Tarzan the Terrible, Page 3

  3

  Pan-at-lee

  Night had fallen upon unchartered Pal-ul-don. A slender moon, low inthe west, bathed the white faces of the chalk cliffs presented to her,in a mellow, unearthly glow. Black were the shadows in Kor-ul-JA,Gorge-of-lions, where dwelt the tribe of the same name under Es-sat,their chief. From an aperture near the summit of the lofty escarpment ahairy figure emerged--the head and shoulders first--and fierce eyesscanned the cliff side in every direction.

  It was Es-sat, the chief. To right and left and below he looked asthough to assure himself that he was unobserved, but no other figuremoved upon the cliff face, nor did another hairy body protrude from anyof the numerous cave mouths from the high-flung abode of the chief tothe habitations of the more lowly members of the tribe nearer thecliff's base. Then he moved outward upon the sheer face of the whitechalk wall. In the half-light of the baby moon it appeared that theheavy, shaggy black figure moved across the face of the perpendicularwall in some miraculous manner, but closer examination would haverevealed stout pegs, as large around as a man's wrist protruding fromholes in the cliff into which they were driven. Es-sat's four handlikemembers and his long, sinuous tail permitted him to move withconsummate ease whither he chose--a gigantic rat upon a mighty wall. Ashe progressed upon his way he avoided the cave mouths, passing eitherabove or below those that lay in his path.

  The outward appearance of these caves was similar. An opening fromeight to as much as twenty feet long by eight high and four to six feetdeep was cut into the chalklike rock of the cliff, in the back of thislarge opening, which formed what might be described as the frontveranda of the home, was an opening about three feet wide and six feethigh, evidently forming the doorway to the interior apartment orapartments. On either side of this doorway were smaller openings whichit were easy to assume were windows through which light and air mightfind their way to the inhabitants. Similar windows were also dottedover the cliff face between the entrance porches, suggesting that theentire face of the cliff was honeycombed with apartments. From many ofthese smaller apertures small streams of water trickled down theescarpment, and the walls above others was blackened as by smoke.Where the water ran the wall was eroded to a depth of from a few inchesto as much as a foot, suggesting that some of the tiny streams had beentrickling downward to the green carpet of vegetation below for ages.

  In this primeval setting the great pithecanthropus aroused no jarringdiscord for he was as much a part of it as the trees that grew upon thesummit of the cliff or those that hid their feet among the dank fernsin the bottom of the gorge.

  Now he paused before an entrance-way and listened and then, noiselesslyas the moonlight upon the trickling waters, he merged with the shadowsof the outer porch. At the doorway leading into the interior he pausedagain, listening, and then quietly pushing aside the heavy skin thatcovered the aperture he passed within a large chamber hewn from theliving rock. From the far end, through another doorway, shone a light,dimly. Toward this he crept with utmost stealth, his naked feet givingforth no sound. The knotted club that had been hanging at his backfrom a thong about his neck he now removed and carried in his left hand.

  Beyond the second doorway was a corridor running parallel with thecliff face. In this corridor were three more doorways, one at each endand a third almost opposite that in which Es-sat stood. The light wascoming from an apartment at the end of the corridor at his left. Asputtering flame rose and fell in a small stone receptacle that stoodupon a table or bench of the same material, a monolithic benchfashioned at the time the room was excavated, rising massively from thefloor, of which it was a part.

  In one corner of the room beyond the table had been left a dais ofstone about four feet wide and eight feet long. Upon this were piled afoot or so of softly tanned pelts from which the fur had not beenremoved. Upon the edge of this dais sat a young female Waz-don. In onehand she held a thin piece of metal, apparently of hammered gold, withserrated edges, and in the other a short, stiff brush. With these shewas occupied in going over her smooth, glossy coat which bore aremarkable resemblance to plucked sealskin. Her loin cloth of yellowand black striped JATO-skin lay on the couch beside her with thecircular breastplates of beaten gold, revealing the symmetrical linesof her nude figure in all its beauty and harmony of contour, for eventhough the creature was jet black and entirely covered with hair yetshe was undeniably beautiful.

  That she was beautiful in the eyes of Es-sat, the chief, was evidencedby the gloating expression upon his fierce countenance and theincreased rapidity of his breathing. Moving quickly forward he enteredthe room and as he did so the young she looked up. Instantly her eyesfilled with terror and as quickly she seized the loin cloth and with afew deft movements adjusted it about her. As she gathered up herbreastplates Es-sat rounded the table and moved quickly toward her.

  "What do you want?" she whispered, though she knew full well.

  "Pan-at-lee," he said, "your chief has come for you."

  "It was for this that you sent away my father and my brothers to spyupon the Kor-ul-lul? I will not have you. Leave the cave of myancestors!"

  Es-sat smiled. It was the smile of a strong and wicked man who knowshis power--not a pleasant smile at all. "I will leave, Pan-at-lee," hesaid; "but you shall go with me--to the cave of Es-sat, the chief, tobe the envied of the shes of Kor-ul-JA. Come!"

  "Never!" cried Pan-at-lee. "I hate you. Sooner would I mate with aHo-don than with you, beater of women, murderer of babes."

  A frightful scowl distorted the features of the chief. "She-JATO!" hecried. "I will tame you! I will break you! Es-sat, the chief, takeswhat he will and who dares question his right, or combat his leastpurpose, will first serve that purpose and then be broken as I breakthis," and he picked a stone platter from the table and broke it in hispowerful hands. "You might have been first and most favored in the caveof the ancestors of Es-sat; but now shall you be last and least andwhen I am done with you you shall belong to all of the men of Es-sat'scave. Thus for those who spurn the love of their chief!"

  He advanced quickly to seize her and as he laid a rough hand upon hershe struck him heavily upon the side of his head with her goldenbreastplates. Without a sound Es-sat, the chief, sank to the floor ofthe apartment. For a moment Pan-at-lee bent over him, her improvisedweapon raised to strike again should he show signs of returningconsciousness, her glossy breasts rising and falling with her quickenedbreathing. Suddenly she stooped and removed Es-sat's knife with itsscabbard and shoulder belt. Slipping it over her own shoulder shequickly adjusted her breastplates and keeping a watchful glance uponthe figure of the fallen chief, backed from the room.

  In a niche in the outer room, just beside the doorway leading to thebalcony, were neatly piled a number of rounded pegs from eighteen totwenty inches in length. Selecting five of these she made them into alittle bundle about which she twined the lower extremity of her sinuoustail and thus carrying them made her way to the outer edge of thebalcony. Assuring herself that there was none about to see, or hinderher, she took quickly to the pegs already set in the face of the cliffand with the celerity of a monkey clambered swiftly aloft to thehighest row of pegs which she followed in the direction of the lowerend of the gorge for a matter of some hundred yards. Here, above herhead, were a series of small round holes placed one above another inthree parallel rows. Clinging only with her toes she removed two of thepegs from the bundle carried in her tail and taking one in either handshe inserted them in two opposite holes of the outer rows as far aboveher as she could reach. Hanging by these new holds she now took one ofthe three remaining pegs in each of her feet, leaving the fifth graspedsecurely in her tail. Reaching above her with this member she insertedthe fifth peg in one of the holes of the center row and then,alternately hanging by her tail, her feet, or her hands, she moved thepegs upward to new holes, thus carrying her stairway with her as sheascended.

  At the summit of the cliff a gnarled tree exposed its time-worn rootsabove the topmost holes forming the last step from the shee
r face ofthe precipice to level footing. This was the last avenue of escape formembers of the tribe hard pressed by enemies from below. There werethree such emergency exits from the village and it were death to usethem in other than an emergency. This Pan-at-lee well knew; but sheknew, too, that it were worse than death to remain where the angeredEs-sat might lay hands upon her.

  When she had gained the summit, the girl moved quickly through thedarkness in the direction of the next gorge which cut the mountain-sidea mile beyond Kor-ul-JA. It was the Gorge-of-water, Kor-ul-lul, towhich her father and two brothers had been sent by Es-sat ostensibly tospy upon the neighboring tribe. There was a chance, a slender chance,that she might find them; if not there was the deserted Kor-ul-GRYFseveral miles beyond, where she might hide indefinitely from man if shecould elude the frightful monster from which the gorge derived its nameand whose presence there had rendered its caves uninhabitable forgenerations.

  Pan-at-lee crept stealthily along the rim of the Kor-ul-lul. Just whereher father and brothers would watch she did not know. Sometimes theirspies remained upon the rim, sometimes they watched from the gorge'sbottom. Pan-at-lee was at a loss to know what to do or where to go. Shefelt very small and helpless alone in the vast darkness of the night.Strange noises fell upon her ears. They came from the lonely reaches ofthe towering mountains above her, from far away in the invisible valleyand from the nearer foothills and once, in the distance, she heard whatshe thought was the bellow of a bull GRYF. It came from the directionof the Kor-ul-GRYF. She shuddered.

  Presently there came to her keen ears another sound. Somethingapproached her along the rim of the gorge. It was coming from above.She halted, listening. Perhaps it was her father, or a brother. It wascoming closer. She strained her eyes through the darkness. She did notmove--she scarcely breathed. And then, of a sudden, quite close itseemed, there blazed through the black night two yellow-green spots offire.

  Pan-at-lee was brave, but as always with the primitive, the darknessheld infinite terrors for her. Not alone the terrors of the known butmore frightful ones as well--those of the unknown. She had passedthrough much this night and her nerves were keyed to the highestpitch--raw, taut nerves, they were, ready to react in an exaggeratedform to the slightest shock.

  But this was no slight shock. To hope for a father and a brother and tosee death instead glaring out of the darkness! Yes, Pan-at-lee wasbrave, but she was not of iron. With a shriek that reverberated amongthe hills she turned and fled along the rim of Kor-ul-lul and behindher, swiftly, came the devil-eyed lion of the mountains of Pal-ul-don.

  Pan-at-lee was lost. Death was inevitable. Of this there could be nodoubt, but to die beneath the rending fangs of the carnivore,congenital terror of her kind--it was unthinkable. But there was analternative. The lion was almost upon her--another instant and he wouldseize her. Pan-at-lee turned sharply to her left. Just a few steps shetook in the new direction before she disappeared over the rim ofKor-ul-lul. The baffled lion, planting all four feet, barely stoppedupon the verge of the abyss. Glaring down into the black shadowsbeneath he mounted an angry roar.

  Through the darkness at the bottom of Kor-ul-JA, Om-at led the waytoward the caves of his people. Behind him came Tarzan and Ta-den.Presently they halted beneath a great tree that grew close to the cliff.

  "First," whispered Om-at, "I will go to the cave of Pan-at-lee. Thenwill I seek the cave of my ancestors to have speech with my own blood.It will not take long. Wait here--I shall return soon. Afterward shallwe go together to Ta-den's people."

  He moved silently toward the foot of the cliff up which Tarzan couldpresently see him ascending like a great fly on a wall. In the dimlight the ape-man could not see the pegs set in the face of the cliff.Om-at moved warily. In the lower tier of caves there should be asentry. His knowledge of his people and their customs told him,however, that in all probability the sentry was asleep. In this he wasnot mistaken, yet he did not in any way abate his wariness. Smoothlyand swiftly he ascended toward the cave of Pan-at-lee while from belowTarzan and Ta-den watched him.

  "How does he do it?" asked Tarzan. "I can see no foothold upon thatvertical surface and yet he appears to be climbing with the utmostease."

  Ta-den explained the stairway of pegs. "You could ascend easily," hesaid, "although a tail would be of great assistance."

  They watched until Om-at was about to enter the cave of Pan-at-leewithout seeing any indication that he had been observed and then,simultaneously, both saw a head appear in the mouth of one of the lowercaves. It was quickly evident that its owner had discovered Om-at forimmediately he started upward in pursuit. Without a word Tarzan andTa-den sprang forward toward the foot of the cliff. The pithecanthropuswas the first to reach it and the ape-man saw him spring upward for ahandhold on the lowest peg above him. Now Tarzan saw other pegs roughlyparalleling each other in zigzag rows up the cliff face. He sprang andcaught one of these, pulled himself upward by one hand until he couldreach a second with his other hand; and when he had ascended far enoughto use his feet, discovered that he could make rapid progress. Ta-denwas outstripping him, however, for these precarious ladders were nonovelty to him and, further, he had an advantage in possessing a tail.

  Nevertheless, the ape-man gave a good account of himself, beingpresently urged to redoubled efforts by the fact that the Waz-don aboveTa-den glanced down and discovered his pursuers just before the Ho-donovertook him. Instantly a wild cry shattered the silence of thegorge--a cry that was immediately answered by hundreds of savagethroats as warrior after warrior emerged from the entrance to his cave.

  The creature who had raised the alarm had now reached the recess beforePan-at-lee's cave and here he halted and turned to give battle toTa-den. Unslinging his club which had hung down his back from a thongabout his neck he stood upon the level floor of the entrance-wayeffectually blocking Ta-den's ascent. From all directions the warriorsof Kor-ul-JA were swarming toward the interlopers. Tarzan, who hadreached a point on the same level with Ta-den but a little to thelatter's left, saw that nothing short of a miracle could save them.Just at the ape-man's left was the entrance to a cave that either wasdeserted or whose occupants had not as yet been aroused, for the levelrecess remained unoccupied. Resourceful was the alert mind of Tarzan ofthe Apes and quick to respond were the trained muscles. In the timethat you or I might give to debating an action he would accomplish itand now, though only seconds separated his nearest antagonist from him,in the brief span of time at his disposal he had stepped into therecess, unslung his long rope and leaning far out shot the sinuousnoose, with the precision of long habitude, toward the menacing figurewielding its heavy club above Ta-den. There was a momentary pause ofthe rope-hand as the noose sped toward its goal, a quick movement ofthe right wrist that closed it upon its victim as it settled over hishead and then a surging tug as, seizing the rope in both hands, Tarzanthrew back upon it all the weight of his great frame.

  Voicing a terrified shriek, the Waz-don lunged headforemost from therecess above Ta-den. Tarzan braced himself for the coming shock whenthe creature's body should have fallen the full length of the rope andas it did there was a snap of the vertebrae that rose sickeningly inthe momentary silence that had followed the doomed man's departingscream. Unshaken by the stress of the suddenly arrested weight at theend of the rope, Tarzan quickly pulled the body to his side that hemight remove the noose from about its neck, for he could not afford tolose so priceless a weapon.

  During the several seconds that had elapsed since he cast the rope theWaz-don warriors had remained inert as though paralyzed by wonder or byterror. Now, again, one of them found his voice and his head andstraightway, shrieking invectives at the strange intruder, startedupward for the ape-man, urging his fellows to attack. This man was theclosest to Tarzan. But for him the ape-man could easily have reachedTa-den's side as the latter was urging him to do. Tarzan raised thebody of the dead Waz-don above his head, held it poised there for amoment as with face raised to the heavens he screamed forth the horridchalleng
e of the bull apes of the tribe of Kerchak, and with all thestrength of his giant sinews he hurled the corpse heavily upon theascending warrior. So great was the force of the impact that not onlywas the Waz-don torn from his hold but two of the pegs to which heclung were broken short in their sockets.

  As the two bodies, the living and the dead, hurtled downward toward thefoot of the cliff a great cry arose from the Waz-don. "Jad-guru-don!Jad-guru-don!" they screamed, and then: "Kill him! Kill him!"

  And now Tarzan stood in the recess beside Ta-den. "Jad-guru-don!"repeated the latter, smiling--"The terrible man! Tarzan the Terrible!They may kill you, but they will never forget you."

  "They shall not ki--What have we here?" Tarzan's statement as to what"they" should not do was interrupted by a sudden ejaculation as twofigures, locked in deathlike embrace, stumbled through the doorway ofthe cave to the outer porch. One was Om-at, the other a creature of hisown kind but with a rough coat, the hairs of which seemed to growstraight outward from the skin, stiffly, unlike Om-at's sleek covering.The two were quite evidently well matched and equally evident was thefact that each was bent upon murder. They fought almost in silenceexcept for an occasional low growl as one or the other acknowledgedthus some new hurt.

  Tarzan, following a natural impulse to aid his ally, leaped forward toenter the dispute only to be checked by a grunted admonition fromOm-at. "Back!" he said. "This fight is mine, alone."

  The ape-man understood and stepped aside.

  "It is a gund-bar," explained Ta-den, "a chief-battle. This fellow mustbe Es-sat, the chief. If Om-at kills him without assistance Om-at maybecome chief."

  Tarzan smiled. It was the law of his own jungle--the law of the tribeof Kerchak, the bull ape--the ancient law of primitive man that neededbut the refining influences of civilization to introduce the hireddagger and the poison cup. Then his attention was drawn to the outeredge of the vestibule. Above it appeared the shaggy face of one ofEs-sat's warriors. Tarzan sprang to intercept the man; but Ta-den wasthere ahead of him. "Back!" cried the Ho-don to the newcomer. "It isgund-bar." The fellow looked scrutinizingly at the two fighters, thenturned his face downward toward his fellows. "Back!" he cried, "it isgund-bar between Es-sat and Om-at." Then he looked back at Ta-den andTarzan. "Who are you?" he asked.

  "We are Om-at's friends," replied Ta-den.

  The fellow nodded. "We will attend to you later," he said anddisappeared below the edge of the recess.

  The battle upon the ledge continued with unabated ferocity, Tarzan andTa-den having difficulty in keeping out of the way of the contestantswho tore and beat at each other with hands and feet and lashing tails.Es-sat was unarmed--Pan-at-lee had seen to that--but at Om-at's sideswung a sheathed knife which he made no effort to draw. That would havebeen contrary to their savage and primitive code for the chief-battlemust be fought with nature's weapons.

  Sometimes they separated for an instant only to rush upon each otheragain with all the ferocity and nearly the strength of mad bulls.Presently one of them tripped the other but in that viselike embraceone could not fall alone--Es-sat dragged Om-at with him, toppling uponthe brink of the niche. Even Tarzan held his breath. There they surgedto and fro perilously for a moment and then the inevitablehappened--the two, locked in murderous embrace, rolled over the edgeand disappeared from the ape-man's view.

  Tarzan voiced a suppressed sigh for he had liked Om-at and then, withTa-den, approached the edge and looked over. Far below, in the dimlight of the coming dawn, two inert forms should be lying stark indeath; but, to Tarzan's amazement, such was far from the sight that methis eyes. Instead, there were the two figures still vibrant with lifeand still battling only a few feet below him. Clinging always to thepegs with two holds--a hand and a foot, or a foot and a tail, theyseemed as much at home upon the perpendicular wall as upon the levelsurface of the vestibule; but now their tactics were slightly altered,for each seemed particularly bent upon dislodging his antagonist fromhis holds and precipitating him to certain death below. It was soonevident that Om-at, younger and with greater powers of endurance thanEs-sat, was gaining an advantage. Now was the chief almost wholly onthe defensive. Holding him by the cross belt with one mighty hand Om-atwas forcing his foeman straight out from the cliff, and with the otherhand and one foot was rapidly breaking first one of Es-sat's holds andthen another, alternating his efforts, or rather punctuating them, withvicious blows to the pit of his adversary's stomach. Rapidly was Es-satweakening and with the knowledge of impending death there came, asthere comes to every coward and bully under similar circumstances, acrumbling of the veneer of bravado which had long masqueraded ascourage and with it crumbled his code of ethics. Now was Es-sat nolonger chief of Kor-ul-JA--instead he was a whimpering craven battlingfor life. Clutching at Om-at, clutching at the nearest pegs he soughtany support that would save him from that awful fall, and as he stroveto push aside the hand of death, whose cold fingers he already feltupon his heart, his tail sought Om-at's side and the handle of theknife that hung there.

  Tarzan saw and even as Es-sat drew the blade from its sheath he droppedcatlike to the pegs beside the battling men. Es-sat's tail had drawnback for the cowardly fatal thrust. Now many others saw the perfidiousact and a great cry of rage and disgust arose from savage throats; butas the blade sped toward its goal, the ape-man seized the hairy memberthat wielded it, and at the same instant Om-at thrust the body ofEs-sat from him with such force that its weakened holds were broken andit hurtled downward, a brief meteor of screaming fear, to death.