Among the Maniacs

Tarzan the Untamed

by Edgar R. Burroughs

AMONG THE MANIACS, TARZAN THE UNTAMED by Edgar R. Burroughs
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As the lions swarmed over her protectors, Bertha Kircher
shrank back in the cave in a momentary paralysis of
fright superinduced, perhaps, by the long days of ter-
rific nerve strain which she had undergone.

Mingled with the roars of the lions had been the voices of
men, and presently out of the confusion and turmoil she felt
the near presence of a human being, and then hands reached
forth and seized her. It was dark and she could see but little,
nor any sign of the English officer or the ape-man. The
man who seized her kept the lions from her with what ap-
peared to be a stout spear, the haft of which he used to beat
off the beasts. The fellow dragged her from the cavern the
while he shouted what appeared to be commands and warn-
ings to the lions.

Once out upon the light sands of the bottom of the gorge
objects became more distinguishable, and then she saw that
there were other men in the party and that two half led and
half carried the stumbling figure of a third, whom she guessed
must be Smith-Oldwick.

For a time the lions made frenzied efforts to reach the two
captives but always the men with them succeeded in beating
them off. The fellows seemed utterly unafraid of the great
beasts leaping and snarling about them, handling them much
the same as one might handle a pack of obstreperous dogs.
Along the bed of the old watercourse that once ran through
the gorge they made their way, and as the first faint lightening
of the eastern horizon presaged the coming dawn, they paused
for a moment upon the edge of a declivity, which appeared to
the girl in the strange light of the waning night as a vast,
bottomless pit; but, as their captors resumed their way and
the light of the new day became stronger, she saw that they
were moving downward toward a dense forest.

Once beneath the over-arching trees all was again Cim-
merian darkness, nor was the gloom relieved until the sun
finally arose beyond the eastern cliffs, when she saw that they
were following what appeared to be a broad and well-beaten
game trail through a forest of great trees. The ground was
unusually dry for an African forest and the underbrush, while
heavily foliaged, was not nearly so rank and impenetrable as
that which she had been accustomed to find in similar woods.
It was as though the trees and the bushes grew in a waterless
country, nor was there the musty odor of decaying vegetation
or the myriads of tiny insects such as are bred in damp places.

As they proceeded and the sun rose higher, the voices of
the arboreal jungle life rose in discordant notes and loud
chattering about them. Innumerable monkeys scolded and
screamed in the branches overhead, while harsh-voiced birds
of brilliant plumage darted hither and thither. She noticed
presently that their captors often cast apprehensive glances
in the direction of the birds and on numerous occasions
seemed to be addressing the winged denizens of the forest.

One incident made a marked impression on her. The man
who immediately preceded her was a fellow of powerful
build, yet, when a brilliantly colored parrot swooped down-
ward toward him, he dropped upon his knees and covering
his face with his arms bent forward until his head touched
the ground. Some of the others looked at him and laughed
nervously. Presently the man glanced upward and seeing that
the bird had gone, rose to his feet and continued along the
trail.

It was at this brief halt that Smith-Oldwick was brought to
her side by the men who had been supporting him. He had
been rather badly mauled by one of the lions; but was now
able to walk alone, though he was extremely weak from shock
and loss of blood.

"Pretty mess, what?" he remarked with a wry smile, indi-
cating his bloody and disheveled state.

"It is terrible," said the girl. "I hope you are not suffering."

"Not as much as I should have expected," he replied, "but
I feel as weak as a fool. What sort of creatures are these
beggars, anyway?"

"I don't know," she replied, "there is something terribly
uncanny about their appearance."

The man regarded one of their captors closely for a mo-
ment and then, turning to the girl asked, "Did you ever visit
a madhouse?"

She looked up at him in quick understanding and with a
horrified expression in her eyes. "That's it!" she cried.

"They have all the earmarks," he said. "Whites of the eyes
showing all around the irises, hair growing stiffly erect from
the scalp and low down upon the forehead -- even their man-
nerisms and their carriage are those of maniacs."

The girl shuddered.

"Another thing about them," continued the Englishman,
"that doesn't appear normal is that they are afraid of parrots
and utterly fearless of lions."

"Yes," said the girl; "and did you notice that the birds seem
utterly fearless of them -- really seem to hold them in con-
tempt? Have you any idea what language they speak?"

'No," said the man, "I have been trying to figure that out.
It's not like any of the few native dialects of which I have any
knowledge."

"It doesn't sound at all like the native language," said the
girl, "but there is something familiar about it. You know,
every now and then I feel that I am just on the verge of
understanding what they are saying, or at least that some-
where I have heard their tongue before, but final recognition
always eludes me."

"I doubt if you ever heard their language spoken," said the
man. "These people must have lived in this out-of-the-way
valley for ages and even if they had retained the original
language of their ancestors without change, which is doubt-
ful, it must be some tongue that is no longer spoken in the
outer world."

At one point where a stream of water crossed the trail the
party halted while the lions and the men drank. They mo-
tioned to their captors to drink too, and as Bertha Kircher
and Smith-Oldwick, lying prone upon the ground drank from
the clear, cool water of the rivulet, they were suddenly startled
by the thunderous roar of a lion a short distance ahead of
them. Instantly the lions with them set up a hideous response,
moving restlessly to and fro with their eyes always either
turned in the direction from which the roar had come or
toward their masters, against whom the tawny beasts slunk.
The men loosened the sabers in their scabbards, the weapons
that had aroused Smith-Oldwick's curiosity as they had Tar-
zan's, and grasped their spears more firmly.

Evidently there were lions and lions, and while they evinced
no fear of the beasts which accompanied them, it was quite
evident that the voice of the newcomer had an entirely differ-
ent effect upon them, although the men seemed less terrified
than the lions. Neither, however, showed any indication of
an inclination to flee; on the contrary the entire party advanced
along the trail in the direction of the menacing roars, and
presently there appeared in the center of the path a black
lion of gigantic proportions. To Smith-Oldwick and the girl
he appeared to be the same lion that they had encountered
at the plane and from which Tarzan had rescued them. But
it was not Numa of the pit, although he resembled him closely.

The black beast stood directly in the center of the trail
lashing his tail and growling menacingly at the advancing
party. The men urged on their own beasts, who growled and
whined but hesitated to charge. Evidently becoming impa-
tient, and in full consciousness of his might the intruder raised
his tail stiffly erect and shot forward. Several of the de-
fending lions made a half-hearted attempt to obstruct his
passage, but they might as well have placed themselves in the
path of an express train, as hurling them aside the great beast
leaped straight for one of the men. A dozen spears were
launched at him and a dozen sabers leaped from their scab-
bards; gleaming, razor-edged weapons they were, but for the
instant rendered futile by the terrific speed of the charging
beast.

Two of the spears entering his body but served to further
enrage him as, with demoniacal roars, he sprang upon the
hapless man he had singled out for his prey. Scarcely pausing
in his charge he seized the fellow by the shoulder and, turning
quickly at right angles, leaped into the concealing foliage
that flanked the trail, and was gone, bearing his victim with
him.

So quickly had the whole occurrence transpired that the
formation of the little party was scarcely altered. There had
been no opportunity for flight, even if it had been contem-
plated; and now that the lion was gone with his prey the men
made no move to pursue him. They paused only long enough
to recall the two or three of their lions that had scattered and
then resumed the march along the trail.

"Might be an everyday occurrence from all the effect it has
on them," remarked Smith-Oldwick to the girl.

"Yes," she said. "They seem to be neither surprised nor
disconcerted, and evidently they are quite sure that the lion,
having got what he came for, will not molest them further."

"I had thought," said the Englishman, "that the lions of the
Wamabo country were about the most ferocious in existence,
but they are regular tabby cats by comparison with these big
black fellows. Did you ever see anything more utterly fear-
less or more terribly irresistible than that charge?"

For a while, as they walked side by side, their thoughts and
conversation centered upon this latest experience, until the
trail emerging from the forest opened to their view a walled
city and an area of cultivated land. Neither could suppress
an exclamation of surprise.

"Why, that wall is a regular engineering job," exclaimed
Smith-Oldwick

"And look at the domes and minarets of the city beyond,"
cried the girl. "There must be a civilized people beyond that
wall. Possibly we are fortunate to have fallen into their hands."

Smith-Oldwick shrugged his shoulders. "I hope so," he
said, "though I am not at all sure about people who travel
about with lions and are afraid of parrots. There must be
something wrong with them."

The party followed the trail across the field to an arched
gateway which opened at the summons of one of their captors,
who beat upon the heavy wooden panels with his spear.
Beyond, the gate opened into a narrow street which seemed
but a continuation of the jungle trail leading from the forest.
Buildings on either hand adjoined the wall and fronted the
narrow, winding street, which was only visible for a short
distance ahead. The houses were practically all two-storied
structures, the upper stories flush with the street while the
walls of the first story were set back some ten feet, a series of
simple columns and arches supporting the front of the second
story and forming an arcade on either side of the narrow
thoroughfare.

The pathway in the center of the street was unpaved, but
the floors of the arcades were cut stone of various shapes and
sizes but all carefully fitted and laid without mortar. These
floors gave evidence of great antiquity, there being a distinct
depression down the center as though the stone had been
worn away by the passage of countless sandaled feet during
the ages that it had lain there.

There were few people astir at this early hour, and these
were of the same type as their captors. At first those whom
they saw were only men, but as they went deeper into the
city they came upon a few naked children playing in the soft
dust of the roadway. Many they passed showed the greatest
surprise and curiosity in the prisoners, and often made in-
quiries of the guards, which the two assumed must have been
in relation to themselves, while others appeared not to notice
them at all.

"I wish we could understand their bally language," ex-
claimed Smith-Oldwick.

"Yes," said the girl, "I would like to ask them what they
are going to do with us."

"That would be interesting," said the man. "I have been
doing considerable wondering along that line myself."

"I don't like the way their canine teeth are filed," said the
girl. "It's too suggestive of some of the cannibals I have seen."

"You don't really believe they are cannibals, do you?" asked
the man. "You don't think white people are ever cannibals,
do you?"

"Are these people white?" asked the girl.

"They're not Negroes, that's certain," rejoined the man.
"Their skin is yellow, but yet it doesn't resemble the Chinese
exactly, nor are any of their features Chinese."

It was at this juncture that they caught their first glimpse of
a native woman. She was similar in most respects to the men
though her stature was smaller and her figure more symmetri-
cal. Her face was more repulsive than that of the men, pos-
sibly because of the fact that she was a woman, which rather
accentuated the idiosyncrasies of eyes, pendulous lip, pointed
tusks and stiff, low-growing hair. The latter was longer than
that of the men and much heavier. It hung about her shoul-
ders and was confined by a colored bit of some lacy fabric.
Her single garment appeared to be nothing more than a filmy
scarf which was wound tightly around her body from below
her naked breasts, being caught up some way at the bottom
near her ankles. Bits of shiny metal resembling gold, orna-
mented both the headdress and the skirt. Otherwise the woman
was entirely without jewelry. Her bare arms were slender
and shapely and her hands and feet well proportioned and
symmetrical.

She came close to the party as they passed her, jabbering
to the guards who paid no attention to her. The prisoners
had an opportunity to observe her closely as she followed at
their side for a short distance.

"The figure of a houri," remarked Smith-Oldwick, "with the
face of an imbecile."

The street they followed was intersected at irregular in-
tervals by crossroads which, as they glanced down them,
proved to be equally as tortuous as that through which they
were being conducted. The houses varied but little in design.
Occasionally there were bits of color, or some attempt at other
architectural ornamentation. Through open windows and doors
they could see that the walls of the houses were very thick
and that all apertures were quite small, as though the people
had built against extreme heat, which they realized must
have been necessary in this valley buried deep in an African
desert.

Ahead they occasionally caught glimpses of larger struc-
tures, and as they approached them, came upon what was
evidently a part of the business section of the city. There
were numerous small shops and bazaars interspersed among
the residences, and over the doors of these were signs painted
in characters strongly suggesting Greek origin and yet it was
not Greek as both the Englishman and the girl knew.

Smith-Oldwick was by this time beginning to feel more
acutely the pain of his wounds and the consequent weakness
that was greatly aggravated by loss of blood. He staggered now
occasionally and the girl, seeing his plight, offered him her
arm.

"No," he expostulated, "you have passed through too much
yourself to have any extra burden imposed upon you." But
though he made a valiant effort to keep up with their captors
he occasionally lagged, and upon one such occasion the guards
for the first time showed any disposition toward brutality.

It was a big fellow who walked at Smith-Oldwick's left.
Several times he took hold of the Englishman's arm and
pushed him forward not ungently, but when the captive
lagged again and again the fellow suddenly, and certainly
with no just provocation, flew into a perfect frenzy of rage.
He leaped upon the wounded man, striking him viciously
with his fists and, bearing him to the ground, grasped his
throat in his left hand while with his right he drew his long
sharp saber. Screaming terribly he waved the blade above his
head.

The others stopped and turned to look upon the encounter
with no particular show of interest. It was as though one of
the party had paused to readjust a sandal and the others merely
waited until he was ready to march on again.

But if their captors were indifferent, Bertha Kircher was not.
The close-set blazing eyes, the snarling fanged face, and the
frightful screams filled her with horror, while the brutal and
wanton attack upon the wounded man aroused within her the
spirit of protection for the weak that is inherent in all women.
Forgetful of everything other than that a weak and defense-
less man was being brutally murdered before her eyes, the girl
cast aside discretion and, rushing to Smith-Oldwick's assist-
ance, seized the uplifted sword arm of the shrieking creature
upon the prostrate Englishman.

Clinging desperately to the fellow she surged backward with
all her weight and strength with the result that she overbal-
anced him and sent him sprawling to the pavement upon his
back. In his efforts to save himself he relaxed his grasp upon
the grip of his saber which had no sooner fallen to the ground
than it was seized upon by the girl. Standing erect beside the
prostrate form of the English officer Bertha Kircher, the razor-
edged weapon grasped firmly in her hand, faced their captors.

She was a brave figure; even her soiled and torn riding togs
and disheveled hair detracted nothing from her appearance.
The creature she had felled scrambled quickly to his feet and
in the instant his whole demeanor changed. From demoniacal
rage he became suddenly convulsed with hysterical laughter
although it was a question in the girl's mind as to which was
the more terrifying. His companions stood looking on with
vacuous grins upon their countenances, while he from whom
the girl had wrested the weapon leaped up and down shriek-
ing with laughter. If Bertha Kircher had needed further evi-
dence to assure her that they were in the hands of a mentally
deranged people the man's present actions would have been
sufficient to convince her. The sudden uncontrolled rage and
now the equally uncontrolled and mirthless laughter but em-
phasized the facial attributes of idiocy.

Suddenly realizing how helpless she was in the event any
one of the men should seek to overpower her, and moved by
a sudden revulsion of feeling that brought on almost a nausea
of disgust, the girl hurled the weapon upon the ground at the
feet of the laughing maniac and, turning, kneeled beside the
Englishman.

"It was wonderful of you," he said, "but you shouldn't have
done it. Don't antagonize them: I believe that they are all
mad and you know they say that one should always humor a
madman."

She shook her head. "I couldn't see him kill you," she said.

A sudden light sprang to the man's eyes as he reached out
a hand and grasped the girl's fingers. "Do you care a little
now?" he asked. "Can't you tell me that you do -- just a bit?"

She did not withdraw her hand from his but she shook her
head sadly. "Please don't," she said. "I am sorry that I can
only like you very much."

The light died from his eyes and his fingers relaxed their
grasp on hers. "Please forgive me," he murmured. "I intended
waiting until we got out of this mess and you were safe among
your own people. It must have been the shock or something
like that, and seeing you defending me as you did. Anyway, I
couldn't help it and really it doesn't make much difference what
I say now, does it?"

"What do you mean?" she asked quickly.

He shrugged and smiled ruefully. "I will never leave this
city alive," he said. "I wouldn't mention it except that I real-
ize that you must know it as well as I. I was pretty badly torn
up by the lion and this fellow here has about finished me.
There might be some hope if we were among civilized people,
but here with these frightful creatures what care could we
get even if they were friendly?"

Bertha Kircher knew that he spoke the truth, and yet she
could not bring herself to an admission that Smith-Oldwick
would die. She was very fond of him, in fact her great regret
was that she did not love him, but she knew that she did not.

It seemed to her that it could be such an easy thing for any
girl to love Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick -- an Eng-
lish officer and a gentleman, the scion of an old family and
himself a man of ample means, young, good-looking and af-
fable. What more could a girl ask for than to have such a
man love her and that she possessed Smith-Oldwick's love
there was no doubt in Bertha Kircher's mind.

She sighed, and then, laying her hand impulsively on his
forehead, she whispered, "Do not give up hope, though. Try
to live for my sake and for your sake I will try to love you."

It was as though new life had suddenly been injected into
the man's veins. His face lightened instantly and with strength
that he himself did not know he possessed he rose slowly to
his feet, albeit somewhat unsteadily. The girl helped him and
supported him after he had arisen.

For the moment they had been entirely unconscious of their
surroundings and now as she looked at their captors she saw
that they had fallen again into their almost habitual manner
of stolid indifference, and at a gesture from one of them the
march was resumed as though no untoward incident had
occurred.

Bertha Kircher experienced a sudden reaction from the mo-
mentary exaltation of her recent promise to the Englishman.
She knew that she had spoken more for him than for herself
but now that it was over she realized, as she had realized the
moment before she had spoken, that it was unlikely she would
ever care for him the way he wished. But what had she prom-
ised? Only that she would try to love him. "And now?" she
asked herself.

She realized that there might be little hope of their ever
returning to civilization. Even if these people should prove
friendly and willing to let them depart in peace, how were
they to find their way back to the coast? With Tarzan dead,
as she fully believed him after having seen his body lying life-
less at the mouth of the cave when she had been dragged forth
by her captor, there seemed no power at their command which
could guide them safely.

The two had scarcely mentioned the ape-man since their
capture, for each realized fully what his loss meant to them.
They had compared notes relative to those few exciting mo-
ments of the final attack and capture and had found that they
agreed perfectly upon all that had occurred. Smith-Oldwick
had even seen the lion leap upon Tarzan at the instant that the
former was awakened by the roars of the charging beasts, and
though the night had been dark, he had been able to see that
the body of the savage ape-man had never moved from the
instant that it had come down beneath the beast.

And so, if at other times within the past few weeks Bertha
Kircher had felt that her situation was particularly hopeless,
she was now ready to admit that hope was absolutely extinct.

The streets were beginning to fill with the strange men and
women of this strange city. Sometimes individuals would notice
them and seem to take a great interest in them, and again
others would pass with vacant stares, seemingly unconscious
of their immediate surroundings and paying no attention
whatsoever to the prisoners. Once they heard hideous screams
up a side street, and looking they saw a man in the throes
of a demoniacal outburst of rage, similar to that which they
had witnessed in the recent attack upon Smith-Oldwick. This
creature was venting his insane rage upon a child which he
repeatedly struck and bit, pausing only long enough to shriek
at frequent intervals. Finally, just before they passed out of
sight the creature raised the limp body of the child high above
his head and cast it down with all his strength upon the pave-
ment, and then, wheeling and screaming madly at the top of
his lungs, he dashed headlong up the winding street.

Two women and several men had stood looking on at the
cruel attack. They were at too great a distance for the Euro-
peans to know whether their facial expressions portrayed pity
or rage, but be that as it may, none offered to interfere.

A few yards farther on a hideous hag leaned from a second
story window where she laughed and jibbered and made hor-
rid grimaces at all who passed her. Others went their ways
apparently attending to whatever duties called them, as soberly
as the inhabitants of any civilized community.

"God," muttered Smith-Oldwick, "what an awful place!"

The girl turned suddenly toward him. "You still have your
pistol?" she asked him.

"Yes," he replied. "I tucked it inside my shirt. They did
not search me and it was too dark for them to see whether I
carried any weapons or not. So I hid it in the hope that I might
get through with it."

She moved closer to him and took hold of his hand. "Save
one cartridge for me, please?" she begged.

Smith-Oldwick looked down at her and blinked his eyes
very rapidly. An unfamiliar and disconcerting moisture had
come into them. He had realized, of course, how bad a plight
was theirs but somehow it had seemed to affect him only:
it did not seem possible that anyone could harm this sweet
and beautiful girl.

And that she should have to be destroyed -- destroyed by
him! It was too hideous: it was unbelievable, unthinkable! If
he had been filled with apprehension before, he was doubly
perturbed now.

"I don't believe I could do it, Bertha," he said.

"Not even to save me from something worse?" she asked.

He shook his head dismally. "I could never do it," he re-
plied.

The street that they were following suddenly opened upon
a wide avenue, and before them spread a broad and beautiful
lagoon, the quiet surface of which mirrored the clear cerulean
of the sky. Here the aspect of all their surroundings changed.
The buildings were higher and much more pretentious in de-
sign and ornamentation. The street itself was paved in mosaics
of barbaric but stunningly beautiful design. In the ornamen-
tation of the buildings there was considerable color and a
great deal of what appeared to be gold leaf. In all the decora-
tions there was utilized in various ways the conventional figure
of the parrot, and, to a lesser extent, that of the lion and the
monkey.

Their captors led them along the pavement beside the la-
goon for a short distance and then through an arched doorway
into one of the buildings facing the avenue. Here, directly
within the entrance was a large room furnished with massive
benches and tables, many of which were elaborately hand
carved with the figures of the inevitable parrot, the lion, or
the monkey, the parrot always predominating.

Behind one of the tables sat a man who differed in no way
that the captives could discover from those who accompanied
them. Before this person the party halted, and one of the men
who had brought them made what seemed to be an oral report.
Whether they were before a judge, a military officer, or a civil
dignitary they could not know, but evidently he was a man
of authority, for, after listening to whatever recital was being
made to him the while he closely scrutinized the two captives,
he made a single futile attempt to converse with them and
then issued some curt orders to him who had made the report.

Almost immediately two of the men approached Bertha
Kircher and signaled her to accompany them. Smith-Oldwick
started to follow her but was intercepted by one of their
guards. The girl stopped then and turned back, at the same
time looking at the man at the table and making signs with
her hands, indicating, as best she could, that she wished Smith-
Oldwick to remain with her, but the fellow only shook his
head negatively and motioned to the guards to remove her.
The Englishman again attempted to follow but was restrained.
He was too weak and helpless even to make an attempt to
enforce his wishes. He thought of the pistol inside his shirt
and then of the futility of attempting to overcome an entire
city with the few rounds of ammunition left to him.

So far, with the single exception of the attack made upon
him, they had no reason to believe that they might not receive
fair treatment from their captors, and so he reasoned that it
might be wiser to avoid antagonizing them until such a time
as he became thoroughly convinced that their intentions were
entirely hostile. He saw the girl led from the building and
just before she disappeared from his view she turned and
waved her hand to him:

"Good luck!" she cried, and was gone.

The lions that had entered the building with the party had,
during their examination by the man at the table, been driven
from the apartment through a doorway behind him. Toward
this same doorway two of the men now led Smith-Oldwick.
He found himself in a long corridor from the sides of which
other doorways opened, presumably into other apartments
of the building. At the far end of the corridor he saw a heavy
grating beyond which appeared an open courtyard. Into this
courtyard the prisoner was conducted, and as he entered it with
the two guards he found himself in an opening which was
bounded by the inner walls of the building. It was in the nature
of a garden in which a number of trees and flowering shrubs
grew. Beneath several of the trees were benches and there
was a bench along the south wall, but what aroused his most
immediate attention was the fact that the lions who had
assisted in their capture and who had accompanied them
upon the return to the city, lay sprawled about upon the
ground or wandered restlessly to and fro.

Just inside the gate his guard halted. The two men ex-
changed a few words and then turned and reentered the
corridor. The Englishman was horror-stricken as the full
realization of his terrible plight forced itself upon his tired
brain. He turned and seized the grating in an attempt to open
it and gain the safety of the corridor, but he found it securely
locked against his every effort, and then he called aloud to the
retreating figure of the men within. The only reply he received
was a high-pitched, mirthless laugh, and then the two passed
through the doorway at the far end of the corridor and he was
alone with the lions.