2

Jungle Tales of Tarzan

by Edgar R. Burroughs

2, JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN by Edgar R. Burroughs
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The Capture of Tarzan

THE BLACK WARRIORS labored in the humid heat of the jungle's
stifling shade. With war spears they loosened the thick,
black loam and the deep layers of rotting vegetation.
With heavy-nailed fingers they scooped away the disintegrated
earth from the center of the age-old game trail. Often they
ceased their labors to squat, resting and gossiping,
with much laughter, at the edge of the pit they were digging.

Against the boles of near-by trees leaned their long,
oval shields of thick buffalo hide, and the spears
of those who were doing the scooping. Sweat glistened
upon their smooth, ebon skins, beneath which rolled
rounded muscles, supple in the perfection of nature's
uncontaminated health.

A reed buck, stepping warily along the trail toward water,
halted as a burst of laughter broke upon his startled ears.
For a moment he stood statuesque but for his sensitively
dilating nostrils; then he wheeled and fled noiselessly
from the terrifying presence of man.

A hundred yards away, deep in the tangle of impenetrable
jungle, Numa, the lion, raised his massive head. Numa had
dined well until almost daybreak and it had required much
noise to awaken him. Now he lifted his muzzle and sniffed
the air, caught the acrid scent spoor of the reed buck
and the heavy scent of man. But Numa was well filled.
With a low, disgusted grunt he rose and slunk away.

Brilliantly plumaged birds with raucous voices darted from
tree to tree. Little monkeys, chattering and scolding,
swung through the swaying limbs above the black warriors.
Yet they were alone, for the teeming jungle with all its
myriad life, like the swarming streets of a great metropolis,
is one of the loneliest spots in God's great universe.

But were they alone?

Above them, lightly balanced upon a leafy tree limb, a gray-eyed
youth watched with eager intentness their every move.
The fire of hate, restrained, smoldered beneath the lad's
evident desire to know the purpose of the black men's labors.
Such a one as these it was who had slain his beloved Kala.
For them there could be naught but enmity, yet he liked
well to watch them, avid as he was for greater knowledge
of the ways of man.

He saw the pit grow in depth until a great hole yawned
the width of the trail--a hole which was amply large
enough to hold at one time all of the six excavators.
Tarzan could not guess the purpose of so great a labor.
And when they cut long stakes, sharpened at their upper ends,
and set them at intervals upright in the bottom of the pit,
his wonderment but increased, nor was it satisfied with
the placing of the light cross-poles over the pit, or the
careful arrangement of leaves and earth which completely
hid from view the work the black men had performed.

When they were done they surveyed their handiwork with
evident satisfaction, and Tarzan surveyed it, too. Even to
his practiced eye there remained scarce a vestige of evidence
that the ancient game trail had been tampered with in any way.

So absorbed was the ape-man in speculation as to
the purpose of the covered pit that he permitted
the blacks to depart in the direction of their village
without the usual baiting which had rendered him
the terror of Mbonga's people and had afforded Tarzan
both a vehicle of revenge and a source of inexhaustible delight.

Puzzle as he would, however, he could not solve the mystery
of the concealed pit, for the ways of the blacks were still
strange ways to Tarzan. They had entered his jungle but a
short time before--the first of their kind to encroach upon
the age-old supremacy of the beasts which laired there.
To Numa, the lion, to Tantor, the elephant, to the great
apes and the lesser apes, to each and all of the myriad
creatures of this savage wild, the ways of man were new.
They had much to learn of these black, hairless creatures
that walked erect upon their hind paws--and they were
learning it slowly, and always to their sorrow.

Shortly after the blacks had departed, Tarzan swung easily
to the trail. Sniffing suspiciously, he circled the edge
of the pit. Squatting upon his haunches, he scraped
away a little earth to expose one of the cross-bars. He
sniffed at this, touched it, cocked his head upon one side,
and contemplated it gravely for several minutes. Then he
carefully re-covered it, arranging the earth as neatly
as had the blacks. This done, he swung himself back among
the branches of the trees and moved off in search of his
hairy fellows, the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak.

Once he crossed the trail of Numa, the lion, pausing for a
moment to hurl a soft fruit at the snarling face of his enemy,
and to taunt and insult him, calling him eater of carrion
and brother of Dango, the hyena. Numa, his yellow-green
eyes round and burning with concentrated hate, glared up
at the dancing figure above him. Low growls vibrated his
heavy jowls and his great rage transmitted to his sinuous
tail a sharp, whiplike motion; but realizing from past
experience the futility of long distance argument with the
ape-man, he turned presently and struck off into the tangled
vegetation which hid him from the view of his tormentor.
With a final scream of jungle invective and an apelike
grimace at his departing foe, Tarzan continued along his way.

Another mile and a shifting wind brought to his keen
nostrils a familiar, pungent odor close at hand,
and a moment later there loomed beneath him a huge,
gray-black bulk forging steadily along the jungle trail.
Tarzan seized and broke a small tree limb, and at the
sudden cracking sound the ponderous figure halted.
Great ears were thrown forward, and a long, supple trunk
rose quickly to wave to and fro in search of the scent
of an enemy, while two weak, little eyes peered suspiciously
and futilely about in quest of the author of the noise
which had disturbed his peaceful way.

Tarzan laughed aloud and came closer above the head
of the pachyderm.

"Tantor! Tantor!" he cried. "Bara, the deer, is less fearful
than you--you, Tantor, the elephant, greatest of the jungle
folk with the strength of as many Numas as I have toes upon
my feet and fingers upon my hands. Tantor, who can uproot
great trees, trembles with fear at the sound of a broken twig."

A rumbling noise, which might have been either a sign
of contempt or a sigh of relief, was Tantor's only reply
as the uplifted trunk and ears came down and the beast's
tail dropped to normal; but his eyes still roved about
in search of Tarzan. He was not long kept in suspense,
however, as to the whereabouts of the ape-man, for a second
later the youth dropped lightly to the broad head of his
old friend. Then stretching himself at full length,
he drummed with his bare toes upon the thick hide, and as
his fingers scratched the more tender surfaces beneath the
great ears, he talked to Tantor of the gossip of the jungle
as though the great beast understood every word that he said.

Much there was which Tarzan could make Tantor understand,
and though the small talk of the wild was beyond
the great, gray dreadnaught of the jungle, he stood
with blinking eyes and gently swaying trunk as though
drinking in every word of it with keenest appreciation.
As a matter of fact it was the pleasant, friendly voice
and caressing hands behind his ears which he enjoyed,
and the close proximity of him whom he had often borne
upon his back since Tarzan, as a little child, had once
fearlessly approached the great bull, assuming upon the
part of the pachyderm the same friendliness which filled
his own heart.

In the years of their association Tarzan had discovered
that he possessed an inexplicable power to govern and
direct his mighty friend. At his bidding, Tantor would
come from a great distance--as far as his keen ears could
detect the shrill and piercing summons of the ape-man--and
when Tarzan was squatted upon his head, Tantor would
lumber through the jungle in any direction which his
rider bade him go. It was the power of the man-mind
over that of the brute and it was just as effective
as though both fully understood its origin, though neither did.

For half an hour Tarzan sprawled there upon Tantor's back.
Time had no meaning for either of them. Life, as they saw it,
consisted principally in keeping their stomachs filled.
To Tarzan this was a less arduous labor than to Tantor,
for Tarzan's stomach was smaller, and being omnivorous,
food was less difficult to obtain. If one sort did not
come readily to hand, there were always many others to
satisfy his hunger. He was less particular as to his diet
than Tantor, who would eat only the bark of certain trees,
and the wood of others, while a third appealed to him only
through its leaves, and these, perhaps, just at certain
seasons of the year.

Tantor must needs spend the better part of his life
in filling his immense stomach against the needs of his
mighty thews. It is thus with all the lower orders--their
lives are so occupied either with searching for food or
with the processes of digestion that they have little time
for other considerations. Doubtless it is this handicap
which has kept them from advancing as rapidly as man,
who has more time to give to thought upon other matters.

However, these questions troubled Tarzan but little,
and Tantor not at all. What the former knew was that
he was happy in the companionship of the elephant.
He did not know why. He did not know that because he was
a human being-- a normal, healthy human being--he craved
some living thing upon which to lavish his affection.
His childhood playmates among the apes of Kerchak were
now great, sullen brutes. They felt nor inspired but
little affection. The younger apes Tarzan still played
with occasionally. In his savage way he loved them;
but they were far from satisfying or restful companions.
Tantor was a great mountain of calm, of poise, of stability.
It was restful and satisfying to sprawl upon his rough
pate and pour one's vague hopes and aspirations into
the great ears which flapped ponderously to and fro
in apparent understanding. Of all the jungle folk,
Tantor commanded Tarzan's greatest love since Kala
had been taken from him. Sometimes Tarzan wondered
if Tantor reciprocated his affection. It was difficult
to know.

It was the call of the stomach--the most compelling and
insistent call which the jungle knows--that took Tarzan
finally back to the trees and off in search of food,
while Tantor continued his interrupted journey in the
opposite direction.

For an hour the ape-man foraged. A lofty nest yielded
its fresh, warm harvest. Fruits, berries, and tender
plantain found a place upon his menu in the order that he
happened upon them, for he did not seek such foods.
Meat, meat, meat! It was always meat that Tarzan
of the Apes hunted; but sometimes meat eluded him, as today.

And as he roamed the jungle his active mind busied itself
not alone with his hunting, but with many other subjects.
He had a habit of recalling often the events of the preceding
days and hours. He lived over his visit with Tantor;
he cogitated upon the digging blacks and the strange,
covered pit they had left behind them. He wondered
again and again what its purpose might be. He compared
perceptions and arrived at judgments. He compared judgments,
reaching conclusions--not always correct ones, it is true,
but at least he used his brain for the purpose God
intended it, which was the less difficult because he was
not handicapped by the second-hand, and usually erroneous,
judgment of others.

And as he puzzled over the covered pit, there loomed
suddenly before his mental vision a huge, gray-black bulk
which lumbered ponderously along a jungle trail.
Instantly Tarzan tensed to the shock of a sudden fear.
Decision and action usually occurred simultaneously in
the life of the ape-man, and now he was away through the
leafy branches ere the realization of the pit's purpose
had scarce formed in his mind.

Swinging from swaying limb to swaying limb, he raced through
the middle terraces where the trees grew close together.
Again he dropped to the ground and sped, silently and
light of foot, over the carpet of decaying vegetation,
only to leap again into the trees where the tangled
undergrowth precluded rapid advance upon the surface.

In his anxiety he cast discretion to the winds.
The caution of the beast was lost in the loyalty of
the man, and so it came that he entered a large clearing,
denuded of trees, without a thought of what might lie
there or upon the farther edge to dispute the way with him.

He was half way across when directly in his path and
but a few yards away there rose from a clump of tall
grasses a half dozen chattering birds. Instantly Tarzan
turned aside, for he knew well enough what manner of creature
the presence of these little sentinels proclaimed.
Simultaneously Buto, the rhinoceros, scrambled to his
short legs and charged furiously. Haphazard charges Buto,
the rhinoceros. With his weak eyes he sees but poorly
even at short distances, and whether his erratic rushes
are due to the panic of fear as he attempts to escape,
or to the irascible temper with which he is generally credited,
it is difficult to determine. Nor is the matter of little
moment to one whom Buto charges, for if he be caught and tossed,
the chances are that naught will interest him thereafter.

And today it chanced that Buto bore down straight
upon Tarzan, across the few yards of knee-deep grass which
separated them. Accident started him in the direction
of the ape-man, and then his weak eyes discerned the enemy,
and with a series of snorts he charged straight for him.
The little rhino birds fluttered and circled about their
giant ward. Among the branches of the trees at the edge
of the clearing, a score or more monkeys chattered
and scolded as the loud snorts of the angry beast sent
them scurrying affrightedly to the upper terraces.
Tarzan alone appeared indifferent and serene.

Directly in the path of the charge he stood. There had been
no time to seek safety in the trees beyond the clearing,
nor had Tarzan any mind to delay his journey because
of Buto. He had met the stupid beast before and held
him in fine contempt.

And now Buto was upon him, the massive head lowered
and the long, heavy horn inclined for the frightful work
for which nature had designed it; but as he struck upward,
his weapon raked only thin air, for the ape-man had sprung
lightly aloft with a catlike leap that carried him above
the threatening horn to the broad back of the rhinoceros.
Another spring and he was on the ground behind the brute
and racing like a deer for the trees.

Buto, angered and mystified by the strange disappearance
of his prey, wheeled and charged frantically in
another direction, which chanced to be not the direction
of Tarzan's flight, and so the ape-man came in safety
to the trees and continued on his swift way through the forest.

Some distance ahead of him Tantor moved steadily along the
well-worn elephant trail, and ahead of Tantor a crouching,
black warrior listened intently in the middle of the path.
Presently he heard the sound for which he had been hoping--
the cracking, snapping sound which heralded the approach
of an elephant.

To his right and left in other parts of the jungle other
warriors were watching. A low signal, passed from one
to another, apprised the most distant that the quarry
was afoot. Rapidly they converged toward the trail,
taking positions in trees down wind from the point
at which Tantor must pass them. Silently they waited
and presently were rewarded by the sight of a mighty
tusker carrying an amount of ivory in his long tusks
that set their greedy hearts to palpitating.

No sooner had he passed their positions than the warriors
clambered from their perches. No longer were they silent,
but instead clapped their hands and shouted as they
reached the ground. For an instant Tantor, the elephant,
paused with upraised trunk and tail, with great ears
up-pricked, and then he swung on along the trail at a rapid,
shuffling pace--straight toward the covered pit with its
sharpened stakes upstanding in the ground.

Behind him came the yelling warriors, urging him on
in the rapid flight which would not permit a careful
examination of the ground before him. Tantor, the elephant,
who could have turned and scattered his adversaries
with a single charge, fled like a frightened deer--fled
toward a hideous, torturing death.

And behind them all came Tarzan of the Apes, racing through
the jungle forest with the speed and agility of a squirrel,
for he had heard the shouts of the warriors and had
interpreted them correctly. Once he uttered a piercing
call that reverberated through the jungle; but Tantor,
in the panic of terror, either failed to hear, or hearing,
dared not pause to heed.

Now the giant pachyderm was but a few yards from
the hidden death lurking in his path, and the blacks,
certain of success, were screaming and dancing in his wake,
waving their war spears and celebrating in advance the
acquisition of the splendid ivory carried by their prey
and the surfeit of elephant meat which would be theirs this
night.

So intent were they upon their gratulations that they
entirely failed to note the silent passage of the man-beast
above their heads, nor did Tantor, either, see or hear him,
even though Tarzan called to him to stop.

A few more steps would precipitate Tantor upon the sharpened
stakes;
Tarzan fairly flew through the trees until he had come
abreast of the fleeing animal and then had passed him.
At the pit's verge the ape-man dropped to the ground
in the center of the trail. Tantor was almost upon him
before his weak eyes permitted him to recognize his old friend.

"Stop!" cried Tarzan, and the great beast halted
to the upraised hand.

Tarzan turned and kicked aside some of the brush which hid
the pit. Instantly Tantor saw and understood.

"Fight!" growled Tarzan. "They are coming behind you."
But Tantor, the elephant, is a huge bunch of nerves,
and now he was half panic-stricken by terror.

Before him yawned the pit, how far he did not know, but to
right and left lay the primeval jungle untouched by man.
With a squeal the great beast turned suddenly at right
angles and burst his noisy way through the solid wall
of matted vegetation that would have stopped any but him.

Tarzan, standing upon the edge of the pit, smiled as he
watched Tantor's undignified flight. Soon the blacks
would come. It was best that Tarzan of the Apes faded
from the scene. He essayed a step from the pit's edge,
and as he threw the weight of his body upon his left foot,
the earth crumbled away. Tarzan made a single Herculean
effort to throw himself forward, but it was too late.
Backward and downward he went toward the sharpened stakes in
the bottom of the pit.

When, a moment later, the blacks came they saw even
from a distance that Tantor had eluded them, for the
size of the hole in the pit covering was too small
to have accommodated the huge bulk of an elephant.
At first they thought that their prey had put one great
foot through the top and then, warned, drawn back;
but when they had come to the pit's verge and peered over,
their eyes went wide in astonishment, for, quiet and still,
at the bottom lay the naked figure of a white giant.

Some of them there had glimpsed this forest god before
and they drew back in terror, awed by the presence
which they had for some time believed to possess the
miraculous powers of a demon; but others there were who
pushed forward, thinking only of the capture of an enemy,
and these leaped into the pit and lifted Tarzan out.

There was no scar upon his body. None of the sharpened
stakes had pierced him--only a swollen spot at the base
of the brain indicated the nature of his injury.
In the falling backward his head had struck upon the
side of one of the stakes, rendering him unconscious.
The blacks were quick to discover this, and equally
quick to bind their prisoner's arms and legs before he
should regain consciousness, for they had learned to
harbor a wholesome respect for this strange man-beast
that consorted with the hairy tree folk.

They had carried him but a short distance toward their
village when the ape-man's eyelids quivered and raised.
He looked about him wonderingly for a moment,
and then full consciousness returned and he realized
the seriousness of his predicament. Accustomed almost
from birth to relying solely upon his own resources,
he did not cast about for outside aid now, but devoted
his mind to a consideration of the possibilities
for escape which lay within himself and his own powers.

He did not dare test the strength of his bonds while the
blacks were carrying him, for fear they would become
apprehensive and add to them. Presently his captors
discovered that he was conscious, and as they had little
stomach for carrying a heavy man through the jungle heat,
they set him upon his feet and forced him forward
among them, pricking him now and then with their spears,
yet with every manifestation of the superstitious awe
in which they held him.

When they discovered that their prodding brought no outward
evidence of suffering, their awe increased, so that they
soon desisted, half believing that this strange white
giant was a supernatural being and so was immune from pain.

As they approached their village, they shouted aloud the
victorious cries of successful warriors, so that by the time
they reached the gate, dancing and waving their spears,
a great crowd of men, women, and children were gathered
there to greet them and hear the story of their adventure.

As the eyes of the villagers fell upon the prisoner,
they went wild, and heavy jaws fell open in astonishment
and incredulity. For months they had lived in perpetual
terror of a weird, white demon whom but few had ever
glimpsed and lived to describe. Warriors had disappeared
from the paths almost within sight of the village and
from the midst of their companions as mysteriously and
completely as though they had been swallowed by the earth,
and later, at night, their dead bodies had fallen,
as from the heavens, into the village street.

This fearsome creature had appeared by night in the huts
of the village, killed, and disappeared, leaving behind
him in the huts with his dead, strange and terrifying
evidences of an uncanny sense of humor.

But now he was in their power! No longer could he
terrorize them. Slowly the realization of this dawned
upon them. A woman, screaming, ran forward and struck
the ape-man across the face. Another and another followed
her example, until Tarzan of the Apes was surrounded
by a fighting, clawing, yelling mob of natives.

And then Mbonga, the chief, came, and laying his spear
heavily across the shoulders of his people, drove them
from their prey.

"We will save him until night," he said.

Far out in the jungle Tantor, the elephant, his first
panic of fear allayed, stood with up-pricked ears and
undulating trunk. What was passing through the convolutions
of his savage brain? Could he be searching for Tarzan?
Could he recall and measure the service the ape-man
had performed for him? Of that there can be no doubt.
But did he feel gratitude? Would he have risked his own
life to have saved Tarzan could he have known of the
danger which confronted his friend? You will doubt it.
Anyone at all familiar with elephants will doubt it.
Englishmen who have hunted much with elephants in India
will tell you that they never have heard of an instance
in which one of these animals has gone to the aid of a man
in danger, even though the man had often befriended it.
And so it is to be doubted that Tantor would have attempted
to overcome his instinctive fear of the black men in an
effort to succor Tarzan.

The screams of the infuriated villagers came faintly to
his sensitive ears, and he wheeled, as though in terror,
contemplating flight; but something stayed him,
and again he turned about, raised his trunk, and gave
voice to a shrill cry.

Then he stood listening.

In the distant village where Mbonga had restored quiet
and order, the voice of Tantor was scarcely audible
to the blacks, but to the keen ears of Tarzan of the Apes
it bore its message.

His captors were leading him to a hut where he might be
confined and guarded against the coming of the nocturnal
orgy that would mark his torture-laden death. He halted
as he heard the notes of Tantor's call, and raising
his head, gave vent to a terrifying scream that sent
cold chills through the superstitious blacks and caused
the warriors who guarded him to leap back even though
their prisoner's arms were securely bound behind him.

With raised spears they encircled him as for a moment
longer he stood listening. Faintly from the distance
came another, an answering cry, and Tarzan of the Apes,
satisfied, turned and quietly pursued his way toward
the hut where he was to be imprisoned.

The afternoon wore on. From the surrounding village the
ape-man heard the bustle of preparation for the feast.
Through the doorway of the hut he saw the women laying the
cooking fires and filling their earthen caldrons with water;
but above it all his ears were bent across the jungle
in eager listening for the coming of Tantor.

Even Tarzan but half believed that he would come.
He knew Tantor even better than Tantor knew himself.
He knew the timid heart which lay in the giant body.
He knew the panic of terror which the scent of the Gomangani
inspired within that savage breast, and as night drew on,
hope died within his heart and in the stoic calm of the wild
beast which he was, he resigned himself to meet the fate
which awaited him.

All afternoon he had been working, working, working with the
bonds that held his wrists. Very slowly they were giving.
He might free his hands before they came to lead him out
to be butchered, and if he did--Tarzan licked his lips
in anticipation, and smiled a cold, grim smile. He could
imagine the feel of soft flesh beneath his fingers and the
sinking of his white teeth into the throats of his foemen.
He would let them taste his wrath before they overpowered him!

At last they came--painted, befeathered warriors--even
more hideous than nature had intended them. They came
and pushed him into the open, where his appearance was
greeted by wild shouts from the assembled villagers.

To the stake they led him, and as they pushed him roughly
against it preparatory to binding him there securely
for the dance of death that would presently encircle him,
Tarzan tensed his mighty thews and with a single,
powerful wrench parted the loosened thongs which had
secured his hands. Like thought, for quickness,
he leaped forward among the warriors nearest him.
A blow sent one to earth, as, growling and snarling,
the beast-man leaped upon the breast of another.
His fangs were buried instantly in the jugular of his
adversary and then a half hundred black men had leaped
upon him and borne him to earth.

Striking, clawing, and snapping, the ape-man fought--
fought as his foster people had taught him to fight--fought
like a wild beast cornered. His strength, his agility,
his courage, and his intelligence rendered him easily a match
for half a dozen black men in a hand-to-hand struggle,
but not even Tarzan of the Apes could hope to successfully
cope with half a hundred.

Slowly they were overpowering him, though a score of them
bled from ugly wounds, and two lay very still beneath the
trampling feet, and the rolling bodies of the contestants.

Overpower him they might, but could they keep him
overpowered while they bound him? A half hour of
desperate endeavor convinced them that they could not,
and so Mbonga, who, like all good rulers, had circled in
the safety of the background, called to one to work his way
in and spear the victim. Gradually, through the milling,
battling men, the warrior approached the object of his quest.

He stood with poised spear above his head waiting for
the instant that would expose a vulnerable part of the
ape-man's body and still not endanger one of the blacks.
Closer and closer he edged about, following the movements
of the twisting, scuffling combatants. The growls
of the ape-man sent cold chills up the warrior's spine,
causing him to go carefully lest he miss at the first cast
and lay himself open to an attack from those merciless
teeth and mighty hands.

At last he found an opening. Higher he raised his spear,
tensing his muscles, rolling beneath his glistening, ebon hide,
and then from the jungle just beyond the palisade came
a thunderous crashing. The spear-hand paused, the black
cast a quick glance in the direction of the disturbance,
as did the others of the blacks who were not occupied
with the subjugation of the ape-man.

In the glare of the fires they saw a huge bulk topping
the barrier. They saw the palisade belly and sway inward.
They saw it burst as though built of straws, and an instant
later Tantor, the elephant, thundered down upon them.

To right and left the blacks fled, screaming in terror.
Some who hovered upon the verge of the strife with Tarzan
heard and made good their escape, but a half dozen there
were so wrapt in the blood-madness of battle that they
failed to note the approach of the giant tusker.

Upon these Tantor charged, trumpeting furiously. Above them
he stopped, his sensitive trunk weaving among them, and there,
at the bottom, he found Tarzan, bloody, but still battling.

A warrior turned his eyes upward from the melee.
Above him towered the gigantic bulk of the pachyderm,
the little eyes flashing with the reflected light of the
fires--wicked, frightful, terrifying. The warrior screamed,
and as he screamed, the sinuous trunk encircled him,
lifted him high above the ground, and hurled him far after
the fleeing crowd.

Another and another Tantor wrenched from the body
of the ape-man, throwing them to right and to left,
where they lay either moaning or very quiet, as death
came slowly or at once.

At a distance Mbonga rallied his warriors. His greedy
eyes had noted the great ivory tusks of the bull.
The first panic of terror relieved, he urged his men
forward to attack with their heavy elephant spears;
but as they came, Tantor swung Tarzan to his broad head,
and, wheeling, lumbered off into the jungle through
the great rent he had made in the palisade.

Elephant hunters may be right when they aver that this
animal would not have rendered such service to a man,
but to Tantor, Tarzan was not a man--he was but a fellow
jungle beast.

And so it was that Tantor, the elephant, discharged an
obligation to Tarzan of the Apes, cementing even more
closely the friendship that had existed between them
since Tarzan as a little, brown boy rode upon Tantor's huge
back through the moonlit jungle beneath the equatorial stars.