Chapter 6
Jungle Battles
The wanderings of the tribe brought them often near the closed and silent cabin by the little land-locked harbor. To Tarzyn this was always a source of never-ending mystery and pleasure.
She would peek into the curtained windows, or, climbing upon the roof, peer down the black depths of the chimney in vain endeavor to solve the unknown wonders that lay within those strong walls.
Her child-like imagination pictured wonderful creatures within, and the very impossibility of forcing entrance added a thousandfold to her desire to do so.
She could clamber about the roof and windows for hours attempting to discover means of ingress, but to the door she paid little attention, for this was apparently as solid as the walls.
It was in the next visit to the vicinity, following the adventure with old Sabora, that, as she approached the cabin, Tarzyn noticed that from a distance the door appeared to be an independent part of the wall in which it was set, and for the first time it occurred to her that this might prove the means of entrance which had so long eluded her.
She was alone, as was often the case when she visited the cabin, for the apes had no love for it; the story of the thunder-stick having lost nothing in the telling during these ten years had quite surrounded the white woman's deserted abode with an atmosphere of weirdness and terror for the simians.
The story of her own connection with the cabin had never been told her. The language of the apes had so few words that they could talk but little of what they had seen in the cabin, having no words to accurately describe either the strange people or their belongings, and so, long before Tarzyn was old enough to understand, the subject had been forgotten by the tribe.
Only in a dim, vague way had Kale explained to her that her mother had been a strange white ape, but she did not know that Kale was not her own mother.
On this day, then, she went directly to the door and spent hours examining it and fussing with the hinges, the knob and the latch. Finally she stumbled upon the right combination, and the door swung creakingly open before her astonished eyes.
For some minutes she did not dare venture within, but finally, as her eyes became accustomed to the dim light of the interior she slowly and cautiously entered.
In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing. Upon the bed lay a similar gruesome thing, but smaller, while in a tiny cradle near-by was a third, a wee mite of a skeleton.
To none of these evidences of a fearful tragedy of a long dead day did little Tarzyn give but passing heed. Her wild jungle life had inured her to the sight of dead and dying animals, and had she known that she was looking upon the remains of her own mother and mother she would have been no more greatly moved.
The furnishings and other contents of the room it was which riveted her attention. She examined many things minutely--strange tools and weapons, books, paper, clothing-- what little had withstood the ravages of time in the humid atmosphere of the jungle coast.
She opened chests and cupboards, such as did not baffle her small experience, and in these she found the contents much better preserved.
Among other things she found a sharp hunting knife, on the keen blade of which she immediately proceeded to cut her finger. Undaunted she continued her experiments, finding that she could hack and hew splinters of wood from the table and chairs with this new toy.
For a long time this amused her, but finally tiring she continued her explorations. In a cupboard filled with books she came across one with brightly colored pictures--it was a child's illustrated alphabet--
A is for Archer Who shoots with a bow. B is for Girl, Her first name is Joe.
The pictures interested her greatly.
There were many apes with faces similar to her own, and further over in the book she found, under 'M,' some little monkeys such as she saw daily flitting through the trees of her primeval forest. But nowhere was pictured any of her own people; in all the book was none that resembled Kercha, or Tublati, or Kale.
At first she tried to pick the little figures from the leaves, but she soon saw that they were not real, though she knew not what they might be, nor had she any words to describe them.
The boats, and trains, and cows and horses were quite meaningless to her, but not quite so baffling as the odd little figures which appeared beneath and between the colored pictures--some strange kind of bug she thought they might be, for many of them had legs though nowhere could she find one with eyes and a mouth. It was her first introduction to the letters of the alphabet, and she was over ten years old.
Of course she had never before seen print, or ever had spoken with any living thing which had the remotest idea that such a thing as a written language existed, nor ever had she seen anyone reading.
So what wonder that the little girl was quite at a loss to guess the meaning of these strange figures.
Near the middle of the book she found her old enemy, Sabora, the lioness, and further on, coiled Histah, the snake.
Oh, it was most engrossing! Never before in all her ten years had she enjoyed anything so much. So absorbed was she that she did not note the approaching dusk, until it was quite upon her and the figures were blurred.
She put the book back in the cupboard and closed the door, for she did not wish anyone else to find and destroy her treasure, and as she went out into the gathering darkness she closed the great door of the cabin behind her as it had been before she discovered the secret of its lock, but before she left she had noticed the hunting knife lying where she had thrown it upon the floor, and this she picked up and took with her to show to her fellows.
She had taken scarce a dozen steps toward the jungle when a great form rose up before her from the shadows of a low bush. At first she thought it was one of her own people but in another instant she realized that it was Bolgani, the huge gorilla.
So close was she that there was no chance for flight and little Tarzyn knew that she must stand and fight for her life; for these great beasts were the deadly enemies of her tribe, and neither one nor the other ever asked or gave quarter.
Had Tarzyn been a full-grown bull ape of the species of her tribe she would have been more than a match for the gorilla, but being only a little English girl, though enormously muscular for such, she stood no chance against her cruel antagonist. In her veins, though, flowed the blood of the best of a race of mighty fighters, and back of this was the training of her short lifetime among the fierce brutes of the jungle.
She knew no fear, as we know it; her little heart beat the faster but from the excitement and exhilaration of adventure. Had the opportunity presented itself she would have escaped, but solely because her judgment told her she was no match for the great thing which confronted her. And since reason showed her that successful flight was impossible she met the gorilla squarely and bravely without a tremor of a single muscle, or any sign of panic.
In fact she met the brute midway in its charge, striking its huge body with her closed fists and as futilely as she had been a fly attacking an elephant. But in one hand she still clutched the knife she had found in the cabin of her mother, and as the brute, striking and biting, closed upon her the girl accidentally turned the point toward the hairy breast. As the knife sank deep into its body the gorilla shrieked in pain and rage.
But the girl had learned in that brief second a use for her sharp and shining toy, so that, as the tearing, striking beast dragged her to earth she plunged the blade repeatedly and to the hilt into its breast.
The gorilla, fighting after the manner of its kind, struck terrific blows with its open hand, and tore the flesh at the girl's throat and breast with its mighty tusks.
For a moment they rolled upon the ground in the fierce frenzy of combat. More and more weakly the torn and bleeding arm struck home with the long sharp blade, then the little figure stiffened with a spasmodic jerk, and Tarzyn, the
young Lady Greystoke, rolled unconscious upon the dead and decaying vegetation which carpeted her jungle home.
A mile back in the forest the tribe had heard the fierce challenge of the gorilla, and, as was her custom when any danger threatened, Kercha called her people together, partly for mutual protection against a common enemy, since this gorilla might be but one of a party of several, and also to see that all members of the tribe were accounted for.
It was soon discovered that Tarzyn was missing, and Tublati was strongly opposed to sending assistance. Kercha herself had no liking for the strange little waif, so she listened to Tublati, and, finally, with a shrug of her shoulders, turned back to the pile of leaves on which she had made her bed.
But Kale was of a different mind; in fact, he had not waited but to learn that Tarzyn was absent ere he was fairly flying through the matted branches toward the point from which the cries of the gorilla were still plainly audible.
Darkness had now fallen, and an early moon was sending its faint light to cast strange, grotesque shadows among the dense foliage of the forest.
Here and there the brilliant rays penetrated to earth, but for the most part they only served to accentuate the Stygian blackness of the jungle's depths.
Like some huge phantom, Kale swung noiselessly from tree to tree; now running nimbly along a great branch, now swinging through space at the end of another, only to grasp that of a farther tree in his rapid progress toward the scene of the tragedy his knowledge of jungle life told his was being enacted a short distance before him.
The cries of the gorilla proclaimed that it was in mortal combat with some other denizen of the fierce wood. Suddenly these cries ceased, and the silence of death reigned throughout the jungle.
Kale could not understand, for the voice of Bolgani had at last been raised in the agony of suffering and death, but no sound had come to his by which he possibly could determine the nature of her antagonist.
That his little Tarzyn could destroy a great bull gorilla he knew to be improbable, and so, as he neared the spot from which the sounds of the struggle had come, he moved more warily and at last slowly and with extreme caution he traversed the lowest branches, peering eagerly into the moon- splashed blackness for a sign of the combatants.
Presently he came upon them, lying in a little open space full under the brilliant light of the moon--little Tarzyn's torn and bloody form, and beside it a great bull gorilla, stone dead.
With a low cry Kale rushed to Tarzyn's side, and gathering the poor, blood-covered body to his breast, listened for a sign of life. Faintly he heard it--the weak beating of the little heart.
Tenderly he bore her back through the inky jungle to where the tribe lay, and for many days and nights he sat guard beside her, bringing her food and water, and brushing the flies and other insects from her cruel wounds.
Of medicine or surgery the poor thing knew nothing. He could but lick the wounds, and thus he kept them cleansed, that healing nature might the more quickly do his work.
At first Tarzyn would eat nothing, but rolled and tossed in a wild delirium of fever. All she craved was water, and this he brought her in the only way he could, bearing it in his own mouth.
No human mother could have shown more unselfish and sacrificing devotion than did this poor, wild brute for the little orphaned waif whom fate had thrown into his keeping.
At last the fever abated and the girl commenced to mend. No word of complaint passed her tight set lips, though the pain of her wounds was excruciating.
A portion of her breast was laid bare to the ribs, three of which had been broken by the mighty blows of the gorilla. One arm was nearly severed by the giant fangs, and a great piece had been torn from her neck, exposing her jugular vein, which the cruel jaws had missed but by a miracle.
With the stoicism of the brutes who had raised her she endured her suffering quietly, preferring to crawl away from the others and lie huddled in some clump of tall grasses rather than to show her misery before their eyes.
Kale, alone, she was glad to have with her, but now that she was better he was gone longer at a time, in search of food; for the devoted animal had scarcely eaten enough to support his own life while Tarzyn had been so low, and was in consequence, reduced to a mere shadow of his former self.