19
Diana of the Jungle
Jane had made her first kill and she was very proud of it. It was not avery formidable animal--only a hare; but it marked an epoch in herexistence. Just as in the dim past the first hunter had shaped thedestinies of mankind so it seemed that this event might shape hers insome new mold. No longer was she dependent upon the wild fruits andvegetables for sustenance. Now she might command meat, the giver of thestrength and endurance she would require successfully to cope with thenecessities of her primitive existence.
The next step was fire. She might learn to eat raw flesh as had herlord and master; but she shrank from that. The thought even wasrepulsive. She had, however, a plan for fire. She had given the matterthought, but had been too busy to put it into execution so long as firecould be of no immediate use to her. Now it was different--she hadsomething to cook and her mouth watered for the flesh of her kill. Shewould grill it above glowing embers. Jane hastened to her tree. Amongthe treasures she had gathered in the bed of the stream were severalpieces of volcanic glass, clear as crystal. She sought until she hadfound the one in mind, which was convex. Then she hurried to the groundand gathered a little pile of powdered bark that was very dry, and somedead leaves and grasses that had lain long in the hot sun. Near at handshe arranged a supply of dead twigs and branches--small and large.
Vibrant with suppressed excitement she held the bit of glass above thetinder, moving it slowly until she had focused the sun's rays upon atiny spot. She waited breathlessly. How slow it was! Were her highhopes to be dashed in spite of all her clever planning? No! A thinthread of smoke rose gracefully into the quiet air. Presently thetinder glowed and broke suddenly into flame. Jane clasped her handsbeneath her chin with a little gurgling exclamation of delight. She hadachieved fire!
She piled on twigs and then larger branches and at last dragged a smalllog to the flames and pushed an end of it into the fire which wascrackling merrily. It was the sweetest sound that she had heard formany a month. But she could not wait for the mass of embers that wouldbe required to cook her hare. As quickly as might be she skinned andcleaned her kill, burying the hide and entrails. That she had learnedfrom Tarzan. It served two purposes. One was the necessity for keepinga sanitary camp and the other the obliteration of the scent that mostquickly attracts the man-eaters.
Then she ran a stick through the carcass and held it above the flames.By turning it often she prevented burning and at the same timepermitted the meat to cook thoroughly all the way through. When it wasdone she scampered high into the safety of her tree to enjoy her mealin quiet and peace. Never, thought Lady Greystoke, had aught moredelicious passed her lips. She patted her spear affectionately. It hadbrought her this toothsome dainty and with it a feeling of greaterconfidence and safety than she had enjoyed since that frightful daythat she and Obergatz had spent their last cartridge. She would neverforget that day--it had seemed one hideous succession of frightfulbeast after frightful beast. They had not been long in this strangecountry, yet they thought that they were hardened to dangers, for dailythey had had encounters with ferocious creatures; but this day--sheshuddered when she thought of it. And with her last cartridge she hadkilled a black and yellow striped lion-thing with great saber teethjust as it was about to spring upon Obergatz who had futilely emptiedhis rifle into it--the last shot--his final cartridge. For another daythey had carried the now useless rifles; but at last they had discardedthem and thrown away the cumbersome bandoleers, as well. How they hadmanaged to survive during the ensuing week she could never quiteunderstand, and then the Ho-don had come upon them and captured her.Obergatz had escaped--she was living it all over again. Doubtless hewas dead unless he had been able to reach this side of the valley whichwas quite evidently less overrun with savage beasts.
Jane's days were very full ones now, and the daylight hours seemed alltoo short in which to accomplish the many things she had determinedupon, since she had concluded that this spot presented as ideal a placeas she could find to live until she could fashion the weapons sheconsidered necessary for the obtaining of meat and for self-defense.
She felt that she must have, in addition to a good spear, a knife, andbow and arrows. Possibly when these had been achieved she mightseriously consider an attempt to fight her way to one of civilization'snearest outposts. In the meantime it was necessary to construct somesort of protective shelter in which she might feel a greater sense ofsecurity by night, for she knew that there was a possibility that anynight she might receive a visit from a prowling panther, although shehad as yet seen none upon this side of the valley. Aside from thisdanger she felt comparatively safe in her aerial retreat.
The cutting of the long poles for her home occupied all of the daylighthours that were not engaged in the search for food. These poles shecarried high into her tree and with them constructed a flooring acrosstwo stout branches binding the poles together and also to the brancheswith fibers from the tough arboraceous grasses that grew in profusionnear the stream. Similarly she built walls and a roof, the latterthatched with many layers of great leaves. The fashioning of the barredwindows and the door were matters of great importance and consuminginterest. The windows, there were two of them, were large and the barspermanently fixed; but the door was small, the opening just largeenough to permit her to pass through easily on hands and knees, whichmade it easier to barricade. She lost count of the days that the housecost her; but time was a cheap commodity--she had more of it than ofanything else. It meant so little to her that she had not even anydesire to keep account of it. How long since she and Obergatz had fledfrom the wrath of the Negro villagers she did not know and she couldonly roughly guess at the seasons. She worked hard for two reasons; onewas to hasten the completion of her little place of refuge, and theother a desire for such physical exhaustion at night that she wouldsleep through those dreaded hours to a new day. As a matter of fact thehouse was finished in less than a week--that is, it was made as safe asit ever would be, though regardless of how long she might occupy it shewould keep on adding touches and refinements here and there.
Her daily life was filled with her house building and her hunting, towhich was added an occasional spice of excitement contributed by rovinglions. To the woodcraft that she had learned from Tarzan, that masterof the art, was added a considerable store of practical experiencederived from her own past adventures in the jungle and the long monthswith Obergatz, nor was any day now lacking in some added store ofuseful knowledge. To these facts was attributable her apparent immunityfrom harm, since they told her when JA was approaching before he creptclose enough for a successful charge and, too, they kept her close tothose never-failing havens of retreat--the trees.
The nights, filled with their weird noises, were lonely and depressing.Only her ability to sleep quickly and soundly made them endurable. Thefirst night that she spent in her completed house behind barred windowsand barricaded door was one of almost undiluted peace and happiness.The night noises seemed far removed and impersonal and the soughing ofthe wind in the trees was gently soothing. Before, it had carried amournful note and was sinister in that it might hide the approach ofsome real danger. That night she slept indeed.
She went further afield now in search of food. So far nothing butrodents had fallen to her spear--her ambition was an antelope, sincebeside the flesh it would give her, and the gut for her bow, the hidewould prove invaluable during the colder weather that she knew wouldaccompany the rainy season. She had caught glimpses of these waryanimals and was sure that they always crossed the stream at a certainspot above her camp. It was to this place that she went to hunt them.With the stealth and cunning of a panther she crept through the forest,circling about to get up wind from the ford, pausing often to look andlisten for aught that might menace her--herself the personification ofa hunted deer. Now she moved silently down upon the chosen spot. Whatluck! A beautiful buck stood drinking in the stream. The woman wormedher way closer. Now she lay upon her belly behind a small bush withinthrowing di
stance of the quarry. She must rise to her full height andthrow her spear almost in the same instant and she must throw it withgreat force and perfect accuracy. She thrilled with the excitement ofthe minute, yet cool and steady were her swift muscles as she rose andcast her missile. Scarce by the width of a finger did the point strikefrom the spot at which it had been directed. The buck leaped high,landed upon the bank of the stream, and fell dead. Jane Clayton sprangquickly forward toward her kill.
"Bravo!" A man's voice spoke in English from the shrubbery upon theopposite side of the stream. Jane Clayton halted in hertracks--stunned, almost, by surprise. And then a strange, unkemptfigure of a man stepped into view. At first she did not recognize him,but when she did, instinctively she stepped back.
"Lieutenant Obergatz!" she cried. "Can it be you?"
"It can. It is," replied the German. "I am a strange sight, no doubt;but still it is I, Erich Obergatz. And you? You have changed too, is itnot?"
He was looking at her naked limbs and her golden breastplates, the loincloth of JATO-hide, the harness and ornaments that constitute theapparel of a Ho-don woman--the things that Lu-don had dressed her in ashis passion for her grew. Not Ko-tan's daughter, even, had finertrappings.
"But why are you here?" Jane insisted. "I had thought you safely amongcivilized men by this time, if you still lived."
"Gott!" he exclaimed. "I do not know why I continue to live. I haveprayed to die and yet I cling to life. There is no hope. We are doomedto remain in this horrible land until we die. The bog! The frightfulbog! I have searched its shores for a place to cross until I haveentirely circled the hideous country. Easily enough we entered; but therains have come since and now no living man could pass that slough ofslimy mud and hungry reptiles. Have I not tried it! And the beasts thatroam this accursed land. They hunt me by day and by night."
"But how have you escaped them?" she asked.
"I do not know," he replied gloomily. "I have fled and fled and fled. Ihave remained hungry and thirsty in tree tops for days at a time. Ihave fashioned weapons--clubs and spears--and I have learned to usethem. I have slain a lion with my club. So even will a cornered ratfight. And we are no better than rats in this land of stupendousdangers, you and I. But tell me about yourself. If it is surprisingthat I live, how much more so that you still survive."
Briefly she told him and all the while she was wondering what she mightdo to rid herself of him. She could not conceive of a prolongedexistence with him as her sole companion. Better, a thousand timesbetter, to be alone. Never had her hatred and contempt for him lessenedthrough the long weeks and months of their constant companionship, andnow that he could be of no service in returning her to civilization,she shrank from the thought of seeing him daily. And, too, she fearedhim. Never had she trusted him; but now there was a strange light inhis eye that had not been there when last she saw him. She could notinterpret it--all she knew was that it gave her a feeling ofapprehension--a nameless dread.
"You lived long then in the city of A-lur?" he said, speaking in thelanguage of Pal-ul-don.
"You have learned this tongue?" she asked. "How?"
"I fell in with a band of half-breeds," he replied, "members of aproscribed race that dwells in the rock-bound gut through which theprincipal river of the valley empties into the morass. They are calledWaz-ho-don and their village is partly made up of cave dwellings andpartly of houses carved from the soft rock at the foot of the cliff.They are very ignorant and superstitious and when they first saw me andrealized that I had no tail and that my hands and feet were not liketheirs they were afraid of me. They thought that I was either god ordemon. Being in a position where I could neither escape them nor defendmyself, I made a bold front and succeeded in impressing them to such anextent that they conducted me to their city, which they call Bu-lur,and there they fed me and treated me with kindness. As I learned theirlanguage I sought to impress them more and more with the idea that Iwas a god, and I succeeded, too, until an old fellow who was somethingof a priest among them, or medicine-man, became jealous of my growingpower. That was the beginning of the end and came near to being the endin fact. He told them that if I was a god I would not bleed if a knifewas stuck into me--if I did bleed it would prove conclusively that Iwas not a god. Without my knowledge he arranged to stage the ordealbefore the whole village upon a certain night--it was upon one of thosenumerous occasions when they eat and drink to Jad-ben-Otho, their pagandeity. Under the influence of their vile liquor they would be ripe forany bloodthirsty scheme the medicine-man might evolve. One of the womentold me about the plan--not with any intent to warn me of danger, butprompted merely by feminine curiosity as to whether or not I wouldbleed if stuck with a dagger. She could not wait, it seemed, for theorderly procedure of the ordeal--she wanted to know at once, and when Icaught her trying to slip a knife into my side and questioned her sheexplained the whole thing with the utmost naivete. The warriorsalready had commenced drinking--it would have been futile to make anysort of appeal either to their intellects or their superstitions. Therewas but one alternative to death and that was flight. I told the womanthat I was very much outraged and offended at this reflection upon mygodhood and that as a mark of my disfavor I should abandon them totheir fate.
"'I shall return to heaven at once!' I exclaimed.
"She wanted to hang around and see me go, but I told her that her eyeswould be blasted by the fire surrounding my departure and that she mustleave at once and not return to the spot for at least an hour. I alsoimpressed upon her the fact that should any other approach this part ofthe village within that time not only they, but she as well, wouldburst into flames and be consumed.
"She was very much impressed and lost no time in leaving, calling backas she departed that if I were indeed gone in an hour she and all thevillage would know that I was no less than Jad-ben-Otho himself, and sothey must think me, for I can assure you that I was gone in much lessthan an hour, nor have I ventured close to the neighborhood of the cityof Bu-lur since," and he fell to laughing in harsh, cackling notes thatsent a shiver through the woman's frame.
As Obergatz talked Jane had recovered her spear from the carcass of theantelope and commenced busying herself with the removal of the hide.The man made no attempt to assist her, but stood by talking andwatching her, the while he continually ran his filthy fingers throughhis matted hair and beard. His face and body were caked with dirt andhe was naked except for a torn greasy hide about his loins. His weaponsconsisted of a club and knife of Waz-don pattern, that he had stolenfrom the city of Bu-lur; but what more greatly concerned the woman thanhis filth or his armament were his cackling laughter and the strangeexpression in his eyes.
She went on with her work, however, removing those parts of the buckshe wanted, taking only as much meat as she might consume before itspoiled, as she was not sufficiently a true jungle creature to relishit beyond that stage, and then she straightened up and faced the man.
"Lieutenant Obergatz," she said, "by a chance of accident we have metagain. Certainly you would not have sought the meeting any more than I.We have nothing in common other than those sentiments which may havebeen engendered by my natural dislike and suspicion of you, one of theauthors of all the misery and sorrow that I have endured for endlessmonths. This little corner of the world is mine by right of discoveryand occupation. Go away and leave me to enjoy here what peace I may. Itis the least that you can do to amend the wrong that you have done meand mine."
The man stared at her through his fishy eyes for a moment in silence,then there broke from his lips a peal of mirthless, uncanny laughter.
"Go away! Leave you alone!" he cried. "I have found you. We are goingto be good friends. There is no one else in the world but us. No onewill ever know what we do or what becomes of us and now you ask me togo away and live alone in this hellish solitude." Again he laughed,though neither the muscles of his eyes or his mouth reflected anymirth--it was just a hollow sound that imitated laughter.
"Remember your promise," she sai
d.
"Promise! Promise! What are promises? They are made to be broken--wetaught the world that at Liege and Louvain. No, no! I will not goaway. I shall stay and protect you."
"I do not need your protection," she insisted. "You have already seenthat I can use a spear."
"Yes," he said; "but it would not be right to leave you here alone--youare but a woman. No, no; I am an officer of the Kaiser and I cannotabandon you."
Once more he laughed. "We could be very happy here together," he added.
The woman could not repress a shudder, nor, in fact, did she attempt tohide her aversion.
"You do not like me?" he asked. "Ah, well; it is too sad. But some dayyou will love me," and again the hideous laughter.
The woman had wrapped the pieces of the buck in the hide and this shenow raised and threw across her shoulder. In her other hand she heldher spear and faced the German.
"Go!" she commanded. "We have wasted enough words. This is my countryand I shall defend it. If I see you about again I shall kill you. Doyou understand?"
An expression of rage contorted Obergatz' features. He raised his cluband started toward her.
"Stop!" she commanded, throwing her spear-hand backward for a cast."You saw me kill this buck and you have said truthfully that no onewill ever know what we do here. Put these two facts together, German,and draw your own conclusions before you take another step in mydirection."
The man halted and his club-hand dropped to his side. "Come," he beggedin what he intended as a conciliatory tone. "Let us be friends, LadyGreystoke. We can be of great assistance to each other and I promisenot to harm you."
"Remember Liege and Louvain," she reminded him with a sneer. "I amgoing now--be sure that you do not follow me. As far as you can walk ina day from this spot in any direction you may consider the limits of mydomain. If ever again I see you within these limits I shall kill you."
There could be no question that she meant what she said and the manseemed convinced for he but stood sullenly eyeing her as she backedfrom sight beyond a turn in the game trail that crossed the ford wherethey had met, and disappeared in the forest.