Chapter 12

Man's Reason



There was one of the tribe of Tarzan who questioned his

authority, and that was Terkoz, the son of Tublat, but he

so feared the keen knife and the deadly arrows of his new

lord that he confined the manifestation of his objections to

petty disobediences and irritating mannerisms; Tarzan knew,

however, that he but waited his opportunity to wrest the

kingship from him by some sudden stroke of treachery, and

so he was ever on his guard against surprise.



For months the life of the little band went on much as it

had before, except that Tarzan's greater intelligence and his

ability as a hunter were the means of providing for them

more bountifully than ever before. Most of them, therefore,

were more than content with the change in rulers.



Tarzan led them by night to the fields of the black men,

and there, warned by their chief's superior wisdom, they ate

only what they required, nor ever did they destroy what they

could not eat, as is the way of Manu, the monkey, and of

most apes.



So, while the blacks were wroth at the continued pilfering

of their fields, they were not discouraged in their efforts to

cultivate the land, as would have been the case had Tarzan

permitted his people to lay waste the plantation wantonly.



During this period Tarzan paid many nocturnal visits to the

village, where he often renewed his supply of arrows. He

soon noticed the food always standing at the foot of the tree

which was his avenue into the palisade, and after a little, he

commenced to eat whatever the blacks put there.



When the awe-struck savages saw that the food disappeared

overnight they were filled with consternation and dread,

for it was one thing to put food out to propitiate a god

or a devil, but quite another thing to have the spirit really

come into the village and eat it. Such a thing was unheard of,

and it clouded their superstitious minds with all manner of

vague fears.



Nor was this all. The periodic disappearance of their

arrows, and the strange pranks perpetrated by unseen hands,

had wrought them to such a state that life had become a

veritable burden in their new home, and now it was that Mbonga

and his head men began to talk of abandoning the village and

seeking a site farther on in the jungle.



Presently the black warriors began to strike farther and

farther south into the heart of the forest when they went to

hunt, looking for a site for a new village.



More often was the tribe of Tarzan disturbed by these

wandering huntsmen. Now was the quiet, fierce solitude of

the primeval forest broken by new, strange cries. No longer

was there safety for bird or beast. Man had come.



Other animals passed up and down the jungle by day and

by night--fierce, cruel beasts--but their weaker neighbors

only fled from their immediate vicinity to return again when

the danger was past.



With man it is different. When he comes many of the larger

animals instinctively leave the district entirely, seldom

if ever to return; and thus it has always been with the great

anthropoids. They flee man as man flees a pestilence.



For a short time the tribe of Tarzan lingered in the vicinity

of the beach because their new chief hated the thought of

leaving the treasured contents of the little cabin forever. But

when one day a member of the tribe discovered the blacks in

great numbers on the banks of a little stream that had been

their watering place for generations, and in the act of clearing

a space in the jungle and erecting many huts, the apes would

remain no longer; and so Tarzan led them inland for many

marches to a spot as yet undefiled by the foot of a human being.



Once every moon Tarzan would go swinging rapidly back

through the swaying branches to have a day with his books,

and to replenish his supply of arrows. This latter task was

becoming more and more difficult, for the blacks had taken to

hiding their supply away at night in granaries and living huts.



This necessitated watching by day on Tarzan's part to

discover where the arrows were being concealed.



Twice had he entered huts at night while the inmates lay

sleeping upon their mats, and stolen the arrows from the very

sides of the warriors. But this method he realized to be too

fraught with danger, and so he commenced picking up solitary

hunters with his long, deadly noose, stripping them of weapons

and ornaments and dropping their bodies from a high tree into

the village street during the still watches of the night.



These various escapades again so terrorized the blacks that,

had it not been for the monthly respite between Tarzan's

visits, in which they had opportunity to renew hope that each

fresh incursion would prove the last, they soon would have

abandoned their new village.



The blacks had not as yet come upon Tarzan's cabin on

the distant beach, but the ape-man lived in constant dread

that, while he was away with the tribe, they would discover

and despoil his treasure. So it came that he spent more and

more time in the vicinity of his father's last home, and less

and less with the tribe. Presently the members of his little

community began to suffer on account of his neglect, for

disputes and quarrels constantly arose which only the king

might settle peaceably.



At last some of the older apes spoke to Tarzan on the subject,

and for a month thereafter he remained constantly with

the tribe.



The duties of kingship among the anthropoids are not

many or arduous.



In the afternoon comes Thaka, possibly, to complain that

old Mungo has stolen his new wife. Then must Tarzan summon

all before him, and if he finds that the wife prefers her

new lord he commands that matters remain as they are, or

possibly that Mungo give Thaka one of his daughters in exchange.



Whatever his decision, the apes accept it as final, and

return to their occupations satisfied.



Then comes Tana, shrieking and holding tight her side

from which blood is streaming. Gunto, her husband, has

cruelly bitten her! And Gunto, summoned, says that Tana is

lazy and will not bring him nuts and beetles, or scratch his

back for him.



So Tarzan scolds them both and threatens Gunto with a

taste of the death-bearing slivers if he abuses Tana further,

and Tana, for her part, is compelled to promise better

attention to her wifely duties.



And so it goes, little family differences for the most part,

which, if left unsettled would result finally in greater

factional strife, and the eventual dismemberment of the tribe.



But Tarzan tired of it, as he found that kingship meant the

curtailment of his liberty. He longed for the little cabin and

the sun-kissed sea--for the cool interior of the well-built

house, and for the never-ending wonders of the many books.



As he had grown older, he found that he had grown away

from his people. Their interests and his were far removed.

They had not kept pace with him, nor could they understand

aught of the many strange and wonderful dreams that passed

through the active brain of their human king. So limited was

their vocabulary that Tarzan could not even talk with them

of the many new truths, and the great fields of thought that

his reading had opened up before his longing eyes, or make

known ambitions which stirred his soul.



Among the tribe he no longer had friends as of old. A little

child may find companionship in many strange and simple

creatures, but to a grown man there must be some semblance

of equality in intellect as the basis for agreeable association.



Had Kala lived, Tarzan would have sacrificed all else to

remain near her, but now that she was dead, and the playful

friends of his childhood grown into fierce and surly brutes he

felt that he much preferred the peace and solitude of his

cabin to the irksome duties of leadership amongst a horde of

wild beasts.



The hatred and jealousy of Terkoz, son of Tublat, did

much to counteract the effect of Tarzan's desire to renounce

his kingship among the apes, for, stubborn young Englishman

that he was, he could not bring himself to retreat in the face

of so malignant an enemy.



That Terkoz would be chosen leader in his stead he knew

full well, for time and again the ferocious brute had

established his claim to physical supremacy over the

few bull apes who had dared resent his savage bullying.



Tarzan would have liked to subdue the ugly beast without

recourse to knife or arrows. So much had his great strength

and agility increased in the period following his maturity that

he had come to believe that he might master the redoubtable

Terkoz in a hand to hand fight were it not for the terrible

advantage the anthropoid's huge fighting fangs gave him

over the poorly armed Tarzan.



The entire matter was taken out of Tarzan's hands one day

by force of circumstances, and his future left open to him, so

that he might go or stay without any stain upon his savage

escutcheon.



It happened thus:



The tribe was feeding quietly, spread over a considerable

area, when a great screaming arose some distance east of

where Tarzan lay upon his belly beside a limpid brook,

attempting to catch an elusive fish in his quick, brown hands.



With one accord the tribe swung rapidly toward the frightened

cries, and there found Terkoz holding an old female by

the hair and beating her unmercifully with his great hands.



As Tarzan approached he raised his hand aloft for Terkoz

to desist, for the female was not his, but belonged to a poor

old ape whose fighting days were long over, and who, therefore,

could not protect his family.



Terkoz knew that it was against the laws of his kind to

strike this woman of another, but being a bully, he had taken

advantage of the weakness of the female's husband to chastise

her because she had refused to give up to him a tender

young rodent she had captured.



When Terkoz saw Tarzan approaching without his arrows,

he continued to belabor the poor woman in a studied effort to

affront his hated chieftain.



Tarzan did not repeat his warning signal, but instead

rushed bodily upon the waiting Terkoz.



Never had the ape-man fought so terrible a battle since

that long-gone day when Bolgani, the great king gorilla had

so horribly manhandled him ere the new-found knife had, by

accident, pricked the savage heart.



Tarzan's knife on the present occasion but barely offset the

gleaming fangs of Terkoz, and what little advantage the ape

had over the man in brute strength was almost balanced by

the latter's wonderful quickness and agility.



In the sum total of their points, however, the anthropoid

had a shade the better of the battle, and had there been no

other personal attribute to influence the final outcome,

Tarzan of the Apes, the young Lord Greystoke, would have died

as he had lived--an unknown savage beast in equatorial Africa.



But there was that which had raised him far above his fellows

of the jungle--that little spark which spells the whole

vast difference between man and brute--Reason. This it was

which saved him from death beneath the iron muscles and

tearing fangs of Terkoz.



Scarcely had they fought a dozen seconds ere they were

rolling upon the ground, striking, tearing and rending--two

great savage beasts battling to the death.



Terkoz had a dozen knife wounds on head and breast, and

Tarzan was torn and bleeding--his scalp in one place half

torn from his head so that a great piece hung down over one

eye, obstructing his vision.



But so far the young Englishman had been able to keep

those horrible fangs from his jugular and now, as they fought

less fiercely for a moment, to regain their breath, Tarzan

formed a cunning plan. He would work his way to the other's

back and, clinging there with tooth and nail, drive his knife

home until Terkoz was no more.



The maneuver was accomplished more easily than he had

hoped, for the stupid beast, not knowing what Tarzan was

attempting, made no particular effort to prevent the

accomplishment of the design.



But when, finally, he realized that his antagonist was

fastened to him where his teeth and fists alike were useless

against him, Terkoz hurled himself about upon the ground so

violently that Tarzan could but cling desperately to the

leaping, turning, twisting body, and ere he had struck a

blow the knife was hurled from his hand by a heavy impact

against the earth, and Tarzan found himself defenseless.



During the rollings and squirmings of the next few minutes,

Tarzan's hold was loosened a dozen times until finally

an accidental circumstance of those swift and everchanging

evolutions gave him a new hold with his right hand, which he

realized was absolutely unassailable.



His arm was passed beneath Terkoz's arm from behind

and his hand and forearm encircled the back of Terkoz's

neck. It was the half-Nelson of modern wrestling which the

untaught ape-man had stumbled upon, but superior reason

showed him in an instant the value of the thing he had

discovered. It was the difference to him between life and death.



And so he struggled to encompass a similar hold with the

left hand, and in a few moments Terkoz's bull neck was

creaking beneath a full-Nelson.



There was no more lunging about now. The two lay perfectly

still upon the ground, Tarzan upon Terkoz's back. Slowly the

bullet head of the ape was being forced lower and

lower upon his chest.



Tarzan knew what the result would be. In an instant the

neck would break. Then there came to Terkoz's rescue the

same thing that had put him in these sore straits--a man's

reasoning power.



"If I kill him," thought Tarzan, "what advantage will it be

to me? Will it not rob the tribe of a great fighter? And if

Terkoz be dead, he will know nothing of my supremacy,

while alive he will ever be an example to the other apes."



"KA-GODA?" hissed Tarzan in Terkoz's ear, which, in ape

tongue, means, freely translated: "Do you surrender?"



For a moment there was no reply, and Tarzan added a few

more ounces of pressure, which elicited a horrified shriek

of pain from the great beast.



"KA-GODA?" repeated Tarzan.



"KA-GODA!" cried Terkoz.



"Listen," said Tarzan, easing up a trifle, but not releasing

his hold. "I am Tarzan, King of the Apes, mighty hunter,

mighty fighter. In all the jungle there is none so great.



"You have said: `KA-GODA' to me. All the tribe have heard.

Quarrel no more with your king or your people, for next

time I shall kill you. Do you understand?"



"HUH," assented Terkoz.



"And you are satisfied?"



"HUH," said the ape.



Tarzan let him up, and in a few minutes all were back at

their vocations, as though naught had occurred to mar the

tranquility of their primeval forest haunts.



But deep in the minds of the apes was rooted the conviction

that Tarzan was a mighty fighter and a strange creature.

Strange because he had had it in his power to kill his enemy,

but had allowed him to live--unharmed.



That afternoon as the tribe came together, as was their

wont before darkness settled on the jungle, Tarzan, his

wounds washed in the waters of the stream, called the old

males about him.



"You have seen again to-day that Tarzan of the Apes is

the greatest among you," he said.



"HUH," they replied with one voice, "Tarzan is great."



"Tarzan," he continued, "is not an ape. He is not like his

people. His ways are not their ways, and so Tarzan is going

back to the lair of his own kind by the waters of the great

lake which has no farther shore. You must choose another to

rule you, for Tarzan will not return."



And thus young Lord Greystoke took the first step toward

the goal which he had set--the finding of other white men

like himself.

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