7
Jungle Craft
Presently he looked up and at Pan-at-lee. "Can you cross the gorgethrough the trees very rapidly?" he questioned.
"Alone?" she asked.
"No," replied Tarzan.
"I can follow wherever you can lead," she said then.
"Across and back again?"
"Yes."
"Then come, and do exactly as I bid." He started back again through thetrees, swiftly, swinging monkey-like from limb to limb, following azigzag course that he tried to select with an eye for the difficultiesof the trail beneath. Where the underbrush was heaviest, where fallentrees blocked the way, he led the footsteps of the creature below them;but all to no avail. When they reached the opposite side of the gorgethe GRYF was with them.
"Back again," said Tarzan, and, turning, the two retraced theirhigh-flung way through the upper terraces of the ancient forest ofKor-ul-GRYF. But the result was the same--no, not quite; it was worse,for another GRYF had joined the first and now two waited beneath thetree in which they stopped.
The cliff looming high above them with its innumerable cave mouthsseemed to beckon and to taunt them. It was so near, yet eternity yawnedbetween. The body of the Tor-o-don lay at the cliff's foot where it hadfallen. It was in plain view of the two in the tree. One of the gryfswalked over and sniffed about it, but did not offer to devour it.Tarzan had examined it casually as he had passed earlier in themorning. He guessed that it represented either a very high order of apeor a very low order of man--something akin to the Java man, perhaps; atruer example of the pithecanthropi than either the Ho-don or theWaz-don; possibly the precursor of them both. As his eyes wandered idlyover the scene below his active brain was working out the details ofthe plan that he had made to permit Pan-at-lee's escape from the gorge.His thoughts were interrupted by a strange cry from above them in thegorge.
"Whee-oo! Whee-oo!" it sounded, coming closer.
The gryfs below raised their heads and looked in the direction of theinterruption. One of them made a low, rumbling sound in its throat. Itwas not a bellow and it did not indicate anger. Immediately the"Whee-oo!" responded. The gryfs repeated the rumbling and at intervalsthe "Whee-oo!" was repeated, coming ever closer.
Tarzan looked at Pan-at-lee. "What is it?" he asked.
"I do not know," she replied. "Perhaps a strange bird, or anotherhorrid beast that dwells in this frightful place."
"Ah," exclaimed Tarzan; "there it is. Look!"
Pan-at-lee voiced a cry of despair. "A Tor-o-don!"
The creature, walking erect and carrying a stick in one hand, advancedat a slow, lumbering gait. It walked directly toward the gryfs whomoved aside, as though afraid. Tarzan watched intently. The Tor-o-donwas now quite close to one of the triceratops. It swung its head andsnapped at him viciously. Instantly the Tor-o-don sprang in andcommenced to belabor the huge beast across the face with his stick. Tothe ape-man's amazement the GRYF, that might have annihilated thecomparatively puny Tor-o-don instantly in any of a dozen ways, cringedlike a whipped cur.
"Whee-oo! Whee-oo!" shouted the Tor-o-don and the GRYF came slowlytoward him. A whack on the median horn brought it to a stop. Then theTor-o-don walked around behind it, clambered up its tail and seatedhimself astraddle of the huge back. "Whee-oo!" he shouted and proddedthe beast with a sharp point of his stick. The GRYF commenced to moveoff.
So rapt had Tarzan been in the scene below him that he had given nothought to escape, for he realized that for him and Pan-at-lee time hadin these brief moments turned back countless ages to spread beforetheir eyes a page of the dim and distant past. They two had looked uponthe first man and his primitive beasts of burden.
And now the ridden GRYF halted and looked up at them, bellowing. It wassufficient. The creature had warned its master of their presence.Instantly the Tor-o-don urged the beast close beneath the tree whichheld them, at the same time leaping to his feet upon the horny back.Tarzan saw the bestial face, the great fangs, the mighty muscles. Fromthe loins of such had sprung the human race--and only from such couldit have sprung, for only such as this might have survived the horriddangers of the age that was theirs.
The Tor-o-don beat upon his breast and growled horribly--hideous,uncouth, beastly. Tarzan rose to his full height upon a swayingbranch--straight and beautiful as a demigod--unspoiled by the taint ofcivilization--a perfect specimen of what the human race might have beenhad the laws of man not interfered with the laws of nature.
The Present fitted an arrow to his bow and drew the shaft far back. ThePast basing its claims upon brute strength sought to reach the otherand drag him down; but the loosed arrow sank deep into the savage heartand the Past sank back into the oblivion that had claimed his kind.
"Tarzan-jad-guru!" murmured Pan-at-lee, unknowingly giving him out ofthe fullness of her admiration the same title that the warriors of hertribe had bestowed upon him.
The ape-man turned to her. "Pan-at-lee," he said, "these beasts maykeep us treed here indefinitely. I doubt if we can escape together, butI have a plan. You remain here, hiding yourself in the foliage, while Istart back across the gorge in sight of them and yelling to attracttheir attention. Unless they have more brains than I suspect they willfollow me. When they are gone you make for the cliff. Wait for me inthe cave not longer than today. If I do not come by tomorrow's sun youwill have to start back for Kor-ul-JA alone. Here is a joint of deermeat for you." He had severed one of the deer's hind legs and this hepassed up to her.
"I cannot desert you," she said simply; "it is not the way of my peopleto desert a friend and ally. Om-at would never forgive me."
"Tell Om-at that I commanded you to go," replied Tarzan.
"It is a command?" she asked.
"It is! Good-bye, Pan-at-lee. Hasten back to Om-at--you are a fittingmate for the chief of Kor-ul-JA." He moved off slowly through the trees.
"Good-bye, Tarzan-jad-guru!" she called after him. "Fortunate are myOm-at and his Pan-at-lee in owning such a friend."
Tarzan, shouting aloud, continued upon his way and the great gryfs,lured by his voice, followed beneath. His ruse was evidently provingsuccessful and he was filled with elation as he led the bellowingbeasts farther and farther from Pan-at-lee. He hoped that she wouldtake advantage of the opportunity afforded her for escape, yet at thesame time he was filled with concern as to her ability to survive thedangers which lay between Kor-ul-GRYF and Kor-ul-JA. There were lionsand Tor-o-dons and the unfriendly tribe of Kor-ul-lul to hinder herprogress, though the distance in itself to the cliffs of her people wasnot great.
He realized her bravery and understood the resourcefulness that shemust share in common with all primitive people who, day by day, mustcontend face to face with nature's law of the survival of the fittest,unaided by any of the numerous artificial protections that civilizationhas thrown around its brood of weaklings.
Several times during this crossing of the gorge Tarzan endeavored tooutwit his keen pursuers, but all to no avail. Double as he would hecould not throw them off his track and ever as he changed his coursethey changed theirs to conform. Along the verge of the forest upon thesoutheastern side of the gorge he sought some point at which the treestouched some negotiable portion of the cliff, but though he traveledfar both up and down the gorge he discovered no such easy avenue ofescape. The ape-man finally commenced to entertain an idea of thehopelessness of his case and to realize to the full why the Kor-ul-GRYFhad been religiously abjured by the races of Pal-ul-don for all thesemany ages.
Night was falling and though since early morning he had soughtdiligently a way out of this cul-de-sac he was no nearer to libertythan at the moment the first bellowing GRYF had charged him as hestooped over the carcass of his kill: but with the falling of nightcame renewed hope for, in common with the great cats, Tarzan was, to agreater or lesser extent, a nocturnal beast. It is true he could notsee by night as well as they, but that lack was largely recompensed forby the keenness of his scent and the highly developed sensitiveness ofhis other orga
ns of perception. As the blind follow and interpret theirBraille characters with deft fingers, so Tarzan reads the book of thejungle with feet and hands and eyes and ears and nose; eachcontributing its share to the quick and accurate translation of thetext.
But again he was doomed to be thwarted by one vital weakness--he didnot know the GRYF, and before the night was over he wondered if thethings never slept, for wheresoever he moved they moved also, andalways they barred his road to liberty. Finally, just before dawn, herelinquished his immediate effort and sought rest in a friendly treecrotch in the safety of the middle terrace.
Once again was the sun high when Tarzan awoke, rested and refreshed.Keen to the necessities of the moment he made no effort to locate hisjailers lest in the act he might apprise them of his movements. Insteadhe sought cautiously and silently to melt away among the foliage of thetrees. His first move, however, was heralded by a deep bellow frombelow.
Among the numerous refinements of civilization that Tarzan had failedto acquire was that of profanity, and possibly it is to be regrettedsince there are circumstances under which it is at least a relief topent emotion. And it may be that in effect Tarzan resorted to profanityif there can be physical as well as vocal swearing, since immediatelythe bellow announced that his hopes had been again frustrated, heturned quickly and seeing the hideous face of the GRYF below him seizeda large fruit from a nearby branch and hurled it viciously at thehorned snout. The missile struck full between the creature's eyes,resulting in a reaction that surprised the ape-man; it did not arousethe beast to a show of revengeful rage as Tarzan had expected andhoped; instead the creature gave a single vicious side snap at thefruit as it bounded from his skull and then turned sulkily away,walking off a few steps.
There was that in the act that recalled immediately to Tarzan's mindsimilar action on the preceding day when the Tor-o-don had struck oneof the creatures across the face with his staff, and instantly theresprung to the cunning and courageous brain a plan of escape from hispredicament that might have blanched the cheek of the most heroic.
The gambling instinct is not strong among creatures of the wild; thechances of their daily life are sufficient stimuli for the beneficialexcitement of their nerve centers. It has remained for civilized man,protected in a measure from the natural dangers of existence, to inventartificial stimulants in the form of cards and dice and roulettewheels. Yet when necessity bids there are no greater gamblers than thesavage denizens of the jungle, the forest, and the hills, for aslightly as you roll the ivory cubes upon the green cloth they willgamble with death--their own lives the stake.
And so Tarzan would gamble now, pitting the seemingly wild deductionsof his shrewd brain against all the proofs of the bestial ferocity ofhis antagonists that his experience of them had adduced--against allthe age-old folklore and legend that had been handed down for countlessgenerations and passed on to him through the lips of Pan-at-lee.
Yet as he worked in preparation for the greatest play that man can makein the game of life, he smiled; nor was there any indication of hasteor excitement or nervousness in his demeanor.
First he selected a long, straight branch about two inches in diameterat its base. This he cut from the tree with his knife, removed thesmaller branches and twigs until he had fashioned a pole about ten feetin length. This he sharpened at the smaller end. The staff finished tohis satisfaction he looked down upon the triceratops.
"Whee-oo!" he cried.
Instantly the beasts raised their heads and looked at him. From thethroat of one of them came faintly a low rumbling sound.
"Whee-oo!" repeated Tarzan and hurled the balance of the carcass of thedeer to them.
Instantly the gryfs fell upon it with much bellowing, one of themattempting to seize it and keep it from the other: but finally thesecond obtained a hold and an instant later it had been torn asunderand greedily devoured. Once again they looked up at the ape-man andthis time they saw him descending to the ground.
One of them started toward him. Again Tarzan repeated the weird cry ofthe Tor-o-don. The GRYF halted in his track, apparently puzzled, whileTarzan slipped lightly to the earth and advanced toward the nearerbeast, his staff raised menacingly and the call of the first-man uponhis lips.
Would the cry be answered by the low rumbling of the beast of burden orthe horrid bellow of the man-eater? Upon the answer to this questionhung the fate of the ape-man.
Pan-at-lee was listening intently to the sounds of the departing gryfsas Tarzan led them cunningly from her, and when she was sure that theywere far enough away to insure her safe retreat she dropped swiftlyfrom the branches to the ground and sped like a frightened deer acrossthe open space to the foot of the cliff, stepped over the body of theTor-o-don who had attacked her the night before and was soon climbingrapidly up the ancient stone pegs of the deserted cliff village. In themouth of the cave near that which she had occupied she kindled a fireand cooked the haunch of venison that Tarzan had left her, and from oneof the trickling streams that ran down the face of the escarpment sheobtained water to satisfy her thirst.
All day she waited, hearing in the distance, and sometimes close athand, the bellowing of the gryfs which pursued the strange creaturethat had dropped so miraculously into her life. For him she felt thesame keen, almost fanatical loyalty that many another had experiencedfor Tarzan of the Apes. Beast and human, he had held them to him withbonds that were stronger than steel--those of them that were clean andcourageous, and the weak and the helpless; but never could Tarzan claimamong his admirers the coward, the ingrate or the scoundrel; from such,both man and beast, he had won fear and hatred.
To Pan-at-lee he was all that was brave and noble and heroic and, too,he was Om-at's friend--the friend of the man she loved. For any one ofthese reasons Pan-at-lee would have died for Tarzan, for such is theloyalty of the simple-minded children of nature. It has remained forcivilization to teach us to weigh the relative rewards of loyalty andits antithesis. The loyalty of the primitive is spontaneous,unreasoning, unselfish and such was the loyalty of Pan-at-lee for theTarmangani.
And so it was that she waited that day and night, hoping that he wouldreturn that she might accompany him back to Om-at, for her experiencehad taught her that in the face of danger two have a better chance thanone. But Tarzan-jad-guru had not come, and so upon the followingmorning Pan-at-lee set out upon her return to Kor-ul-JA.
She knew the dangers and yet she faced them with the stolidindifference of her race. When they directly confronted and menaced herwould be time enough to experience fear or excitement or confidence. Inthe meantime it was unnecessary to waste nerve energy by anticipatingthem. She moved therefore through her savage land with no greater showof concern than might mark your sauntering to a corner drug-store for asundae. But this is your life and that is Pan-at-lee's and even now asyou read this Pan-at-lee may be sitting upon the edge of the recess ofOm-at's cave while the JA and JATO roar from the gorge below and fromthe ridge above, and the Kor-ul-lul threaten upon the south and theHo-don from the Valley of Jad-ben-Otho far below, for Pan-at-lee stilllives and preens her silky coat of jet beneath the tropical moonlightof Pal-ul-don.
But she was not to reach Kor-ul-JA this day, nor the next, nor for manydays after though the danger that threatened her was neither Waz-donenemy nor savage beast.
She came without misadventure to the Kor-ul-lul and after descendingits rocky southern wall without catching the slightest glimpse of thehereditary enemies of her people, she experienced a renewal ofconfidence that was little short of practical assurance that she wouldsuccessfully terminate her venture and be restored once more to her ownpeople and the lover she had not seen for so many long and weary moons.
She was almost across the gorge now and moving with an extreme cautionabated no wit by her confidence, for wariness is an instinctive traitof the primitive, something which cannot be laid aside even momentarilyif one would survive. And so she came to the trail that follows thewindings of Kor-ul-lul from its uppermost reaches down into th
e broadand fertile Valley of Jad-ben-Otho.
And as she stepped into the trail there arose on either side of herfrom out of the bushes that border the path, as though materializedfrom thin air, a score of tall, white warriors of the Ho-don. Like afrightened deer Pan-at-lee cast a single startled look at thesemenacers of her freedom and leaped quickly toward the bushes in aneffort to escape; but the warriors were too close at hand. They closedupon her from every side and then, drawing her knife she turned at bay,metamorphosed by the fires of fear and hate from a startled deer to araging tiger-cat. They did not try to kill her, but only to subdue andcapture her; and so it was that more than a single Ho-don warrior feltthe keen edge of her blade in his flesh before they had succeeded inoverpowering her by numbers. And still she fought and scratched and bitafter they had taken the knife from her until it was necessary to tieher hands and fasten a piece of wood between her teeth by means ofthongs passed behind her head.
At first she refused to walk when they started off in the direction ofthe valley but after two of them had seized her by the hair and draggedher for a number of yards she thought better of her original decisionand came along with them, though still as defiant as her bound wristsand gagged mouth would permit.
Near the entrance to Kor-ul-lul they came upon another body of theirwarriors with which were several Waz-don prisoners from the tribe ofKor-ul-lul. It was a raiding party come up from a Ho-don city of thevalley after slaves. This Pan-at-lee knew for the occurrence was by nomeans unusual. During her lifetime the tribe to which she belonged hadbeen sufficiently fortunate, or powerful, to withstand successfully themajority of such raids made upon them, but yet Pan-at-lee had known offriends and relatives who had been carried into slavery by the Ho-donand she knew, too, another thing which gave her hope, as doubtless itdid to each of the other captives--that occasionally the prisonersescaped from the cities of the hairless whites.
After they had joined the other party the entire band set forth intothe valley and presently, from the conversation of her captors,Pan-at-lee knew that she was headed for A-lur, the City of Light; whilein the cave of his ancestors, Om-at, chief of the Kor-ul-JA, bemoanedthe loss of both his friend and she that was to have been his mate.