22

Tarzan the Terrible

by Edgar R. Burroughs

22, TARZAN THE TERRIBLE by Edgar R. Burroughs
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A Journey on a Gryf

TARZAN and Jane skirted the shore of Jad-bal-lul and crossed the
river at the head of the lake. They moved in leisurely fashion
with an eye to comfort and safety, for the ape-man, now that he
had found his mate, was determined to court no chance that might
again separate them, or delay or prevent their escape from
Pal-ul-don. How they were to recross the morass was a matter of
little concern to him as yet--it would be time enough to
consider that matter when it became of more immediate moment.
Their hours were filled with the happiness and content of reunion
after long separation; they had much to talk of, for each had
passed through many trials and vicissitudes and strange
adventures, and no important hour might go unaccounted for since
last they met.

It was Tarzan's intention to choose a way above A-lur and the
scattered Ho-don villages below it, passing about midway between
them and the mountains, thus avoiding, in so far as possible,
both the Ho-don and Waz-don, for in this area lay the neutral
territory that was uninhabited by either. Thus he would travel
northwest until opposite the Kor-ul-ja where he planned to stop
to pay his respects to Om-at and give the gund word of
Pan-at-lee, and a plan Tarzan had for insuring her safe return to
her people. It was upon the third day of their journey and they
had almost reached the river that passes through A-lur when Jane
suddenly clutched Tarzan's arm and pointed ahead toward the edge
of a forest that they were approaching. Beneath the shadows of
the trees loomed a great bulk that the ape-man instantly
recognized.

"What is it?" whispered Jane.

"A gryf," replied the ape-man, "and we have met him in the worst
place that we could possibly have found. There is not a large
tree within a quarter of a mile, other than those among which he
stands. Come, we shall have to go back, Jane; I cannot risk it
with you along. The best we can do is to pray that he does not
discover us."

"And if he does?"

"Then I shall have to risk it."

"Risk what?"

"The chance that I can subdue him as I subdued one of his
fellows," replied Tarzan. "I told you--you recall?"

"Yes, but I did not picture so huge a creature. Why, John, he is
as big as a battleship."

The ape-man laughed. "Not quite, though I'll admit he looks quite
as formidable as one when he charges."

They were moving away slowly so as not to attract the attention
of the beast.

"I believe we're going to make it," whispered the woman, her
voice tense with suppressed excitement. A low rumble rolled like
distant thunder from the wood. Tarzan shook his head.

"'The big show is about to commence in the main tent,'" he
quoted, grinning. He caught the woman suddenly to his breast and
kissed her. "One can never tell, Jane," he said. "We'll do our
best--that is all we can do. Give me your spear, and--don't run.
The only hope we have lies in that little brain more than in us.
If I can control it--well, let us see."

The beast had emerged from the forest and was looking about
through his weak eyes, evidently in search of them. Tarzan
raised his voice in the weird notes of the Tor-o-don's cry,
"Whee-oo! Whee-oo! Whee-oo!" For a moment the great beast stood
motionless, his attention riveted by the call. The ape-man
advanced straight toward him, Jane Clayton at his elbow.
"Whee-oo!" he cried again peremptorily. A low rumble rolled from
the gryf's cavernous chest in answer to the call, and the beast
moved slowly toward them.

"Fine!" exclaimed Tarzan. "The odds are in our favor now. You
can keep your nerve?--but I do not need to ask."

"I know no fear when I am with Tarzan of the Apes," she replied
softly, and he felt the pressure of her soft fingers on his arm.

And thus the two approached the giant monster of a forgotten
epoch until they stood close in the shadow of a mighty shoulder.
"Whee-oo!" shouted Tarzan and struck the hideous snout with the
shaft of the spear. The vicious side snap that did not reach its
mark--that evidently was not intended to reach its mark--was the
hoped-for answer.

"Come," said Tarzan, and taking Jane by the hand he led her
around behind the monster and up the broad tail to the great,
horned back. "Now will we ride in the state that our forebears
knew, before which the pomp of modern kings pales into cheap and
tawdry insignificance. How would you like to canter through Hyde
Park on a mount like this?"

"I am afraid the Bobbies would be shocked by our riding habits,
John," she cried, laughingly.

Tarzan guided the gryf in the direction that they wished to go.
Steep embankments and rivers proved no slightest obstacle to the
ponderous creature.

"A prehistoric tank, this," Jane assured him, and laughing and
talking they continued on their way. Once they came unexpectedly
upon a dozen Ho-don warriors as the gryf emerged suddenly into a
small clearing. The fellows were lying about in the shade of a
single tree that grew alone. When they saw the beast they leaped
to their feet in consternation and at their shouts the gryf
issued his hideous, challenging bellow and charged them. The
warriors fled in all directions while Tarzan belabored the beast
across the snout with his spear in an effort to control him, and
at last he succeeded, just as the gryf was almost upon one poor
devil that it seemed to have singled out for its special prey.
With an angry grunt the gryf stopped and the man, with a single
backward glance that showed a face white with terror, disappeared
in the jungle he had been seeking to reach.

The ape-man was elated. He had doubted that he could control the
beast should it take it into its head to charge a victim and had
intended abandoning it before they reached the Kor-ul-ja. Now he
altered his plans--they would ride to the very village of Om-at
upon the gryf, and the Kor-ul-ja would have food for conversation
for many generations to come. Nor was it the theatric instinct of
the ape-man alone that gave favor to this plan. The element of
Jane's safety entered into the matter for he knew that she would
be safe from man and beast alike so long as she rode upon the
back of Pal-ul-don's most formidable creature.

As they proceeded slowly in the direction of the Kor-ul-ja, for
the natural gait of the gryf is far from rapid, a handful of
terrified warriors came panting into A-lur, spreading a weird
story of the Dor-ul-Otho, only none dared call him the Dor-ul-Otho
aloud. Instead they spoke of him as Tarzan-jad-guru and they told
of meeting him mounted upon a mighty gryf beside the beautiful
stranger woman whom Ko-tan would have made queen of Pal-ul-don.
This story was brought to Lu-don who caused the warriors to be
hailed to his presence, when he questioned them closely until
finally he was convinced that they spoke the truth and when they
had told him the direction in which the two were traveling,
Lu-don guessed that they were on their way to Ja-lur to join
Ja-don, a contingency that he felt must be prevented at any cost.
As was his wont in the stress of emergency, he called Pan-sat
into consultation and for long the two sat in close conference.
When they arose a plan had been developed. Pan-sat went
immediately to his own quarters where he removed the headdress
and trappings of a priest to don in their stead the harness and
weapons of a warrior. Then he returned to Lu-don.

"Good!" cried the latter, when he saw him. "Not even your
fellow-priests or the slaves that wait upon you daily would know
you now. Lose no time, Pan-sat, for all depends upon the speed
with which you strike and--remember! Kill the man if you can; but
in any event bring the woman to me here, alive. You understand?"

"Yes, master," replied the priest, and so it was that a lone
warrior set out from A-lur and made his way northwest in the
direction of Ja-lur.

The gorge next above Kor-ul-ja is uninhabited and here the wily
Ja-don had chosen to mobilize his army for its descent upon
A-lur. Two considerations influenced him--one being the fact that
could he keep his plans a secret from the enemy he would have the
advantage of delivering a surprise attack upon the forces of
Lu-don from a direction that they would not expect attack, and in
the meantime he would be able to keep his men from the gossip of
the cities where strange tales were already circulating relative
to the coming of Jad-ben-Otho in person to aid the high priest in
his war against Ja-don. It took stout hearts and loyal ones to
ignore the implied threats of divine vengeance that these tales
suggested. Already there had been desertions and the cause of
Ja-don seemed tottering to destruction.

Such was the state of affairs when a sentry posted on the knoll
in the mouth of the gorge sent word that he had observed in the
valley below what appeared at a distance to be nothing less than
two people mounted upon the back of a gryf. He said that he had
caught glimpses of them, as they passed open spaces, and they
seemed to be traveling up the river in the direction of the
Kor-ul-ja.

At first Ja-don was inclined to doubt the veracity of his
informant; but, like all good generals, he could not permit even
palpably false information to go uninvestigated and so he
determined to visit the knoll himself and learn precisely what it
was that the sentry had observed through the distorting
spectacles of fear. He had scarce taken his place beside the man
ere the fellow touched his arm and pointed. "They are closer
now," he whispered, "you can see them plainly." And sure enough,
not a quarter of a mile away Ja-don saw that which in his long
experience in Pal-ul-don he had never before seen--two humans
riding upon the broad back of a gryf.

At first he could scarce credit even this testimony of his own
eyes, but soon he realized that the creatures below could be
naught else than they appeared, and then he recognized the man
and rose to his feet with a loud cry.

"It is he!" he shouted to those about him. "It is the Dor-ul-Otho
himself."

The gryf and his riders heard the shout though not the words. The
former bellowed terrifically and started in the direction of the
knoll, and Ja-don, followed by a few of his more intrepid
warriors, ran to meet him. Tarzan, loath to enter an unnecessary
quarrel, tried to turn the animal, but as the beast was far from
tractable it always took a few minutes to force the will of its
master upon it; and so the two parties were quite close before
the ape-man succeeded in stopping the mad charge of his furious
mount.

Ja-don and his warriors, however, had come to the realization
that this bellowing creature was bearing down upon them with evil
intent and they had assumed the better part of valor and taken to
trees, accordingly. It was beneath these trees that Tarzan
finally stopped the gryf. Ja-don called down to him.

"We are friends," he cried. "I am Ja-don, Chief of Ja-lur. I and
my warriors lay our foreheads upon the feet of Dor-ul-Otho and
pray that he will aid us in our righteous fight with Lu-don, the
high priest."

"You have not defeated him yet?" asked Tarzan. "Why I thought you
would be king of Pal-ul-don long before this."

"No," replied Ja-don. "The people fear the high priest and now
that he has in the temple one whom he claims to be Jad-ben-Otho
many of my warriors are afraid. If they but knew that the
Dor-ul-Otho had returned and that he had blessed the cause of
Ja-don I am sure that victory would be ours."

Tarzan thought for a long minute and then he spoke. "Ja-don," he
said, "was one of the few who believed in me and who wished to
accord me fair treatment. I have a debt to pay to Ja-don and an
account to settle with Lu-don, not alone on my own behalf, but
principally upon that of my mate. I will go with you Ja-don to
mete to Lu-don the punishment he deserves. Tell me, chief, how
may the Dor-ul-Otho best serve his father's people?"

"By coming with me to Ja-lur and the villages between," replied
Ja-don quickly, "that the people may see that it is indeed the
Dor-ul-Otho and that he smiles upon the cause of Ja-don."

"You think that they will believe in me more now than before?"
asked the ape-man.

"Who will dare doubt that he who rides upon the great gryf is
less than a god?" returned the old chief.

"And if I go with you to the battle at A-lur," asked Tarzan, "can
you assure the safety of my mate while I am gone from her?"

"She shall remain in Ja-lur with the Princess O-lo-a and my own
women," replied Ja-don. "There she will be safe for there I shall
leave trusted warriors to protect them. Say that you will come, O
Dor-ul-Otho, and my cup of happiness will be full, for even now
Ta-den, my son, marches toward A-lur with a force from the
northwest and if we can attack, with the Dor-ul-Otho at our head,
from the northeast our arms should be victorious."

"It shall be as you wish, Ja-don," replied the ape-man; "but
first you must have meat fetched for my gryf."

"There are many carcasses in the camp above," replied Ja-don, "for
my men have little else to do than hunt."

"Good," exclaimed Tarzan. "Have them brought at once."

And when the meat was-brought and laid at a distance the ape-man
slipped from the back of his fierce charger and fed him with his
own hand. "See that there is always plenty of flesh for him," he
said to Ja-don, for he guessed that his mastery might be
short-lived should the vicious beast become over-hungry.

It was morning before they could leave for Ja-lur, but Tarzan
found the gryf lying where he had left him the night before
beside the carcasses of two antelope and a lion; but now there
was nothing but the gryf.

"The paleontologists say that he was herbivorous," said Tarzan as
he and Jane approached the beast.

The journey to Ja-lur was made through the scattered villages
where Ja-don hoped to arouse a keener enthusiasm for his cause. A
party of warriors preceded Tarzan that the people might properly
be prepared, not only for the sight of the gryf but to receive
the Dor-ul-Otho as became his high station. The results were all
that Ja-don could have hoped and in no village through which they
passed was there one who doubted the deity of the ape-man.

As they approached Ja-lur a strange warrior joined them, one whom
none of Ja-don's following knew. He said he came from one of the
villages to the south and that he had been treated unfairly by
one of Lu-don's chiefs. For this reason he had deserted the cause
of the high priest and come north in the hope of finding a home
in Ja-lur. As every addition to his forces was welcome to the old
chief he permitted the stranger to accompany them, and so he came
into Ja-lur with them.

There arose now the question as to what was to be done with the
gryf while they remained in the city. It was with difficulty that
Tarzan had prevented the savage beast from attacking all who came
near it when they had first entered the camp of Ja-don in the
uninhabited gorge next to the Kor-ul-ja, but during the march to
Ja-lur the creature had seemed to become accustomed to the
presence of the Ho-don. The latter, however, gave him no cause
for annoyance since they kept as far from him as possible and
when he passed through the streets of the city he was viewed from
the safety of lofty windows and roofs. However tractable he
appeared to have become there would have been no enthusiastic
seconding of a suggestion to turn him loose within the city. It
was finally suggested that he be turned into a walled enclosure
within the palace grounds and this was done, Tarzan driving him
in after Jane had dismounted. More meat was thrown to him and he
was left to his own devices, the awe-struck inhabitants of the
palace not even venturing to climb upon the walls to look at him.

Ja-don led Tarzan and Jane to the quarters of the Princess O-lo-a
who, the moment that she beheld the ape-man, threw herself to the
ground and touched her forehead to his feet. Pan-at-lee was
there with her and she too seemed happy to see Tarzan-jad-guru
again. When they found that Jane was his mate they looked with
almost equal awe upon her, since even the most skeptical of the
warriors of Ja-don were now convinced that they were entertaining
a god and a goddess within the city of Ja-lur, and that with the
assistance of the power of these two, the cause of Ja-don would
soon be victorious and the old Lion-man set upon the throne of
Pal-ul-don.

From O-lo-a Tarzan learned that Ta-den had returned and that they
were to be united in marriage with the weird rites of their
religion and in accordance with the custom of their people as
soon as Ta-den came home from the battle that was to be fought at
A-lur.

The recruits were now gathering at the city and it was decided
that the next day Ja-don and Tarzan would return to the main body
in the hidden camp and immediately under cover of night the
attack should be made in force upon Lu-don's forces at A-lur. Word
of this was sent to Ta-den where he awaited with his warriors
upon the north side of Jad-ben-lul, only a few miles from A-lur.

In the carrying out of these plans it was necessary to leave Jane
behind in Ja-don's palace at Ja-lur, but O-lo-a and her women
were with her and there were many warriors to guard them, so
Tarzan bid his mate good-bye with no feelings of apprehension as
to her safety, and again seated upon the gryf made his way out of
the city with Ja-don and his warriors.

At the mouth of the gorge the ape-man abandoned his huge mount
since it had served its purpose and could be of no further value
to him in their attack upon A-lur, which was to be made just
before dawn the following day when, as he could not have been
seen by the enemy, the effect of his entry to the city upon the
gryf would have been totally lost. A couple of sharp blows with
the spear sent the big animal rumbling and growling in the
direction of the Kor-ul-gryf nor was the ape-man sorry to see it
depart since he had never known at what instant its short temper
and insatiable appetite for flesh might turn it upon some of his
companions.

Immediately upon their arrival at the gorge the march on A-lur
was commenced.