Chapter IX
Dropped from the Sky
Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick, Royal Air Service, was onreconnaissance. A report, or it would be better to say a rumor,had come to the British headquarters in German East Africa thatthe enemy had landed in force on the west coast and was marchingacross the dark continent to reinforce their colonial troops. Infact the new army was supposed to be no more than ten or twelve days'march to the west. Of course the thing was ridiculous--preposterous--butpreposterous things often happen in war; and anyway no good generalpermits the least rumor of enemy activity to go uninvestigated.
Therefore Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick flew low towardthe west, searching with keen eyes for signs of a Hun army. Vastforests unrolled beneath him in which a German army corps mighthave lain concealed, so dense was the overhanging foliage of thegreat trees. Mountain, meadowland, and desert passed in lovelypanorama; but never a sight of man had the young lieutenant.
Always hoping that he might discover some sign of their passage--adiscarded lorry, a broken limber, or an old camp site--he continuedfarther and farther into the west until well into the afternoon.Above a tree-dotted plain through the center of which flowed awinding river he determined to turn about and start for camp. Itwould take straight flying at top speed to cover the distance beforedark; but as he had ample gasoline and a trustworthy machine therewas no doubt in his mind but that he could accomplish his aim. Itwas then that his engine stalled.
He was too low to do anything but land, and that immediately,while he had the more open country accessible, for directly east ofhim was a vast forest into which a stalled engine could only haveplunged him to certain injury and probable death; and so he camedown in the meadowland near the winding river and there started totinker with his motor.
As he worked he hummed a tune, some music-hall air that had beenpopular in London the year before, so that one might have thoughthim working in the security of an English flying field surroundedby innumerable comrades rather than alone in the heart of an unexploredAfrican wilderness. It was typical of the man that he should bewholly indifferent to his surroundings, although his looks entirelybelied any assumption that he was of particularly heroic strain.
Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick was fair-haired, blue-eyed,and slender, with a rosy, boyish face that might have been moldedmore by an environment of luxury, indolence, and ease than the morestrenuous exigencies of life's sterner requirements.
And not only was the young lieutenant outwardly careless of theimmediate future and of his surroundings, but actually so. Thatthe district might be infested by countless enemies seemed not tohave occurred to him in the remotest degree. He bent assiduouslyto the work of correcting the adjustment that had caused his motorto stall without so much as an upward glance at the surroundingcountry. The forest to the east of him, and the more distant junglethat bordered the winding river, might have harbored an army ofbloodthirsty savages, but neither could elicit even a passing showof interest on the part of Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick.
And even had he looked, it is doubtful if he would have seen thescore of figures crouching in the concealment of the undergrowthat the forest's edge. There are those who are reputed to be endowedwith that which is sometimes, for want of a better appellation,known as the sixth sense--a species of intuition which apprisesthem of the presence of an unseen danger. The concentrated gaze ofa hidden observer provokes a warning sensation of nervous unrest insuch as these, but though twenty pairs of savage eyes were gazingfixedly at Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick, the fact arousedno responsive sensation of impending danger in his placid breast.He hummed peacefully and, his adjustment completed, tried out hismotor for a minute or two, then shut it off and descended to theground with the intention of stretching his legs and taking a smokebefore continuing his return flight to camp. Now for the first timehe took note of his surroundings, to be immediately impressed byboth the wildness and the beauty of the scene. In some respects thetree-dotted meadowland reminded him of a park-like English forest,and that wild beasts and savage men could ever be a part of soquiet a scene seemed the remotest of contingencies.
Some gorgeous blooms upon a flowering shrub at a little distancefrom his machine caught the attention of his aesthetic eye, and ashe puffed upon his cigarette, he walked over to examine the flowersmore closely. As he bent above them he was probably some hundredyards from his plane and it was at this instant that Numabo, chiefof the Wamabo, chose to leap from his ambush and lead his warriorsin a sudden rush upon the white man.
The young Englishman's first intimation of danger was a chorus ofsavage yells from the forest behind him. Turning, he saw a scoreof naked, black warriors advancing rapidly toward him. They movedin a compact mass and as they approached more closely their rateof speed noticeably diminished. Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick realizedin a quick glance that the direction of their approach and theirproximity had cut off all chances of retreating to his plane, andhe also understood that their attitude was entirely warlike andmenacing. He saw that they were armed with spears and with bows andarrows, and he felt quite confident that notwithstanding the factthat he was armed with a pistol they could overcome him with thefirst rush. What he did not know about their tactics was that atany show of resistance they would fall back, which is the nature ofthe native Negroes, but that after numerous advances and retreats,during which they would work themselves into a frenzy of rage bymuch shrieking, leaping, and dancing, they would eventually cometo the point of a determined and final assault.
Numabo was in the forefront, a fact which taken in connection withhis considerably greater size and more warlike appearance, indicatedhim as the natural target and it was at Numabo that the Englishmanaimed his first shot. Unfortunately for him it missed its target,as the killing of the chief might have permanently dispersedthe others. The bullet passed Numabo to lodge in the breast of awarrior behind him and as the fellow lunged forward with a screamthe others turned and retreated, but to the lieutenant's chagrinthey ran in the direction of the plane instead of back toward theforest so that he was still cut off from reaching his machine.
Presently they stopped and faced him again. They were talking loudlyand gesticulating, and after a moment one of them leaped into theair, brandishing his spear and uttering savage war cries, whichsoon had their effect upon his fellows so that it was not long ereall of them were taking part in the wild show of savagery, whichwould bolster their waning courage and presently spur them on toanother attack.
The second charge brought them closer to the Englishman, and thoughhe dropped another with his pistol, it was not before two or threespears had been launched at him. He now had five shots remainingand there were still eighteen warriors to be accounted for, so thatunless he could frighten them off, it was evident that his fatewas sealed.
That they must pay the price of one life for every attempt to takehis had its effect upon them and they were longer now in initiatinga new rush and when they did so it was more skillfully ordered thanthose that had preceded it, for they scattered into three bandswhich, partially surrounding him, came simultaneously toward himfrom different directions, and though he emptied his pistol withgood effect, they reached him at last. They seemed to know thathis ammunition was exhausted, for they circled close about him nowwith the evident intention of taking him alive, since they mighteasily have riddled him with their sharp spears with perfect safetyto themselves.
For two or three minutes they circled about him until, at a wordfrom Numabo, they closed in simultaneously, and though the slenderyoung lieutenant struck out to right and left, he was soon overwhelmedby superior numbers and beaten down by the hafts of spears in brawnyhands.
He was all but unconscious when they finally dragged him to hisfeet, and after securing his hands behind his back, pushed himroughly along ahead of them toward the jungle.
As the guard prodded him along the narrow trail, LieutenantSmith-Oldwick could not but wonder why they had wished to take himalive. He knew that he was
too far inland for his uniform to haveany significance to this native tribe to whom no inkling of theWorld War probably ever had come, and he could only assume that hehad fallen into the hands of the warriors of some savage potentateupon whose royal caprice his fate would hinge.
They had marched for perhaps half an hour when the Englishman sawahead of them, in a little clearing upon the bank of the river,the thatched roofs of native huts showing above a crude but strongpalisade; and presently he was ushered into a village street wherehe was immediately surrounded by a throng of women and childrenand warriors. Here he was soon the center of an excited mob whoseintent seemed to be to dispatch him as quickly as possible. Thewomen were more venomous than the men, striking and scratching himwhenever they could reach him, until at last Numabo, the chief, wasobliged to interfere to save his prisoner for whatever purpose hewas destined.
As the warriors pushed the crowd back, opening a space throughwhich the white man was led toward a hut, Lieutenant Smith-Oldwicksaw coming from the opposite end of the village a number of Negroeswearing odds and ends of German uniforms. He was not a littlesurprised at this, and his first thought was that he had at lastcome in contact with some portion of the army which was rumored tobe crossing from the west coast and for signs of which he had beensearching.
A rueful smile touched his lips as he contemplated the unhappycircumstances which surrounded the accession of this knowledge forthough he was far from being without hope, he realized that onlyby the merest chance could he escape these people and regain hismachine.
Among the partially uniformed blacks was a huge fellow in the tunicof a sergeant and as this man's eyes fell upon the British officer,a loud cry of exultation broke from his lips, and immediately hisfollowers took up the cry and pressed forward to bait the prisoner.
"Where did you get the Englishman?" asked Usanga, the black sergeant,of the chief Numabo. "Are there many more with him?"
"He came down from the sky," replied the native chief, "in a strangething which flies like a bird and which frightened us very much atfirst; but we watched for a long time and saw that it did not seemto be alive, and when this white man left it we attacked him andthough he killed some of my warriors, we took him, for we Wamabosare brave men and great warriors."
Usanga's eyes went wide. "He flew here through the sky?" he asked.
"Yes," said Numabo. "In a great thing which resembled a bird heflew down out of the sky. The thing is still there where it camedown close to the four trees near the second bend in the river. Weleft it there because, not knowing what it was, we were afraid totouch it and it is still there if it has not flown away again."
"It cannot fly," said Usanga, "without this man in it. It is aterrible thing which filled the hearts of our soldiers with terror,for it flew over our camps at night and dropped bombs upon us.It is well that you captured this white man, Numabo, for with hisgreat bird he would have flown over your village tonight and killedall your people. These Englishmen are very wicked white men."
"He will fly no more," said Numabo. "It is not intended that a manshould fly through the air; only wicked demons do such things asthat and Numabo, the chief, will see that this white man does notdo it again," and with the words he pushed the young officer roughlytoward a hut in the center of the village, where he was left underguard of two stalwart warriors.
For an hour or more the prisoner was left to his own devices, whichconsisted in vain and unremitting attempts to loosen the strandswhich fettered his wrists, and then he was interrupted by theappearance of the black sergeant Usanga, who entered his hut andapproached him.
"What are they going to do with me?" asked the Englishman. "Mycountry is not at war with these people. You speak their language.Tell them that I am not an enemy, that my people are the friendsof the black people and that they must let me go in peace."
Usanga laughed. "They do not know an Englishman from a German," hereplied. "It is nothing to them what you are, except that you area white man and an enemy."
"Then why did they take me alive?" asked the lieutenant.
"Come," said Usanga and he led the Englishman to the doorway ofthe hut. "Look," he said, and pointed a black forefinger towardthe end of the village street where a wider space between the hutsleft a sort of plaza.
Here Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick saw a number of Negressesengaged in laying fagots around a stake and in preparing firesbeneath a number of large cooking vessels. The sinister suggestionwas only too obvious.
Usanga was eyeing the white man closely, but if he expected to berewarded by any signs of fear, he was doomed to disappointment andthe young lieutenant merely turned toward him with a shrug: "Reallynow, do you beggars intend eating me?"
"Not my people," replied Usanga. "We do not eat human flesh, butthe Wamabos do. It is they who will eat you, but we will kill youfor the feast, Englishman."
The Englishman remained standing in the doorway of the hut, aninterested spectator of the preparations for the coming orgy thatwas so horribly to terminate his earthly existence. It can hardlybe assumed that he felt no fear; yet, if he did, he hid it perfectlybeneath an imperturbable mask of coolness. Even the brutal Usangamust have been impressed by the bravery of his victim since, thoughhe had come to abuse and possibly to torture the helpless prisoner,he now did neither, contenting himself merely with berating whitesas a race and Englishmen especially, because of the terror theBritish aviators had caused Germany's native troops in East Africa.
"No more," he concluded, "will your great bird fly over our peopledropping death among them from the skies--Usanga will see to that,"and he walked abruptly away toward a group of his own fighting menwho were congregated near the stake where they were laughing andjoking with the women.
A few minutes later the Englishman saw them pass out of the villagegate, and once again his thoughts reverted to various futile plansfor escape.
Several miles north of the village on a little rise of ground closeto the river where the jungle, halting at the base of a knoll, hadleft a few acres of grassy land sparsely wooded, a man and a girlwere busily engaged in constructing a small boma, in the center ofwhich a thatched hut already had been erected.
They worked almost in silence with only an occasional word ofdirection or interrogation between them.
Except for a loin cloth, the man was naked, his smooth skin tannedto a deep brown by the action of sun and wind. He moved with thegraceful ease of a jungle cat and when he lifted heavy weights,the action seemed as effortless as the raising of empty hands.
When he was not looking at her, and it was seldom that he did, thegirl found her eyes wandering toward him, and at such times therewas always a puzzled expression upon her face as though she foundin him an enigma which she could not solve. As a matter of fact,her feelings toward him were not un-tinged with awe, since inthe brief period of their association she had discovered in thishandsome, godlike giant the attributes of the superman and thesavage beast closely intermingled. At first she had felt only thatunreasoning feminine terror which her unhappy position naturallyinduced.
To be alone in the heart of an unexplored wilderness of CentralAfrica with a savage wild man was in itself sufficiently appalling,but to feel also that this man was a blood enemy, that he hated herand her kind and that in addition thereto he owed her a personalgrudge for an attack she had made upon him in the past, left noloophole for any hope that he might accord her even the minutestmeasure of consideration.
She had seen him first months since when he had entered theheadquarters of the German high command in East Africa and carriedoff the luckless Major Schneider, of whose fate no hint had everreached the German officers; and she had seen him again upon thatoccasion when he had rescued her from the clutches of the lion and,after explaining to her that he had recognized her in the Britishcamp, had made her prisoner. It was then that she had struck himdown with the butt of her pistol and escaped. That he might seekno personal revenge for her act had been evidenced in Wilhelmstalthe night that he had ki
lled Hauptmann Fritz Schneider and leftwithout molesting her.
No, she could not fathom him. He hated her and at the same timehe had protected her as had been evidenced again when he had keptthe great apes from tearing her to pieces after she had escapedfrom the Wamabo village to which Usanga, the black sergeant, hadbrought her a captive; but why was he saving her? For what sinisterpurpose could this savage enemy be protecting her from the otherdenizens of his cruel jungle? She tried to put from her mind theprobable fate which awaited her, yet it persisted in obtrudingitself upon her thoughts, though always she was forced to admit thatthere was nothing in the demeanor of the man to indicate that herfears were well grounded. She judged him perhaps by the standardsother men had taught her and because she looked upon him as a savagecreature, she felt that she could not expect more of chivalry fromhim than was to be found in the breasts of the civilized men ofher acquaintance.
Fraulein Bertha Kircher was by nature a companionable and cheerfulcharacter. She was not given to morbid forebodings, and above allthings she craved the society of her kind and that interchange ofthought which is one of the marked distinctions between man andthe lower animals. Tarzan, on the other hand, was sufficient untohimself. Long years of semi-solitude among creatures whose powersof oral expression are extremely limited had thrown him almostentirely upon his own resources for entertainment.
His active mind was never idle, but because his jungle mates couldneither follow nor grasp the vivid train of imaginings that hisman-mind wrought, he had long since learned to keep them to himself;and so now he found no need for confiding them in others. Thisfact, linked with that of his dislike for the girl, was sufficientto seal his lips for other than necessary conversation, and so theyworked on together in comparative silence. Bertha Kircher, however,was nothing if not feminine and she soon found that having someoneto talk to who would not talk was extremely irksome. Her fear ofthe man was gradually departing, and she was full of a thousandunsatisfied curiosities as to his plans for the future in so far asthey related to her, as well as more personal questions regardinghimself, since she could not but wonder as to his antecedents andhis strange and solitary life in the jungle, as well as his friendlyintercourse with the savage apes among which she had found him.
With the waning of her fears she became sufficiently emboldenedto question him, and so she asked him what he intended doing afterthe hut and boma were completed.
"I am going to the west coast where I was born," replied Tarzan."I do not know when. I have all my life before me and in the junglethere is no reason for haste. We are not forever running as fastas we can from one place to another as are you of the outer world.When I have been here long enough I will go on toward the west,but first I must see that you have a safe place in which to sleep,and that you have learned how to provide yourself with necessaries.That will take time."
"You are going to leave me here alone?" cried the girl; her tonesmarked the fear which the prospect induced. "You are going to leaveme here alone in this terrible jungle, a prey to wild beasts andsavage men, hundreds of miles from a white settlement and in acountry which gives every evidence of never having been touched bythe foot of civilized men?"
"Why not?" asked Tarzan. "I did not bring you here. Would one ofyour men accord any better treatment to an enemy woman?"
"Yes," she exclaimed. "They certainly would. No man of my racewould leave a defenseless white woman alone in this horrible place."
Tarzan shrugged his broad shoulders. The conversation seemedprofitless and it was further distasteful to him for the reasonthat it was carried on in German, a tongue which he detested asmuch as he did the people who spoke it. He wished that the girlspoke English and then it occurred to him that as he had seen herin disguise in the British camp carrying on her nefarious work asa German spy, she probably did speak English and so he asked her.
"Of course I speak English," she exclaimed, "but I did not knowthat you did."
Tarzan looked his wonderment but made no comment. He only wondered whythe girl should have any doubts as to the ability of an Englishmanto speak English, and then suddenly it occurred to him that sheprobably looked upon him merely as a beast of the jungle who byaccident had learned to speak German through frequenting the districtwhich Germany had colonized. It was there only that she had seenhim and so she might not know that he was an Englishman by birth,and that he had had a home in British East Africa. It was as well,he thought, that she knew little of him, as the less she knew themore he might learn from her as to her activities in behalf of theGermans and of the German spy system of which she was a representative;and so it occurred to him to let her continue to think that he wasonly what he appeared to be--a savage denizen of his savage jungle,a man of no race and no country, hating all white men impartially;and this in truth, was what she did think of him. It explainedperfectly his attacks upon Major Schneider and the Major's brother,Hauptmann Fritz.
Again they worked on in silence upon the boma which was now nearlycompleted, the girl helping the man to the best of her smallability. Tarzan could not but note with grudging approval thespirit of helpfulness she manifested in the oft-times painful laborof gathering and arranging the thorn bushes which constituted thetemporary protection against roaming carnivores. Her hands and armsgave bloody token of the sharpness of the numerous points that hadlacerated her soft flesh, and even though she were an enemy Tarzancould not but feel compunction that he had permitted her to do thiswork, and at last he bade her stop.
"Why?" she asked. "It is no more painful to me than it must be toyou, and, as it is solely for my protection that you are buildingthis boma, there is no reason why I should not do my share."
"You are a woman," replied Tarzan. "This is not a woman's work. Ifyou wish to do something, take those gourds I brought this morningand fill them with water at the river. You may need it while I amaway."
"While you are away--" she said. "You are going away?"
"When the boma is built I am going out after meat," he replied."Tomorrow I will go again and take you and show you how you maymake your own kills after I am gone."
Without a word she took the gourds and walked toward the river. Asshe filled them, her mind was occupied with painful forebodings ofthe future. She knew that Tarzan had passed a death sentence uponher, and that the moment that he left her, her doom was sealed,for it could be but a question of time--a very short time--beforethe grim jungle would claim her, for how could a lone woman hopesuccessfully to combat the savage forces of destruction whichconstituted so large a part of existence in the jungle?
So occupied was she with the gloomy prophecies that she had neitherears nor eyes for what went on about her. Mechanically she filledthe gourds and, taking them up, turned slowly to retrace her stepsto the boma only to voice immediately a half-stifled scream andshrink back from the menacing figure looming before her and blockingher way to the hut.
Go-lat, the king ape, hunting a little apart from his tribe, had seenthe woman go to the river for water, and it was he who confrontedher when she turned back with her filled gourds. Go-lat was nota pretty creature when judged by standards of civilized humanity,though the shes of his tribe and even Go-lat himself, consideredhis glossy black coat shot with silver, his huge arms dangling tohis knees, his bullet head sunk between his mighty shoulders, marksof great personal beauty. His wicked, bloodshot eyes and broadnose, his ample mouth and great fighting fangs only enhanced theclaim of this Adonis of the forest upon the affections of his shes.
Doubtless in the little, savage brain there was a well-formedconviction that this strange she belonging to the Tarmangani mustlook with admiration upon so handsome a creature as Go-lat, forthere could be no doubt in the mind of any that his beauty entirelyeclipsed such as the hairless white ape might lay claim to.
But Bertha Kircher saw only a hideous beast, a fierce and terriblecaricature of man. Could Go-lat have known what passed through hermind, he must have been terribly chagrined, though the chances arethat he would have attributed it
to a lack of discernment on herpart. Tarzan heard the girl's cry and looking up saw at a glancethe cause of her terror. Leaping lightly over the boma, he ranswiftly toward her as Go-lat lumbered closer to the girl the whilehe voiced his emotions in low gutturals which, while in reality themost amicable of advances, sounded to the girl like the growlingof an enraged beast. As Tarzan drew nearer he called aloud to theape and the girl heard from the human lips the same sounds thathad fallen from those of the anthropoid.
"I will not harm your she," Go-lat called to Tarzan.
"I know it," replied the ape-man, "but she does not. She is likeNuma and Sheeta, who do not understand our talk. She thinks youcome to harm her."
By this time Tarzan was beside the girl. "He will not harm you,"he said to her. "You need not be afraid. This ape has learned hislesson. He has learned that Tarzan is lord of the jungle. He willnot harm that which is Tarzan's."
The girl cast a quick glance at the man's face. It was evident toher that the words he had spoken meant nothing to him and that theassumed proprietorship over her was, like the boma, only anothermeans for her protection.
"But I am afraid of him," she said.
"You must not show your fear. You will be often surrounded by theseapes. At such times you will be safest. Before I leave you I willgive you the means of protecting yourself against them should oneof them chance to turn upon you. If I were you I would seek theirsociety. Few are the animals of the jungle that dare attack thegreat apes when there are several of them together. If you letthem know that you are afraid of them, they will take advantage ofit and your life will be constantly menaced. The shes especiallywould attack you. I will let them know that you have the means ofprotecting yourself and of killing them. If necessary, I will showyou how and then they will respect and fear you."
"I will try," said the girl, "but I am afraid that it will bedifficult. He is the most frightful creature I ever have seen."Tarzan smiled. "Doubtless he thinks the same of you," he said.
By this time other apes had entered the clearing and they were nowthe center of a considerable group, among which were several bulls,some young shes, and some older ones with their little balus clingingto their backs or frolicking around at their feet. Though they hadseen the girl the night of the Dum-Dum when Sheeta had forced herto leap from her concealment into the arena where the apes weredancing, they still evinced a great curiosity regarding her. Someof the shes came very close and plucked at her garments, commentingupon them to one another in their strange tongue. The girl, bythe exercise of all the will power she could command, succeeded inpassing through the ordeal without evincing any of the terror andrevulsion that she felt. Tarzan watched her closely, a half-smileupon his face. He was not so far removed from recent contact withcivilized people that he could not realize the torture that shewas undergoing, but he felt no pity for this woman of a cruel enemywho doubtless deserved the worst suffering that could be meted toher. Yet, notwithstanding his sentiments toward her, he was forcedto admire her fine display of courage. Suddenly he turned to theapes.
"Tarzan goes to hunt for himself and his she," he said. "The shewill remain there," and he pointed toward the hut. "See that nomember of the tribe harms her. Do you understand?"
The apes nodded. "We will not harm her," said Go-lat.
"No," said Tarzan. "You will not. For if you do, Tarzan will killyou," and then turning to the girl, "Come," he said, "I am going tohunt now. You had better remain at the hut. The apes have promisednot to harm you. I will leave my spear with you. It will be the bestweapon you could have in case you should need to protect yourself,but I doubt if you will be in any danger for the short time thatI am away."
He walked with her as far as the boma and when she had entered heclosed the gap with thorn bushes and turned away toward the forest.She watched him moving across the clearing, noting the easy, catliketread and the grace of every movement that harmonized so well withthe symmetry and perfection of his figure. At the forest's edgeshe saw him swing lightly into a tree and disappear from view, andthen, being a woman, she entered the hut and, throwing herself uponthe ground, burst into tears.