Tarzan PDF

Jungle Tales of Tarzan
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Styled by LimpidSoft
Contents
Chapter 1. Tarzan’s First Love 4
Chapter 2. The Capture of Tarzan 35
Chapter 3. The Fight for the Balu 61
Chapter 4. The God of Tarzan 81
Chapter 5. Tarzan and the Black Boy 112
Chapter 6. The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance 155
2
CONTENTS
Chapter 7. The End of Bukawai 190
Chapter 8. The Lion 210
Chapter 9. The Nightmare 234
Chapter 10. The Battle for Teeka 258
Chapter 11. A Jungle Joke 292
Chapter 12. Tarzan Rescues the Moon 323
3
The present document was derived from text
provided by Project Gutenberg (document
106) which was made available free of charge.
This document is also free of charge.
Chapter 1. Tarzan's First Love
, stretched at luxurious ease in the shade of the

T EEKA
tropical forest, presented, unquestionably, a most al-
luring picture of young, feminine loveliness. Or at least
so thought Tarzan of the Apes, who squatted upon a low-
swinging branch in a near-by tree and looked down upon
her.
Just to have seen him there, lolling upon the sway-
ing bough of the jungle-forest giant, his brown skin mot-
tled by the brilliant equatorial sunlight which percolated
through the leafy canopy of green above him, his clean-
limbed body relaxed in graceful ease, his shapely head
partly turned in contemplative absorption and his intel-
5
CHAPTER 1. TARZAN’S FIRST LOVE
ligent, gray eyes dreamily devouring the object of their

devotion, you would have thought him the reincarnation
of some demigod of old.
You would not have guessed that in infancy he had
suckled at the breast of a hideous, hairy she-ape, nor
that in all his conscious past since his parents had passed
away in the little cabin by the landlocked harbor at the
jungle’s verge, he had known no other associates than the
sullen bulls and the snarling cows of the tribe of Kerchak,
the great ape.
Nor, could you have read the thoughts which passed
through that active, healthy brain, the longings and de-
sires and aspirations which the sight of Teeka inspired,
would you have been any more inclined to give credence
to the reality of the origin of the ape-man. For, from his
thoughts alone, you could never have gleaned the truth–
that he had been born to a gentle English lady or that his
sire had been an English nobleman of time-honored lin-
eage.
Lost to Tarzan of the Apes was the truth of his origin.
That he was John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, with a seat
in the House of Lords, he did not know, nor, knowing,
would have understood.
6
Yes, Teeka was indeed beautiful!

Of course Kala had been beautiful–one’s mother is al-
ways that–but Teeka was beautiful in a way all her own,
an indescribable sort of way which Tarzan was just begin-
ning to sense in a rather vague and hazy manner.
For years had Tarzan and Teeka been play-fellows, and
Teeka still continued to be playful while the young bulls
of her own age were rapidly becoming surly and morose.
Tarzan, if he gave the matter much thought at all, proba-
bly reasoned that his growing attachment for the young
female could be easily accounted for by the fact that of the
former playmates she and he alone retained any desire to
frolic as of old.
But today, as he sat gazing upon her, he found him-
self noting the beauties of Teeka’s form and features–
something he never had done before, since none of them
had aught to do with Teeka’s ability to race nimbly
through the lower terraces of the forest in the primitive
games of tag and hide-and-go-seek which Tarzan’s fertile
brain evolved. Tarzan scratched his head, running his fin-
gers deep into the shock of black hair which framed his
shapely, boyish face–he scratched his head and sighed.
Teeka’s new-found beauty became as suddenly his de-
7
spair. He envied her the handsome coat of hair which

covered her body. His own smooth, brown hide he hated
with a hatred born of disgust and contempt. Years back
he had harbored a hope that some day he, too, would be
clothed in hair as were all his brothers and sisters; but of
late he had been forced to abandon the delectable dream.
Then there were Teeka’s great teeth, not so large as
the males, of course, but still mighty, handsome things
by comparison with Tarzan’s feeble white ones. And
her beetling brows, and broad, flat nose, and her mouth!
Tarzan had often practiced making his mouth into a lit-
tle round circle and then puffing out his cheeks while he
winked his eyes rapidly; but he felt that he could never
do it in the same cute and irresistible way in which Teeka
did it.
And as he watched her that afternoon, and wondered,
a young bull ape who had been lazily foraging for food
beneath the damp, matted carpet of decaying vegetation
at the roots of a near-by tree lumbered awkwardly in
Teeka’s direction. The other apes of the tribe of Kerchak
moved listlessly about or lolled restfully in the midday
heat of the equatorial jungle. From time to time one or
another of them had passed close to Teeka, and Tarzan
had been uninterested. Why was it then that his brows
8
contracted and his muscles tensed as he saw Taug pause

beside the young she and then squat down close to her?
Tarzan always had liked Taug. Since childhood they
had romped together. Side by side they had squatted
near the water, their quick, strong fingers ready to leap
forth and seize Pisah, the fish, should that wary denizen
of the cool depths dart surfaceward to the lure of the in-
sects Tarzan tossed upon the face of the pool.
Together they had baited Tublat and teased Numa, the
lion. Why, then, should Tarzan feel the rise of the short
hairs at the nape of his neck merely because Taug sat close
to Teeka?
It is true that Taug was no longer the frolicsome ape
of yesterday. When his snarling-muscles bared his gi-
ant fangs no one could longer imagine that Taug was
in as playful a mood as when he and Tarzan had rolled
upon the turf in mimic battle. The Taug of today was a
huge, sullen bull ape, somber and forbidding. Yet he and
Tarzan never had quarreled.
For a few minutes the young ape-man watched Taug
press closer to Teeka. He saw the rough caress of the huge
paw as it stroked the sleek shoulder of the she, and then
9
Tarzan of the Apes slipped catlike to the ground and ap-

proached the two.
As he came his upper lip curled into a snarl, exposing
his fighting fangs, and a deep growl rumbled from his
cavernous chest. Taug looked up, batting his blood-shot
eyes. Teeka half raised herself and looked at Tarzan. Did
she guess the cause of his perturbation? Who may say?
At any rate, she was feminine, and so she reached up and
scratched Taug behind one of his small, flat ears.
Tarzan saw, and in the instant that he saw, Teeka was
no longer the little playmate of an hour ago; instead she
was a wondrous thing–the most wondrous in the world–
and a possession for which Tarzan would fight to the
death against Taug or any other who dared question his
right of proprietorship.
Stooped, his muscles rigid and one great shoulder
turned toward the young bull, Tarzan of the Apes sidled
nearer and nearer. His face was partly averted, but his
keen gray eyes never left those of Taug, and as he came,
his growls increased in depth and volume.
Taug rose upon his short legs, bristling. His fight-
ing fangs were bared. He, too, sidled, stiff-legged, and
growled.
10
"Teeka is Tarzan’s," said the ape-man, in the low gut-

turals of the great anthropoids.
"Teeka is Taug’s," replied the bull ape.
Thaka and Numgo and Gunto, disturbed by the growl-
ings of the two young bulls, looked up half apathetic, half
interested. They were sleepy, but they sensed a fight. It
would break the monotony of the humdrum jungle life
they led.
Coiled about his shoulders was Tarzan’s long grass
rope, in his hand was the hunting knife of the long-dead
father he had never known. In Taug’s little brain lay a
great respect for the shiny bit of sharp metal which the
ape-boy knew so well how to use. With it had he slain
Tublat, his fierce foster father, and Bolgani, the gorilla.
Taug knew these things, and so he came warily, circling
about Tarzan in search of an opening. The latter, made
cautious because of his lesser bulk and the inferiority of
his natural armament, followed similar tactics.
For a time it seemed that the altercation would follow
the way of the majority of such differences between mem-
bers of the tribe and that one of them would finally lose
interest and wander off to prosecute some other line of
endeavor. Such might have been the end of it had the
11
CASUS BELLI been other than it was; but Teeka was flat-
tered at the attention that was being drawn to her and
by the fact that these two young bulls were contemplat-
ing battle on her account. Such a thing never before had
occurred in Teeka’s brief life. She had seen other bulls
battling for other and older shes, and in the depth of her
wild little heart she had longed for the day when the jun-
gle grasses would be reddened with the blood of mortal
combat for her fair sake.
So now she squatted upon her haunches and insulted
both her admirers impartially. She hurled taunts at them
for their cowardice, and called them vile names, such as
Histah, the snake, and Dango, the hyena. She threatened
to call Mumga to chastise them with a stick–Mumga, who
was so old that she could no longer climb and so toothless
that she was forced to confine her diet almost exclusively
to bananas and grub-worms.
The apes who were watching heard and laughed. Taug
was infuriated. He made a sudden lunge for Tarzan,
but the ape-boy leaped nimbly to one side, eluding him,
and with the quickness of a cat wheeled and leaped back
again to close quarters. His hunting knife was raised
above his head as he came in, and he aimed a vicious
blow at Taug’s neck. The ape wheeled to dodge the
12
weapon so that the keen blade struck him but a glancing

blow upon the shoulder.
The spurt of red blood brought a shrill cry of delight
from Teeka. Ah, but this was something worth while! She
glanced about to see if others had witnessed this evidence
of her popularity. Helen of Troy was never one whit more
proud than was Teeka at that moment.
If Teeka had not been so absorbed in her own vainglo-
riousness she might have noted the rustling of leaves in
the tree above her–a rustling which was not caused by
any movement of the wind, since there was no wind.
And had she looked up she might have seen a sleek body
crouching almost directly over her and wicked yellow
eyes glaring hungrily down upon her, but Teeka did not
look up.
With his wound Taug had backed off growling horri-
bly. Tarzan had followed him, screaming insults at him,
and menacing him with his brandishing blade. Teeka
moved from beneath the tree in an effort to keep close
to the duelists.
The branch above Teeka bent and swayed a trifle with
the movement of the body of the watcher stretched along
it. Taug had halted now and was preparing to make a
13
new stand. His lips were flecked with foam, and saliva
drooled from his jowls. He stood with head lowered and
arms outstretched, preparing for a sudden charge to close
quarters. Could he but lay his mighty hands upon that
soft, brown skin the battle would be his. Taug considered
Tarzan’s manner of fighting unfair. He would not close.
Instead, he leaped nimbly just beyond the reach of Taug’s
muscular fingers.
The ape-boy had as yet never come to a real trial of
strength with a bull ape, other than in play, and so he
was not at all sure that it would be safe to put his muscles
to the test in a life and death struggle. Not that he was
afraid, for Tarzan knew nothing of fear. The instinct of
self-preservation gave him caution–that was all. He took
risks only when it seemed necessary, and then he would
hesitate at nothing.
His own method of fighting seemed best fitted to his
build and to his armament. His teeth, while strong and
sharp, were, as weapons of offense, pitifully inadequate
by comparison with the mighty fighting fangs of the an-
thropoids. By dancing about, just out of reach of an antag-
onist, Tarzan could do infinite injury with his long, sharp
hunting knife, and at the same time escape many of the
painful and dangerous wounds which would be sure to
14
follow his falling into the clutches of a bull ape.

And so Taug charged and bellowed like a bull, and
Tarzan of the Apes danced lightly to this side and that,
hurling jungle billingsgate at his foe, the while he nicked
him now and again with his knife.
There were lulls in the fighting when the two would
stand panting for breath, facing each other, mustering
their wits and their forces for a new onslaught. It was
during a pause such as this that Taug chanced to let his
eyes rove beyond his foeman. Instantly the entire aspect
of the ape altered. Rage left his countenance to be sup-
planted by an expression of fear.
With a cry that every ape there recognized, Taug turned
and fled. No need to question him–his warning pro-
claimed the near presence of their ancient enemy.
Tarzan started to seek safety, as did the other members
of the tribe, and as he did so he heard a panther’s scream
mingled with the frightened cry of a she-ape. Taug heard,
too; but he did not pause in his flight.
With the ape-boy, however, it was different. He looked
back to see if any member of the tribe was close pressed
by the beast of prey, and the sight that met his eyes filled
them with an expression of horror.
15
Teeka it was who cried out in terror as she fled across

a little clearing toward the trees upon the opposite side,
for after her leaped Sheeta, the panther, in easy, graceful
bounds. Sheeta appeared to be in no hurry. His meat
was assured, since even though the ape reached the trees
ahead of him she could not climb beyond his clutches be-
fore he could be upon her.
Tarzan saw that Teeka must die. He cried to Taug and
the other bulls to hasten to Teeka’s assistance, and at the
same time he ran toward the pursuing beast, taking down
his rope as he came. Tarzan knew that once the great bulls
were aroused none of the jungle, not even Numa, the lion,
was anxious to measure fangs with them, and that if all
those of the tribe who chanced to be present today would
charge, Sheeta, the great cat, would doubtless turn tail
and run for his life.
Taug heard, as did the others, but no one came to
Tarzan’s assistance or Teeka’s rescue, and Sheeta was
rapidly closing up the distance between himself and his
prey.
The ape-boy, leaping after the panther, cried aloud
to the beast in an effort to turn it from Teeka or other-
wise distract its attention until the she-ape could gain the
16
safety of the higher branches where Sheeta dared not go.

He called the panther every opprobrious name that fell to
his tongue. He dared him to stop and do battle with him;
but Sheeta only loped on after the luscious titbit now al-
most within his reach.
Tarzan was not far behind and he was gaining, but the
distance was so short that he scarce hoped to overhaul the
carnivore before it had felled Teeka. In his right hand the
boy swung his grass rope above his head as he ran. He
hated to chance a miss, for the distance was much greater
than he ever had cast before except in practice. It was the
full length of his grass rope which separated him from
Sheeta, and yet there was no other thing to do. He could
not reach the brute’s side before it overhauled Teeka. He
must chance a throw.
And just as Teeka sprang for the lower limb of a great
tree, and Sheeta rose behind her in a long, sinuous leap,
the coils of the ape-boy’s grass rope shot swiftly through
the air, straightening into a long thin line as the open
noose hovered for an instant above the savage head and
the snarling jaws. Then it settled–clean and true about
the tawny neck it settled, and Tarzan, with a quick twist
of his rope-hand, drew the noose taut, bracing himself for
the shock when Sheeta should have taken up the slack.
17
Just short of Teeka’s glossy rump the cruel talons raked

the air as the rope tightened and Sheeta was brought to a
sudden stop–a stop that snapped the big beast over upon
his back. Instantly Sheeta was up–with glaring eyes, and
lashing tail, and gaping jaws, from which issued hideous
cries of rage and disappointment.
He saw the ape-boy, the cause of his discomfiture,
scarce forty feet before him, and Sheeta charged.
Teeka was safe now; Tarzan saw to that by a quick
glance into the tree whose safety she had gained not an
instant too soon, and Sheeta was charging. It was useless
to risk his life in idle and unequal combat from which no
good could come; but could he escape a battle with the
enraged cat? And if he was forced to fight, what chance
had he to survive? Tarzan was constrained to admit that
his position was aught but a desirable one. The trees were
too far to hope to reach in time to elude the cat. Tarzan
could but stand facing that hideous charge. In his right
hand he grasped his hunting knife–a puny, futile thing in-
deed by comparison with the great rows of mighty teeth
which lined Sheeta’s powerful jaws, and the sharp talons
encased within his padded paws; yet the young Lord
Greystoke faced it with the same courageous resignation
with which some fearless ancestor went down to defeat
18
and death on Senlac Hill by Hastings.

From safety points in the trees the great apes watched,
screaming hatred at Sheeta and advice at Tarzan, for the
progenitors of man have, naturally, many human traits.
Teeka was frightened. She screamed at the bulls to has-
ten to Tarzan’s assistance; but the bulls were otherwise
engaged–principally in giving advice and making faces.
Anyway, Tarzan was not a real Mangani, so why should
they risk their lives in an effort to protect him?
And now Sheeta was almost upon the lithe, naked
body, and–the body was not there. Quick as was the great
cat, the ape-boy was quicker. He leaped to one side al-
most as the panther’s talons were closing upon him, and
as Sheeta went hurtling to the ground beyond, Tarzan
was racing for the safety of the nearest tree.
The panther recovered himself almost immediately
and, wheeling, tore after his prey, the ape-boy’s rope
dragging along the ground behind him. In doubling back
after Tarzan, Sheeta had passed around a low bush. It
was a mere nothing in the path of any jungle creature of
the size and weight of Sheeta–provided it had no trailing
rope dangling behind. But Sheeta was handicapped by
such a rope, and as he leaped once again after Tarzan of
19
the Apes the rope encircled the small bush, became tan-
gled in it and brought the panther to a sudden stop. An
instant later Tarzan was safe among the higher branches
of a small tree into which Sheeta could not follow him.
Here he perched, hurling twigs and epithets at the rag-
ing feline beneath him. The other members of the tribe
now took up the bombardment, using such hard-shelled
fruits and dead branches as came within their reach, until
Sheeta, goaded to frenzy and snapping at the grass rope,
finally succeeded in severing its strands. For a moment
the panther stood glaring first at one of his tormentors
and then at another, until, with a final scream of rage, he
turned and slunk off into the tangled mazes of the jungle.
A half hour later the tribe was again upon the ground,
feeding as though naught had occurred to interrupt the
somber dullness of their lives. Tarzan had recovered the
greater part of his rope and was busy fashioning a new
noose, while Teeka squatted close behind him, in evident
token that her choice was made.
Taug eyed them sullenly. Once when he came close,
Teeka bared her fangs and growled at him, and Tarzan
showed his canines in an ugly snarl; but Taug did not
provoke a quarrel. He seemed to accept after the manner
20
of his kind the decision of the she as an indication that he

had been vanquished in his battle for her favors.
Later in the day, his rope repaired, Tarzan took to the
trees in search of game. More than his fellows he re-
quired meat, and so, while they were satisfied with fruits
and herbs and beetles, which could be discovered with-
out much effort upon their part, Tarzan spent consider-
able time hunting the game animals whose flesh alone
satisfied the cravings of his stomach and furnished sus-
tenance and strength to the mighty thews which, day by
day, were building beneath the soft, smooth texture of his
brown hide.
Taug saw him depart, and then, quite casually, the big
beast hunted closer and closer to Teeka in his search for
food. At last he was within a few feet of her, and when he
shot a covert glance at her he saw that she was appraising
him and that there was no evidence of anger upon her
face.
Taug expanded his great chest and rolled about on his
short legs, making strange growlings in his throat. He
raised his lips, baring his fangs. My, but what great, beau-
tiful fangs he had! Teeka could not but notice them. She
also let her eyes rest in admiration upon Taug’s beetling
21
brows and his short, powerful neck. What a beautiful

creature he was indeed!
Taug, flattered by the unconcealed admiration in her
eyes, strutted about, as proud and as vain as a peacock.
Presently he began to inventory his assets, mentally, and
shortly he found himself comparing them with those of
his rival.
Taug grunted, for there was no comparison. How
could one compare his beautiful coat with the smooth
and naked hideousness of Tarzan’s bare hide? Who could
see beauty in the stingy nose of the Tarmangani after
looking at Taug’s broad nostrils? And Tarzan’s eyes!
Hideous things, showing white about them, and entirely
unrimmed with red. Taug knew that his own blood-shot
eyes were beautiful, for he had seen them reflected in the
glassy surface of many a drinking pool.
The bull drew nearer to Teeka, finally squatting close
against her. When Tarzan returned from his hunting a
short time later it was to see Teeka contentedly scratching
the back of his rival.
Tarzan was disgusted. Neither Taug nor Teeka saw
him as he swung through the trees into the glade. He
paused a moment, looking at them; then, with a sorrow-
22
ful grimace, he turned and faded away into the labyrinth

of leafy boughs and festooned moss out of which he had
come.
Tarzan wished to be as far away from the cause of his
heartache as he could. He was suffering the first pangs
of blighted love, and he didn’t quite know what was the
matter with him. He thought that he was angry with
Taug, and so he couldn’t understand why it was that he
had run away instead of rushing into mortal combat with
the destroyer of his happiness.
He also thought that he was angry with Teeka, yet a
vision of her many beauties persisted in haunting him, so
that he could only see her in the light of love as the most
desirable thing in the world.
The ape-boy craved affection. From babyhood until the
time of her death, when the poisoned arrow of Kulonga
had pierced her savage heart, Kala had represented to the
English boy the sole object of love which he had known.
In her wild, fierce way Kala had loved her adopted son,
and Tarzan had returned that love, though the outward
demonstrations of it were no greater than might have
been expected from any other beast of the jungle. It was
not until he was bereft of her that the boy realized how
23
deep had been his attachment for his mother, for as such
he looked upon her.
In Teeka he had seen within the past few hours a sub-
stitute for Kala–someone to fight for and to hunt for–
someone to caress; but now his dream was shattered.
Something hurt within his breast. He placed his hand
over his heart and wondered what had happened to him.
Vaguely he attributed his pain to Teeka. The more he
thought of Teeka as he had last seen her, caressing Taug,
the more the thing within his breast hurt him.
Tarzan shook his head and growled; then on and on
through the jungle he swung, and the farther he traveled
and the more he thought upon his wrongs, the nearer he
approached becoming an irreclaimable misogynist.
Two days later he was still hunting alone–very morose
and very unhappy; but he was determined never to re-
turn to the tribe. He could not bear the thought of seeing
Taug and Teeka always together. As he swung upon a
great limb Numa, the lion, and Sabor, the lioness, passed
beneath him, side by side, and Sabor leaned against the
lion and bit playfully at his cheek. It was a half-caress.
Tarzan sighed and hurled a nut at them.
Later he came upon several of Mbonga’s black war-
24
riors. He was upon the point of dropping his noose about

the neck of one of them, who was a little distance from
his companions, when he became interested in the thing
which occupied the savages. They were building a cage
in the trail and covering it with leafy branches. When
they had completed their work the structure was scarcely
visible.
Tarzan wondered what the purpose of the thing might
be, and why, when they had built it, they turned away
and started back along the trail in the direction of their
village.
It had been some time since Tarzan had visited the
blacks and looked down from the shelter of the great trees
which overhung their palisade upon the activities of his
enemies, from among whom had come the slayer of Kala.
Although he hated them, Tarzan derived considerable
entertainment in watching them at their daily life within
the village, and especially at their dances, when the fires
glared against their naked bodies as they leaped and
turned and twisted in mimic warfare. It was rather in the
hope of witnessing something of the kind that he now fol-
lowed the warriors back toward their village, but in this
he was disappointed, for there was no dance that night.
25
Instead, from the safe concealment of his tree, Tarzan

saw little groups seated about tiny fires discussing the
events of the day, and in the darker corners of the vil-
lage he descried isolated couples talking and laughing to-
gether, and always one of each couple was a young man
and the other a young woman.
Tarzan cocked his head upon one side and thought,
and before he went to sleep that night, curled in the crotch
of the great tree above the village, Teeka filled his mind,
and afterward she filled his dreams–she and the young
black men laughing and talking with the young black
women.
Taug, hunting alone, had wandered some distance
from the balance of the tribe. He was making his way
slowly along an elephant path when he discovered that
it was blocked with undergrowth. Now Taug, come into
maturity, was an evil-natured brute of an exceeding short
temper. When something thwarted him, his sole idea
was to overcome it by brute strength and ferocity, and so
now when he found his way blocked, he tore angrily into
the leafy screen and an instant later found himself within
a strange lair, his progress effectually blocked, notwith-
standing his most violent efforts to forge ahead.
26
Biting and striking at the barrier, Taug finally worked

himself into a frightful rage, but all to no avail; and at
last he became convinced that he must turn back. But
when he would have done so, what was his chagrin to
discover that another barrier had dropped behind him
while he fought to break down the one before him! Taug
was trapped. Until exhaustion overcame him he fought
frantically for his freedom; but all for naught.
In the morning a party of blacks set out from the vil-
lage of Mbonga in the direction of the trap they had con-
structed the previous day, while among the branches of
the trees above them hovered a naked young giant filled
with the curiosity of the wild things. Manu, the monkey,
chattered and scolded as Tarzan passed, and though he
was not afraid of the familiar figure of the ape-boy, he
hugged closer to him the little brown body of his life’s
companion. Tarzan laughed as he saw it; but the laugh
was followed by a sudden clouding of his face and a deep
sigh.
A little farther on, a gaily feathered bird strutted about
before the admiring eyes of his somber-hued mate. It
seemed to Tarzan that everything in the jungle was com-
bining to remind him that he had lost Teeka; yet every
day of his life he had seen these same things and thought
27
nothing of them.
When the blacks reached the trap, Taug set up a great
commotion. Seizing the bars of his prison, he shook them
frantically, and all the while he roared and growled terrif-
ically. The blacks were elated, for while they had not built
their trap for this hairy tree man, they were delighted
with their catch.
Tarzan pricked up his ears when he heard the voice of
a great ape and, circling quickly until he was down wind
from the trap, he sniffed at the air in search of the scent
spoor of the prisoner. Nor was it long before there came
to those delicate nostrils the familiar odor that told Tarzan
the identity of the captive as unerringly as though he had
looked upon Taug with his eyes. Yes, it was Taug, and he
was alone.
Tarzan grinned as he approached to discover what the
blacks would do to their prisoner. Doubtless they would
slay him at once. Again Tarzan grinned. Now he could
have Teeka for his own, with none to dispute his right to
her. As he watched, he saw the black warriors strip the
screen from about the cage, fasten ropes to it and drag it
away along the trail in the direction of their village.
Tarzan watched until his rival passed out of sight, still
28
beating upon the bars of his prison and growling out

his anger and his threats. Then the ape-boy turned and
swung rapidly off in search of the tribe, and Teeka.
Once, upon the journey, he surprised Sheeta and his
family in a little overgrown clearing. The great cat lay
stretched upon the ground, while his mate, one paw
across her lord’s savage face, licked at the soft white fur
at his throat.
Tarzan increased his speed then until he fairly flew
through the forest, nor was it long before he came upon
the tribe. He saw them before they saw him, for of all the
jungle creatures, none passed more quietly than Tarzan of
the Apes. He saw Kamma and her mate feeding side by
side, their hairy bodies rubbing against each other. And
he saw Teeka feeding by herself. Not for long would she
feed thus in loneliness, thought Tarzan, as with a bound
he landed amongst them.
There was a startled rush and a chorus of angry and
frightened snarls, for Tarzan had surprised them; but
there was more, too, than mere nervous shock to account
for the bristling neck hair which remained standing long
after the apes had discovered the identity of the new-
comer.
29
Tarzan noticed this as he had noticed it many times in

the past–that always his sudden coming among them left
them nervous and unstrung for a considerable time, and
that they one and all found it necessary to satisfy them-
selves that he was indeed Tarzan by smelling about him
a half dozen or more times before they calmed down.
Pushing through them, he made his way toward Teeka;
but as he approached her the ape drew away.
"Teeka," he said, "it is Tarzan. You belong to Tarzan. I
have come for you."
The ape drew closer, looking him over carefully. Fi-
nally she sniffed at him, as though to make assurance
doubly sure.
"Where is Taug?" she asked.
"The Gomangani have him," replied Tarzan. "They will
kill him."
In the eyes of the she, Tarzan saw a wistful expression
and a troubled look of sorrow as he told her of Taug’s fate;
but she came quite close and snuggled against him, and
Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, put his arm about her.
As he did so he noticed, with a start, the strange in-
congruity of that smooth, brown arm against the black
30
and hairy coat of his lady-love. He recalled the paw of

Sheeta’s mate across Sheeta’s face–no incongruity there.
He thought of little Manu hugging his she, and how the
one seemed to belong to the other. Even the proud male
bird, with his gay plumage, bore a close resemblance to
his quieter spouse, while Numa, but for his shaggy mane,
was almost a counterpart of Sabor, the lioness. The males
and the females differed, it was true; but not with such
differences as existed between Tarzan and Teeka.
Tarzan was puzzled. There was something wrong. His
arm dropped from the shoulder of Teeka. Very slowly he
drew away from her. She looked at him with her head
cocked upon one side. Tarzan rose to his full height and
beat upon his breast with his fists. He raised his head
toward the heavens and opened his mouth. From the
depths of his lungs rose the fierce, weird challenge of the
victorious bull ape. The tribe turned curiously to eye him.
He had killed nothing, nor was there any antagonist to be
goaded to madness by the savage scream. No, there was
no excuse for it, and they turned back to their feeding,
but with an eye upon the ape-man lest he be preparing to
suddenly run amuck.
As they watched him they saw him swing into a near-
by tree and disappear from sight. Then they forgot him,
31
even Teeka.
Mbonga’s black warriors, sweating beneath their stren-
uous task, and resting often, made slow progress toward
their village. Always the savage beast in the primitive
cage growled and roared when they moved him. He beat
upon the bars and slavered at the mouth. His noise was
hideous.
They had almost completed their journey and were
making their final rest before forging ahead to gain the
clearing in which lay their village. A few more minutes
would have taken them out of the forest, and then, doubt-
less, the thing would not have happened which did hap-
pen.
A silent figure moved through the trees above them.
Keen eyes inspected the cage and counted the number
of warriors. An alert and daring brain figured upon the
chances of success when a certain plan should be put to
the test.
Tarzan watched the blacks lolling in the shade. They
were exhausted. Already several of them slept. He crept
closer, pausing just above them. Not a leaf rustled before
his stealthy advance. He waited in the infinite patience
of the beast of prey. Presently but two of the warriors
32
remained awake, and one of these was dozing.

Tarzan of the Apes gathered himself, and as he did so
the black who did not sleep arose and passed around to
the rear of the cage. The ape-boy followed just above
his head. Taug was eyeing the warrior and emitting low
growls. Tarzan feared that the anthropoid would awaken
the sleepers.
In a whisper which was inaudible to the ears of the Ne-
gro, Tarzan whispered Taug’s name, cautioning the ape
to silence, and Taug’s growling ceased.
The black approached the rear of the cage and exam-
ined the fastenings of the door, and as he stood there the
beast above him launched itself from the tree full upon
his back. Steel fingers circled his throat, choking the cry
which sprang to the lips of the terrified man. Strong teeth
fastened themselves in his shoulder, and powerful legs
wound themselves about his torso.
The black in a frenzy of terror tried to dislodge the
silent thing which clung to him. He threw himself to the
ground and rolled about; but still those mighty fingers
closed more and more tightly their deadly grip.
The man’s mouth gaped wide, his swollen tongue pro-
truded, his eyes started from their sockets; but the relent-
33
less fingers only increased their pressure.

Taug was a silent witness of the struggle. In his
fierce little brain he doubtless wondered what purpose
prompted Tarzan to attack the black. Taug had not for-
gotten his recent battle with the ape-boy, nor the cause of
it. Now he saw the form of the Gomangani suddenly go
limp. There was a convulsive shiver and the man lay still.
Tarzan sprang from his prey and ran to the door of
the cage. With nimble fingers he worked rapidly at the
thongs which held the door in place. Taug could only
watch–he could not help. Presently Tarzan pushed the
thing up a couple of feet and Taug crawled out. The
ape would have turned upon the sleeping blacks that he
might wreak his pent vengeance; but Tarzan would not
permit it.
Instead, the ape-boy dragged the body of the black
within the cage and propped it against the side bars. Then
he lowered the door and made fast the thongs as they had
been before.
A happy smile lighted his features as he worked, for
one of his principal diversions was the baiting of the
blacks of Mbonga’s village. He could imagine their ter-
ror when they awoke and found the dead body of their
34
comrade fast in the cage where they had left the great ape
safely secured but a few minutes before.
Tarzan and Taug took to the trees together, the shaggy
coat of the fierce ape brushing the sleek skin of the En-
glish lordling as they passed through the primeval jungle
side by side.
"Go back to Teeka," said Tarzan. "She is yours. Tarzan
does not want her."
"Tarzan has found another she?" asked Taug.
The ape-boy shrugged.
"For the Gomangani there is another Gomangani," he
said; "for Numa, the lion, there is Sabor, the lioness; for
Sheeta there is a she of his own kind; for Bara, the deer;
for Manu, the monkey; for all the beasts and the birds of
the jungle is there a mate. Only for Tarzan of the Apes is
there none. Taug is an ape. Teeka is an ape. Go back to
Teeka. Tarzan is a man. He will go alone."
35
Chapter 2. The Capture of Tarzan
black warriers labored in the humid heat of the

T HE
jungle’s stifling shade. With war spears they loos-
ened the thick, black loam and the deep layers of rot-
ting vegetation. With heavy-nailed fingers they scooped
away the disintegrated earth from the center of the age-
old game trail. Often they ceased their labors to squat,
resting and gossiping, with much laughter, at the edge of
the pit they were digging.
Against the boles of near-by trees leaned their long,
oval shields of thick buffalo hide, and the spears of those
who were doing the scooping. Sweat glistened upon their
smooth, ebon skins, beneath which rolled rounded mus-
36
CHAPTER 2. THE CAPTURE OF TARZAN
cles, supple in the perfection of nature’s uncontaminated

health.
A reed buck, stepping warily along the trail toward wa-
ter, halted as a burst of laughter broke upon his startled
ears. For a moment he stood statuesque but for his sen-
sitively dilating nostrils; then he wheeled and fled noise-
lessly from the terrifying presence of man.
A hundred yards away, deep in the tangle of impen-
etrable jungle, Numa, the lion, raised his massive head.
Numa had dined well until almost daybreak and it had
required much noise to awaken him. Now he lifted his
muzzle and sniffed the air, caught the acrid scent spoor
of the reed buck and the heavy scent of man. But Numa
was well filled. With a low, disgusted grunt he rose and
slunk away.
Brilliantly plumaged birds with raucous voices darted
from tree to tree. Little monkeys, chattering and scolding,
swung through the swaying limbs above the black war-
riors. Yet they were alone, for the teeming jungle with
all its myriad life, like the swarming streets of a great
metropolis, is one of the loneliest spots in God’s great uni-
verse.
But were they alone?
37
Above them, lightly balanced upon a leafy tree limb, a

gray-eyed youth watched with eager intentness their ev-
ery move. The fire of hate, restrained, smoldered beneath
the lad’s evident desire to know the purpose of the black
men’s labors. Such a one as these it was who had slain
his beloved Kala. For them there could be naught but en-
mity, yet he liked well to watch them, avid as he was for
greater knowledge of the ways of man.
He saw the pit grow in depth until a great hole yawned
the width of the trail–a hole which was amply large
enough to hold at one time all of the six excavators.
Tarzan could not guess the purpose of so great a labor.
And when they cut long stakes, sharpened at their up-
per ends, and set them at intervals upright in the bottom
of the pit, his wonderment but increased, nor was it sat-
isfied with the placing of the light cross-poles over the
pit, or the careful arrangement of leaves and earth which
completely hid from view the work the black men had
performed.
When they were done they surveyed their handiwork
with evident satisfaction, and Tarzan surveyed it, too.
Even to his practiced eye there remained scarce a vestige
of evidence that the ancient game trail had been tampered
with in any way.
38
So absorbed was the ape-man in speculation as to the

purpose of the covered pit that he permitted the blacks to
depart in the direction of their village without the usual
baiting which had rendered him the terror of Mbonga’s
people and had afforded Tarzan both a vehicle of revenge
and a source of inexhaustible delight.
Puzzle as he would, however, he could not solve the
mystery of the concealed pit, for the ways of the blacks
were still strange ways to Tarzan. They had entered his
jungle but a short time before–the first of their kind to en-
croach upon the age-old supremacy of the beasts which
laired there. To Numa, the lion, to Tantor, the elephant, to
the great apes and the lesser apes, to each and all of the
myriad creatures of this savage wild, the ways of man
were new. They had much to learn of these black, hair-
less creatures that walked erect upon their hind paws–
and they were learning it slowly, and always to their sor-
row.
Shortly after the blacks had departed, Tarzan swung
easily to the trail. Sniffing suspiciously, he circled the
edge of the pit. Squatting upon his haunches, he scraped
away a little earth to expose one of the cross-bars. He
sniffed at this, touched it, cocked his head upon one side,
and contemplated it gravely for several minutes. Then
39
he carefully re-covered it, arranging the earth as neatly as

had the blacks. This done, he swung himself back among
the branches of the trees and moved off in search of his
hairy fellows, the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak.
Once he crossed the trail of Numa, the lion, pausing for
a moment to hurl a soft fruit at the snarling face of his en-
emy, and to taunt and insult him, calling him eater of car-
rion and brother of Dango, the hyena. Numa, his yellow-
green eyes round and burning with concentrated hate,
glared up at the dancing figure above him. Low growls
vibrated his heavy jowls and his great rage transmitted
to his sinuous tail a sharp, whiplike motion; but realizing
from past experience the futility of long distance argu-
ment with the ape-man, he turned presently and struck
off into the tangled vegetation which hid him from the
view of his tormentor. With a final scream of jungle invec-
tive and an apelike grimace at his departing foe, Tarzan
continued along his way.
Another mile and a shifting wind brought to his keen
nostrils a familiar, pungent odor close at hand, and a mo-
ment later there loomed beneath him a huge, gray-black
bulk forging steadily along the jungle trail. Tarzan seized
and broke a small tree limb, and at the sudden crack-
ing sound the ponderous figure halted. Great ears were
40
thrown forward, and a long, supple trunk rose quickly

to wave to and fro in search of the scent of an enemy,
while two weak, little eyes peered suspiciously and fu-
tilely about in quest of the author of the noise which had
disturbed his peaceful way.
Tarzan laughed aloud and came closer above the head
of the pachyderm.
"Tantor! Tantor!" he cried. "Bara, the deer, is less fearful
than you–you, Tantor, the elephant, greatest of the jungle
folk with the strength of as many Numas as I have toes
upon my feet and fingers upon my hands. Tantor, who
can uproot great trees, trembles with fear at the sound of
a broken twig."
A rumbling noise, which might have been either a sign
of contempt or a sigh of relief, was Tantor’s only reply
as the uplifted trunk and ears came down and the beast’s
tail dropped to normal; but his eyes still roved about in
search of Tarzan. He was not long kept in suspense, how-
ever, as to the whereabouts of the ape-man, for a sec-
ond later the youth dropped lightly to the broad head of
his old friend. Then stretching himself at full length, he
drummed with his bare toes upon the thick hide, and as
his fingers scratched the more tender surfaces beneath the
41
great ears, he talked to Tantor of the gossip of the jungle

as though the great beast understood every word that he
said.
Much there was which Tarzan could make Tantor un-
derstand, and though the small talk of the wild was be-
yond the great, gray dreadnaught of the jungle, he stood
with blinking eyes and gently swaying trunk as though
drinking in every word of it with keenest appreciation.
As a matter of fact it was the pleasant, friendly voice
and caressing hands behind his ears which he enjoyed,
and the close proximity of him whom he had often borne
upon his back since Tarzan, as a little child, had once fear-
lessly approached the great bull, assuming upon the part
of the pachyderm the same friendliness which filled his
own heart.
In the years of their association Tarzan had discovered
that he possessed an inexplicable power to govern and
direct his mighty friend. At his bidding, Tantor would
come from a great distance–as far as his keen ears could
detect the shrill and piercing summons of the ape-man–
and when Tarzan was squatted upon his head, Tantor
would lumber through the jungle in any direction which
his rider bade him go. It was the power of the man-mind
over that of the brute and it was just as effective as though
42
both fully understood its origin, though neither did.

For half an hour Tarzan sprawled there upon Tantor’s
back. Time had no meaning for either of them. Life, as
they saw it, consisted principally in keeping their stom-
achs filled. To Tarzan this was a less arduous labor than to
Tantor, for Tarzan’s stomach was smaller, and being om-
nivorous, food was less difficult to obtain. If one sort did
not come readily to hand, there were always many others
to satisfy his hunger. He was less particular as to his diet
than Tantor, who would eat only the bark of certain trees,
and the wood of others, while a third appealed to him
only through its leaves, and these, perhaps, just at certain
seasons of the year.
Tantor must needs spend the better part of his life
in filling his immense stomach against the needs of his
mighty thews. It is thus with all the lower orders–their
lives are so occupied either with searching for food or
with the processes of digestion that they have little time
for other considerations. Doubtless it is this handicap
which has kept them from advancing as rapidly as man,
who has more time to give to thought upon other matters.
However, these questions troubled Tarzan but little,
and Tantor not at all. What the former knew was that
43
he was happy in the companionship of the elephant. He

did not know why. He did not know that because he
was a human being–a normal, healthy human being–he
craved some living thing upon which to lavish his affec-
tion. His childhood playmates among the apes of Ker-
chak were now great, sullen brutes. They felt nor inspired
but little affection. The younger apes Tarzan still played
with occasionally. In his savage way he loved them; but
they were far from satisfying or restful companions. Tan-
tor was a great mountain of calm, of poise, of stability.
It was restful and satisfying to sprawl upon his rough
pate and pour one’s vague hopes and aspirations into the
great ears which flapped ponderously to and fro in ap-
parent understanding. Of all the jungle folk, Tantor com-
manded Tarzan’s greatest love since Kala had been taken
from him. Sometimes Tarzan wondered if Tantor recipro-
cated his affection. It was difficult to know.
It was the call of the stomach–the most compelling and
insistent call which the jungle knows–that took Tarzan fi-
nally back to the trees and off in search of food, while
Tantor continued his interrupted journey in the opposite
direction.
For an hour the ape-man foraged. A lofty nest yielded
its fresh, warm harvest. Fruits, berries, and tender plan-
44
tain found a place upon his menu in the order that he hap-
pened upon them, for he did not seek such foods. Meat,
meat, meat! It was always meat that Tarzan of the Apes
hunted; but sometimes meat eluded him, as today.
And as he roamed the jungle his active mind busied
itself not alone with his hunting, but with many other
subjects. He had a habit of recalling often the events of
the preceding days and hours. He lived over his visit
with Tantor; he cogitated upon the digging blacks and
the strange, covered pit they had left behind them. He
wondered again and again what its purpose might be.
He compared perceptions and arrived at judgments. He
compared judgments, reaching conclusions–not always
correct ones, it is true, but at least he used his brain for the
purpose God intended it, which was the less difficult be-
cause he was not handicapped by the second-hand, and
usually erroneous, judgment of others.
And as he puzzled over the covered pit, there loomed
suddenly before his mental vision a huge, gray-black
bulk which lumbered ponderously along a jungle trail.
Instantly Tarzan tensed to the shock of a sudden fear. De-
cision and action usually occurred simultaneously in the
life of the ape-man, and now he was away through the
leafy branches ere the realization of the pit’s purpose had
45
scarce formed in his mind.

Swinging from swaying limb to swaying limb, he raced
through the middle terraces where the trees grew close
together. Again he dropped to the ground and sped,
silently and light of foot, over the carpet of decaying veg-
etation, only to leap again into the trees where the tangled
undergrowth precluded rapid advance upon the surface.
In his anxiety he cast discretion to the winds. The cau-
tion of the beast was lost in the loyalty of the man, and
so it came that he entered a large clearing, denuded of
trees, without a thought of what might lie there or upon
the farther edge to dispute the way with him.
He was half way across when directly in his path and
but a few yards away there rose from a clump of tall
grasses a half dozen chattering birds. Instantly Tarzan
turned aside, for he knew well enough what manner of
creature the presence of these little sentinels proclaimed.
Simultaneously Buto, the rhinoceros, scrambled to his
short legs and charged furiously. Haphazard charges
Buto, the rhinoceros. With his weak eyes he sees but
poorly even at short distances, and whether his erratic
rushes are due to the panic of fear as he attempts to es-
cape, or to the irascible temper with which he is gener-
46
ally credited, it is difficult to determine. Nor is the matter

of little moment to one whom Buto charges, for if he be
caught and tossed, the chances are that naught will inter-
est him thereafter.
And today it chanced that Buto bore down straight
upon Tarzan, across the few yards of knee-deep grass
which separated them. Accident started him in the di-
rection of the ape-man, and then his weak eyes discerned
the enemy, and with a series of snorts he charged straight
for him. The little rhino birds fluttered and circled about
their giant ward. Among the branches of the trees at the
edge of the clearing, a score or more monkeys chattered
and scolded as the loud snorts of the angry beast sent
them scurrying affrightedly to the upper terraces. Tarzan
alone appeared indifferent and serene.
Directly in the path of the charge he stood. There had
been no time to seek safety in the trees beyond the clear-
ing, nor had Tarzan any mind to delay his journey be-
cause of Buto. He had met the stupid beast before and
held him in fine contempt.
And now Buto was upon him, the massive head low-
ered and the long, heavy horn inclined for the frightful
work for which nature had designed it; but as he struck
47
upward, his weapon raked only thin air, for the ape-man
had sprung lightly aloft with a catlike leap that carried
him above the threatening horn to the broad back of the
rhinoceros. Another spring and he was on the ground
behind the brute and racing like a deer for the trees.
Buto, angered and mystified by the strange disappear-
ance of his prey, wheeled and charged frantically in an-
other direction, which chanced to be not the direction of
Tarzan’s flight, and so the ape-man came in safety to the
trees and continued on his swift way through the forest.
Some distance ahead of him Tantor moved steadily
along the well-worn elephant trail, and ahead of Tantor
a crouching, black warrior listened intently in the mid-
dle of the path. Presently he heard the sound for which
he had been hoping–the cracking, snapping sound which
heralded the approach of an elephant.
To his right and left in other parts of the jungle other
warriors were watching. A low signal, passed from one
to another, apprised the most distant that the quarry was
afoot. Rapidly they converged toward the trail, taking po-
sitions in trees down wind from the point at which Tan-
tor must pass them. Silently they waited and presently
were rewarded by the sight of a mighty tusker carrying
48
an amount of ivory in his long tusks that set their greedy

hearts to palpitating.
No sooner had he passed their positions than the war-
riors clambered from their perches. No longer were they
silent, but instead clapped their hands and shouted as
they reached the ground. For an instant Tantor, the ele-
phant, paused with upraised trunk and tail, with great
ears up-pricked, and then he swung on along the trail at
a rapid, shuffling pace–straight toward the covered pit
with its sharpened stakes upstanding in the ground.
Behind him came the yelling warriors, urging him on
in the rapid flight which would not permit a careful ex-
amination of the ground before him. Tantor, the elephant,
who could have turned and scattered his adversaries with
a single charge, fled like a frightened deer–fled toward a
hideous, torturing death.
And behind them all came Tarzan of the Apes, racing
through the jungle forest with the speed and agility of a
squirrel, for he had heard the shouts of the warriors and
had interpreted them correctly. Once he uttered a pierc-
ing call that reverberated through the jungle; but Tantor,
in the panic of terror, either failed to hear, or hearing,
dared not pause to heed.
49
Now the giant pachyderm was but a few yards from

the hidden death lurking in his path, and the blacks, cer-
tain of success, were screaming and dancing in his wake,
waving their war spears and celebrating in advance the
acquisition of the splendid ivory carried by their prey and
the surfeit of elephant meat which would be theirs this
night.
So intent were they upon their gratulations that they
entirely failed to note the silent passage of the man-beast
above their heads, nor did Tantor, either, see or hear him,
even though Tarzan called to him to stop.
A few more steps would precipitate Tantor upon the
sharpened stakes; Tarzan fairly flew through the trees un-
til he had come abreast of the fleeing animal and then had
passed him. At the pit’s verge the ape-man dropped to
the ground in the center of the trail. Tantor was almost
upon him before his weak eyes permitted him to recog-
nize his old friend.
"Stop!" cried Tarzan, and the great beast halted to the
upraised hand.
Tarzan turned and kicked aside some of the brush
which hid the pit. Instantly Tantor saw and understood.
"Fight!" growled Tarzan. "They are coming behind
50
you." But Tantor, the elephant, is a huge bunch of nerves,

and now he was half panic-stricken by terror.
Before him yawned the pit, how far he did not know,
but to right and left lay the primeval jungle untouched
by man. With a squeal the great beast turned suddenly
at right angles and burst his noisy way through the solid
wall of matted vegetation that would have stopped any
but him.
Tarzan, standing upon the edge of the pit, smiled as
he watched Tantor’s undignified flight. Soon the blacks
would come. It was best that Tarzan of the Apes faded
from the scene. He essayed a step from the pit’s edge,
and as he threw the weight of his body upon his left
foot, the earth crumbled away. Tarzan made a single Her-
culean effort to throw himself forward, but it was too late.
Backward and downward he went toward the sharpened
stakes in the bottom of the pit.
When, a moment later, the blacks came they saw even
from a distance that Tantor had eluded them, for the size
of the hole in the pit covering was too small to have ac-
commodated the huge bulk of an elephant. At first they
thought that their prey had put one great foot through the
top and then, warned, drawn back; but when they had
51
come to the pit’s verge and peered over, their eyes went
wide in astonishment, for, quiet and still, at the bottom
lay the naked figure of a white giant.
Some of them there had glimpsed this forest god be-
fore and they drew back in terror, awed by the presence
which they had for some time believed to possess the
miraculous powers of a demon; but others there were
who pushed forward, thinking only of the capture of an
enemy, and these leaped into the pit and lifted Tarzan out.
There was no scar upon his body. None of the sharp-
ened stakes had pierced him–only a swollen spot at the
base of the brain indicated the nature of his injury. In
the falling backward his head had struck upon the side of
one of the stakes, rendering him unconscious. The blacks
were quick to discover this, and equally quick to bind
their prisoner’s arms and legs before he should regain
consciousness, for they had learned to harbor a whole-
some respect for this strange man-beast that consorted
with the hairy tree folk.
They had carried him but a short distance toward their
village when the ape-man’s eyelids quivered and raised.
He looked about him wonderingly for a moment, and
then full consciousness returned and he realized the se-
52
riousness of his predicament. Accustomed almost from

birth to relying solely upon his own resources, he did not
cast about for outside aid now, but devoted his mind to
a consideration of the possibilities for escape which lay
within himself and his own powers.
He did not dare test the strength of his bonds while the
blacks were carrying him, for fear they would become ap-
prehensive and add to them. Presently his captors discov-
ered that he was conscious, and as they had little stomach
for carrying a heavy man through the jungle heat, they set
him upon his feet and forced him forward among them,
pricking him now and then with their spears, yet with ev-
ery manifestation of the superstitious awe in which they
held him.
When they discovered that their prodding brought no
outward evidence of suffering, their awe increased, so
that they soon desisted, half believing that this strange
white giant was a supernatural being and so was immune
from pain.
As they approached their village, they shouted aloud
the victorious cries of successful warriors, so that by the
time they reached the gate, dancing and waving their
spears, a great crowd of men, women, and children were
53
gathered there to greet them and hear the story of their

adventure.
As the eyes of the villagers fell upon the prisoner, they
went wild, and heavy jaws fell open in astonishment
and incredulity. For months they had lived in perpet-
ual terror of a weird, white demon whom but few had
ever glimpsed and lived to describe. Warriors had disap-
peared from the paths almost within sight of the village
and from the midst of their companions as mysteriously
and completely as though they had been swallowed by
the earth, and later, at night, their dead bodies had fallen,
as from the heavens, into the village street.
This fearsome creature had appeared by night in the
huts of the village, killed, and disappeared, leaving be-
hind him in the huts with his dead, strange and terrifying
evidences of an uncanny sense of humor.
But now he was in their power! No longer could he ter-
rorize them. Slowly the realization of this dawned upon
them. A woman, screaming, ran forward and struck the
ape-man across the face. Another and another followed
her example, until Tarzan of the Apes was surrounded by
a fighting, clawing, yelling mob of natives.
And then Mbonga, the chief, came, and laying his
54
spear heavily across the shoulders of his people, drove

them from their prey.
"We will save him until night," he said.
Far out in the jungle Tantor, the elephant, his first panic
of fear allayed, stood with up-pricked ears and undulat-
ing trunk. What was passing through the convolutions
of his savage brain? Could he be searching for Tarzan?
Could he recall and measure the service the ape-man had
performed for him? Of that there can be no doubt. But
did he feel gratitude? Would he have risked his own life
to have saved Tarzan could he have known of the danger
which confronted his friend? You will doubt it. Anyone
at all familiar with elephants will doubt it. Englishmen
who have hunted much with elephants in India will tell
you that they never have heard of an instance in which
one of these animals has gone to the aid of a man in dan-
ger, even though the man had often befriended it. And so
it is to be doubted that Tantor would have attempted to
overcome his instinctive fear of the black men in an effort
to succor Tarzan.
The screams of the infuriated villagers came faintly
to his sensitive ears, and he wheeled, as though in ter-
ror, contemplating flight; but something stayed him, and
55
again he turned about, raised his trunk, and gave voice to

a shrill cry.
Then he stood listening.
In the distant village where Mbonga had restored quiet
and order, the voice of Tantor was scarcely audible to the
blacks, but to the keen ears of Tarzan of the Apes it bore
its message.
His captors were leading him to a hut where he might
be confined and guarded against the coming of the noc-
turnal orgy that would mark his torture-laden death. He
halted as he heard the notes of Tantor’s call, and rais-
ing his head, gave vent to a terrifying scream that sent
cold chills through the superstitious blacks and caused
the warriors who guarded him to leap back even though
their prisoner’s arms were securely bound behind him.
With raised spears they encircled him as for a moment
longer he stood listening. Faintly from the distance came
another, an answering cry, and Tarzan of the Apes, satis-
fied, turned and quietly pursued his way toward the hut
where he was to be imprisoned.
The afternoon wore on. From the surrounding village
the ape-man heard the bustle of preparation for the feast.
56
Through the doorway of the hut he saw the women lay-

ing the cooking fires and filling their earthen caldrons
with water; but above it all his ears were bent across the
jungle in eager listening for the coming of Tantor.
Even Tarzan but half believed that he would come. He
knew Tantor even better than Tantor knew himself. He
knew the timid heart which lay in the giant body. He
knew the panic of terror which the scent of the Goman-
gani inspired within that savage breast, and as night drew
on, hope died within his heart and in the stoic calm of the
wild beast which he was, he resigned himself to meet the
fate which awaited him.
All afternoon he had been working, working, work-
ing with the bonds that held his wrists. Very slowly they
were giving. He might free his hands before they came to
lead him out to be butchered, and if he did–Tarzan licked
his lips in anticipation, and smiled a cold, grim smile. He
could imagine the feel of soft flesh beneath his fingers and
the sinking of his white teeth into the throats of his foe-
men. He would let them taste his wrath before they over-
powered him!
At last they came–painted, befeathered warriors–even
more hideous than nature had intended them. They came
57
and pushed him into the open, where his appearance was
greeted by wild shouts from the assembled villagers.
To the stake they led him, and as they pushed him
roughly against it preparatory to binding him there se-
curely for the dance of death that would presently encir-
cle him, Tarzan tensed his mighty thews and with a sin-
gle, powerful wrench parted the loosened thongs which
had secured his hands. Like thought, for quickness, he
leaped forward among the warriors nearest him. A blow
sent one to earth, as, growling and snarling, the beast-
man leaped upon the breast of another. His fangs were
buried instantly in the jugular of his adversary and then a
half hundred black men had leaped upon him and borne
him to earth.
Striking, clawing, and snapping, the ape-man fought–
fought as his foster people had taught him to fight–fought
like a wild beast cornered. His strength, his agility, his
courage, and his intelligence rendered him easily a match
for half a dozen black men in a hand-to-hand struggle,
but not even Tarzan of the Apes could hope to success-
fully cope with half a hundred.
Slowly they were overpowering him, though a score
of them bled from ugly wounds, and two lay very still
58
beneath the trampling feet, and the rolling bodies of the

contestants.
Overpower him they might, but could they keep him
overpowered while they bound him? A half hour of des-
perate endeavor convinced them that they could not, and
so Mbonga, who, like all good rulers, had circled in the
safety of the background, called to one to work his way in
and spear the victim. Gradually, through the milling, bat-
tling men, the warrior approached the object of his quest.
He stood with poised spear above his head waiting for
the instant that would expose a vulnerable part of the
ape-man’s body and still not endanger one of the blacks.
Closer and closer he edged about, following the move-
ments of the twisting, scuffling combatants. The growls
of the ape-man sent cold chills up the warrior’s spine,
causing him to go carefully lest he miss at the first cast
and lay himself open to an attack from those merciless
teeth and mighty hands.
At last he found an opening. Higher he raised his
spear, tensing his muscles, rolling beneath his glisten-
ing, ebon hide, and then from the jungle just beyond the
palisade came a thunderous crashing. The spear-hand
paused, the black cast a quick glance in the direction of
59
the disturbance, as did the others of the blacks who were

not occupied with the subjugation of the ape-man.
In the glare of the fires they saw a huge bulk topping
the barrier. They saw the palisade belly and sway inward.
They saw it burst as though built of straws, and an instant
later Tantor, the elephant, thundered down upon them.
To right and left the blacks fled, screaming in terror.
Some who hovered upon the verge of the strife with
Tarzan heard and made good their escape, but a half
dozen there were so wrapt in the blood-madness of battle
that they failed to note the approach of the giant tusker.
Upon these Tantor charged, trumpeting furiously.
Above them he stopped, his sensitive trunk weaving
among them, and there, at the bottom, he found Tarzan,
bloody, but still battling.
A warrior turned his eyes upward from the melee.
Above him towered the gigantic bulk of the pachyderm,
the little eyes flashing with the reflected light of the fires–
wicked, frightful, terrifying. The warrior screamed, and
as he screamed, the sinuous trunk encircled him, lifted
him high above the ground, and hurled him far after the
fleeing crowd.
Another and another Tantor wrenched from the body
60
of the ape-man, throwing them to right and to left, where

they lay either moaning or very quiet, as death came
slowly or at once.
At a distance Mbonga rallied his warriors. His greedy
eyes had noted the great ivory tusks of the bull. The first
panic of terror relieved, he urged his men forward to at-
tack with their heavy elephant spears; but as they came,
Tantor swung Tarzan to his broad head, and, wheeling,
lumbered off into the jungle through the great rent he had
made in the palisade.
Elephant hunters may be right when they aver that this
animal would not have rendered such service to a man,
but to Tantor, Tarzan was not a man–he was but a fellow
jungle beast.
And so it was that Tantor, the elephant, discharged an
obligation to Tarzan of the Apes, cementing even more
closely the friendship that had existed between them
since Tarzan as a little, brown boy rode upon Tantor’s
huge back through the moonlit jungle beneath the equa-
torial stars.
61
Chapter 3. The Fight for the Balu
has become a mother. Tarzan of the Apes was in-

T EEKA
tensely interested, much more so, in fact, than Taug,
the father. Tarzan was very fond of Teeka. Even the cares
of prospective motherhood had not entirely quenched the
fires of carefree youth, and Teeka had remained a good-
natured playmate even at an age when other shes of the
tribe of Kerchak had assumed the sullen dignity of matu-
rity. She yet retained her childish delight in the primitive
games of tag and hide-and-go-seek which Tarzan’s fertile
man-mind had evolved.
To play tag through the tree tops is an exciting and in-
spiring pastime. Tarzan delighted in it, but the bulls of his
62
CHAPTER 3. THE FIGHT FOR THE BALU
childhood had long since abandoned such childish prac-

tices. Teeka, though, had been keen for it always until
shortly before the baby came; but with the advent of her
first-born, even Teeka changed.
The evidence of the change surprised and hurt Tarzan
immeasurably. One morning he saw Teeka squatted upon
a low branch hugging something very close to her hairy
breast–a wee something which squirmed and wriggled.
Tarzan approached filled with the curiosity which is com-
mon to all creatures endowed with brains which have
progressed beyond the microscopic stage.
Teeka rolled her eyes in his direction and strained the
squirming mite still closer to her. Tarzan came nearer.
Teeka drew away and bared her fangs. Tarzan was non-
plussed. In all his experiences with Teeka, never before
had she bared fangs at him other than in play; but today
she did not look playful. Tarzan ran his brown fingers
through his thick, black hair, cocked his head upon one
side, and stared. Then he edged a bit nearer, craning his
neck to have a better look at the thing which Teeka cud-
dled.
Again Teeka drew back her upper lip in a warning
snarl. Tarzan reached forth a hand, cautiously, to touch
63
the thing which Teeka held, and Teeka, with a hideous

growl, turned suddenly upon him. Her teeth sank into
the flesh of his forearm before the ape-man could snatch
it away, and she pursued him for a short distance as he
retreated incontinently through the trees; but Teeka, car-
rying her baby, could not overtake him. At a safe dis-
tance Tarzan stopped and turned to regard his erstwhile
play-fellow in unconcealed astonishment. What had hap-
pened to so alter the gentle Teeka? She had so covered the
thing in her arms that Tarzan had not yet been able to rec-
ognize it for what it was; but now, as she turned from the
pursuit of him, he saw it. Through his pain and chagrin
he smiled, for Tarzan had seen young ape mothers before.
In a few days she would be less suspicious. Still Tarzan
was hurt; it was not right that Teeka, of all others, should
fear him. Why, not for the world would he harm her, or
her balu, which is the ape word for baby.
And now, above the pain of his injured arm and the
hurt to his pride, rose a still stronger desire to come close
and inspect the new-born son of Taug. Possibly you will
wonder that Tarzan of the Apes, mighty fighter that he
was, should have fled before the irritable attack of a she,
or that he should hesitate to return for the satisfaction of
his curiosity when with ease he might have vanquished
64
the weakened mother of the new-born cub; but you need

not wonder. Were you an ape, you would know that
only a bull in the throes of madness will turn upon a fe-
male other than to gently chastise her, with the occasional
exception of the individual whom we find exemplified
among our own kind, and who delights in beating up his
better half because she happens to be smaller and weaker
than he.
Tarzan again came toward the young mother–warily
and with his line of retreat safely open. Again Teeka
growled ferociously. Tarzan expostulated.
"Tarzan of the Apes will not harm Teeka’s balu," he
said. "Let me see it."
"Go away!" commanded Teeka. "Go away, or I will kill
you."
"Let me see it," urged Tarzan.
"Go away," reiterated the she-ape. "Here comes Taug.
He will make you go away. Taug will kill you. This is
Taug’s balu."
A savage growl close behind him apprised Tarzan of
the nearness of Taug, and the fact that the bull had heard
the warnings and threats of his mate and was coming to
her succor.
65
Now Taug, as well as Teeka, had been Tarzan’s play-

fellow while the bull was still young enough to wish to
play. Once Tarzan had saved Taug’s life; but the memory
of an ape is not overlong, nor would gratitude rise above
the parental instinct. Tarzan and Taug had once measured
strength, and Tarzan had been victorious. That fact Taug
could be depended upon still to remember; but even so,
he might readily face another defeat for his first-born–if
he chanced to be in the proper mood.
From his hideous growls, which now rose in strength
and volume, he seemed to be in quite the mood. Now
Tarzan felt no fear of Taug, nor did the unwritten law of
the jungle demand that he should flee from battle with
any male, unless he cared to from purely personal rea-
sons. But Tarzan liked Taug. He had no grudge against
him, and his man-mind told him what the mind of an
ape would never have deduced–that Taug’s attitude in
no sense indicated hatred. It was but the instinctive urge
of the male to protect its offspring and its mate.
Tarzan had no desire to battle with Taug, nor did the
blood of his English ancestors relish the thought of flight,
yet when the bull charged, Tarzan leaped nimbly to one
side, and thus encouraged, Taug wheeled and rushed
again madly to the attack. Perhaps the memory of a past
66
defeat at Tarzan’s hands goaded him. Perhaps the fact

that Teeka sat there watching him aroused a desire to van-
quish the ape-man before her eyes, for in the breast of ev-
ery jungle male lurks a vast egotism which finds expres-
sion in the performance of deeds of derring-do before an
audience of the opposite sex.
At the ape-man’s side swung his long grass rope–the
play-thing of yesterday, the weapon of today–and as Taug
charged the second time, Tarzan slipped the coils over his
head and deftly shook out the sliding noose as he again
nimbly eluded the ungainly beast. Before the ape could
turn again, Tarzan had fled far aloft among the branches
of the upper terrace.
Taug, now wrought to a frenzy of real rage, followed
him. Teeka peered upward at them. It was difficult to
say whether she was interested. Taug could not climb
as rapidly as Tarzan, so the latter reached the high lev-
els to which the heavy ape dared not follow before the
former overtook him. There he halted and looked down
upon his pursuer, making faces at him and calling him
such choice names as occurred to the fertile man-brain.
Then, when he had worked Taug to such a pitch of foam-
ing rage that the great bull fairly danced upon the bend-
ing limb beneath him, Tarzan’s hand shot suddenly out-
67
ward, a widening noose dropped swiftly through the air,

there was a quick jerk as it settled about Taug, falling to
his knees, a jerk that tightened it securely about the hairy
legs of the anthropoid.
Taug, slow of wit, realized too late the intention of his
tormentor. He scrambled to escape, but the ape-man gave
the rope a tremendous jerk that pulled Taug from his
perch, and a moment later, growling hideously, the ape
hung head downward thirty feet above the ground.
Tarzan secured the rope to a stout limb and descended
to a point close to Taug.
"Taug," he said, "you are as stupid as Buto, the
rhinoceros. Now you may hang here until you get a little
sense in your thick head. You may hang here and watch
while I go and talk with Teeka."
Taug blustered and threatened, but Tarzan only
grinned at him as he dropped lightly to the lower levels.
Here he again approached Teeka only to be again greeted
with bared fangs and menacing growls. He sought to pla-
cate her; he urged his friendly intentions, and craned his
neck to have a look at Teeka’s balu; but the she-ape was
not to be persuaded that he meant other than harm to her
little one. Her motherhood was still so new that reason
68
was yet subservient to instinct.

Realizing the futility of attempting to catch and chas-
tise Tarzan, Teeka sought to escape him. She dropped to
the ground and lumbered across the little clearing about
which the apes of the tribe were disposed in rest or in the
search of food, and presently Tarzan abandoned his at-
tempts to persuade her to permit a close examination of
the balu. The ape-man would have liked to handle the
tiny thing. The very sight of it awakened in his breast a
strange yearning. He wished to cuddle and fondle the
grotesque little ape-thing. It was Teeka’s balu and Tarzan
had once lavished his young affections upon Teeka.
But now his attention was diverted by the voice of
Taug. The threats that had filled the ape’s mouth had
turned to pleas. The tightening noose was stopping the
circulation of the blood in his legs–he was beginning to
suffer. Several apes sat near him highly interested in
his predicament. They made uncomplimentary remarks
about him, for each of them had felt the weight of Taug’s
mighty hands and the strength of his great jaws. They
were enjoying revenge.
Teeka, seeing that Tarzan had turned back toward the
trees, had halted in the center of the clearing, and there
69
she sat hugging her balu and casting suspicious glances

here and there. With the coming of the balu, Teeka’s care-
free world had suddenly become peopled with innumer-
able enemies. She saw an implacable foe in Tarzan, al-
ways heretofore her best friend. Even poor old Mumga,
half blind and almost entirely toothless, searching pa-
tiently for grubworms beneath a fallen log, represented
to her a malignant spirit thirsting for the blood of little
balus.
And while Teeka guarded suspiciously against harm,
where there was no harm, she failed to note two bale-
ful, yellow-green eyes staring fixedly at her from behind
a clump of bushes at the opposite side of the clearing.
Hollow from hunger, Sheeta, the panther, glared greed-
ily at the tempting meat so close at hand, but the sight of
the great bulls beyond gave him pause.
Ah, if the she-ape with her balu would but come just a
trifle nearer! A quick spring and he would be upon them
and away again with his meat before the bulls could pre-
vent.
The tip of his tawny tail moved in spasmodic little
jerks; his lower jaw hung low, exposing a red tongue and
yellow fangs. But all this Teeka did not see, nor did any
70
other of the apes who were feeding or resting about her.

Nor did Tarzan or the apes in the trees.
Hearing the abuse which the bulls were pouring upon
the helpless Taug, Tarzan clambered quickly among
them. One was edging closer and leaning far out in an
effort to reach the dangling ape. He had worked himself
into quite a fury through recollection of the last occasion
upon which Taug had mauled him, and now he was bent
upon revenge. Once he had grasped the swinging ape, he
would quickly have drawn him within reach of his jaws.
Tarzan saw and was wroth. He loved a fair fight, but the
thing which this ape contemplated revolted him. Already
a hairy hand had clutched the helpless Taug when, with
an angry growl of protest, Tarzan leaped to the branch at
the attacking ape’s side, and with a single mighty cuff,
swept him from his perch.
Surprised and enraged, the bull clutched madly for
support as he toppled sidewise, and then with an agile
movement succeeded in projecting himself toward an-
other limb a few feet below. Here he found a hand-hold,
quickly righted himself, and as quickly clambered up-
ward to be revenged upon Tarzan, but the ape-man was
otherwise engaged and did not wish to be interrupted.
He was explaining again to Taug the depths of the latter’s
71
abysmal ignorance, and pointing out how much greater

and mightier was Tarzan of the Apes than Taug or any
other ape.
In the end he would release Taug, but not until Taug
was fully acquainted with his own inferiority. And then
the maddened bull came from beneath, and instantly
Tarzan was transformed from a good-natured, teasing
youth into a snarling, savage beast. Along his scalp the
hair bristled: his upper lip drew back that his fighting
fangs might be uncovered and ready. He did not wait for
the bull to reach him, for something in the appearance
or the voice of the attacker aroused within the ape-man
a feeling of belligerent antagonism that would not be de-
nied. With a scream that carried no human note, Tarzan
leaped straight at the throat of the attacker.
The impetuosity of this act and the weight and mo-
mentum of his body carried the bull backward, clutch-
ing and clawing for support, down through the leafy
branches of the tree. For fifteen feet the two fell, Tarzan’s
teeth buried in the jugular of his opponent, when a stout
branch stopped their descent. The bull struck full upon
the small of his back across the limb, hung there for a
moment with the ape-man still upon his breast, and then
toppled over toward the ground.
72
Tarzan had felt the instantaneous relaxation of the

body beneath him after the heavy impact with the tree
limb, and as the other turned completely over and started
again upon its fall toward the ground, he reached forth a
hand and caught the branch in time to stay his own de-
scent, while the ape dropped like a plummet to the foot
of the tree.
Tarzan looked downward for a moment upon the still
form of his late antagonist, then he rose to his full height,
swelled his deep chest, smote upon it with his clenched
fist and roared out the uncanny challenge of the victori-
ous bull ape.
Even Sheeta, the panther, crouched for a spring at the
edge of the little clearing, moved uneasily as the mighty
voice sent its weird cry reverberating through the jungle.
To right and left, nervously, glanced Sheeta, as though
assuring himself that the way of escape lay ready at hand.
"I am Tarzan of the Apes," boasted the ape-man;
"mighty hunter, mighty fighter! None in all the jungle
so great as Tarzan."
Then he made his way back in the direction of Taug.
Teeka had watched the happenings in the tree. She had
even placed her precious balu upon the soft grasses and
73
come a little nearer that she might better witness all that
was passing in the branches above her. In her heart of
hearts did she still esteem the smooth-skinned Tarzan?
Did her savage breast swell with pride as she witnessed
his victory over the ape? You will have to ask Teeka.
And Sheeta, the panther, saw that the she-ape had left
her cub alone among the grasses. He moved his tail
again, as though this closest approximation of lashing in
which he dared indulge might stimulate his momentarily
waned courage. The cry of the victorious ape-man still
held his nerves beneath its spell. It would be several min-
utes before he again could bring himself to the point of
charging into view of the giant anthropoids.
And as he regathered his forces, Tarzan reached Taug’s
side, and then clambering higher up to the point where
the end of the grass rope was made fast, he unloosed it
and lowered the ape slowly downward, swinging him in
until the clutching hands fastened upon a limb.
Quickly Taug drew himself to a position of safety and
shook off the noose. In his rage-maddened heart was no
room for gratitude to the ape-man. He recalled only the
fact that Tarzan had laid this painful indignity upon him.
He would be revenged, but just at present his legs were
74
so numb and his head so dizzy that he must postpone the

gratification of his vengeance.
Tarzan was coiling his rope the while he lectured Taug
on the futility of pitting his poor powers, physical and
intellectual, against those of his betters. Teeka had come
close beneath the tree and was peering upward. Sheeta
was worming his way stealthily forward, his belly close
to the ground. In another moment he would be clear of
the underbrush and ready for the rapid charge and the
quick retreat that would end the brief existence of Teeka’s
balu.
Then Tarzan chanced to look up and across the clear-
ing. Instantly his attitude of good-natured bantering and
pompous boastfulness dropped from him. Silently and
swiftly he shot downward toward the ground. Teeka,
seeing him coming, and thinking that he was after her or
her balu, bristled and prepared to fight. But Tarzan sped
by her, and as he went, her eyes followed him and she
saw the cause of his sudden descent and his rapid charge
across the clearing. There in full sight now was Sheeta,
the panther, stalking slowly toward the tiny, wriggling
balu which lay among the grasses many yards away.
Teeka gave voice to a shrill scream of terror and of
75
warning as she dashed after the ape-man. Sheeta saw

Tarzan coming. He saw the she-ape’s cub before him, and
he thought that this other was bent upon robbing him of
his prey. With an angry growl, he charged.
Taug, warned by Teeka’s cry, came lumbering down to
her assistance. Several other bulls, growling and barking,
closed in toward the clearing, but they were all much far-
ther from the balu and the panther than was Tarzan of
the Apes, so it was that Sheeta and the ape-man reached
Teeka’s little one almost simultaneously; and there they
stood, one upon either side of it, baring their fangs and
snarling at each other over the little creature.
Sheeta was afraid to seize the balu, for thus he would
give the ape-man an opening for attack; and for the same
reason Tarzan hesitated to snatch the panther’s prey out
of harm’s way, for had he stooped to accomplish this,
the great beast would have been upon him in an instant.
Thus they stood while Teeka came across the clearing, go-
ing more slowly as she neared the panther, for even her
mother love could scarce overcome her instinctive terror
of this natural enemy of her kind.
Behind her came Taug, warily and with many pauses
and much bluster, and still behind him came other bulls,
76
snarling ferociously and uttering their uncanny chal-

lenges. Sheeta’s yellow-green eyes glared terribly at
Tarzan, and past Tarzan they shot brief glances at the apes
of Kerchak advancing upon him. Discretion prompted
him to turn and flee, but hunger and the close proximity
of the tempting morsel in the grass before him urged him
to remain. He reached forth a paw toward Teeka’s balu,
and as he did so, with a savage guttural, Tarzan of the
Apes was upon him.
The panther reared to meet the ape-man’s attack. He
swung a frightful raking blow for Tarzan that would have
wiped his face away had it landed, but it did not land,
for Tarzan ducked beneath it and closed, his long knife
ready in one strong hand–the knife of his dead father, of
the father he never had known.
Instantly the balu was forgotten by Sheeta, the panther.
He now thought only of tearing to ribbons with his pow-
erful talons the flesh of his antagonist, of burying his long,
yellow fangs in the soft, smooth hide of the ape-man, but
Tarzan had fought before with clawed creatures of the
jungle. Before now he had battled with fanged monsters,
nor always had he come away unscathed. He knew the
risk that he ran, but Tarzan of the Apes, inured to the sight
of suffering and death, shrank from neither, for he feared
77
neither.
The instant that he dodged beneath Sheeta’s blow, he
leaped to the beast’s rear and then full upon the tawny
back, burying his teeth in Sheeta’s neck and the fingers of
one hand in the fur at the throat, and with the other hand
he drove his blade into Sheeta’s side.
Over and over upon the grass rolled Sheeta, growling
and screaming, clawing and biting, in a mad effort to
dislodge his antagonist or get some portion of his body
within range of teeth or talons.
As Tarzan leaped to close quarters with the panther,
Teeka had run quickly in and snatched up her balu. Now
she sat upon a high branch, safe out of harm’s way, cud-
dling the little thing close to her hairy breast, the while
her savage little eyes bored down upon the contestants in
the clearing, and her ferocious voice urged Taug and the
other bulls to leap into the melee.
Thus goaded the bulls came closer, redoubling their
hideous clamor; but Sheeta was already sufficiently
engaged–he did not even hear them. Once he succeeded
in partially dislodging the ape-man from his back, so that
Tarzan swung for an instant in front of those awful talons,
and in the brief instant before he could regain his former
78
hold, a raking blow from a hind paw laid open one leg
from hip to knee.
It was the sight and smell of this blood, possibly, which
wrought upon the encircling apes; but it was Taug who
really was responsible for the thing they did.
Taug, but a moment before filled with rage toward
Tarzan of the Apes, stood close to the battling pair, his
red-rimmed, wicked little eyes glaring at them. What was
passing in his savage brain? Did he gloat over the unenvi-
able position of his recent tormentor? Did he long to see
Sheeta’s great fangs sink into the soft throat of the ape-
man? Or did he realize the courageous unselfishness that
had prompted Tarzan to rush to the rescue and imperil
his life for Teeka’s balu–for Taug’s little balu? Is gratitude
a possession of man only, or do the lower orders know it
also?
With the spilling of Tarzan’s blood, Taug answered
these questions. With all the weight of his great body
he leaped, hideously growling, upon Sheeta. His long
fighting fangs buried themselves in the white throat. His
powerful arms beat and clawed at the soft fur until it flew
upward in the jungle breeze.
And with Taug’s example before them the other bulls
79
charged, burying Sheeta beneath rending fangs and fill-

ing all the forest with the wild din of their battle cries.
Ah! but it was a wondrous and inspiring sight–this bat-
tle of the primordial apes and the great, white ape-man
with their ancestral foe, Sheeta, the panther.
In frenzied excitement, Teeka fairly danced upon the
limb which swayed beneath her great weight as she
urged on the males of her people, and Thaka, and
Mumga, and Kamma, with the other shes of the tribe of
Kerchak, added their shrill cries or fierce barkings to the
pandemonium which now reigned within the jungle.
Bitten and biting, tearing and torn, Sheeta battled for
his life; but the odds were against him. Even Numa,
the lion, would have hesitated to have attacked an equal
number of the great bulls of the tribe of Kerchak, and
now, a half mile away, hearing the sounds of the terrific
battle, the king of beasts rose uneasily from his midday
slumber and slunk off farther into the jungle.
Presently Sheeta’s torn and bloody body ceased its ti-
tanic struggles. It stiffened spasmodically, twitched and
was still, yet the bulls continued to lacerate it until the
beautiful coat was torn to shreds. At last they desisted
from sheer physical weariness, and then from the tangle
80
of bloody bodies rose a crimson giant, straight as an ar-

row.
He placed a foot upon the dead body of the panther,
and lifting his blood-stained face to the blue of the equa-
torial heavens, gave voice to the horrid victory cry of the
bull ape.
One by one his hairy fellows of the tribe of Kerchak
followed his example. The shes came down from their
perches of safety and struck and reviled the dead body of
Sheeta. The young apes refought the battle in mimicry of
their mighty elders.
Teeka was quite close to Tarzan. He turned and saw her
with the balu hugged close to her hairy breast, and put
out his hands to take the little one, expecting that Teeka
would bare her fangs and spring upon him; but instead
she placed the balu in his arms, and coming nearer, licked
his frightful wounds.
And presently Taug, who had escaped with only a few
scratches, came and squatted beside Tarzan and watched
him as he played with the little balu, and at last he too
leaned over and helped Teeka with the cleansing and the
healing of the ape-man’s hurts.
81
Chapter 4. The God of Tarzan
the books of his dead father in the little cabin

A MONG
by the land-locked harbor, Tarzan of the Apes found
many things to puzzle his young head. By much labor
and through the medium of infinite patience as well, he
had, without assistance, discovered the purpose of the lit-
tle bugs which ran riot upon the printed pages. He had
learned that in the many combinations in which he found
them they spoke in a silent language, spoke in a strange
tongue, spoke of wonderful things which a little ape-boy
could not by any chance fully understand, arousing his
curiosity, stimulating his imagination and filling his soul
with a mighty longing for further knowledge.
82
CHAPTER 4. THE GOD OF TARZAN
A dictionary had proven itself a wonderful storehouse

of information, when, after several years of tireless en-
deavor, he had solved the mystery of its purpose and the
manner of its use. He had learned to make a species of
game out of it, following up the spoor of a new thought
through the mazes of the many definitions which each
new word required him to consult. It was like following
a quarry through the jungle–it was hunting, and Tarzan
of the Apes was an indefatigable huntsman.
There were, of course, certain words which aroused his
curiosity to a greater extent than others, words which, for
one reason or another, excited his imagination. There was
one, for example, the meaning of which was rather dif-
ficult to grasp. It was the word GOD. Tarzan first had
been attracted to it by the fact that it was very short
and that it commenced with a larger g-bug than those
about it–a male g-bug it was to Tarzan, the lower-case
letters being females. Another fact which attracted him
to this word was the number of he-bugs which figured in
its definition–Supreme Deity, Creator or Upholder of the
Universe. This must be a very important word indeed,
he would have to look into it, and he did, though it still
baffled him after many months of thought and study.
However, Tarzan counted no time wasted which he de-
83
voted to these strange hunting expeditions into the game

preserves of knowledge, for each word and each defini-
tion led on and on into strange places, into new worlds
where, with increasing frequency, he met old, familiar
faces. And always he added to his store of knowledge.
But of the meaning of GOD he was yet in doubt. Once
he thought he had grasped it–that God was a mighty
chieftain, king of all the Mangani. He was not quite sure,
however, since that would mean that God was mightier
than Tarzan–a point which Tarzan of the Apes, who ac-
knowledged no equal in the jungle, was loath to concede.
But in all the books he had there was no picture of God,
though he found much to confirm his belief that God was
a great, an all-powerful individual. He saw pictures of
places where God was worshiped; but never any sign of
God. Finally he began to wonder if God were not of a
different form than he, and at last he determined to set
out in search of Him.
He commenced by questioning Mumga, who was very
old and had seen many strange things in her long life;
but Mumga, being an ape, had a faculty for recalling the
trivial. That time when Gunto mistook a sting-bug for an
edible beetle had made more impression upon Mumga
84
than all the innumerable manifestations of the greatness

of God which she had witnessed, and which, of course,
she had not understood.
Numgo, overhearing Tarzan’s questions, managed to
wrest his attention long enough from the diversion of
flea hunting to advance the theory that the power which
made the lightning and the rain and the thunder came
from Goro, the moon. He knew this, he said, because
the Dum-Dum always was danced in the light of Goro.
This reasoning, though entirely satisfactory to Numgo
and Mumga, failed fully to convince Tarzan. However,
it gave him a basis for further investigation along a new
line. He would investigate the moon.
That night he clambered to the loftiest pinnacle of the
tallest jungle giant. The moon was full, a great, glorious,
equatorial moon. The ape-man, upright upon a slender,
swaying limb, raised his bronzed face to the silver orb.
Now that he had clambered to the highest point within
his reach, he discovered, to his surprise, that Goro was as
far away as when he viewed him from the ground. He
thought that Goro was attempting to elude him.
"Come, Goro!" he cried, "Tarzan of the Apes will not
harm you!" But still the moon held aloof.
85
"Tell me," he continued, "if you be the great king who

sends Ara, the lightning; who makes the great noise and
the mighty winds, and sends the waters down upon the
jungle people when the days are dark and it is cold. Tell
me, Goro, are you God?"
Of course he did not pronounce God as you or I would
pronounce His name, for Tarzan knew naught of the spo-
ken language of his English forbears; but he had a name
of his own invention for each of the little bugs which con-
stituted the alphabet. Unlike the apes he was not sat-
isfied merely to have a mental picture of the things he
knew, he must have a word descriptive of each. In read-
ing he grasped a word in its entirety; but when he spoke
the words he had learned from the books of his father,
he pronounced each according to the names he had given
the various little bugs which occurred in it, usually giving
the gender prefix for each.
Thus it was an imposing word which Tarzan made of
GOD. The masculine prefix of the apes is BU, the femi-
nine MU; g Tarzan had named LA, o he pronounced TU,
and d was MO. So the word God evolved itself into BU-
LAMUTUMUMO, or, in English, he-g-she-o-she-d.
Similarly he had arrived at a strange and wonderful
86
spelling of his own name. Tarzan is derived from the two

ape words TAR and ZAN, meaning white skin. It was
given him by his foster mother, Kala, the great she-ape.
When Tarzan first put it into the written language of his
own people he had not yet chanced upon either WHITE
or SKIN in the dictionary; but in a primer he had seen
the picture of a little white boy and so he wrote his name
BUMUDE-MUTOMURO, or he-boy.
To follow Tarzan’s strange system of spelling would be
laborious as well as futile, and so we shall in the future,
as we have in the past, adhere to the more familiar forms
of our grammar school copybooks. It would tire you to
remember that DO meant b, TU o, and RO y, and that
to say he-boy you must prefix the ape masculine gender
sound BU before the entire word and the feminine gender
sound MU before each of the lower-case letters which go
to make up boy–it would tire you and it would bring me
to the nineteenth hole several strokes under par.
And so Tarzan harangued the moon, and when Goro
did not reply, Tarzan of the Apes waxed wroth. He
swelled his giant chest and bared his fighting fangs, and
hurled into the teeth of the dead satellite the challenge of
the bull ape.
87
"You are not Bulamutumumo," he cried. "You are not

king of the jungle folk. You are not so great as Tarzan,
mighty fighter, mighty hunter. None there is so great as
Tarzan. If there be a Bulamutumumo, Tarzan can kill him.
Come down, Goro, great coward, and fight with Tarzan.
Tarzan will kill you. I am Tarzan, the killer."
But the moon made no answer to the boasting of the
ape-man, and when a cloud came and obscured her face,
Tarzan thought that Goro was indeed afraid, and was
hiding from him, so he came down out of the trees and
awoke Numgo and told him how great was Tarzan–how
he had frightened Goro out of the sky and made him
tremble. Tarzan spoke of the moon as HE, for all things
large or awe inspiring are male to the ape folk.
Numgo was not much impressed; but he was very
sleepy, so he told Tarzan to go away and leave his betters
alone.
"But where shall I find God?" insisted Tarzan. "You are
very old; if there is a God you must have seen Him. What
does He look like? Where does He live?"
"I am God," replied Numgo. "Now sleep and disturb
me no more."
Tarzan looked at Numgo steadily for several minutes,
88
his shapely head sank just a trifle between his great shoul-
ders, his square chin shot forward and his short upper lip
drew back, exposing his white teeth. Then, with a low
growl he leaped upon the ape and buried his fangs in
the other’s hairy shoulder, clutching the great neck in his
mighty fingers. Twice he shook the old ape, then he re-
leased his tooth-hold.
"Are you God?" he demanded.
"No," wailed Numgo. "I am only a poor, old ape. Leave
me alone. Go ask the Gomangani where God is. They
are hairless like yourself and very wise, too. They should
know."
Tarzan released Numgo and turned away. The sug-
gestion that he consult the blacks appealed to him, and
though his relations with the people of Mbonga, the chief,
were the antithesis of friendly, he could at least spy upon
his hated enemies and discover if they had intercourse
with God.
So it was that Tarzan set forth through the trees toward
the village of the blacks, all excitement at the prospect of
discovering the Supreme Being, the Creator of all things.
As he traveled he reviewed, mentally, his armament–the
condition of his hunting knife, the number of his arrows,
89
the newness of the gut which strung his bow–he hefted

the war spear which had once been the pride of some
black warrior of Mbonga’s tribe.
If he met God, Tarzan would be prepared. One could
never tell whether a grass rope, a war spear, or a poisoned
arrow would be most efficacious against an unfamiliar
foe. Tarzan of the Apes was quite content–if God wished
to fight, the ape-man had no doubt as to the outcome of
the struggle. There were many questions Tarzan wished
to put to the Creator of the Universe and so he hoped that
God would not prove a belligerent God; but his experi-
ence of life and the ways of living things had taught him
that any creature with the means for offense and defense
was quite likely to provoke attack if in the proper mood.
It was dark when Tarzan came to the village of
Mbonga. As silently as the silent shadows of the night he
sought his accustomed place among the branches of the
great tree which overhung the palisade. Below him, in
the village street, he saw men and women. The men were
hideously painted–more hideously than usual. Among
them moved a weird and grotesque figure, a tall figure
that went upon the two legs of a man and yet had the
head of a buffalo. A tail dangled to his ankles behind
him, and in one hand he carried a zebra’s tail while the
90
other clutched a bunch of small arrows.

Tarzan was electrified. Could it be that chance had
given him thus early an opportunity to look upon God?
Surely this thing was neither man nor beast, so what
could it be then other than the Creator of the Universe!
The ape-man watched the every move of the strange crea-
ture. He saw the black men and women fall back at its
approach as though they stood in terror of its mysterious
powers.
Presently he discovered that the deity was speaking
and that all listened in silence to his words. Tarzan was
sure that none other than God could inspire such awe in
the hearts of the Gomangani, or stop their mouths so ef-
fectually without recourse to arrows or spears. Tarzan
had come to look with contempt upon the blacks, princi-
pally because of their garrulity. The small apes talked a
great deal and ran away from an enemy. The big, old bulls
of Kerchak talked but little and fought upon the slightest
provocation. Numa, the lion, was not given to loquacity,
yet of all the jungle folk there were few who fought more
often than he.
Tarzan witnessed strange things that night, none of
which he understood, and, perhaps because they were
91
strange, he thought that they must have to do with the

God he could not understand. He saw three youths re-
ceive their first war spears in a weird ceremony which
the grotesque witch-doctor strove successfully to render
uncanny and awesome.
Hugely interested, he watched the slashing of the three
brown arms and the exchange of blood with Mbonga, the
chief, in the rites of the ceremony of blood brotherhood.
He saw the zebra’s tail dipped into a caldron of water
above which the witch-doctor had made magical passes
the while he danced and leaped about it, and he saw
the breasts and foreheads of each of the three novitiates
sprinkled with the charmed liquid. Could the ape-man
have known the purpose of this act, that it was intended
to render the recipient invulnerable to the attacks of his
enemies and fearless in the face of any danger, he would
doubtless have leaped into the village street and appro-
priated the zebra’s tail and a portion of the contents of
the caldron.
But he did not know, and so he only wondered, not
alone at what he saw but at the strange sensations which
played up and down his naked spine, sensations induced,
doubtless, by the same hypnotic influence which held the
black spectators in tense awe upon the verge of a hysteric
92
upheaval.
The longer Tarzan watched, the more convinced he be-
came that his eyes were upon God, and with the con-
viction came determination to have word with the deity.
With Tarzan of the Apes, to think was to act.
The people of Mbonga were keyed to the highest pitch
of hysterical excitement. They needed little to release the
accumulated pressure of static nerve force which the ter-
rorizing mummery of the witch-doctor had induced.
A lion roared, suddenly and loud, close without the
palisade. The blacks started nervously, dropping into ut-
ter silence as they listened for a repetition of that all-too-
familiar and always terrorizing voice. Even the witch-
doctor paused in the midst of an intricate step, remain-
ing momentarily rigid and statuesque as he plumbed his
cunning mind for a suggestion as how best he might take
advantage of the condition of his audience and the timely
interruption.
Already the evening had been vastly profitable to him.
There would be three goats for the initiation of the three
youths into full-fledged warriorship, and besides these
he had received several gifts of grain and beads, together
with a piece of copper wire from admiring and terrified
93
members of his audience.

Numa’s roar still reverberated along taut nerves when
a woman’s laugh, shrill and piercing, shattered the si-
lence of the village. It was this moment that Tarzan chose
to drop lightly from his tree into the village street. Fear-
less among his blood enemies he stood, taller by a full
head than many of Mbonga’s warriors, straight as their
straightest arrow, muscled like Numa, the lion.
For a moment Tarzan stood looking straight at the
witch-doctor. Every eye was upon him, yet no one had
moved–a paralysis of terror held them, to be broken a mo-
ment later as the ape-man, with a toss of head, stepped
straight toward the hideous figure beneath the buffalo
head.
Then the nerves of the blacks could stand no more.
For months the terror of the strange, white, jungle god
had been upon them. Their arrows had been stolen from
the very center of the village; their warriors had been
silently slain upon the jungle trails and their dead bodies
dropped mysteriously and by night into the village street
as from the heavens above.
One or two there were who had glimpsed the strange
figure of the new demon and it was from their oft-
94
repeated descriptions that the entire village now recog-

nized Tarzan as the author of many of their ills. Upon
another occasion and by daylight, the warriors would
doubtless have leaped to attack him, but at night, and
this night of all others, when they were wrought to such
a pitch of nervous dread by the uncanny artistry of their
witch-doctor, they were helpless with terror. As one man
they turned and fled, scattering for their huts, as Tarzan
advanced. For a moment one and one only held his
ground. It was the witch-doctor. More than half self-
hypnotized into a belief in his own charlatanry he faced
this new demon who threatened to undermine his ancient
and lucrative profession.
"Are you God?" asked Tarzan.
The witch-doctor, having no idea of the meaning of the
other’s words, danced a few strange steps, leaped high
in the air, turning completely around and alighting in a
stooping posture with feet far outspread and head thrust
out toward the ape-man. Thus he remained for an in-
stant before he uttered a loud "Boo!" which was evidently
intended to frighten Tarzan away; but in reality had no
such effect.
Tarzan did not pause. He had set out to approach and
95
examine God and nothing upon earth might now stay his
feet. Seeing that his antics had no potency with the vis-
itor, the witch-doctor tried some new medicine. Spitting
upon the zebra’s tail, which he still clutched in one hand,
he made circles above it with the arrows in the other
hand, meanwhile backing cautiously away from Tarzan
and speaking confidentially to the bushy end of the tail.
This medicine must be short medicine, however, for
the creature, god or demon, was steadily closing up the
distance which had separated them. The circles therefore
were few and rapid, and when they were completed, the
witch-doctor struck an attitude which was intended to
be awe inspiring and waving the zebra’s tail before him,
drew an imaginary line between himself and Tarzan.
"Beyond this line you cannot pass, for my medicine is
strong medicine," he cried. "Stop, or you will fall dead
as your foot touches this spot. My mother was a voodoo,
my father was a snake; I live upon lions’ hearts and the
entrails of the panther; I eat young babies for breakfast
and the demons of the jungle are my slaves. I am the most
powerful witch-doctor in the world; I fear nothing, for I
cannot die. I–" But he got no further; instead he turned
and fled as Tarzan of the Apes crossed the magical dead
line and still lived.
96
As the witch-doctor ran, Tarzan almost lost his temper.

This was no way for God to act, at least not in accordance
with the conception Tarzan had come to have of God.
"Come back!" he cried. "Come back, God, I will not
harm you." But the witch-doctor was in full retreat by
this time, stepping high as he leaped over cooking pots
and the smoldering embers of small fires that had burned
before the huts of villagers. Straight for his own hut ran
the witch-doctor, terror-spurred to unwonted speed; but
futile was his effort–the ape-man bore down upon him
with the speed of Bara, the deer.
Just at the entrance to his hut the witch-doctor was
overhauled. A heavy hand fell upon his shoulder to drag
him back. It seized upon a portion of the buffalo hide,
dragging the disguise from him. It was a naked black
man that Tarzan saw dodge into the darkness of the hut’s
interior.
So this was what he had thought was God! Tarzan’s
lip curled in an angry snarl as he leaped into the hut after
the terror-stricken witch-doctor. In the blackness within
he found the man huddled at the far side and dragged
him forth into the comparative lightness of the moonlit
night.
97
The witch-doctor bit and scratched in an attempt to es-

cape; but a few cuffs across the head brought him to a
better realization of the futility of resistance. Beneath the
moon Tarzan held the cringing figure upon its shaking
feet.
"So you are God!" he cried. "If you be God, then Tarzan
is greater than God," and so the ape-man thought. "I am
Tarzan," he shouted into the ear of the black. "In all the
jungle, or above it, or upon the running waters, or the
sleeping waters, or upon the big water, or the little water,
there is none so great as Tarzan. Tarzan is greater than
the Mangani; he is greater than the Gomangani. With his
own hands he has slain Numa, the lion, and Sheeta, the
panther; there is none so great as Tarzan. Tarzan is greater
than God. See!" and with a sudden wrench he twisted the
black’s neck until the fellow shrieked in pain and then
slumped to the earth in a swoon.
Placing his foot upon the neck of the fallen witch-
doctor, the ape-man raised his face to the moon and ut-
tered the long, shrill scream of the victorious bull ape.
Then he stooped and snatched the zebra’s tail from the
nerveless fingers of the unconscious man and without a
backward glance retraced his footsteps across the village.
98
From several hut doorways frightened eyes watched

him. Mbonga, the chief, was one of those who had seen
what passed before the hut of the witch-doctor. Mbonga
was greatly concerned. Wise old patriarch that he was,
he never had more than half believed in witch-doctors, at
least not since greater wisdom had come with age; but as
a chief he was well convinced of the power of the witch-
doctor as an arm of government, and often it was that
Mbonga used the superstitious fears of his people to his
own ends through the medium of the medicine-man.
Mbonga and the witch-doctor had worked together
and divided the spoils, and now the "face" of the witch-
doctor would be lost forever if any saw what Mbonga had
seen; nor would this generation again have as much faith
in any future witch-doctor.
Mbonga must do something to counteract the evil in-
fluence of the forest demon’s victory over the witch-
doctor. He raised his heavy spear and crept silently from
his hut in the wake of the retreating ape-man. Down the
village street walked Tarzan, as unconcerned and as de-
liberate as though only the friendly apes of Kerchak sur-
rounded him instead of a village full of armed enemies.
Seeming only was the indifference of Tarzan, for alert
99
and watchful was every well-trained sense. Mbonga,

wily stalker of keen-eared jungle creatures, moved now
in utter silence. Not even Bara, the deer, with his great
ears could have guessed from any sound that Mbonga
was near; but the black was not stalking Bara; he was
stalking man, and so he sought only to avoid noise.
Closer and closer to the slowly moving ape-man he
came. Now he raised his war spear, throwing his spear-
hand far back above his right shoulder. Once and for all
would Mbonga, the chief, rid himself and his people of
the menace of this terrifying enemy. He would make no
poor cast; he would take pains, and he would hurl his
weapon with such great force as would finish the demon
forever.
But Mbonga, sure as he thought himself, erred in his
calculations. He might believe that he was stalking a
man–he did not know, however, that it was a man with
the delicate sense perception of the lower orders. Tarzan,
when he had turned his back upon his enemies, had
noted what Mbonga never would have thought of con-
sidering in the hunting of man–the wind. It was blowing
in the same direction that Tarzan was proceeding, carry-
ing to his delicate nostrils the odors which arose behind
him. Thus it was that Tarzan knew that he was being fol-
100
lowed, for even among the many stenches of an African

village, the ape-man’s uncanny faculty was equal to the
task of differentiating one stench from another and locat-
ing with remarkable precision the source from whence it
came.
He knew that a man was following him and coming
closer, and his judgment warned him of the purpose of
the stalker. When Mbonga, therefore, came within spear
range of the ape-man, the latter suddenly wheeled upon
him, so suddenly that the poised spear was shot a frac-
tion of a second before Mbonga had intended. It went a
trifle high and Tarzan stooped to let it pass over his head;
then he sprang toward the chief. But Mbonga did not
wait to receive him. Instead, he turned and fled for the
dark doorway of the nearest hut, calling as he went for
his warriors to fall upon the stranger and slay him.
Well indeed might Mbonga scream for help, for Tarzan,
young and fleet-footed, covered the distance between
them in great leaps, at the speed of a charging lion.
He was growling, too, not at all unlike Numa himself.
Mbonga heard and his blood ran cold. He could feel the
wool stiffen upon his pate and a prickly chill run up his
spine, as though Death had come and run his cold finger
along Mbonga’s back.
101
Others heard, too, and saw, from the darkness of their

huts–bold warriors, hideously painted, grasping heavy
war spears in nerveless fingers. Against Numa, the lion,
they would have charged fearlessly. Against many times
their own number of black warriors would they have
raced to the protection of their chief; but this weird jungle
demon filled them with terror. There was nothing human
in the bestial growls that rumbled up from his deep chest;
there was nothing human in the bared fangs, or the cat-
like leaps.
Mbonga’s warriors were terrified–too terrified to leave
the seeming security of their huts while they watched the
beast-man spring full upon the back of their old chieftain.
Mbonga went down with a scream of terror. He was
too frightened even to attempt to defend himself. He just
lay beneath his antagonist in a paralysis of fear, screaming
at the top of his lungs. Tarzan half rose and kneeled above
the black. He turned Mbonga over and looked him in the
face, exposing the man’s throat, then he drew his long,
keen knife, the knife that John Clayton, Lord Greystoke,
had brought from England many years before. He raised
it close above Mbonga’s neck. The old black whimpered
with terror. He pleaded for his life in a tongue which
Tarzan could not understand.
102
For the first time the ape-man had a close view of

the chief. He saw an old man, a very old man with
scrawny neck and wrinkled face–a dried, parchment-like
face which resembled some of the little monkeys Tarzan
knew so well. He saw the terror in the man’s eyes–never
before had Tarzan seen such terror in the eyes of any ani-
mal, or such a piteous appeal for mercy upon the face of
any creature.
Something stayed the ape-man’s hand for an instant.
He wondered why it was that he hesitated to make the
kill; never before had he thus delayed. The old man
seemed to wither and shrink to a bag of puny bones
beneath his eyes. So weak and helpless and terror-
stricken he appeared that the ape-man was filled with a
great contempt; but another sensation also claimed him–
something new to Tarzan of the Apes in relation to an
enemy. It was pity–pity for a poor, frightened, old man.
Tarzan rose and turned away, leaving Mbonga, the
chief, unharmed.
With head held high the ape-man walked through the
village, swung himself into the branches of the tree which
overhung the palisade and disappeared from the sight of
the villagers.
103
All the way back to the stamping ground of the apes,

Tarzan sought for an explanation of the strange power
which had stayed his hand and prevented him from slay-
ing Mbonga. It was as though someone greater than he
had commanded him to spare the life of the old man.
Tarzan could not understand, for he could conceive of
nothing, or no one, with the authority to dictate to him
what he should do, or what he should refrain from do-
ing.
It was late when Tarzan sought a swaying couch
among the trees beneath which slept the apes of Kerchak,
and he was still absorbed in the solution of his strange
problem when he fell asleep.
The sun was well up in the heavens when he awoke.
The apes were astir in search of food. Tarzan watched
them lazily from above as they scratched in the rotting
loam for bugs and beetles and grubworms, or sought
among the branches of the trees for eggs and young birds,
or luscious caterpillars.
An orchid, dangling close beside his head, opened
slowly, unfolding its delicate petals to the warmth and
light of the sun which but recently had penetrated to its
shady retreat. A thousand times had Tarzan of the Apes
104
witnessed the beauteous miracle; but now it aroused a

keener interest, for the ape-man was just commencing
to ask himself questions about all the myriad wonders
which heretofore he had but taken for granted.
What made the flower open? What made it grow from
a tiny bud to a full-blown bloom? Why was it at all? Why
was he? Where did Numa, the lion, come from? Who
planted the first tree? How did Goro get way up into the
darkness of the night sky to cast his welcome light upon
the fearsome nocturnal jungle? And the sun! Did the sun
merely happen there?
Why were all the peoples of the jungle not trees? Why
were the trees not something else? Why was Tarzan dif-
ferent from Taug, and Taug different from Bara, the deer,
and Bara different from Sheeta, the panther, and why was
not Sheeta like Buto, the rhinoceros? Where and how,
anyway, did they all come from–the trees, the flowers, the
insects, the countless creatures of the jungle?
Quite unexpectedly an idea popped into Tarzan’s head.
In following out the many ramifications of the dictionary
definition of GOD he had come upon the word CREATE–
"to cause to come into existence; to form out of nothing."
Tarzan almost had arrived at something tangible when
105
a distant wail startled him from his preoccupation into

sensibility of the present and the real. The wail came from
the jungle at some little distance from Tarzan’s swaying
couch. It was the wail of a tiny balu. Tarzan recognized
it at once as the voice of Gazan, Teeka’s baby. They had
called it Gazan because its soft, baby hair had been un-
usually red, and GAZAN in the language of the great
apes, means red skin.
The wail was immediately followed by a real scream
of terror from the small lungs. Tarzan was electrified into
instant action. Like an arrow from a bow he shot through
the trees in the direction of the sound. Ahead of him
he heard the savage snarling of an adult she-ape. It was
Teeka to the rescue. The danger must be very real. Tarzan
could tell that by the note of rage mingled with fear in the
voice of the she.
Running along bending limbs, swinging from one tree
to another, the ape-man raced through the middle ter-
races toward the sounds which now had risen in volume
to deafening proportions. From all directions the apes of
Kerchak were hurrying in response to the appeal in the
tones of the balu and its mother, and as they came, their
roars reverberated through the forest.
106
But Tarzan, swifter than his heavy fellows, distanced

them all. It was he who was first upon the scene. What
he saw sent a cold chill through his giant frame, for the
enemy was the most hated and loathed of all the jungle
creatures.
Twined in a great tree was Histah, the snake–huge,
ponderous, slimy–and in the folds of its deadly embrace
was Teeka’s little balu, Gazan. Nothing in the jungle in-
spired within the breast of Tarzan so near a semblance to
fear as did the hideous Histah. The apes, too, loathed the
terrifying reptile and feared him even more than they did
Sheeta, the panther, or Numa, the lion. Of all their ene-
mies there was none they gave a wider berth than they
gave Histah, the snake.
Tarzan knew that Teeka was peculiarly fearful of this
silent, repulsive foe, and as the scene broke upon his vi-
sion, it was the action of Teeka which filled him with the
greatest wonder, for at the moment that he saw her, the
she-ape leaped upon the glistening body of the snake,
and as the mighty folds encircled her as well as her off-
spring, she made no effort to escape, but instead grasped
the writhing body in a futile effort to tear it from her
screaming balu.
107
Tarzan knew all too well how deep-rooted was Teeka’s

terror of Histah. He scarce could believe the testimony
of his own eyes then, when they told him that she had
voluntarily rushed into that deadly embrace. Nor was
Teeka’s innate dread of the monster much greater than
Tarzan’s own. Never, willingly, had he touched a snake.
Why, he could not say, for he would admit fear of noth-
ing; nor was it fear, but rather an inherent repulsion be-
queathed to him by many generations of civilized ances-
tors, and back of them, perhaps, by countless myriads of
such as Teeka, in the breasts of each of which had lurked
the same nameless terror of the slimy reptile.
Yet Tarzan did not hesitate more than had Teeka, but
leaped upon Histah with all the speed and impetuosity
that he would have shown had he been springing upon
Bara, the deer, to make a kill for food. Thus beset the
snake writhed and twisted horribly; but not for an instant
did it loose its hold upon any of its intended victims, for it
had included the ape-man in its cold embrace the minute
that he had fallen upon it.
Still clinging to the tree, the mighty reptile held the
three as though they had been without weight, the while
it sought to crush the life from them. Tarzan had drawn
his knife and this he now plunged rapidly into the body
108
of the enemy; but the encircling folds promised to sap

his life before he had inflicted a death wound upon the
snake. Yet on he fought, nor once did he seek to escape
the horrid death that confronted him–his sole aim was to
slay Histah and thus free Teeka and her balu.
The great, wide-gaping jaws of the snake turned and
hovered above him. The elastic maw, which could ac-
commodate a rabbit or a horned buck with equal facility,
yawned for him; but Histah, in turning his attention upon
the ape-man, brought his head within reach of Tarzan’s
blade. Instantly a brown hand leaped forth and seized
the mottled neck, and another drove the heavy hunting
knife to the hilt into the little brain.
Convulsively Histah shuddered and relaxed, tensed
and relaxed again, whipping and striking with his great
body; but no longer sentient or sensible. Histah was
dead, but in his death throes he might easily dispatch a
dozen apes or men.
Quickly Tarzan seized Teeka and dragged her from the
loosened embrace, dropping her to the ground beneath,
then he extricated the balu and tossed it to its mother. Still
Histah whipped about, clinging to the ape-man; but after
a dozen efforts Tarzan succeeded in wriggling free and
109
leaping to the ground out of range of the mighty battering

of the dying snake.
A circle of apes surrounded the scene of the battle; but
the moment that Tarzan broke safely from the enemy they
turned silently away to resume their interrupted feeding,
and Teeka turned with them, apparently forgetful of all
but her balu and the fact that when the interruption had
occurred she just had discovered an ingeniously hidden
nest containing three perfectly good eggs.
Tarzan, equally indifferent to a battle that was over,
merely cast a parting glance at the still writhing body
of Histah and wandered off toward the little pool which
served to water the tribe at this point. Strangely, he did
not give the victory cry over the vanquished Histah. Why,
he could not have told you, other than that to him His-
tah was not an animal. He differed in some peculiar way
from the other denizens of the jungle. Tarzan only knew
that he hated him.
At the pool Tarzan drank his fill and lay stretched upon
the soft grass beneath the shade of a tree. His mind re-
verted to the battle with Histah, the snake. It seemed
strange to him that Teeka should have placed herself
within the folds of the horrid monster. Why had she done
110
it? Why, indeed, had he? Teeka did not belong to him, nor
did Teeka’s balu. They were both Taug’s. Why then had
he done this thing? Histah was not food for him when he
was dead. There seemed to Tarzan, now that he gave the
matter thought, no reason in the world why he should
have done the thing he did, and presently it occurred to
him that he had acted almost involuntarily, just as he had
acted when he had released the old Gomangani the pre-
vious evening.
What made him do such things? Somebody more
powerful than he must force him to act at times. "All-
powerful," thought Tarzan. "The little bugs say that God
is all-powerful. It must be that God made me do these
things, for I never did them by myself. It was God who
made Teeka rush upon Histah. Teeka would never go
near Histah of her own volition. It was God who held
my knife from the throat of the old Gomangani. God ac-
complishes strange things for he is ’all-powerful.’ I can-
not see Him; but I know that it must be God who does
these things. No Mangani, no Gomangani, no Tarman-
gani could do them."
And the flowers–who made them grow? Ah, now it
was all explained–the flowers, the trees, the moon, the
sun, himself, every living creature in the jungle–they
111
were all made by God out of nothing.

And what was God? What did God look like? Of
that he had no conception; but he was sure that every-
thing that was good came from God. His good act in re-
fraining from slaying the poor, defenseless old Goman-
gani; Teeka’s love that had hurled her into the embrace of
death; his own loyalty to Teeka which had jeopardized
his life that she might live. The flowers and the trees
were good and beautiful. God had made them. He made
the other creatures, too, that each might have food upon
which to live. He had made Sheeta, the panther, with his
beautiful coat; and Numa, the lion, with his noble head
and his shaggy mane. He had made Bara, the deer, lovely
and graceful.
Yes, Tarzan had found God, and he spent the whole
day in attributing to Him all of the good and beautiful
things of nature; but there was one thing which troubled
him. He could not quite reconcile it to his conception of
his new-found God.
Who made Histah, the snake?
112
Chapter 5. Tarzan and the Black
Boy
of the apes sat at the foot of a great tree braid-

T ARZAN
ing a new grass rope. Beside him lay the frayed rem-
nants of the old one, torn and severed by the fangs and
talons of Sheeta, the panther. Only half the original rope
was there, the balance having been carried off by the an-
gry cat as he bounded away through the jungle with the
noose still about his savage neck and the loose end drag-
ging among the underbrush.
Tarzan smiled as he recalled Sheeta’s great rage, his
frantic efforts to free himself from the entangling strands,
his uncanny screams that were part hate, part anger, part
113
CHAPTER 5. TARZAN AND THE BLACK BOY
terror. He smiled in retrospection at the discomfiture of

his enemy, and in anticipation of another day as he added
an extra strand to his new rope.
This would be the strongest, the heaviest rope that
Tarzan of the Apes ever had fashioned. Visions of Numa,
the lion, straining futilely in its embrace thrilled the ape-
man. He was quite content, for his hands and his brain
were busy. Content, too, were his fellows of the tribe
of Kerchak, searching for food in the clearing and the
surrounding trees about him. No perplexing thoughts
of the future burdened their minds, and only occasion-
ally, dimly arose recollections of the near past. They were
stimulated to a species of brutal content by the delectable
business of filling their bellies. Afterward they would
sleep–it was their life, and they enjoyed it as we enjoy
ours, you and I–as Tarzan enjoyed his. Possibly they en-
joyed theirs more than we enjoy ours, for who shall say
that the beasts of the jungle do not better fulfill the pur-
poses for which they are created than does man with his
many excursions into strange fields and his contraven-
tions of the laws of nature? And what gives greater con-
tent and greater happiness than the fulfilling of a destiny?
As Tarzan worked, Gazan, Teeka’s little balu, played
about him while Teeka sought food upon the opposite
114
side of the clearing. No more did Teeka, the mother, or

Taug, the sullen sire, harbor suspicions of Tarzan’s inten-
tions toward their first-born. Had he not courted death to
save their Gazan from the fangs and talons of Sheeta? Did
he not fondle and cuddle the little one with even as great
a show of affection as Teeka herself displayed? Their
fears were allayed and Tarzan now found himself often
in the role of nursemaid to a tiny anthropoid–an avoca-
tion which he found by no means irksome, since Gazan
was a never-failing fount of surprises and entertainment.
Just now the apeling was developing those arboreal
tendencies which were to stand him in such good stead
during the years of his youth, when rapid flight into the
upper terraces was of far more importance and value
than his undeveloped muscles and untried fighting fangs.
Backing off fifteen or twenty feet from the bole of the
tree beneath the branches of which Tarzan worked upon
his rope, Gazan scampered quickly forward, scrambling
nimbly upward to the lower limbs. Here he would squat
for a moment or two, quite proud of his achievement,
then clamber to the ground again and repeat. Sometimes,
quite often in fact, for he was an ape, his attention was
distracted by other things, a beetle, a caterpillar, a tiny
field mouse, and off he would go in pursuit; the caterpil-
115
lars he always caught, and sometimes the beetles; but the

field mice, never.
Now he discovered the tail of the rope upon which
Tarzan was working. Grasping it in one small hand he
bounced away, for all the world like an animated rubber
ball, snatching it from the ape-man’s hand and running
off across the clearing. Tarzan leaped to his feet and was
in pursuit in an instant, no trace of anger on his face or in
his voice as he called to the roguish little balu to drop his
rope.
Straight toward his mother raced Gazan, and after him
came Tarzan. Teeka looked up from her feeding, and in
the first instant that she realized that Gazan was fleeing
and that another was in pursuit, she bared her fangs and
bristled; but when she saw that the pursuer was Tarzan
she turned back to the business that had been occupying
her attention. At her very feet the ape-man overhauled
the balu and, though the youngster squealed and fought
when Tarzan seized him, Teeka only glanced casually in
their direction. No longer did she fear harm to her first-
born at the hands of the ape-man. Had he not saved
Gazan on two occasions?
Rescuing his rope, Tarzan returned to his tree and re-
116
sumed his labor; but thereafter it was necessary to watch

carefully the playful balu, who was now possessed to
steal it whenever he thought his great, smooth-skinned
cousin was momentarily off his guard.
But even under this handicap Tarzan finally completed
the rope, a long, pliant weapon, stronger than any he ever
had made before. The discarded piece of his former one
he gave to Gazan for a plaything, for Tarzan had it in his
mind to instruct Teeka’s balu after ideas of his own when
the youngster should be old and strong enough to profit
by his precepts. At present the little ape’s innate aptitude
for mimicry would be sufficient to familiarize him with
Tarzan’s ways and weapons, and so the ape-man swung
off into the jungle, his new rope coiled over one shoulder,
while little Gazan hopped about the clearing dragging the
old one after him in childish glee.
As Tarzan traveled, dividing his quest for food with
one for a sufficiently noble quarry whereupon to test his
new weapon, his mind often was upon Gazan. The ape-
man had realized a deep affection for Teeka’s balu almost
from the first, partly because the child belonged to Teeka,
his first love, and partly for the little ape’s own sake,
and Tarzan’s human longing for some sentient creature
upon which to expend those natural affections of the soul
117
which are inherent to all normal members of the GENUS

HOMO. Tarzan envied Teeka. It was true that Gazan evi-
denced a considerable reciprocation of Tarzan’s fondness
for him, even preferring him to his own surly sire; but to
Teeka the little one turned when in pain or terror, when
tired or hungry. Then it was that Tarzan felt quite alone
in the world and longed desperately for one who should
turn first to him for succor and protection.
Taug had Teeka; Teeka had Gazan; and nearly every
other bull and cow of the tribe of Kerchak had one or
more to love and by whom to be loved. Of course Tarzan
could scarcely formulate the thought in precisely this
way–he only knew that he craved something which was
denied him; something which seemed to be represented
by those relations which existed between Teeka and her
balu, and so he envied Teeka and longed for a balu of his
own.
He saw Sheeta and his mate with their little family of
three; and deeper inland toward the rocky hills, where
one might lie up during the heat of the day, in the dense
shade of a tangled thicket close under the cool face of an
overhanging rock, Tarzan had found the lair of Numa, the
lion, and of Sabor, the lioness. Here he had watched them
with their little balus–playful creatures, spotted leopard-
118
like. And he had seen the young fawn with Bara, the
deer, and with Buto, the rhinoceros, its ungainly little one.
Each of the creatures of the jungle had its own–except
Tarzan. It made the ape-man sad to think upon this thing,
sad and lonely; but presently the scent of game cleared
his young mind of all other considerations, as catlike he
crawled far out upon a bending limb above the game trail
which led down to the ancient watering place of the wild
things of this wild world.
How many thousands of times had this great, old limb
bent to the savage form of some blood-thirsty hunter in
the long years that it had spread its leafy branches above
the deep-worn jungle path! Tarzan, the ape-man, Sheeta,
the panther, and Histah, the snake, it knew well. They
had worn smooth the bark upon its upper surface.
Today it was Horta, the boar, which came down to-
ward the watcher in the old tree–Horta, the boar, whose
formidable tusks and diabolical temper preserved him
from all but the most ferocious or most famished of the
largest carnivora.
But to Tarzan, meat was meat; naught that was ed-
ible or tasty might pass a hungry Tarzan unchallenged
and unattacked. In hunger, as in battle, the ape-man out-
119
savaged the dreariest denizens of the jungle. He knew

neither fear nor mercy, except upon rare occasions when
some strange, inexplicable force stayed his hand–a force
inexplicable to him, perhaps, because of his ignorance of
his own origin and of all the forces of humanitarianism
and civilization that were his rightful heritage because of
that origin.
So today, instead of staying his hand until a less
formidable feast found its way toward him, Tarzan
dropped his new noose about the neck of Horta, the boar.
It was an excellent test for the untried strands. The an-
gered boar bolted this way and that; but each time the
new rope held him where Tarzan had made it fast about
the stem of the tree above the branch from which he had
cast it.
As Horta grunted and charged, slashing the sturdy jun-
gle patriarch with his mighty tusks until the bark flew
in every direction, Tarzan dropped to the ground behind
him. In the ape-man’s hand was the long, keen blade that
had been his constant companion since that distant day
upon which chance had directed its point into the body
of Bolgani, the gorilla, and saved the torn and bleeding
man-child from what else had been certain death.
120
Tarzan walked in toward Horta, who swung now to

face his enemy. Mighty and muscled as was the young
giant, it yet would have appeared but the maddest folly
for him to face so formidable a creature as Horta, the boar,
armed only with a slender hunting knife. So it would
have seemed to one who knew Horta even slightly and
Tarzan not at all.
For a moment Horta stood motionless facing the ape-
man. His wicked, deep-set eyes flashed angrily. He shook
his lowered head.
"Mud-eater!" jeered the ape-man. "Wallower in filth.
Even your meat stinks, but it is juicy and makes Tarzan
strong. Today I shall eat your heart, O Lord of the Great
Tusks, that it shall keep savage that which pounds against
my own ribs."
Horta, understanding nothing of what Tarzan said,
was none the less enraged because of that. He saw only
a naked man-thing, hairless and futile, pitting his puny
fangs and soft muscles against his own indomitable sav-
agery, and he charged.
Tarzan of the Apes waited until the upcut of a wicked
tusk would have laid open his thigh, then he moved–just
the least bit to one side; but so quickly that lightning was
121
a sluggard by comparison, and as he moved, he stooped

low and with all the great power of his right arm drove
the long blade of his father’s hunting knife straight into
the heart of Horta, the boar. A quick leap carried him
from the zone of the creature’s death throes, and a mo-
ment later the hot and dripping heart of Horta was in his
grasp.
His hunger satisfied, Tarzan did not seek a lying-up
place for sleep, as was sometimes his way, but continued
on through the jungle more in search of adventure than
of food, for today he was restless. And so it came that
he turned his footsteps toward the village of Mbonga,
the black chief, whose people Tarzan had baited remorse-
lessly since that day upon which Kulonga, the chief’s son,
had slain Kala.
A river winds close beside the village of the black men.
Tarzan reached its side a little below the clearing where
squat the thatched huts of the Negroes. The river life
was ever fascinating to the ape-man. He found pleasure
in watching the ungainly antics of Duro, the hippopota-
mus, and keen sport in tormenting the sluggish crocodile,
Gimla, as he basked in the sun. Then, too, there were the
shes and the balus of the black men of the Gomangani to
frighten as they squatted by the river, the shes with their
122
meager washing, the balus with their primitive toys.

This day he came upon a woman and her child farther
down stream than usual. The former was searching for
a species of shellfish which was to be found in the mud
close to the river bank. She was a young black woman
of about thirty. Her teeth were filed to sharp points, for
her people ate the flesh of man. Her under lip was slit
that it might support a rude pendant of copper which
she had worn for so many years that the lip had been
dragged downward to prodigious lengths, exposing the
teeth and gums of her lower jaw. Her nose, too, was slit,
and through the slit was a wooden skewer. Metal orna-
ments dangled from her ears, and upon her forehead and
cheeks; upon her chin and the bridge of her nose were
tattooings in colors that were mellowed now by age. She
was naked except for a girdle of grasses about her waist.
Altogether she was very beautiful in her own estimation
and even in the estimation of the men of Mbonga’s tribe,
though she was of another people–a trophy of war seized
in her maidenhood by one of Mbonga’s fighting men.
Her child was a boy of ten, lithe, straight and, for a
black, handsome. Tarzan looked upon the two from the
concealing foliage of a near-by bush. He was about to
leap forth before them with a terrifying scream, that he
123
might enjoy the spectacle of their terror and their incon-

tinent flight; but of a sudden a new whim seized him.
Here was a balu fashioned as he himself was fashioned.
Of course this one’s skin was black; but what of it? Tarzan
had never seen a white man. In so far as he knew, he was
the sole representative of that strange form of life upon
the earth. The black boy should make an excellent balu
for Tarzan, since he had none of his own. He would tend
him carefully, feed him well, protect him as only Tarzan
of the Apes could protect his own, and teach him out of
his half human, half bestial lore the secrets of the jungle
from its rotting surface vegetation to the high tossed pin-
nacles of the forest’s upper terraces.
***
Tarzan uncoiled his rope, and shook out the noose. The
two before him, all ignorant of the near presence of that
terrifying form, continued preoccupied in the search for
shellfish, poking about in the mud with short sticks.
Tarzan stepped from the jungle behind them; his noose
lay open upon the ground beside him. There was a quick
movement of the right arm and the noose rose gracefully
124
into the air, hovered an instant above the head of the un-
suspecting youth, then settled. As it encompassed his
body below the shoulders, Tarzan gave a quick jerk that
tightened it about the boy’s arms, pinioning them to his
sides. A scream of terror broke from the lad’s lips, and
as his mother turned, affrighted at his cry, she saw him
being dragged quickly toward a great white giant who
stood just beneath the shade of a near-by tree, scarcely a
dozen long paces from her.
With a savage cry of terror and rage, the woman leaped
fearlessly toward the ape-man. In her mien Tarzan saw
determination and courage which would shrink not even
from death itself. She was very hideous and frightful
even when her face was in repose; but convulsed by pas-
sion, her expression became terrifyingly fiendish. Even
the ape-man drew back, but more in revulsion than fear–
fear he knew not.
Biting and kicking was the black she’s balu as Tarzan
tucked him beneath his arm and vanished into the
branches hanging low above him, just as the infuriated
mother dashed forward to seize and do battle with him.
And as he melted away into the depth of the jungle with
his still struggling prize, he meditated upon the possibil-
ities which might lie in the prowess of the Gomangani
125
were the hes as formidable as the shes.

Once at a safe distance from the despoiled mother and
out of earshot of her screams and menaces, Tarzan paused
to inspect his prize, now so thoroughly terrorized that he
had ceased his struggles and his outcries.
The frightened child rolled his eyes fearfully toward
his captor, until the whites showed gleaming all about
the irises.
"I am Tarzan," said the ape-man, in the vernacular of
the anthropoids. "I will not harm you. You are to be
Tarzan’s balu. Tarzan will protect you. He will feed you.
The best in the jungle shall be for Tarzan’s balu, for Tarzan
is a mighty hunter. None need you fear, not even Numa,
the lion, for Tarzan is a mighty fighter. None so great as
Tarzan, son of Kala. Do not fear."
But the child only whimpered and trembled, for he did
not understand the tongue of the great apes, and the voice
of Tarzan sounded to him like the barking and growling
of a beast. Then, too, he had heard stories of this bad,
white forest god. It was he who had slain Kulonga and
others of the warriors of Mbonga, the chief. It was he
who entered the village stealthily, by magic, in the dark-
ness of the night, to steal arrows and poison, and frighten
126
the women and the children and even the great warriors.
Doubtless this wicked god fed upon little boys. Had his
mother not said as much when he was naughty and she
threatened to give him to the white god of the jungle if he
were not good? Little black Tibo shook as with ague.
"Are you cold, Go-bu-balu?" asked Tarzan, using the
simian equivalent of black he-baby in lieu of a better
name. "The sun is hot; why do you shiver?"
Tibo could not understand; but he cried for his mamma
and begged the great, white god to let him go, promis-
ing always to be a good boy thereafter if his plea were
granted. Tarzan shook his head. Not a word could he
understand. This would never do! He must teach Go-bu-
balu a language which sounded like talk. It was quite cer-
tain to Tarzan that Go-bu-balu’s speech was not talk at all.
It sounded quite as senseless as the chattering of the silly
birds. It would be best, thought the ape-man, quickly to
get him among the tribe of Kerchak where he would hear
the Mangani talking among themselves. Thus he would
soon learn an intelligible form of speech.
Tarzan rose to his feet upon the swaying branch where
he had halted far above the ground, and motioned to the
child to follow him; but Tibo only clung tightly to the bole
127
of the tree and wept. Being a boy, and a native African, he

had, of course, climbed into trees many times before this;
but the idea of racing off through the forest, leaping from
one branch to another, as his captor, to his horror, had
done when he had carried Tibo away from his mother,
filled his childish heart with terror.
Tarzan sighed. His newly acquired balu had much in-
deed to learn. It was pitiful that a balu of his size and
strength should be so backward. He tried to coax Tibo
to follow him; but the child dared not, so Tarzan picked
him up and carried him upon his back. Tibo no longer
scratched or bit. Escape seemed impossible. Even now,
were he set upon the ground, the chance was remote, he
knew, that he could find his way back to the village of
Mbonga, the chief. Even if he could, there were the lions
and the leopards and the hyenas, any one of which, as
Tibo was well aware, was particularly fond of the meat of
little black boys.
So far the terrible white god of the jungle had offered
him no harm. He could not expect even this much con-
sideration from the frightful, green-eyed man-eaters. It
would be the lesser of two evils, then, to let the white god
carry him away without scratching and biting, as he had
done at first.
128
As Tarzan swung rapidly through the trees, little Tibo

closed his eyes in terror rather than look longer down into
the frightful abysses beneath. Never before in all his life
had Tibo been so frightened, yet as the white giant sped
on with him through the forest there stole over the child
an inexplicable sensation of security as he saw how true
were the leaps of the ape-man, how unerring his grasp
upon the swaying limbs which gave him hand-hold, and
then, too, there was safety in the middle terraces of the
forest, far above the reach of the dreaded lions.
And so Tarzan came to the clearing where the tribe fed,
dropping among them with his new balu clinging tightly
to his shoulders. He was fairly in the midst of them before
Tibo spied a single one of the great hairy forms, or before
the apes realized that Tarzan was not alone. When they
saw the little Gomangani perched upon his back some of
them came forward in curiosity with upcurled lips and
snarling mien.
An hour before little Tibo would have said that he
knew the uttermost depths of fear; but now, as he saw
these fearsome beasts surrounding him, he realized that
all that had gone before was as nothing by comparison.
Why did the great white giant stand there so uncon-
cernedly? Why did he not flee before these horrid, hairy,
129
tree men fell upon them both and tore them to pieces?
And then there came to Tibo a numbing recollection. It
was none other than the story he had heard passed from
mouth to mouth, fearfully, by the people of Mbonga,
the chief, that this great white demon of the jungle was
naught other than a hairless ape, for had not he been seen
in company with these?
Tibo could only stare in wide-eyed horror at the ap-
proaching apes. He saw their beetling brows, their great
fangs, their wicked eyes. He noted their mighty muscles
rolling beneath their shaggy hides. Their every attitude
and expression was a menace. Tarzan saw this, too. He
drew Tibo around in front of him.
"This is Tarzan’s Go-bu-balu," he said. "Do not harm
him, or Tarzan will kill you," and he bared his own fangs
in the teeth of the nearest ape.
"It is a Gomangani," replied the ape. "Let me kill it. It is
a Gomangani. The Gomangani are our enemies. Let me
kill it."
"Go away," snarled Tarzan. "I tell you, Gunto, it is
Tarzan’s balu. Go away or Tarzan will kill you," and the
ape-man took a step toward the advancing ape.
The latter sidled off, quite stiff and haughty, after the
130
manner of a dog which meets another and is too proud to

fight and too fearful to turn his back and run.
Next came Teeka, prompted by curiosity. At her side
skipped little Gazan. They were filled with wonder like
the others; but Teeka did not bare her fangs. Tarzan saw
this and motioned that she approach.
"Tarzan has a balu now," he said. "He and Teeka’s balu
can play together."
"It is a Gomangani," replied Teeka. "It will kill my balu.
Take it away, Tarzan."
Tarzan laughed. "It could not harm Pamba, the rat," he
said. "It is but a little balu and very frightened. Let Gazan
play with it."
Teeka still was fearful, for with all their mighty feroc-
ity the great anthropoids are timid; but at last, assured
by her great confidence in Tarzan, she pushed Gazan for-
ward toward the little black boy. The small ape, guided
by instinct, drew back toward its mother, baring its small
fangs and screaming in mingled fear and rage.
Tibo, too, showed no signs of desiring a closer acquain-
tance with Gazan, so Tarzan gave up his efforts for the
time.
131
During the week which followed, Tarzan found his

time much occupied. His balu was a greater responsibil-
ity than he had counted upon. Not for a moment did he
dare leave it, since of all the tribe, Teeka alone could have
been depended upon to refrain from slaying the hapless
black had it not been for Tarzan’s constant watchfulness.
When the ape-man hunted, he must carry Go-bu-balu
about with him. It was irksome, and then the little black
seemed so stupid and fearful to Tarzan. It was quite help-
less against even the lesser of the jungle creatures. Tarzan
wondered how it had survived at all. He tried to teach it,
and found a ray of hope in the fact that Go-bu-balu had
mastered a few words of the language of the anthropoids,
and that he could now cling to a high-tossed branch with-
out screaming in fear; but there was something about the
child which worried Tarzan. He often had watched the
blacks within their village. He had seen the children play-
ing, and always there had been much laughter; but little
Go-bu-balu never laughed. It was true that Tarzan him-
self never laughed. Upon occasion he smiled, grimly, but
to laughter he was a stranger. The black, however, should
have laughed, reasoned the ape-man. It was the way of
the Gomangani.
Also, he saw that the little fellow often refused food
132
and was growing thinner day by day. At times he sur-

prised the boy sobbing softly to himself. Tarzan tried to
comfort him, even as fierce Kala had comforted Tarzan
when the ape-man was a balu, but all to no avail. Go-
bu-balu merely no longer feared Tarzan–that was all. He
feared every other living thing within the jungle. He
feared the jungle days with their long excursions through
the dizzy tree tops. He feared the jungle nights with their
swaying, perilous couches far above the ground, and the
grunting and coughing of the great carnivora prowling
beneath him.
Tarzan did not know what to do. His heritage of En-
glish blood rendered it a difficult thing even to consider
a surrender of his project, though he was forced to ad-
mit to himself that his balu was not all that he had hoped.
Though he was faithful to his self-imposed task, and even
found that he had grown to like Go-bu-balu, he could
not deceive himself into believing that he felt for it that
fierce heat of passionate affection which Teeka revealed
for Gazan, and which the black mother had shown for
Go-bu-balu.
The little black boy from cringing terror at the sight of
Tarzan passed by degrees into trustfulness and admira-
tion. Only kindness had he ever received at the hands of
133
the great white devil-god, yet he had seen with what fe-
rocity his kindly captor could deal with others. He had
seen him leap upon a certain he-ape which persisted in
attempting to seize and slay Go-bu-balu. He had seen the
strong, white teeth of the ape-man fastened in the neck
of his adversary, and the mighty muscles tensed in battle.
He had heard the savage, bestial snarls and roars of com-
bat, and he had realized with a shudder that he could not
differentiate between those of his guardian and those of
the hairy ape.
He had seen Tarzan bring down a buck, just as Numa,
the lion, might have done, leaping upon its back and fas-
tening his fangs in the creature’s neck. Tibo had shud-
dered at the sight, but he had thrilled, too, and for the
first time there entered his dull, Negroid mind a vague
desire to emulate his savage foster parent. But Tibo, the
little black boy, lacked the divine spark which had per-
mitted Tarzan, the white boy, to benefit by his training
in the ways of the fierce jungle. In imagination he was
wanting, and imagination is but another name for super-
intelligence.
Imagination it is which builds bridges, and cities, and
empires. The beasts know it not, the blacks only a little,
while to one in a hundred thousand of earth’s dominant
134
race it is given as a gift from heaven that man may not

perish from the earth.
While Tarzan pondered his problem concerning the fu-
ture of his balu, Fate was arranging to take the matter out
of his hands. Momaya, Tibo’s mother, grief-stricken at
the loss of her boy, had consulted the tribal witch-doctor,
but to no avail. The medicine he made was not good
medicine, for though Momaya paid him two goats for it,
it did not bring back Tibo, nor even indicate where she
might search for him with reasonable assurance of find-
ing him. Momaya, being of a short temper and of an-
other people, had little respect for the witch-doctor of her
husband’s tribe, and so, when he suggested that a fur-
ther payment of two more fat goats would doubtless en-
able him to make stronger medicine, she promptly loosed
her shrewish tongue upon him, and with such good effect
that he was glad to take himself off with his zebra’s tail
and his pot of magic.
When he had gone and Momaya had succeeded in
partially subduing her anger, she gave herself over to
thought, as she so often had done since the abduction of
her Tibo, in the hope that she finally might discover some
feasible means of locating him, or at least assuring herself
as to whether he were alive or dead.
135
It was known to the blacks that Tarzan did not eat the
flesh of man, for he had slain more than one of their num-
ber, yet never tasted the flesh of any. Too, the bodies
always had been found, sometimes dropping as though
from the clouds to alight in the center of the village. As
Tibo’s body had not been found, Momaya argued that he
still lived, but where?
Then it was that there came to her mind a recollection
of Bukawai, the unclean, who dwelt in a cave in the hill-
side to the north, and who it was well known entertained
devils in his evil lair. Few, if any, had the temerity to visit
old Bukawai, firstly because of fear of his black magic and
the two hyenas who dwelt with him and were commonly
known to be devils masquerading, and secondly because
of the loathsome disease which had caused Bukawai to
be an outcast–a disease which was slowly eating away
his face.
Now it was that Momaya reasoned shrewdly that if
any might know the whereabouts of her Tibo, it would be
Bukawai, who was in friendly intercourse with gods and
demons, since a demon or a god it was who had stolen
her baby; but even her great mother love was sorely taxed
to find the courage to send her forth into the black jun-
gle toward the distant hills and the uncanny abode of
136
Bukawai, the unclean, and his devils.

Mother love, however, is one of the human passions
which closely approximates to the dignity of an irre-
sistible force. It drives the frail flesh of weak women
to deeds of heroic measure. Momaya was neither frail
nor weak, physically, but she was a woman, an ignorant,
superstitious, African savage. She believed in devils, in
black magic, and in witchcraft. To Momaya, the jun-
gle was inhabited by far more terrifying things than li-
ons and leopards–horrifying, nameless things which pos-
sessed the power of wreaking frightful harm under vari-
ous innocent guises.
From one of the warriors of the village, whom she
knew to have once stumbled upon the lair of Bukawai,
the mother of Tibo learned how she might find it–near
a spring of water which rose in a small rocky canon be-
tween two hills, the easternmost of which was easily rec-
ognizable because of a huge granite boulder which rested
upon its summit. The westerly hill was lower than its
companion, and was quite bare of vegetation except for a
single mimosa tree which grew just a little below its sum-
mit.
These two hills, the man assured her, could be seen
137
for some distance before she reached them, and together

formed an excellent guide to her destination. He warned
her, however, to abandon so foolish and dangerous an ad-
venture, emphasizing what she already quite well knew,
that if she escaped harm at the hands of Bukawai and his
demons, the chances were that she would not be so fortu-
nate with the great carnivora of the jungle through which
she must pass going and returning.
The warrior even went to Momaya’s husband, who,
in turn, having little authority over the vixenish lady of
his choice, went to Mbonga, the chief. The latter sum-
moned Momaya, threatening her with the direst punish-
ment should she venture forth upon so unholy an excur-
sion. The old chief’s interest in the matter was due solely
to that age-old alliance which exists between church and
state. The local witch-doctor, knowing his own medicine
better than any other knew it, was jealous of all other pre-
tenders to accomplishments in the black art. He long had
heard of the power of Bukawai, and feared lest, should he
succeed in recovering Momaya’s lost child, much of the
tribal patronage and consequent fees would be diverted
to the unclean one. As Mbonga received, as chief, a cer-
tain proportion of the witch-doctor’s fees and could ex-
pect nothing from Bukawai, his heart and soul were, quite
138
naturally, wrapped up in the orthodox church.

But if Momaya could view with intrepid heart an ex-
cursion into the jungle and a visit to the fear-haunted
abode of Bukawai, she was not likely to be deterred by
threats of future punishment at the hands of old Mbonga,
whom she secretly despised. Yet she appeared to accede
to his injunctions, returning to her hut in silence.
She would have preferred starting upon her quest by
day-light, but this was now out of the question, since
she must carry food and a weapon of some sort–things
which she never could pass out of the village with by
day without being subjected to curious questioning that
surely would come immediately to the ears of Mbonga.
So Momaya bided her time until night, and just before
the gates of the village were closed, she slipped through
into the darkness and the jungle. She was much fright-
ened, but she set her face resolutely toward the north, and
though she paused often to listen, breathlessly, for the
huge cats which, here, were her greatest terror, she nev-
ertheless continued her way staunchly for several hours,
until a low moan a little to her right and behind her
brought her to a sudden stop.
With palpitating heart the woman stood, scarce dar-
139
ing to breathe, and then, very faintly but unmistakable to

her keen ears, came the stealthy crunching of twigs and
grasses beneath padded feet.
All about Momaya grew the giant trees of the tropical
jungle, festooned with hanging vines and mosses. She
seized upon the nearest and started to clamber, apelike,
to the branches above. As she did so, there was a sud-
den rush of a great body behind her, a menacing roar that
caused the earth to tremble, and something crashed into
the very creepers to which she was clinging–but below
her.
Momaya drew herself to safety among the leafy
branches and thanked the foresight which had prompted
her to bring along the dried human ear which hung from
a cord about her neck. She always had known that that
ear was good medicine. It had been given her, when
a girl, by the witch-doctor of her town tribe, and was
nothing like the poor, weak medicine of Mbonga’s witch-
doctor.
All night Momaya clung to her perch, for although the
lion sought other prey after a short time, she dared not
descend into the darkness again, for fear she might en-
counter him or another of his kind; but at daylight she
140
clambered down and resumed her way.

Tarzan of the Apes, finding that his balu never ceased
to give evidence of terror in the presence of the apes of the
tribe, and also that most of the adult apes were a constant
menace to Go-bu-balu’s life, so that Tarzan dared not
leave him alone with them, took to hunting with the little
black boy farther and farther from the stamping grounds
of the anthropoids.
Little by little his absences from the tribe grew in length
as he wandered farther away from them, until finally he
found himself a greater distance to the north than he ever
before had hunted, and with water and ample game and
fruit, he felt not at all inclined to return to the tribe.
Little Go-bu-balu gave evidences of a greater interest
in life, an interest which varied in direct proportion to the
distance he was from the apes of Kerchak. He now trot-
ted along behind Tarzan when the ape-man went upon
the ground, and in the trees he even did his best to follow
his mighty foster parent. The boy was still sad and lonely.
His thin, little body had grown steadily thinner since he
had come among the apes, for while, as a young canni-
bal, he was not overnice in the matter of diet, he found it
not always to his taste to stomach the weird things which
141
tickled the palates of epicures among the apes.

His large eyes were very large indeed now, his cheeks
sunken, and every rib of his emaciated body plainly dis-
cernible to whomsoever should care to count them. Con-
stant terror, perhaps, had had as much to do with his
physical condition as had improper food. Tarzan no-
ticed the change and was worried. He had hoped to
see his balu wax sturdy and strong. His disappointment
was great. In only one respect did Go-bu-balu seem to
progress–he readily was mastering the language of the
apes. Even now he and Tarzan could converse in a fairly
satisfactory manner by supplementing the meager ape
speech with signs; but for the most part, Go-bu-balu was
silent other than to answer questions put to him. His
great sorrow was yet too new and too poignant to be laid
aside even momentarily. Always he pined for Momaya–
shrewish, hideous, repulsive, perhaps, she would have
been to you or me, but to Tibo she was mamma, the per-
sonification of that one great love which knows no selfish-
ness and which does not consume itself in its own fires.
As the two hunted, or rather as Tarzan hunted and Go-
bu-balu tagged along in his wake, the ape-man noticed
many things and thought much. Once they came upon
Sabor moaning in the tall grasses. About her romped and
142
played two little balls of fur, but her eyes were for one
which lay between her great forepaws and did not romp,
one who never would romp again.
Tarzan read aright the anguish and the suffering of the
huge mother cat. He had been minded to bait her. It
was to do this that he had sneaked silently through the
trees until he had come almost above her, but something
held the ape-man as he saw the lioness grieving over her
dead cub. With the acquisition of Go-bu-balu, Tarzan had
come to realize the responsibilities and sorrows of parent-
age, without its joys. His heart went out to Sabor as it
might not have done a few weeks before. As he watched
her, there rose quite unbidden before him a vision of Mo-
maya, the skewer through the septum of her nose, her
pendulous under lip sagging beneath the weight which
dragged it down. Tarzan saw not her unloveliness; he
saw only the same anguish that was Sabor’s, and he
winced. That strange functioning of the mind which
sometimes is called association of ideas snapped Teeka
and Gazan before the ape-man’s mental vision. What if
one should come and take Gazan from Teeka. Tarzan ut-
tered a low and ominous growl as though Gazan were
his own. Go-bu-balu glanced here and there apprehen-
sively, thinking that Tarzan had espied an enemy. Sabor
143
sprang suddenly to her feet, her yellow-green eyes blaz-

ing, her tail lashing as she cocked her ears, and raising
her muzzle, sniffed the air for possible danger. The two
little cubs, which had been playing, scampered quickly to
her, and standing beneath her, peered out from between
her forelegs, their big ears upstanding, their little heads
cocked first upon one side and then upon the other.
With a shake of his black shock, Tarzan turned away
and resumed his hunting in another direction; but all day
there rose one after another, above the threshold of his
objective mind, memory portraits of Sabor, of Momaya,
and of Teeka–a lioness, a cannibal, and a she-ape, yet to
the ape-man they were identical through motherhood.
It was noon of the third day when Momaya came
within sight of the cave of Bukawai, the unclean. The
old witch-doctor had rigged a framework of interlaced
boughs to close the mouth of the cave from predatory
beasts. This was now set to one side, and the black cav-
ern beyond yawned mysterious and repellent. Momaya
shivered as from a cold wind of the rainy season. No
sign of life appeared about the cave, yet Momaya expe-
rienced that uncanny sensation as of unseen eyes regard-
ing her malevolently. Again she shuddered. She tried to
force her unwilling feet onward toward the cave, when
144
from its depths issued an uncanny sound that was nei-

ther brute nor human, a weird sound that was akin to
mirthless laughter.
With a stifled scream, Momaya turned and fled into the
jungle. For a hundred yards she ran before she could con-
trol her terror, and then she paused, listening. Was all her
labor, were all the terrors and dangers through which she
had passed to go for naught? She tried to steel herself to
return to the cave, but again fright overcame her.
Saddened, disheartened, she turned slowly upon the
back trail toward the village of Mbonga. Her young
shoulders now were drooped like those of an old woman
who bears a great burden of many years with their accu-
mulated pains and sorrows, and she walked with tired
feet and a halting step. The spring of youth was gone
from Momaya.
For another hundred yards she dragged her weary
way, her brain half paralyzed from dumb terror and suf-
fering, and then there came to her the memory of a little
babe that suckled at her breast, and of a slim boy who
romped, laughing, about her, and they were both Tibo–
her Tibo!
Her shoulders straightened. She shook her savage
145
head, and she turned about and walked boldly back

to the mouth of the cave of Bukawai, the unclean–of
Bukawai, the witch-doctor.
Again, from the interior of the cave came the hideous
laughter that was not laughter. This time Momaya recog-
nized it for what it was, the strange cry of a hyena. No
more did she shudder, but she held her spear ready and
called aloud to Bukawai to come out.
Instead of Bukawai came the repulsive head of a hyena.
Momaya poked at it with her spear, and the ugly, sullen
brute drew back with an angry growl. Again Momaya
called Bukawai by name, and this time there came an an-
swer in mumbling tones that were scarce more human
than those of the beast.
"Who comes to Bukawai?" queried the voice.
"It is Momaya," replied the woman; "Momaya from the
village of Mbonga, the chief.
"What do you want?"
"I want good medicine, better medicine than Mbonga’s
witch-doctor can make," replied Momaya. "The great,
white, jungle god has stolen my Tibo, and I want
medicine to bring him back, or to find where he is hid-
den that I may go and get him."
146
"Who is Tibo?" asked Bukawai.

Momaya told him.
"Bukawai’s medicine is very strong," said the voice.
"Five goats and a new sleeping mat are scarce enough in
exchange for Bukawai’s medicine."
"Two goats are enough," said Momaya, for the spirit of
barter is strong in the breasts of the blacks.
The pleasure of haggling over the price was a suffi-
ciently potent lure to draw Bukawai to the mouth of the
cave. Momaya was sorry when she saw him that he had
not remained within. There are some things too horrible,
too hideous, too repulsive for description–Bukawai’s face
was of these. When Momaya saw him she understood
why it was that he was almost inarticulate.
Beside him were two hyenas, which rumor had said
were his only and constant companions. They made an
excellent trio–the most repulsive of beasts with the most
repulsive of humans.
"Five goats and a new sleeping mat," mumbled
Bukawai.
"Two fat goats and a sleeping mat." Momaya raised
her bid; but Bukawai was obdurate. He stuck for the
147
five goats and the sleeping mat for a matter of half an

hour, while the hyenas sniffed and growled and laughed
hideously. Momaya was determined to give all that
Bukawai asked if she could do no better, but haggling is
second nature to black barterers, and in the end it partly
repaid her, for a compromise finally was reached which
included three fat goats, a new sleeping mat, and a piece
of copper wire.
"Come back tonight," said Bukawai, "when the moon
is two hours in the sky. Then will I make the strong
medicine which shall bring Tibo back to you. Bring with
you the three fat goats, the new sleeping mat, and the
piece of copper wire the length of a large man’s forearm."
"I cannot bring them," said Momaya. "You will have
to come after them. When you have restored Tibo to me,
you shall have them all at the village of Mbonga."
Bukawai shook his head.
"I will make no medicine," he said, "until I have the
goats and the mat and the copper wire."
Momaya pleaded and threatened, but all to no avail.
Finally, she turned away and started off through the jun-
gle toward the village of Mbonga. How she could get
three goats and a sleeping mat out of the village and
148
through the jungle to the cave of Bukawai, she did not

know, but that she would do it somehow she was quite
positive–she would do it or die. Tibo must be restored to
her.
Tarzan coming lazily through the jungle with little Go-
bu-balu, caught the scent of Bara, the deer. Tarzan hun-
gered for the flesh of Bara. Naught tickled his palate so
greatly; but to stalk Bara with Go-bu-balu at his heels,
was out of the question, so he hid the child in the crotch
of a tree where the thick foliage screened him from view,
and set off swiftly and silently upon the spoor of Bara.
Tibo alone was more terrified than Tibo even among
the apes. Real and apparent dangers are less disconcert-
ing than those which we imagine, and only the gods of
his people knew how much Tibo imagined.
He had been but a short time in his hiding place when
he heard something approaching through the jungle. He
crouched closer to the limb upon which he lay and prayed
that Tarzan would return quickly. His wide eyes searched
the jungle in the direction of the moving creature.
What if it was a leopard that had caught his scent! It
would be upon him in a minute. Hot tears flowed from
the large eyes of little Tibo. The curtain of jungle foliage
149
rustled close at hand. The thing was but a few paces from
his tree! His eyes fairly popped from his black face as he
watched for the appearance of the dread creature which
presently would thrust a snarling countenance from be-
tween the vines and creepers.
And then the curtain parted and a woman stepped into
full view. With a gasping cry, Tibo tumbled from his perch
and raced toward her. Momaya suddenly started back
and raised her spear, but a second later she cast it aside
and caught the thin body in her strong arms.
Crushing it to her, she cried and laughed all at one
and the same time, and hot tears of joy, mingled with the
tears of Tibo, trickled down the crease between her naked
breasts.
Disturbed by the noise so close at hand, there arose
from his sleep in a near-by thicket Numa, the lion. He
looked through the tangled underbrush and saw the
black woman and her young. He licked his chops and
measured the distance between them and himself. A
short charge and a long leap would carry him upon them.
He flicked the end of his tail and sighed.
A vagrant breeze, swirling suddenly in the wrong di-
rection, carried the scent of Tarzan to the sensitive nostrils
150
of Bara, the deer. There was a startled tensing of mus-

cles and cocking of ears, a sudden dash, and Tarzan’s
meat was gone. The ape-man angrily shook his head
and turned back toward the spot where he had left Go-
bu-balu. He came softly, as was his way. Before he
reached the spot he heard strange sounds–the sound of
a woman laughing and of a woman weeping, and the
two which seemed to come from one throat were mingled
with the convulsive sobbing of a child. Tarzan hastened,
and when Tarzan hastened, only the birds and the wind
went faster.
And as Tarzan approached the sounds, he heard an-
other, a deep sigh. Momaya did not hear it, nor did
Tibo; but the ears of Tarzan were as the ears of Bara, the
deer. He heard the sigh, and he knew, so he unloosed
the heavy spear which dangled at his back. Even as he
sped through the branches of the trees, with the same ease
that you or I might take out a pocket handkerchief as we
strolled nonchalantly down a lazy country lane, Tarzan
of the Apes took the spear from its thong that it might be
ready against any emergency.
Numa, the lion, did not rush madly to attack. He rea-
soned again, and reason told him that already the prey
was his, so he pushed his great bulk through the foliage
151
and stood eyeing his meat with baleful, glaring eyes.

Momaya saw him and shrieked, drawing Tibo closer to
her breast. To have found her child and to lose him, all in
a moment! She raised her spear, throwing her hand far
back of her shoulder. Numa roared and stepped slowly
forward. Momaya cast her weapon. It grazed the tawny
shoulder, inflicting a flesh wound which aroused all the
terrific bestiality of the carnivore, and the lion charged.
Momaya tried to close her eyes, but could not. She saw
the flashing swiftness of the huge, oncoming death, and
then she saw something else. She saw a mighty, naked
white man drop as from the heavens into the path of the
charging lion. She saw the muscles of a great arm flash
in the light of the equatorial sun as it filtered, dappling,
through the foliage above. She saw a heavy hunting spear
hurtle through the air to meet the lion in midleap.
Numa brought up upon his haunches, roaring terribly
and striking at the spear which protruded from his breast.
His great blows bent and twisted the weapon. Tarzan,
crouching and with hunting knife in hand, circled warily
about the frenzied cat. Momaya, wide-eyed, stood rooted
to the spot, watching, fascinated.
In sudden fury Numa hurled himself toward the ape-
152
man, but the wiry creature eluded the blundering charge,

side-stepping quickly only to rush in upon his foe. Twice
the hunting blade flashed in the air. Twice it fell upon the
back of Numa, already weakening from the spear point so
near his heart. The second stroke of the blade pierced far
into the beast’s spine, and with a last convulsive sweep
of the fore-paws, in a vain attempt to reach his tormentor,
Numa sprawled upon the ground, paralyzed and dying.
Bukawai, fearful lest he should lose any recompense,
followed Momaya with the intention of persuading her
to part with her ornaments of copper and iron against her
return with the price of the medicine–to pay, as it were,
for an option on his services as one pays a retaining fee to
an attorney, for, like an attorney, Bukawai knew the value
of his medicine and that it was well to collect as much as
possible in advance.
The witch-doctor came upon the scene as Tarzan
leaped to meet the lion’s charge. He saw it all and mar-
veled, guessing immediately that this must be the strange
white demon concerning whom he had heard vague ru-
mors before Momaya came to him.
Momaya, now that the lion was past harming her or
hers, gazed with new terror upon Tarzan. It was he who
153
had stolen her Tibo. Doubtless he would attempt to steal

him again. Momaya hugged the boy close to her. She was
determined to die this time rather than suffer Tibo to be
taken from her again.
Tarzan eyed them in silence. The sight of the boy cling-
ing, sobbing, to his mother aroused within his savage
breast a melancholy loneliness. There was none thus to
cling to Tarzan, who yearned so for the love of someone,
of something.
At last Tibo looked up, because of the quiet that had
fallen upon the jungle, and saw Tarzan. He did not
shrink.
"Tarzan," he said, in the speech of the great apes of
the tribe of Kerchak, "do not take me from Momaya, my
mother. Do not take me again to the lair of the hairy, tree
men, for I fear Taug and Gunto and the others. Let me
stay with Momaya, O Tarzan, God of the Jungle! Let me
stay with Momaya, my mother, and to the end of our days
we will bless you and put food before the gates of the vil-
lage of Mbonga that you may never hunger."
Tarzan sighed.
"Go," he said, "back to the village of Mbonga, and
Tarzan will follow to see that no harm befalls you."
154
Tibo translated the words to his mother, and the two

turned their backs upon the ape-man and started off to-
ward home. In the heart of Momaya was a great fear and
a great exultation, for never before had she walked with
God, and never had she been so happy. She strained lit-
tle Tibo to her, stroking his thin cheek. Tarzan saw and
sighed again.
"For Teeka there is Teeka’s balu," he soliloquized; "for
Sabor there are balus, and for the she-Gomangani, and
for Bara, and for Manu, and even for Pamba, the rat; but
for Tarzan there can be none–neither a she nor a balu.
Tarzan of the Apes is a man, and it must be that man
walks alone."
Bukawai saw them go, and he mumbled through his
rotting face, swearing a great oath that he would yet have
the three fat goats, the new sleeping mat, and the bit of
copper wire.
155
Chapter 6. The Witch-Doctor
Seeks Vengeance
Greystoke was hunting, or, to be more accurate,

L ORD
he was shooting pheasants at Chamston-Hedding.
Lord Greystoke was immaculately and appropriately
garbed–to the minutest detail he was vogue. To be sure,
he was among the forward guns, not being considered a
sporting shot, but what he lacked in skill he more than
made up in appearance. At the end of the day he would,
doubtless, have many birds to his credit, since he had two
guns and a smart loader–many more birds than he could
eat in a year, even had he been hungry, which he was not,
having but just arisen from the breakfast table.
156
CHAPTER 6. THE WITCH-DOCTOR SEEKS
VENGEANCE
The beaters–there were twenty-three of them, in white

smocks–had but just driven the birds into a patch of
gorse, and were now circling to the opposite side that
they might drive down toward the guns. Lord Greystoke
was quite as excited as he ever permitted himself to be-
come. There was an exhilaration in the sport that would
not be denied. He felt his blood tingling through his veins
as the beaters approached closer and closer to the birds.
In a vague and stupid sort of way Lord Greystoke felt,
as he always felt upon such occasions, that he was ex-
periencing a sensation somewhat akin to a reversion to
a prehistoric type–that the blood of an ancient forbear
was coursing hot through him, a hairy, half-naked forbear
who had lived by the hunt.
And far away in a matted equatorial jungle another
Lord Greystoke, the real Lord Greystoke, hunted. By
the standards which he knew, he, too, was vogue–utterly
vogue, as was the primal ancestor before the first evic-
tion. The day being sultry, the leopard skin had been
left behind. The real Lord Greystoke had not two guns,
to be sure, nor even one, neither did he have a smart
loader; but he possessed something infinitely more effica-
cious than guns, or loaders, or even twenty-three beaters
in white smocks–he possessed an appetite, an uncanny
157
VENGEANCE
woodcraft, and muscles that were as steel springs.

Later that day, in England, a Lord Greystoke ate boun-
tifully of things he had not killed, and he drank other
things which were uncorked to the accompaniment of
much noise. He patted his lips with snowy linen to re-
move the faint traces of his repast, quite ignorant of the
fact that he was an impostor and that the rightful owner
of his noble title was even then finishing his own dinner
in far-off Africa. He was not using snowy linen, though.
Instead he drew the back of a brown forearm and hand
across his mouth and wiped his bloody fingers upon his
thighs. Then he moved slowly through the jungle to the
drinking place, where, upon all fours, he drank as drank
his fellows, the other beasts of the jungle.
As he quenched his thirst, another denizen of the
gloomy forest approached the stream along the path be-
hind him. It was Numa, the lion, tawny of body and
black of mane, scowling and sinister, rumbling out low,
coughing roars. Tarzan of the Apes heard him long before
he came within sight, but the ape-man went on with his
drinking until he had had his fill; then he arose, slowly,
with the easy grace of a creature of the wilds and all the
quiet dignity that was his birthright.
158
VENGEANCE
Numa halted as he saw the man standing at the very

spot where the king would drink. His jaws were parted,
and his cruel eyes gleamed. He growled and advanced
slowly. The man growled, too, backing slowly to one side,
and watching, not the lion’s face, but its tail. Should that
commence to move from side to side in quick, nervous
jerks, it would be well to be upon the alert, and should it
rise suddenly erect, straight and stiff, then one might pre-
pare to fight or flee; but it did neither, so Tarzan merely
backed away and the lion came down and drank scarce
fifty feet from where the man stood.
Tomorrow they might be at one another’s throats, but
today there existed one of those strange and inexplicable
truces which so often are seen among the savage ones of
the jungle. Before Numa had finished drinking, Tarzan
had returned into the forest, and was swinging away in
the direction of the village of Mbonga, the black chief.
It had been at least a moon since the ape-man had
called upon the Gomangani. Not since he had restored lit-
tle Tibo to his grief-stricken mother had the whim seized
him to do so. The incident of the adopted balu was a
closed one to Tarzan. He had sought to find something
upon which to lavish such an affection as Teeka lavished
upon her balu, but a short experience of the little black
159
VENGEANCE
boy had made it quite plain to the ape-man that no such

sentiment could exist between them.
The fact that he had for a time treated the little black
as he might have treated a real balu of his own had in
no way altered the vengeful sentiments with which he
considered the murderers of Kala. The Gomangani were
his deadly enemies, nor could they ever be aught else.
Today he looked forward to some slight relief from the
monotony of his existence in such excitement as he might
derive from baiting the blacks.
It was not yet dark when he reached the village and
took his place in the great tree overhanging the palisade.
From beneath came a great wailing out of the depths of
a near-by hut. The noise fell disagreeably upon Tarzan’s
ears–it jarred and grated. He did not like it, so he decided
to go away for a while in the hopes that it might cease;
but though he was gone for a couple of hours the wailing
still continued when he returned.
With the intention of putting a violent termination to
the annoying sound, Tarzan slipped silently from the tree
into the shadows beneath. Creeping stealthily and keep-
ing well in the cover of other huts, he approached that
from which rose the sounds of lamentation. A fire burned
160
VENGEANCE
brightly before the doorway as it did before other door-

ways in the village. A few females squatted about, occa-
sionally adding their own mournful howlings to those of
the master artist within.
The ape-man smiled a slow smile as he thought of the
consternation which would follow the quick leap that
would carry him among the females and into the full light
of the fire. Then he would dart into the hut during the
excitement, throttle the chief screamer, and be gone into
the jungle before the blacks could gather their scattered
nerves for an assault.
Many times had Tarzan behaved similarly in the vil-
lage of Mbonga, the chief. His mysterious and unex-
pected appearances always filled the breasts of the poor,
superstitious blacks with the panic of terror; never, it
seemed, could they accustom themselves to the sight of
him. It was this terror which lent to the adventures the
spice of interest and amusement which the human mind
of the ape-man craved. Merely to kill was not in itself suf-
ficient. Accustomed to the sight of death, Tarzan found
no great pleasure in it. Long since had he avenged the
death of Kala, but in the accomplishment of it, he had
learned the excitement and the pleasure to be derived
from the baiting of the blacks. Of this he never tired.
161
VENGEANCE
It was just as he was about to spring forward with a

savage roar that a figure appeared in the doorway of the
hut. It was the figure of the wailer whom he had come to
still, the figure of a young woman with a wooden skewer
through the split septum of her nose, with a heavy metal
ornament depending from her lower lip, which it had
dragged down to hideous and repulsive deformity, with
strange tattooing upon forehead, cheeks, and breasts, and
a wonderful coiffure built up with mud and wire.
A sudden flare of the fire threw the grotesque figure
into high relief, and Tarzan recognized her as Momaya,
the mother of Tibo. The fire also threw out a fitful flame
which carried to the shadows where Tarzan lurked, pick-
ing out his light brown body from the surrounding dark-
ness. Momaya saw him and knew him. With a cry, she
leaped forward and Tarzan came to meet her. The other
women, turning, saw him, too; but they did not come to-
ward him. Instead they rose as one, shrieked as one, fled
as one.
Momaya threw herself at Tarzan’s feet, raising sup-
plicating hands toward him and pouring forth from her
mutilated lips a perfect cataract of words, not one of
which the ape-man comprehended. For a moment he
looked down upon the upturned, frightful face of the
162
VENGEANCE
woman. He had come to slay, but that overwhelming

torrent of speech filled him with consternation and with
awe. He glanced about him apprehensively, then back at
the woman. A revulsion of feeling seized him. He could
not kill little Tibo’s mother, nor could he stand and face
this verbal geyser. With a quick gesture of impatience at
the spoiling of his evening’s entertainment, he wheeled
and leaped away into the darkness. A moment later he
was swinging through the black jungle night, the cries
and lamentations of Momaya growing fainter in the dis-
tance.
It was with a sigh of relief that he finally reached a
point from which he could no longer hear them, and find-
ing a comfortable crotch high among the trees, composed
himself for a night of dreamless slumber, while a prowl-
ing lion moaned and coughed beneath him, and in far-
off England the other Lord Greystoke, with the assistance
of a valet, disrobed and crawled between spotless sheets,
swearing irritably as a cat meowed beneath his window.
As Tarzan followed the fresh spoor of Horta, the boar,
the following morning, he came upon the tracks of two
Gomangani, a large one and a small one. The ape-man,
accustomed as he was to questioning closely all that fell
to his perceptions, paused to read the story written in the
163
VENGEANCE
soft mud of the game trail. You or I would have seen

little of interest there, even if, by chance, we could have
seen aught. Perhaps had one been there to point them
out to us, we might have noted indentations in the mud,
but there were countless indentations, one overlapping
another into a confusion that would have been entirely
meaningless to us. To Tarzan each told its own story. Tan-
tor, the elephant, had passed that way as recently as three
suns since. Numa had hunted here the night just gone,
and Horta, the boar, had walked slowly along the trail
within an hour; but what held Tarzan’s attention was the
spoor tale of the Gomangani. It told him that the day be-
fore an old man had gone toward the north in company
with a little boy, and that with them had been two hyenas.
Tarzan scratched his head in puzzled incredulity. He
could see by the overlapping of the footprints that the
beasts had not been following the two, for sometimes
one was ahead of them and one behind, and again both
were in advance, or both were in the rear. It was very
strange and quite inexplicable, especially where the spoor
showed where the hyenas in the wider portions of the
path had walked one on either side of the human pair,
quite close to them. Then Tarzan read in the spoor of the
smaller Gomangani a shrinking terror of the beast that
164
VENGEANCE
brushed his side, but in that of the old man was no sign
of fear.
At first Tarzan had been solely occupied by the remark-
able juxtaposition of the spoor of Dango and Gomangani,
but now his keen eyes caught something in the spoor
of the little Gomangani which brought him to a sudden
stop. It was as though, finding a letter in the road, you
suddenly had discovered in it the familiar handwriting
of a friend.
"Go-bu-balu!" exclaimed the ape-man, and at once
memory flashed upon the screen of recollection the sup-
plicating attitude of Momaya as she had hurled herself
before him in the village of Mbonga the night before. In-
stantly all was explained–the wailing and lamentation,
the pleading of the black mother, the sympathetic howl-
ing of the shes about the fire. Little Go-bu-balu had
been stolen again, and this time by another than Tarzan.
Doubtless the mother had thought that he was again in
the power of Tarzan of the Apes, and she had been be-
seeching him to return her balu to her.
Yes, it was all quite plain now; but who could have
stolen Go-bu-balu this time? Tarzan wondered, and he
wondered, too, about the presence of Dango. He would
165
VENGEANCE
investigate. The spoor was a day old and it ran toward

the north. Tarzan set out to follow it. In places it was
totally obliterated by the passage of many beasts, and
where the way was rocky, even Tarzan of the Apes was
almost baffled; but there was still the faint effluvium
which clung to the human spoor, appreciable only to such
highly trained perceptive powers as were Tarzan’s.
It had all happened to little Tibo very suddenly and
unexpectedly within the brief span of two suns. First had
come Bukawai, the witch-doctor–Bukawai, the unclean–
with the ragged bit of flesh which still clung to his rot-
ting face. He had come alone and by day to the place
at the river where Momaya went daily to wash her body
and that of Tibo, her little boy. He had stepped out from
behind a great bush quite close to Momaya, frightening
little Tibo so that he ran screaming to his mother’s pro-
tecting arms.
But Momaya, though startled, had wheeled to face the
fearsome thing with all the savage ferocity of a she-tiger
at bay. When she saw who it was, she breathed a sigh of
partial relief, though she still clung tightly to Tibo.
"I have come," said Bukawai without preliminary, "for
the three fat goats, the new sleeping mat, and the bit of
166
VENGEANCE
copper wire as long as a tall man’s arm."

"I have no goats for you," snapped Momaya, "nor a
sleeping mat, nor any wire. Your medicine was never
made. The white jungle god gave me back my Tibo. You
had nothing to do with it."
"But I did," mumbled Bukawai through his fleshless
jaws. "It was I who commanded the white jungle god to
give back your Tibo."
Momaya laughed in his face. "Speaker of lies," she
cried, "go back to your foul den and your hyenas. Go back
and hide your stinking face in the belly of the mountain,
lest the sun, seeing it, cover his face with a black cloud."
"I have come," reiterated Bukawai, "for the three fat
goats, the new sleeping mat, and the bit of copper wire
the length of a tall man’s arm, which you were to pay me
for the return of your Tibo."
"It was to be the length of a man’s forearm," corrected
Momaya, "but you shall have nothing, old thief. You
would not make medicine until I had brought the pay-
ment in advance, and when I was returning to my village
the great, white jungle god gave me back my Tibo–gave
him to me out of the jaws of Numa. His medicine is true
167
VENGEANCE
medicine–yours is the weak medicine of an old man with

a hole in his face."
"I have come," repeated Bukawai patiently, "for the
three fat–" But Momaya had not waited to hear more of
what she already knew by heart. Clasping Tibo close to
her side, she was hurrying away toward the palisaded
village of Mbonga, the chief.
And the next day, when Momaya was working in the
plantain field with others of the women of the tribe, and
little Tibo had been playing at the edge of the jungle, cast-
ing a small spear in anticipation of the distant day when
he should be a full-fledged warrior, Bukawai had come
again.
Tibo had seen a squirrel scampering up the bole of a
great tree. His childish mind had transformed it into
the menacing figure of a hostile warrior. Little Tibo had
raised his tiny spear, his heart filled with the savage blood
lust of his race, as he pictured the night’s orgy when he
should dance about the corpse of his human kill as the
women of his tribe prepared the meat for the feast to fol-
low.
But when he cast the spear, he missed both squirrel
and tree, losing his missile far among the tangled un-
168
VENGEANCE
dergrowth of the jungle. However, it could be but a few

steps within the forbidden labyrinth. The women were all
about in the field. There were warriors on guard within
easy hail, and so little Tibo boldly ventured into the dark
place.
Just behind the screen of creepers and matted foliage
lurked three horrid figures–an old, old man, black as the
pit, with a face half eaten away by leprosy, his sharp-filed
teeth, the teeth of a cannibal, showing yellow and repul-
sive through the great gaping hole where his mouth and
nose had been. And beside him, equally hideous, stood
two powerful hyenas–carrion-eaters consorting with car-
rion.
Tibo did not see them until, head down, he had forced
his way through the thickly growing vines in search of
his little spear, and then it was too late. As he looked up
into the face of Bukawai, the old witch-doctor seized him,
muffling his screams with a palm across his mouth. Tibo
struggled futilely.
A moment later he was being hustled away through
the dark and terrible jungle, the frightful old man still
muffling his screams, and the two hideous hyenas pac-
ing now on either side, now before, now behind, always
169
VENGEANCE
prowling, always growling, snapping, snarling, or, worst

of all, laughing hideously.
To little Tibo, who within his brief existence had passed
through such experiences as are given to few to pass
through in a lifetime, the northward journey was a night-
mare of terror. He thought now of the time that he had
been with the great, white jungle god, and he prayed with
all his little soul that he might be back again with the
white-skinned giant who consorted with the hairy tree
men. Terror-stricken he had been then, but his surround-
ings had been nothing by comparison with those which
he now endured.
The old man seldom addressed Tibo, though he kept
up an almost continuous mumbling throughout the long
day. Tibo caught repeated references to fat goats, sleep-
ing mats, and pieces of copper wire. "Ten fat goats, ten fat
goats," the old Negro would croon over and over again.
By this little Tibo guessed that the price of his ransom had
risen. Ten fat goats? Where would his mother get ten fat
goats, or thin ones, either, for that matter, to buy back just
a poor little boy? Mbonga would never let her have them,
and Tibo knew that his father never had owned more than
three goats at the same time in all his life. Ten fat goats!
Tibo sniffled. The putrid old man would kill him and eat
170
VENGEANCE
him, for the goats would never be forthcoming. Bukawai

would throw his bones to the hyenas. The little black
boy shuddered and became so weak that he almost fell
in his tracks. Bukawai cuffed him on an ear and jerked
him along.
After what seemed an eternity to Tibo, they arrived at
the mouth of a cave between two rocky hills. The opening
was low and narrow. A few saplings bound together with
strips of rawhide closed it against stray beasts. Bukawai
removed the primitive door and pushed Tibo within. The
hyenas, snarling, rushed past him and were lost to view
in the blackness of the interior. Bukawai replaced the
saplings and seizing Tibo roughly by the arm, dragged
him along a narrow, rocky passage. The floor was com-
paratively smooth, for the dirt which lay thick upon it
had been trodden and tramped by many feet until few
inequalities remained.
The passage was tortuous, and as it was very dark
and the walls rough and rocky, Tibo was scratched and
bruised from the many bumps he received. Bukawai
walked as rapidly through the winding gallery as one
would traverse a familiar lane by daylight. He knew
every twist and turn as a mother knows the face of her
child, and he seemed to be in a hurry. He jerked poor
171
VENGEANCE
little Tibo possibly a trifle more ruthlessly than necessary

even at the pace Bukawai set; but the old witch-doctor,
an outcast from the society of man, diseased, shunned,
hated, feared, was far from possessing an angelic tem-
per. Nature had given him few of the kindlier charac-
teristics of man, and these few Fate had eradicated en-
tirely. Shrewd, cunning, cruel, vindictive, was Bukawai,
the witch-doctor.
Frightful tales were whispered of the cruel tortures he
inflicted upon his victims. Children were frightened into
obedience by the threat of his name. Often had Tibo been
thus frightened, and now he was reaping a grisly harvest
of terror from the seeds his mother had innocently sown.
The darkness, the presence of the dreaded witch-doctor,
the pain of the contusions, with a haunting premonition
of the future, and the fear of the hyenas combined to al-
most paralyze the child. He stumbled and reeled until
Bukawai was dragging rather than leading him.
Presently Tibo saw a faint lightness ahead of them,
and a moment later they emerged into a roughly circular
chamber to which a little daylight filtered through a rift in
the rocky ceiling. The hyenas were there ahead of them,
waiting. As Bukawai entered with Tibo, the beasts slunk
toward them, baring yellow fangs. They were hungry.
172
VENGEANCE
Toward Tibo they came, and one snapped at his naked

legs. Bukawai seized a stick from the floor of the cham-
ber and struck a vicious blow at the beast, at the same
time mumbling forth a volley of execrations. The hyena
dodged and ran to the side of the chamber, where he
stood growling. Bukawai took a step toward the creature,
which bristled with rage at his approach. Fear and hatred
shot from its evil eyes, but, fortunately for Bukawai, fear
predominated.
Seeing that he was unnoticed, the second beast made
a short, quick rush for Tibo. The child screamed and
darted after the witch-doctor, who now turned his atten-
tion to the second hyena. This one he reached with his
heavy stick, striking it repeatedly and driving it to the
wall. There the two carrion-eaters commenced to circle
the chamber while the human carrion, their master, now
in a perfect frenzy of demoniacal rage, ran to and fro in an
effort to intercept them, striking out with his cudgel and
lashing them with his tongue, calling down upon them
the curses of whatever gods and demons he could sum-
mon to memory, and describing in lurid figures the ig-
nominy of their ancestors.
Several times one or the other of the beasts would turn
to make a stand against the witch-doctor, and then Tibo
173
VENGEANCE
would hold his breath in agonized terror, for never in

his brief life had he seen such frightful hatred depicted
upon the countenance of man or beast; but always fear
overcame the rage of the savage creatures, so that they
resumed their flight, snarling and bare-fanged, just at
the moment that Tibo was certain they would spring at
Bukawai’s throat.
At last the witch-doctor tired of the futile chase. With
a snarl quite as bestial as those of the beast, he turned
toward Tibo. "I go to collect the ten fat goats, the new
sleeping mat, and the two pieces of copper wire that your
mother will pay for the medicine I shall make to bring
you back to her," he said. "You will stay here. There," and
he pointed toward the passage which they had followed
to the chamber, "I will leave the hyenas. If you try to es-
cape, they will eat you."
He cast aside the stick and called to the beasts. They
came, snarling and slinking, their tails between their legs.
Bukawai led them to the passage and drove them into
it. Then he dragged a rude lattice into place before the
opening after he, himself, had left the chamber. "This will
keep them from you," he said. "If I do not get the ten fat
goats and the other things, they shall at least have a few
bones after I am through." And he left the boy to think
174
VENGEANCE
over the meaning of his all-too-suggestive words.

When he was gone, Tibo threw himself upon the earth
floor and broke into childish sobs of terror and loneliness.
He knew that his mother had no ten fat goats to give and
that when Bukawai returned, little Tibo would be killed
and eaten. How long he lay there he did not know, but
presently he was aroused by the growling of the hyenas.
They had returned through the passage and were glaring
at him from beyond the lattice. He could see their yel-
low eyes blazing through the darkness. They reared up
and clawed at the barrier. Tibo shivered and withdrew to
the opposite side of the chamber. He saw the lattice sag
and sway to the attacks of the beasts. Momentarily he
expected that it would fall inward, letting the creatures
upon him.
Wearily the horror-ridden hours dragged their slow
way. Night came, and for a time Tibo slept, but it seemed
that the hungry beasts never slept. Always they stood
just beyond the lattice growling their hideous growls or
laughing their hideous laughs. Through the narrow rift
in the rocky roof above him, Tibo could see a few stars,
and once the moon crossed. At last daylight came again.
Tibo was very hungry and thirsty, for he had not eaten
since the morning before, and only once upon the long
175
VENGEANCE
march had he been permitted to drink, but even hunger

and thirst were almost forgotten in the terror of his posi-
tion.
It was after daylight that the child discovered a second
opening in the walls of the subterranean chamber, almost
opposite that at which the hyenas still stood glaring hun-
grily at him. It was only a narrow slit in the rocky wall. It
might lead in but a few feet, or it might lead to freedom!
Tibo approached it and looked within. He could see noth-
ing. He extended his arm into the blackness, but he dared
not venture farther. Bukawai never would have left open
a way of escape, Tibo reasoned, so this passage must lead
either nowhere or to some still more hideous danger.
To the boy’s fear of the actual dangers which menaced
him–Bukawai and the two hyenas–his superstition added
countless others quite too horrible even to name, for in
the lives of the blacks, through the shadows of the jungle
day and the black horrors of the jungle night, flit strange,
fantastic shapes peopling the already hideously peopled
forests with menacing figures, as though the lion and the
leopard, the snake and the hyena, and the countless poi-
sonous insects were not quite sufficient to strike terror to
the hearts of the poor, simple creatures whose lot is cast
in earth’s most fearsome spot.
176
VENGEANCE
And so it was that little Tibo cringed not only from real
menaces but from imaginary ones. He was afraid even
to venture upon a road that might lead to escape, lest
Bukawai had set to watch it some frightful demon of the
jungle.
But the real menaces suddenly drove the imaginary
ones from the boy’s mind, for with the coming of daylight
the half-famished hyenas renewed their efforts to break
down the frail barrier which kept them from their prey.
Rearing upon their hind feet they clawed and struck at
the lattice. With wide eyes Tibo saw it sag and rock. Not
for long, he knew, could it withstand the assaults of these
two powerful and determined brutes. Already one cor-
ner had been forced past the rocky protuberance of the
entrance way which had held it in place. A shaggy fore-
arm protruded into the chamber. Tibo trembled as with
ague, for he knew that the end was near.
Backing against the farther wall he stood flattened out
as far from the beasts as he could get. He saw the lattice
give still more. He saw a savage, snarling head forced
past it, and grinning jaws snapping and gaping toward
him. In another instant the pitiful fabric would fall in-
ward, and the two would be upon him, rending his flesh
from his bones, gnawing the bones themselves, fighting
177
VENGEANCE
for possession of his entrails.
***
Bukawai came upon Momaya outside the palisade of

Mbonga, the chief. At sight of him the woman drew back
in revulsion, then she flew at him, tooth and nail; but
Bukawai threatening her with a spear held her at a safe
distance.
"Where is my baby?" she cried. "Where is my little
Tibo?"
Bukawai opened his eyes in well-simulated amaze-
ment. "Your baby!" he exclaimed. "What should I know
of him, other than that I rescued him from the white god
of the jungle and have not yet received my pay. I come
for the goats and the sleeping mat and the piece of cop-
per wire the length of a tall man’s arm from the shoulder
to the tips of his fingers." "Offal of a hyena!" shrieked Mo-
maya. "My child has been stolen, and you, rotting frag-
ment of a man, have taken him. Return him to me or I
shall tear your eyes from your head and feed your heart
to the wild hogs."
Bukawai shrugged his shoulders. "What do I know
about your child?" he asked. "I have not taken him. If he
178
VENGEANCE
is stolen again, what should Bukawai know of the mat-

ter? Did Bukawai steal him before? No, the white jungle
god stole him, and if he stole him once he would steal him
again. It is nothing to me. I returned him to you before
and I have come for my pay. If he is gone and you would
have him returned, Bukawai will return him–for ten fat
goats, a new sleeping mat and two pieces of copper wire
the length of a tall man’s arm from the shoulder to the tips
of his fingers, and Bukawai will say nothing more about
the goats and the sleeping mat and the copper wire which
you were to pay for the first medicine."
"Ten fat goats!" screamed Momaya. "I could not pay
you ten fat goats in as many years. Ten fat goats, indeed!"
"Ten fat goats," repeated Bukawai. "Ten fat goats, the
new sleeping mat and two pieces of copper wire the
length of–"
Momaya stopped him with an impatient gesture.
"Wait!" she cried. "I have no goats. You waste your breath.
Stay here while I go to my man. He has but three goats,
yet something may be done. Wait!"
Bukawai sat down beneath a tree. He felt quite con-
tent, for he knew that he should have either payment
or revenge. He did not fear harm at the hands of these
179
VENGEANCE
people of another tribe, although he well knew that they

must fear and hate him. His leprosy alone would prevent
their laying hands upon him, while his reputation as a
witch-doctor rendered him doubly immune from attack.
He was planning upon compelling them to drive the ten
goats to the mouth of his cave when Momaya returned.
With her were three warriors–Mbonga, the chief, Rabba
Kega, the village witch-doctor, and Ibeto, Tibo’s father.
They were not pretty men even under ordinary circum-
stances, and now, with their faces marked by anger, they
well might have inspired terror in the heart of anyone;
but if Bukawai felt any fear, he did not betray it. Instead
he greeted them with an insolent stare, intended to awe
them, as they came and squatted in a semi-circle before
him.
"Where is Ibeto’s son?" asked Mbonga.
"How should I know?" returned Bukawai. "Doubtless
the white devil-god has him. If I am paid I will make
strong medicine and then we shall know where is Ibeto’s
son, and shall get him back again. It was my medicine
which got him back the last time, for which I got no pay."
"I have my own witch-doctor to make medicine,"
replied Mbonga with dignity.
180
VENGEANCE
Bukawai sneered and rose to his feet. "Very well," he

said, "let him make his medicine and see if he can bring
Ibeto’s son back." He took a few steps away from them,
and then he turned angrily back. "His medicine will not
bring the child back–that I know, and I also know that
when you find him it will be too late for any medicine to
bring him back, for he will be dead. This have I just found
out, the ghost of my father’s sister but now came to me
and told me."
Now Mbonga and Rabba Kega might not take much
stock in their own magic, and they might even be skep-
tical as to the magic of another; but there was always a
chance of SOMETHING being in it, especially if it were
not their own. Was it not well known that old Bukawai
had speech with the demons themselves and that two
even lived with him in the forms of hyenas! Still they
must not accede too hastily. There was the price to be con-
sidered, and Mbonga had no intention of parting lightly
with ten goats to obtain the return of a single little boy
who might die of smallpox long before he reached a war-
rior’s estate.
"Wait," said Mbonga. "Let us see some of your magic,
that we may know if it be good magic. Then we can
talk about payment. Rabba Kega will make some magic,
181
VENGEANCE
too. We will see who makes the best magic. Sit down,
Bukawai."
"The payment will be ten goats–fat goats–a new sleep-
ing mat and two pieces of copper wire the length of a tall
man’s arm from the shoulder to the ends of his fingers,
and it will be made in advance, the goats being driven to
my cave. Then will I make the medicine, and on the sec-
ond day the boy will be returned to his mother. It cannot
be done more quickly than that because it takes time to
make such strong medicine."
"Make us some medicine now," said Mbonga. "Let us
see what sort of medicine you make."
"Bring me fire," replied Bukawai, "and I will make you
a little magic."
Momaya was dispatched for the fire, and while she was
away Mbonga dickered with Bukawai about the price.
Ten goats, he said, was a high price for an able-bodied
warrior. He also called Bukawai’s attention to the fact
that he, Mbonga, was very poor, that his people were very
poor, and that ten goats were at least eight too many, to
say nothing of a new sleeping mat and the copper wire;
but Bukawai was adamant. His medicine was very ex-
pensive and he would have to give at least five goats to
182
VENGEANCE
the gods who helped him make it. They were still arguing
when Momaya returned with the fire.
Bukawai placed a little on the ground before him, took
a pinch of powder from a pouch at his side and sprin-
kled it on the embers. A cloud of smoke rose with a
puff. Bukawai closed his eyes and rocked back and forth.
Then he made a few passes in the air and pretended to
swoon. Mbonga and the others were much impressed.
Rabba Kega grew nervous. He saw his reputation wan-
ing. There was some fire left in the vessel which Mo-
maya had brought. He seized the vessel, dropped a
handful of dry leaves into it while no one was watch-
ing and then uttered a frightful scream which drew the
attention of Bukawai’s audience to him. It also brought
Bukawai quite miraculously out of his swoon, but when
the old witch-doctor saw the reason for the disturbance
he quickly relapsed into unconsciousness before anyone
discovered his FAUX PAS.
Rabba Kega, seeing that he had the attention of
Mbonga, Ibeto, and Momaya, blew suddenly into the ves-
sel, with the result that the leaves commenced to smol-
der, and smoke issued from the mouth of the receptacle.
Rabba Kega was careful to hold it so that none might see
the dry leaves. Their eyes opened wide at this remarkable
183
VENGEANCE
demonstration of the village witch-doctor’s powers. The

latter, greatly elated, let himself out. He shouted, jumped
up and down, and made frightful grimaces; then he put
his face close over the mouth of the vessel and appeared
to be communing with the spirits within.
It was while he was thus engaged that Bukawai came
out of his trance, his curiosity finally having gotten the
better of him. No one was paying him the slightest at-
tention. He blinked his one eye angrily, then he, too, let
out a loud roar, and when he was sure that Mbonga had
turned toward him, he stiffened rigidly and made spas-
modic movements with his arms and legs.
"I see him!" he cried. "He is far away. The white devil-
god did not get him. He is alone and in great danger;
but," he added, "if the ten fat goats and the other things
are paid to me quickly there is yet time to save him."
Rabba Kega had paused to listen. Mbonga looked to-
ward him. The chief was in a quandary. He did not know
which medicine was the better. "What does your magic
tell you?" he asked of Rabba Kega.
"I, too, see him," screamed Rabba Kega; "but he is not
where Bukawai says he is. He is dead at the bottom of the
river."
184
VENGEANCE
At this Momaya commenced to howl loudly.

Tarzan had followed the spoor of the old man, the two
hyenas, and the little black boy to the mouth of the cave
in the rocky canon between the two hills. Here he paused
a moment before the sapling barrier which Bukawai had
set up, listening to the snarls and growls which came
faintly from the far recesses of the cavern.
Presently, mingled with the beastly cries, there came
faintly to the keen ears of the ape-man, the agonized
moan of a child. No longer did Tarzan hesitate. Hurling
the door aside, he sprang into the dark opening. Narrow
and black was the corridor; but long use of his eyes in
the Stygian blackness of the jungle nights had given to
the ape-man something of the nocturnal visionary pow-
ers of the wild things with which he had consorted since
babyhood.
He moved rapidly and yet with caution, for the place
was dark, unfamiliar and winding. As he advanced, he
heard more and more loudly the savage snarls of the two
hyenas, mingled with the scraping and scratching of their
paws upon wood. The moans of a child grew in volume,
and Tarzan recognized in them the voice of the little black
boy he once had sought to adopt as his balu.
185
VENGEANCE
There was no hysteria in the ape-man’s advance. Too

accustomed was he to the passing of life in the jungle to
be greatly wrought even by the death of one whom he
knew; but the lust for battle spurred him on. He was only
a wild beast at heart and his wild beast’s heart beat high
in anticipation of conflict.
In the rocky chamber of the hill’s center, little Tibo
crouched low against the wall as far from the hunger-
crazed beasts as he could drag himself. He saw the lat-
tice giving to the frantic clawing of the hyenas. He knew
that in a few minutes his little life would flicker out horri-
bly beneath the rending, yellow fangs of these loathsome
creatures.
Beneath the buffetings of the powerful bodies, the lat-
tice sagged inward, until, with a crash it gave way, letting
the carnivora in upon the boy. Tibo cast one affrighted
glance toward them, then closed his eyes and buried his
face in his arms, sobbing piteously.
For a moment the hyenas paused, caution and cow-
ardice holding them from their prey. They stood thus
glaring at the lad, then slowly, stealthily, crouching, they
crept toward him. It was thus that Tarzan came upon
them, bursting into the chamber swiftly and silently; but
186
VENGEANCE
not so silently that the keen-eared beasts did not note his
coming. With angry growls they turned from Tibo upon
the ape-man, as, with a smile upon his lips, he ran toward
them. For an instant one of the animals stood its ground;
but the ape-man did not deign even to draw his hunting
knife against despised Dango. Rushing in upon the brute
he grasped it by the scruff of the neck, just as it attempted
to dodge past him, and hurled it across the cavern after its
fellow which already was slinking into the corridor, bent
upon escape.
Then Tarzan picked Tibo from the floor, and when the
child felt human hands upon him instead of the paws and
fangs of the hyenas, he rolled his eyes upward in surprise
and incredulity, and as they fell upon Tarzan, sobs of re-
lief broke from the childish lips and his hands clutched at
his deliverer as though the white devil-god was not the
most feared of jungle creatures.
When Tarzan came to the cave mouth the hyenas were
nowhere in sight, and after permitting Tibo to quench his
thirst in the spring which rose near by, he lifted the boy to
his shoulders and set off toward the jungle at a rapid trot,
determined to still the annoying howlings of Momaya as
quickly as possible, for he shrewdly had guessed that the
absence of her balu was the cause of her lamentation.
187
VENGEANCE
"He is not dead at the bottom of the river," cried

Bukawai. "What does this fellow know about making
magic? Who is he, anyway, that he dare say Bukawai’s
magic is not good magic? Bukawai sees Momaya’s son.
He is far away and alone and in great danger. Hasten
then with the ten fat goats, the–"
But he got no further. There was a sudden interrup-
tion from above, from the branches of the very tree be-
neath which they squatted, and as the five blacks looked
up they almost swooned in fright as they saw the great,
white devil-god looking down upon them; but before
they could flee they saw another face, that of the lost little
Tibo, and his face was laughing and very happy.
And then Tarzan dropped fearlessly among them, the
boy still upon his back, and deposited him before his
mother. Momaya, Ibeto, Rabba Kega, and Mbonga were
all crowding around the lad trying to question him at the
same time. Suddenly Momaya turned ferociously to fall
upon Bukawai, for the boy had told her all that he had
suffered at the hands of the cruel old man; but Bukawai
was no longer there–he had required no recourse to black
art to assure him that the vicinity of Momaya would be
no healthful place for him after Tibo had told his story,
and now he was running through the jungle as fast as his
188
VENGEANCE
old legs would carry him toward the distant lair where he
knew no black would dare pursue him.
Tarzan, too, had vanished, as he had a way of doing,
to the mystification of the blacks. Then Momaya’s eyes
lighted upon Rabba Kega. The village witch-doctor saw
something in those eyes of hers which boded no good to
him, and backed away.
"So my Tibo is dead at the bottom of the river, is he?"
the woman shrieked. "And he’s far away and alone and
in great danger, is he? Magic!" The scorn which Momaya
crowded into that single word would have done credit
to a Thespian of the first magnitude. "Magic, indeed!"
she screamed. "Momaya will show you some magic of
her own," and with that she seized upon a broken limb
and struck Rabba Kega across the head. With a howl of
pain, the man turned and fled, Momaya pursuing him
and beating him across the shoulders, through the gate-
way and up the length of the village street, to the intense
amusement of the warriors, the women, and the children
who were so fortunate as to witness the spectacle, for one
and all feared Rabba Kega, and to fear is to hate.
Thus it was that to his host of passive enemies, Tarzan
of the Apes added that day two active foes, both of whom
189
VENGEANCE
remained awake long into the night planning means of re-

venge upon the white devil-god who had brought them
into ridicule and disrepute, but with their most malevo-
lent schemings was mingled a vein of real fear and awe
that would not down.
Young Lord Greystoke did not know that they planned
against him, nor, knowing, would have cared. He slept as
well that night as he did on any other night, and though
there was no roof above him, and no doors to lock against
intruders, he slept much better than his noble relative in
England, who had eaten altogether too much lobster and
drank too much wine at dinner that night.
190
Chapter 7. The End of Bukawai
Tarzan of the Apes was still but a boy he

W HEN
had learned, among other things, to fashion pliant
ropes of fibrous jungle grass. Strong and tough were the
ropes of Tarzan, the little Tarmangani. Tublat, his foster
father, would have told you this much and more. Had
you tempted him with a handful of fat caterpillars he
even might have sufficiently unbended to narrate to you
a few stories of the many indignities which Tarzan had
heaped upon him by means of his hated rope; but then
Tublat always worked himself into such a frightful rage
when he devoted any considerable thought either to the
rope or to Tarzan, that it might not have proved comfort-
able for you to have remained close enough to him to hear
191
CHAPTER 7. THE END OF BUKAWAI
what he had to say.

So often had that snakelike noose settled unexpectedly
over Tublat’s head, so often had he been jerked ridicu-
lously and painfully from his feet when he was least look-
ing for such an occurrence, that there is little wonder he
found scant space in his savage heart for love of his white-
skinned foster child, or the inventions thereof. There had
been other times, too, when Tublat had swung helplessly
in midair, the noose tightening about his neck, death star-
ing him in the face, and little Tarzan dancing upon a near-
by limb, taunting him and making unseemly grimaces.
Then there had been another occasion in which the
rope had figured prominently–an occasion, and the only
one connected with the rope, which Tublat recalled with
pleasure. Tarzan, as active in brain as he was in body,
was always inventing new ways in which to play. It was
through the medium of play that he learned much during
his childhood. This day he learned something, and that
he did not lose his life in the learning of it, was a matter
of great surprise to Tarzan, and the fly in the ointment, to
Tublat.
The man-child had, in throwing his noose at a play-
mate in a tree above him, caught a projecting branch in-
192
stead. When he tried to shake it loose it but drew the

tighter. Then Tarzan started to climb the rope to remove
it from the branch. When he was part way up a frolicsome
playmate seized that part of the rope which lay upon the
ground and ran off with it as far as he could go. When
Tarzan screamed at him to desist, the young ape released
the rope a little and then drew it tight again. The result
was to impart a swinging motion to Tarzan’s body which
the ape-boy suddenly realized was a new and pleasurable
form of play. He urged the ape to continue until Tarzan
was swinging to and fro as far as the short length of rope
would permit, but the distance was not great enough,
and, too, he was not far enough above the ground to give
the necessary thrills which add so greatly to the pastimes
of the young.
So he clambered to the branch where the noose was
caught and after removing it carried the rope far aloft
and out upon a long and powerful branch. Here he again
made it fast, and taking the loose end in his hand, clam-
bered quickly down among the branches as far as the rope
would permit him to go; then he swung out upon the end
of it, his lithe, young body turning and twisting–a hu-
man bob upon a pendulum of grass–thirty feet above the
ground.
193
Ah, how delectable! This was indeed a new play of the

first magnitude. Tarzan was entranced. Soon he discov-
ered that by wriggling his body in just the right way at
the proper time he could diminish or accelerate his os-
cillation, and, being a boy, he chose, naturally, to acceler-
ate. Presently he was swinging far and wide, while below
him, the apes of the tribe of Kerchak looked on in mild
amaze.
Had it been you or I swinging there at the end of that
grass rope, the thing which presently happened would
not have happened, for we could not have hung on so
long as to have made it possible; but Tarzan was quite as
much at home swinging by his hands as he was standing
upon his feet, or, at least, almost. At any rate he felt no
fatigue long after the time that an ordinary mortal would
have been numb with the strain of the physical exertion.
And this was his undoing.
Tublat was watching him as were others of the tribe.
Of all the creatures of the wild, there was none Tublat
so cordially hated as he did this hideous, hairless, white-
skinned, caricature of an ape. But for Tarzan’s nim-
bleness, and the zealous watchfulness of savage Kala’s
mother love, Tublat would long since have rid himself
of this stain upon his family escutcheon. So long had
194
it been since Tarzan became a member of the tribe, that

Tublat had forgotten the circumstances surrounding the
entrance of the jungle waif into his family, with the result
that he now imagined that Tarzan was his own offspring,
adding greatly to his chagrin.
Wide and far swung Tarzan of the Apes, until at last,
as he reached the highest point of the arc the rope, which
rapidly had frayed on the rough bark of the tree limb,
parted suddenly. The watching apes saw the smooth,
brown body shoot outward, and down, plummet-like.
Tublat leaped high in the air, emitting what in a human
being would have been an exclamation of delight. This
would be the end of Tarzan and most of Tublat’s troubles.
From now on he could lead his life in peace and security.
Tarzan fell quite forty feet, alighting on his back in a
thick bush. Kala was the first to reach his side–ferocious,
hideous, loving Kala. She had seen the life crushed from
her own balu in just such a fall years before. Was she
to lose this one too in the same way? Tarzan was lying
quite still when she found him, embedded deeply in the
bush. It took Kala several minutes to disentangle him and
drag him forth; but he was not killed. He was not even
badly injured. The bush had broken the force of the fall.
A cut upon the back of his head showed where he had
195
struck the tough stem of the shrub and explained his un-
consciousness.
In a few minutes he was as active as ever. Tublat was
furious. In his rage he snapped at a fellow-ape without
first discovering the identity of his victim, and was badly
mauled for his ill temper, having chosen to vent his spite
upon a husky and belligerent young bull in the full prime
of his vigor.
But Tarzan had learned something new. He had
learned that continued friction would wear through the
strands of his rope, though it was many years before this
knowledge did more for him than merely to keep him
from swinging too long at a time, or too far above the
ground at the end of his rope.
The day came, however, when the very thing that had
once all but killed him proved the means of saving his
life.
He was no longer a child, but a mighty jungle male.
There was none now to watch over him, solicitously, nor
did he need such. Kala was dead. Dead, too, was Tublat,
and though with Kala passed the one creature that ever
really had loved him, there were still many who hated
him after Tublat departed unto the arms of his fathers. It
196
was not that he was more cruel or more savage than they
that they hated him, for though he was both cruel and
savage as were the beasts, his fellows, yet too was he of-
ten tender, which they never were. No, the thing which
brought Tarzan most into disrepute with those who did
not like him, was the possession and practice of a charac-
teristic which they had not and could not understand–the
human sense of humor. In Tarzan it was a trifle broad,
perhaps, manifesting itself in rough and painful practical
jokes upon his friends and cruel baiting of his enemies.
But to neither of these did he owe the enmity of
Bukawai, the witch-doctor, who dwelt in the cave be-
tween the two hills far to the north of the village of
Mbonga, the chief. Bukawai was jealous of Tarzan, and
Bukawai it was who came near proving the undoing of
the ape-man. For months Bukawai had nursed his hatred
while revenge seemed remote indeed, since Tarzan of the
Apes frequented another part of the jungle, miles away
from the lair of Bukawai. Only once had the black witch-
doctor seen the devil-god, as he was most often called
among the blacks, and upon that occasion Tarzan had
robbed him of a fat fee, at the same time putting the lie
in the mouth of Bukawai, and making his medicine seem
poor medicine. All this Bukawai never could forgive,
197
though it seemed unlikely that the opportunity would

come to be revenged.
Yet it did come, and quite unexpectedly. Tarzan was
hunting far to the north. He had wandered away from
the tribe, as he did more and more often as he approached
maturity, to hunt alone for a few days. As a child he
had enjoyed romping and playing with the young apes,
his companions; but now these play-fellows of his had
grown to surly, lowering bulls, or to touchy, suspicious
mothers, jealously guarding helpless balus. So Tarzan
found in his own man-mind a greater and a truer com-
panionship than any or all of the apes of Kerchak could
afford him.
This day, as Tarzan hunted, the sky slowly became
overcast. Torn clouds, whipped to ragged streamers,
fled low above the tree tops. They reminded Tarzan of
frightened antelope fleeing the charge of a hungry lion.
But though the light clouds raced so swiftly, the jungle
was motionless. Not a leaf quivered and the silence was
a great, dead weight–insupportable. Even the insects
seemed stilled by apprehension of some frightful thing
impending, and the larger things were soundless. Such a
forest, such a jungle might have stood there in the begin-
ning of that unthinkably far-gone age before God peopled
198
the world with life, when there were no sounds because

there were no ears to hear.
And over all lay a sickly, pallid ocher light through
which the scourged clouds raced. Tarzan had seen all
these conditions many times before, yet he never could
escape a strange feeling at each recurrence of them. He
knew no fear, but in the face of Nature’s manifestations of
her cruel, immeasurable powers, he felt very small–very
small and very lonely.
Now he heard a low moaning, far away. "The lions seek
their prey," he murmured to himself, looking up once
again at the swift-flying clouds. The moaning rose to a
great volume of sound. "They come!" said Tarzan of the
Apes, and sought the shelter of a thickly foliaged tree.
Quite suddenly the trees bent their tops simultaneously
as though God had stretched a hand from the heavens
and pressed His flat palm down upon the world. "They
pass!" whispered Tarzan. "The lions pass." Then came a
vivid flash of lightning, followed by deafening thunder.
"The lions have sprung," cried Tarzan, "and now they roar
above the bodies of their kills."
The trees were waving wildly in all directions now, a
perfectly demoniacal wind threshed the jungle pitilessly.
199
In the midst of it the rain came–not as it comes upon us

of the northlands, but in a sudden, choking, blinding del-
uge. "The blood of the kill," thought Tarzan, huddling
himself closer to the bole of the great tree beneath which
he stood.
He was close to the edge of the jungle, and at a little
distance he had seen two hills before the storm broke;
but now he could see nothing. It amused him to look
out into the beating rain, searching for the two hills and
imagining that the torrents from above had washed them
away, yet he knew that presently the rain would cease,
the sun come out again and all be as it was before, ex-
cept where a few branches had fallen and here and there
some old and rotted patriarch had crashed back to enrich
the soil upon which he had fatted for, maybe, centuries.
All about him branches and leaves filled the air or fell to
earth, torn away by the strength of the tornado and the
weight of the water upon them. A gaunt corpse toppled
and fell a few yards away; but Tarzan was protected from
all these dangers by the wide-spreading branches of the
sturdy young giant beneath which his jungle craft had
guided him. Here there was but a single danger, and that
a remote one. Yet it came. Without warning the tree above
him was riven by lightning, and when the rain ceased and
200
the sun came out Tarzan lay stretched as he had fallen,

upon his face amidst the wreckage of the jungle giant that
should have shielded him.
Bukawai came to the entrance of his cave after the rain
and the storm had passed and looked out upon the scene.
From his one eye Bukawai could see; but had he had a
dozen eyes he could have found no beauty in the fresh
sweetness of the revivified jungle, for to such things, in
the chemistry of temperament, his brain failed to react;
nor, even had he had a nose, which he had not for years,
could he have found enjoyment or sweetness in the clean-
washed air.
At either side of the leper stood his sole and constant
companions, the two hyenas, sniffing the air. Presently
one of them uttered a low growl and with flattened head
started, sneaking and wary, toward the jungle. The other
followed. Bukawai, his curiosity aroused, trailed after
them, in his hand a heavy knob-stick.
The hyenas halted a few yards from the prostrate
Tarzan, sniffing and growling. Then came Bukawai, and
at first he could not believe the witness of his own eyes;
but when he did and saw that it was indeed the devil-god
his rage knew no bounds, for he thought him dead and
201
himself cheated of the revenge he had so long dreamed

upon.
The hyenas approached the ape-man with bared fangs.
Bukawai, with an inarticulate scream, rushed upon them,
striking cruel and heavy blows with his knob-stick, for
there might still be life in the apparently lifeless form.
The beasts, snapping and snarling, half turned upon their
master and their tormentor, but long fear still held them
from his putrid throat. They slunk away a few yards and
squatted upon their haunches, hatred and baffled hunger
gleaming from their savage eyes.
Bukawai stooped and placed his ear above the ape-
man’s heart. It still beat. As well as his sloughed fea-
tures could register pleasure they did so; but it was not
a pretty sight. At the ape-man’s side lay his long, grass
rope. Quickly Bukawai bound the limp arms behind his
prisoner’s back, then he raised him to one of his shoul-
ders, for, though Bukawai was old and diseased, he was
still a strong man. The hyenas fell in behind as the witch-
doctor set off toward the cave, and through the long black
corridors they followed as Bukawai bore his victim into
the bowels of the hills. Through subterranean chambers,
connected by winding passageways, Bukawai staggered
with his load. At a sudden turning of the corridor, day-
202
light flooded them and Bukawai stepped out into a small,

circular basin in the hill, apparently the crater of an an-
cient volcano, one of those which never reached the dig-
nity of a mountain and are little more than lava-rimmed
pits closed to the earth’s surface.
Steep walls rimmed the cavity. The only exit was
through the passageway by which Bukawai had entered.
A few stunted trees grew upon the rocky floor. A hun-
dred feet above could be seen the ragged lips of this cold,
dead mouth of hell.
Bukawai propped Tarzan against a tree and bound him
there with his own grass rope, leaving his hands free but
securing the knots in such a way that the ape-man could
not reach them. The hyenas slunk to and fro, growling.
Bukawai hated them and they hated him. He knew that
they but waited for the time when he should be helpless,
or when their hatred should rise to such a height as to
submerge their cringing fear of him.
In his own heart was not a little fear of these repulsive
creatures, and because of that fear, Bukawai always kept
the beasts well fed, often hunting for them when their
own forages for food failed, but ever was he cruel to them
with the cruelty of a little brain, diseased, bestial, primi-
203
tive.
He had had them since they were puppies. They had
known no other life than that with him, and though
they went abroad to hunt, always they returned. Of late
Bukawai had come to believe that they returned not so
much from habit as from a fiendish patience which would
submit to every indignity and pain rather than forego the
final vengeance, and Bukawai needed but little imagina-
tion to picture what that vengeance would be. Today he
would see for himself what his end would be; but another
should impersonate Bukawai.
When he had trussed Tarzan securely, Bukawai went
back into the corridor, driving the hyenas ahead of him,
and pulling across the opening a lattice of laced branches,
which shut the pit from the cave during the night that
Bukawai might sleep in security, for then the hyenas were
penned in the crater that they might not sneak upon a
sleeping Bukawai in the darkness.
Bukawai returned to the outer cave mouth, filled a ves-
sel with water at the spring which rose in the little canon
close at hand and returned toward the pit. The hyenas
stood before the lattice looking hungrily toward Tarzan.
They had been fed in this manner before.
204
With his water, the witch-doctor approached Tarzan

and threw a portion of the contents of the vessel in the
ape-man’s face. There was fluttering of the eyelids, and
at the second application Tarzan opened his eyes and
looked about.
"Devil-god," cried Bukawai, "I am the great witch-
doctor. My medicine is strong. Yours is weak. If it is
not, why do you stay tied here like a goat that is bait for
lions?"
Tarzan understood nothing the witch-doctor said,
therefore he did not reply, but only stared straight at
Bukawai with cold and level gaze. The hyenas crept up
behind him. He heard them growl; but he did not even
turn his head. He was a beast with a man’s brain. The
beast in him refused to show fear in the face of a death
which the man-mind already admitted to be inevitable.
Bukawai, not yet ready to give his victim to the beasts,
rushed upon the hyenas with his knob-stick. There was
a short scrimmage in which the brutes came off second
best, as they always did. Tarzan watched it. He saw and
realized the hatred which existed between the two ani-
mals and the hideous semblance of a man.
With the hyenas subdued, Bukawai returned to the
205
baiting of Tarzan; but finding that the ape-man under-

stood nothing he said, the witch-doctor finally desisted.
Then he withdrew into the corridor and pulled the lat-
ticework barrier across the opening. He went back into
the cave and got a sleeping mat, which he brought to the
opening, that he might lie down and watch the spectacle
of his revenge in comfort.
The hyenas were sneaking furtively around the ape-
man. Tarzan strained at his bonds for a moment, but soon
realized that the rope he had braided to hold Numa, the
lion, would hold him quite as successfully. He did not
wish to die; but he could look death in the face now as he
had many times before without a quaver.
As he pulled upon the rope he felt it rub against the
small tree about which it was passed. Like a flash of the
cinematograph upon the screen, a picture was flashed be-
fore his mind’s eye from the storehouse of his memory.
He saw a lithe, boyish figure swinging high above the
ground at the end of a rope. He saw many apes watching
from below, and then he saw the rope part and the boy
hurtle downward toward the ground. Tarzan smiled. Im-
mediately he commenced to draw the rope rapidly back
and forth across the tree trunk.
206
The hyenas, gaining courage, came closer. They sniffed

at his legs; but when he struck at them with his free arms
they slunk off. He knew that with the growth of hunger
they would attack. Coolly, methodically, without haste,
Tarzan drew the rope back and forth against the rough
trunk of the small tree.
In the entrance to the cavern Bukawai fell asleep. He
thought it would be some time before the beasts gained
sufficient courage or hunger to attack the captive. Their
growls and the cries of the victim would awaken him. In
the meantime he might as well rest, and he did.
Thus the day wore on, for the hyenas were not fam-
ished, and the rope with which Tarzan was bound was a
stronger one than that of his boyhood, which had parted
so quickly to the chafing of the rough tree bark. Yet, all
the while hunger was growing upon the beasts and the
strands of the grass rope were wearing thinner and thin-
ner. Bukawai slept.
It was late afternoon before one of the beasts, irritated
by the gnawing of appetite, made a quick, growling dash
at the ape-man. The noise awoke Bukawai. He sat up
quickly and watched what went on within the crater. He
saw the hungry hyena charge the man, leaping for the
207
unprotected throat. He saw Tarzan reach out and seize

the growling animal, and then he saw the second beast
spring for the devil-god’s shoulder. There was a mighty
heave of the great, smooth-skinned body. Rounded mus-
cles shot into great, tensed piles beneath the brown hide–
the ape-man surged forward with all his weight and all
his great strength–the bonds parted, and the three were
rolling upon the floor of the crater snarling, snapping,
and rending.
Bukawai leaped to his feet. Could it be that the devil-
god was to prevail against his servants? Impossible! The
creature was unarmed, and he was down with two hye-
nas on top of him; but Bukawai did not know Tarzan.
The ape-man fastened his fingers upon the throat of
one of the hyenas and rose to one knee, though the other
beast tore at him frantically in an effort to pull him down.
With a single hand Tarzan held the one, and with the
other hand he reached forth and pulled toward him the
second beast.
And then Bukawai, seeing the battle going against his
forces, rushed forward from the cavern brandishing his
knob-stick. Tarzan saw him coming, and rising now to
both feet, a hyena in each hand, he hurled one of the
208
foaming beasts straight at the witch-doctor’s head. Down

went the two in a snarling, biting heap. Tarzan tossed the
second hyena across the crater, while the first gnawed at
the rotting face of its master; but this did not suit the ape-
man. With a kick he sent the beast howling after its com-
panion, and springing to the side of the prostrate witch-
doctor, dragged him to his feet.
Bukawai, still conscious, saw death, immediate and
terrible, in the cold eyes of his captor, so he turned upon
Tarzan with teeth and nails. The ape-man shuddered at
the proximity of that raw face to his. The hyenas had
had enough and disappeared through the small aperture
leading into the cave. Tarzan had little difficulty in over-
powering and binding Bukawai. Then he led him to the
very tree to which he had been bound; but in binding
Bukawai, Tarzan saw to it that escape after the same fash-
ion that he had escaped would be out of the question;
then he left him.
As he passed through the winding corridors and the
subterranean apartments, Tarzan saw nothing of the hye-
nas.
"They will return," he said to himself.
In the crater between the towering walls Bukawai, cold
209
with terror, trembled, trembled as with ague.

"They will return!" he cried, his voice rising to a fright-
filled shriek.
And they did.
210
Chapter 8. The Lion
, the lion, crouched behind a thorn bush close

N UMA
beside the drinking pool where the river eddied just
below the bend. There was a ford there and on either
bank a well-worn trail, broadened far out at the river’s
brim, where, for countless centuries, the wild things of
the jungle and of the plains beyond had come down to
drink, the carnivora with bold and fearless majesty, the
herbivora timorous, hesitating, fearful.
Numa, the lion, was hungry, he was very hungry, and
so he was quite silent now. On his way to the drink-
ing place he had moaned often and roared not a little;
but as he neared the spot where he would lie in wait
211
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
for Bara, the deer, or Horta, the boar, or some other of

the many luscious-fleshed creatures who came hither to
drink, he was silent. It was a grim, a terrible silence, shot
through with yellow-green light of ferocious eyes, punc-
tuated with undulating tremors of sinuous tail.
It was Pacco, the zebra, who came first, and Numa, the
lion, could scarce restrain a roar of anger, for of all the
plains people, none are more wary than Pacco, the zebra.
Behind the black-striped stallion came a herd of thirty or
forty of the plump and vicious little horselike beasts. As
he neared the river, the leader paused often, cocking his
ears and raising his muzzle to sniff the gentle breeze for
the tell-tale scent spoor of the dread flesh-eaters.
Numa shifted uneasily, drawing his hind quarters far
beneath his tawny body, gathering himself for the sud-
den charge and the savage assault. His eyes shot hungry
fire. His great muscles quivered to the excitement of the
moment.
Pacco came a little nearer, halted, snorted, and
wheeled. There was a pattering of scurrying hoofs and
the herd was gone; but Numa, the lion, moved not. He
was familiar with the ways of Pacco, the zebra. He
knew that he would return, though many times he might
212
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
wheel and fly before he summoned the courage to lead

his harem and his offspring to the water. There was the
chance that Pacco might be frightened off entirely. Numa
had seen this happen before, and so he became almost
rigid lest he be the one to send them galloping, waterless,
back to the plain.
Again and again came Pacco and his family, and again
and again did they turn and flee; but each time they came
closer to the river, until at last the plump stallion dipped
his velvet muzzle daintily into the water. The others,
stepping warily, approached their leader. Numa selected
a sleek, fat filly and his flaming eyes burned greedily as
they feasted upon her, for Numa, the lion, loves scarce
anything better than the meat of Pacco, perhaps because
Pacco is, of all the grass-eaters, the most difficult to catch.
Slowly the lion rose, and as he rose, a twig snapped
beneath one of his great, padded paws. Like a shot from
a rifle he charged upon the filly; but the snapped twig
had been enough to startle the timorous quarry, so that
they were in instant flight simultaneously with Numa’s
charge.
The stallion was last, and with a prodigious leap, the
lion catapulted through the air to seize him; but the snap-
213
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
ping twig had robbed Numa of his dinner, though his

mighty talons raked the zebra’s glossy rump, leaving four
crimson bars across the beautiful coat.
It was an angry Numa that quitted the river and
prowled, fierce, dangerous, and hungry, into the jungle.
Far from particular now was his appetite. Even Dango,
the hyena, would have seemed a tidbit to that ravenous
maw. And in this temper it was that the lion came upon
the tribe of Kerchak, the great ape.
One does not look for Numa, the lion, this late in the
morning. He should be lying up asleep beside his last
night’s kill by now; but Numa had made no kill last night.
He was still hunting, hungrier than ever.
The anthropoids were idling about the clearing, the
first keen desire of the morning’s hunger having been sat-
isfied. Numa scented them long before he saw them. Or-
dinarily he would have turned away in search of other
game, for even Numa respected the mighty muscles and
the sharp fangs of the great bulls of the tribe of Kerchak,
but today he kept on steadily toward them, his bristled
snout wrinkled into a savage snarl.
Without an instant’s hesitation, Numa charged the mo-
ment he reached a point from where the apes were visible
214
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
to him. There were a dozen or more of the hairy, manlike

creatures upon the ground in a little glade. In a tree at one
side sat a brown-skinned youth. He saw Numa’s swift
charge; he saw the apes turn and flee, huge bulls tram-
pling upon little balus; only a single she held her ground
to meet the charge, a young she inspired by new mother-
hood to the great sacrifice that her balu might escape.
Tarzan leaped from his perch, screaming at the flying
bulls beneath and at those who squatted in the safety
of surrounding trees. Had the bulls stood their ground,
Numa would not have carried through that charge unless
goaded by great rage or the gnawing pangs of starvation.
Even then he would not have come off unscathed.
If the bulls heard, they were too slow in responding, for
Numa had seized the mother ape and dragged her into
the jungle before the males had sufficiently collected their
wits and their courage to rally in defense of their fellow.
Tarzan’s angry voice aroused similar anger in the breasts
of the apes. Snarling and barking they followed Numa
into the dense labyrinth of foliage wherein he sought to
hide himself from them. The ape-man was in the lead,
moving rapidly and yet with caution, depending even
more upon his ears and nose than upon his eyes for in-
formation of the lion’s whereabouts.
215
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
The spoor was easy to follow, for the dragged body of

the victim left a plain trail, blood-spattered and scentful.
Even such dull creatures as you or I might easily have
followed it. To Tarzan and the apes of Kerchak it was as
obvious as a cement sidewalk.
Tarzan knew that they were nearing the great cat even
before he heard an angry growl of warning just ahead.
Calling to the apes to follow his example, he swung into
a tree and a moment later Numa was surrounded by a
ring of growling beasts, well out of reach of his fangs
and talons but within plain sight of him. The carnivore
crouched with his fore-quarters upon the she-ape. Tarzan
could see that the latter was already dead; but something
within him made it seem quite necessary to rescue the
useless body from the clutches of the enemy and to pun-
ish him.
He shrieked taunts and insults at Numa, and tearing
dead branches from the tree in which he danced, hurled
them at the lion. The apes followed his example. Numa
roared out in rage and vexation. He was hungry, but un-
der such conditions he could not feed.
The apes, if they had been left to themselves, would
doubtless soon have left the lion to peaceful enjoyment of
216
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
his feast, for was not the she dead? They could not restore
her to life by throwing sticks at Numa, and they might
even now be feeding in quiet themselves; but Tarzan was
of a different mind. Numa must be punished and driven
away. He must be taught that even though he killed a
Mangani, he would not be permitted to feed upon his kill.
The man-mind looked into the future, while the apes per-
ceived only the immediate present. They would be con-
tent to escape today the menace of Numa, while Tarzan
saw the necessity, and the means as well, of safeguarding
the days to come.
So he urged the great anthropoids on until Numa was
showered with missiles that kept his head dodging and
his voice pealing forth its savage protest; but still he clung
desperately to his kill.
The twigs and branches hurled at Numa, Tarzan soon
realized, did not hurt him greatly even when they struck
him, and did not injure him at all, so the ape-man looked
about for more effective missiles, nor did he have to
look long. An out-cropping of decomposed granite not
far from Numa suggested ammunition of a much more
painful nature. Calling to the apes to watch him, Tarzan
slipped to the ground and gathered a handful of small
fragments. He knew that when once they had seen him
217
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
carry out his idea they would be much quicker to follow

his lead than to obey his instructions, were he to com-
mand them to procure pieces of rock and hurl them at
Numa, for Tarzan was not then king of the apes of the
tribe of Kerchak. That came in later years. Now he was
but a youth, though one who already had wrested for
himself a place in the councils of the savage beasts among
whom a strange fate had cast him. The sullen bulls of
the older generation still hated him as beasts hate those
of whom they are suspicious, whose scent characteristic
is the scent characteristic of an alien order and, there-
fore, of an enemy order. The younger bulls, those who
had grown up through childhood as his playmates, were
as accustomed to Tarzan’s scent as to that of any other
member of the tribe. They felt no greater suspicion of
him than of any other bull of their acquaintance; yet they
did not love him, for they loved none outside the mat-
ing season, and the animosities aroused by other bulls
during that season lasted well over until the next. They
were a morose and peevish band at best, though here
and there were those among them in whom germinated
the primal seeds of humanity–reversions to type, these,
doubtless; reversions to the ancient progenitor who took
the first step out of ape-hood toward humanness, when
218
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
he walked more often upon his hind feet and discovered

other things for idle hands to do.
So now Tarzan led where he could not yet command.
He had long since discovered the apish propensity for
mimicry and learned to make use of it. Having filled
his arms with fragments of rotted granite, he clambered
again into a tree, and it pleased him to see that the apes
had followed his example.
During the brief respite while they were gathering
their ammunition, Numa had settled himself to feed; but
scarce had he arranged himself and his kill when a sharp
piece of rock hurled by the practiced hand of the ape-
man struck him upon the cheek. His sudden roar of pain
and rage was smothered by a volley from the apes, who
had seen Tarzan’s act. Numa shook his massive head
and glared upward at his tormentors. For a half hour
they pursued him with rocks and broken branches, and
though he dragged his kill into densest thickets, yet they
always found a way to reach him with their missiles, giv-
ing him no opportunity to feed, and driving him on and
on.
The hairless ape-thing with the man scent was worst
of all, for he had even the temerity to advance upon the
219
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
ground to within a few yards of the Lord of the Jungle,

that he might with greater accuracy and force hurl the
sharp bits of granite and the heavy sticks at him. Time
and again did Numa charge–sudden, vicious charges–but
the lithe, active tormentor always managed to elude him
and with such insolent ease that the lion forgot even his
great hunger in the consuming passion of his rage, leav-
ing his meat for considerable spaces of time in vain efforts
to catch his enemy.
The apes and Tarzan pursued the great beast to a natu-
ral clearing, where Numa evidently determined to make
a last stand, taking up his position in the center of the
open space, which was far enough from any tree to render
him practically immune from the rather erratic throwing
of the apes, though Tarzan still found him with most per-
sistent and aggravating frequency.
This, however, did not suit the ape-man, since Numa
now suffered an occasional missile with no more than
a snarl, while he settled himself to partake of his de-
layed feast. Tarzan scratched his head, pondering some
more effective method of offense, for he had determined
to prevent Numa from profiting in any way through his
attack upon the tribe. The man-mind reasoned against
the future, while the shaggy apes thought only of their
220
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
present hatred of this ancestral enemy. Tarzan guessed

that should Numa find it an easy thing to snatch a meal
from the tribe of Kerchak, it would be but a short time
before their existence would be one living nightmare of
hideous watchfulness and dread. Numa must be taught
that the killing of an ape brought immediate punishment
and no rewards. It would take but a few lessons to insure
the former safety of the tribe. This must be some old lion
whose failing strength and agility had forced him to any
prey that he could catch; but even a single lion, undis-
puted, could exterminate the tribe, or at least make its
existence so precarious and so terrifying that life would
no longer be a pleasant condition.
"Let him hunt among the Gomangani," thought Tarzan.
"He will find them easier prey. I will teach ferocious
Numa that he may not hunt the Mangani."
But how to wrest the body of his victim from the feed-
ing lion was the first question to be solved. At last Tarzan
hit upon a plan. To anyone but Tarzan of the Apes it
might have seemed rather a risky plan, and perhaps it
did even to him; but Tarzan rather liked things that con-
tained a considerable element of danger. At any rate, I
rather doubt that you or I would have chosen a similar
plan for foiling an angry and a hungry lion.
221
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
Tarzan required assistance in the scheme he had hit

upon and his assistant must be equally as brave and al-
most as active as he. The ape-man’s eyes fell upon Taug,
the playmate of his childhood, the rival in his first love
and now, of all the bulls of the tribe, the only one that
might be thought to hold in his savage brain any such
feeling toward Tarzan as we describe among ourselves as
friendship. At least, Tarzan knew, Taug was courageous,
and he was young and agile and wonderfully muscled.
"Taug!" cried the ape-man. The great ape looked up
from a dead limb he was attempting to tear from a
lightning-blasted tree. "Go close to Numa and worry
him," said Tarzan. "Worry him until he charges. Lead
him away from the body of Mamka. Keep him away as
long as you can."
Taug nodded. He was across the clearing from Tarzan.
Wresting the limb at last from the tree he dropped to the
ground and advanced toward Numa, growling and bark-
ing out his insults. The worried lion looked up and rose
to his feet. His tail went stiffly erect and Taug turned in
flight, for he knew that warming signal of the charge.
From behind the lion, Tarzan ran quickly toward the
center of the clearing and the body of Mamka. Numa,
222
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
all his eyes for Taug, did not see the ape-man. Instead
he shot forward after the fleeing bull, who had turned in
flight not an instant too soon, since he reached the nearest
tree but a yard or two ahead of the pursuing demon. Like
a cat the heavy anthropoid scampered up the bole of his
sanctuary. Numa’s talons missed him by little more than
inches.
For a moment the lion paused beneath the tree, glaring
up at the ape and roaring until the earth trembled, then
he turned back again toward his kill, and as he did so,
his tail shot once more to rigid erectness and he charged
back even more ferociously than he had come, for what
he saw was the naked man-thing running toward the far-
ther trees with the bloody carcass of his prey across a gi-
ant shoulder.
The apes, watching the grim race from the safety of the
trees, screamed taunts at Numa and warnings to Tarzan.
The high sun, hot and brilliant, fell like a spotlight upon
the actors in the little clearing, portraying them in glar-
ing relief to the audience in the leafy shadows of the
surrounding trees. The light-brown body of the naked
youth, all but hidden by the shaggy carcass of the killed
ape, the red blood streaking his smooth hide, his muscles
rolling, velvety, beneath. Behind him the black-maned
223
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
lion, head flattened, tail extended, racing, a jungle thor-

oughbred, across the sunlit clearing.
Ah, but this was life! With death at his heels, Tarzan
thrilled with the joy of such living as this; but would he
reach the trees ahead of the rampant death so close be-
hind?
Gunto swung from a limb in a tree before him. Gunto
was screaming warnings and advice.
"Catch me!" cried Tarzan, and with his heavy burden
leaped straight for the big bull hanging there by his hind
feet and one forepaw. And Gunto caught them–the big
ape-man and the dead weight of the slain she-ape–caught
them with one great, hairy paw and whirled them up-
ward until Tarzan’s fingers closed upon a near-by branch.
Beneath, Numa leaped; but Gunto, heavy and awk-
ward as he may have appeared, was as quick as Manu,
the monkey, so that the lion’s talons but barely grazed
him, scratching a bloody streak beneath one hairy arm.
Tarzan carried Mamka’s corpse to a high crotch, where
even Sheeta, the panther, could not get it. Numa paced
angrily back and forth beneath the tree, roaring fright-
fully. He had been robbed of his kill and his revenge also.
He was very savage indeed; but his despoilers were well
224
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
out of his reach, and after hurling a few taunts and mis-
siles at him they swung away through the trees, fiercely
reviling him.
Tarzan thought much upon the little adventure of that
day. He foresaw what might happen should the great car-
nivora of the jungle turn their serious attention upon the
tribe of Kerchak, the great ape, but equally he thought
upon the wild scramble of the apes for safety when Numa
first charged among them. There is little humor in the jun-
gle that is not grim and awful. The beasts have little or no
conception of humor; but the young Englishman saw hu-
mor in many things which presented no humorous angle
to his associates.
Since earliest childhood he had been a searcher after
fun, much to the sorrow of his fellow-apes, and now he
saw the humor of the frightened panic of the apes and the
baffled rage of Numa even in this grim jungle adventure
which had robbed Mamka of life, and jeopardized that of
many members of the tribe.
It was but a few weeks later that Sheeta, the panther,
made a sudden rush among the tribe and snatched a lit-
tle balu from a tree where it had been hidden while its
mother sought food. Sheeta got away with his small prize
225
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
unmolested. Tarzan was very wroth. He spoke to the

bulls of the ease with which Numa and Sheeta, in a single
moon, had slain two members of the tribe.
"They will take us all for food," he cried. "We hunt as
we will through the jungle, paying no heed to approach-
ing enemies. Even Manu, the monkey, does not so. He
keeps two or three always watching for enemies. Pacco,
the zebra, and Wappi, the antelope, have those about the
herd who keep watch while the others feed, while we, the
great Mangani, let Numa, and Sabor, and Sheeta come
when they will and carry us off to feed their balus.
"Gr-r-rmph," said Numgo.
"What are we to do?" asked Taug.
"We, too, should have two or three always watching for
the approach of Numa, and Sabor, and Sheeta," replied
Tarzan. "No others need we fear, except Histah, the snake,
and if we watch for the others we will see Histah if he
comes, though gliding ever so silently."
And so it was that the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak
posted sentries thereafter, who watched upon three sides
while the tribe hunted, scattered less than had been their
wont.
226
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
But Tarzan went abroad alone, for Tarzan was a man-

thing and sought amusement and adventure and such
humor as the grim and terrible jungle offers to those
who know it and do not fear it–a weird humor shot with
blazing eyes and dappled with the crimson of lifeblood.
While others sought only food and love, Tarzan of the
Apes sought food and joy.
One day he hovered above the palisaded village of
Mbonga, the chief, the jet cannibal of the jungle primeval.
He saw, as he had seen many times before, the witch-
doctor, Rabba Kega, decked out in the head and hide of
Gorgo, the buffalo. It amused Tarzan to see a Gomangani
parading as Gorgo; but it suggested nothing in particu-
lar to him until he chanced to see stretched against the
side of Mbonga’s hut the skin of a lion with the head still
on. Then a broad grin widened the handsome face of the
savage beast-youth.
Back into the jungle he went until chance, agility,
strength, and cunning backed by his marvelous powers
of perception, gave him an easy meal. If Tarzan felt that
the world owed him a living he also realized that it was
for him to collect it, nor was there ever a better collector
than this son of an English lord, who knew even less of
the ways of his forbears than he did of the forbears them-
227
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
selves, which was nothing.

It was quite dark when Tarzan returned to the village
of Mbonga and took his now polished perch in the tree
which overhangs the palisade upon one side of the walled
enclosure. As there was nothing in particular to feast
upon in the village there was little life in the single street,
for only an orgy of flesh and native beer could draw out
the people of Mbonga. Tonight they sat gossiping about
their cooking fires, the older members of the tribe; or, if
they were young, paired off in the shadows cast by the
palm-thatched huts.
Tarzan dropped lightly into the village, and sneaking
stealthily in the concealment of the denser shadows, ap-
proached the hut of the chief, Mbonga. Here he found
that which he sought. There were warriors all about him;
but they did not know that the feared devil-god slunk
noiselessly so near them, nor did they see him possess
himself of that which he coveted and depart from their
village as noiselessly as he had come.
Later that night, as Tarzan curled himself for sleep, he
lay for a long time looking up at the burning planets and
the twinkling stars and at Goro the moon, and he smiled.
He recalled how ludicrous the great bulls had appeared
228
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
in their mad scramble for safety that day when Numa

had charged among them and seized Mamka, and yet he
knew them to be fierce and courageous. It was the sud-
den shock of surprise that always sent them into a panic;
but of this Tarzan was not as yet fully aware. That was
something he was to learn in the near future.
He fell asleep with a broad grin upon his face.
Manu, the monkey, awoke him in the morning by drop-
ping discarded bean pods upon his upturned face from a
branch a short distance above him. Tarzan looked up and
smiled. He had been awakened thus before many times.
He and Manu were fairly good friends, their friend-
ship operating upon a reciprocal basis. Sometimes Manu
would come running early in the morning to awaken
Tarzan and tell him that Bara, the deer, was feeding close
at hand, or that Horta, the boar, was asleep in a mudhole
hard by, and in return Tarzan broke open the shells of the
harder nuts and fruits for Manu, or frightened away His-
tah, the snake, and Sheeta, the panther.
The sun had been up for some time, and the tribe had
already wandered off in search of food. Manu indicated
the direction they had taken with a wave of his hand and
a few piping notes of his squeaky little voice.
229
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
"Come, Manu," said Tarzan, "and you will see that

which shall make you dance for joy and squeal your wrin-
kled little head off. Come, follow Tarzan of the Apes."
With that he set off in the direction Manu had indi-
cated and above him, chattering, scolding and squealing,
skipped Manu, the monkey. Across Tarzan’s shoulders
was the thing he had stolen from the village of Mbonga,
the chief, the evening before.
The tribe was feeding in the forest beside the clear-
ing where Gunto, and Taug, and Tarzan had so harassed
Numa and finally taken away from him the fruit of his
kill. Some of them were in the clearing itself. In peace
and content they fed, for were there not three sentries,
each watching upon a different side of the herd? Tarzan
had taught them this, and though he had been away for
several days hunting alone, as he often did, or visiting at
the cabin by the sea, they had not as yet forgotten his ad-
monitions, and if they continued for a short time longer
to post sentries, it would become a habit of their tribal life
and thus be perpetuated indefinitely.
But Tarzan, who knew them better than they knew
themselves, was confident that they had ceased to place
the watchers about them the moment that he had left
230
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
them, and now he planned not only to have a little fun at

their expense but to teach them a lesson in preparedness,
which, by the way, is even a more vital issue in the jungle
than in civilized places. That you and I exist today must
be due to the preparedness of some shaggy anthropoid
of the Oligocene. Of course the apes of Kerchak were al-
ways prepared, after their own way–Tarzan had merely
suggested a new and additional safeguard.
Gunto was posted today to the north of the clearing.
He squatted in the fork of a tree from where he might
view the jungle for quite a distance about him. It was he
who first discovered the enemy. A rustling in the under-
growth attracted his attention, and a moment later he had
a partial view of a shaggy mane and tawny yellow back.
Just a glimpse it was through the matted foliage beneath
him; but it brought from Gunto’s leathern lungs a shrill
"Kreeg-ah!" which is the ape for beware, or danger.
Instantly the tribe took up the cry until "Kreeg-ahs!"
rang through the jungle about the clearing as apes swung
quickly to places of safety among the lower branches of
the trees and the great bulls hastened in the direction of
Gunto.
And then into the clearing strode Numa, the lion–
231
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
majestic and mighty, and from a deep chest issued the

moan and the cough and the rumbling roar that set stiff
hairs to bristling from shaggy craniums down the length
of mighty spines.
Inside the clearing, Numa paused and on the instant
there fell upon him from the trees near by a shower of
broken rock and dead limbs torn from age-old trees. A
dozen times he was hit, and then the apes ran down and
gathered other rocks, pelting him unmercifully.
Numa turned to flee, but his way was barred by a
fusilade of sharp-cornered missiles, and then, upon the
edge of the clearing, great Taug met him with a huge frag-
ment of rock as large as a man’s head, and down went the
Lord of the Jungle beneath the stunning blow.
With shrieks and roars and loud barkings the great
apes of the tribe of Kerchak rushed upon the fallen lion.
Sticks and stones and yellow fangs menaced the still
form. In another moment, before he could regain con-
sciousness, Numa would be battered and torn until only
a bloody mass of broken bones and matted hair remained
of what had once been the most dreaded of jungle crea-
tures.
But even as the sticks and stones were raised above him
232
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
and the great fangs bared to tear him, there descended

like a plummet from the trees above a diminutive figure
with long, white whiskers and a wrinkled face. Square
upon the body of Numa it alighted and there it danced
and screamed and shrieked out its challenge against the
bulls of Kerchak.
For an instant they paused, paralyzed by the wonder
of the thing. It was Manu, the monkey, Manu, the little
coward, and here he was daring the ferocity of the great
Mangani, hopping about upon the carcass of Numa, the
lion, and crying out that they must not strike it again.
And when the bulls paused, Manu reached down and
seized a tawny ear. With all his little might he tugged
upon the heavy head until slowly it turned back, reveal-
ing the tousled, black head and clean-cut profile of Tarzan
of the Apes.
Some of the older apes were for finishing what they
had commenced; but Taug, sullen, mighty Taug, sprang
quickly to the ape-man’s side and straddling the uncon-
scious form warned back those who would have struck
his childhood playmate. And Teeka, his mate, came too,
taking her place with bared fangs at Taug’s side. Oth-
ers followed their example, until at last Tarzan was sur-
233
CHAPTER 8. THE LION
rounded by a ring of hairy champions who would permit

no enemy to approach him.
It was a surprised and chastened Tarzan who opened
his eyes to consciousness a few minutes later. He looked
about him at the surrounding apes and slowly there re-
turned to him a realization of what had occurred.
Gradually a broad grin illuminated his features. His
bruises were many and they hurt; but the good that had
come from his adventure was worth all that it had cost.
He had learned, for instance, that the apes of Kerchak had
heeded his teaching, and he had learned that he had good
friends among the sullen beasts whom he had thought
without sentiment. He had discovered that Manu, the
monkey–even little, cowardly Manu–had risked his life
in his defense.
It made Tarzan very glad to know these things; but at
the other lesson he had been taught he reddened. He had
always been a joker, the only joker in the grim and terri-
ble company; but now as he lay there half dead from his
hurts, he almost swore a solemn oath forever to forego
practical joking–almost; but not quite.
234
Chapter 9. The Nightmare
blacks of the village of Mbonga, the chief, were

T HE
feasting, while above them in a large tree sat Tarzan
of the Apes–grim, terrible, empty, and envious. Hunting
had proved poor that day, for there are lean days as well
as fat ones for even the greatest of the jungle hunters. Of-
tentimes Tarzan went empty for more than a full sun, and
he had passed through entire moons during which he had
been but barely able to stave off starvation; but such times
were infrequent.
There once had been a period of sickness among the
grass-eaters which had left the plains almost bare of game
for several years, and again the great cats had increased
235
CHAPTER 9. THE NIGHTMARE
so rapidly and so overrun the country that their prey,

which was also Tarzan’s, had been frightened off for a
considerable time.
But for the most part Tarzan had fed well always. To-
day, though, he had gone empty, one misfortune follow-
ing another as rapidly as he raised new quarry, so that
now, as he sat perched in the tree above the feasting
blacks, he experienced all the pangs of famine and his ha-
tred for his lifelong enemies waxed strong in his breast. It
was tantalizing, indeed, to sit there hungry while these
Gomangani filled themselves so full of food that their
stomachs seemed almost upon the point of bursting, and
with elephant steaks at that!
It was true that Tarzan and Tantor were the best of
friends, and that Tarzan never yet had tasted of the flesh
of the elephant; but the Gomangani evidently had slain
one, and as they were eating of the flesh of their kill,
Tarzan was assailed by no doubts as to the ethics of his
doing likewise, should he have the opportunity. Had
he known that the elephant had died of sickness several
days before the blacks discovered the carcass, he might
not have been so keen to partake of the feast, for Tarzan
of the Apes was no carrion-eater. Hunger, however, may
blunt the most epicurean taste, and Tarzan was not ex-
236
actly an epicure.
What he was at this moment was a very hungry wild
beast whom caution was holding in leash, for the great
cooking pot in the center of the village was surrounded
by black warriors, through whom not even Tarzan of the
Apes might hope to pass unharmed. It would be neces-
sary, therefore, for the watcher to remain there hungry
until the blacks had gorged themselves to stupor, and
then, if they had left any scraps, to make the best meal
he could from such; but to the impatient Tarzan it seemed
that the greedy Gomangani would rather burst than leave
the feast before the last morsel had been devoured. For a
time they broke the monotony of eating by executing por-
tions of a hunting dance, a maneuver which sufficiently
stimulated digestion to permit them to fall to once more
with renewed vigor; but with the consumption of ap-
palling quantities of elephant meat and native beer they
presently became too loggy for physical exertion of any
sort, some reaching a stage where they no longer could
rise from the ground, but lay conveniently close to the
great cooking pot, stuffing themselves into unconscious-
ness.
It was well past midnight before Tarzan even could be-
gin to see the end of the orgy. The blacks were now falling
237
asleep rapidly; but a few still persisted. From before their

condition Tarzan had no doubt but that he easily could
enter the village and snatch a handful of meat from be-
fore their noses; but a handful was not what he wanted.
Nothing less than a stomachful would allay the gnawing
craving of that great emptiness. He must therefore have
ample time to forage in peace.
At last but a single warrior remained true to his ideals–
an old fellow whose once wrinkled belly was now as
smooth and as tight as the head of a drum. With ev-
idences of great discomfort, and even pain, he would
crawl toward the pot and drag himself slowly to his
knees, from which position he could reach into the re-
ceptacle and seize a piece of meat. Then he would roll
over on his back with a loud groan and lie there while he
slowly forced the food between his teeth and down into
his gorged stomach.
It was evident to Tarzan that the old fellow would eat
until he died, or until there was no more meat. The ape-
man shook his head in disgust. What foul creatures were
these Gomangani? Yet of all the jungle folk they alone
resembled Tarzan closely in form. Tarzan was a man,
and they, too, must be some manner of men, just as the
little monkeys, and the great apes, and Bolgani, the go-
238
rilla, were quite evidently of one great family, though dif-

fering in size and appearance and customs. Tarzan was
ashamed, for of all the beasts of the jungle, then, man was
the most disgusting–man and Dango, the hyena. Only
man and Dango ate until they swelled up like a dead rat.
Tarzan had seen Dango eat his way into the carcass of
a dead elephant and then continue to eat so much that
he had been unable to get out of the hole through which
he had entered. Now he could readily believe that man,
given the opportunity, would do the same. Man, too, was
the most unlovely of creatures–with his skinny legs and
his big stomach, his filed teeth, and his thick, red lips.
Man was disgusting. Tarzan’s gaze was riveted upon the
hideous old warrior wallowing in filth beneath him.
There! the thing was struggling to its knees to reach for
another morsel of flesh. It groaned aloud in pain and yet
it persisted in eating, eating, ever eating. Tarzan could
endure it no longer–neither his hunger nor his disgust.
Silently he slipped to the ground with the bole of the great
tree between himself and the feaster.
The man was still kneeling, bent almost double in
agony, before the cooking pot. His back was toward
the ape-man. Swiftly and noiselessly Tarzan approached
him. There was no sound as steel fingers closed about the
239
black throat. The struggle was short, for the man was old
and already half stupefied from the effects of the gorging
and the beer.
Tarzan dropped the inert mass and scooped several
large pieces of meat from the cooking pot–enough to sat-
isfy even his great hunger–then he raised the body of the
feaster and shoved it into the vessel. When the other
blacks awoke they would have something to think about!
Tarzan grinned. As he turned toward the tree with his
meat, he picked up a vessel containing beer and raised it
to his lips, but at the first taste he spat the stuff from his
mouth and tossed the primitive tankard aside. He was
quite sure that even Dango would draw the line at such
filthy tasting drink as that, and his contempt for man in-
creased with the conviction.
Tarzan swung off into the jungle some half mile or so
before he paused to partake of his stolen food. He noticed
that it gave forth a strange and unpleasant odor, but as-
sumed that this was due to the fact that it had stood in a
vessel of water above a fire. Tarzan was, of course, unac-
customed to cooked food. He did not like it; but he was
very hungry and had eaten a considerable portion of his
haul before it was really borne in upon him that the stuff
was nauseating. It required far less than he had imagined
240
it would to satisfy his appetite.

Throwing the balance to the ground he curled up in
a convenient crotch and sought slumber; but slumber
seemed difficult to woo. Ordinarily Tarzan of the Apes
was asleep as quickly as a dog after it curls itself upon a
hearthrug before a roaring blaze; but tonight he squirmed
and twisted, for at the pit of his stomach was a peculiar
feeling that resembled nothing more closely than an at-
tempt upon the part of the fragments of elephant meat
reposing there to come out into the night and search for
their elephant; but Tarzan was adamant. He gritted his
teeth and held them back. He was not to be robbed of his
meal after waiting so long to obtain it.
He had succeeded in dozing when the roaring of a lion
awoke him. He sat up to discover that it was broad day-
light. Tarzan rubbed his eyes. Could it be that he had
really slept? He did not feel particularly refreshed as he
should have after a good sleep. A noise attracted his at-
tention, and he looked down to see a lion standing at the
foot of the tree gazing hungrily at him. Tarzan made a
face at the king of beasts, whereat Numa, greatly to the
ape-man’s surprise, started to climb up into the branches
toward him. Now, never before had Tarzan seen a lion
climb a tree, yet, for some unaccountable reason, he was
241
not greatly surprised that this particular lion should do

so.
As the lion climbed slowly toward him, Tarzan sought
higher branches; but to his chagrin, he discovered that it
was with the utmost difficulty that he could climb at all.
Again and again he slipped back, losing all that he had
gained, while the lion kept steadily at his climbing, com-
ing ever closer and closer to the ape-man. Tarzan could
see the hungry light in the yellow-green eyes. He could
see the slaver on the drooping jowls, and the great fangs
agape to seize and destroy him. Clawing desperately,
the ape-man at last succeeded in gaining a little upon his
pursuer. He reached the more slender branches far aloft
where he well knew no lion could follow; yet on and on
came devil-faced Numa. It was incredible; but it was true.
Yet what most amazed Tarzan was that though he real-
ized the incredibility of it all, he at the same time accepted
it as a matter of course, first that a lion should climb at all
and second that he should enter the upper terraces where
even Sheeta, the panther, dared not venture.
To the very top of a tall tree the ape-man clawed his
awkward way and after him came Numa, the lion, moan-
ing dismally. At last Tarzan stood balanced upon the very
utmost pinnacle of a swaying branch, high above the for-
242
est. He could go no farther. Below him the lion came

steadily upward, and Tarzan of the Apes realized that
at last the end had come. He could not do battle upon
a tiny branch with Numa, the lion, especially with such
a Numa, to which swaying branches two hundred feet
above the ground provided as substantial footing as the
ground itself.
Nearer and nearer came the lion. Another moment and
he could reach up with one great paw and drag the ape-
man downward to those awful jaws. A whirring noise
above his head caused Tarzan to glance apprehensively
upward. A great bird was circling close above him. He
never had seen so large a bird in all his life, yet he recog-
nized it immediately, for had he not seen it hundreds of
times in one of the books in the little cabin by the land-
locked bay–the moss-grown cabin that with its contents
was the sole heritage left by his dead and unknown fa-
ther to the young Lord Greystoke?
In the picture-book the great bird was shown flying far
above the ground with a small child in its talons while,
beneath, a distracted mother stood with uplifted hands.
The lion was already reaching forth a taloned paw to
seize him when the bird swooped and buried no less
formidable talons in Tarzan’s back. The pain was numb-
243
ing; but it was with a sense of relief that the ape-man felt
himself snatched from the clutches of Numa.
With a great whirring of wings the bird rose rapidly
until the forest lay far below. It made Tarzan sick and
dizzy to look down upon it from so great a height, so
he closed his eyes tight and held his breath. Higher and
higher climbed the huge bird. Tarzan opened his eyes.
The jungle was so far away that he could see only a dim,
green blur below him, but just above and quite close was
the sun. Tarzan reached out his hands and warmed them,
for they were very cold. Then a sudden madness seized
him. Where was the bird taking him? Was he to sub-
mit thus passively to a feathered creature however enor-
mous? Was he, Tarzan of the Apes, mighty fighter, to die
without striking a blow in his own defense? Never!
He snatched the hunting blade from his gee-string and
thrusting upward drove it once, twice, thrice into the
breast above him. The mighty wings fluttered a few more
times, spasmodically, the talons relaxed their hold, and
Tarzan of the Apes fell hurtling downward toward the
distant jungle.
It seemed to the ape-man that he fell for many minutes
before he crashed through the leafy verdure of the tree
244
tops. The smaller branches broke his fall, so that he came

to rest for an instant upon the very branch upon which
he had sought slumber the previous night. For an instant
he toppled there in a frantic attempt to regain his equi-
librium; but at last he rolled off, yet, clutching wildly, he
succeeded in grasping the branch and hanging on.
Once more he opened his eyes, which he had closed
during the fall. Again it was night. With all his old agility
he clambered back to the crotch from which he had top-
pled. Below him a lion roared, and, looking downward,
Tarzan could see the yellow-green eyes shining in the
moonlight as they bored hungrily upward through the
darkness of the jungle night toward him.
The ape-man gasped for breath. Cold sweat stood out
from every pore, there was a great sickness at the pit of
Tarzan’s stomach. Tarzan of the Apes had dreamed his
first dream.
For a long time he sat watching for Numa to climb into
the tree after him, and listening for the sound of the great
wings from above, for to Tarzan of the Apes his dream
was a reality.
He could not believe what he had seen and yet, hav-
ing seen even these incredible things, he could not disbe-
245
lieve the evidence of his own perceptions. Never in all his

life had Tarzan’s senses deceived him badly, and so, nat-
urally, he had great faith in them. Each perception which
ever had been transmitted to Tarzan’s brain had been,
with varying accuracy, a true perception. He could not
conceive of the possibility of apparently having passed
through such a weird adventure in which there was no
grain of truth. That a stomach, disordered by decayed
elephant flesh, a lion roaring in the jungle, a picture-book,
and sleep could have so truly portrayed all the clear-cut
details of what he had seemingly experienced was quite
beyond his knowledge; yet he knew that Numa could not
climb a tree, he knew that there existed in the jungle no
such bird as he had seen, and he knew, too, that he could
not have fallen a tiny fraction of the distance he had hur-
tled downward, and lived.
To say the least, he was a very puzzled Tarzan as he
tried to compose himself once more for slumber–a very
puzzled and a very nauseated Tarzan.
As he thought deeply upon the strange occurrences of
the night, he witnessed another remarkable happening.
It was indeed quite preposterous, yet he saw it all with
his own eyes–it was nothing less than Histah, the snake,
wreathing his sinuous and slimy way up the bole of the
246
tree below him–Histah, with the head of the old man

Tarzan had shoved into the cooking pot–the head and the
round, tight, black, distended stomach. As the old man’s
frightful face, with upturned eyes, set and glassy, came
close to Tarzan, the jaws opened to seize him. The ape-
man struck furiously at the hideous face, and as he struck
the apparition disappeared.
Tarzan sat straight up upon his branch trembling in ev-
ery limb, wide-eyed and panting. He looked all around
him with his keen, jungle-trained eyes, but he saw naught
of the old man with the body of Histah, the snake, but on
his naked thigh the ape-man saw a caterpillar, dropped
from a branch above him. With a grimace he flicked it off
into the darkness beneath.
And so the night wore on, dream following dream,
nightmare following nightmare, until the distracted ape-
man started like a frightened deer at the rustling of the
wind in the trees about him, or leaped to his feet as
the uncanny laugh of a hyena burst suddenly upon a
momentary jungle silence. But at last the tardy morn-
ing broke and a sick and feverish Tarzan wound slug-
gishly through the dank and gloomy mazes of the forest
in search of water. His whole body seemed on fire, a great
sickness surged upward to his throat. He saw a tangle of
247
almost impenetrable thicket, and, like the wild beast he

was, he crawled into it to die alone and unseen, safe from
the attacks of predatory carnivora.
But he did not die. For a long time he wanted to;
but presently nature and an outraged stomach relieved
themselves in their own therapeutic manner, the ape-man
broke into a violent perspiration and then fell into a nor-
mal and untroubled sleep which persisted well into the
afternoon. When he awoke he found himself weak but
no longer sick.
Once more he sought water, and after drinking deeply,
took his way slowly toward the cabin by the sea. In times
of loneliness and trouble it had long been his custom to
seek there the quiet and restfulness which he could find
nowhere else.
As he approached the cabin and raised the crude latch
which his father had fashioned so many years before, two
small, blood-shot eyes watched him from the conceal-
ing foliage of the jungle close by. From beneath shaggy,
beetling brows they glared maliciously upon him, mali-
ciously and with a keen curiosity; then Tarzan entered
the cabin and closed the door after him. Here, with all the
world shut out from him, he could dream without fear of
248
interruption. He could curl up and look at the pictures in

the strange things which were books, he could puzzle out
the printed word he had learned to read without knowl-
edge of the spoken language it represented, he could live
in a wonderful world of which he had no knowledge be-
yond the covers of his beloved books. Numa and Sabor
might prowl about close to him, the elements might rage
in all their fury; but here at least, Tarzan might be entirely
off his guard in a delightful relaxation which gave him all
his faculties for the uninterrupted pursuit of this greatest
of all his pleasures.
Today he turned to the picture of the huge bird which
bore off the little Tarmangani in its talons. Tarzan puck-
ered his brows as he examined the colored print. Yes, this
was the very bird that had carried him off the day before,
for to Tarzan the dream had been so great a reality that he
still thought another day and a night had passed since he
had lain down in the tree to sleep.
But the more he thought upon the matter the less pos-
itive he was as to the verity of the seeming adventure
through which he had passed, yet where the real had
ceased and the unreal commenced he was quite unable
to determine. Had he really then been to the village of
the blacks at all, had he killed the old Gomangani, had
249
he eaten of the elephant meat, had he been sick? Tarzan

scratched his tousled black head and wondered. It was all
very strange, yet he knew that he never had seen Numa
climb a tree, or Histah with the head and belly of an old
black man whom Tarzan already had slain.
Finally, with a sigh he gave up trying to fathom the un-
fathomable, yet in his heart of hearts he knew that some-
thing had come into his life that he never before had expe-
rienced, another life which existed when he slept and the
consciousness of which was carried over into his waking
hours.
Then he commenced to wonder if some of these strange
creatures which he met in his sleep might not slay him,
for at such times Tarzan of the Apes seemed to be a differ-
ent Tarzan, sluggish, helpless and timid–wishing to flee
his enemies as fled Bara, the deer, most fearful of crea-
tures.
Thus, with a dream, came the first faint tinge of a
knowledge of fear, a knowledge which Tarzan, awake,
had never experienced, and perhaps he was experiencing
what his early forbears passed through and transmitted
to posterity in the form of superstition first and religion
later; for they, as Tarzan, had seen things at night which
250
they could not explain by the daylight standards of sense

perception or of reason, and so had built for themselves a
weird explanation which included grotesque shapes, pos-
sessed of strange and uncanny powers, to whom they
finally came to attribute all those inexplicable phenom-
ena of nature which with each recurrence filled them with
awe, with wonder, or with terror.
And as Tarzan concentrated his mind on the little bugs
upon the printed page before him, the active recollection
of the strange adventures presently merged into the text
of that which he was reading–a story of Bolgani, the go-
rilla, in captivity. There was a more or less lifelike illus-
tration of Bolgani in colors and in a cage, with many re-
markable looking Tarmangani standing against a rail and
peering curiously at the snarling brute. Tarzan wondered
not a little, as he always did, at the odd and seemingly
useless array of colored plumage which covered the bod-
ies of the Tarmangani. It always caused him to grin a
trifle when he looked at these strange creatures. He won-
dered if they so covered their bodies from shame of their
hairlessness or because they thought the odd things they
wore added any to the beauty of their appearance. Partic-
ularly was Tarzan amused by the grotesque headdresses
of the pictured people. He wondered how some of the
251
shes succeeded in balancing theirs in an upright position,

and he came as near to laughing aloud as he ever had, as
he contemplated the funny little round things upon the
heads of the hes.
Slowly the ape-man picked out the meaning of the var-
ious combinations of letters on the printed page, and as
he read, the little bugs, for as such he always thought of
the letters, commenced to run about in a most confusing
manner, blurring his vision and befuddling his thoughts.
Twice he brushed the back of a hand smartly across his
eyes; but only for a moment could he bring the bugs
back to coherent and intelligible form. He had slept ill
the night before and now he was exhausted from loss of
sleep, from sickness, and from the slight fever he had had,
so that it became more and more difficult to fix his atten-
tion, or to keep his eyes open.
Tarzan realized that he was falling asleep, and just as
the realization was borne in upon him and he had de-
cided to relinquish himself to an inclination which had
assumed almost the proportions of a physical pain, he
was aroused by the opening of the cabin door. Turning
quickly toward the interruption Tarzan was amazed, for
a moment, to see bulking large in the doorway the huge
and hairy form of Bolgani, the gorilla.
252
Now there was scarcely a denizen of the great jungle

with whom Tarzan would rather not have been cooped
up inside the small cabin than Bolgani, the gorilla, yet he
felt no fear, even though his quick eye noted that Bolgani
was in the throes of that jungle madness which seizes
upon so many of the fiercer males. Ordinarily the huge
gorillas avoid conflict, hide themselves from the other
jungle folk, and are generally the best of neighbors; but
when they are attacked, or the madness seizes them, there
is no jungle denizen so bold and fierce as to deliberately
seek a quarrel with them.
But for Tarzan there was no escape. Bolgani was glow-
ering at him from red-rimmed, wicked eyes. In a mo-
ment he would rush in and seize the ape-man. Tarzan
reached for the hunting knife where he had lain it on the
table beside him; but as his fingers did not immediately
locate the weapon, he turned a quick glance in search of
it. As he did so his eyes fell upon the book he had been
looking at which still lay open at the picture of Bolgani.
Tarzan found his knife, but he merely fingered it idly and
grinned in the direction of the advancing gorilla.
Not again would he be fooled by empty things which
came while he slept! In a moment, no doubt, Bolgani
would turn into Pamba, the rat, with the head of Tantor,
253
the elephant. Tarzan had seen enough of such strange

happenings recently to have some idea as to what he
might expect; but this time Bolgani did not alter his form
as he came slowly toward the young ape-man.
Tarzan was a bit puzzled, too, that he felt no desire to
rush frantically to some place of safety, as had been the
sensation most conspicuous in the other of his new and
remarkable adventures. He was just himself now, ready
to fight, if necessary; but still sure that no flesh and blood
gorilla stood before him.
The thing should be fading away into thin air by now,
thought Tarzan, or changing into something else; yet it
did not. Instead it loomed clear-cut and real as Bol-
gani himself, the magnificent dark coat glistening with
life and health in a bar of sunlight which shot across the
cabin through the high window behind the young Lord
Greystoke. This was quite the most realistic of his sleep
adventures, thought Tarzan, as he passively awaited the
next amusing incident.
And then the gorilla charged. Two mighty, calloused
hands seized upon the ape-man, great fangs were bared
close to his face, a hideous growl burst from the cav-
ernous throat and hot breath fanned Tarzan’s cheek, and
254
still he sat grinning at the apparition. Tarzan might be

fooled once or twice, but not for so many times in succes-
sion! He knew that this Bolgani was no real Bolgani, for
had he been he never could have gained entrance to the
cabin, since only Tarzan knew how to operate the latch.
The gorilla seemed puzzled by the strange passivity
of the hairless ape. He paused an instant with his jaws
snarling close to the other’s throat, then he seemed sud-
denly to come to some decision. Whirling the ape-man
across a hairy shoulder, as easily as you or I might lift
a babe in arms, Bolgani turned and dashed out into the
open, racing toward the great trees.
Now, indeed, was Tarzan sure that this was a sleep ad-
venture, and so grinned largely as the giant gorilla bore
him, unresisting, away. Presently, reasoned Tarzan, he
would awaken and find himself back in the cabin where
he had fallen asleep. He glanced back at the thought
and saw the cabin door standing wide open. This would
never do! Always had he been careful to close and latch it
against wild intruders. Manu, the monkey, would make
sad havoc there among Tarzan’s treasures should he have
access to the interior for even a few minutes. The question
which arose in Tarzan’s mind was a baffling one. Where
did sleep adventures end and reality commence? How
255
was he to be sure that the cabin door was not really open?
Everything about him appeared quite normal–there were
none of the grotesque exaggerations of his former sleep
adventures. It would be better then to be upon the safe
side and make sure that the cabin door was closed–it
would do no harm even if all that seemed to be happen-
ing were not happening at all.
Tarzan essayed to slip from Bolgani’s shoulder; but
the great beast only growled ominously and gripped him
tighter. With a mighty effort the ape-man wrenched him-
self loose, and as he slid to the ground, the dream gorilla
turned ferociously upon him, seized him once more and
buried great fangs in a sleek, brown shoulder.
The grin of derision faded from Tarzan’s lips as the
pain and the hot blood aroused his fighting instincts.
Asleep or awake, this thing was no longer a joke! Bit-
ing, tearing, and snarling, the two rolled over upon the
ground. The gorilla now was frantic with insane rage.
Again and again he loosed his hold upon the ape-man’s
shoulder in an attempt to seize the jugular; but Tarzan
of the Apes had fought before with creatures who struck
first for the vital vein, and each time he wriggled out of
harm’s way as he strove to get his fingers upon his ad-
versary’s throat. At last he succeeded–his great muscles
256
tensed and knotted beneath his smooth hide as he forced

with every ounce of his mighty strength to push the hairy
torso from him. And as he choked Bolgani and strained
him away, his other hand crept slowly upward between
them until the point of the hunting knife rested over the
savage heart–there was a quick movement of the steel-
thewed wrist and the blade plunged to its goal.
Bolgani, the gorilla, voiced a single frightful shriek,
tore himself loose from the grasp of the ape-man, rose to
his feet, staggered a few steps and then plunged to earth.
There were a few spasmodic movements of the limbs and
the brute was still.
Tarzan of the Apes stood looking down upon his kill,
and as he stood there he ran his fingers through his thick,
black shock of hair. Presently he stooped and touched
the dead body. Some of the red life-blood of the gorilla
crimsoned his fingers. He raised them to his nose and
sniffed. Then he shook his head and turned toward the
cabin. The door was still open. He closed it and fastened
the latch. Returning toward the body of his kill he again
paused and scratched his head.
If this was a sleep adventure, what then was reality?
How was he to know the one from the other? How much
257
of all that had happened in his life had been real and how
much unreal?
He placed a foot upon the prostrate form and raising
his face to the heavens gave voice to the kill cry of the
bull ape. Far in the distance a lion answered. It was very
real and, yet, he did not know. Puzzled, he turned away
into the jungle.
No, he did not know what was real and what was not;
but there was one thing that he did know–never again
would he eat of the flesh of Tantor, the elephant.
258
Chapter 10. The Battle for Teeka
day was perfect. A cool breeze tempered the heat

T HE
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 prosper-
ity undermine the safety of the most primitive commu-
nity even as it does that of the most cultured.
259
CHAPTER 10. THE BATTLE FOR TEEKA
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 sin-
ister 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 re-
quire 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 con-
260
cealed 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 horri-
fyingly 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 mat-
261
ing time arrived; but now she was Taug’s and no other
male could claim her without first defeating Taug in per-
sonal 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 mas-
ter, 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 com-
munities 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
262
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 im-
pressed 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 ef-
fect, 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
263
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 tormen-
tor. 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 dev-
iltry 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
264
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 com-
menced shaking it vigorously. Teeka was appalled. In-
stantly 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 shak-
ing produced a violent snapping of the limb to which the
young ape clung. Teeka saw all too plainly what the out-
come must be and forgetting her own danger in the depth
of her mother love, rushed forward to ascend the tree and
265
give battle to the fearsome creature that menaced the life

of her little one.
But before ever she reached the bole, Toog had suc-
ceeded, 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 repeat-
edly 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
266
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 be-
fore 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 re-
posed 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 cra-
dle, 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
267
book and then of another. He glanced at pictures which

he knew by heart, and tossed the books aside. He rum-
maged 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 acci-
dent; but not so the ways of Tarzan. For his few belong-
ings 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 mean-
ing 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
268
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 dis-
covered 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, think-
ing to polish them at his leisure; then he replaced the box
269
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 com-
motion 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 clear-
ing where he had last seen the tribe and presently com-
menced 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 ap-
prehend 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
270
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 bet-
ter 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 cau-
tion.
And when Taug reached a place in the branches from
which he could have an unobstructed view of the clear-
ing he saw Dango already sniffing at something directly
271
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 sav-
age, 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 sav-
age bosom that paternal love which evidences itself most
strongly in the protective instinct of the male.
272
In Taug the protective instinct was not alone highly de-

veloped; 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 "Kree-
gahs," punctuated from time to time by the blood-
freezing cry of an angry, challenging bull–a rage-mad bull
273
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 mem-
bers gathered about Taug and something which lay qui-
etly upon the ground. Dropping among them, Tarzan ap-
proached 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
274
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. Sud-
denly 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."
275
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 car-
ried 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 char-
acters 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 in-
stinct 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 com-
munity 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
276
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 ma-
tron 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 prac-
tice 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 be-
fore 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.
277
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 nat-
ural 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
278
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 fa-
miliar 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 handi-
capped 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
279
deluge which spills tons instead of drops upon the bend-

ing 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 to-
day 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 of-
ten, 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
280
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, ap-
plying every test that his wonderful junglecraft was cog-
nizant 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 com-
ing 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 indi-
281
cations 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 pris-
oner 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 character-
istic 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
282
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 pan-
ther, had been endowed with wings and was in close pur-
suit 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
283
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 direc-
tion 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 possi-
ble 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
284
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 an-
other 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
285
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 gray-
beard.
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 al-
286
ready 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 sud-
den "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 bat-
tle 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 formali-
ties, 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 gray-
beard leaped high, shrilling his primitive bravos; but al-
ways 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.
287
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 antag-
onist. Instantly Tarzan broke from the clutches of the dy-
ing 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 recov-
ered 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
288
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 excite-
ment 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 fasci-
nated 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 ad-
versaries. 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 growl-
ing, came a score of huge bull apes–the fighting men of
289
Toog’s tribe.
Teeka saw them first and screamed a warning to Tarzan
and Taug. Then she fled past the fighters toward the op-
posite 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 fin-
gers touched upon the hard objects in the pouch that had
been torn from the ape-man. Tearing the receptacle open,
290
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 to-
ward 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
291
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.
292
Chapter 11. A Jungle Joke
seldom hung heavily upon Tarzan’s hands. Even

T IME
where there is sameness there cannot be monotony
if most of the sameness consists in dodging death first
in one form and then in another; or in inflicting death
upon others. There is a spice to such an existence; but
even this Tarzan of the Apes varied in activities of his own
invention.
He was full grown now, with the grace of a Greek god
and the thews of a bull, and, by all the tenets of apedom,
should have been sullen, morose, and brooding; but he
was not. His spirits seemed not to age at all–he was still a
playful child, much to the discomfiture of his fellow-apes.
293
CHAPTER 11. A JUNGLE JOKE
They could not understand him or his ways, for with ma-
turity they quickly forgot their youth and its pastimes.
Nor could Tarzan quite understand them. It seemed
strange to him that a few moons since, he had roped Taug
about an ankle and dragged him screaming through the
tall jungle grasses, and then rolled and tumbled in good-
natured mimic battle when the young ape had freed him-
self, and that today when he had come up behind the
same Taug and pulled him over backward upon the turf,
instead of the playful young ape, a great, snarling beast
had whirled and leaped for his throat.
Easily Tarzan eluded the charge and quickly Taug’s
anger vanished, though it was not replaced with playful-
ness; yet the ape-man realized that Taug was not amused
nor was he amusing. The big bull ape seemed to have lost
whatever sense of humor he once may have possessed.
With a grunt of disappointment, young Lord Greystoke
turned to other fields of endeavor. A strand of black hair
fell across one eye. He brushed it aside with the palm of
a hand and a toss of his head. It suggested something
to do, so he sought his quiver which lay cached in the
hollow bole of a lightning-riven tree. Removing the ar-
rows he turned the quiver upside down, emptying upon
the ground the contents of its bottom–his few treasures.
294
Among them was a flat bit of stone and a shell which he

had picked up from the beach near his father’s cabin.
With great care he rubbed the edge of the shell back
and forth upon the flat stone until the soft edge was
quite fine and sharp. He worked much as a barber does
who hones a razor, and with every evidence of similar
practice; but his proficiency was the result of years of
painstaking effort. Unaided he had worked out a method
of his own for putting an edge upon the shell–he even
tested it with the ball of his thumb–and when it met with
his approval he grasped a wisp of hair which fell across
his eyes, grasped it between the thumb and first finger
of his left hand and sawed upon it with the sharpened
shell until it was severed. All around his head he went
until his black shock was rudely bobbed with a ragged
bang in front. For the appearance of it he cared nothing;
but in the matter of safety and comfort it meant every-
thing. A lock of hair falling in one’s eyes at the wrong
moment might mean all the difference between life and
death, while straggly strands, hanging down one’s back
were most uncomfortable, especially when wet with dew
or rain or perspiration.
As Tarzan labored at his tonsorial task, his active mind
was busy with many things. He recalled his recent battle
295
with Bolgani, the gorilla, the wounds of which were but

just healed. He pondered the strange sleep adventures
of his first dreams, and he smiled at the painful outcome
of his last practical joke upon the tribe, when, dressed in
the hide of Numa, the lion, he had come roaring upon
them, only to be leaped upon and almost killed by the
great bulls whom he had taught how to defend them-
selves from an attack of their ancient enemy.
His hair lopped off to his entire satisfaction, and see-
ing no possibility of pleasure in the company of the tribe,
Tarzan swung leisurely into the trees and set off in the
direction of his cabin; but when part way there his atten-
tion was attracted by a strong scent spoor coming from
the north. It was the scent of the Gomangani.
Curiosity, that best-developed, common heritage of
man and ape, always prompted Tarzan to investigate
where the Gomangani were concerned. There was that
about them which aroused his imagination. Possibly it
was because of the diversity of their activities and inter-
ests. The apes lived to eat and sleep and propagate. The
same was true of all the other denizens of the jungle, save
the Gomangani.
These black fellows danced and sang, scratched
296
around in the earth from which they had cleared the trees
and underbrush; they watched things grow, and when
they had ripened, they cut them down and put them in
straw-thatched huts. They made bows and spears and
arrows, poison, cooking pots, things of metal to wear
around their arms and legs. If it hadn’t been for their
black faces, their hideously disfigured features, and the
fact that one of them had slain Kala, Tarzan might have
wished to be one of them. At least he sometimes thought
so, but always at the thought there rose within him a
strange revulsion of feeling, which he could not interpret
or understand–he simply knew that he hated the Goman-
gani, and that he would rather be Histah, the snake, than
one of these.
But their ways were interesting, and Tarzan never
tired of spying upon them, and from them he learned
much more than he realized, though always his princi-
pal thought was of some new way in which he could ren-
der their lives miserable. The baiting of the blacks was
Tarzan’s chief divertissement.
Tarzan realized now that the blacks were very near and
that there were many of them, so he went silently and
with great caution. Noiselessly he moved through the
lush grasses of the open spaces, and where the forest was
297
dense, swung from one swaying branch to another, or

leaped lightly over tangled masses of fallen trees where
there was no way through the lower terraces, and the
ground was choked and impassable.
And so presently he came within sight of the black war-
riors of Mbonga, the chief. They were engaged in a pur-
suit with which Tarzan was more or less familiar, hav-
ing watched them at it upon other occasions. They were
placing and baiting a trap for Numa, the lion. In a cage
upon wheels they were tying a kid, so fastening it that
when Numa seized the unfortunate creature, the door of
the cage would drop behind him, making him a prisoner.
These things the blacks had learned in their old home,
before they escaped through the untracked jungle to their
new village. Formerly they had dwelt in the Belgian
Congo until the cruelties of their heartless oppressors had
driven them to seek the safety of unexplored solitudes be-
yond the boundaries of Leopold’s domain.
In their old life they often had trapped animals for the
agents of European dealers, and had learned from them
certain tricks, such as this one, which permitted them to
capture even Numa without injuring him, and to trans-
port him in safety and with comparative ease to their vil-
298
lage.
No longer was there a white market for their savage
wares; but there was still a sufficient incentive for the tak-
ing of Numa–alive. First was the necessity for ridding the
jungle of man-eaters, and it was only after depredations
by these grim and terrible scourges that a lion hunt was
organized. Secondarily was the excuse for an orgy of cel-
ebration was the hunt successful, and the fact that such
fetes were rendered doubly pleasurable by the presence
of a live creature that might be put to death by torture.
Tarzan had witnessed these cruel rites in the past. Be-
ing himself more savage than the savage warriors of the
Gomangani, he was not so shocked by the cruelty of them
as he should have been, yet they did shock him. He could
not understand the strange feeling of revulsion which
possessed him at such times. He had no love for Numa,
the lion, yet he bristled with rage when the blacks in-
flicted upon his enemy such indignities and cruelties as
only the mind of the one creature molded in the image of
God can conceive.
Upon two occasions he had freed Numa from the trap
before the blacks had returned to discover the success or
failure of their venture. He would do the same today–that
299
he decided immediately he realized the nature of their

intentions.
Leaving the trap in the center of a broad elephant trail
near the drinking hole, the warriors turned back toward
their village. On the morrow they would come again.
Tarzan looked after them, upon his lips an unconscious
sneer–the heritage of unguessed caste. He saw them file
along the broad trail, beneath the overhanging verdure of
leafy branch and looped and festooned creepers, brush-
ing ebon shoulders against gorgeous blooms which in-
scrutable Nature has seen fit to lavish most profusely far-
thest from the eye of man.
As Tarzan watched, through narrowed lids, the last of
the warriors disappear beyond a turn in the trail, his ex-
pression altered to the urge of a newborn thought. A
slow, grim smile touched his lips. He looked down upon
the frightened, bleating kid, advertising, in its fear and its
innocence, its presence and its helplessness.
Dropping to the ground, Tarzan approached the trap
and entered. Without disturbing the fiber cord, which
was adjusted to drop the door at the proper time, he loos-
ened the living bait, tucked it under an arm and stepped
out of the cage.
300
With his hunting knife he quieted the frightened an-

imal, severing its jugular; then he dragged it, bleeding,
along the trail down to the drinking hole, the half smile
persisting upon his ordinarily grave face. At the water’s
edge the ape-man stooped and with hunting knife and
quick strong fingers deftly removed the dead kid’s vis-
cera. Scraping a hole in the mud, he buried these parts
which he did not eat, and swinging the body to his shoul-
der took to the trees.
For a short distance he pursued his way in the wake
of the black warriors, coming down presently to bury the
meat of his kill where it would be safe from the depreda-
tions of Dango, the hyena, or the other meat-eating beasts
and birds of the jungle. He was hungry. Had he been all
beast he would have eaten; but his man-mind could en-
tertain urges even more potent than those of the belly, and
now he was concerned with an idea which kept a smile
upon his lips and his eyes sparkling in anticipation. An
idea, it was, which permitted him to forget that he was
hungry.
The meat safely cached, Tarzan trotted along the ele-
phant trail after the Gomangani. Two or three miles from
the cage he overtook them and then he swung into the
trees and followed above and behind them–waiting his
301
chance.
Among the blacks was Rabba Kega, the witch-doctor.
Tarzan hated them all; but Rabba Kega he especially
hated. As the blacks filed along the winding path, Rabba
Kega, being lazy, dropped behind. This Tarzan noted,
and it filled him with satisfaction–his being radiated a
grim and terrible content. Like an angel of death he hov-
ered above the unsuspecting black.
Rabba Kega, knowing that the village was but a short
distance ahead, sat down to rest. Rest well, O Rabba
Kega! It is thy last opportunity.
Tarzan crept stealthily among the branches of the tree
above the well-fed, self-satisfied witch-doctor. He made
no noise that the dull ears of man could hear above the
soughing of the gentle jungle breeze among the undulat-
ing foliage of the upper terraces, and when he came close
above the black man he halted, well concealed by leafy
branch and heavy creeper.
Rabba Kega sat with his back against the bole of a tree,
facing Tarzan. The position was not such as the waiting
beast of prey desired, and so, with the infinite patience
of the wild hunter, the ape-man crouched motionless and
silent as a graven image until the fruit should be ripe for
302
the plucking. A poisonous insect buzzed angrily out of

space. It loitered, circling, close to Tarzan’s face. The
ape-man saw and recognized it. The virus of its sting
spelled death for lesser things than he–for him it would
mean days of anguish. He did not move. His glittering
eyes remained fixed upon Rabba Kega after acknowledg-
ing the presence of the winged torture by a single glance.
He heard and followed the movements of the insect with
his keen ears, and then he felt it alight upon his forehead.
No muscle twitched, for the muscles of such as he are the
servants of the brain. Down across his face crept the hor-
rid thing–over nose and lips and chin. Upon his throat it
paused, and turning, retraced its steps. Tarzan watched
Rabba Kega. Now not even his eyes moved. So motion-
less he crouched that only death might counterpart his
movelessness. The insect crawled upward over the nut-
brown cheek and stopped with its antennae brushing the
lashes of his lower lid. You or I would have started back,
closing our eyes and striking at the thing; but you and
I are the slaves, not the masters of our nerves. Had the
thing crawled upon the eyeball of the ape-man, it is be-
lievable that he could yet have remained wide-eyed and
rigid; but it did not. For a moment it loitered there close
to the lower lid, then it rose and buzzed away.
303
Down toward Rabba Kega it buzzed and the black man

heard it, saw it, struck at it, and was stung upon the cheek
before he killed it. Then he rose with a howl of pain and
anger, and as he turned up the trail toward the village of
Mbonga, the chief, his broad, black back was exposed to
the silent thing waiting above him.
And as Rabba Kega turned, a lithe figure shot outward
and downward from the tree above upon his broad shoul-
ders. The impact of the springing creature carried Rabba
Kega to the ground. He felt strong jaws close upon his
neck, and when he tried to scream, steel fingers throttled
his throat. The powerful black warrior struggled to free
himself; but he was as a child in the grip of his adversary.
Presently Tarzan released his grip upon the other’s
throat; but each time that Rabba Kega essayed a scream,
the cruel fingers choked him painfully. At last the warrior
desisted. Then Tarzan half rose and kneeled upon his vic-
tim’s back, and when Rabba Kega struggled to arise, the
ape-man pushed his face down into the dirt of the trail.
With a bit of the rope that had secured the kid, Tarzan
made Rabba Kega’s wrists secure behind his back, then
he rose and jerked his prisoner to his feet, faced him back
along the trail and pushed him on ahead.
304
Not until he came to his feet did Rabba Kega obtain

a square look at his assailant. When he saw that it was
the white devil-god his heart sank within him and his
knees trembled; but as he walked along the trail ahead
of his captor and was neither injured nor molested his
spirits slowly rose, so that he took heart again. Possibly
the devil-god did not intend to kill him after all. Had he
not had little Tibo in his power for days without harm-
ing him, and had he not spared Momaya, Tibo’s mother,
when he easily might have slain her?
And then they came upon the cage which Rabba Kega,
with the other black warriors of the village of Mbonga,
the chief, had placed and baited for Numa. Rabba Kega
saw that the bait was gone, though there was no lion
within the cage, nor was the door dropped. He saw and
he was filled with wonder not unmixed with apprehen-
sion. It entered his dull brain that in some way this com-
bination of circumstances had a connection with his pres-
ence there as the prisoner of the white devil-god.
Nor was he wrong. Tarzan pushed him roughly into
the cage, and in another moment Rabba Kega under-
stood. Cold sweat broke from every pore of his body–he
trembled as with ague–for the ape-man was binding him
securely in the very spot the kid had previously occupied.
305
The witch-doctor pleaded, first for his life, and then for a
death less cruel; but he might as well have saved his pleas
for Numa, since already they were directed toward a wild
beast who understood no word of what he said.
But his constant jabbering not only annoyed Tarzan,
who worked in silence, but suggested that later the black
might raise his voice in cries for succor, so he stepped
out of the cage, gathered a handful of grass and a small
stick and returning, jammed the grass into Rabba Kega’s
mouth, laid the stick crosswise between his teeth and
fastened it there with the thong from Rabba Kega’s loin
cloth. Now could the witch-doctor but roll his eyes and
sweat. Thus Tarzan left him.
The ape-man went first to the spot where he had
cached the body of the kid. Digging it up, he ascended
into a tree and proceeded to satisfy his hunger. What re-
mained he again buried; then he swung away through the
trees to the water hole, and going to the spot where fresh,
cold water bubbled from between two rocks, he drank
deeply. The other beasts might wade in and drink stag-
nant water; but not Tarzan of the Apes. In such matters
he was fastidious. From his hands he washed every trace
of the repugnant scent of the Gomangani, and from his
face the blood of the kid. Rising, he stretched himself not
306
unlike some huge, lazy cat, climbed into a near-by tree

and fell asleep.
When he awoke it was dark, though a faint luminos-
ity still tinged the western heavens. A lion moaned and
coughed as it strode through the jungle toward water.
It was approaching the drinking hole. Tarzan grinned
sleepily, changed his position and fell asleep again.
When the blacks of Mbonga, the chief, reached their
village they discovered that Rabba Kega was not among
them. When several hours had elapsed they decided that
something had happened to him, and it was the hope
of the majority of the tribe that whatever had happened
to him might prove fatal. They did not love the witch-
doctor. Love and fear seldom are playmates; but a war-
rior is a warrior, and so Mbonga organized a searching
party. That his own grief was not unassuagable might
have been gathered from the fact that he remained at
home and went to sleep. The young warriors whom he
sent out remained steadfast to their purpose for fully half
an hour, when, unfortunately for Rabba Kega–upon so
slight a thing may the fate of a man rest–a honey bird at-
tracted the attention of the searchers and led them off for
the delicious store it previously had marked down for be-
trayal, and Rabba Kega’s doom was sealed.
307
When the searchers returned empty handed, Mbonga

was wroth; but when he saw the great store of honey
they brought with them his rage subsided. Already Tub-
uto, young, agile and evil-minded, with face hideously
painted, was practicing the black art upon a sick infant in
the fond hope of succeeding to the office and perquisites
of Rabba Kega. Tonight the women of the old witch-
doctor would moan and howl. Tomorrow he would be
forgotten. Such is life, such is fame, such is power–in the
center of the world’s highest civilization, or in the depths
of the black, primeval jungle. Always, everywhere, man
is man, nor has he altered greatly beneath his veneer since
he scurried into a hole between two rocks to escape the
tyrannosaurus six million years ago.
The morning following the disappearance of Rabba
Kega, the warriors set out with Mbonga, the chief, to
examine the trap they had set for Numa. Long before
they reached the cage, they heard the roaring of a great
lion and guessed that they had made a successful bag, so
it was with shouts of joy that they approached the spot
where they should find their captive.
Yes! There he was, a great, magnificent specimen–a
huge, black-maned lion. The warriors were frantic with
delight. They leaped into the air and uttered savage cries–
308
hoarse victory cries, and then they came closer, and the
cries died upon their lips, and their eyes went wide so
that the whites showed all around their irises, and their
pendulous lower lips drooped with their drooping jaws.
They drew back in terror at the sight within the cage–
the mauled and mutilated corpse of what had, yesterday,
been Rabba Kega, the witch-doctor.
The captured lion had been too angry and frightened
to feed upon the body of his kill; but he had vented upon
it much of his rage, until it was a frightful thing to behold.
From his perch in a near-by tree Tarzan of the Apes,
Lord Greystoke, looked down upon the black warriors
and grinned. Once again his self-pride in his ability as
a practical joker asserted itself. It had lain dormant for
some time following the painful mauling he had received
that time he leaped among the apes of Kerchak clothed in
the skin of Numa; but this joke was a decided success.
After a few moments of terror, the blacks came closer
to the cage, rage taking the place of fear–rage and curios-
ity. How had Rabba Kega happened to be in the cage?
Where was the kid? There was no sign nor remnant of
the original bait. They looked closely and they saw, to
their horror, that the corpse of their erstwhile fellow was
309
bound with the very cord with which they had secured
the kid. Who could have done this thing? They looked at
one another.
Tubuto was the first to speak. He had come hopefully
out with the expedition that morning. Somewhere he
might find evidence of the death of Rabba Kega. Now he
had found it, and he was the first to find an explanation.
"The white devil-god," he whispered. "It is the work of
the white devil-god!"
No one contradicted Tubuto, for, indeed, who else
could it have been but the great, hairless ape they all so
feared? And so their hatred of Tarzan increased again
with an increased fear of him. And Tarzan sat in his tree
and hugged himself.
No one there felt sorrow because of the death of Rabba
Kega; but each of the blacks experienced a personal fear
of the ingenious mind which might discover for any of
them a death equally horrible to that which the witch-
doctor had suffered. It was a subdued and thoughtful
company which dragged the captive lion along the broad
elephant path back to the village of Mbonga, the chief.
And it was with a sigh of relief that they finally rolled
it into the village and closed the gates behind them. Each
310
had experienced the sensation of being spied upon from

the moment they left the spot where the trap had been
set, though none had seen or heard aught to give tangible
food to his fears.
At the sight of the body within the cage with the
lion, the women and children of the village set up a
most frightful lamentation, working themselves into a
joyous hysteria which far transcended the happy mis-
ery derived by their more civilized prototypes who make
a business of dividing their time between the movies
and the neighborhood funerals of friends and strangers–
especially strangers.
From a tree overhanging the palisade, Tarzan watched
all that passed within the village. He saw the frenzied
women tantalizing the great lion with sticks and stones.
The cruelty of the blacks toward a captive always induced
in Tarzan a feeling of angry contempt for the Gomangani.
Had he attempted to analyze this feeling he would have
found it difficult, for during all his life he had been ac-
customed to sights of suffering and cruelty. He, himself,
was cruel. All the beasts of the jungle were cruel; but the
cruelty of the blacks was of a different order. It was the
cruelty of wanton torture of the helpless, while the cruelty
of Tarzan and the other beasts was the cruelty of necessity
311
or of passion.
Perhaps, had he known it, he might have credited this
feeling of repugnance at the sight of unnecessary suffer-
ing to heredity–to the germ of British love of fair play
which had been bequeathed to him by his father and his
mother; but, of course, he did not know, since he still be-
lieved that his mother had been Kala, the great ape.
And just in proportion as his anger rose against the
Gomangani his savage sympathy went out to Numa, the
lion, for, though Numa was his lifetime enemy, there was
neither bitterness nor contempt in Tarzan’s sentiments to-
ward him. In the ape-man’s mind, therefore, the determi-
nation formed to thwart the blacks and liberate the lion;
but he must accomplish this in some way which would
cause the Gomangani the greatest chagrin and discomfi-
ture.
As he squatted there watching the proceeding beneath
him, he saw the warriors seize upon the cage once more
and drag it between two huts. Tarzan knew that it would
remain there now until evening, and that the blacks were
planning a feast and orgy in celebration of their capture.
When he saw that two warriors were placed beside the
cage, and that these drove off the women and children
312
and young men who would have eventually tortured

Numa to death, he knew that the lion would be safe until
he was needed for the evening’s entertainment, when he
would be more cruelly and scientifically tortured for the
edification of the entire tribe.
Now Tarzan preferred to bait the blacks in as theatric
a manner as his fertile imagination could evolve. He had
some half-formed conception of their superstitious fears
and of their especial dread of night, and so he decided to
wait until darkness fell and the blacks partially worked
to hysteria by their dancing and religious rites before he
took any steps toward the freeing of Numa. In the mean-
time, he hoped, an idea adequate to the possibilities of
the various factors at hand would occur to him. Nor was
it long before one did.
He had swung off through the jungle to search for food
when the plan came to him. At first it made him smile a
little and then look dubious, for he still retained a vivid
memory of the dire results that had followed the carry-
ing out of a very wonderful idea along almost identical
lines, yet he did not abandon his intention, and a mo-
ment later, food temporarily forgotten, he was swinging
through the middle terraces in rapid flight toward the
stamping ground of the tribe of Kerchak, the great ape.
313
As was his wont, he alighted in the midst of the little

band without announcing his approach save by a hideous
scream just as he sprang from a branch above them. For-
tunate are the apes of Kerchak that their kind is not sub-
ject to heart failure, for the methods of Tarzan subjected
them to one severe shock after another, nor could they
ever accustom themselves to the ape-man’s peculiar style
of humor.
Now, when they saw who it was they merely snarled
and grumbled angrily for a moment and then resumed
their feeding or their napping which he had interrupted,
and he, having had his little joke, made his way to the hol-
low tree where he kept his treasures hid from the inquis-
itive eyes and fingers of his fellows and the mischievous
little manus. Here he withdrew a closely rolled hide–the
hide of Numa with the head on; a clever bit of primitive
curing and mounting, which had once been the property
of the witch-doctor, Rabba Kega, until Tarzan had stolen
it from the village.
With this he made his way back through the jungle to-
ward the village of the blacks, stopping to hunt and feed
upon the way, and, in the afternoon, even napping for
an hour, so that it was already dusk when he entered the
great tree which overhung the palisade and gave him a
314
view of the entire village. He saw that Numa was still

alive and that the guards were even dozing beside the
cage. A lion is no great novelty to a black man in the lion
country, and the first keen edge of their desire to worry
the brute having worn off, the villagers paid little or no at-
tention to the great cat, preferring now to await the grand
event of the night.
Nor was it long after dark before the festivities com-
menced. To the beating of tom-toms, a lone warrior,
crouched half doubled, leaped into the firelight in the cen-
ter of a great circle of other warriors, behind whom stood
or squatted the women and the children. The dancer
was painted and armed for the hunt and his movements
and gestures suggested the search for the spoor of game.
Bending low, sometimes resting for a moment on one
knee, he searched the ground for signs of the quarry;
again he poised, statuesque, listening. The warrior was
young and lithe and graceful; he was full-muscled and
arrow-straight. The firelight glistened upon his ebon
body and brought out into bold relief the grotesque de-
signs painted upon his face, breasts, and abdomen.
Presently he bent low to the earth, then leaped high
in air. Every line of face and body showed that he had
struck the scent. Immediately he leaped toward the circle
315
of warriors about him, telling them of his find and sum-

moning them to the hunt. It was all in pantomime; but so
truly done that even Tarzan could follow it all to the least
detail.
He saw the other warriors grasp their hunting spears
and leap to their feet to join in the graceful, stealthy "stalk-
ing dance." It was very interesting; but Tarzan realized
that if he was to carry his design to a successful conclu-
sion he must act quickly. He had seen these dances be-
fore and knew that after the stalk would come the game
at bay and then the kill, during which Numa would be
surrounded by warriors, and unapproachable.
With the lion’s skin under one arm the ape-man
dropped to the ground in the dense shadows beneath the
tree and then circled behind the huts until he came out
directly in the rear of the cage, in which Numa paced ner-
vously to and fro. The cage was now unguarded, the two
warriors having left it to take their places among the other
dancers.
Behind the cage Tarzan adjusted the lion’s skin about
him, just as he had upon that memorable occasion when
the apes of Kerchak, failing to pierce his disguise, had all
but slain him. Then, on hands and knees, he crept for-
316
ward, emerged from between the two huts and stood a

few paces back of the dusky audience, whose whole at-
tention was centered upon the dancers before them.
Tarzan saw that the blacks had now worked them-
selves to a proper pitch of nervous excitement to be ripe
for the lion. In a moment the ring of spectators would
break at a point nearest the caged lion and the victim
would be rolled into the center of the circle. It was for
this moment that Tarzan waited.
At last it came. A signal was given by Mbonga, the
chief, at which the women and children immediately in
front of Tarzan rose and moved to one side, leaving a
broad path opening toward the caged lion. At the same
instant Tarzan gave voice to the low, couching roar of an
angry lion and slunk slowly forward through the open
lane toward the frenzied dancers.
A woman saw him first and screamed. Instantly there
was a panic in the immediate vicinity of the ape-man. The
strong light from the fire fell full upon the lion head and
the blacks leaped to the conclusion, as Tarzan had known
they would, that their captive had escaped his cage.
With another roar, Tarzan moved forward. The danc-
ing warriors paused but an instant. They had been hunt-
317
ing a lion securely housed within a strong cage, and now

that he was at liberty among them, an entirely different
aspect was placed upon the matter. Their nerves were
not attuned to this emergency. The women and children
already had fled to the questionable safety of the nearest
huts, and the warriors were not long in following their
example, so that presently Tarzan was left in sole posses-
sion of the village street.
But not for long. Nor did he wish to be left thus long
alone. It would not comport with his scheme. Presently
a head peered forth from a near-by hut, and then another
and another until a score or more of warriors were look-
ing out upon him, waiting for his next move–waiting for
the lion to charge or to attempt to escape from the village.
Their spears were ready in their hands against either
a charge or a bolt for freedom, and then the lion rose
erect upon its hind legs, the tawny skin dropped from it
and there stood revealed before them in the firelight the
straight young figure of the white devil-god.
For an instant the blacks were too astonished to act.
They feared this apparition fully as much as they did
Numa, yet they would gladly have slain the thing could
they quickly enough have gathered together their wits;
318
but fear and superstition and a natural mental density

held them paralyzed while the ape-man stooped and
gathered up the lion skin. They saw him turn then and
walk back into the shadows at the far end of the village.
Not until then did they gain courage to pursue him, and
when they had come in force, with brandished spears and
loud war cries, the quarry was gone.
Not an instant did Tarzan pause in the tree. Throwing
the skin over a branch he leaped again into the village
upon the opposite side of the great bole, and diving into
the shadow of a hut, ran quickly to where lay the caged
lion. Springing to the top of the cage he pulled upon the
cord which raised the door, and a moment later a great
lion in the prime of his strength and vigor leaped out into
the village.
The warriors, returning from a futile search for Tarzan,
saw him step into the firelight. Ah! there was the devil-
god again, up to his old trick. Did he think he could twice
fool the men of Mbonga, the chief, the same way in so
short a time? They would show him! For long they had
waited for such an opportunity to rid themselves forever
of this fearsome jungle demon. As one they rushed for-
ward with raised spears.
319
The women and the children came from the huts to wit-
ness the slaying of the devil-god. The lion turned blazing
eyes upon them and then swung about toward the ad-
vancing warriors.
With shouts of savage joy and triumph they came to-
ward him, menacing him with their spears. The devil-
god was theirs!
And then, with a frightful roar, Numa, the lion,
charged.
The men of Mbonga, the chief, met Numa with ready
spears and screams of raillery. In a solid mass of mus-
cled ebony they waited the coming of the devil-god; yet
beneath their brave exteriors lurked a haunting fear that
all might not be quite well with them–that this strange
creature could yet prove invulnerable to their weapons
and inflict upon them full punishment for their effron-
tery. The charging lion was all too lifelike–they saw that
in the brief instant of the charge; but beneath the tawny
hide they knew was hid the soft flesh of the white man,
and how could that withstand the assault of many war
spears?
In their forefront stood a huge young warrior in the full
arrogance of his might and his youth. Afraid? Not he! He
320
laughed as Numa bore down upon him; he laughed and

couched his spear, setting the point for the broad breast.
And then the lion was upon him. A great paw swept
away the heavy war spear, splintering it as the hand of
man might splinter a dry twig.
Down went the black, his skull crushed by another
blow. And then the lion was in the midst of the warriors,
clawing and tearing to right and left. Not for long did
they stand their ground; but a dozen men were mauled
before the others made good their escape from those
frightful talons and gleaming fangs.
In terror the villagers fled hither and thither. No hut
seemed a sufficiently secure asylum with Numa ranging
within the palisade. From one to another fled the fright-
ened blacks, while in the center of the village Numa stood
glaring and growling above his kills.
At last a tribesman flung wide the gates of the village
and sought safety amid the branches of the forest trees
beyond. Like sheep his fellows followed him, until the
lion and his dead remained alone in the village.
From the nearer trees the men of Mbonga saw the
lion lower his great head and seize one of his victims by
the shoulder and then with slow and stately tread move
321
down the village street past the open gates and on into
the jungle. They saw and shuddered, and from another
tree Tarzan of the Apes saw and smiled.
A full hour elapsed after the lion had disappeared with
his feast before the blacks ventured down from the trees
and returned to their village. Wide eyes rolled from side
to side, and naked flesh contracted more to the chill of
fear than to the chill of the jungle night.
"It was he all the time," murmured one. "It was the
devil-god."
"He changed himself from a lion to a man, and back
again into a lion," whispered another.
"And he dragged Mweeza into the forest and is eating
him," said a third, shuddering.
"We are no longer safe here," wailed a fourth. "Let us
take our belongings and search for another village site far
from the haunts of the wicked devil-god."
But with morning came renewed courage, so that the
experiences of the preceding evening had little other ef-
fect than to increase their fear of Tarzan and strengthen
their belief in his supernatural origin.
And thus waxed the fame and the power of the ape-
man in the mysterious haunts of the savage jungle where
322
he ranged, mightiest of beasts because of the man-

mind which directed his giant muscles and his flawless
courage.
323
Chapter 12. Tarzan Rescues the
Moon
moon shone down out of a cloudless sky–a huge,

T HE
swollen moon that seemed so close to earth that one
might wonder that she did not brush the crooning tree
tops. It was night, and Tarzan was abroad in the jungle–
Tarzan, the ape-man; mighty fighter, mighty hunter. Why
he swung through the dark shadows of the somber for-
est he could not have told you. It was not that he was
hungry–he had fed well this day, and in a safe cache were
the remains of his kill, ready against the coming of a new
appetite. Perhaps it was the very joy of living that urged
him from his arboreal couch to pit his muscles and his
324
CHAPTER 12. TARZAN RESCUES THE MOON
senses against the jungle night, and then, too, Tarzan al-
ways was goaded by an intense desire to know.
The jungle which is presided over by Kudu, the sun,
is a very different jungle from that of Goro, the moon.
The diurnal jungle has its own aspect–its own lights and
shades, its own birds, its own blooms, its own beasts; its
noises are the noises of the day. The lights and shades of
the nocturnal jungle are as different as one might imag-
ine the lights and shades of another world to differ from
those of our world; its beasts, its blooms, and its birds are
not those of the jungle of Kudu, the sun.
Because of these differences Tarzan loved to investigate
the jungle by night. Not only was the life another life; but
it was richer in numbers and in romance; it was richer
in dangers, too, and to Tarzan of the Apes danger was
the spice of life. And the noises of the jungle night–the
roar of the lion, the scream of the leopard, the hideous
laughter of Dango, the hyena, were music to the ears of
the ape-man.
The soft padding of unseen feet, the rustling of leaves
and grasses to the passage of fierce beasts, the sheen
of opalesque eyes flaming through the dark, the million
sounds which proclaimed the teeming life that one might
325
hear and scent, though seldom see, constituted the appeal

of the nocturnal jungle to Tarzan.
Tonight he had swung a wide circle–toward the east
first and then toward the south, and now he was round-
ing back again into the north. His eyes, his ears and
his keen nostrils were ever on the alert. Mingled with
the sounds he knew, there were strange sounds–weird
sounds which he never heard until after Kudu had sought
his lair below the far edge of the big water-sounds which
belonged to Goro, the moon–and to the mysterious pe-
riod of Goro’s supremacy. These sounds often caused
Tarzan profound speculation. They baffled him because
he thought that he knew his jungle so well that there
could be nothing within it unfamiliar to him. Some-
times he thought that as colors and forms appeared to
differ by night from their familiar daylight aspects, so
sounds altered with the passage of Kudu and the com-
ing of Goro, and these thoughts roused within his brain a
vague conjecture that perhaps Goro and Kudu influenced
these changes. And what more natural that eventually he
came to attribute to the sun and the moon personalities as
real as his own? The sun was a living creature and ruled
the day. The moon, endowed with brains and miraculous
powers, ruled the night.
326
Thus functioned the untrained man-mind groping

through the dark night of ignorance for an explanation
of the things he could not touch or smell or hear and of
the great, unknown powers of nature which he could not
see.
As Tarzan swung north again upon his wide circle the
scent of the Gomangani came to his nostrils, mixed with
the acrid odor of wood smoke. The ape-man moved
quickly in the direction from which the scent was borne
down to him upon the gentle night wind. Presently the
ruddy sheen of a great fire filtered through the foliage to
him ahead, and when Tarzan came to a halt in the trees
near it, he saw a party of half a dozen black warriors hud-
dled close to the blaze. It was evidently a hunting party
from the village of Mbonga, the chief, caught out in the
jungle after dark. In a rude circle about them they had
constructed a thorn boma which, with the aid of the fire,
they apparently hoped would discourage the advances of
the larger carnivora.
That hope was not conviction was evidenced by the
very palpable terror in which they crouched, wide-
eyed and trembling, for already Numa and Sabor were
moaning through the jungle toward them. There were
other creatures, too, in the shadows beyond the firelight.
327
Tarzan could see their yellow eyes flaming there. The

blacks saw them and shivered. Then one arose and grasp-
ing a burning branch from the fire hurled it at the eyes,
which immediately disappeared. The black sat down
again. Tarzan watched and saw that it was several min-
utes before the eyes began to reappear in twos and fours.
Then came Numa, the lion, and Sabor, his mate. The
other eyes scattered to right and left before the menacing
growls of the great cats, and then the huge orbs of the
man-eaters flamed alone out of the darkness. Some of the
blacks threw themselves upon their faces and moaned;
but he who before had hurled the burning branch now
hurled another straight at the faces of the hungry lions,
and they, too, disappeared as had the lesser lights before
them. Tarzan was much interested. He saw a new reason
for the nightly fires maintained by the blacks–a reason in
addition to those connected with warmth and light and
cooking. The beasts of the jungle feared fire, and so fire
was, in a measure, a protection from them. Tarzan him-
self knew a certain awe of fire. Once he had, in investigat-
ing an abandoned fire in the village of the blacks, picked
up a live coal. Since then he had maintained a respectful
distance from such fires as he had seen. One experience
had sufficed.
328
For a few minutes after the black hurled the firebrand

no eyes appeared, though Tarzan could hear the soft
padding of feet all about him. Then flashed once more
the twin fire spots that marked the return of the lord of
the jungle and a moment later, upon a slightly lower level,
there appeared those of Sabor, his mate.
For some time they remained fixed and unwavering–
a constellation of fierce stars in the jungle night–then the
male lion advanced slowly toward the boma, where all
but a single black still crouched in trembling terror. When
this lone guardian saw that Numa was again approach-
ing, he threw another firebrand, and, as before, Numa re-
treated and with him Sabor, the lioness; but not so far, this
time, nor for so long. Almost instantly they turned and
began circling the boma, their eyes turning constantly to-
ward the firelight, while low, throaty growls evidenced
their increasing displeasure. Beyond the lions glowed the
flaming eyes of the lesser satellites, until the black jungle
was shot all around the black men’s camp with little spots
of fire.
Again and again the black warrior hurled his puny
brands at the two big cats; but Tarzan noticed that Numa
paid little or no attention to them after the first few re-
treats. The ape-man knew by Numa’s voice that the lion
329
was hungry and surmised that he had made up his mind

to feed upon a Gomangani; but would he dare a closer
approach to the dreaded flames?
Even as the thought was passing in Tarzan’s mind,
Numa stopped his restless pacing and faced the boma.
For a moment he stood motionless, except for the quick,
nervous upcurving of his tail, then he walked deliberately
forward, while Sabor moved restlessly to and fro where
he had left her. The black man called to his comrades that
the lion was coming, but they were too far gone in fear
to do more than huddle closer together and moan more
loudly than before.
Seizing a blazing branch the man cast it straight into
the face of the lion. There was an angry roar, followed
by a swift charge. With a single bound the savage beast
cleared the boma wall as, with almost equal agility, the
warrior cleared it upon the opposite side and, chancing
the dangers lurking in the darkness, bolted for the nearest
tree.
Numa was out of the boma almost as soon as he was
inside it; but as he went back over the low thorn wall,
he took a screaming negro with him. Dragging his vic-
tim along the ground he walked back toward Sabor, the
330
lioness, who joined him, and the two continued into the
blackness, their savage growls mingling with the piercing
shrieks of the doomed and terrified man.
At a little distance from the blaze the lions halted, there
ensued a short succession of unusually vicious growls
and roars, during which the cries and moans of the black
man ceased–forever.
Presently Numa reappeared in the firelight. He made
a second trip into the boma and the former grisly tragedy
was reenacted with another howling victim.
Tarzan rose and stretched lazily. The entertainment
was beginning to bore him. He yawned and turned upon
his way toward the clearing where the tribe would be
sleeping in the encircling trees.
Yet even when he had found his familiar crotch and
curled himself for slumber, he felt no desire to sleep.
For a long time he lay awake thinking and dreaming.
He looked up into the heavens and watched the moon
and the stars. He wondered what they were and what
power kept them from falling. His was an inquisitive
mind. Always he had been full of questions concern-
ing all that passed around him; but there never had been
one to answer his questions. In childhood he had wanted
331
to KNOW, and, denied almost all knowledge, he still, in

manhood, was filled with the great, unsatisfied curiosity
of a child.
He was never quite content merely to perceive that
things happened–he desired to know WHY they hap-
pened. He wanted to know what made things go. The
secret of life interested him immensely. The miracle of
death he could not quite fathom. Upon innumerable oc-
casions he had investigated the internal mechanism of his
kills, and once or twice he had opened the chest cavity of
victims in time to see the heart still pumping.
He had learned from experience that a knife thrust
through this organ brought immediate death nine times
out of ten, while he might stab an antagonist innumerable
times in other places without even disabling him. And so
he had come to think of the heart, or, as he called it, "the
red thing that breathes," as the seat and origin of life.
The brain and its functionings he did not comprehend
at all. That his sense perceptions were transmitted to
his brain and there translated, classified, and labeled was
something quite beyond him. He thought that his fingers
knew when they touched something, that his eyes knew
when they saw, his ears when they heard, his nose when
332
it scented.
He considered his throat, epidermis, and the hairs of
his head as the three principal seats of emotion. When
Kala had been slain a peculiar choking sensation had
possessed his throat; contact with Histah, the snake, im-
parted an unpleasant sensation to the skin of his whole
body; while the approach of an enemy made the hairs on
his scalp stand erect.
Imagine, if you can, a child filled with the wonders of
nature, bursting with queries and surrounded only by
beasts of the jungle to whom his questionings were as
strange as Sanskrit would have been. If he asked Gunto
what made it rain, the big old ape would but gaze at him
in dumb astonishment for an instant and then return to
his interesting and edifying search for fleas; and when he
questioned Mumga, who was very old and should have
been very wise, but wasn’t, as to the reason for the closing
of certain flowers after Kudu had deserted the sky, and
the opening of others during the night, he was surprised
to discover that Mumga had never noticed these interest-
ing facts, though she could tell to an inch just where the
fattest grubworm should be hiding.
To Tarzan these things were wonders. They appealed
333
to his intellect and to his imagination. He saw the flowers

close and open; he saw certain blooms which turned their
faces always toward the sun; he saw leaves which moved
when there was no breeze; he saw vines crawl like living
things up the boles and over the branches of great trees;
and to Tarzan of the Apes the flowers and the vines and
the trees were living creatures. He often talked to them,
as he talked to Goro, the moon, and Kudu, the sun, and
always was he disappointed that they did not reply. He
asked them questions; but they could not answer, though
he knew that the whispering of the leaves was the lan-
guage of the leaves–they talked with one another.
The wind he attributed to the trees and grasses. He
thought that they swayed themselves to and fro, creat-
ing the wind. In no other way could he account for this
phenomenon. The rain he finally attributed to the stars,
the moon, and the sun; but his hypothesis was entirely
unlovely and unpoetical.
Tonight as Tarzan lay thinking, there sprang to his fer-
tile imagination an explanation of the stars and the moon.
He became quite excited about it. Taug was sleeping in a
nearby crotch. Tarzan swung over beside him.
"Taug!" he cried. Instantly the great bull was awake
334
and bristling, sensing danger from the nocturnal sum-

mons. "Look, Taug!" exclaimed Tarzan, pointing toward
the stars. "See the eyes of Numa and Sabor, of Sheeta and
Dango. They wait around Goro to leap in upon him for
their kill. See the eyes and the nose and the mouth of
Goro. And the light that shines upon his face is the light
of the great fire he has built to frighten away Numa and
Sabor and Dango and Sheeta.
"All about him are the eyes, Taug, you can see them!
But they do not come very close to the fire–there are few
eyes close to Goro. They fear the fire! It is the fire that
saves Goro from Numa. Do you see them, Taug? Some
night Numa will be very hungry and very angry–then he
will leap over the thorn bushes which encircle Goro and
we will have no more light after Kudu seeks his lair–the
night will be black with the blackness that comes when
Goro is lazy and sleeps late into the night, or when he
wanders through the skies by day, forgetting the jungle
and its people."
Taug looked stupidly at the heavens and then at
Tarzan. A meteor fell, blazing a flaming way through the
sky.
"Look!" cried Tarzan. "Goro has thrown a burning
335
branch at Numa."
Taug grumbled. "Numa is down below," he said.
"Numa does not hunt above the trees." But he looked cu-
riously and a little fearfully at the bright stars above him,
as though he saw them for the first time, and doubtless
it was the first time that Taug ever had seen the stars,
though they had been in the sky above him every night
of his life. To Taug they were as the gorgeous jungle
blooms–he could not eat them and so he ignored them.
Taug fidgeted and was nervous. For a long time
he lay sleepless, watching the stars–the flaming eyes of
the beasts of prey surrounding Goro, the moon–Goro,
by whose light the apes danced to the beating of their
earthen drums. If Goro should be eaten by Numa there
could be no more Dum-Dums. Taug was overwhelmed
by the thought. He glanced at Tarzan half fearfully. Why
was his friend so different from the others of the tribe? No
one else whom Taug ever had known had had such queer
thoughts as Tarzan. The ape scratched his head and won-
dered, dimly, if Tarzan was a safe companion, and then he
recalled slowly, and by a laborious mental process, that
Tarzan had served him better than any other of the apes,
even the strong and wise bulls of the tribe.
336
Tarzan it was who had freed him from the blacks at the
very time that Taug had thought Tarzan wanted Teeka. It
was Tarzan who had saved Taug’s little balu from death.
It was Tarzan who had conceived and carried out the
plan to pursue Teeka’s abductor and rescue the stolen
one. Tarzan had fought and bled in Taug’s service so
many times that Taug, although only a brutal ape, had
had impressed upon his mind a fierce loyalty which noth-
ing now could swerve–his friendship for Tarzan had be-
come a habit, a tradition almost, which would endure
while Taug endured. He never showed any outward
demonstration of affection–he growled at Tarzan as he
growled at the other bulls who came too close while he
was feeding–but he would have died for Tarzan. He
knew it and Tarzan knew it; but of such things apes do
not speak–their vocabulary, for the finer instincts, consist-
ing more of actions than words. But now Taug was wor-
ried, and he fell asleep again still thinking of the strange
words of his fellow.
The following day he thought of them again, and with-
out any intention of disloyalty he mentioned to Gunto
what Tarzan had suggested about the eyes surround-
ing Goro, and the possibility that sooner or later Numa
would charge the moon and devour him. To the apes all
337
large things in nature are male, and so Goro, being the

largest creature in the heavens by night, was, to them, a
bull.
Gunto bit a sliver from a horny finger and recalled the
fact that Tarzan had once said that the trees talked to one
another, and Gozan recounted having seen the ape-man
dancing alone in the moonlight with Sheeta, the panther.
They did not know that Tarzan had roped the savage
beast and tied him to a tree before he came to earth and
leaped about before the rearing cat, to tantalize him.
Others told of seeing Tarzan ride upon the back of Tan-
tor, the elephant; of his bringing the black boy, Tibo, to the
tribe, and of mysterious things with which he communed
in the strange lair by the sea. They had never understood
his books, and after he had shown them to one or two of
the tribe and discovered that even the pictures carried no
impression to their brains, he had desisted.
"Tarzan is not an ape," said Gunto. "He will bring
Numa to eat us, as he is bringing him to eat Goro. We
should kill him."
Immediately Taug bristled. Kill Tarzan! "First you will
kill Taug," he said, and lumbered away to search for food.
But others joined the plotters. They thought of many
338
things which Tarzan had done–things which apes did not

do and could not understand. Again Gunto voiced the
opinion that the Tarmangani, the white ape, should be
slain, and the others, filled with terror about the stories
they had heard, and thinking Tarzan was planning to slay
Goro, greeted the proposal with growls of accord.
Among them was Teeka, listening with all her ears; but
her voice was not raised in furtherance of the plan. In-
stead she bristled, showing her fangs, and afterward she
went away in search of Tarzan; but she could not find
him, as he was roaming far afield in search of meat. She
found Taug, though, and told him what the others were
planning, and the great bull stamped upon the ground
and roared. His bloodshot eyes blazed with wrath, his
upper lip curled up to expose his fighting fangs, and the
hair upon his spine stood erect, and then a rodent scur-
ried across the open and Taug sprang to seize it. In an
instant he seemed to have forgotten his rage against the
enemies of his friend; but such is the mind of an ape.
Several miles away Tarzan of the Apes lolled upon the
broad head of Tantor, the elephant. He scratched be-
neath the great ears with the point of a sharp stick, and
he talked to the huge pachyderm of everything which
filled his black-thatched head. Little, or nothing, of what
339
he said did Tantor understand; but Tantor is a good lis-

tener. Swaying from side to side he stood there enjoying
the companionship of his friend, the friend he loved, and
absorbing the delicious sensations of the scratching.
Numa, the lion, caught the scent of man, and warily
stalked it until he came within sight of his prey upon
the head of the mighty tusker; then he turned, growling
and muttering, away in search of more propitious hunt-
ing grounds.
The elephant caught the scent of the lion, borne to him
by an eddying breeze, and lifting his trunk trumpeted
loudly. Tarzan stretched back luxuriously, lying supine
at full length along the rough hide. Flies swarmed about
his face; but with a leafy branch torn from a tree he lazily
brushed them away.
"Tantor," he said, "it is good to be alive. It is good to lie
in the cool shadows. It is good to look upon the green
trees and the bright colors of the flowers–upon every-
thing which Bulamutumumo has put here for us. He is
very good to us, Tantor; He has given you tender leaves
and bark, and rich grasses to eat; to me He has given Bara
and Horta and Pisah, the fruits and the nuts and the roots.
He provides for each the food that each likes best. All that
340
He asks is that we be strong enough or cunning enough

to go forth and take it. Yes, Tantor, it is good to live. I
should hate to die."
Tantor made a little sound in his throat and curled his
trunk upward that he might caress the ape-man’s cheek
with the finger at its tip.
"Tantor," said Tarzan presently, "turn and feed in the di-
rection of the tribe of Kerchak, the great ape, that Tarzan
may ride home upon your head without walking."
The tusker turned and moved slowly off along a broad,
tree-arched trail, pausing occasionally to pluck a tender
branch, or strip the edible bark from an adjacent tree.
Tarzan sprawled face downward upon the beast’s head
and back, his legs hanging on either side, his head sup-
ported by his open palms, his elbows resting on the broad
cranium. And thus they made their leisurely way toward
the gathering place of the tribe.
Just before they arrived at the clearing from the north
there reached it from the south another figure–that of a
well-knit black warrior, who stepped cautiously through
the jungle, every sense upon the alert against the many
dangers which might lurk anywhere along the way. Yet
he passed beneath the southernmost sentry that was
341
posted in a great tree commanding the trail from the

south. The ape permitted the Gomangani to pass un-
molested, for he saw that he was alone; but the moment
that the warrior had entered the clearing a loud "Kreeg-
ah!" rang out from behind him, immediately followed by
a chorus of replies from different directions, as the great
bulls crashed through the trees in answer to the summons
of their fellow.
The black man halted at the first cry and looked about
him. He could see nothing, but he knew the voice of the
hairy tree men whom he and his kind feared, not alone
because of the strength and ferocity of the savage beings,
but as well through a superstitious terror engendered by
the manlike appearance of the apes.
But Bulabantu was no coward. He heard the apes all
about him; he knew that escape was probably impossi-
ble, so he stood his ground, his spear ready in his hand
and a war cry trembling on his lips. He would sell his
life dearly, would Bulabantu, under-chief of the village of
Mbonga, the chief.
Tarzan and Tantor were but a short distance away
when the first cry of the sentry rang out through the quiet
jungle. Like a flash the ape-man leaped from the ele-
342
phant’s back to a near-by tree and was swinging rapidly

in the direction of the clearing before the echoes of the
first "Kreeg-ah" had died away. When he arrived he saw
a dozen bulls circling a single Gomangani. With a blood-
curdling scream Tarzan sprang to the attack. He hated the
blacks even more than did the apes, and here was an op-
portunity for a kill in the open. What had the Gomangani
done? Had he slain one of the tribe?
Tarzan asked the nearest ape. No, the Gomangani had
harmed none. Gozan, being on watch, had seen him com-
ing through the forest and had warned the tribe–that was
all. The ape-man pushed through the circle of bulls, none
of which as yet had worked himself into sufficient frenzy
for a charge, and came where he had a full and close view
of the black. He recognized the man instantly. Only the
night before he had seen him facing the eyes in the dark,
while his fellows groveled in the dirt at his feet, too ter-
rified even to defend themselves. Here was a brave man,
and Tarzan had deep admiration for bravery. Even his ha-
tred of the blacks was not so strong a passion as his love
of courage. He would have joyed in battling with a black
warrior at almost any time; but this one he did not wish
to kill–he felt, vaguely, that the man had earned his life by
his brave defense of it on the preceding night, nor did he
343
fancy the odds that were pitted against the lone warrior.
He turned to the apes. "Go back to your feeding," he
said, "and let this Gomangani go his way in peace. He has
not harmed us, and last night I saw him fighting Numa
and Sabor with fire, alone in the jungle. He is brave. Why
should we kill one who is brave and who has not attacked
us? Let him go."
The apes growled. They were displeased. "Kill the Go-
mangani!" cried one.
"Yes." roared another, "kill the Gomangani and the Tar-
mangani as well."
"Kill the white ape!" screamed Gozan, "he is no ape at
all; but a Gomangani with his skin off."
"Kill Tarzan!" bellowed Gunto. "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The bulls were now indeed working themselves into
the frenzy of slaughter; but against Tarzan rather than the
black man. A shaggy form charged through them, hurl-
ing those it came in contact with to one side as a strong
man might scatter children. It was Taug–great, savage
Taug.
"Who says ’kill Tarzan’?" he demanded. "Who kills
Tarzan must kill Taug, too. Who can kill Taug? Taug will
tear your insides from you and feed them to Dango."
344
"We can kill you all," replied Gunto. "There are many
of us and few of you," and he was right. Tarzan knew that
he was right. Taug knew it; but neither would admit such
a possibility. It is not the way of bull apes.
"I am Tarzan," cried the ape-man. "I am Tarzan. Mighty
hunter; mighty fighter. In all the jungle none so great as
Tarzan."
Then, one by one, the opposing bulls recounted their
virtues and their prowess. And all the time the combat-
ants came closer and closer to one another. Thus do the
bulls work themselves to the proper pitch before engag-
ing in battle.
Gunto came, stiff-legged, close to Tarzan and sniffed
at him, with bared fangs. Tarzan rumbled forth a low,
menacing growl. They might repeat these tactics a dozen
times; but sooner or later one bull would close with an-
other and then the whole hideous pack would be tearing
and rending at their prey.
Bulabantu, the black man, had stood wide-eyed in
wonder from the moment he had seen Tarzan approach-
ing through the apes. He had heard much of this devil-
god who ran with the hairy tree people; but never be-
fore had he seen him in full daylight. He knew him well
345
enough from the description of those who had seen him

and from the glimpses he had had of the marauder upon
several occasions when the ape-man had entered the vil-
lage of Mbonga, the chief, by night, in the perpetration of
one of his numerous ghastly jokes.
Bulabantu could not, of course, understand anything
which passed between Tarzan and the apes; but he saw
that the ape-man and one of the larger bulls were in argu-
ment with the others. He saw that these two were stand-
ing with their back toward him and between him and the
balance of the tribe, and he guessed, though it seemed
improbable, that they might be defending him. He knew
that Tarzan had once spared the life of Mbonga, the chief,
and that he had succored Tibo, and Tibo’s mother, Mo-
maya. So it was not impossible that he would help Bula-
bantu; but how he could accomplish it Bulabantu could
not guess; nor as a matter of fact could Tarzan, for the
odds against him were too great.
Gunto and the others were slowly forcing Tarzan and
Taug back toward Bulabantu. The ape-man thought of
his words with Tantor just a short time before: "Yes, Tan-
tor, it is good to live. I should hate to die." And now
he knew that he was about to die, for the temper of the
great bulls was mounting rapidly against him. Always
346
had many of them hated him, and all were suspicious of

him. They knew he was different. Tarzan knew it too;
but he was glad that he was–he was a MAN; that he had
learned from his picture-books, and he was very proud
of the distinction. Presently, though, he would be a dead
man.
Gunto was preparing to charge. Tarzan knew the signs.
He knew that the balance of the bulls would charge with
Gunto. Then it would soon be over. Something moved
among the verdure at the opposite side of the clearing.
Tarzan saw it just as Gunto, with the terrifying cry of a
challenging ape, sprang forward. Tarzan voiced a pe-
culiar call and then crouched to meet the assault. Taug
crouched, too, and Bulabantu, assured now that these
two were fighting upon his side, couched his spear and
sprang between them to receive the first charge of the en-
emy.
Simultaneously a huge bulk broke into the clearing
from the jungle behind the charging bulls. The trumpet-
ing of a mad tusker rose shrill above the cries of the an-
thropoids, as Tantor, the elephant, dashed swiftly across
the clearing to the aid of his friend.
Gunto never closed upon the ape-man, nor did a fang
347
enter flesh upon either side. The terrific reverberation of

Tantor’s challenge sent the bulls scurrying to the trees,
jabbering and scolding. Taug raced off with them. Only
Tarzan and Bulabantu remained. The latter stood his
ground because he saw that the devil-god did not run,
and because the black had the courage to face a certain
and horrible death beside one who had quite evidently
dared death for him.
But it was a surprised Gomangani who saw the mighty
elephant come to a sudden halt in front of the ape-man
and caress him with his long, sinuous trunk.
Tarzan turned toward the black man. "Go!" he said in
the language of the apes, and pointed in the direction of
the village of Mbonga. Bulabantu understood the ges-
ture, if not the word, nor did he lose time in obeying.
Tarzan stood watching him until he had disappeared. He
knew that the apes would not follow. Then he said to the
elephant: "Pick me up!" and the tusker swung him lightly
to his head.
"Tarzan goes to his lair by the big water," shouted the
ape-man to the apes in the trees. "All of you are more fool-
ish than Manu, except Taug and Teeka. Taug and Teeka
may come to see Tarzan; but the others must keep away.
348
Tarzan is done with the tribe of Kerchak."

He prodded Tantor with a calloused toe and the big
beast swung off across the clearing, the apes watching
them until they were swallowed up by the jungle.
Before the night fell Taug killed Gunto, picking a quar-
rel with him over his attack upon Tarzan.
For a moon the tribe saw nothing of Tarzan of the Apes.
Many of them probably never gave him a thought; but
there were those who missed him more than Tarzan imag-
ined. Taug and Teeka often wished that he was back, and
Taug determined a dozen times to go and visit Tarzan in
his seaside lair; but first one thing and then another inter-
fered.
One night when Taug lay sleepless looking up at the
starry heavens he recalled the strange things that Tarzan
once had suggested to him–that the bright spots were the
eyes of the meat-eaters waiting in the dark of the jungle
sky to leap upon Goro, the moon, and devour him. The
more he thought about this matter the more perturbed he
became.
And then a strange thing happened. Even as Taug
looked at Goro, he saw a portion of one edge disap-
pear, precisely as though something was gnawing upon
349
it. Larger and larger became the hole in the side of Goro.
With a scream, Taug leaped to his feet. His frenzied
"Kreeg-ahs!" brought the terrified tribe screaming and
chattering toward him.
"Look!" cried Taug, pointing at the moon. "Look! It is
as Tarzan said. Numa has sprung through the fires and
is devouring Goro. You called Tarzan names and drove
him from the tribe; now see how wise he was. Let one
of you who hated Tarzan go to Goro’s aid. See the eyes
in the dark jungle all about Goro. He is in danger and
none can help him–none except Tarzan. Soon Goro will
be devoured by Numa and we shall have no more light
after Kudu seeks his lair. How shall we dance the Dum-
Dum without the light of Goro?"
The apes trembled and whimpered. Any manifestation
of the powers of nature always filled them with terror, for
they could not understand.
"Go and bring Tarzan," cried one, and then they all
took up the cry of "Tarzan!" "Bring Tarzan!" "He will save
Goro." But who was to travel the dark jungle by night to
fetch him?
"I will go," volunteered Taug, and an instant later he
was off through the Stygian gloom toward the little land-
350
locked harbor by the sea.

And as the tribe waited they watched the slow devour-
ing of the moon. Already Numa had eaten out a great
semicircular piece. At that rate Goro would be entirely
gone before Kudu came again. The apes trembled at
the thought of perpetual darkness by night. They could
not sleep. Restlessly they moved here and there among
the branches of trees, watching Numa of the skies at his
deadly feast, and listening for the coming of Taug with
Tarzan.
Goro was nearly gone when the apes heard the sounds
of the approach through the trees of the two they awaited,
and presently Tarzan, followed by Taug, swung into a
nearby tree.
The ape-man wasted no time in idle words. In his hand
was his long bow and at his back hung a quiver full of
arrows, poisoned arrows that he had stolen from the vil-
lage of the blacks; just as he had stolen the bow. Up into a
great tree he clambered, higher and higher until he stood
swaying upon a small limb which bent low beneath his
weight. Here he had a clear and unobstructed view of the
heavens. He saw Goro and the inroads which the hungry
Numa had made into his shining surface.
351
Raising his face to the moon, Tarzan shrilled forth his

hideous challenge. Faintly and from afar came the roar of
an answering lion. The apes shivered. Numa of the skies
had answered Tarzan.
Then the ape-man fitted an arrow to his bow, and
drawing the shaft far back, aimed its point at the heart
of Numa where he lay in the heavens devouring Goro.
There was a loud twang as the released bolt shot into the
dark heavens. Again and again did Tarzan of the Apes
launch his arrows at Numa, and all the while the apes of
the tribe of Kerchak huddled together in terror.
At last came a cry from Taug. "Look! Look!" he
screamed. "Numa is killed. Tarzan has killed Numa.
See! Goro is emerging from the belly of Numa," and, sure
enough, the moon was gradually emerging from what-
ever had devoured her, whether it was Numa, the lion,
or the shadow of the earth; but were you to try to con-
vince an ape of the tribe of Kerchak that it was aught but
Numa who so nearly devoured Goro that night, or that
another than Tarzan preserved the brilliant god of their
savage and mysterious rites from a frightful death, you
would have difficulty–and a fight on your hands.
And so Tarzan of the Apes came back to the tribe of
352
Kerchak, and in his coming he took a long stride toward

the kingship, which he ultimately won, for now the apes
looked up to him as a superior being.
In all the tribe there was but one who was at all skep-
tical about the plausibility of Tarzan’s remarkable rescue
of Goro, and that one, strange as it may seem, was Tarzan
of the Apes.
353

Tarzan PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tarzan PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tarzan PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Jungle Tales of Tarzan

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Chapter 1. Tarzan’s First Love 4

Chapter 2. The Capture of Tarzan 35

Chapter 3. The Fight for the Balu 61

Chapter 4. The God of Tarzan 81

Chapter 5. Tarzan and the Black Boy 112

Chapter 6. The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance 155

Chapter 7. The End of Bukawai 190

Chapter 8. The Lion 210

Chapter 9. The Nightmare 234

Chapter 10. The Battle for Teeka 258

Chapter 11. A Jungle Joke 292

Chapter 12. Tarzan Rescues the Moon 323

, stretched at luxurious ease in the shade of the

ligent, gray eyes dreamily devouring the object of their

Yes, Teeka was indeed beautiful!

spair. He envied her the handsome coat of hair which

contracted and his muscles tensed as he saw Taug pause

Tarzan of the Apes slipped catlike to the ground and ap-

"Teeka is Tarzan’s," said the ape-man, in the low gut-

weapon so that the keen blade struck him but a glancing

follow his falling into the clutches of a bull ape.

Teeka it was who cried out in terror as she fled across

safety of the higher branches where Sheeta dared not go.

Just short of Teeka’s glossy rump the cruel talons raked

and death on Senlac Hill by Hastings.

of his kind the decision of the she as an indication that he

brows and his short, powerful neck. What a beautiful

ful grimace, he turned and faded away into the labyrinth

riors. He was upon the point of dropping his noose about

Instead, from the safe concealment of his tree, Tarzan

Biting and striking at the barrier, Taug finally worked

beating upon the bars of his prison and growling out

Tarzan noticed this as he had noticed it many times in

and hairy coat of his lady-love. He recalled the paw of

remained awake, and one of these was dozing.

less fingers only increased their pressure.

black warriers labored in the humid heat of the

cles, supple in the perfection of nature’s uncontaminated

Above them, lightly balanced upon a leafy tree limb, a

So absorbed was the ape-man in speculation as to the

he carefully re-covered it, arranging the earth as neatly as

thrown forward, and a long, supple trunk rose quickly

great ears, he talked to Tantor of the gossip of the jungle

both fully understood its origin, though neither did.

he was happy in the companionship of the elephant. He

scarce formed in his mind.

ally credited, it is difficult to determine. Nor is the matter

an amount of ivory in his long tusks that set their greedy

Now the giant pachyderm was but a few yards from

you." But Tantor, the elephant, is a huge bunch of nerves,

riousness of his predicament. Accustomed almost from

gathered there to greet them and hear the story of their

spear heavily across the shoulders of his people, drove

again he turned about, raised his trunk, and gave voice to

Through the doorway of the hut he saw the women lay-

beneath the trampling feet, and the rolling bodies of the

the disturbance, as did the others of the blacks who were