The Night Attack

Tarzan the Untamed

by Edgar R. Burroughs

THE NIGHT ATTACK, TARZAN THE UNTAMED by Edgar R. Burroughs
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As the girl turned to bid them good night, she thought that
she saw a shadowy form moving in the darkness beyond
them, and almost simultaneously she was sure that she
heard the sounds of stealthy movement in the same direction.

"What is that?" she whispered. "There is something out
there in the darkness."

"Yes," replied Tarzan, "it is a lion. It has been there for
some time. Hadn't you noticed it before?"

"Oh!" cried the girl, breathing a sigh of relief, "is it our
lion?"

"No," said Tarzan, "it is not our lion; it is another lion and
he is hunting."

"He is stalking us?" asked the girl.

"He is," replied the ape-man. Smith-Oldwick fingered the
grip of his pistol.

Tarzan saw the involuntary movement and shook his head.

"Leave that thing where it is, Lieutenant," he said.

The officer laughed nervously. "I couldn't help it, you know,
old man," he said; "instinct of self-preservation and all that."

"It would prove an instinct of self-destruction," said Tarzan.
"There are at least three hunting lions out there watching us.
If we had a fire or the moon were up you would see their eyes
plainly. Presently they may come after us but the chances are
that they will not. If you are very anxious that they should,
fire your pistol and hit one of them."

"What if they do charge?" asked the girl; "there is no means
of escape."

"Why, we should have to fight them," replied Tarzan.

"What chance would we three have against them?" asked
the girl.

The ape-man shrugged his shoulders. "One must die some-
time," he said. "To you doubtless it may seem terrible -- such
a death; but Tarzan of the Apes has always expected to go out
in some such way. Few of us die of old age in the jungle, nor
should I care to die thus. Some day Numa will get me, or
Sheeta, or a black warrior. These or some of the others. What
difference does it make which it is, or whether it comes tonight
or next year or in ten years? After it is over it will be all the
same."

The girl shuddered. "Yes," she said in a dull, hopeless voice,
"after it is over it will be all the same."

Then she went into the cavern and lay down upon the sand.
Smith-Oldwick sat in the entrance and leaned against the cliff.
Tarzan squatted on the opposite side.

"May I smoke?" questioned the officer of Tarzan. "I have
been hoarding a few cigarettes and if it won't attract those
bouncers out there I would like to have one last smoke before
I cash in. Will you join me?" and he proffered the ape-man a
cigarette.

"No, thanks," said Tarzan, "but it will be all right if you
smoke. No wild animal is particularly fond of the fumes of
tobacco so it certainly won't entice them any closer."

Smith-Oldwick lighted his cigarette and sat puffing slowly
upon it. He had proffered one to the girl but she had refused,
and thus they sat in silence for some time, the silence of the
night ruffled occasionally by the faint crunching of padded
feet upon the soft sands of the gorge's floor.

It was Smith-Oldwick who broke the silence. "Aren't they
unusually quiet for lions?" he asked.

"No," replied the ape-man; "the lion that goes roaring
around the jungle does not do it to attract prey. They are very
quiet when they are stalking their quarry."

"I wish they would roar," said the officer. "I wish they
would do anything, even charge. Just knowing that they are
there and occasionally seeing something like a shadow in the
darkness and the faint sounds that come to us from them are
getting on my nerves. But I hope," he said, "that all three
don't charge at once."

"Three?" said Tarzan. "There are seven of them out there
now."

"Good Lord! exclaimed Smith-Oldwick.

"Couldn't we build a fire," asked the girl, "and frighten them
away?"

"I don't know that it would do any good," said Tarzan, "as
I have an idea that these lions are a little different from any
that we are familiar with and possibly for the same reason
which at first puzzled me a little -- I refer to the apparent
docility in the presence of a man of the lion who was with us
today. A man is out there now with those lions."

"It is impossible!" exclaimed Smith-Oldwick. "They would
tear him to pieces."

"What makes you think there is a man there?" asked the
girl.

Tarzan smiled and shook his head. "I am afraid you would
not understand," he replied. "It is difficult for us to under-
stand anything that is beyond our own powers."

"What do you mean by that?" asked the officer.

"Well," said Tarzan, "if you had been born without eyes you
could not understand sense impressions that the eyes of others
transmit to their brains, and as you have both been born with-
out any sense of smell I am afraid you cannot understand how
I can know that there is a man there."

"You mean that you scent a man?" asked the girl.

Tarzan nodded affirmatively.

"And in the same way you know the number of lions?"
asked the man.

"Yes," said Tarzan. "No two lions look alike, no two have
the same scent."

The young Englishman shook his head. "No," he said, "I
cannot understand."

"I doubt if the lions or the man are here necessarily for the
purpose of harming us," said Tarzan, "because there has been
nothing to prevent their doing so long before had they wished
to. I have a theory, but it is utterly preposterous."

"What is it?" asked the girl.

"I think they are here," replied Tarzan, "to prevent us from
going some place that they do not wish us to go; in other
words we are under surveillance, and possibly as long as we
don't go where we are not wanted we shall not be bothered."

"But how are we to know where they don't want us to go?"
asked Smith-Oldwick.

"We can't know," replied Tarzan, "and the chances are that
the very place we are seeking is the place they don't wish us
to trespass on."

"You mean the water?" asked the girl.

"Yes," replied Tarzan.

For some time they sat in silence which was broken only by
an occasional sound of movement from the outer darkness. It
must have been an hour later that the ape-man rose quietly
and drew his long blade from its sheath. Smith-Oldwick was
dozing against the rocky wall of the cavern entrance, while the
girl, exhausted by the excitement and fatigue of the day, had
fallen into deep slumber. An instant after Tarzan arose,
Smith-Oldwick and the girl were aroused by a volley of
thunderous roars and the noise of many padded feet rushing
toward them.

Tarzan of the Apes stood directly before the entrance to the
cavern, his knife in his hand, awaiting the charge. The ape-
man had not expected any such concerted action as he now
realized had been taken by those watching them. He had
known for some time that other men had joined those who
were with the lions earlier in the evening, and when he arose
to his feet it was because he knew that the lions and the men
were moving cautiously closer to him and his party. He might
easily have eluded them, for he had seen that the face of the
cliff rising above the mouth of the cavern might be scaled by
as good a climber as himself. It might have been wiser had
he tried to escape, for he knew that in the face of such odds
even he was helpless, but he stood his ground though I doubt
if he could have told why.

He owed nothing either of duty or friendship to the girl
sleeping in the cavern, nor could he longer be of any protec-
tion to her or her companion. Yet something held him there in
futile self-sacrifice.

The great Tarmangani had not even the satisfaction of
striking a blow in self-defense. A veritable avalanche of savage
beasts rolled over him and threw him heavily to the ground.
In falling his head struck the rocky surface of the cliff, stun-
ning him.

It was daylight when he regained consciousness. The first
dim impression borne to his awakening mind was a confusion
of savage sounds which gradually resolved themselves into
the growling of lions, and then, little by little, there came
back
to him the recollections of what had preceded the blow that
had felled him.

Strong in his nostrils was the scent of Numa, the lion, and
against one naked leg he could feel the coat of some animal.
Slowly Tarzan opened his eyes. He was lying on his side and
as he looked down his body, he saw that a great lion stood
straddling him -- a great lion who growled hideously at some-
thing which Tarzan could not see.

With the full return of his senses Tarzan's nose told him
that the beast above him was Numa of the Wamabo pit.

Thus reassured, the ape-man spoke to the lion and at the
same time made a motion as though he would arise. Immedi-
ately Numa stepped from above him. As Tarzan raised his
head, he saw that he still lay where he had fallen before the
opening of the cliff where the girl had been sleeping and that
Numa, backed against the cliffside, was apparently defending
him from two other lions who paced to and fro a short
distance from their intended victim.

And then Tarzan turned his eyes into the cave and saw that
the girl and Smith-Oldwick were gone.

His efforts had been for naught. With an angry toss of his
head, the ape-man turned upon the two lions who had con-
tinued to pace back and forth a few yards from him. Numa
of the lion pit turned a friendly glance in Tarzan's direction,
rubbed his head against the ape-man's side, and then directed
his snarling countenance toward the two hunters.

"I think," said Tarzan to Numa, "that you and I together
can make these beasts very unhappy." He spoke in English,
which, of course, Numa did not understand at all, but there
must have been something reassuring in the tone, for Numa
whined pleadingly and moved impatiently to and fro parallel
with their antagonists.

"Come," said Tarzan suddenly and grasping the lion's mane
with his left hand he moved toward the other lions, his com-
panion pacing at his side. As the two advanced the others drew
slowly back and, finally separating, moved off to either side.
Tarzan and Numa passed between them but neither the great
black-maned lion nor the man failed to keep an eye upon the
beast nearer him so that they were not caught unawares when,
as though at some preconcerted signal, the two cats charged
simultaneously from opposite directions.

The ape-man met the charge of his antagonist after the same
fashion of fighting that he had been accustomed to employing
in previous encounters with Numa and Sheeta. To have at-
tempted to meet the full shock of a lion's charge would have
been suicidal even for the giant Tarmangani. Instead he re-
sorted to methods of agility and cunning, for quick as are the
great cats, even quicker is Tarzan of the Apes.

With outspread, raking talons and bared fangs Numa sprang
for the naked chest of the ape-man. Throwing up his left arm
as a boxer might ward off a blow, Tarzan struck upward
beneath the left forearm of the lion, at the same time rushing
in with his shoulder beneath the animal's body and simul-
taneously drove his blade into the tawny hide behind the
shoulder. With a roar of pain Numa wheeled again, the per-
sonification of bestial rage. Now indeed would he exterminate
this presumptuous man-thing who dared even to think that he
could thwart the king of beasts in his desires. But as he
wheeled, his intended quarry wheeled with him, brown fingers
locked in the heavy mane on the powerful neck and again the
blade struck deep into the lion's side.

Then it was that Numa went mad with hate and pain and
at the same instant the ape-man leaped full upon his back.
Easily before had Tarzan locked his legs beneath the belly of
a lion while he clung to its long mane and stabbed it until his
point reached its heart. So easy it had seemed before that he
experienced a sharp feeling of resentment that he was unable
to do so now, for the quick movements of the lion prevented
him, and presently, to his dismay, as the lion leaped and threw
him about, the ape-man realized that he was swinging in-
evitably beneath those frightful talons.

With a final effort he threw himself from Numa's back and
sought, by his quickness, to elude the frenzied beast for the
fraction of an instant that would permit him to regain his
feet and meet the animal again upon a more even footing. But
this time Numa was too quick for him and he was but partially
up when a great paw struck him on the side of the head and
bowled him over.

As he fell he saw a black streak shoot above him and an-
other lion close upon his antagonist. Rolling from beneath the
two battling lions Tarzan regained his feet, though he was half
dazed and staggering from the impact of the terrible blow he
had received. Behind him he saw a lifeless lion lying torn and
bleeding upon the sand, and before him Numa of the pit was
savagely mauling the second lion.

He of the black coat tremendously outclassed his adversary
in point of size and strength as well as in ferocity. The
battling
beasts made a few feints and passes at each other before the
larger succeeded in fastening his fangs in the other's throat,
and then, as a cat shakes a mouse, the larger lion shook the
lesser, and when his dying foe sought to roll beneath and rake
his conqueror with his hind claws, the other met him halfway
at his own game, and as the great talons buried themselves in
the lower part of the other's chest and then were raked down-
ward with all the terrific strength of the mighty hind legs, the
battle was ended.

As Numa rose from his second victim and shook himself,
Tarzan could not but again note the wondrous proportions and
symmetry of the beast. The lions they had bested were splendid
specimens themselves and in their coats Tarzan noted a sugges-
tion of the black which was such a strongly marked character-
istic of Numa of the pit. Their manes were just a trifle darker
than an ordinary black-maned lion but the tawny shade on the
balance of their coats predominated. However, the ape-man
realized that they were a distinct species from any he had seen
as though they had sprung originally from a cross between the
forest lion of his acquaintance and a breed of which Numa of
the pit might be typical.

The immediate obstruction in his way having been removed,
Tarzan was for setting out in search of the spoor of the girl
and Smith-Oldwick, that he might discover their fate. He
suddenly found himself tremendously hungry and as he circled
about over the sandy bottom searching among the tangled net-
work of innumerable tracks for those of his proteges, there
broke from his lips involuntarily the whine of a hungry beast.
Immediately Numa of the pit pricked up his ears and, regard-
ing the ape-man steadily for a moment, he answered the call
of hunger and started briskly off toward the south, stopping
occasionally to see if Tarzan was following.

The ape-man realized that the beast was leading him to
food, and so he followed and as he followed his keen eyes and
sensitive nostrils sought for some indication of the direction
taken by the man and the girl. Presently out of the mass of
lion tracks, Tarzan picked up those of many sandaled feet and
the scent spoor of the members of the strange race such as
had been with the lions the night before, and then faintly he
caught the scent spoor of the girl and a little later that of
Smith-Oldwick. Presently the tracks thinned and here those of
the girl and the Englishman became well marked.

They had been walking side by side and there had been
men and lions to the right and left of them, and men and lions
in front and behind. The ape-man was puzzled by the possi-
bilities suggested by the tracks, but in the light of any
previous
experience he could not explain satisfactorily to himself what
his perceptions indicated.

There was little change in the formation of the gorge; it still
wound its erratic course between precipitous cliffs. In places
it widened out and again it became very narrow and always
deeper the further south they traveled. Presently the bottom
of the gorge began to slope more rapidly. Here and there were
indications of ancient rapids and waterfalls. The trail became
more difficult but was well marked and showed indications of
great antiquity, and, in places, the handiwork of man. They
had proceeded for a half or three-quarters of a mile when, at
a turning of the gorge, Tarzan saw before him a narrow valley
cut deep into the living rock of the earth's crust, with lofty
mountain ranges bounding it upon the south. How far it ex-
tended east and west he could not see, but apparently it was
no more than three or four miles across from north to south.

That it was a well-watered valley was indicated by the
wealth of vegetation that carpeted its floor from the rocky
cliffs upon the north to the mountains on the south.

Over the edge of the cliffs from which the ape-man viewed
the valley a trail had been hewn that led downward to the
base. Preceded by the lion Tarzan descended into the valley,
which, at this point, was forested with large trees. Before him
the trail wound onward toward the center of the valley.
Raucous-voiced birds of brilliant plumage screamed among
the branches while innumerable monkeys chattered and
scolded above him.

The forest teemed with life, and yet there was borne in upon
the ape-man a sense of unutterable loneliness, a sensation that
he never before had felt in his beloved jungles. There was
unreality in everything about him -- in the valley itself, lying
hidden and forgotten in what was supposed to be an arid
waste. The birds and the monkeys, while similar in type to
many with which he was familiar, were identical with none,
nor was the vegetation without its idiosyncrasies. It was as
though he had been suddenly transported to another world
and he felt a strange restlessness that might easily have been
a premonition of danger.

Fruits were growing among the trees and some of these he
saw that Manu, the monkey, ate. Being hungry he swung to
the lower branches and, amidst a great chattering of the
monkeys, proceeded to eat such of the fruit as he saw the
monkeys ate in safety. When he had partially satisfied his
hunger, for meat alone could fully do so, he looked about him
for Numa of the pit to discover that the lion had gone.