Chapter XIX
The Call of the Primitive
From the time Tarzan left the tribe of great anthropoids in which hehad been raised, it was torn by continual strife and discord. Terkozproved a cruel and capricious king, so that, one by one, many of theolder and weaker apes, upon whom he was particularly prone to vent hisbrutish nature, took their families and sought the quiet and safety ofthe far interior.
But at last those who remained were driven to desperation by thecontinued truculence of Terkoz, and it so happened that one of themrecalled the parting admonition of Tarzan:
If you have a chief who is cruel, do not do as the other apes do, andattempt, any one of you, to pit yourself against him alone. But,instead, let two or three or four of you attack him together. Then, ifyou will do this, no chief will dare to be other than he should be, forfour of you can kill any chief who may ever be over you.
And the ape who recalled this wise counsel repeated it to several ofhis fellows, so that when Terkoz returned to the tribe that day hefound a warm reception awaiting him.
There were no formalities. As Terkoz reached the group, five huge,hairy beasts sprang upon him.
At heart he was an arrant coward, which is the way with bullies amongapes as well as among men; so he did not remain to fight and die, buttore himself away from them as quickly as he could and fled into thesheltering boughs of the forest.
Two more attempts he made to rejoin the tribe, but on each occasion hewas set upon and driven away. At last he gave it up, and turned,foaming with rage and hatred, into the jungle.
For several days he wandered aimlessly, nursing his spite and lookingfor some weak thing on which to vent his pent anger.
It was in this state of mind that the horrible, man-like beast,swinging from tree to tree, came suddenly upon two women in the jungle.
He was right above them when he discovered them. The first intimationJane Porter had of his presence was when the great hairy body droppedto the earth beside her, and she saw the awful face and the snarling,hideous mouth thrust within a foot of her.
One piercing scream escaped her lips as the brute hand clutched herarm. Then she was dragged toward those awful fangs which yawned at herthroat. But ere they touched that fair skin another mood claimed theanthropoid.
The tribe had kept his women. He must find others to replace them.This hairless white ape would be the first of his new household, and sohe threw her roughly across his broad, hairy shoulders and leaped backinto the trees, bearing Jane away.
Esmeralda's scream of terror had mingled once with that of Jane, andthen, as was Esmeralda's manner under stress of emergency whichrequired presence of mind, she swooned.
But Jane did not once lose consciousness. It is true that that awfulface, pressing close to hers, and the stench of the foul breath beatingupon her nostrils, paralyzed her with terror; but her brain was clear,and she comprehended all that transpired.
With what seemed to her marvelous rapidity the brute bore her throughthe forest, but still she did not cry out or struggle. The suddenadvent of the ape had confused her to such an extent that she thoughtnow that he was bearing her toward the beach.
For this reason she conserved her energies and her voice until shecould see that they had approached near enough to the camp to attractthe succor she craved.
She could not have known it, but she was being borne farther andfarther into the impenetrable jungle.
The scream that had brought Clayton and the two older men stumblingthrough the undergrowth had led Tarzan of the Apes straight to whereEsmeralda lay, but it was not Esmeralda in whom his interest centered,though pausing over her he saw that she was unhurt.
For a moment he scrutinized the ground below and the trees above, untilthe ape that was in him by virtue of training and environment, combinedwith the intelligence that was his by right of birth, told his wondrouswoodcraft the whole story as plainly as though he had seen the thinghappen with his own eyes.
And then he was gone again into the swaying trees, following thehigh-flung spoor which no other human eye could have detected, muchless translated.
At boughs' ends, where the anthropoid swings from one tree to another,there is most to mark the trail, but least to point the direction ofthe quarry; for there the pressure is downward always, toward the smallend of the branch, whether the ape be leaving or entering a tree.Nearer the center of the tree, where the signs of passage are fainter,the direction is plainly marked.
Here, on this branch, a caterpillar has been crushed by the fugitive'sgreat foot, and Tarzan knows instinctively where that same foot wouldtouch in the next stride. Here he looks to find a tiny particle of thedemolished larva, ofttimes not more than a speck of moisture.
Again, a minute bit of bark has been upturned by the scraping hand, andthe direction of the break indicates the direction of the passage. Orsome great limb, or the stem of the tree itself has been brushed by thehairy body, and a tiny shred of hair tells him by the direction fromwhich it is wedged beneath the bark that he is on the right trail.
Nor does he need to check his speed to catch these seemingly faintrecords of the fleeing beast.
To Tarzan they stand out boldly against all the myriad other scars andbruises and signs upon the leafy way. But strongest of all is thescent, for Tarzan is pursuing up the wind, and his trained nostrils areas sensitive as a hound's.
There are those who believe that the lower orders are specially endowedby nature with better olfactory nerves than man, but it is merely amatter of development.
Man's survival does not hinge so greatly upon the perfection of hissenses. His power to reason has relieved them of many of their duties,and so they have, to some extent, atrophied, as have the muscles whichmove the ears and scalp, merely from disuse.
The muscles are there, about the ears and beneath the scalp, and so arethe nerves which transmit sensations to the brain, but they areunder-developed because they are not needed.
Not so with Tarzan of the Apes. From early infancy his survival haddepended upon acuteness of eyesight, hearing, smell, touch, and tastefar more than upon the more slowly developed organ of reason.
The least developed of all in Tarzan was the sense of taste, for hecould eat luscious fruits, or raw flesh, long buried with almost equalappreciation; but in that he differed but slightly from more civilizedepicures.
Almost silently the ape-man sped on in the track of Terkoz and hisprey, but the sound of his approach reached the ears of the fleeingbeast and spurred it on to greater speed.
Three miles were covered before Tarzan overtook them, and then Terkoz,seeing that further flight was futile, dropped to the ground in a smallopen glade, that he might turn and fight for his prize or be free toescape unhampered if he saw that the pursuer was more than a match forhim.
He still grasped Jane in one great arm as Tarzan bounded like a leopardinto the arena which nature had provided for this primeval-like battle.
When Terkoz saw that it was Tarzan who pursued him, he jumped to theconclusion that this was Tarzan's woman, since they were of the samekind--white and hairless--and so he rejoiced at this opportunity fordouble revenge upon his hated enemy.
To Jane the strange apparition of this god-like man was as wine to sicknerves.
From the description which Clayton and her father and Mr. Philander hadgiven her, she knew that it must be the same wonderful creature who hadsaved them, and she saw in him only a protector and a friend.
But as Terkoz pushed her roughly aside to meet Tarzan's charge, and shesaw the great proportions of the ape and the mighty muscles and thefierce fangs, her heart quailed. How could any vanquish such a mightyantagonist?
Like two charging bulls they came together, and like two wolves soughteach other's throat. Against the long canines of the ape was pittedthe thin blade of the man's knife.
Jane--her lithe, young form flattened against the trunk of a greattree, her hands tight pressed against her rising and falling bosom, andher eyes wide with mingled horror, fascination, fear, andadmiration--watched the primordial ape battle with the primeval man forpossession of a woman--for her.
As the great muscles of the man's back and shoulders knotted beneaththe tension of his efforts, and the huge biceps and forearm held at baythose mighty tusks, the veil of centuries of civilization and culturewas swept from the blurred vision of the Baltimore girl.
When the long knife drank deep a dozen times of Terkoz' heart's blood,and the great carcass rolled lifeless upon the ground, it was aprimeval woman who sprang forward with outstretched arms toward theprimeval man who had fought for her and won her.
And Tarzan?
He did what no red-blooded man needs lessons in doing. He took hiswoman in his arms and smothered her upturned, panting lips with kisses.
For a moment Jane lay there with half-closed eyes. For a moment--thefirst in her young life--she knew the meaning of love.
But as suddenly as the veil had been withdrawn it dropped again, and anoutraged conscience suffused her face with its scarlet mantle, and amortified woman thrust Tarzan of the Apes from her and buried her facein her hands.
Tarzan had been surprised when he had found the girl he had learned tolove after a vague and abstract manner a willing prisoner in his arms.Now he was surprised that she repulsed him.
He came close to her once more and took hold of her arm. She turnedupon him like a tigress, striking his great breast with her tiny hands.
Tarzan could not understand it.
A moment ago and it had been his intention to hasten Jane back to herpeople, but that little moment was lost now in the dim and distant pastof things which were but can never be again, and with it the goodintentions had gone to join the impossible.
Since then Tarzan of the Apes had felt a warm, lithe form close pressedto his. Hot, sweet breath against his cheek and mouth had fanned a newflame to life within his breast, and perfect lips had clung to his inburning kisses that had seared a deep brand into his soul--a brandwhich marked a new Tarzan.
Again he laid his hand upon her arm. Again she repulsed him. And thenTarzan of the Apes did just what his first ancestor would have done.
He took his woman in his arms and carried her into the jungle.
Early the following morning the four within the little cabin by thebeach were awakened by the booming of a cannon. Clayton was the firstto rush out, and there, beyond the harbor's mouth, he saw two vesselslying at anchor.
One was the Arrow and the other a small French cruiser. The sides ofthe latter were crowded with men gazing shoreward, and it was evidentto Clayton, as to the others who had now joined him, that the gun whichthey had heard had been fired to attract their attention if they stillremained at the cabin.
Both vessels lay at a considerable distance from shore, and it wasdoubtful if their glasses would locate the waving hats of the littleparty far in between the harbor's points.
Esmeralda had removed her red apron and was waving it frantically aboveher head; but Clayton, still fearing that even this might not be seen,hurried off toward the northern point where lay his signal pyre readyfor the match.
It seemed an age to him, as to those who waited breathlessly behind,ere he reached the great pile of dry branches and underbrush.
As he broke from the dense wood and came in sight of the vessels again,he was filled with consternation to see that the Arrow was making sailand that the cruiser was already under way.
Quickly lighting the pyre in a dozen places, he hurried to the extremepoint of the promontory, where he stripped off his shirt, and, tying itto a fallen branch, stood waving it back and forth above him.
But still the vessels continued to stand out; and he had given up allhope, when the great column of smoke, rising above the forest in onedense vertical shaft, attracted the attention of a lookout aboard thecruiser, and instantly a dozen glasses were leveled on the beach.
Presently Clayton saw the two ships come about again; and while theArrow lay drifting quietly on the ocean, the cruiser steamed slowlyback toward shore.
At some distance away she stopped, and a boat was lowered anddispatched toward the beach.
As it was drawn up a young officer stepped out.
Monsieur Clayton, I presume? he asked.
Thank God, you have come! was Clayton's reply. And it may be thatit is not too late even now.
What do you mean, Monsieur? asked the officer.
Clayton told of the abduction of Jane Porter and the need of armed mento aid in the search for her.
MON DIEU! exclaimed the officer, sadly. Yesterday and it would nothave been too late. Today and it may be better that the poor lady werenever found. It is horrible, Monsieur. It is too horrible.
Other boats had now put off from the cruiser, and Clayton, havingpointed out the harbor's entrance to the officer, entered the boat withhim and its nose was turned toward the little landlocked bay, intowhich the other craft followed.
Soon the entire party had landed where stood Professor Porter, Mr.Philander and the weeping Esmeralda.
Among the officers in the last boats to put off from the cruiser wasthe commander of the vessel; and when he had heard the story of Jane'sabduction, he generously called for volunteers to accompany ProfessorPorter and Clayton in their search.
Not an officer or a man was there of those brave and sympatheticFrenchmen who did not quickly beg leave to be one of the expedition.
The commander selected twenty men and two officers, Lieutenant D'Arnotand Lieutenant Charpentier. A boat was dispatched to the cruiser forprovisions, ammunition, and carbines; the men were already armed withrevolvers.
Then, to Clayton's inquiries as to how they had happened to anchor offshore and fire a signal gun, the commander, Captain Dufranne, explainedthat a month before they had sighted the Arrow bearing southwest underconsiderable canvas, and that when they had signaled her to come aboutshe had but crowded on more sail.
They had kept her hull-up until sunset, firing several shots after her,but the next morning she was nowhere to be seen. They had thencontinued to cruise up and down the coast for several weeks, and hadabout forgotten the incident of the recent chase, when, early onemorning a few days before the lookout had described a vessel laboringin the trough of a heavy sea and evidently entirely out of control.
As they steamed nearer to the derelict they were surprised to note thatit was the same vessel that had run from them a few weeks earlier. Herforestaysail and mizzen spanker were set as though an effort had beenmade to hold her head up into the wind, but the sheets had parted, andthe sails were tearing to ribbons in the half gale of wind.
In the high sea that was running it was a difficult and dangerous taskto attempt to put a prize crew aboard her; and as no signs of life hadbeen seen above deck, it was decided to stand by until the wind and seaabated; but just then a figure was seen clinging to the rail and feeblywaving a mute signal of despair toward them.
Immediately a boat's crew was ordered out and an attempt wassuccessfully made to board the Arrow.
The sight that met the Frenchmen's eyes as they clambered over theship's side was appalling.
A dozen dead and dying men rolled hither and thither upon the pitchingdeck, the living intermingled with the dead. Two of the corpsesappeared to have been partially devoured as though by wolves.
The prize crew soon had the vessel under proper sail once more and theliving members of the ill-starred company carried below to theirhammocks.
The dead were wrapped in tarpaulins and lashed on deck to be identifiedby their comrades before being consigned to the deep.
None of the living was conscious when the Frenchmen reached the Arrow'sdeck. Even the poor devil who had waved the single despairing signalof distress had lapsed into unconsciousness before he had learnedwhether it had availed or not.
It did not take the French officer long to learn what had caused theterrible condition aboard; for when water and brandy were sought torestore the men, it was found that there was none, nor even food of anydescription.
He immediately signalled to the cruiser to send water, medicine, andprovisions, and another boat made the perilous trip to the Arrow.
When restoratives had been applied several of the men regainedconsciousness, and then the whole story was told. That part of it weknow up to the sailing of the Arrow after the murder of Snipes, and theburial of his body above the treasure chest.
It seems that the pursuit by the cruiser had so terrorized themutineers that they had continued out across the Atlantic for severaldays after losing her; but on discovering the meager supply of waterand provisions aboard, they had turned back toward the east.
With no one on board who understood navigation, discussions soon aroseas to their whereabouts; and as three days' sailing to the east did notraise land, they bore off to the north, fearing that the high northwinds that had prevailed had driven them south of the southernextremity of Africa.
They kept on a north-northeasterly course for two days, when they wereovertaken by a calm which lasted for nearly a week. Their water wasgone, and in another day they would be without food.
Conditions changed rapidly from bad to worse. One man went mad andleaped overboard. Soon another opened his veins and drank his ownblood.
When he died they threw him overboard also, though there were thoseamong them who wanted to keep the corpse on board. Hunger was changingthem from human beasts to wild beasts.
Two days before they had been picked up by the cruiser they had becometoo weak to handle the vessel, and that same day three men died. Onthe following morning it was seen that one of the corpses had beenpartially devoured.
All that day the men lay glaring at each other like beasts of prey, andthe following morning two of the corpses lay almost entirely strippedof flesh.
The men were but little stronger for their ghoulish repast, for thewant of water was by far the greatest agony with which they had tocontend. And then the cruiser had come.
When those who could had recovered, the entire story had been told tothe French commander; but the men were too ignorant to be able to tellhim at just what point on the coast the professor and his party hadbeen marooned, so the cruiser had steamed slowly along within sight ofland, firing occasional signal guns and scanning every inch of thebeach with glasses.
They had anchored by night so as not to neglect a particle of the shoreline, and it had happened that the preceding night had brought them offthe very beach where lay the little camp they sought.
The signal guns of the afternoon before had not been heard by those onshore, it was presumed, because they had doubtless been in the thick ofthe jungle searching for Jane Porter, where the noise of their owncrashing through the underbrush would have drowned the report of a fardistant gun.
By the time the two parties had narrated their several adventures, thecruiser's boat had returned with supplies and arms for the expedition.
Within a few minutes the little body of sailors and the two Frenchofficers, together with Professor Porter and Clayton, set off upontheir hopeless and ill-fated quest into the untracked jungle.