Chapter X
The Fear-Phantom
From a lofty perch Tarzan viewed the village of thatched huts acrossthe intervening plantation.
He saw that at one point the forest touched the village, and to thisspot he made his way, lured by a fever of curiosity to behold animalsof his own kind, and to learn more of their ways and view the strangelairs in which they lived.
His savage life among the fierce wild brutes of the jungle left noopening for any thought that these could be aught else than enemies.Similarity of form led him into no erroneous conception of the welcomethat would be accorded him should he be discovered by these, the firstof his own kind he had ever seen.
Tarzan of the Apes was no sentimentalist. He knew nothing of thebrotherhood of man. All things outside his own tribe were his deadlyenemies, with the few exceptions of which Tantor, the elephant, was amarked example.
And he realized all this without malice or hatred. To kill was the lawof the wild world he knew. Few were his primitive pleasures, but thegreatest of these was to hunt and kill, and so he accorded to othersthe right to cherish the same desires as he, even though he himselfmight be the object of their hunt.
His strange life had left him neither morose nor bloodthirsty. That hejoyed in killing, and that he killed with a joyous laugh upon hishandsome lips betokened no innate cruelty. He killed for food mostoften, but, being a man, he sometimes killed for pleasure, a thingwhich no other animal does; for it has remained for man alone among allcreatures to kill senselessly and wantonly for the mere pleasure ofinflicting suffering and death.
And when he killed for revenge, or in self-defense, he did that alsowithout hysteria, for it was a very businesslike proceeding whichadmitted of no levity.
So it was that now, as he cautiously approached the village of Mbonga,he was quite prepared either to kill or be killed should he bediscovered. He proceeded with unwonted stealth, for Kulonga had taughthim great respect for the little sharp splinters of wood which dealtdeath so swiftly and unerringly.
At length he came to a great tree, heavy laden with thick foliage andloaded with pendant loops of giant creepers. From this almostimpenetrable bower above the village he crouched, looking down upon thescene below him, wondering over every feature of this new, strange life.
There were naked children running and playing in the village street.There were women grinding dried plantain in crude stone mortars, whileothers were fashioning cakes from the powdered flour. Out in thefields he could see still other women hoeing, weeding, or gathering.
All wore strange protruding girdles of dried grass about their hips andmany were loaded with brass and copper anklets, armlets and bracelets.Around many a dusky neck hung curiously coiled strands of wire, whileseveral were further ornamented by huge nose rings.
Tarzan of the Apes looked with growing wonder at these strangecreatures. Dozing in the shade he saw several men, while at theextreme outskirts of the clearing he occasionally caught glimpses ofarmed warriors apparently guarding the village against surprise from anattacking enemy.
He noticed that the women alone worked. Nowhere was there evidence ofa man tilling the fields or performing any of the homely duties of thevillage.
Finally his eyes rested upon a woman directly beneath him.
Before her was a small cauldron standing over a low fire and in itbubbled a thick, reddish, tarry mass. On one side of her lay aquantity of wooden arrows the points of which she dipped into theseething substance, then laying them upon a narrow rack of boughs whichstood upon her other side.
Tarzan of the Apes was fascinated. Here was the secret of the terribledestructiveness of The Archer's tiny missiles. He noted the extremecare which the woman took that none of the matter should touch herhands, and once when a particle spattered upon one of her fingers hesaw her plunge the member into a vessel of water and quickly rub thetiny stain away with a handful of leaves.
Tarzan knew nothing of poison, but his shrewd reasoning told him thatit was this deadly stuff that killed, and not the little arrow, whichwas merely the messenger that carried it into the body of its victim.
How he should like to have more of those little death-dealing slivers.If the woman would only leave her work for an instant he could dropdown, gather up a handful, and be back in the tree again before shedrew three breaths.
As he was trying to think out some plan to distract her attention heheard a wild cry from across the clearing. He looked and saw a blackwarrior standing beneath the very tree in which he had killed themurderer of Kala an hour before.
The fellow was shouting and waving his spear above his head. Now andagain he would point to something on the ground before him.
The village was in an uproar instantly. Armed men rushed from theinterior of many a hut and raced madly across the clearing toward theexcited sentry. After them trooped the old men, and the women andchildren until, in a moment, the village was deserted.
Tarzan of the Apes knew that they had found the body of his victim, butthat interested him far less than the fact that no one remained in thevillage to prevent his taking a supply of the arrows which lay belowhim.
Quickly and noiselessly he dropped to the ground beside the cauldron ofpoison. For a moment he stood motionless, his quick, bright eyesscanning the interior of the palisade.
No one was in sight. His eyes rested upon the open doorway of a nearbyhut. He would take a look within, thought Tarzan, and so, cautiously,he approached the low thatched building.
For a moment he stood without, listening intently. There was no sound,and he glided into the semi-darkness of the interior.
Weapons hung against the walls--long spears, strangely shaped knives, acouple of narrow shields. In the center of the room was a cooking pot,and at the far end a litter of dry grasses covered by woven mats whichevidently served the owners as beds and bedding. Several human skullslay upon the floor.
Tarzan of the Apes felt of each article, hefted the spears, smelled ofthem, for he "saw" largely through his sensitive and highly trainednostrils. He determined to own one of these long, pointed sticks, buthe could not take one on this trip because of the arrows he meant tocarry.
As he took each article from the walls, he placed it in a pile in thecenter of the room. On top of all he placed the cooking pot, inverted,and on top of this he laid one of the grinning skulls, upon which hefastened the headdress of the dead Kulonga.
Then he stood back, surveyed his work, and grinned. Tarzan of the Apesenjoyed a joke.
But now he heard, outside, the sounds of many voices, and long mournfulhowls, and mighty wailing. He was startled. Had he remained too long?Quickly he reached the doorway and peered down the village streettoward the village gate.
The natives were not yet in sight, though he could plainly hear themapproaching across the plantation. They must be very near.
Like a flash he sprang across the opening to the pile of arrows.Gathering up all he could carry under one arm, he overturned theseething cauldron with a kick, and disappeared into the foliage abovejust as the first of the returning natives entered the gate at the farend of the village street. Then he turned to watch the proceedingbelow, poised like some wild bird ready to take swift wing at the firstsign of danger.
The natives filed up the street, four of them bearing the dead body ofKulonga. Behind trailed the women, uttering strange cries and weirdlamentation. On they came to the portals of Kulonga's hut, the veryone in which Tarzan had wrought his depredations.
Scarcely had half a dozen entered the building ere they came rushingout in wild, jabbering confusion. The others hastened to gather about.There was much excited gesticulating, pointing, and chattering; thenseveral of the warriors approached and peered within.
Finally an old fellow with many ornaments of metal about his arms andlegs, and a necklace of dried human hands depending upon his chest,entered the hut.
It was Mbonga, the king, father of Kulonga.
For a few moments all was s
ilent. Then Mbonga emerged, a look ofmingled wrath and superstitious fear writ upon his hideous countenance.He spoke a few words to the assembled warriors, and in an instant themen were flying through the little village searching minutely every hutand corner within the palisades.
Scarcely had the search commenced than the overturned cauldron wasdiscovered, and with it the theft of the poisoned arrows. Nothing morethey found, and it was a thoroughly awed and frightened group ofsavages which huddled around their king a few moments later.
Mbonga could explain nothing of the strange events that had takenplace. The finding of the still warm body of Kulonga--on the veryverge of their fields and within easy earshot of the village--knifedand stripped at the door of his father's home, was in itselfsufficiently mysterious, but these last awesome discoveries within thevillage, within the dead Kulonga's own hut, filled their hearts withdismay, and conjured in their poor brains only the most frightful ofsuperstitious explanations.
They stood in little groups, talking in low tones, and ever castingaffrighted glances behind them from their great rolling eyes.
Tarzan of the Apes watched them for a while from his lofty perch in thegreat tree. There was much in their demeanor which he could notunderstand, for of superstition he was ignorant, and of fear of anykind he had but a vague conception.
The sun was high in the heavens. Tarzan had not broken fast this day,and it was many miles to where lay the toothsome remains of Horta theboar.
So he turned his back upon the village of Mbonga and melted away intothe leafy fastness of the forest.