Tarzan's Quest t-18 Read online

  Tarzan's Quest

  ( Tarzan - 18 )

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Tarzan's Quest (1935)

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Chapter 1 The Princess Sborov

  "MY DEAR Jane, you know everyone."

  "Not quite, Hazel; but one sees everyone in the Savoy ."

  "Who is that woman at the second table to our right?—the one who spoke so cordially. There is something very familiar about her—I'm sure I've seen her before."

  "You probably have. Don't you remember Kitty Krause?"

  "O-oh, yes; now I recall her. But she went with an older crowd."

  "Yes, she's a full generation ahead of us; but Kitty'd like to forget that and have everyone else forget it."

  "Let's see—she married Peters, the cotton king, didn't she?"

  "Yes, and when he died he left her so many millions she didn't have enough fingers to count 'em on; so the poor woman will never know how rich she is."

  "Is that her son with her?"

  "Son, my dear! That's her new husband."

  "Husband? Why, she's old enough to—"

  "Yes, of course; but you see he's a prince, and Kitty always was—er—well, ambitious."

  "Yes, I recall now—something of a climber; but she climbed pretty high, even in aristocratic old Baltimore , with those Peters millions."

  "But she's an awfully good soul, Hazel. I'm really very fond of her. There isn't anything she wouldn't do for a friend, and underneath that one silly complex of hers is a heart of gold."

  "And kind to her mother! If anyone ever says I'm good-hearted, I'll—"

  "S-sh, Hazel; she's coming over."

  The older woman, followed by her husband, swooped down upon them. "My darling Jane," she cried, "I'm so glad to see you."

  "And I'm glad to see you, Kitty. You remember Hazel Strong, don't you?"

  "Oh, not of the Strongs of Baltimore! Oh, my dear! I mean I'm just—how perfectly wonder—I must present my husband, Prince Sborov. Alexis, my very, very dearest friends, Lady Greystoke and Miss Strong."

  "Lady Tennington now, Kitty," corrected Jane.

  "Oh, my dear, how perfectly wonderful! Lady Greystoke and Lady Tennington, Alexis, dear."

  "Charmed," murmured the young man. His lips smiled; but the murky light in his deep eyes was appraising, questioning, as they brooded upon the lovely face of Jane, Lady Greystoke.

  "Won't you join us?" invited the latter. "Please sit down. You know it's been ages, Kitty, since we had a good visit."

  "Oh, how perfectly won—oh, I'd love to—I mean it seems—thank you, Alexis dear—now you sit over there."

  "Why, Kitty, it must be a year since I have heard anything of you, except what I have read in the newspapers," said Jane.

  "At that, you might be very well informed as to our goings and comings," remarked Sborov, a little ironically.

  "Yes, indeed—I mean—we have a whole book filled with newspaper clippings—some of them were horrid."

  "But you kept them all," remarked the prince.

  "Oh, well," cried Princess Sborov, "I mean—I suppose one must pay for fame and position; but these newspaper people can be so terribly horrid."

  "But what have you been doing?" inquired Jane. "Have you been back home again? I'm sure you haven't been in London for a year."

  "No, we spent the whole year on the continent. We had a perfectly wonderful time, didn't we, Alexis dear? You see it was last Spring in Paris that we met; and dear, dear Alexis just swept me off my feet. He wouldn't take no for an answer, would you, darling?"

  "How could I, my sweet?"

  "There, you see, isn't he won—and then we were married, and we've been traveling ever since."

  "And now, I suppose, you are going to settle down?" asked Jane.

  "Oh, my dear, no. You never could guess what we're planning on now—we are going to Africa !"

  " Africa ! How interesting," commented Hazel. " Africa ! What memories it conjures."

  "You have been to Africa , Lady Tennington?" inquired the prince.

  "Right in the heart of it—cannibals, lions, elephants—everything."

  "Oh, how perfectly wonder—I mean how thrilling—and I know that Jane knows all there is to know about Africa ."

  "Not quite all, Kitty.'"

  "But enough," interposed Hazel.

  "I'm going down myself, shortly," said Jane. "You see," she added, turning to Prince Sborov, "Lord Greystoke spends a great deal of time in Africa . I am planning on joining him there. I have already booked my passage."

  "Oh, how perfectly wonderful," exclaimed the princess. "I mean, we can all go together."

  "That is a splendid idea, my dear," said the prince, his face brightening.

  "It would be lovely," said Jane, "but you see, I am going into the interior, and I am sure that you—"

  "Oh, my dear, so are we."

  "But, Kitty, you don't know what you're talking about. You wouldn't like it at all. No comforts, no luxuries; dirt, insects, smelly natives, and all kinds of wild beasts."

  "Oh, but my dear, we are—I mean, we really are. Shall I tell Lady Greystoke our secret, darling?"

  The prince shrugged. "Why not? She could have little more than a passing interest."

  "Well, maybe some day she will. We all grow old, you know, my dear."

  "It seems incredible to think—" murmured Alexis half to himself.

  "What did you say, darling?" interrupted his wife.

  "I was just going to say that Lady Greystoke might think the story incredible."

  "Now you must tell me," said Jane. "You have my curiosity aroused."

  "Yes, indeed, do tell us," urged Hazel.

  "Well, my dears, you see it was like this. We have been doing a great deal of flying the past year, and it's perfectly wonderful. We just love it, and so I bought an aeroplane in Paris last week. We flew to London in it; but what I was going to tell you is about our pilot. He is an American, and he has had the most amazing experiences."

  "I think he is what you call a rackster in America ," said Alexis.

  "You mean a gangster, my dear," corrected the princess.

  "Or a racketeer," suggested Hazel.

  "Whatever he is, I do not like him," said Alexis.

  "But, my dear, you have to admit that he is a good pilot. I mean that he is perfectly wonder—and he has been to Africa and had the most frightful experiences.

  "The last time he was there, he got track of a witch-doctor who possesses the secret of an amazing formula for renewing youth and inducing longevity. He met a man who knows where the old fellow lives way in the interior; but neither of them had money enough to organize an expedition to go in search of him. He says that this will make people as young as they wish to be and keep them that way forever. Oh, isn't it wonderful?"

  "I think the fellow is a scoundrel," said Alexis. "He has induced my wife to finance this expedition; and when he gets us down there in the interior, he will probably slit our throats and steal our jewelry."

  "Oh, my darling, I am sure you are quite wrong. Brown is the last word in loyalty."

  "He may be all of that, but still I don't see why you want to drag me to Africa —the bugs, the dirt; and I do not like lions."

  Jane laughed. "Really, you might spend a year in Africa without seeing a lion; and you will get used to the bugs and the dirt."

  Prince Sborov grimaced. "I prefer the Savoy ," he said.

  "You will go with us, dear, won't you?" insisted Kitty.

  "Well," hesitated Jane, "I really don't know. In the first place, I don't know where you are going."

  "We are going to fly direct to Nairobi and outfit there; and, my dear, to get any place in Africa, you have to go to Nairobi f
irst."

  Jane smiled. "Well, it happens that that is where I intend going anyway. Lord Greystoke is to meet me there."

  "Then it's all settled. Oh, isn't it wonderful?"

  "You almost make me want to go," said Hazel.

  "Well, my dear, we would be delighted to have you," exclaimed Princess Sborov. "You see, I have a six-passenger cabin plane. There are four of us, and the pilot and my maid will make six."

  "How about my man?" asked the prince.

  "Oh, my dear, you won't need a man in Africa . You will have a little colored boy who will do your washing and cooking and carry your gun. I read about it time and time again in African stories."

  "Of course," said Hazel, "it's awfully sweet of you; but I really couldn't go. It's out of the question. Bunny and I are sailing for America Saturday."

  "But you'll come with us, Jane dear?"

  "Why, I'd like to, Kitty, if I can get ready in time. When do you start?"

  "We were planning on going next week; but, of course, I mean—if—"

  "Why, yes, I think I can make it all right."

  "Then it's settled, my dear. How perfectly won—we'll take off from the Croydon Airdrome next Wednesday."

  "I'll cable Lord Greystoke today; and Friday I am giving a farewell dinner for Lord and Lady Tennington, and you and Prince Sborov must be there."

  Chapter 2 Sound Above the Storm

  THE LORD of the Jungle rose from a crude, leaf-covered platform constructed in the crotch of two branches of a mighty patriarch of the jungle. He stretched luxuriously. The slanting rays of the morning sun mottled his bronze body through the leafy canopy that stretched interminably above him.

  Little Nkima stirred and awoke. With a scream, he leaped to the shoulder of the ape-man and encircled his neck with his hairy arms.

  "Sheeta!" screamed the monkey. "He was about to spring on little Nkima."

  The ape-man smiled. "Nkima has been seeing things in his sleep," he said.

  The monkey looked about him among the branches of the trees and down at the ground below. Then, seeing that no danger threatened, he commenced to dance and chatter; but presently the ape-man silenced him and listened.

  "Sheeta comes," he said. "He is coming up wind toward us. We cannot smell him but if Manu had the ears of Tarzan, he could hear him."

  The monkey cocked an ear down wind and listened. "Little Nkima hears him," he said. "He comes slowly." Presently the sinuous, tawny body of the panther forced its way through the brush and came into view below them.

  "Sheeta is not hunting," said Tarzan. "He has fed and he is not hungry." And thus reassured, Nkima commenced to hurl invectives at the savage beast below them. The great cat paused and looked up, and when he saw Tarzan and Nkima he bared his fangs in an angry snarl. But he started on again, for he had no business with them.

  Feeling secure in the protection of Tarzan, little Nkima waxed belligerent, as he always did under similar circumstances when the possibility of danger seemed remote. He hurled at his hereditary enemy every jungle epithet that he could put his tongue to, but as these seemed to make no impression upon Sheeta he leaped from Tarzan's shoulder to a trailing vine that bore a soft, ill-smelling fruit, and gathering one of these he hurled it at the panther.

  By accident, his aim proved true; and the missile struck Sheeta on the back of the head.

  With an angry snarl, the beast wheeled about and started toward the tree that harbored his annoyer. Screaming with terror, little Nkima fled upwards to the safety of the smaller branches that would not bear the weight of the great cat.

  The ape-man grinned up after the fleeing monkey and then glanced down at the angry panther. A low, growling "Kreeg-ah" rumbled from his throat, and the other beast below returned an answering growl. Then it turned and slunk away into the jungle, rumbling in its throat.

  The ape-man was returning leisurely from an excursion into a remote district of the great forest, far from his own haunts.

  He had heard strange rumors, and he had gone to investigate them. From deep in the interior, on the borders of a tractless waste that few men had entered and from which some had never returned alive, had come a strange and mysterious story since so long before the memory of living man that the facts had become interwoven with the legends and the folklore of the tribes inhabiting this borderland to such an extent that they had come to be accepted as something inevitable and inescapable; but recently the disappearance of young girls had increased to an alarming extent and had occurred in tribes far removed from the mysterious country.

  But when Tarzan investigated and sought to solve the mystery, he was balked by the fear and superstition of the natives. So fearful were they of the malign, mysterious power that snatched their young girls from them, that they would give Tarzan no information or assist him in any way to aid them; and so, disgusted, he had left them to their fate.

  After all, why should the ape-man concern himself? Life to the jungle-bred is a commodity of little value. It is given and taken casually as a matter of course. One loves or kills as naturally as one sleeps or dreams. Yet the mystery of the thing intrigued him.

  Young girls, always between the ages of fourteen and twenty, vanished as in thin air. No trace of them ever was seen again. Their fate remained an unsolved mystery.

  But by now Tarzan had relegated the matter to the background of his thoughts, for his active mind could not long concern itself with a problem that did not closely concern him and which at any event seemed impossible of solution.

  He swung easily through the trees, his alert senses conscious of all that transpired within their range. Since Sheeta had passed up wind, he had known by the decreasing volume of the great cat's spoor that the distance between them was constantly increasing—proof that Sheeta was not stalking him. From far away, muted by the distance, sounded the roar of Numa, the lion; and deeper in the forest Tantor, the elephant, trumpeted.

  The morning air, the sounds and smells of his beloved jungle, filled the ape-man with exhilaration. Had he been the creature of another environment, he might have whistled or sung or whooped aloud like a cowboy in sheer exuberance of spirit; but the jungle-bred are not thus. They veil their emotions; and they move noiselessly always, for thus do they extend the span of their precarious lives.

  Scampering sometimes at his side, sometimes far above him, little Nkima travelled many times the distance of his master, wasting much energy; as, safe in the protection of his benefactor, he insulted all living things that came his way.

  But presently he saw his master stop and sniff the air and listen, and then little Nkima dropped silently to a great bronzed shoulder.

  "Men," said Tarzan.

  The little monkey sniffed the air. "Nkima smells nothing," he said.

  "Neither does Tarzan," replied the ape-man, "but he hears them. What is wrong with the ears of little Nkima? Are they growing old?"

  "Now Nkima hears them. Tarmangani?" he asked.

  "No," replied Tarzan, "Tarmangani make different sounds—the squeeking of leather, the rattle of too much equipment. These are Gomangani; they move softly."

  "We shall kill them," said Nkima.

  The ape-man smiled. "It is well for the peace of the jungle that you have not the strength of Bolgani, the gorilla; but perhaps if you had, you would not be so blood-thirsty."

  "Ugh, Bolgani," sneered Nkima, contemptuously. "He hides in the thickets and runs away at the first sound that he hears."

  The ape-man changed his direction to the right and made a great circle through the trees until presently he reached a point where Usha, the wind, could carry the scent spoor of the strangers to him.

  "Gomangani," he said.

  "Many Gomangani," exclaimed Nkima, excitedly. "They are as the leaves upon the trees. Let us go away. They will kill little Nkima and eat him."

  "There are not so many," replied Tarzan, "no more than the fingers upon my two hands, a hunting party, perhaps. We will go closer."

  Moving up on the blacks from b
ehind, the ape-man rapidly closed up the distance between them. The scent spoor grew stronger in his nostrils.

  "They are friends," he said. "They are Waziri."

  The two jungle creatures moved on in silence then, until they overhauled a file of black warriors who moved silently along the jungle trail. Then Tarzan spoke to them in their own tongue.

  "Muviro," he said, "what brings my children so far from their own country?"

  The blacks halted and wheeled about, gazing up into the trees from which the voice had seemed to come. They saw nothing, but they knew the voice.

  "Oh, Bwana, it is well that you have come," said Muviro. "Your children need you."

  Tarzan dropped to the trail among them. "Has harm befallen any of my people?" he asked, as the blacks clustered about him.

  "Buira, my daughter, has disappeared," said Muviro. "She went alone toward the river, and that is the last that was ever seen of her."

  "Perhaps Gimla, the crocodile—" Tarzan commenced to suggest.

  "No, it was not Gimla. There were other women at the river. Buira never reached the river. We have heard stories, Bwana, that fill us with terror for our girls. There is evil, there is mystery in it, Bwana. We have heard of the Kavuru. Perhaps it is they; we go to search for them."

  "Their country lies far away," said Tarzan. "I have just come from a place that is supposed to be near it, but the people there are all cowards. They were afraid to tell me where I might find the Kavuru, even though their girls have been stolen by these people for so long that no man can remember when it began."

  "Muviro will find them," said the black, doggedly. "Buira was a good daughter. She was not as other girls. I will find those who stole her, and kill them."

  "And Tarzan of the Apes will help you," said the ape-man. "Have you found the trail of the thieves?"

  "There is no trail," replied Muviro. "That is why we know it was the Kavuru; they leave no trail."

  "Many of us think that they are demons," said another warrior.

  "Men or demons, I shall find them and kill them," replied Muviro.

  "From all that I could learn," said Tarzan, "these Bukena live nearest to the Kavuru. They have lost the most girls. That is the reason it is thought that they live nearest to the Kavuru, but they would not help me. They were afraid. However, we will go first to the kraals of the Bukena. I can travel faster; so I will go ahead. In four marches, perhaps three if nothing detains you, you should be there. In the meantime, it may be that Tarzan will have learned more."