The Beasts of Tarzan, Page 4

  Chapter 4

  Sheeta

  The next few days were occupied by Tarzan in completing his weapons andexploring the jungle. He strung his bow with tendons from the buckupon which he had dined his first evening upon the new shore, andthough he would have preferred the gut of Sheeta for the purpose, hewas content to wait until opportunity permitted him to kill one of thegreat cats.

  He also braided a long grass rope--such a rope as he had used so manyyears before to tantalize the ill-natured Tublat, and which later haddeveloped into a wondrous effective weapon in the practised hands ofthe little ape-boy.

  A sheath and handle for his hunting-knife he fashioned, and a quiverfor arrows, and from the hide of Bara a belt and loin-cloth. Then heset out to learn something of the strange land in which he foundhimself. That it was not his old familiar west coast of the Africancontinent he knew from the fact that it faced east--the rising sun cameup out of the sea before the threshold of the jungle.

  But that it was not the east coast of Africa he was equally positive,for he felt satisfied that the Kincaid had not passed through theMediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the Red Sea, nor had she had time toround the Cape of Good Hope. So he was quite at a loss to know wherehe might be.

  Sometimes he wondered if the ship had crossed the broad Atlantic todeposit him upon some wild South American shore; but the presence ofNuma, the lion, decided him that such could not be the case.

  As Tarzan made his lonely way through the jungle paralleling the shore,he felt strong upon him a desire for companionship, so that graduallyhe commenced to regret that he had not cast his lot with the apes. Hehad seen nothing of them since that first day, when the influences ofcivilization were still paramount within him.

  Now he was more nearly returned to the Tarzan of old, and though heappreciated the fact that there could be little in common betweenhimself and the great anthropoids, still they were better than nocompany at all.

  Moving leisurely, sometimes upon the ground and again among the lowerbranches of the trees, gathering an occasional fruit or turning over afallen log in search of the larger bugs, which he still found aspalatable as of old, Tarzan had covered a mile or more when hisattention was attracted by the scent of Sheeta up-wind ahead of him.

  Now Sheeta, the panther, was one whom Tarzan was exceptionally gladto fall in with, for he had it in mind not only to utilize the greatcat's strong gut for his bow, but also to fashion a new quiver andloin-cloth from pieces of his hide. So, whereas the ape-man had gonecarelessly before, he now became the personification of noiselessstealth.

  Swiftly and silently he glided through the forest in the wake of thesavage cat, nor was the pursuer, for all his noble birth, one whit lesssavage than the wild, fierce thing he stalked.

  As he came closer to Sheeta he became aware that the panther on hispart was stalking game of his own, and even as he realized this factthere came to his nostrils, wafted from his right by a vagrant breeze,the strong odour of a company of great apes.

  The panther had taken to a large tree as Tarzan came within sight ofhim, and beyond and below him Tarzan saw the tribe of Akut lolling in alittle, natural clearing. Some of them were dozing against the bolesof trees, while others roamed about turning over bits of bark frombeneath which they transferred the luscious grubs and beetles to theirmouths.

  Akut was the closest to Sheeta.

  The great cat lay crouched upon a thick limb, hidden from the ape'sview by dense foliage, waiting patiently until the anthropoid shouldcome within range of his spring.

  Tarzan cautiously gained a position in the same tree with the pantherand a little above him. In his left hand he grasped his slim stoneblade. He would have preferred to use his noose, but the foliagesurrounding the huge cat precluded the possibility of an accurate throwwith the rope.

  Akut had now wandered quite close beneath the tree wherein lay thewaiting death. Sheeta slowly edged his hind paws along the branchstill further beneath him, and then with a hideous shriek he launchedhimself toward the great ape. The barest fraction of a second beforehis spring another beast of prey above him leaped, its weird and savagecry mingling with his.

  As the startled Akut looked up he saw the panther almost above him, andalready upon the panther's back the white ape that had bested him thatday near the great water.

  The teeth of the ape-man were buried in the back of Sheeta's neck andhis right arm was round the fierce throat, while the left hand,grasping a slender piece of stone, rose and fell in mighty blows uponthe panther's side behind the left shoulder.

  Akut had just time to leap to one side to avoid being pinioned beneaththese battling monsters of the jungle.

  With a crash they came to earth at his feet. Sheeta was screaming,snarling, and roaring horribly; but the white ape clung tenaciously andin silence to the thrashing body of his quarry.

  Steadily and remorselessly the stone knife was driven home through theglossy hide--time and again it drank deep, until with a final agonizedlunge and shriek the great feline rolled over upon its side and, savefor the spasmodic jerking of its muscles, lay quiet and still in death.

  Then the ape-man raised his head, as he stood over the carcass of hiskill, and once again through the jungle rang his wild and savagevictory challenge.

  Akut and the apes of Akut stood looking in startled wonder at the deadbody of Sheeta and the lithe, straight figure of the man who had slainhim.

  Tarzan was the first to speak.

  He had saved Akut's life for a purpose, and, knowing the limitations ofthe ape intellect, he also knew that he must make this purpose plain tothe anthropoid if it were to serve him in the way he hoped.

  "I am Tarzan of the Apes," he said, "Mighty hunter. Mighty fighter.By the great water I spared Akut's life when I might have taken it andbecome king of the tribe of Akut. Now I have saved Akut from deathbeneath the rending fangs of Sheeta.

  "When Akut or the tribe of Akut is in danger, let them call to Tarzanthus"--and the ape-man raised the hideous cry with which the tribe ofKerchak had been wont to summon its absent members in times of peril.

  "And," he continued, "when they hear Tarzan call to them, let themremember what he has done for Akut and come to him with great speed.Shall it be as Tarzan says?"

  "Huh!" assented Akut, and from the members of his tribe there rose aunanimous "Huh."

  Then, presently, they went to feeding again as though nothing hadhappened, and with them fed John Clayton, Lord Greystoke.

  He noticed, however, that Akut kept always close to him, and was oftenlooking at him with a strange wonder in his little bloodshot eyes, andonce he did a thing that Tarzan during all his long years among theapes had never before seen an ape do--he found a particularly tendermorsel and handed it to Tarzan.

  As the tribe hunted, the glistening body of the ape-man mingled withthe brown, shaggy hides of his companions. Oftentimes they brushedtogether in passing, but the apes had already taken his presence forgranted, so that he was as much one of them as Akut himself.

  If he came too close to a she with a young baby, the former would bareher great fighting fangs and growl ominously, and occasionally atruculent young bull would snarl a warning if Tarzan approached whilethe former was eating. But in those things the treatment was nodifferent from that which they accorded any other member of the tribe.

  Tarzan on his part felt very much at home with these fierce, hairyprogenitors of primitive man. He skipped nimbly out of reach of eachthreatening female--for such is the way of apes, if they be not in oneof their occasional fits of bestial rage--and he growled back at thetruculent young bulls, baring his canine teeth even as they. Thuseasily he fell back into the way of his early life, nor did it seemthat he had ever tasted association with creatures of his own kind.

  For the better part of a week he roamed the jungle with his newfriends, partly because of a desire for companionship and partiallythrough a well-laid plan to impress himself indelibly upon theirmemories, which at best are none too long; for
Tarzan from pastexperience knew that it might serve him in good stead to have a tribeof these powerful and terrible beasts at his call.

  When he was convinced that he had succeeded to some extent in fixinghis identity upon them he decided to again take up his exploration. Tothis end he set out toward the north early one day, and, keepingparallel with the shore, travelled rapidly until almost nightfall.

  When the sun rose the next morning he saw that it lay almost directlyto his right as he stood upon the beach instead of straight out acrossthe water as heretofore, and so he reasoned that the shore line hadtrended toward the west. All the second day he continued his rapidcourse, and when Tarzan of the Apes sought speed, he passed through themiddle terrace of the forest with the rapidity of a squirrel.

  That night the sun set straight out across the water opposite the land,and then the ape-man guessed at last the truth that he had beensuspecting.

  Rokoff had set him ashore upon an island.

  He might have known it! If there was any plan that would render hisposition more harrowing he should have known that such would be the oneadopted by the Russian, and what could be more terrible than to leavehim to a lifetime of suspense upon an uninhabited island?

  Rokoff doubtless had sailed directly to the mainland, where it would bea comparatively easy thing for him to find the means of delivering theinfant Jack into the hands of the cruel and savage foster-parents, who,as his note had threatened, would have the upbringing of the child.

  Tarzan shuddered as he thought of the cruel suffering the little onemust endure in such a life, even though he might fall into the hands ofindividuals whose intentions toward him were of the kindest. Theape-man had had sufficient experience with the lower savages of Africato know that even there may be found the cruder virtues of charity andhumanity; but their lives were at best but a series of terribleprivations, dangers, and sufferings.

  Then there was the horrid after-fate that awaited the child as he grewto manhood. The horrible practices that would form a part of hislife-training would alone be sufficient to bar him forever fromassociation with those of his own race and station in life.

  A cannibal! His little boy a savage man-eater! It was too horrible tocontemplate.

  The filed teeth, the slit nose, the little face painted hideously.Tarzan groaned. Could he but feel the throat of the Russ fiend beneathhis steel fingers!

  And Jane!

  What tortures of doubt and fear and uncertainty she must be suffering.He felt that his position was infinitely less terrible than hers, forhe at least knew that one of his loved ones was safe at home, while shehad no idea of the whereabouts of either her husband or her son.

  It is well for Tarzan that he did not guess the truth, for theknowledge would have but added a hundredfold to his suffering.

  As he moved slowly through the jungle his mind absorbed by his gloomythoughts, there presently came to his ears a strange scratching soundwhich he could not translate.

  Cautiously he moved in the direction from which it emanated, presentlycoming upon a huge panther pinned beneath a fallen tree.

  As Tarzan approached, the beast turned, snarling, toward him,struggling to extricate itself; but one great limb across its back andthe smaller entangling branches pinioning its legs prevented it frommoving but a few inches in any direction.

  The ape-man stood before the helpless cat fitting an arrow to his bowthat he might dispatch the beast that otherwise must die of starvation;but even as he drew back the shaft a sudden whim stayed his hand.

  Why rob the poor creature of life and liberty, when it would be so easya thing to restore both to it! He was sure from the fact that thepanther moved all its limbs in its futile struggle for freedom that itsspine was uninjured, and for the same reason he knew that none of itslimbs were broken.

  Relaxing his bowstring, he returned the arrow to the quiver and,throwing the bow about his shoulder, stepped closer to the pinionedbeast.

  On his lips was the soothing, purring sound that the great catsthemselves made when contented and happy. It was the nearest approachto a friendly advance that Tarzan could make in the language of Sheeta.

  The panther ceased his snarling and eyed the ape-man closely. To liftthe tree's great weight from the animal it was necessary to come withinreach of those long, strong talons, and when the tree had been removedthe man would be totally at the mercy of the savage beast; but toTarzan of the Apes fear was a thing unknown.

  Having decided, he acted promptly.

  Unhesitatingly, he stepped into the tangle of branches close to thepanther's side, still voicing his friendly and conciliatory purr. Thecat turned his head toward the man, eyeing him steadily--questioningly.The long fangs were bared, but more in preparedness than threat.

  Tarzan put a broad shoulder beneath the bole of the tree, and as he didso his bare leg pressed against the cat's silken side, so close was theman to the great beast.

  Slowly Tarzan extended his giant thews.

  The great tree with its entangling branches rose gradually from thepanther, who, feeling the encumbering weight diminish, quickly crawledfrom beneath. Tarzan let the tree fall back to earth, and the twobeasts turned to look upon one another.

  A grim smile lay upon the ape-man's lips, for he knew that he had takenhis life in his hands to free this savage jungle fellow; nor would ithave surprised him had the cat sprung upon him the instant that it hadbeen released.

  But it did not do so. Instead, it stood a few paces from the treewatching the ape-man clamber out of the maze of fallen branches.

  Once outside, Tarzan was not three paces from the panther. He mighthave taken to the higher branches of the trees upon the opposite side,for Sheeta cannot climb to the heights to which the ape-man can go; butsomething, a spirit of bravado perhaps, prompted him to approach thepanther as though to discover if any feeling of gratitude would promptthe beast to friendliness.

  As he approached the mighty cat the creature stepped warily to oneside, and the ape-man brushed past him within a foot of the drippingjaws, and as he continued on through the forest the panther followed onbehind him, as a hound follows at heel.

  For a long time Tarzan could not tell whether the beast was followingout of friendly feelings or merely stalking him against the time heshould be hungry; but finally he was forced to believe that the formerincentive it was that prompted the animal's action.

  Later in the day the scent of a deer sent Tarzan into the trees, andwhen he had dropped his noose about the animal's neck he called toSheeta, using a purr similar to that which he had utilized to pacifythe brute's suspicions earlier in the day, but a trifle louder and moreshrill.

  It was similar to that which he had heard panthers use after a killwhen they had been hunting in pairs.

  Almost immediately there was a crashing of the underbrush close athand, and the long, lithe body of his strange companion broke into view.

  At sight of the body of Bara and the smell of blood the panther gaveforth a shrill scream, and a moment later two beasts were feeding sideby side upon the tender meat of the deer.

  For several days this strangely assorted pair roamed the jungletogether.

  When one made a kill he called the other, and thus they fed well andoften.

  On one occasion as they were dining upon the carcass of a boar thatSheeta had dispatched, Numa, the lion, grim and terrible, broke throughthe tangled grasses close beside them.

  With an angry, warning roar he sprang forward to chase them from theirkill. Sheeta bounded into a near-by thicket, while Tarzan took to thelow branches of an overhanging tree.

  Here the ape-man unloosed his grass rope from about his neck, and asNuma stood above the body of the boar, challenging head erect, hedropped the sinuous noose about the maned neck, drawing the stoutstrands taut with a sudden jerk. At the same time he called shrillyto Sheeta, as he drew the struggling lion upward until only his hindfeet touched the ground.

  Quickly he made the rope fast to a stout branch, and as the pa
nther, inanswer to his summons, leaped into sight, Tarzan dropped to the earthbeside the struggling and infuriated Numa, and with a long sharp knifesprang upon him at one side even as Sheeta did upon the other.

  The panther tore and rent Numa upon the right, while the ape-man struckhome with his stone knife upon the other, so that before the mightyclawing of the king of beasts had succeeded in parting the rope he hungquite dead and harmless in the noose.

  And then upon the jungle air there rose in unison from two savagethroats the victory cry of the bull-ape and the panther, blended intoone frightful and uncanny scream.

  As the last notes died away in a long-drawn, fearsome wail, a score ofpainted warriors, drawing their long war-canoe upon the beach, haltedto stare in the direction of the jungle and to listen.