Tarzan of the Apes
frightful manner as they fought with their jungle neighbors, yet as
often recovered as not.
No, there was something mysterious connected with these tiny slivers of
wood which could bring death by a mere scratch. He must look into the
matter.
That night Kulonga slept in the crotch of a mighty tree and far above
him crouched Tarzan of the Apes.
When Kulonga awoke he found that his bow and arrows had disappeared.
The black warrior was furious and frightened, but more frightened than
furious. He searched the ground below the tree, and he searched the
tree above the ground; but there was no sign of either bow or arrows or
of the nocturnal marauder.
Kulonga was panic-stricken. His spear he had hurled at Kala and had not
recovered; and, now that his bow and arrows were gone, he was
defenseless except for a single knife. His only hope lay in reaching
the village of Mbonga as quickly as his legs would carry him.
That he was not far from home he was certain, so he took the trail at a
rapid trot.
From a great mass of impenetrable foliage a few yards away emerged
Tarzan of the Apes to swing quietly in his wake.
Kulonga’s bow and arrows were securely tied high in the top of a giant
tree from which a patch of bark had been removed by a sharp knife near
to the ground, and a branch half cut through and left hanging about
fifty feet higher up. Thus Tarzan blazed the forest trails and marked
his caches.
As Kulonga continued his journey Tarzan closed on him until he traveled
almost over the black’s head. His rope he now held coiled in his right
hand; he was almost ready for the kill.
The moment was delayed only because Tarzan was anxious to ascertain the
black warrior’s destination, and presently he was rewarded, for they
came suddenly in view of a great clearing, at one end of which lay many
strange lairs.
Tarzan was directly over Kulonga, as he made the discovery. The forest
ended abruptly and beyond lay two hundred yards of planted fields
between the jungle and the village.
Tarzan must act quickly or his prey would be gone; but Tarzan’s life
training left so little space between decision and action when an
emergency confronted him that there was not even room for the shadow of
a thought between.
So it was that as Kulonga emerged from the shadow of the jungle a
slender coil of rope sped sinuously above him from the lowest branch of
a mighty tree directly upon the edge of the fields of Mbonga, and ere
the king’s son had taken a half dozen steps into the clearing a quick
noose tightened about his neck.
So quickly did Tarzan of the Apes drag back his prey that Kulonga’s cry
of alarm was throttled in his windpipe. Hand over hand Tarzan drew the
struggling black until he had him hanging by his neck in mid-air; then
Tarzan climbed to a larger branch drawing the still threshing victim
well up into the sheltering verdure of the tree.
Here he fastened the rope securely to a stout branch, and then,
descending, plunged his hunting knife into Kulonga’s heart. Kala was
avenged.
Tarzan examined the black minutely, for he had never seen any other
human being. The knife with its sheath and belt caught his eye; he
appropriated them. A copper anklet also took his fancy, and this he
transferred to his own leg.
He examined and admired the tattooing on the forehead and breast. He
marveled at the sharp filed teeth. He investigated and appropriated the
feathered headdress, and then he prepared to get down to business, for
Tarzan of the Apes was hungry, and here was meat; meat of the kill,
which jungle ethics permitted him to eat.
How may we judge him, by what standards, this ape-man with the heart
and head and body of an English gentleman, and the training of a wild
beast?
Tublat, whom he had hated and who had hated him, he had killed in a
fair fight, and yet never had the thought of eating Tublat’s flesh
entered his head. It would have been as revolting to him as is
cannibalism to us.
But who was Kulonga that he might not be eaten as fairly as Horta, the
boar, or Bara, the deer? Was he not simply another of the countless
wild things of the jungle who preyed upon one another to satisfy the
cravings of hunger?
Suddenly, a strange doubt stayed his hand. Had not his books taught him
that he was a man? And was not The Archer a man, also?
Did men eat men? Alas, he did not know. Why, then, this hesitancy! Once
more he essayed the effort, but a qualm of nausea overwhelmed him. He
did not understand.
All he knew was that he could not eat the flesh of this black man, and
thus hereditary instinct, ages old, usurped the functions of his
untaught mind and saved him from transgressing a worldwide law of whose
very existence he was ignorant.
Quickly he lowered Kulonga’s body to the ground, removed the noose, and
took to the trees again.
CHAPTER X.
The Fear-Phantom
From a lofty perch Tarzan viewed the village of thatched huts across
the intervening plantation.
He saw that at one point the forest touched the village, and to this
spot he made his way, lured by a fever of curiosity to behold animals
of his own kind, and to learn more of their ways and view the strange
lairs in which they lived.
His savage life among the fierce wild brutes of the jungle left no
opening for any thought that these could be aught else than enemies.
Similarity of form led him into no erroneous conception of the welcome
that would be accorded him should he be discovered by these, the first
of his own kind he had ever seen.
Tarzan of the Apes was no sentimentalist. He knew nothing of the
brotherhood of man. All things outside his own tribe were his deadly
enemies, with the few exceptions of which Tantor, the elephant, was a
marked example.
And he realized all this without malice or hatred. To kill was the law
of the wild world he knew. Few were his primitive pleasures, but the
greatest of these was to hunt and kill, and so he accorded to others
the right to cherish the same desires as he, even though he himself
might be the object of their hunt.
His strange life had left him neither morose nor bloodthirsty. That he
joyed in killing, and that he killed with a joyous laugh upon his
handsome lips betokened no innate cruelty. He killed for food most
often, but, being a man, he sometimes killed for pleasure, a thing
which no other animal does; for it has remained for man alone among all
creatures to kill senselessly and wantonly for the mere pleasure of
inflicting suffering and death.
And when he killed for revenge, or in self-defense, he did that also
without hysteria, for it was a very businesslike proceeding which
admitted of no levity.
So it was that now, as he cautiously approached the village of Mbonga,
he was quite prepared either to kill or be killed should he be
discovered. He proceeded with unwonted stealth, for Kulonga had taught
him great respect for the little sharp splinters of wood which dealt
death so swiftly and unerringly.
At length he came to a great tree, heavy laden with thick foliage and
loaded with pendant loops of giant creepers. From this almost
impenetrable bower above the village he crouched, looking down upon the
scene below him, wondering over every feature of this new, strange
life.
There were naked children running and playing in the village street.
There were women grinding dried plantain in crude stone mortars, while
others were fashioning cakes from the powdered flour. Out in the fields
he could see still other women hoeing, weeding, or gathering.
All wore strange protruding girdles of dried grass about their hips and
many were loaded with brass and copper anklets, armlets and bracelets.
Around many a dusky neck hung curiously coiled strands of wire, while
several were further ornamented by huge nose rings.
Tarzan of the Apes looked with growing wonder at these strange
creatures. Dozing in the shade he saw several men, while at the extreme
outskirts of the clearing he occasionally caught glimpses of armed
warriors apparently guarding the village against surprise from an
attacking enemy.
He noticed that the women alone worked. Nowhere was there evidence of a
man tilling the fields or performing any of the homely duties of the
village.
Finally his eyes rested upon a woman directly beneath him.
Before her was a small cauldron standing over a low fire and in it
bubbled a thick, reddish, tarry mass. On one side of her lay a quantity
of wooden arrows the points of which she dipped into the seething
substance, then laying them upon a narrow rack of boughs which stood
upon her other side.
Tarzan of the Apes was fascinated. Here was the secret of the terrible
destructiveness of The Archer’s tiny missiles. He noted the extreme
care which the woman took that none of the matter should touch her
hands, and once when a particle spattered upon one of her fingers he
saw her plunge the member into a vessel of water and quickly rub the
tiny stain away with a handful of leaves.
Tarzan knew nothing of poison, but his shrewd reasoning told him that
it was this deadly stuff that killed, and not the little arrow, which
was merely the messenger that carried it into the body of its victim.
How he should like to have more of those little death-dealing slivers.
If the woman would only leave her work for an instant he could drop
down, gather up a handful, and be back in the tree again before she
drew three breaths.
As he was trying to think out some plan to distract her attention he
heard a wild cry from across the clearing. He looked and saw a black
warrior standing beneath the very tree in which he had killed the
murderer of Kala an hour before.
The fellow was shouting and waving his spear above his head. Now and
again he would point to something on the ground before him.
The village was in an uproar instantly. Armed men rushed from the
interior of many a hut and raced madly across the clearing toward the
excited sentry. After them trooped the old men, and the women and
children until, in a moment, the village was deserted.
Tarzan of the Apes knew that they had found the body of his victim, but
that interested him far less than the fact that no one remained in the
village to prevent his taking a supply of the arrows which lay below
him.
Quickly and noiselessly he dropped to the ground beside the cauldron of
poison. For a moment he stood motionless, his quick, bright eyes
scanning the interior of the palisade.
No one was in sight. His eyes rested upon the open doorway of a nearby
hut. He would take a look within, thought Tarzan, and so, cautiously,
he approached the low thatched building.
For a moment he stood without, listening intently. There was no sound,
and he glided into the semi-darkness of the interior.
Weapons hung against the walls—long spears, strangely shaped knives, a
couple of narrow shields. In the center of the room was a cooking pot,
and at the far end a litter of dry grasses covered by woven mats which
evidently served the owners as beds and bedding. Several human skulls
lay upon the floor.
Tarzan of the Apes felt of each article, hefted the spears, smelled of
them, for he “saw” largely through his sensitive and highly trained
nostrils. He determined to own one of these long, pointed sticks, but
he could not take one on this trip because of the arrows he meant to
carry.
As he took each article from the walls, he placed it in a pile in the
center of the room. On top of all he placed the cooking pot, inverted,
and on top of this he laid one of the grinning skulls, upon which he
fastened the headdress of the dead Kulonga.
Then he stood back, surveyed his work, and grinned. Tarzan of the Apes
enjoyed a joke.
But now he heard, outside, the sounds of many voices, and long mournful