Jungle Tales of Tarzan

  3

  The Fight for the Balu

  TEEKA HAD BECOME a mother. Tarzan of the Apes was intenselyinterested, much more so, in fact, than Taug, the father. Tarzan wasvery fond of Teeka. Even the cares of prospective motherhood had notentirely quenched the fires of carefree youth, and Teeka had remained agood-natured playmate even at an age when other shes of the tribe ofKerchak had assumed the sullen dignity of maturity. She yet retainedher childish delight in the primitive games of tag and hide-and-go-seekwhich Tarzan's fertile man-mind had evolved.

  To play tag through the tree tops is an exciting and inspiring pastime.Tarzan delighted in it, but the bulls of his childhood had long sinceabandoned such childish practices. Teeka, though, had been keen for italways until shortly before the baby came; but with the advent of herfirst-born, even Teeka changed.

  The evidence of the change surprised and hurt Tarzan immeasurably. Onemorning he saw Teeka squatted upon a low branch hugging something veryclose to her hairy breast--a wee something which squirmed and wriggled.Tarzan approached filled with the curiosity which is common to allcreatures endowed with brains which have progressed beyond themicroscopic stage.

  Teeka rolled her eyes in his direction and strained the squirming mitestill closer to her. Tarzan came nearer. Teeka drew away and baredher fangs. Tarzan was nonplussed. In all his experiences with Teeka,never before had she bared fangs at him other than in play; but todayshe did not look playful. Tarzan ran his brown fingers through histhick, black hair, cocked his head upon one side, and stared. Then heedged a bit nearer, craning his neck to have a better look at the thingwhich Teeka cuddled.

  Again Teeka drew back her upper lip in a warning snarl. Tarzan reachedforth a hand, cautiously, to touch the thing which Teeka held, andTeeka, with a hideous growl, turned suddenly upon him. Her teeth sankinto the flesh of his forearm before the ape-man could snatch it away,and she pursued him for a short distance as he retreated incontinentlythrough the trees; but Teeka, carrying her baby, could not overtakehim. At a safe distance Tarzan stopped and turned to regard hiserstwhile play-fellow in unconcealed astonishment. What had happenedto so alter the gentle Teeka? She had so covered the thing in her armsthat Tarzan had not yet been able to recognize it for what it was; butnow, as she turned from the pursuit of him, he saw it. Through hispain and chagrin he smiled, for Tarzan had seen young ape mothersbefore. In a few days she would be less suspicious. Still Tarzan washurt; it was not right that Teeka, of all others, should fear him.Why, not for the world would he harm her, or her balu, which is the apeword for baby.

  And now, above the pain of his injured arm and the hurt to his pride,rose a still stronger desire to come close and inspect the new-born sonof Taug. Possibly you will wonder that Tarzan of the Apes, mightyfighter that he was, should have fled before the irritable attack of ashe, or that he should hesitate to return for the satisfaction of hiscuriosity when with ease he might have vanquished the weakened motherof the new-born cub; but you need not wonder. Were you an ape, youwould know that only a bull in the throes of madness will turn upon afemale other than to gently chastise her, with the occasional exceptionof the individual whom we find exemplified among our own kind, and whodelights in beating up his better half because she happens to besmaller and weaker than he.

  Tarzan again came toward the young mother--warily and with his line ofretreat safely open. Again Teeka growled ferociously. Tarzanexpostulated.

  "Tarzan of the Apes will not harm Teeka's balu," he said. "Let me seeit."

  "Go away!" commanded Teeka. "Go away, or I will kill you."

  "Let me see it," urged Tarzan.

  "Go away," reiterated the she-ape. "Here comes Taug. He will make yougo away. Taug will kill you. This is Taug's balu."

  A savage growl close behind him apprised Tarzan of the nearness ofTaug, and the fact that the bull had heard the warnings and threats ofhis mate and was coming to her succor.

  Now Taug, as well as Teeka, had been Tarzan's play-fellow while thebull was still young enough to wish to play. Once Tarzan had savedTaug's life; but the memory of an ape is not overlong, nor wouldgratitude rise above the parental instinct. Tarzan and Taug had oncemeasured strength, and Tarzan had been victorious. That fact Taugcould be depended upon still to remember; but even so, he might readilyface another defeat for his first-born--if he chanced to be in theproper mood.

  From his hideous growls, which now rose in strength and volume, heseemed to be in quite the mood. Now Tarzan felt no fear of Taug, nordid the unwritten law of the jungle demand that he should flee frombattle with any male, unless he cared to from purely personal reasons.But Tarzan liked Taug. He had no grudge against him, and his man-mindtold him what the mind of an ape would never have deduced--that Taug'sattitude in no sense indicated hatred. It was but the instinctive urgeof the male to protect its offspring and its mate.

  Tarzan had no desire to battle with Taug, nor did the blood of hisEnglish ancestors relish the thought of flight, yet when the bullcharged, Tarzan leaped nimbly to one side, and thus encouraged, Taugwheeled and rushed again madly to the attack. Perhaps the memory of apast defeat at Tarzan's hands goaded him. Perhaps the fact that Teekasat there watching him aroused a desire to vanquish the ape-man beforeher eyes, for in the breast of every jungle male lurks a vast egotismwhich finds expression in the performance of deeds of derring-do beforean audience of the opposite sex.

  At the ape-man's side swung his long grass rope--the play-thing ofyesterday, the weapon of today--and as Taug charged the second time,Tarzan slipped the coils over his head and deftly shook out the slidingnoose as he again nimbly eluded the ungainly beast. Before the apecould turn again, Tarzan had fled far aloft among the branches of theupper terrace.

  Taug, now wrought to a frenzy of real rage, followed him. Teeka peeredupward at them. It was difficult to say whether she was interested.Taug could not climb as rapidly as Tarzan, so the latter reached thehigh levels to which the heavy ape dared not follow before the formerovertook him. There he halted and looked down upon his pursuer, makingfaces at him and calling him such choice names as occurred to thefertile man-brain. Then, when he had worked Taug to such a pitch offoaming rage that the great bull fairly danced upon the bending limbbeneath him, Tarzan's hand shot suddenly outward, a widening noosedropped swiftly through the air, there was a quick jerk as it settledabout Taug, falling to his knees, a jerk that tightened it securelyabout the hairy legs of the anthropoid.

  Taug, slow of wit, realized too late the intention of his tormentor.He scrambled to escape, but the ape-man gave the rope a tremendous jerkthat pulled Taug from his perch, and a moment later, growlinghideously, the ape hung head downward thirty feet above the ground.

  Tarzan secured the rope to a stout limb and descended to a point closeto Taug.

  "Taug," he said, "you are as stupid as Buto, the rhinoceros. Now youmay hang here until you get a little sense in your thick head. You mayhang here and watch while I go and talk with Teeka."

  Taug blustered and threatened, but Tarzan only grinned at him as hedropped lightly to the lower levels. Here he again approached Teekaonly to be again greeted with bared fangs and menacing growls. Hesought to placate her; he urged his friendly intentions, and craned hisneck to have a look at Teeka's balu; but the she-ape was not to bepersuaded that he meant other than harm to her little one. Hermotherhood was still so new that reason was yet subservient to instinct.

  Realizing the futility of attempting to catch and chastise Tarzan,Teeka sought to escape him. She dropped to the ground and lumberedacross the little clearing about which the apes of the tribe weredisposed in rest or in the search of food, and presently Tarzanabandoned his attempts to persuade her to permit a close examination ofthe balu. The ape-man would have liked to handle the tiny thing. Thevery sight of it awakened in his breast a strange yearning. He wishedto cuddle and fondle the grotesque little ape-thing. It was Teeka'sbalu and Tarzan had once lavished his young a
ffections upon Teeka.

  But now his attention was diverted by the voice of Taug. The threatsthat had filled the ape's mouth had turned to pleas. The tighteningnoose was stopping the circulation of the blood in his legs--he wasbeginning to suffer. Several apes sat near him highly interested inhis predicament. They made uncomplimentary remarks about him, for eachof them had felt the weight of Taug's mighty hands and the strength ofhis great jaws. They were enjoying revenge.

  Teeka, seeing that Tarzan had turned back toward the trees, had haltedin the center of the clearing, and there she sat hugging her balu andcasting suspicious glances here and there. With the coming of thebalu, Teeka's care-free world had suddenly become peopled withinnumerable enemies. She saw an implacable foe in Tarzan, alwaysheretofore her best friend. Even poor old Mumga, half blind and almostentirely toothless, searching patiently for grubworms beneath a fallenlog, represented to her a malignant spirit thirsting for the blood oflittle balus.

  And while Teeka guarded suspiciously against harm, where there was noharm, she failed to note two baleful, yellow-green eyes staring fixedlyat her from behind a clump of bushes at the opposite side of theclearing.

  Hollow from hunger, Sheeta, the panther, glared greedily at thetempting meat so close at hand, but the sight of the great bulls beyondgave him pause.

  Ah, if the she-ape with her balu would but come just a trifle nearer! Aquick spring and he would be upon them and away again with his meatbefore the bulls could prevent.

  The tip of his tawny tail moved in spasmodic little jerks; his lowerjaw hung low, exposing a red tongue and yellow fangs. But all thisTeeka did not see, nor did any other of the apes who were feeding orresting about her. Nor did Tarzan or the apes in the trees.

  Hearing the abuse which the bulls were pouring upon the helpless Taug,Tarzan clambered quickly among them. One was edging closer and leaningfar out in an effort to reach the dangling ape. He had worked himselfinto quite a fury through recollection of the last occasion upon whichTaug had mauled him, and now he was bent upon revenge. Once he hadgrasped the swinging ape, he would quickly have drawn him within reachof his jaws. Tarzan saw and was wroth. He loved a fair fight, but thething which this ape contemplated revolted him. Already a hairy handhad clutched the helpless Taug when, with an angry growl of protest,Tarzan leaped to the branch at the attacking ape's side, and with asingle mighty cuff, swept him from his perch.

  Surprised and enraged, the bull clutched madly for support as hetoppled sidewise, and then with an agile movement succeeded inprojecting himself toward another limb a few feet below. Here he founda hand-hold, quickly righted himself, and as quickly clambered upwardto be revenged upon Tarzan, but the ape-man was otherwise engaged anddid not wish to be interrupted. He was explaining again to Taug thedepths of the latter's abysmal ignorance, and pointing out how muchgreater and mightier was Tarzan of the Apes than Taug or any other ape.

  In the end he would release Taug, but not until Taug was fullyacquainted with his own inferiority. And then the maddened bull camefrom beneath, and instantly Tarzan was transformed from a good-natured,teasing youth into a snarling, savage beast. Along his scalp the hairbristled: his upper lip drew back that his fighting fangs might beuncovered and ready. He did not wait for the bull to reach him, forsomething in the appearance or the voice of the attacker aroused withinthe ape-man a feeling of belligerent antagonism that would not bedenied. With a scream that carried no human note, Tarzan leapedstraight at the throat of the attacker.

  The impetuosity of this act and the weight and momentum of his bodycarried the bull backward, clutching and clawing for support, downthrough the leafy branches of the tree. For fifteen feet the two fell,Tarzan's teeth buried in the jugular of his opponent, when a stoutbranch stopped their descent. The bull struck full upon the small ofhis back across the limb, hung there for a moment with the ape-manstill upon his breast, and then toppled over toward the ground.

  Tarzan had felt the instantaneous relaxation of the body beneath himafter the heavy impact with the tree limb, and as the other turnedcompletely over and started again upon its fall toward the ground, hereached forth a hand and caught the branch in time to stay his owndescent, while the ape dropped like a plummet to the foot of the tree.

  Tarzan looked downward for a moment upon the still form of his lateantagonist, then he rose to his full height, swelled his deep chest,smote upon it with his clenched fist and roared out the uncannychallenge of the victorious bull ape.

  Even Sheeta, the panther, crouched for a spring at the edge of thelittle clearing, moved uneasily as the mighty voice sent its weird cryreverberating through the jungle. To right and left, nervously,glanced Sheeta, as though assuring himself that the way of escape layready at hand.

  "I am Tarzan of the Apes," boasted the ape-man; "mighty hunter, mightyfighter! None in all the jungle so great as Tarzan."

  Then he made his way back in the direction of Taug. Teeka had watchedthe happenings in the tree. She had even placed her precious balu uponthe soft grasses and come a little nearer that she might better witnessall that was passing in the branches above her. In her heart of heartsdid she still esteem the smooth-skinned Tarzan? Did her savage breastswell with pride as she witnessed his victory over the ape? You willhave to ask Teeka.

  And Sheeta, the panther, saw that the she-ape had left her cub aloneamong the grasses. He moved his tail again, as though this closestapproximation of lashing in which he dared indulge might stimulate hismomentarily waned courage. The cry of the victorious ape-man stillheld his nerves beneath its spell. It would be several minutes beforehe again could bring himself to the point of charging into view of thegiant anthropoids.

  And as he regathered his forces, Tarzan reached Taug's side, and thenclambering higher up to the point where the end of the grass rope wasmade fast, he unloosed it and lowered the ape slowly downward, swinginghim in until the clutching hands fastened upon a limb.

  Quickly Taug drew himself to a position of safety and shook off thenoose. In his rage-maddened heart was no room for gratitude to theape-man. He recalled only the fact that Tarzan had laid this painfulindignity upon him. He would be revenged, but just at present his legswere so numb and his head so dizzy that he must postpone thegratification of his vengeance.

  Tarzan was coiling his rope the while he lectured Taug on the futilityof pitting his poor powers, physical and intellectual, against those ofhis betters. Teeka had come close beneath the tree and was peeringupward. Sheeta was worming his way stealthily forward, his belly closeto the ground. In another moment he would be clear of the underbrushand ready for the rapid charge and the quick retreat that would end thebrief existence of Teeka's balu.

  Then Tarzan chanced to look up and across the clearing. Instantly hisattitude of good-natured bantering and pompous boastfulness droppedfrom him. Silently and swiftly he shot downward toward the ground.Teeka, seeing him coming, and thinking that he was after her or herbalu, bristled and prepared to fight. But Tarzan sped by her, and ashe went, her eyes followed him and she saw the cause of his suddendescent and his rapid charge across the clearing. There in full sightnow was Sheeta, the panther, stalking slowly toward the tiny, wrigglingbalu which lay among the grasses many yards away.

  Teeka gave voice to a shrill scream of terror and of warning as shedashed after the ape-man. Sheeta saw Tarzan coming. He saw theshe-ape's cub before him, and he thought that this other was bent uponrobbing him of his prey. With an angry growl, he charged.

  Taug, warned by Teeka's cry, came lumbering down to her assistance.Several other bulls, growling and barking, closed in toward theclearing, but they were all much farther from the balu and the pantherthan was Tarzan of the Apes, so it was that Sheeta and the ape-manreached Teeka's little one almost simultaneously; and there they stood,one upon either side of it, baring their fangs and snarling at eachother over the little creature.

  Sheeta was afraid to seize the balu, for thus he would give the ape-manan opening for attack; and for the
same reason Tarzan hesitated tosnatch the panther's prey out of harm's way, for had he stooped toaccomplish this, the great beast would have been upon him in aninstant. Thus they stood while Teeka came across the clearing, goingmore slowly as she neared the panther, for even her mother love couldscarce overcome her instinctive terror of this natural enemy of herkind.

  Behind her came Taug, warily and with many pauses and much bluster, andstill behind him came other bulls, snarling ferociously and utteringtheir uncanny challenges. Sheeta's yellow-green eyes glared terriblyat Tarzan, and past Tarzan they shot brief glances at the apes ofKerchak advancing upon him. Discretion prompted him to turn and flee,but hunger and the close proximity of the tempting morsel in the grassbefore him urged him to remain. He reached forth a paw toward Teeka'sbalu, and as he did so, with a savage guttural, Tarzan of the Apes wasupon him.

  The panther reared to meet the ape-man's attack. He swung a frightfulraking blow for Tarzan that would have wiped his face away had itlanded, but it did not land, for Tarzan ducked beneath it and closed,his long knife ready in one strong hand--the knife of his dead father,of the father he never had known.

  Instantly the balu was forgotten by Sheeta, the panther. He nowthought only of tearing to ribbons with his powerful talons the fleshof his antagonist, of burying his long, yellow fangs in the soft,smooth hide of the ape-man, but Tarzan had fought before with clawedcreatures of the jungle. Before now he had battled with fangedmonsters, nor always had he come away unscathed. He knew the risk thathe ran, but Tarzan of the Apes, inured to the sight of suffering anddeath, shrank from neither, for he feared neither.

  The instant that he dodged beneath Sheeta's blow, he leaped to thebeast's rear and then full upon the tawny back, burying his teeth inSheeta's neck and the fingers of one hand in the fur at the throat, andwith the other hand he drove his blade into Sheeta's side.

  Over and over upon the grass rolled Sheeta, growling and screaming,clawing and biting, in a mad effort to dislodge his antagonist or getsome portion of his body within range of teeth or talons.

  As Tarzan leaped to close quarters with the panther, Teeka had runquickly in and snatched up her balu. Now she sat upon a high branch,safe out of harm's way, cuddling the little thing close to her hairybreast, the while her savage little eyes bored down upon thecontestants in the clearing, and her ferocious voice urged Taug and theother bulls to leap into the melee.

  Thus goaded the bulls came closer, redoubling their hideous clamor; butSheeta was already sufficiently engaged--he did not even hear them.Once he succeeded in partially dislodging the ape-man from his back, sothat Tarzan swung for an instant in front of those awful talons, and inthe brief instant before he could regain his former hold, a raking blowfrom a hind paw laid open one leg from hip to knee.

  It was the sight and smell of this blood, possibly, which wrought uponthe encircling apes; but it was Taug who really was responsible for thething they did.

  Taug, but a moment before filled with rage toward Tarzan of the Apes,stood close to the battling pair, his red-rimmed, wicked little eyesglaring at them. What was passing in his savage brain? Did he gloatover the unenviable position of his recent tormentor? Did he long tosee Sheeta's great fangs sink into the soft throat of the ape-man? Ordid he realize the courageous unselfishness that had prompted Tarzan torush to the rescue and imperil his life for Teeka's balu--for Taug'slittle balu? Is gratitude a possession of man only, or do the lowerorders know it also?

  With the spilling of Tarzan's blood, Taug answered these questions.With all the weight of his great body he leaped, hideously growling,upon Sheeta. His long fighting fangs buried themselves in the whitethroat. His powerful arms beat and clawed at the soft fur until itflew upward in the jungle breeze.

  And with Taug's example before them the other bulls charged, buryingSheeta beneath rending fangs and filling all the forest with the wilddin of their battle cries.

  Ah! but it was a wondrous and inspiring sight--this battle of theprimordial apes and the great, white ape-man with their ancestral foe,Sheeta, the panther.

  In frenzied excitement, Teeka fairly danced upon the limb which swayedbeneath her great weight as she urged on the males of her people, andThaka, and Mumga, and Kamma, with the other shes of the tribe ofKerchak, added their shrill cries or fierce barkings to the pandemoniumwhich now reigned within the jungle.

  Bitten and biting, tearing and torn, Sheeta battled for his life; butthe odds were against him. Even Numa, the lion, would have hesitatedto have attacked an equal number of the great bulls of the tribe ofKerchak, and now, a half mile away, hearing the sounds of the terrificbattle, the king of beasts rose uneasily from his midday slumber andslunk off farther into the jungle.

  Presently Sheeta's torn and bloody body ceased its titanic struggles.It stiffened spasmodically, twitched and was still, yet the bullscontinued to lacerate it until the beautiful coat was torn to shreds.At last they desisted from sheer physical weariness, and then from thetangle of bloody bodies rose a crimson giant, straight as an arrow.

  He placed a foot upon the dead body of the panther, and lifting hisblood-stained face to the blue of the equatorial heavens, gave voice tothe horrid victory cry of the bull ape.

  One by one his hairy fellows of the tribe of Kerchak followed hisexample. The shes came down from their perches of safety and struckand reviled the dead body of Sheeta. The young apes refought thebattle in mimicry of their mighty elders.

  Teeka was quite close to Tarzan. He turned and saw her with the baluhugged close to her hairy breast, and put out his hands to take thelittle one, expecting that Teeka would bare her fangs and spring uponhim; but instead she placed the balu in his arms, and coming nearer,licked his frightful wounds.

  And presently Taug, who had escaped with only a few scratches, came andsquatted beside Tarzan and watched him as he played with the littlebalu, and at last he too leaned over and helped Teeka with thecleansing and the healing of the ape-man's hurts.