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It
was during this period that the young English lord found hidden in the
back of one of the cupboards in the cabin a small metal box.
The key was in the lock, and a few moments of investigation and
experimentation were rewarded with the successful opening of the
receptacle.
In
it he found a faded photograph of a smooth faced young man, a golden
locket studded with diamonds, linked to a small gold chain, a few letters
and a small book.
Tarzan
examined these all minutely.
The
photograph he liked most of all, for the eyes were smiling, and the face
was open and frank. It was
his father.
The
locket, too, took his fancy, and he placed the chain about his neck in
imitation of the ornamentation he had seen to be so common among the black
men he had visited. The brilliant stones gleamed strangely against his smooth,
brown hide.
The
letters he could scarcely decipher for he had learned little or nothing of
script, so he put them back in the box with the photograph and turned his
attention to the book.
This
was almost entirely filled with fine script, but while the little bugs
were all familiar to him, their arrangement and the combinations in which
they occurred were strange, and entirely incomprehensible.
Tarzan
had long since learned the use of the dictionary, but much to his sorrow
and perplexity it proved of no avail to him in this emergency.
Not a word of all that was writ in the book could he find, and so
he put it back in the metal box, but with a determination to work out the
mysteries of it later on.
Little
did he know that this book held between its covers the key to his
origin--the answer to the strange riddle of his strange life.
It was the diary of John Clayton, Lord Greystoke--kept in French,
as had always been his custom.
Tarzan
replaced the box in the cupboard, but always thereafter he carried the
features of the strong, smiling face of his father in his heart, and in
his head a fixed determination to solve the mystery of the strange words
in the little black book.
At
present he had more important business in hand, for his supply of arrows
was exhausted, and he must needs journey to the black men's village and
renew it.
Early
the following morning he set out, and, traveling rapidly, he came before
midday to the clearing. Once
more he took up his position in the great tree, and, as before, he saw the
women in the fields and the village street, and the cauldron of bubbling
poison directly beneath him.
For
hours he lay awaiting his opportunity to drop down unseen and gather up
the arrows for which he had come; but nothing now occurred to call the
villagers away from their homes. The
day wore on, and still Tarzan of the Apes crouched above the unsuspecting
woman at the cauldron.
Presently
the workers in the fields returned. The
hunting warriors emerged from the forest, and when all were within the
palisade the gates were closed and barred.
Many
cooking pots were now in evidence about the village. Before each hut a
woman presided over a boiling stew, while little cakes of plantain, and
cassava puddings were to be seen on every hand.
Suddenly
there came a hail from the edge of the clearing.
Tarzan
looked.
It
was a party of belated hunters returning from the north, and among them
they half led, half carried a struggling animal.
As
they approached the village the gates were thrown open to admit them, and
then, as the people saw the victim of the chase, a savage cry rose to the
heavens, for the quarry was a man.
As
he was dragged, still resisting, into the village street, the women and
children set upon him with sticks and stones, and Tarzan of the Apes,
young and savage beast of the jungle, wondered at the cruel brutality of
his own kind.
Sheeta,
the leopard, alone of all the jungle folk, tortured his prey.
The ethics of all the others meted a quick and merciful death to
their victims.
Tarzan
had learned from his books but scattered fragments of the ways of human
beings.
When
he had followed Kulonga through the forest he had expected to come to a
city of strange houses on wheels, puffing clouds of black smoke from a
huge tree stuck in the roof of one of them--or to a sea covered with
mighty floating buildings which he had learned were called, variously,
ships and boats and steamers and craft.
He
had been sorely disappointed with the poor little village of the blacks,
hidden away in his own jungle, and with not a single house as large as his
own cabin upon the distant beach.
He
saw that these people were more wicked than his own apes, and as savage
and cruel as Sabor, herself. Tarzan
began to hold his own kind in low esteem.
Now
they had tied their poor victim to a great post near the center of the
village, directly before Mbonga's hut, and here they formed a dancing,
yelling circle of warriors about him, alive with flashing knives and
menacing spears.
In
a larger circle squatted the women, yelling and beating upon drums.
It reminded Tarzan of the Dum-Dum, and so he knew what to expect.
He wondered if they would spring upon their meat while it was still
alive. The Apes did not do
such things as that.
The
circle of warriors about the cringing captive drew closer and closer to
their prey as they danced in wild and savage abandon to the maddening
music of the drums. Presently
a spear reached out and pricked the victim.
It was the signal for fifty others.
Eyes,
ears, arms and legs were pierced; every inch of the poor writhing body
that did not cover a vital organ became the target of the cruel lancers.
The
women and children shrieked their delight.
The
warriors licked their hideous lips in anticipation of the feast to come,
and vied with one another in the savagery and loathsomeness of the cruel
indignities with which they tortured the still conscious prisoner.
Then
it was that Tarzan of the Apes saw his chance.
All eyes were fixed upon the thrilling spectacle at the stake.
The light of day had given place to the darkness of a moonless
night, and only the fires in the immediate vicinity of the orgy had been
kept alight to cast a restless glow upon the restless scene.
Gently
the lithe boy dropped to the soft earth at the end of the village street.
Quickly he gathered up the arrows--all of them this time, for he
had brought a number of long fibers to bind them into a bundle.
Without
haste he wrapped them securely, and then, ere he turned to leave, the
devil of capriciousness entered his heart. He looked about for some hint
of a wild prank to play upon these strange, grotesque creatures that they
might be again aware of his presence among them.
Dropping
his bundle of arrows at the foot of the tree, Tarzan crept among the
shadows at the side of the street until he came to the same hut he had
entered on the occasion of his first visit.
Inside
all was darkness, but his groping hands soon found the object for which he
sought, and without further delay he turned again toward the door.
He
had taken but a step, however, ere his quick ear caught the sound of
approaching footsteps immediately without.
In another instant the figure of a woman darkened the entrance of
the hut.
Tarzan
drew back silently to the far wall, and his hand sought the long, keen
hunting knife of his father. The
woman came quickly to the center of the hut. There
she paused for an instant feeling about with her hands for the thing she
sought. Evidently it was not
in its accustomed place, for she explored ever nearer and nearer the wall
where Tarzan stood.
So
close was she now that the ape-man felt the animal warmth of her naked
body. Up went the hunting
knife, and then the woman turned to one side and soon a guttural
"ah" proclaimed that her search had at last been successful.
Immediately
she turned and left the hut, and as she passed through the doorway Tarzan
saw that she carried a cooking pot in her hand.
He
followed closely after her, and as he reconnoitered from the shadows of
the doorway he saw that all the women of the village were hastening to and
from the various huts with pots and kettles.
These they were filling with water and placing over a number of
fires near the stake where the dying victim now hung, an inert and bloody
mass of suffering.
Choosing
a moment when none seemed near, Tarzan hastened to his bundle of arrows
beneath the great tree at the end of the village street.
As on the former occasion he overthrew the cauldron before leaping,
sinuous and catlike, into the lower branches of the forest giant.
Silently
he climbed to a great height until he found a point where he could look
through a leafy opening upon the scene beneath him.
The
women were now preparing the prisoner for their cooking pots, while the
men stood about resting after the fatigue of their mad revel.
Comparative quiet reigned in the village.
Tarzan
raised aloft the thing he had pilfered from the hut, and, with aim made
true by years of fruit and coconut throwing, launched it toward the group
of savages.
Squarely
among them it fell, striking one of the warriors full upon the head and
felling him to the ground. Then
it rolled among the women and stopped beside the half-butchered thing they
were preparing to feast upon.
All
gazed in consternation at it for an instant, and then, with one accord,
broke and ran for their huts.
It
was a grinning human skull which looked up at them from the ground.
The dropping of the thing out of the open sky was a miracle well
aimed to work upon their superstitious fears.
Thus
Tarzan of the Apes left them filled with terror at this new manifestation
of the presence of some unseen and unearthly evil power which lurked in
the forest about their village.
Later,
when they discovered the overturned cauldron, and that once more their
arrows had been pilfered, it commenced to dawn upon them that they had
offended some great god by placing their village in this part of the
jungle without propitiating him. From then on an offering of food was daily placed below the
great tree from whence the arrows had disappeared in an effort to
conciliate the mighty one.
But
the seed of fear was deep sown, and had he but known it, Tarzan of the
Apes had laid the foundation for much future misery for himself and his
tribe.
That
night he slept in the forest not far from the village, and early the next
morning set out slowly on his homeward march, hunting as he traveled.
Only a few berries and an occasional grub worm rewarded his search,
and he was half famished when, looking up from a log he had been rooting
beneath, he saw Sabor, the lioness, standing in the center of the trail
not twenty paces from him.
The
great yellow eyes were fixed upon him with a wicked and baleful gleam, and
the red tongue licked the longing lips as Sabor crouched, worming her
stealthy way with belly flattened against the earth.
Tarzan
did not attempt to escape. He
welcomed the opportunity for which, in fact, he had been searching for
days past, now that he was armed with something more than a rope of grass.
Quickly
he unslung his bow and fitted a well-daubed arrow, and as Sabor sprang,
the tiny missile leaped to meet her in mid-air.
At the same instant Tarzan of the Apes jumped to one side, and as
the great cat struck the ground beyond him another death-tipped arrow sunk
deep into Sabor's loin.
With
a mighty roar the beast turned and charged once more, only to be met with
a third arrow full in one eye; but this time she was too close to the
ape-man for the latter to sidestep the onrushing body.
Tarzan
of the Apes went down beneath the great body of his enemy, but with
gleaming knife drawn and striking home. For a moment they lay there, and
then Tarzan realized that the inert mass lying upon him was beyond power
ever again to injure man or ape.
With
difficulty he wriggled from beneath the great weight, and as he stood
erect and gazed down upon the trophy of his skill, a mighty wave of
exultation swept over him.
With
swelling breast, he placed a foot upon the body of his powerful enemy, and
throwing back his fine young head, roared out the awful challenge of the
victorious bull ape.
The
forest echoed to the savage and triumphant paean. Birds fell still, and
the larger animals and beasts of prey slunk stealthily away, for few there
were of all the jungle who sought for trouble with the great anthropoids.
And
in London another Lord Greystoke was speaking to HIS kind in the House of
Lords, but none trembled at the sound of his soft voice.
Sabor
proved unsavory eating even to Tarzan of the Apes, but hunger served as a
most efficacious disguise to toughness and rank taste, and ere long, with
well-filled stomach, the ape-man was ready to sleep again.
First, however, he must remove the hide, for it was as much for
this as for any other purpose that he had desired to destroy Sabor.
Deftly
he removed the great pelt, for he had practiced often on smaller animals.
When the task was finished he carried his trophy to the fork of a
high tree, and there, curling himself securely in a crotch, he fell into
deep and dreamless slumber.
What
with loss of sleep, arduous exercise, and a full belly, Tarzan of the Apes
slept the sun around, awakening about noon of the following day.
He straightway repaired to the carcass of Sabor, but was angered to
find the bones picked clean by other hungry denizens of the jungle.
Half
an hour's leisurely progress through the forest brought to sight a young
deer, and before the little creature knew that an enemy was near a tiny
arrow had lodged in its neck.
So
quickly the virus worked that at the end of a dozen leaps the deer plunged
headlong into the undergrowth, dead. Again did Tarzan feast well, but this
time he did not sleep.
Instead,
he hastened on toward the point where he had left the tribe, and when he
had found them proudly exhibited the skin of Sabor, the lioness.
"Look!"
he cried, "Apes of Kerchak. See
what Tarzan, the mighty killer, has done.
Who else among you has ever killed one of Numa's people?
Tarzan is mightiest amongst you for Tarzan is no ape.
Tarzan is--" But here he stopped, for in the language of the anthropoids
there was no word for man, and Tarzan could only write the word in
English; he could not pronounce it.
The
tribe had gathered about to look upon the proof of his wondrous prowess,
and to listen to his words.
Only
Kerchak hung back, nursing his hatred and his rage.
Suddenly
something snapped in the wicked little brain of the anthropoid.
With a frightful roar the great beast sprang among the assemblage.
Biting,
and striking with his huge hands, he killed and maimed a dozen ere the
balance could escape to the upper terraces of the forest.
Frothing
and shrieking in the insanity of his fury, Kerchak looked about for the
object of his greatest hatred, and there, upon a near-by limb, he saw him
sitting.
"Come
down, Tarzan, great killer," cried Kerchak.
"Come down and feel the fangs of a greater!
Do mighty fighters fly to the trees at the first approach of
danger?" And then
Kerchak emitted the volleying challenge of his kind.
Quietly
Tarzan dropped to the ground. Breathlessly
the tribe watched from their lofty perches as Kerchak, still roaring,
charged the relatively puny figure.
Nearly
seven feet stood Kerchak on his short legs.
His enormous shoulders were bunched and rounded with huge muscles.
The back of his short neck was as a single lump of iron sinew which
bulged beyond the base of his skull, so that his head seemed like a small
ball protruding from a huge mountain of flesh.
His
back-drawn, snarling lips exposed his great fighting fangs, and his
little, wicked, blood-shot eyes gleamed in horrid reflection of his
madness.
Awaiting
him stood Tarzan, himself a mighty muscled animal, but his six feet of
height and his great rolling sinews seemed pitifully inadequate to the
ordeal which awaited them.
His
bow and arrows lay some distance away where he had dropped them while
showing Sabor's hide to his fellow apes, so that he confronted Kerchak now
with only his hunting knife and his superior intellect to offset the
ferocious strength of his enemy.
As
his antagonist came roaring toward him, Lord Greystoke tore his long knife
from its sheath, and with an answering challenge as horrid and
bloodcurdling as that of the beast he faced, rushed swiftly to meet the
attack. He was too shrewd to
allow those long hairy arms to encircle him, and just as their bodies were
about to crash together, Tarzan of the Apes grasped one of the huge wrists
of his assailant, and, springing lightly to one side, drove his knife to
the hilt into Kerchak's body, below the heart.
Before
he could wrench the blade free again, the bull's quick lunge to seize him
in those awful arms had torn the weapon from Tarzan's grasp.
Kerchak
aimed a terrific blow at the ape-man's head with the flat of his hand, a
blow which, had it landed, might easily have crushed in the side of
Tarzan's skull.
The
man was too quick, and, ducking beneath it, himself delivered a mighty
one, with clenched fist, in the pit of Kerchak's stomach.
The
ape was staggered, and what with the mortal wound in his side had almost
collapsed, when, with one mighty effort he rallied for an instant--just
long enough to enable him to wrest his arm free from Tarzan's grasp and
close in a terrific clinch with his wiry opponent.
Straining
the ape-man close to him, his great jaws sought Tarzan's throat, but the
young lord's sinewy fingers were at Kerchak's own before the cruel fangs
could close on the sleek brown skin.
Thus
they struggled, the one to crush out his opponent's life with those awful
teeth, the other to close forever the windpipe beneath his strong grasp
while he held the snarling mouth from him.
The
greater strength of the ape was slowly prevailing, and the teeth of the
straining beast were scarce an inch from Tarzan's throat when, with a
shuddering tremor, the great body stiffened for an instant and then sank
limply to the ground.
Kerchak
was dead.
Withdrawing
the knife that had so often rendered him master of far mightier muscles
than his own, Tarzan of the Apes placed his foot upon the neck of his
vanquished enemy, and once again, loud through the forest rang the fierce,
wild cry of the conqueror.
And
thus came the young Lord Greystoke into the kingship of the Apes.
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