Chapter XIV
The Black Lion
Numa, the lion, was hungry. He had come out of the desert countryto the east into a land of plenty but though he was young and strong,the wary grass-eaters had managed to elude his mighty talons eachtime he had thought to make a kill.
Numa, the lion, was hungry and very savage. For two days he hadnot eaten and now he hunted in the ugliest of humors. No more didNuma roar forth a rumbling challenge to the world but rather hemoved silent and grim, stepping softly that no cracking twig mightbetray his presence to the keen-eared quarry he sought.
Fresh was the spoor of Bara, the deer, that Numa picked up in thewell-beaten game trail he was following. No hour had passed sinceBara had come this way; the time could be measured in minutes andso the great lion redoubled the cautiousness of his advance as hecrept stealthily in pursuit of his quarry.
A light wind was moving through the jungle aisles, and it wafteddown now to the nostrils of the eager carnivore the strong scentspoor of the deer, exciting his already avid appetite to a pointwhere it became a gnawing pain. Yet Numa did not permit himself tobe carried away by his desires into any premature charge such ashad recently lost him the juicy meat of Pacco, the zebra. Increasinghis gait but slightly he followed the tortuous windings of thetrail until suddenly just before him, where the trail wound aboutthe bole of a huge tree, he saw a young buck moving slowly aheadof him.
Numa judged the distance with his keen eyes, glowing now like twoterrible spots of yellow fire in his wrinkled, snarling face. Hecould do it--this time he was sure. One terrific roar that wouldparalyze the poor creature ahead of him into momentary inaction,and a simultaneous charge of lightning-like rapidity and Numa, thelion, would feed. The sinuous tail, undulating slowly at its tuftedextremity, whipped suddenly erect. It was the signal for the chargeand the vocal organs were shaped for the thunderous roar when, aslightning out of a clear sky, Sheeta, the panther, leaped suddenlyinto the trail between Numa and the deer.
A blundering charge made Sheeta, for with the first crash of hisspotted body through the foliage verging the trail, Bara gave asingle startled backward glance and was gone.
The roar that was intended to paralyze the deer broke horribly fromthe deep throat of the great cat--an angry roar of rage againstthe meddling Sheeta who had robbed him of his kill, and the chargethat was intended for Bara was launched against the panther; buthere too Numa was doomed to disappointment, for with the first notesof his fearsome roar Sheeta, considering well the better part ofvalor, leaped into a near-by tree.
A half-hour later it was a thoroughly furious Numa who cameunexpectedly upon the scent of man. Heretofore the lord of the junglehad disdained the unpalatable flesh of the despised man-thing. Suchmeat was only for the old, the toothless, and the decrepit who nolonger could make their kills among the fleet-footed grass-eaters.Bara, the deer, Horta, the boar, and, best and wariest, Pacco, thezebra, were for the young, the strong, and the agile, but Numa washungry--hungrier than he ever had been in the five short years ofhis life.
What if he was a young, powerful, cunning, and ferocious beast?In the face of hunger, the great leveler, he was as the old, thetoothless, and the decrepit. His belly cried aloud in anguish andhis jowls slavered for flesh. Zebra or deer or man, what matteredit so that it was warm flesh, red with the hot juices of life?Even Dango, the hyena, eater of offal, would, at the moment, haveseemed a tidbit to Numa.
The great lion knew the habits and frailties of man, though he neverbefore had hunted man for food. He knew the despised Gomangani asthe slowest, the most stupid, and the most defenseless of creatures.No woodcraft, no cunning, no stealth was necessary in the huntingof man, nor had Numa any stomach for either delay or silence.
His rage had become an almost equally consuming passion withhis hunger, so that now, as his delicate nostrils apprised him ofthe recent passage of man, he lowered his head and rumbled fortha thunderous roar, and at a swift walk, careless of the noise hemade, set forth upon the trail of his intended quarry.
Majestic and terrible, regally careless of his surroundings, theking of beasts strode down the beaten trail. The natural cautionthat is inherent to all creatures of the wild had deserted him.What had he, lord of the jungle, to fear and, with only man to hunt,what need of caution? And so he did not see or scent what a morewary Numa might readily have discovered until, with the cracking oftwigs and a tumbling of earth, he was precipitated into a cunninglydevised pit that the wily Wamabos had excavated for just thispurpose in the center of the game trail.
Tarzan of the Apes stood in the center of the clearing watching theplane shrinking to diminutive toy-like proportions in the easternsky. He had breathed a sigh of relief as he saw it rise safely withthe British flier and Fraulein Bertha Kircher. For weeks he hadfelt the hampering responsibility of their welfare in this savagewilderness where their utter helplessness would have rendered themeasy prey for the savage carnivores or the cruel Wamabos. Tarzanof the Apes loved unfettered freedom, and now that these two weresafely off his hands, he felt that he could continue upon hisjourney toward the west coast and the long-untenanted cabin of hisdead father.
And yet, as he stood there watching the tiny speck in the east,another sigh heaved his broad chest, nor was it a sigh of relief,but rather a sensation which Tarzan had never expected to feelagain and which he now disliked to admit even to himself. It couldnot be possible that he, the jungle bred, who had renounced foreverthe society of man to return to his beloved beasts of the wilds,could be feeling anything akin to regret at the departure of thesetwo, or any slightest loneliness now that they were gone. LieutenantHarold Percy Smith-Oldwick Tarzan had liked, but the woman whom hehad known as a German spy he had hated, though he never had found itin his heart to slay her as he had sworn to slay all Huns. He hadattributed this weakness to the fact that she was a woman, althoughhe had been rather troubled by the apparent inconsistency ofhis hatred for her and his repeated protection of her when dangerthreatened.
With an irritable toss of his head he wheeled suddenly toward thewest as though by turning his back upon the fast disappearing planehe might expunge thoughts of its passengers from his memory. Atthe edge of the clearing he paused; a giant tree loomed directlyahead of him and, as though actuated by sudden and irresistibleimpulse, he leaped into the branches and swung himself with apelikeagility to the topmost limbs that would sustain his weight. There,balancing lightly upon a swaying bough, he sought in the directionof the eastern horizon for the tiny speck that would be the Britishplane bearing away from him the last of his own race and kind thathe expected ever again to see.
At last his keen eyes picked up the ship flying at a considerablealtitude far in the east. For a few seconds he watched it speedingevenly eastward, when, to his horror, he saw the speck dive suddenlydownward. The fall seemed interminable to the watcher and herealized how great must have been the altitude of the plane beforethe drop commenced. Just before it disappeared from sight itsdownward momentum appeared to abate suddenly, but it was stillmoving rapidly at a steep angle when it finally disappeared fromview behind the far hills.
For half a minute the ape-man stood noting distant landmarks thathe judged might be in the vicinity of the fallen plane, for nosooner had he realized that these people were again in trouble thanhis inherent sense of duty to his own kind impelled him once moreto forego his plans and seek to aid them.
The ape-man feared from what he judged of the location of the machinethat it had fallen among the almost impassable gorges of the aridcountry just beyond the fertile basin that was bounded by thehills to the east of him. He had crossed that parched and desolatecountry of the dead himself and he knew from his own experienceand the narrow escape he had had from succumbing to its relentlesscruelty no lesser man could hope to win his way to safety fromany considerable distance within its borders. Vividly he recalledthe bleached bones of the long-dead warrior in the bottom of theprecipitous gorge that had all but proved a trap for him as well.He saw the helmet of hamme
red brass and the corroded breastplate ofsteel and the long straight sword in its scabbard and the ancientharquebus--mute testimonials to the mighty physique and thewarlike spirit of him who had somehow won, thus illy caparisonedand pitifully armed, to the center of savage, ancient Africa; andhe saw the slender English youth and the slight figure of the girlcast into the same fateful trap from which this giant of old hadbeen unable to escape--cast there wounded and broken perhaps, ifnot killed.
His judgment told him that the latter possibility was probablythe fact, and yet there was a chance that they might have landedwithout fatal injuries, and so upon this slim chance he started outupon what he knew would be an arduous journey, fraught with manyhardships and unspeakable peril, that he might attempt to save themif they still lived.
He had covered a mile perhaps when his quick ears caught the soundof rapid movement along the game trail ahead of him. The sound,increasing in volume, proclaimed the fact that whatever caused itwas moving in his direction and moving rapidly. Nor was it longbefore his trained senses convinced him that the footfalls werethose of Bara, the deer, in rapid flight. Inextricably confused inTarzan's character were the attributes of man and of beasts. Longexperience had taught him that he fights best or travels fastestwho is best nourished, and so, with few exceptions, Tarzan coulddelay his most urgent business to take advantage of an opportunityto kill and feed. This perhaps was the predominant beast trait inhim. The transformation from an English gentleman, impelled by themost humanitarian motives, to that of a wild beast crouching in theconcealment of a dense bush ready to spring upon its approachingprey, was instantaneous.
And so, when Bara came, escaping the clutches of Numa and Sheeta,his terror and his haste precluded the possibility of his sensingthat other equally formidable foe lying in ambush for him. Abreastof the ape-man came the deer; a light-brown body shot from theconcealing verdure of the bush, strong arms encircled the sleekneck of the young buck and powerful teeth fastened themselves inthe soft flesh. Together the two rolled over in the trail and amoment later the ape-man rose, and, with one foot upon the carcassof his kill, raised his voice in the victory cry of the bull ape.
Like an answering challenge came suddenly to the ears of theape-man the thunderous roar of a lion, a hideous angry roar in whichTarzan thought that he discerned a note of surprise and terror. Inthe breast of the wild things of the jungle, as in the breasts oftheir more enlightened brothers and sisters of the human race, thecharacteristic of curiosity is well developed. Nor was Tarzan farfrom innocent of it. The peculiar note in the roar of his hereditaryenemy aroused a desire to investigate, and so, throwing the carcassof Bara, the deer, across his shoulder, the ape-man took to thelower terraces of the forest and moved quickly in the directionfrom which the sound had come, which was in line with the trail hehad set out upon.
As the distance lessened, the sounds increased in volume, whichindicated that he was approaching a very angry lion and presently,where a jungle giant overspread the broad game trail that countlessthousands of hoofed and padded feet had worn and trampled into adeep furrow during perhaps countless ages, he saw beneath him thelion pit of the Wamabos and in it, leaping futilely for freedomsuch a lion as even Tarzan of the Apes never before had beheld. Amighty beast it was that glared up at the ape-man--large, powerfuland young, with a huge black mane and a coat so much darker thanany Tarzan ever had seen that in the depths of the pit it lookedalmost black--a black lion!
Tarzan who had been upon the point of taunting and reviling hiscaptive foe was suddenly turned to open admiration for the beautyof the splendid beast. What a creature! How by comparison theordinary forest lion was dwarfed into insignificance! Here indeedwas one worthy to be called king of beasts. With his first sight ofthe great cat the ape-man knew that he had heard no note of terrorin that initial roar; surprise doubtless, but the vocal chords ofthat mighty throat never had reacted to fear.
With growing admiration came a feeling of quick pity for the haplesssituation of the great brute rendered futile and helpless by thewiles of the Gomangani. Enemy though the beast was, he was less anenemy to the ape-man than those blacks who had trapped him, forthough Tarzan of the Apes claimed many fast and loyal friends amongcertain tribes of African natives, there were others of degradedcharacter and bestial habits that he looked upon with utter loathing,and of such were the human flesh-eaters of Numabo the chief. Fora moment Numa, the lion, glared ferociously at the naked man-thingupon the tree limb above him. Steadily those yellow-green eyesbored into the clear eyes of the ape-man, and then the sensitivenostrils caught the scent of the fresh blood of Bara and the eyesmoved to the carcass lying across the brown shoulder, and therecame from the cavernous depths of the savage throat a low whine.
Tarzan of the Apes smiled. As unmistakably as though a human voicehad spoken, the lion had said to him "I am hungry, even more thanhungry. I am starving," and the ape-man looked down upon the lionbeneath him and smiled, a slow quizzical smile, and then he shiftedthe carcass from his shoulder to the branch before him and, drawingthe long blade that had been his father's, deftly cut off a hindquarter and, wiping the bloody blade upon Bara's smooth coat, hereturned it to its scabbard. Numa, with watering jaws, looked upat the tempting meat and whined again and the ape-man smiled downupon him his slow smile and, raising the hind quarter in his strongbrown hands buried his teeth in the tender, juicy flesh.
For the third time Numa, the lion, uttered that low pleading whineand then, with a rueful and disgusted shake of his head, Tarzan ofthe Apes raised the balance of the carcass of Bara, the deer, andhurled it to the famished beast below.
"Old woman," muttered the ape-man. "Tarzan has become a weak oldwoman. Presently he would shed tears because he has killed Bara,the deer. He cannot see Numa, his enemy, go hungry, because Tarzan'sheart is turning to water by contact with the soft, weak creaturesof civilization." But yet he smiled, nor was he sorry that he hadgiven way to the dictates of a kindly impulse.
As Tarzan tore the flesh from that portion of the kill he had retainedfor himself his eyes were taking in each detail of the scene below.He saw the avidity with which Numa devoured the carcass; he notedwith growing admiration the finer points of the beast, and alsothe cunning construction of the trap. The ordinary lion pit withwhich Tarzan was familiar had stakes imbedded in the bottom, uponwhose sharpened points the hapless lion would be impaled, but thispit was not so made. Here the short stakes were set at intervals ofabout a foot around the walls near the top, their sharpened pointsinclining downward so that the lion had fallen unhurt into the trapbut could not leap out because each time he essayed it his headcame in contact with the sharp end of a stake above him.
Evidently, then, the purpose of the Wamabos was to capture a lionalive. As this tribe had no contact whatsoever with white men inso far as Tarzan knew, their motive was doubtless due to a desireto torture the beast to death that they might enjoy to the utmosthis dying agonies.
Having fed the lion, it presently occurred to Tarzan that his actwould be futile were he to leave the beast to the mercies of theblacks, and then too it occurred to him that he could derive morepleasure through causing the blacks discomfiture than by leavingNuma to his fate. But how was he to release him? By removing twostakes there would be left plenty of room for the lion to leap fromthe pit, which was not of any great depth. However, what assurancehad Tarzan that Numa would not leap out instantly the way tofreedom was open, and before the ape-man could gain the safety ofthe trees? Regardless of the fact that Tarzan felt no such fearof the lion as you and I might experience under like circumstances,he yet was imbued with the sense of caution that is necessary toall creatures of the wild if they are to survive. Should necessityrequire, Tarzan could face Numa in battle, although he was not soegotistical as to think that he could best a full-grown lion inmortal combat other than through accident or the utilization of thecunning of his superior man-mind. To lay himself liable to deathfutilely, he would have considered as reprehensible as to haveshunned danger in time of necessit
y; but when Tarzan elected to doa thing he usually found the means to accomplish it.
He had now fully determined to liberate Numa, and having so determined,he would accomplish it even though it entailed considerable personalrisk. He knew that the lion would be occupied with his feeding forsome time, but he also knew that while feeding he would be doublyresentful of any fancied interference. Therefore Tarzan must workwith caution.
Coming to the ground at the side of the pit, he examined the stakesand as he did so was rather surprised to note that Numa gave noevidence of anger at his approach. Once he turned a searching gazeupon the ape-man for a moment and then returned to the flesh ofBara. Tarzan felt of the stakes and tested them with his weight.He pulled upon them with the muscles of his strong arms, presentlydiscovering that by working them back and forth he could loosenthem: and then a new plan was suggested to him so that he fell towork excavating with his knife at a point above where one of thestakes was imbedded. The loam was soft and easily removed, and itwas not long until Tarzan had exposed that part of one of the stakeswhich was imbedded in the wall of the pit to almost its entirelength, leaving only enough imbedded to prevent the stake fromfalling into the excavation. Then he turned his attention to anadjoining stake and soon had it similarly exposed, after which hethrew the noose of his grass rope over the two and swung quicklyto the branch of the tree above. Here he gathered in the slack ofthe rope and, bracing himself against the bole of the tree, pulledsteadily upward. Slowly the stakes rose from the trench in whichthey were imbedded and with them rose Numa's suspicion and growling.
Was this some new encroachment upon his rights and his liberties?He was puzzled and, like all lions, being short of temper, hewas irritated. He had not minded it when the Tarmangani squattedupon the verge of the pit and looked down upon him, for had notthis Tarmangani fed him? But now something else was afoot and thesuspicion of the wild beast was aroused. As he watched, however,Numa saw the stakes rise slowly to an erect position, tumbleagainst each other and then fall backwards out of his sight uponthe surface of the ground above. Instantly the lion grasped thepossibilities of the situation, and, too, perhaps he sensed the factthat the man-thing had deliberately opened a way for his escape.Seizing the remains of Bara in his great jaws, Numa, the lion,leaped agilely from the pit of the Wamabos and Tarzan of the Apesmelted into the jungles to the east.
On the surface of the ground or through the swaying branches of thetrees the spoor of man or beast was an open book to the ape-man, buteven his acute senses were baffled by the spoorless trail of theairship. Of what good were eyes, or ears, or the sense of smellin following a thing whose path had lain through the shiftingair thousands of feet above the tree tops? Only upon his sense ofdirection could Tarzan depend in his search for the fallen plane.He could not even judge accurately as to the distance it mightlie from him, and he knew that from the moment that it disappearedbeyond the hills it might have traveled a considerable distance atright angles to its original course before it crashed to earth. Ifits occupants were killed or badly injured the ape-man might searchfutilely in their immediate vicinity for some time before findingthem.
There was but one thing to do and that was to travel to a pointas close as possible to where he judged the plane had landed, andthen to follow in ever-widening circles until he picked up theirscent spoor. And this he did.
Before he left the valley of plenty he made several kills andcarried the choicest cuts of meat with him, leaving all the deadweight of bones behind. The dense vegetation of the jungle terminatedat the foot of the western slope, growing less and less abundantas he neared the summit beyond which was a sparse growth of sicklyscrub and sunburned grasses, with here and there a gnarled and hardytree that had withstood the vicissitudes of an almost waterlessexistence.
From the summit of the hills Tarzan's keen eyes searched the aridlandscape before him. In the distance he discerned the raggedtortuous lines that marked the winding course of the hideous gorgeswhich scored the broad plain at intervals--the terrible gorges thathad so nearly claimed his life in punishment for his temerity inattempting to invade the sanctity of their ancient solitude.
For two days Tarzan sought futilely for some clew to the whereaboutsof the machine or its occupants. He cached portions of his kills atdifferent points, building cairns of rock to mark their locations.He crossed the first deep gorge and circled far beyond it. Occasionallyhe stopped and called aloud, listening for some response butonly silence rewarded him--a sinister silence that his cries onlyaccentuated.
Late in the evening of the second day he came to the well-rememberedgorge in which lay the clean-picked bones of the ancient adventurer,and here, for the first time, Ska, the vulture, picked up his trail."Not this time, Ska," cried the ape-man in a taunting voice, "fornow indeed is Tarzan Tarzan. Before, you stalked the grim skeletonof a Tarmangani and even then you lost. Waste not your time uponTarzan of the Apes in the full of his strength." But still Ska, thevulture, circled and soared above him, and the ape-man, notwithstandinghis boasts, felt a shudder of apprehension. Through his brain rana persistent and doleful chant to which he involuntarily set twowords, repeated over and over again in horrible monotony: "Skaknows! Ska knows!" until, shaking himself in anger, he picked upa rock and hurled it at the grim scavenger.
Lowering himself over the precipitous side of the gorge Tarzan halfclambered and half slid to the sandy floor beneath. He had comeupon the rift at almost the exact spot at which he had clamberedfrom it weeks before, and there he saw, just as he had left it,just, doubtless, as it had lain for centuries, the mighty skeletonand its mighty armor.
As he stood looking down upon this grim reminder that another manof might had succumbed to the cruel powers of the desert, he wasbrought to startled attention by the report of a firearm, the soundof which came from the depths of the gorge to the south of him,and reverberated along the steep walls of the narrow rift.