Chapter XVI
The Night Attack
As the girl turned to bid them good night, she thought that shesaw a shadowy form moving in the darkness beyond them, and almostsimultaneously she was sure that she heard the sounds of stealthymovement in the same direction.
"What is that?" she whispered. "There is something out there inthe darkness."
"Yes," replied Tarzan, "it is a lion. It has been there for sometime. Hadn't you noticed it before?"
"Oh!" cried the girl, breathing a sigh of relief, "is it our lion?"
"No," said Tarzan, "it is not our lion; it is another lion and heis hunting."
"He is stalking us?" asked the girl.
"He is," replied the ape-man. Smith-Oldwick fingered the grip ofhis pistol.
Tarzan saw the involuntary movement and shook his head.
"Leave that thing where it is, Lieutenant," he said.
The officer laughed nervously. "I couldn't help it, you know, oldman," he said; "instinct of self-preservation and all that."
"It would prove an instinct of self-destruction," said Tarzan."There are at least three hunting lions out there watching us. Ifwe had a fire or the moon were up you would see their eyes plainly.Presently they may come after us but the chances are that they willnot. If you are very anxious that they should, fire your pistoland hit one of them."
"What if they do charge?" asked the girl; "there is no means ofescape."
"Why, we should have to fight them," replied Tarzan.
"What chance would we three have against them?" asked the girl.
The ape-man shrugged his shoulders. "One must die sometime," hesaid. "To you doubtless it may seem terrible--such a death; butTarzan of the Apes has always expected to go out in some such way.Few of us die of old age in the jungle, nor should I care to diethus. Some day Numa will get me, or Sheeta, or a black warrior.These or some of the others. What difference does it make whichit is, or whether it comes tonight or next year or in ten years?After it is over it will be all the same."
The girl shuddered. "Yes," she said in a dull, hopeless voice,"after it is over it will be all the same."
Then she went into the cavern and lay down upon the sand. Smith-Oldwicksat in the entrance and leaned against the cliff. Tarzan squattedon the opposite side.
"May I smoke?" questioned the officer of Tarzan. "I have beenhoarding a few cigarettes and if it won't attract those bouncersout there I would like to have one last smoke before I cash in.Will you join me?" and he proffered the ape-man a cigarette.
"No, thanks," said Tarzan, "but it will be all right if you smoke.No wild animal is particularly fond of the fumes of tobacco so itcertainly won't entice them any closer."
Smith-Oldwick lighted his cigarette and sat puffing slowly uponit. He had proffered one to the girl but she had refused, and thusthey sat in silence for some time, the silence of the night ruffledoccasionally by the faint crunching of padded feet upon the softsands of the gorge's floor.
It was Smith-Oldwick who broke the silence. "Aren't they unusuallyquiet for lions?" he asked.
"No," replied the ape-man; "the lion that goes roaring around thejungle does not do it to attract prey. They are very quiet whenthey are stalking their quarry."
"I wish they would roar," said the officer. "I wish they woulddo anything, even charge. Just knowing that they are there andoccasionally seeing something like a shadow in the darkness and thefaint sounds that come to us from them are getting on my nerves.But I hope," he said, "that all three don't charge at once."
"Three?" said Tarzan. "There are seven of them out there now."
"Good Lord! exclaimed Smith-Oldwick.
"Couldn't we build a fire," asked the girl, "and frighten themaway?"
"I don't know that it would do any good," said Tarzan, "as I havean idea that these lions are a little different from any that weare familiar with and possibly for the same reason which at firstpuzzled me a little--I refer to the apparent docility in thepresence of a man of the lion who was with us today. A man is outthere now with those lions."
"It is impossible!" exclaimed Smith-Oldwick. "They would tear himto pieces."
"What makes you think there is a man there?" asked the girl.
Tarzan smiled and shook his head. "I am afraid you would notunderstand," he replied. "It is difficult for us to understandanything that is beyond our own powers."
"What do you mean by that?" asked the officer.
"Well," said Tarzan, "if you had been born without eyes you couldnot understand sense impressions that the eyes of others transmitto their brains, and as you have both been born without any senseof smell I am afraid you cannot understand how I can know thatthere is a man there."
"You mean that you scent a man?" asked the girl.
Tarzan nodded affirmatively.
"And in the same way you know the number of lions?" asked the man.
"Yes," said Tarzan. "No two lions look alike, no two have the samescent."
The young Englishman shook his head. "No," he said, "I cannotunderstand."
"I doubt if the lions or the man are here necessarily for the purposeof harming us," said Tarzan, "because there has been nothing toprevent their doing so long before had they wished to. I have atheory, but it is utterly preposterous."
"What is it?" asked the girl.
"I think they are here," replied Tarzan, "to prevent us from goingsome place that they do not wish us to go; in other words we areunder surveillance, and possibly as long as we don't go where weare not wanted we shall not be bothered."
"But how are we to know where they don't want us to go?" askedSmith-Oldwick.
"We can't know," replied Tarzan, "and the chances are that the veryplace we are seeking is the place they don't wish us to trespasson."
"You mean the water?" asked the girl.
"Yes," replied Tarzan.
For some time they sat in silence which was broken only by anoccasional sound of movement from the outer darkness. It must havebeen an hour later that the ape-man rose quietly and drew his longblade from its sheath. Smith-Oldwick was dozing against the rockywall of the cavern entrance, while the girl, exhausted by theexcitement and fatigue of the day, had fallen into deep slumber. Aninstant after Tarzan arose, Smith-Oldwick and the girl were arousedby a volley of thunderous roars and the noise of many padded feetrushing toward them.
Tarzan of the Apes stood directly before the entrance to the cavern,his knife in his hand, awaiting the charge. The ape-man had notexpected any such concerted action as he now realized had been takenby those watching them. He had known for some time that other menhad joined those who were with the lions earlier in the evening,and when he arose to his feet it was because he knew that the lionsand the men were moving cautiously closer to him and his party.He might easily have eluded them, for he had seen that the face ofthe cliff rising above the mouth of the cavern might be scaled byas good a climber as himself. It might have been wiser had he triedto escape, for he knew that in the face of such odds even he washelpless, but he stood his ground though I doubt if he could havetold why.
He owed nothing either of duty or friendship to the girl sleepingin the cavern, nor could he longer be of any protection to her orher companion. Yet something held him there in futile self-sacrifice.
The great Tarmangani had not even the satisfaction of striking ablow in self-defense. A veritable avalanche of savage beasts rolledover him and threw him heavily to the ground. In falling his headstruck the rocky surface of the cliff, stunning him.
It was daylight when he regained consciousness. The first dimimpression borne to his awakening mind was a confusion of savagesounds which gradually resolved themselves into the growlingof lions, and then, little by little, there came back to him therecollections of what had preceded the blow that had felled him.
Strong in his nostrils was the scent of Numa, the lion, and againstone naked leg he could feel the coat of some animal. Slowly Tarzanopened his eyes. He was lying on his side and as he looked down his
body, he saw that a great lion stood straddling him--a great lionwho growled hideously at something which Tarzan could not see.
With the full return of his senses Tarzan's nose told him that thebeast above him was Numa of the Wamabo pit.
Thus reassured, the ape-man spoke to the lion and at the same timemade a motion as though he would arise. Immediately Numa steppedfrom above him. As Tarzan raised his head, he saw that he stilllay where he had fallen before the opening of the cliff where thegirl had been sleeping and that Numa, backed against the cliffside,was apparently defending him from two other lions who paced to andfro a short distance from their intended victim.
And then Tarzan turned his eyes into the cave and saw that the girland Smith-Oldwick were gone.
His efforts had been for naught. With an angry toss of his head,the ape-man turned upon the two lions who had continued to paceback and forth a few yards from him. Numa of the lion pit turned afriendly glance in Tarzan's direction, rubbed his head against theape-man's side, and then directed his snarling countenance towardthe two hunters.
"I think," said Tarzan to Numa, "that you and I together can makethese beasts very unhappy." He spoke in English, which, of course,Numa did not understand at all, but there must have been somethingreassuring in the tone, for Numa whined pleadingly and movedimpatiently to and fro parallel with their antagonists.
"Come," said Tarzan suddenly and grasping the lion's mane with hisleft hand he moved toward the other lions, his companion pacingat his side. As the two advanced the others drew slowly back and,finally separating, moved off to either side. Tarzan and Numapassed between them but neither the great black-maned lion nor theman failed to keep an eye upon the beast nearer him so that theywere not caught unawares when, as though at some preconcertedsignal, the two cats charged simultaneously from opposite directions.
The ape-man met the charge of his antagonist after the same fashionof fighting that he had been accustomed to employing in previousencounters with Numa and Sheeta. To have attempted to meet thefull shock of a lion's charge would have been suicidal even forthe giant Tarmangani. Instead he resorted to methods of agility andcunning, for quick as are the great cats, even quicker is Tarzanof the Apes.
With outspread, raking talons and bared fangs Numa sprang for thenaked chest of the ape-man. Throwing up his left arm as a boxer mightward off a blow, Tarzan struck upward beneath the left forearm ofthe lion, at the same time rushing in with his shoulder beneaththe animal's body and simultaneously drove his blade into the tawnyhide behind the shoulder. With a roar of pain Numa wheeled again,the personification of bestial rage. Now indeed would he exterminatethis presumptuous man-thing who dared even to think that he couldthwart the king of beasts in his desires. But as he wheeled, hisintended quarry wheeled with him, brown fingers locked in the heavymane on the powerful neck and again the blade struck deep into thelion's side.
Then it was that Numa went mad with hate and pain and at the sameinstant the ape-man leaped full upon his back. Easily before hadTarzan locked his legs beneath the belly of a lion while he clungto its long mane and stabbed it until his point reached its heart.So easy it had seemed before that he experienced a sharp feeling ofresentment that he was unable to do so now, for the quick movementsof the lion prevented him, and presently, to his dismay, as thelion leaped and threw him about, the ape-man realized that he wasswinging inevitably beneath those frightful talons.
With a final effort he threw himself from Numa's back and sought,by his quickness, to elude the frenzied beast for the fraction ofan instant that would permit him to regain his feet and meet theanimal again upon a more even footing. But this time Numa was tooquick for him and he was but partially up when a great paw struckhim on the side of the head and bowled him over.
As he fell he saw a black streak shoot above him and another lionclose upon his antagonist. Rolling from beneath the two battling lionsTarzan regained his feet, though he was half dazed and staggeringfrom the impact of the terrible blow he had received. Behind himhe saw a lifeless lion lying torn and bleeding upon the sand, andbefore him Numa of the pit was savagely mauling the second lion.
He of the black coat tremendously outclassed his adversary inpoint of size and strength as well as in ferocity. The battlingbeasts made a few feints and passes at each other before the largersucceeded in fastening his fangs in the other's throat, and then,as a cat shakes a mouse, the larger lion shook the lesser, and whenhis dying foe sought to roll beneath and rake his conqueror withhis hind claws, the other met him halfway at his own game, and asthe great talons buried themselves in the lower part of the other'schest and then were raked downward with all the terrific strengthof the mighty hind legs, the battle was ended.
As Numa rose from his second victim and shook himself, Tarzan couldnot but again note the wondrous proportions and symmetry of thebeast. The lions they had bested were splendid specimens themselvesand in their coats Tarzan noted a suggestion of the black whichwas such a strongly marked characteristic of Numa of the pit. Theirmanes were just a trifle darker than an ordinary black-maned lionbut the tawny shade on the balance of their coats predominated.However, the ape-man realized that they were a distinct speciesfrom any he had seen as though they had sprung originally from across between the forest lion of his acquaintance and a breed ofwhich Numa of the pit might be typical.
The immediate obstruction in his way having been removed, Tarzan wasfor setting out in search of the spoor of the girl and Smith-Oldwick,that he might discover their fate. He suddenly found himselftremendously hungry and as he circled about over the sandy bottomsearching among the tangled network of innumerable tracks for thoseof his proteges, there broke from his lips involuntarily the whineof a hungry beast. Immediately Numa of the pit pricked up his earsand, regarding the ape-man steadily for a moment, he answered thecall of hunger and started briskly off toward the south, stoppingoccasionally to see if Tarzan was following.
The ape-man realized that the beast was leading him to food, and sohe followed and as he followed his keen eyes and sensitive nostrilssought for some indication of the direction taken by the man andthe girl. Presently out of the mass of lion tracks, Tarzan pickedup those of many sandaled feet and the scent spoor of the membersof the strange race such as had been with the lions the nightbefore, and then faintly he caught the scent spoor of the girl anda little later that of Smith-Oldwick. Presently the tracks thinnedand here those of the girl and the Englishman became well marked.
They had been walking side by side and there had been men andlions to the right and left of them, and men and lions in front andbehind. The ape-man was puzzled by the possibilities suggested bythe tracks, but in the light of any previous experience he couldnot explain satisfactorily to himself what his perceptions indicated.
There was little change in the formation of the gorge; it stillwound its erratic course between precipitous cliffs. In places itwidened out and again it became very narrow and always deeper thefurther south they traveled. Presently the bottom of the gorge beganto slope more rapidly. Here and there were indications of ancientrapids and waterfalls. The trail became more difficult but was wellmarked and showed indications of great antiquity, and, in places,the handiwork of man. They had proceeded for a half or three-quartersof a mile when, at a turning of the gorge, Tarzan saw before him anarrow valley cut deep into the living rock of the earth's crust,with lofty mountain ranges bounding it upon the south. How far itextended east and west he could not see, but apparently it was nomore than three or four miles across from north to south.
That it was a well-watered valley was indicated by the wealth ofvegetation that carpeted its floor from the rocky cliffs upon thenorth to the mountains on the south.
Over the edge of the cliffs from which the ape-man viewed the valleya trail had been hewn that led downward to the base. Preceded bythe lion Tarzan descended into the valley, which, at this point,was forested with large trees. Before him the trail wound onwardtoward the center of the valley. Raucous-voiced birds of brilliantplumage
screamed among the branches while innumerable monkeyschattered and scolded above him.
The forest teemed with life, and yet there was borne in upon theape-man a sense of unutterable loneliness, a sensation that henever before had felt in his beloved jungles. There was unrealityin everything about him--in the valley itself, lying hiddenand forgotten in what was supposed to be an arid waste. The birdsand the monkeys, while similar in type to many with which he wasfamiliar, were identical with none, nor was the vegetation withoutits idiosyncrasies. It was as though he had been suddenly transportedto another world and he felt a strange restlessness that mighteasily have been a premonition of danger.
Fruits were growing among the trees and some of these he saw thatManu, the monkey, ate. Being hungry he swung to the lower branchesand, amidst a great chattering of the monkeys, proceeded to eatsuch of the fruit as he saw the monkeys ate in safety. When he hadpartially satisfied his hunger, for meat alone could fully do so,he looked about him for Numa of the pit to discover that the lionhad gone.