressed by enemies from
below. There were three such emergency exits from the village and it
were death to use them in other than an emergency. This Pan-at-lee
well knew; but she knew, too, that it were worse than death to
remain where the angered Es-sat might lay hands upon her.
When she had gained the summit, the girl moved quickly through
the darkness in the direction of the next gorge which cut the
mountain-side a mile beyond Kor-ul-ja. It was the Gorge-of-water,
Kor-ul-lul, to which her father and two brothers had been sent by
Es-sat ostensibly to spy upon the neighboring tribe. There was a
chance, a slender chance, that she might find them; if not there
was the deserted Kor-ul-gryf several miles beyond, where she might
hide indefinitely from man if she could elude the frightful monster
from which the gorge derived its name and whose presence there had
rendered its caves uninhabitable for generations.
Pan-at-lee crept stealthily along the rim of the Kor-ul-lul.
Just where her father and brothers would watch she did not know.
Sometimes their spies remained upon the rim, sometimes they watched
from the gorge's bottom. Pan-at-lee was at a loss to know what to
do or where to go. She felt very small and helpless alone in the
vast darkness of the night. Strange noises fell upon her ears. They
came from the lonely reaches of the towering mountains above her,
from far away in the invisible valley and from the nearer foothills
and once, in the distance, she heard what she thought was the bellow
of a bull gryf. It came from the direction of the Kor-ul-gryf. She
shuddered.
Presently there came to her keen ears another sound. Something
approached her along the rim of the gorge. It was coming from above.
She halted, listening. Perhaps it was her father, or a brother.
It was coming closer. She strained her eyes through the darkness.
She did not move--she scarcely breathed. And then, of a sudden,
quite close it seemed, there blazed through the black night two
yellow-green spots of fire.
Pan-at-lee was brave, but as always with the primitive, the darkness
held infinite terrors for her. Not alone the terrors of the known
but more frightful ones as well--those of the unknown. She had
passed through much this night and her nerves were keyed to the
highest pitch--raw, taut nerves, they were, ready to react in an
exaggerated form to the slightest shock.
But this was no slight shock. To hope for a father and a brother and
to see death instead glaring out of the darkness! Yes, Pan-at-lee
was brave, but she was not of iron. With a shriek that reverberated
among the hills she turned and fled along the rim of Kor-ul-lul and
behind her, swiftly, came the devil-eyed lion of the mountains of
Pal-ul-don.
Pan-at-lee was lost. Death was inevitable. Of this there could be
no doubt, but to die beneath the rending fangs of the carnivore,
congenital terror of her kind--it was unthinkable. But there was
an alternative. The lion was almost upon her--another instant and
he would seize her. Pan-at-lee turned sharply to her left. Just
a few steps she took in the new direction before she disappeared
over the rim of Kor-ul-lul. The baffled lion, planting all four
feet, barely stopped upon the verge of the abyss. Glaring down into
the black shadows beneath he mounted an angry roar.
Through the darkness at the bottom of Kor-ul-ja, Om-at led the way
toward the caves of his people. Behind him came Tarzan and Ta-den.
Presently they halted beneath a great tree that grew close to the
cliff.
"First," whispered Om-at, "I will go to the cave of Pan-at-lee.
Then will I seek the cave of my ancestors to have speech with my
own blood. It will not take long. Wait here--I shall return soon.
Afterward shall we go together to Ta-den's people."
He moved silently toward the foot of the cliff up which Tarzan
could presently see him ascending like a great fly on a wall. In
the dim light the ape-man could not see the pegs set in the face
of the cliff. Om-at moved warily. In the lower tier of caves there
should be a sentry. His knowledge of his people and their customs
told him, however, that in all probability the sentry was asleep.
In this he was not mistaken, yet he did not in any way abate
his wariness. Smoothly and swiftly he ascended toward the cave of
Pan-at-lee while from below Tarzan and Ta-den watched him.
"How does he do it?" asked Tarzan. "I can see no foothold upon that
vertical surface and yet he appears to be climbing with the utmost
ease."
Ta-den explained the stairway of pegs. "You could ascend easily,"
he said, "although a tail would be of great assistance."
They watched until Om-at was about to enter the cave of Pan-at-lee
without seeing any indication that he had been observed and then,
simultaneously, both saw a head appear in the mouth of one of the
lower caves. It was quickly evident that its owner had discovered
Om-at for immediately he started upward in pursuit. Without a word
Tarzan and Ta-den sprang forward toward the foot of the cliff. The
pithecanthropus was the first to reach it and the ape-man saw him
spring upward for a handhold on the lowest peg above him. Now Tarzan
saw other pegs roughly paralleling each other in zigzag rows up
the cliff face. He sprang and caught one of these, pulled himself
upward by one hand until he could reach a second with his other
hand; and when he had ascended far enough to use his feet, discovered
that he could make rapid progress. Ta-den was outstripping him,
however, for these precarious ladders were no novelty to him and,
further, he had an advantage in possessing a tail.
Nevertheless, the ape-man gave a good account of himself, being
presently urged to redoubled efforts by the fact that the Waz-don
above Ta-den glanced down and discovered his pursuers just before
the Ho-don overtook him. Instantly a wild cry shattered the silence
of the gorge--a cry that was immediately answered by hundreds of
savage throats as warrior after warrior emerged from the entrance
to his cave.
The creature who had raised the alarm had now reached the recess
before Pan-at-lee's cave and here he halted and turned to give
battle to Ta-den. Unslinging his club which had hung down his back
from a thong about his neck he stood upon the level floor of the
entrance-way effectually blocking Ta-den's ascent. From all directions
the warriors of Kor-ul-ja were swarming toward the interlopers.
Tarzan, who had reached a point on the same level with Ta-den but
a little to the latter's left, saw that nothing short of a miracle
could save them. Just at the ape-man's left was the entrance to
a cave that either was deserted or whose occupants had not as yet
been aroused, for the level recess remained unoccupied. Resourceful
was the alert mind of Tarzan of the Apes and quick to respond were the
trained muscles. In the time that you or I might give to debating
an action he would accomplish it and now, though only seconds
separated his nearest antagonist from him, in the brief span of
time at his disposal he had stepped into the recess, unslung his
long rope and leaning far out shot the sinuous noose, with the
precision of long habitude, toward the menacing figure wielding
its heavy club above Ta-den. There was a momentary pause of the
rope-hand as the noose sped toward its goal, a quick movement of
the right wrist that closed it upon its victim as it settled over
his head and then a surging tug as, seizing the rope in both hands,
Tarzan threw back upon it all the weight of his great frame.
Voicing a terrified shriek, the Waz-don lunged headforemost from
the recess above Ta-den. Tarzan braced himself for the coming
shock when the creature's body should have fallen the full length
of the rope and as it did there was a snap of the vertebrae that
rose sickeningly in the momentary silence that had followed the
doomed man's departing scream. Unshaken by the stress of the suddenly
arrested weight at the end of the rope, Tarzan quickly pulled the
body to his side that he might remove the noose from about its
neck, for he could not afford to lose so priceless a weapon.
During the several seconds that had elapsed since he cast the
rope the Waz-don warriors had remained inert as though paralyzed
by wonder or by terror. Now, again, one of them found his voice
and his head and straightway, shrieking invectives at the strange
intruder, started upward for the ape-man, urging his fellows to
attack. This man was the closest to Tarzan. But for him the ape-man
could easily have reached Ta-den's side as the latter was urging
him to do. Tarzan raised the body of the dead Waz-don above his
head, held it poised there for a moment as with face raised to the
heavens he screamed forth the horrid challenge of the bull apes of
the tribe of Kerchak, and with all the strength of his giant sinews
he hurled the corpse heavily upon the ascending warrior. So great
was the force of the impact that not only was the Waz-don torn from
his hold but two of the pegs to which he clung were broken short
in their sockets.
As the two bodies, the living and the dead, hurtled downward
toward the foot of the cliff a great cry arose from the Waz-don.
"Jad-guru-don! Jad-guru-don!" they screamed, and then: "Kill him!
Kill him!"
And now Tarzan stood in the recess beside Ta-den. Jad-guru-don!"
repeated the latter, smiling--"The terrible man! Tarzan the Terrible!
They may kill you, but they will never forget you."
"They shall not ki--What have we here?" Tarzan's statement as to
what "they" should not do was interrupted by a sudden ejaculation
as two figures, locked in deathlike embrace, stumbled through the
doorway of the cave to the outer porch. One was Om-at, the other a
creature of his own kind but with a rough coat, the hairs of which
seemed to grow straight outward from the skin, stiffly, unlike
Om-at's sleek covering. The two were quite evidently well matched
and equally evident was the fact that each was bent upon murder.
They fought almost in silence except for an occasional low growl
as one or the other acknowledged thus some new hurt.
Tarzan, following a natural impulse to aid his ally, leaped forward
to enter the dispute only to be checked by a grunted admonition
from Om-at. "Back!" he said. "This fight is mine, alone."
The ape-man understood and stepped aside.
"It is a gund-bar," explained Ta-den, "a chief-battle. This fellow
must be Es-sat, the chief. If Om-at kills him without assistance
Om-at may become chief."
Tarzan smiled. It was the law of his own jungle--the law of the
tribe of Kerchak, the bull ape--the ancient law of primitive man
that needed but the refining influences of civilization to introduce
the hired dagger and the poison cup. Then his attention was drawn
to the outer edge of the vestibule. Above it appeared the shaggy
face of one of Es-sat's warriors. Tarzan sprang to intercept the
man; but Ta-den was there ahead of him. "Back!" cried the Ho-don
to the newcomer. "It is gund-bar." The fellow looked scrutinizingly
at the two fighters, then turned his face downward toward his fellows.
"Back!" he cried, "it is gund-bar between Es-sat and Om-at." Then
he looked back at Ta-den and Tarzan. "Who are you?" he asked.
"We are Om-at's friends," replied Ta-den.
The fellow nodded. "We will attend to you later," he said and
disappeared below the edge of the recess.
The battle upon the ledge continued with unabated ferocity, Tarzan
and Ta-den having difficulty in keeping out of the way of the
contestants who tore and beat at each other with hands and feet and
lashing tails. Es-sat was unarmed--Pan-at-lee had seen to that--but
at Om-at's side swung a sheathed knife which he made no effort to
draw. That would have been contrary to their savage and primitive
code for the chief-battle must be fought with nature's weapons.
Sometimes they separated for an instant only to rush upon each other
again with all the ferocity and nearly the strength of mad bulls.
Presently one of them tripped the other but in that viselike embrace
one could not fall alone--Es-sat dragged Om-at with him, toppling
upon the brink of the niche. Even Tarzan held his breath. There they
surged to and fro perilously for a moment and then the inevitable
happened--the two, locked in murderous embrace, rolled over the
edge and disappeared from the ape-man's view.
Tarzan voiced a suppressed sigh for he had liked Om-at and then,
with Ta-den, approached the edge and looked over. Far below, in
the dim light of the coming dawn, two inert forms should be lying
stark in death; but, to Tarzan's amazement, such was far from the
sight that met his eyes. Instead, there were the two figures still
vibrant with life and still battling only a few feet below him.
Clinging always to the pegs with two holds--a hand and a foot, or
a foot and a tail, they seemed as much at home upon the perpendicular
wall as upon the level surface of the vestibule; but now their
tactics were slightly altered, for each seemed particularly bent
upon dislodging his antagonist from his holds and precipitating
him to certain death below. It was soon evident that Om-at, younger
and with greater powers of endurance than Es-sat, was gaining an
advantage. Now was the chief almost wholly on the defensive. Holding
him by the cross belt with one mighty hand Om-at was forcing his
foeman straight out from the cliff, and with the other hand and
one foot was rapidly breaking first one of Es-sat's holds and then
another, alternating his efforts, or rather punctuating them, with
vicious blows to the pit of his adversary's stomach. Rapidly was
Es-sat weakening and with the knowledge of impending death there
came, as there comes to every coward and bully under similar
circumstances, a crumbling of the veneer of bravado which had long
masqueraded as courage and with it crumbled his code of ethics. Now
was Es-sat no longer chief of Kor-ul-ja--instead he was a whimpering
craven battling for life. Clutching at Om-at, clutching at the
nearest pegs he sought any support that would save him from that
awful fall, and as he strove to push aside the hand of death,
whose cold fingers he already felt upon his heart, his tail sought
Om-at's side and the handle of the knife that hung there.
Tarzan saw and even as Es-sat drew the blade from its sheath he
dropped catlike to the pegs beside the battling men. Es-sat's tail
had drawn back for the cowardly fatal thrust. Now many others saw
the perfidious act and a great cry of rage and disgust arose from
savage throats; but as the blade sped toward its goal, the ape-man
seized the hairy member that wielded it, and at the same instant
Om-at thrust the body of Es-sat from him with such force that its
weakened holds were broken and it hurtled downward, a brief meteor
of screaming fear, to death.
