Tarzan the Terrible Read online

  Produced by Judy Boss.

  Tarzan the Terrible

  By

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  CHAPTER

  I The Pithecanthropus II "To the Death!" III Pan-at-lee IV Tarzan-jad-guru V In the Kor-ul-GRYF VI The Tor-o-don VII Jungle Craft VIII A-lur IX Blood-Stained Altars X The Forbidden Garden XI The Sentence of Death XII The Giant Stranger XIII The Masquerader XIV The Temple of the Gryf XV "The King Is Dead!" XVI The Secret Way XVII By Jad-bal-lul XVIII The Lion Pit of Tu-lur XIX Diana of the Jungle XX Silently in the Night XXI The Maniac XXII A Journey on a Gryf XXIII Taken Alive XXIV The Messenger of Death XXV Home Glossary

  1

  The Pithecanthropus

  Silent as the shadows through which he moved, the great beast slunkthrough the midnight jungle, his yellow-green eyes round and staring,his sinewy tail undulating behind him, his head lowered and flattened,and every muscle vibrant to the thrill of the hunt. The jungle moondappled an occasional clearing which the great cat was always carefulto avoid. Though he moved through thick verdure across a carpet ofinnumerable twigs, broken branches, and leaves, his passing gave forthno sound that might have been apprehended by dull human ears.

  Apparently less cautious was the hunted thing moving even as silentlyas the lion a hundred paces ahead of the tawny carnivore, for insteadof skirting the moon-splashed natural clearings it passed directlyacross them, and by the tortuous record of its spoor it might indeed beguessed that it sought these avenues of least resistance, as well itmight, since, unlike its grim stalker, it walked erect upon twofeet--it walked upon two feet and was hairless except for a blackthatch upon its head; its arms were well shaped and muscular; its handspowerful and slender with long tapering fingers and thumbs reachingalmost to the first joint of the index fingers. Its legs too wereshapely but its feet departed from the standards of all races of men,except possibly a few of the lowest races, in that the great toesprotruded at right angles from the foot.

  Pausing momentarily in the full light of the gorgeous African moon thecreature turned an attentive ear to the rear and then, his head lifted,his features might readily have been discerned in the moonlight. Theywere strong, clean cut, and regular--features that would have attractedattention for their masculine beauty in any of the great capitals ofthe world. But was this thing a man? It would have been hard for awatcher in the trees to have decided as the lion's prey resumed its wayacross the silver tapestry that Luna had laid upon the floor of thedismal jungle, for from beneath the loin cloth of black fur thatgirdled its thighs there depended a long hairless, white tail.

  In one hand the creature carried a stout club, and suspended at itsleft side from a shoulder belt was a short, sheathed knife, while across belt supported a pouch at its right hip. Confining these strapsto the body and also apparently supporting the loin cloth was a broadgirdle which glittered in the moonlight as though encrusted with virgingold, and was clasped in the center of the belly with a huge buckle ofornate design that scintillated as with precious stones.

  Closer and closer crept Numa, the lion, to his intended victim, andthat the latter was not entirely unaware of his danger was evidenced bythe increasing frequency with which he turned his ear and his sharpblack eyes in the direction of the cat upon his trail. He did notgreatly increase his speed, a long swinging walk where the open placespermitted, but he loosened the knife in its scabbard and at all timeskept his club in readiness for instant action.

  Forging at last through a narrow strip of dense jungle vegetation theman-thing broke through into an almost treeless area of considerableextent. For an instant he hesitated, glancing quickly behind him andthen up at the security of the branches of the great trees wavingoverhead, but some greater urge than fear or caution influenced hisdecision apparently, for he moved off again across the little plainleaving the safety of the trees behind him. At greater or lessintervals leafy sanctuaries dotted the grassy expanse ahead of him andthe route he took, leading from one to another, indicated that he hadnot entirely cast discretion to the winds. But after the second treehad been left behind the distance to the next was considerable, and itwas then that Numa walked from the concealing cover of the jungle and,seeing his quarry apparently helpless before him, raised his tailstiffly erect and charged.

  Two months--two long, weary months filled with hunger, with thirst,with hardships, with disappointment, and, greater than all, withgnawing pain--had passed since Tarzan of the Apes learned from thediary of the dead German captain that his wife still lived. A briefinvestigation in which he was enthusiastically aided by theIntelligence Department of the British East African Expedition revealedthe fact that an attempt had been made to keep Lady Jane in hiding inthe interior, for reasons of which only the German High Command mightbe cognizant.

  In charge of Lieutenant Obergatz and a detachment of native Germantroops she had been sent across the border into the Congo Free State.

  Starting out alone in search of her, Tarzan had succeeded in findingthe village in which she had been incarcerated only to learn that shehad escaped months before, and that the German officer had disappearedat the same time. From there on the stories of the chiefs and thewarriors whom he quizzed, were vague and often contradictory. Even thedirection that the fugitives had taken Tarzan could only guess at bypiecing together bits of fragmentary evidence gleaned from varioussources.

  Sinister conjectures were forced upon him by various observations whichhe made in the village. One was incontrovertible proof that thesepeople were man-eaters; the other, the presence in the village ofvarious articles of native German uniforms and equipment. At great riskand in the face of surly objection on the part of the chief, theape-man made a careful inspection of every hut in the village fromwhich at least a little ray of hope resulted from the fact that hefound no article that might have belonged to his wife.

  Leaving the village he had made his way toward the southwest, crossing,after the most appalling hardships, a vast waterless steppe covered forthe most part with dense thorn, coming at last into a district that hadprobably never been previously entered by any white man and which wasknown only in the legends of the tribes whose country bordered it. Herewere precipitous mountains, well-watered plateaus, wide plains, andvast swampy morasses, but neither the plains, nor the plateaus, nor themountains were accessible to him until after weeks of arduous effort hesucceeded in finding a spot where he might cross the morasses--ahideous stretch infested by venomous snakes and other larger dangerousreptiles. On several occasions he glimpsed at distances or by nightwhat might have been titanic reptilian monsters, but as there werehippopotami, rhinoceri, and elephants in great numbers in and about themarsh he was never positive that the forms he saw were not of these.

  When at last he stood upon firm ground after crossing the morasses herealized why it was that for perhaps countless ages this territory haddefied the courage and hardihood of the heroic races of the outer worldthat had, after innumerable reverses and unbelievable sufferingpenetrated to practically every other region, from pole to pole.

  From the abundance and diversity of the game it might have appearedthat every known species of bird and beast and reptile had sought herea refuge wherein they might take their last stand against theencroaching multitudes of men that had steadily spread themselves overthe surface of the earth, wresting the hunting grounds from the lowerorders, from the moment that the first ape shed his hair and ceased towalk upon his knuckles. Even the species with which Tarzan wasfamiliar showed here either the results of a divergent line ofevolution or an unaltered form that had been transmitted withoutvariation for countless ages.

  Too, there were many hybrid strains, not the least interesting of whic
hto Tarzan was a yellow and black striped lion. Smaller than the specieswith which Tarzan was familiar, but still a most formidable beast,since it possessed in addition to sharp saber-like canines thedisposition of a devil. To Tarzan it presented evidence that tigers hadonce roamed the jungles of Africa, possibly giant saber-tooths ofanother epoch, and these apparently had crossed with lions with theresultant terrors that he occasionally encountered at the present day.

  The true lions of this new, Old World differed but little from thosewith which he was familiar; in size and conformation they were almostidentical, but instead of shedding the leopard spots of cubhood, theyretained them through life as definitely marked as those of the leopard.

  Two months of effort had revealed no slightest evidence that she hesought had entered this beautiful yet forbidding land. Hisinvestigation, however, of the cannibal village and his questioning ofother tribes in the neighborhood had convinced him that if Lady Janestill lived it must be in this direction that he seek her, since by aprocess of elimination he had reduced the direction of her flight toonly this possibility. How she had crossed the morass he could notguess and yet something within seemed to urge upon him belief that shehad crossed it, and that if she still lived it was here that she mustbe sought. But this unknown, untraversed wild was of vast extent; grim,forbidding mountains blocked his way, torrents tumbling from rockyfastnesses impeded his progress, and at every turn he was forced tomatch wits and muscles with the great carnivora that he might procuresustenance.

  Time and again Tarzan and Numa stalked the same quarry and now one, nowthe other bore off the prize. Seldom however did the ape-man go hungryfor the country was rich in game animals and birds and fish, in fruitand the countless other forms of vegetable life upon which thejungle-bred man may subsist.

  Tarzan often wondered why in so rich a country he found no evidences ofman and had at last come to the conclusion that the parched,thorn-covered steppe and the hideous morasses had formed a sufficientbarrier to protect this country effectively from the inroads of mankind.

  After days of searching he had succeeded finally in discovering a passthrough the mountains and, coming down upon the opposite side, hadfound himself in a country practically identical with that which he hadleft. The hunting was good and at a water hole in the mouth of a canyonwhere it debouched upon a tree-covered plain Bara, the deer, fell aneasy victim to the ape-man's cunning.

  It was just at dusk. The voices of great four-footed hunters rose nowand again from various directions, and as the canyon afforded among itstrees no comfortable retreat the ape-man shouldered the carcass of thedeer and started downward onto the plain. At its opposite side roselofty trees--a great forest which suggested to his practiced eye amighty jungle. Toward this the ape-man bent his step, but when midwayof the plain he discovered standing alone such a tree as best suitedhim for a night's abode, swung lightly to its branches and, presently,a comfortable resting place.

  Here he ate the flesh of Bara and when satisfied carried the balance ofthe carcass to the opposite side of the tree where he deposited it farabove the ground in a secure place. Returning to his crotch he settledhimself for sleep and in another moment the roars of the lions and thehowlings of the lesser cats fell upon deaf ears.

  The usual noises of the jungle composed rather than disturbed theape-man but an unusual sound, however imperceptible to the awakened earof civilized man, seldom failed to impinge upon the consciousness ofTarzan, however deep his slumber, and so it was that when the moon washigh a sudden rush of feet across the grassy carpet in the vicinity ofhis tree brought him to alert and ready activity. Tarzan does notawaken as you and I with the weight of slumber still upon his eyes andbrain, for did the creatures of the wild awaken thus, their awakeningswould be few. As his eyes snapped open, clear and bright, so, clearand bright upon the nerve centers of his brain, were registered thevarious perceptions of all his senses.

  Almost beneath him, racing toward his tree was what at first glanceappeared to be an almost naked white man, yet even at the first instantof discovery the long, white tail projecting rearward did not escapethe ape-man. Behind the fleeing figure, escaping, came Numa, the lion,in full charge. Voiceless the prey, voiceless the killer; as twospirits in a dead world the two moved in silent swiftness toward theculminating tragedy of this grim race.

  Even as his eyes opened and took in the scene beneath him--even in thatbrief instant of perception, followed reason, judgment, and decision,so rapidly one upon the heels of the other that almost simultaneouslythe ape-man was in mid-air, for he had seen a white-skinned creaturecast in a mold similar to his own, pursued by Tarzan's hereditaryenemy. So close was the lion to the fleeing man-thing that Tarzan hadno time carefully to choose the method of his attack. As a diver leapsfrom the springboard headforemost into the waters beneath, so Tarzan ofthe Apes dove straight for Numa, the lion; naked in his right hand theblade of his father that so many times before had tasted the blood oflions.

  A raking talon caught Tarzan on the side, inflicting a long, deep woundand then the ape-man was on Numa's back and the blade was sinking againand again into the savage side. Nor was the man-thing either longerfleeing, or idle. He too, creature of the wild, had sensed on theinstant the truth of the miracle of his saving, and turning in histracks, had leaped forward with raised bludgeon to Tarzan's assistanceand Numa's undoing. A single terrific blow upon the flattened skull ofthe beast laid him insensible and then as Tarzan's knife found the wildheart a few convulsive shudders and a sudden relaxation marked thepassing of the carnivore.

  Leaping to his feet the ape-man placed his foot upon the carcass of hiskill and, raising his face to Goro, the moon, voiced the savage victorycry that had so often awakened the echoes of his native jungle.

  As the hideous scream burst from the ape-man's lips the man-thingstepped quickly back as in sudden awe, but when Tarzan returned hishunting knife to its sheath and turned toward him the other saw in thequiet dignity of his demeanor no cause for apprehension.

  For a moment the two stood appraising each other, and then theman-thing spoke. Tarzan realized that the creature before him wasuttering articulate sounds which expressed in speech, though in alanguage with which Tarzan was unfamiliar, the thoughts of a manpossessing to a greater or less extent the same powers of reason thathe possessed. In other words, that though the creature before him hadthe tail and thumbs and great toes of a monkey, it was, in all otherrespects, quite evidently a man.

  The blood, which was now flowing down Tarzan's side, caught thecreature's attention. From the pocket-pouch at his side he took a smallbag and approaching Tarzan indicated by signs that he wished theape-man to lie down that he might treat the wound, whereupon, spreadingthe edges of the cut apart, he sprinkled the raw flesh with powder fromthe little bag. The pain of the wound was as nothing to the exquisitetorture of the remedy but, accustomed to physical suffering, theape-man withstood it stoically and in a few moments not only had thebleeding ceased but the pain as well.

  In reply to the soft and far from unpleasant modulations of the other'svoice, Tarzan spoke in various tribal dialects of the interior as wellas in the language of the great apes, but it was evident that the manunderstood none of these. Seeing that they could not make each otherunderstood, the pithecanthropus advanced toward Tarzan and placing hisleft hand over his own heart laid the palm of his right hand over theheart of the ape-man. To the latter the action appeared as a form offriendly greeting and, being versed in the ways of uncivilized races,he responded in kind as he realized it was doubtless intended that heshould. His action seemed to satisfy and please his new-foundacquaintance, who immediately fell to talking again and finally, withhis head tipped back, sniffed the air in the direction of the treeabove them and then suddenly pointing toward the carcass of Bara, thedeer, he touched his stomach in a sign language which even the densestmight interpret. With a wave of his hand Tarzan invited his guest topartake of the remains of his savage repast, and the other, leapingnimbly as a little monkey to the lower bran
ches of the tree, made hisway quickly to the flesh, assisted always by his long, strong sinuoustail.

  The pithecanthropus ate in silence, cutting small strips from thedeer's loin with his keen knife. From his crotch in the tree Tarzanwatched his companion, noting the preponderance of human attributeswhich were doubtless accentuated by the paradoxical thumbs, great toes,and tail.

  He wondered if this creature was representative of some strange race orif, what seemed more likely, but an atavism. Either supposition wouldhave seemed preposterous enough did he not have before him the evidenceof the creature's existence. There he was, however, a tailed man withdistinctly arboreal hands and feet. His trappings, gold encrusted andjewel studded, could have been wrought only by skilled artisans; butwhether they were the work of this individual or of others like him, orof an entirely different race, Tarzan could not, of course, determine.

  His meal finished, the guest wiped his fingers and lips with leavesbroken from a nearby branch, looked up at Tarzan with a pleasant smilethat revealed a row of strong white teeth, the canines of which were nolonger than Tarzan's own, spoke a few words which Tarzan judged were apolite expression of thanks and then sought a comfortable place in thetree for the night.

  The earth was shadowed in the darkness which precedes the dawn whenTarzan was awakened by a violent shaking of the tree in which he hadfound shelter. As he opened his eyes he saw that his companion was alsoastir, and glancing around quickly to apprehend the cause of thedisturbance, the ape-man was astounded at the sight which met his eyes.

  The dim shadow of a colossal form reared close beside the tree and hesaw that it was the scraping of the giant body against the branchesthat had awakened him. That such a tremendous creature could haveapproached so closely without disturbing him filled Tarzan with bothwonderment and chagrin. In the gloom the ape-man at first conceived theintruder to be an elephant; yet, if so, one of greater proportions thanany he had ever before seen, but as the dim outlines became lessindistinct he saw on a line with his eyes and twenty feet above theground the dim silhouette of a grotesquely serrated back that gave theimpression of a creature whose each and every spinal vertebra grew athick, heavy horn. Only a portion of the back was visible to theape-man, the rest of the body being lost in the dense shadows beneaththe tree, from whence there now arose the sound of giant jawspowerfully crunching flesh and bones. From the odors that rose to theape-man's sensitive nostrils he presently realized that beneath him wassome huge reptile feeding upon the carcass of the lion that had beenslain there earlier in the night.

  As Tarzan's eyes, straining with curiosity, bored futilely into thedark shadows he felt a light touch upon his shoulder, and, turning, sawthat his companion was attempting to attract his attention. Thecreature, pressing a forefinger to his own lips as to enjoin silence,attempted by pulling on Tarzan's arm to indicate that they should leaveat once.

  Realizing that he was in a strange country, evidently infested bycreatures of titanic size, with the habits and powers of which he wasentirely unfamiliar, the ape-man permitted himself to be drawn away.With the utmost caution the pithecanthropus descended the tree upon theopposite side from the great nocturnal prowler, and, closely followedby Tarzan, moved silently away through the night across the plain.

  The ape-man was rather loath thus to relinquish an opportunity toinspect a creature which he realized was probably entirely differentfrom anything in his past experience; yet he was wise enough to knowwhen discretion was the better part of valor and now, as in the past,he yielded to that law which dominates the kindred of the wild,preventing them from courting danger uselessly, whose lives aresufficiently filled with danger in their ordinary routine of feedingand mating.

  As the rising sun dispelled the shadows of the night, Tarzan foundhimself again upon the verge of a great forest into which his guideplunged, taking nimbly to the branches of the trees through which hemade his way with the celerity of long habitude and hereditaryinstinct, but though aided by a prehensile tail, fingers, and toes, theman-thing moved through the forest with no greater ease or surety thandid the giant ape-man.

  It was during this journey that Tarzan recalled the wound in his sideinflicted upon him the previous night by the raking talons of Numa, thelion, and examining it was surprised to discover that not only was itpainless but along its edges were no indications of inflammation, theresults doubtless of the antiseptic powder his strange companion hadsprinkled upon it.

  They had proceeded for a mile or two when Tarzan's companion came toearth upon a grassy slope beneath a great tree whose branches overhunga clear brook. Here they drank and Tarzan discovered the water to benot only deliciously pure and fresh but of an icy temperature thatindicated its rapid descent from the lofty mountains of its origin.

  Casting aside his loin cloth and weapons Tarzan entered the little poolbeneath the tree and after a moment emerged, greatly refreshed andfilled with a keen desire to breakfast. As he came out of the pool henoticed his companion examining him with a puzzled expression upon hisface. Taking the ape-man by the shoulder he turned him around so thatTarzan's back was toward him and then, touching the end of Tarzan'sspine with his forefinger, he curled his own tail up over his shoulderand, wheeling the ape-man about again, pointed first at Tarzan and thenat his own caudal appendage, a look of puzzlement upon his face, thewhile he jabbered excitedly in his strange tongue.

  The ape-man realized that probably for the first time his companion haddiscovered that he was tailless by nature rather than by accident, andso he called attention to his own great toes and thumbs to furtherimpress upon the creature that they were of different species.

  The fellow shook his head dubiously as though entirely unable tocomprehend why Tarzan should differ so from him but at last, apparentlygiving the problem up with a shrug, he laid aside his own harness,skin, and weapons and entered the pool.

  His ablutions completed and his meager apparel redonned he seatedhimself at the foot of the tree and motioning Tarzan to a place besidehim, opened the pouch that hung at his right side taking from it stripsof dried flesh and a couple of handfuls of thin-shelled nuts with whichTarzan was unfamiliar. Seeing the other break them with his teeth andeat the kernel, Tarzan followed the example thus set him, discoveringthe meat to be rich and well flavored. The dried flesh also was farfrom unpalatable, though it had evidently been jerked without salt, acommodity which Tarzan imagined might be rather difficult to obtain inthis locality.

  As they ate Tarzan's companion pointed to the nuts, the dried meat, andvarious other nearby objects, in each instance repeating what Tarzanreadily discovered must be the names of these things in the creature'snative language. The ape-man could but smile at this evident desireupon the part of his new-found acquaintance to impart to himinstructions that eventually might lead to an exchange of thoughtsbetween them. Having already mastered several languages and a multitudeof dialects the ape-man felt that he could readily assimilate anothereven though this appeared one entirely unrelated to any with which hewas familiar.

  So occupied were they with their breakfast and the lesson that neitherwas aware of the beady eyes glittering down upon them from above; norwas Tarzan cognizant of any impending danger until the instant that ahuge, hairy body leaped full upon his companion from the branches abovethem.