2

Tarzan the Terrible

by Edgar R. Burroughs

2, TARZAN THE TERRIBLE by Edgar R. Burroughs
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"To the Death!"

IN THE moment of discovery Tarzan saw that the creature was
almost a counterpart of his companion in size and conformation,
with the exception that his body was entirely clothed with a coat
of shaggy black hair which almost concealed his features, while
his harness and weapons were similar to those of the creature he
had attacked. Ere Tarzan could prevent the creature had struck
the ape-man's companion a blow upon the head with his knotted
club that felled him, unconscious, to the earth; but before he
could inflict further injury upon his defenseless prey the
ape-man had closed with him.

Instantly Tarzan realized that he was locked with a creature of
almost superhuman strength. The sinewy fingers of a powerful hand
sought his throat while the other lifted the bludgeon above his
head. But if the strength of the hairy attacker was great, great
too was that of his smooth-skinned antagonist. Swinging a single
terrific blow with clenched fist to the point of the other's
chin, Tarzan momentarily staggered his assailant and then his own
fingers closed upon the shaggy throat, as with the other hand he
seized the wrist of the arm that swung the club. With equal
celerity he shot his right leg behind the shaggy brute and
throwing his weight forward hurled the thing over his hip heavily
to the ground, at the same time precipitating his own body upon
the other's chest.

With the shock of the impact the club fell from the brute's hand
and Tarzan's hold was wrenched from its throat. Instantly the two
were locked in a deathlike embrace. Though the creature bit at
Tarzan the latter was quickly aware that this was not a
particularly formidable method of offense or defense, since its
canines were scarcely more developed than his own. The thing that
he had principally to guard against was the sinuous tail which
sought steadily to wrap itself about his throat and against which
experience had afforded him no defense.

Struggling and snarling the two rolled growling about the sward
at the foot of the tree, first one on top and then the other but
each more occupied at present in defending his throat from the
other's choking grasp than in aggressive, offensive tactics. But
presently the ape-man saw his opportunity and as they rolled
about he forced the creature closer and closer to the pool, upon
the banks of which the battle was progressing. At last they lay
upon the very verge of the water and now it remained for Tarzan
to precipitate them both beneath the surface but in such a way
that he might remain on top.

At the same instant there came within range of Tarzan's vision,
just behind the prostrate form of his companion, the crouching,
devil-faced figure of the striped saber-tooth hybrid, eyeing him
with snarling, malevolent face.

Almost simultaneously Tarzan's shaggy antagonist discovered the
menacing figure of the great cat. Immediately he ceased his
belligerent activities against Tarzan and, jabbering and
chattering to the ape-man, he tried to disengage himself from
Tarzan's hold but in such a way that indicated that as far as he
was concerned their battle was over. Appreciating the danger to
his unconscious companion and being anxious to protect him from
the saber-tooth the ape-man relinquished his hold upon his
adversary and together the two rose to their feet.

Drawing his knife Tarzan moved slowly toward the body of his
companion, expecting that his recent antagonist would grasp the
opportunity for escape. To his surprise, however, the beast,
after regaining its club, advanced at his side.

The great cat, flattened upon its belly, remained motionless
except for twitching tail and snarling lips where it lay perhaps
fifty feet beyond the body of the pithecanthropus. As Tarzan
stepped over the body of the latter he saw the eyelids quiver and
open, and in his heart he felt a strange sense of relief that the
creature was not dead and a realization that without his
suspecting it there had arisen within his savage bosom a bond of
attachment for this strange new friend.

Tarzan continued to approach the saber-tooth, nor did the shaggy
beast at his right lag behind. Closer and closer they came until
at a distance of about twenty feet the hybrid charged. Its rush
was directed toward the shaggy manlike ape who halted in his
tracks with upraised bludgeon to meet the assault. Tarzan, on the
contrary, leaped forward and with a celerity second not even to
that of the swift-moving cat, he threw himself headlong upon him
as might a Rugby tackler on an American gridiron. His right arm
circled the beast's neck in front of the right shoulder, his left
behind the left foreleg, and so great was the force of the impact
that the two rolled over and over several times upon the ground,
the cat screaming and clawing to liberate itself that it might
turn upon its attacker, the man clinging desperately to his hold.

Seemingly the attack was one of mad, senseless ferocity unguided
by either reason or skill. Nothing, however, could have been
farther from the truth than such an assumption since every muscle
in the ape-man's giant frame obeyed the dictates of the cunning
mind that long experience had trained to meet every exigency of
such an encounter. The long, powerful legs, though seemingly
inextricably entangled with the hind feet of the clawing cat,
ever as by a miracle, escaped the raking talons and yet at just
the proper instant in the midst of all the rolling and tossing
they were where they should be to carry out the ape-man's plan of
offense. So that on the instant that the cat believed it had won
the mastery of its antagonist it was jerked suddenly upward as
the ape-man rose to his feet, holding the striped back close
against his body as he rose and forcing it backward until it
could but claw the air helplessly.

Instantly the shaggy black rushed in with drawn knife which it
buried in the beast's heart. For a few moments Tarzan retained
his hold but when the body had relaxed in final dissolution he
pushed it from him and the two who had formerly been locked in
mortal combat stood facing each other across the body of the
common foe.

Tarzan waited, ready either for peace or war. Presently two
shaggy black hands were raised; the left was laid upon its own
heart and the right extended until the palm touched Tarzan's
breast. It was the same form of friendly salutation with which
the pithecanthropus had sealed his alliance with the ape-man and
Tarzan, glad of every ally he could win in this strange and
savage world, quickly accepted the proffered friendship.

At the conclusion of the brief ceremony Tarzan, glancing in the
direction of the hairless pithecanthropus, discovered that the
latter had recovered consciousness and was sitting erect watching
them intently. He now rose slowly and at the same time the shaggy
black turned in his direction and addressed him in what evidently
was their common language. The hairless one replied and the two
approached each other slowly. Tarzan watched interestedly the
outcome of their meeting. They halted a few paces apart, first
one and then the other speaking rapidly but without apparent
excitement, each occasionally glancing or nodding toward Tarzan,
indicating that he was to some extent the subject of their
conversation.

Presently they advanced again until they met, whereupon was
repeated the brief ceremony of alliance which had previously
marked the cessation of hostilities between Tarzan and the black.
They then advanced toward the ape-man addressing him earnestly as
though endeavoring to convey to him some important information.
Presently, however, they gave it up as an unprofitable job and,
resorting to sign language, conveyed to Tarzan that they were
proceeding upon their way together and were urging him to
accompany them.

As the direction they indicated was a route which Tarzan had not
previously traversed he was extremely willing to accede to their
request, as he had determined thoroughly to explore this unknown
land before definitely abandoning search for Lady Jane therein.

For several days their way led through the foothills parallel to
the lofty range towering above. Often were they menaced by the
savage denizens of this remote fastness, and occasionally Tarzan
glimpsed weird forms of gigantic proportions amidst the shadows
of the nights.

On the third day they came upon a large natural cave in the face
of a low cliff at the foot of which tumbled one of the numerous
mountain brooks that watered the plain below and fed the morasses
in the lowlands at the country's edge. Here the three took up
their temporary abode where Tarzan's instruction in the language
of his companions progressed more rapidly than while on the
march.

The cave gave evidence of having harbored other manlike forms in
the past. Remnants of a crude, rock fireplace remained and the
walls and ceiling were blackened with the smoke of many fires.
Scratched in the soot, and sometimes deeply into the rock
beneath, were strange hieroglyphics and the outlines of beasts
and birds and reptiles, some of the latter of weird form
suggesting the extinct creatures of Jurassic times. Some of the
more recently made hieroglyphics Tarzan's companions read with
interest and commented upon, and then with the points of their
knives they too added to the possibly age-old record of the
blackened walls.

Tarzan's curiosity was aroused, but the only explanation at which
he could arrive was that he was looking upon possibly the world's
most primitive hotel register. At least it gave him a further
insight into the development of the strange creatures with which
Fate had thrown him. Here were men with the tails of monkeys, one
of them as hair covered as any fur-bearing brute of the lower
orders, and yet it was evident that they possessed not only a
spoken, but a written language. The former he was slowly
mastering and at this new evidence of unlooked-for civilization
in creatures possessing so many of the physical attributes of
beasts, Tarzan's curiosity was still further piqued and his
desire quickly to master their tongue strengthened, with the
result that he fell to with even greater assiduity to the task he
had set himself. Already he knew the names of his companions and
the common names of the fauna and flora with which they had most
often come in contact.

Ta-den, he of the hairless, white skin, having assumed the
role of tutor, prosecuted his task with a singleness of
purpose that was reflected in his pupil's rapid mastery of
Ta-den's mother tongue. Om-at, the hairy black, also seemed to
feel that there rested upon his broad shoulders a portion of the
burden of responsibility for Tarzan's education, with the result
that either one or the other of them was almost constantly
coaching the ape-man during his waking hours. The result was only
what might have been expected--a rapid assimilation of the
teachings to the end that before any of them realized it,
communication by word of mouth became an accomplished fact.

Tarzan explained to his companions the purpose of his mission but
neither could give him any slightest thread of hope to weave into
the fabric of his longing. Never had there been in their country
a woman such as he described, nor any tailless man other than
himself that they ever had seen.

"I have been gone from A-lur while Bu, the moon, has eaten seven
times," said Ta-den. "Many things may happen in seven times
twenty-eight days; but I doubt that your woman could have entered
our country across the terrible morasses which even you found an
almost insurmountable obstacle, and if she had, could she have
survived the perils that you already have encountered beside
those of which you have yet to learn? Not even our own women
venture into the savage lands beyond the cities."

"'A-lur,' Light-city, City of Light," mused Tarzan, translating
the word into his own tongue. "And where is A-lur?" he asked. "Is
it your city, Ta-den, and Om-at's?"

"It is mine," replied the hairless one; "but not Om-at's. The
Waz-don have no cities--they live in the trees of the forests and
the caves of the hills--is it not so, black man?" he concluded,
turning toward the hairy giant beside him.

"Yes," replied Om-at, "We Waz-don are free--only the Hodon
imprison themselves in cities. I would not be a white man!"

Tarzan smiled. Even here was the racial distinction between white
man and black man--Ho-don and Waz-don. Not even the fact that
they appeared to be equals in the matter of intelligence made any
difference--one was white and one was black, and it was easy to
see that the white considered himself superior to the other--one
could see it in his quiet smile.

"Where is A-lur?" Tarzan asked again. "You are returning to it?"

"It is beyond the mountains," replied Ta-den. "I do not return to
it--not yet. Not until Ko-tan is no more."

"Ko-tan?" queried Tarzan.

"Ko-tan is king," explained the pithecanthropus. "He rules this
land. I was one of his warriors. I lived in the palace of Ko-tan
and there I met O-lo-a, his daughter. We loved, Likestar-light,
and I; but Ko-tan would have none of me. He sent me away to fight
with the men of the village of Dak-at, who had refused to pay his
tribute to the king, thinking that I would be killed, for Dak-at
is famous for his many fine warriors. And I was not killed.
Instead I returned victorious with the tribute and with Dak-at
himself my prisoner; but Ko-tan was not pleased because he saw
that O-lo-a loved me even more than before, her love being
strengthened and fortified by pride in my achievement.

"Powerful is my father, Ja-don, the Lion-man, chief of the
largest village outside of A-lur. Him Ko-tan hesitated to affront
and so he could not but praise me for my success, though he did
it with half a smile. But you do not understand! It is what we
call a smile that moves only the muscles of the face and affects
not the light of the eyes--it means hypocrisy and duplicity. I
must be praised and rewarded. What better than that he reward me
with the hand of O-lo-a, his daughter? But no, he saves O-lo-a
for Bu-lot, son of Mo-sar, the chief whose great-grandfather was
king and who thinks that he should be king. Thus would Ko-tan
appease the wrath of Mo-sar and win the friendship of those who
think with Mo-sar that Mo-sar should be king.

"But what reward shall repay the faithful Ta-den? Greatly do we
honor our priests. Within the temples even the chiefs and the
king himself bow down to them. No greater honor could Ko-tan
confer upon a subject--who wished to be a priest, but I did not
so wish. Priests other than the high priest must become eunuchs
for they may never marry.

"It was O-lo-a herself who brought word to me that her father had
given the commands that would set in motion the machinery of the
temple. A messenger was on his way in search of me to summon me
to Ko-tan's presence. To have refused the priesthood once it was
offered me by the king would have been to have affronted the
temple and the gods--that would have meant death; but if I did
not appear before Ko-tan I would not have to refuse anything.
O-lo-a and I decided that I must not appear. It was better to
fly, carrying in my bosom a shred of hope, than to remain and,
with my priesthood, abandon hope forever.

"Beneath the shadows of the great trees that grow within the
palace grounds I pressed her to me for, perhaps, the last time
and then, lest by ill-fate I meet the messenger, I scaled the
great wall that guards the palace and passed through the darkened
city. My name and rank carried me beyond the city gate. Since
then I have wandered far from the haunts of the Ho-don but strong
within me is the urge to return if even but to look from without
her walls upon the city that holds her most dear to me and again
to visit the village of my birth, to see again my father and my
mother."

"But the risk is too great?" asked Tarzan.

"It is great, but not too great," replied Ta-den. "I shall go."

"And I shall go with you, if I may," said the ape-man, "for I
must see this City of Light, this A-lur of yours, and search
there for my lost mate even though you believe that there is
little chance that I find her. And you, Om-at, do you come with
us?"

"Why not?" asked the hairy one. "The lairs of my tribe lie in the
crags above A-lur and though Es-sat, our chief, drove me out I
should like to return again, for there is a she there upon whom I
should be glad to look once more and who would be glad to look
upon me. Yes, I will go with you. Es-sat feared that I might
become chief and who knows but that Es-sat was right. But
Pan-at-lee! it is she I seek first even before a chieftainship."

"We three, then, shall travel together," said Tarzan.

"And fight together," added Ta-den; "the three as one," and as he
spoke he drew his knife and held it above his head.

"The three as one," repeated Om-at, drawing his weapon and
duplicating Ta-den's act. "It is spoken!"

"The three as one!" cried Tarzan of the Apes. "To the death!" and
his blade flashed in the sunlight.

"Let us go, then," said Om-at; "my knife is dry and cries aloud
for the blood of Es-sat."

The trail over which Ta-den and Om-at led and which scarcely
could be dignified even by the name of trail was suited more to
mountain sheep, monkeys, or birds than to man; but the three that
followed it were trained to ways which no ordinary man might
essay. Now, upon the lower slopes, it led through dense forests
where the ground was so matted with fallen trees and over-rioting
vines and brush that the way held always to the swaying branches
high above the tangle; again it skirted yawning gorges whose
slippery-faced rocks gave but momentary foothold even to the bare
feet that lightly touched them as the three leaped chamois-like
from one precarious foothold to the next. Dizzy and terrifying
was the way that Om-at chose across the summit as he led them
around the shoulder of a towering crag that rose a sheer two
thousand feet of perpendicular rock above a tumbling river. And
when at last they stood upon comparatively level ground again
Om-at turned and looked at them both intently and especially at
Tarzan of the Apes.

"You will both do," he said. "You are fit companions for Om-at,
the Waz-don."

"What do you mean?" asked Tarzan.

"I brought you this way," replied the black, "to learn if either
lacked the courage to follow where Om-at led. It is here that the
young warriors of Es-sat come to prove their courage. And yet,
though we are born and raised upon cliff sides, it is considered
no disgrace to admit that Pastar-ul-ved, the Father of Mountains,
has defeated us, for of those who try it only a few succeed--the
bones of the others lie at the feet of Pastar-ul-ved."

Ta-den laughed. "I would not care to come this way often," he
said.

"No," replied Om-at; "but it has shortened our journey by at
least a full day. So much the sooner shall Tarzan look upon the
Valley of Jad-ben-Otho. Come!" and he led the way upward along
the shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved until there lay spread below them a
scene of mystery and of beauty--a green valley girt by towering
cliffs of marble whiteness--a green valley dotted by deep blue
lakes and crossed by the blue trail of a winding river. In the
center a city of the whiteness of the marble cliffs--a city which
even at so great a distance evidenced a strange, yet artistic
architecture. Outside the city there were visible about the
valley isolated groups of buildings--sometimes one, again two and
three and four in a cluster--but always of the same glaring
whiteness, and always in some fantastic form.

About the valley the cliffs were occasionally cleft by deep
gorges, verdure filled, giving the appearance of green rivers
rioting downward toward a central sea of green.

"Jad Pele ul Jad-ben-Otho," murmured Tarzan in the tongue of the
pithecanthropi; "The Valley of the Great God--it is beautiful!"

"Here, in A-lur, lives Ko-tan, the king, ruler over all
Pal-ul-don," said Ta-den.

"And here in these gorges live the Waz-don," exclaimed Om-at,
"who do not acknowledge that Ko-tan is the ruler over all the
Land-of-man."

Ta-den smiled and shrugged. "We will not quarrel, you and I," he
said to Om-at, "over that which all the ages have not proved
sufficient time in which to reconcile the Ho-don and Waz-don; but
let me whisper to you a secret, Om-at. The Ho-don live together
in greater or less peace under one ruler so that when danger
threatens them they face the enemy with many warriors, for every
fighting Ho-don of Pal-ul-don is there. But you Waz-don, how is
it with you? You have a dozen kings who fight not only with the
Ho-don but with one another. When one of your tribes goes forth
upon the fighting trail, even against the Ho-don, it must leave
behind sufficient warriors to protect its women and its children
from the neighbors upon either hand. When we want eunuchs for the
temples or servants for the fields or the homes we march forth in
great numbers upon one of your villages. You cannot even flee,
for upon either side of you are enemies and though you fight
bravely we come back with those who will presently be eunuchs in
the temples and servants in our fields and homes. So long as the
Waz-don are thus foolish the Ho-don will dominate and their king
will be king of Pal-ul-don."

"Perhaps you are right," admitted Om-at. "It is because our
neighbors are fools, each thinking that his tribe is the greatest
and should rule among the Waz-don. They will not admit that the
warriors of my tribe are the bravest and our shes the most
beautiful."

Ta-den grinned. "Each of the others presents precisely the same
arguments that you present, Om-at," he said, "which, my friend,
is the strongest bulwark of defense possessed by the Ho-don."

"Come!" exclaimed Tarzan; "such discussions often lead to
quarrels and we three must have no quarrels. I, of course, am
interested in learning what I can of the political and economic
conditions of your land; I should like to know something of your
religion; but not at the expense of bitterness between my only
friends in Pal-ul-don. Possibly, however, you hold to the same
god?"

"There indeed we do differ," cried Om-at, somewhat bitterly and
with a trace of excitement in his voice.

"Differ!" almost shouted Ta-den; "and why should we not differ?
Who could agree with the preposterous----"

"Stop!" cried Tarzan. "Now, indeed, have I stirred up a hornets'
nest. Let us speak no more of matters political or religious."

"That is wiser," agreed Om-at; "but I might mention, for your
information, that the one and only god has a long tail."

"It is sacrilege," cried Ta-den, laying his hand upon his knife;
"Jad-ben-Otho has no tail!"

"Stop!" shrieked Om-at, springing forward; but instantly Tarzan
interposed himself between them.

"Enough!" he snapped. "Let us be true to our oaths of friendship
that we may be honorable in the sight of God in whatever form we
conceive Him."

"You are right, Tailless One," said Ta-den. "Come, Om-at, let us
look after our friendship and ourselves, secure in the conviction
that Jad-ben-Otho is sufficiently powerful to look after
himself."

"Done!" agreed Om-at, "but----"

"No 'buts,' Om-at," admonished Tarzan.

The shaggy black shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Shall we
make our way down toward the valley?" he asked. "The gorge below
us is uninhabited; that to the left contains the caves of my
people. I would see Pan-at-lee once more. Ta-den would visit his
father in the valley below and Tarzan seeks entrance to A-lur in
search of the mate that would be better dead than in the clutches
of the Ho-don priests of Jad-ben-Otho. How shall we proceed?"

"Let us remain together as long as possible," urged Ta-den.
"You, Om-at, must seek Pan-at-lee by night and by stealth, for
three, even we three, may not hope to overcome Es-sat and all his
warriors. At any time may we go to the village where my father is
chief, for Ja-don always will welcome the friends of his son. But
for Tarzan to enter A-lur is another matter, though there is a
way and he has the courage to put it to the test--listen, come
close for Jad-ben-Otho has keen ears and this he must not hear,"
and with his lips close to the ears of his companions Ta-den, the
Tall-tree, son of Ja-don, the Lion-man, unfolded his daring plan.

And at the same moment, a hundred miles away, a lithe figure,
naked but for a loin cloth and weapons, moved silently across a
thorn-covered, waterless steppe, searching always along the
ground before him with keen eyes and sensitive nostrils.