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