Chapter 13

His Own Kind



The following morning, Tarzan, lame and sore from the

wounds of his battle with Terkoz, set out toward the west

and the seacoast.



He traveled very slowly, sleeping in the jungle at night,

and reaching his cabin late the following morning.



For several days he moved about but little, only enough to

gather what fruits and nuts he required to satisfy the demands

of hunger.



In ten days he was quite sound again, except for a terrible,

half-healed scar, which, starting above his left eye ran across

the top of his head, ending at the right ear. It was the mark

left by Terkoz when he had torn the scalp away.



During his convalescence Tarzan tried to fashion a mantle

from the skin of Sabor, which had lain all this time in the

cabin. But he found the hide had dried as stiff as a board,

and as he knew naught of tanning, he was forced to abandon

his cherished plan.



Then he determined to filch what few garments he could

from one of the black men of Mbonga's village, for Tarzan

of the Apes had decided to mark his evolution from the

lower orders in every possible manner, and nothing seemed to

him a more distinguishing badge of manhood than ornaments

and clothing.



To this end, therefore, he collected the various arm and leg

ornaments he had taken from the black warriors who had

succumbed to his swift and silent noose, and donned them all

after the way he had seen them worn.



About his neck hung the golden chain from which depended

the diamond encrusted locket of his mother, the Lady

Alice. At his back was a quiver of arrows slung from a

leathern shoulder belt, another piece of loot from some

vanquished black.



About his waist was a belt of tiny strips of rawhide

fashioned by himself as a support for the home-made scabbard in

which hung his father's hunting knife. The long bow which

had been Kulonga's hung over his left shoulder.



The young Lord Greystoke was indeed a strange and war-like

figure, his mass of black hair falling to his shoulders

behind and cut with his hunting knife to a rude bang upon

his forehead, that it might not fall before his eyes.



His straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the

ancient Roman gladiators must have been muscled, and yet

with the soft and sinuous curves of a Greek god, told at a

glance the wondrous combination of enormous strength with

suppleness and speed.



A personification, was Tarzan of the Apes, of the primitive

man, the hunter, the warrior.



With the noble poise of his handsome head upon those broad

shoulders, and the fire of life and intelligence in those

fine, clear eyes, he might readily have typified some demigod

of a wild and warlike bygone people of his ancient forest.



But of these things Tarzan did not think. He was worried

because he had not clothing to indicate to all the jungle folks

that he was a man and not an ape, and grave doubt often

entered his mind as to whether he might not yet become an ape.



Was not hair commencing to grow upon his face? All the

apes had hair upon theirs but the black men were entirely

hairless, with very few exceptions.



True, he had seen pictures in his books of men with great

masses of hair upon lip and cheek and chin, but, nevertheless,

Tarzan was afraid. Almost daily he whetted his keen knife

and scraped and whittled at his young beard to eradicate this

degrading emblem of apehood.



And so he learned to shave--rudely and painfully, it is

true--but, nevertheless, effectively.



When he felt quite strong again, after his bloody battle

with Terkoz, Tarzan set off one morning towards Mbonga's

village. He was moving carelessly along a winding jungle

trail, instead of making his progress through the trees, when

suddenly he came face to face with a black warrior.



The look of surprise on the savage face was almost comical,

and before Tarzan could unsling his bow the fellow had

turned and fled down the path crying out in alarm as though

to others before him.



Tarzan took to the trees in pursuit, and in a few moments

came in view of the men desperately striving to escape.



There were three of them, and they were racing madly in

single file through the dense undergrowth.



Tarzan easily distanced them, nor did they see his silent

passage above their heads, nor note the crouching figure

squatted upon a low branch ahead of them beneath which the

trail led them.



Tarzan let the first two pass beneath him, but as the third

came swiftly on, the quiet noose dropped about the black

throat. A quick jerk drew it taut.



There was an agonized scream from the victim, and his

fellows turned to see his struggling body rise as by magic

slowly into the dense foliage of the trees above.



With frightened shrieks they wheeled once more and plunged

on in their efforts to escape.



Tarzan dispatched his prisoner quickly and silently; removed

the weapons and ornaments, and--oh, the greatest joy

of all--a handsome deerskin breechcloth, which he quickly

transferred to his own person.



Now indeed was he dressed as a man should be. None

there was who could now doubt his high origin. How he

should have liked to have returned to the tribe to parade

before their envious gaze this wondrous finery.



Taking the body across his shoulder, he moved more

slowly through the trees toward the little palisaded village,

for he again needed arrows.



As he approached quite close to the enclosure he saw an

excited group surrounding the two fugitives, who, trembling

with fright and exhaustion, were scarce able to recount the

uncanny details of their adventure.



Mirando, they said, who had been ahead of them a short

distance, had suddenly come screaming toward them, crying

that a terrible white and naked warrior was pursuing him.

The three of them had hurried toward the village as rapidly

as their legs would carry them.



Again Mirando's shrill cry of mortal terror had caused

them to look back, and there they had seen the most horrible

sight--their companion's body flying upwards into the trees,

his arms and legs beating the air and his tongue protruding

from his open mouth. No other sound did he utter nor was

there any creature in sight about him.



The villagers were worked up into a state of fear bordering

on panic, but wise old Mbonga affected to feel considerable

skepticism regarding the tale, and attributed the whole

fabrication to their fright in the face of some real danger.



"You tell us this great story," he said, "because you do not

dare to speak the truth. You do not dare admit that when the

lion sprang upon Mirando you ran away and left him. You

are cowards."



Scarcely had Mbonga ceased speaking when a great crashing

of branches in the trees above them caused the blacks to

look up in renewed terror. The sight that met their eyes made

even wise old Mbonga shudder, for there, turning and twisting

in the air, came the dead body of Mirando, to sprawl with a

sickening reverberation upon the ground at their feet.



With one accord the blacks took to their heels; nor did

they stop until the last of them was lost in the dense

shadows of the surrounding jungle.



Again Tarzan came down into the village and renewed his

supply of arrows and ate of the offering of food which the

blacks had made to appease his wrath.



Before he left he carried the body of Mirando to the gate

of the village, and propped it up against the palisade in such

a way that the dead face seemed to be peering around the

edge of the gatepost down the path which led to the jungle.



Then Tarzan returned, hunting, always hunting, to the

cabin by the beach.




It took a dozen attempts on the part of the thoroughly

frightened blacks to reenter their village, past the horrible,

grinning face of their dead fellow, and when they found the

food and arrows gone they knew, what they had only too well

feared, that Mirando had seen the evil spirit of the jungle.



That now seemed to them the logical explanation. Only

those who saw this terrible god of the jungle died; for was it

not true that none left alive in the village had ever seen him?

Therefore, those who had died at his hands must have seen

him and paid the penalty with their lives.



As long as they supplied him with arrows and food he

would not harm them unless they looked upon him, so it was

ordered by Mbonga that in addition to the food offering there

should also be laid out an offering of arrows for this Munan-

go-Keewati, and this was done from then on.



If you ever chance to pass that far off African village you

will still see before a tiny thatched hut, built just without the

village, a little iron pot in which is a quantity of food, and

beside it a quiver of well-daubed arrows.



When Tarzan came in sight of the beach where stood his

cabin, a strange and unusual spectacle met his vision.



On the placid waters of the landlocked harbor floated a

great ship, and on the beach a small boat was drawn up.



But, most wonderful of all, a number of white men like

himself were moving about between the beach and his cabin.



Tarzan saw that in many ways they were like the men of his

picture books. He crept closer through the trees until he

was quite close above them.



There were ten men, swarthy, sun-tanned, villainous looking

fellows. Now they had congregated by the boat and were

talking in loud, angry tones, with much gesticulating and

shaking of fists.



Presently one of them, a little, mean-faced, black-bearded

fellow with a countenance which reminded Tarzan of Pamba,

the rat, laid his hand upon the shoulder of a giant who stood

next him, and with whom all the others had been arguing and

quarreling.



The little man pointed inland, so that the giant was forced

to turn away from the others to look in the direction

indicated. As he turned, the little, mean-faced man drew a

revolver from his belt and shot the giant in the back.



The big fellow threw his hands above his head, his knees

bent beneath him, and without a sound he tumbled forward

upon the beach, dead.



The report of the weapon, the first that Tarzan had ever

heard, filled him with wonderment, but even this unaccustomed

sound could not startle his healthy nerves into even a

semblance of panic.



The conduct of the white strangers it was that caused him

the greatest perturbation. He puckered his brows into a

frown of deep thought. It was well, thought he, that he had

not given way to his first impulse to rush forward and greet

these white men as brothers.



They were evidently no different from the black men--no

more civilized than the apes--no less cruel than Sabor.



For a moment the others stood looking at the little, mean-

faced man and the giant lying dead upon the beach.



Then one of them laughed and slapped the little man upon

the back. There was much more talk and gesticulating, but

less quarreling.



Presently they launched the boat and all jumped into it and

rowed away toward the great ship, where Tarzan could see

other figures moving about upon the deck.



When they had clambered aboard, Tarzan dropped to earth

behind a great tree and crept to his cabin, keeping it

always between himself and the ship.



Slipping in at the door he found that everything had been

ransacked. His books and pencils strewed the floor. His weapons

and shields and other little store of treasures were littered about.



As he saw what had been done a great wave of anger

surged through him, and the new made scar upon his forehead

stood suddenly out, a bar of inflamed crimson against

his tawny hide.



Quickly he ran to the cupboard and searched in the far recess

of the lower shelf. Ah! He breathed a sigh of relief as he

drew out the little tin box, and, opening it, found his greatest

treasures undisturbed.



The photograph of the smiling, strong-faced young man,

and the little black puzzle book were safe.



What was that?



His quick ear had caught a faint but unfamiliar sound.



Running to the window Tarzan looked toward the harbor,

and there he saw that a boat was being lowered from the

great ship beside the one already in the water. Soon he saw

many people clambering over the sides of the larger vessel and

dropping into the boats. They were coming back in full force.



For a moment longer Tarzan watched while a number of

boxes and bundles were lowered into the waiting boats, then,

as they shoved off from the ship's side, the ape-man snatched

up a piece of paper, and with a pencil printed on it for a few

moments until it bore several lines of strong, well-made,

almost letter-perfect characters.



This notice he stuck upon the door with a small sharp

splinter of wood. Then gathering up his precious tin box, his

arrows, and as many bows and spears as he could carry, he

hastened through the door and disappeared into the forest.



When the two boats were beached upon the silvery sand it

was a strange assortment of humanity that clambered ashore.



Some twenty souls in all there were, fifteen of them rough

and villainous appearing seamen.



The others of the party were of different stamp.



One was an elderly man, with white hair and large rimmed

spectacles. His slightly stooped shoulders were draped in an

ill-fitting, though immaculate, frock coat, and a shiny silk hat

added to the incongruity of his garb in an African jungle.



The second member of the party to land was a tall young man

in white ducks, while directly behind came another elderly

man with a very high forehead and a fussy, excitable manner.



After these came a huge Negress clothed like Solomon as to

colors. Her great eyes rolled in evident terror, first toward

the jungle and then toward the cursing band of sailors who

were removing the bales and boxes from the boats.



The last member of the party to disembark was a girl of

about nineteen, and it was the young man who stood at the

boat's prow to lift her high and dry upon land. She gave him a

brave and pretty smile of thanks, but no words passed between them.



In silence the party advanced toward the cabin. It was evident

that whatever their intentions, all had been decided upon

before they left the ship; and so they came to the door, the

sailors carrying the boxes and bales, followed by the five who

were of so different a class. The men put down their burdens,

and then one caught sight of the notice which Tarzan had posted.



"Ho, mates!" he cried. "What's here? This sign was not

posted an hour ago or I'll eat the cook."



The others gathered about, craning their necks over the

shoulders of those before them, but as few of them could

read at all, and then only after the most laborious fashion,

one finally turned to the little old man of the top hat and

frock coat.



"Hi, perfesser," he called, "step for'rd and read the

bloomin' notis."



Thus addressed, the old man came slowly to where the

sailors stood, followed by the other members of his party.

Adjusting his spectacles he looked for a moment at the

placard and then, turning away, strolled off muttering to

himself: "Most remarkable--most remarkable!"



"Hi, old fossil," cried the man who had first called on him

for assistance, "did je think we wanted of you to read the

bloomin' notis to yourself? Come back here and read it out

loud, you old barnacle."



The old man stopped and, turning back, said: "Oh, yes,

my dear sir, a thousand pardons. It was quite thoughtless of

me, yes--very thoughtless. Most remarkable--most remarkable!"



Again he faced the notice and read it through, and doubtless

would have turned off again to ruminate upon it had not

the sailor grasped him roughly by the collar and howled into

his ear.



"Read it out loud, you blithering old idiot."



"Ah, yes indeed, yes indeed," replied the professor softly,

and adjusting his spectacles once more he read aloud:



THIS IS THE HOUSE OF TARZAN, THE

KILLER OF BEASTS AND MANY BLACK

MEN. DO NOT HARM THE THINGS WHICH

ARE TARZAN'S. TARZAN WATCHES.

TARZAN OF THE APES.





"Who the devil is Tarzan?" cried the sailor who had before spoken.



"He evidently speaks English," said the young man.



"But what does `Tarzan of the Apes' mean?" cried the girl.



"I do not know, Miss Porter," replied the young man, "unless

we have discovered a runaway simian from the London

Zoo who has brought back a European education to his jungle

home. What do you make of it, Professor Porter?" he

added, turning to the old man.



Professor Archimedes Q. Porter adjusted his spectacles.



"Ah, yes, indeed; yes indeed--most remarkable, most

remarkable!" said the professor; "but I can add nothing further

to what I have already remarked in elucidation of this truly

momentous occurrence," and the professor turned slowly in

the direction of the jungle.



"But, papa," cried the girl, "you haven't said anything

about it yet."



"Tut, tut, child; tut, tut," responded Professor Porter, in a

kindly and indulgent tone, "do not trouble your pretty head

with such weighty and abstruse problems," and again he wandered

slowly off in still another direction, his eyes bent upon

the ground at his feet, his hands clasped behind him beneath

the flowing tails of his coat.



"I reckon the daffy old bounder don't know no more'n we

do about it," growled the rat-faced sailor.



"Keep a civil tongue in your head," cried the young man,

his face paling in anger, at the insulting tone of the sailor.

"You've murdered our officers and robbed us. We are absolutely

in your power, but you'll treat Professor Porter and

Miss Porter with respect or I'll break that vile neck of yours

with my bare hands--guns or no guns," and the young fellow

stepped so close to the rat-faced sailor that the latter, though

he bore two revolvers and a villainous looking knife in his

belt, slunk back abashed.



"You damned coward," cried the young man. "You'd never

dare shoot a man until his back was turned. You don't

dare shoot me even then," and he deliberately turned his

back full upon the sailor and walked nonchalantly away as

if to put him to the test.



The sailor's hand crept slyly to the butt of one of his

revolvers; his wicked eyes glared vengefully at the retreating

form of the young Englishman. The gaze of his fellows was upon

him, but still he hesitated. At heart he was even a greater

coward than Mr. William Cecil Clayton had imagined.



Two keen eyes had watched every move of the party from

the foliage of a nearby tree. Tarzan had seen the surprise

caused by his notice, and while he could understand nothing

of the spoken language of these strange people their gestures

and facial expressions told him much.



The act of the little rat-faced sailor in killing one of his

comrades had aroused a strong dislike in Tarzan, and now

that he saw him quarreling with the fine-looking young man

his animosity was still further stirred.



Tarzan had never seen the effects of a firearm before,

though his books had taught him something of them, but

when he saw the rat-faced one fingering the butt of his

revolver he thought of the scene he had witnessed so short

a time before, and naturally expected to see the young man

murdered as had been the huge sailor earlier in the day.



So Tarzan fitted a poisoned arrow to his bow and drew a

bead upon the rat-faced sailor, but the foliage was so thick

that he soon saw the arrow would be deflected by the leaves

or some small branch, and instead he launched a heavy spear

from his lofty perch.



Clayton had taken but a dozen steps. The rat-faced sailor

had half drawn his revolver; the other sailors stood watching

the scene intently.



Professor Porter had already disappeared into the jungle,

whither he was being followed by the fussy Samuel T.

Philander, his secretary and assistant.



Esmeralda, the Negress, was busy sorting her mistress' baggage

from the pile of bales and boxes beside the cabin, and

Miss Porter had turned away to follow Clayton, when something

caused her to turn again toward the sailor.



And then three things happened almost simultaneously.

The sailor jerked out his weapon and leveled it at Clayton's

back, Miss Porter screamed a warning, and a long, metal-

shod spear shot like a bolt from above and passed entirely

through the right shoulder of the rat-faced man.



The revolver exploded harmlessly in the air, and the seaman

crumpled up with a scream of pain and terror.



Clayton turned and rushed back toward the scene. The

sailors stood in a frightened group, with drawn weapons,

peering into the jungle. The wounded man writhed and

shrieked upon the ground.



Clayton, unseen by any, picked up the fallen revolver and

slipped it inside his shirt, then he joined the sailors in

gazing, mystified, into the jungle.



"Who could it have been?" whispered Jane Porter, and the

young man turned to see her standing, wide-eyed and

wondering, close beside him.



"I dare say Tarzan of the Apes is watching us all right," he

answered, in a dubious tone. "I wonder, now, who that spear

was intended for. If for Snipes, then our ape friend is a

friend indeed.



"By jove, where are your father and Mr. Philander?

There's someone or something in that jungle, and it's armed,

whatever it is. Ho! Professor! Mr. Philander!" young Clayton

shouted. There was no response.



"What's to be done, Miss Porter?" continued the young

man, his face clouded by a frown of worry and indecision.



"I can't leave you here alone with these cutthroats, and

you certainly can't venture into the jungle with me; yet

someone must go in search of your father. He is more than

apt to wandering off aimlessly, regardless of danger or

direction, and Mr. Philander is only a trifle less impractical

than he. You will pardon my bluntness, but our lives are

all in jeopardy here, and when we get your father back

something must be done to impress upon him the dangers to

which he exposes you as well as himself by his absent-mindedness."



"I quite agree with you," replied the girl, "and I am not

offended at all. Dear old papa would sacrifice his life for me

without an instant's hesitation, provided one could keep his

mind on so frivolous a matter for an entire instant. There is

only one way to keep him in safety, and that is to chain him

to a tree. The poor dear is SO impractical."



"I have it!" suddenly exclaimed Clayton. "You can use a

revolver, can't you?"



"Yes. Why?"



"I have one. With it you and Esmeralda will be comparatively

safe in this cabin while I am searching for your father

and Mr. Philander. Come, call the woman and I will hurry

on. They can't have gone far."



Jane did as he suggested and when he saw the door close

safely behind them Clayton turned toward the jungle.



Some of the sailors were drawing the spear from their

wounded comrade and, as Clayton approached, he asked if

he could borrow a revolver from one of them while he

searched the jungle for the professor.



The rat-faced one, finding he was not dead, had regained

his composure, and with a volley of oaths directed at Clayton

refused in the name of his fellows to allow the young man

any firearms.



This man, Snipes, had assumed the role of chief since he

had killed their former leader, and so little time had elapsed

that none of his companions had as yet questioned his authority.



Clayton's only response was a shrug of the shoulders, but

as he left them he picked up the spear which had transfixed

Snipes, and thus primitively armed, the son of the then Lord

Greystoke strode into the dense jungle.



Every few moments he called aloud the names of the wanderers.

The watchers in the cabin by the beach heard the sound of his

voice growing ever fainter and fainter, until at last it was

swallowed up by the myriad noises of the primeval wood.



When Professor Archimedes Q. Porter and his assistant,

Samuel T. Philander, after much insistence on the part of the

latter, had finally turned their steps toward camp, they were

as completely lost in the wild and tangled labyrinth of the

matted jungle as two human beings well could be, though

they did not know it.



It was by the merest caprice of fortune that they headed

toward the west coast of Africa, instead of toward Zanzibar

on the opposite side of the dark continent.



When in a short time they reached the beach, only to find

no camp in sight, Philander was positive that they were north

of their proper destination, while, as a matter of fact they

were about two hundred yards south of it.



It never occurred to either of these impractical theorists to

call aloud on the chance of attracting their friends' attention.

Instead, with all the assurance that deductive reasoning from

a wrong premise induces in one, Mr. Samuel T. Philander

grasped Professor Archimedes Q. Porter firmly by the arm

and hurried the weakly protesting old gentleman off in the

direction of Cape Town, fifteen hundred miles to the south.



When Jane and Esmeralda found themselves safely behind

the cabin door the Negress's first thought was to barricade

the portal from the inside. With this idea in mind she turned

to search for some means of putting it into execution; but her

first view of the interior of the cabin brought a shriek of

terror to her lips, and like a frightened child the huge woman

ran to bury her face on her mistress' shoulder.



Jane, turning at the cry, saw the cause of it lying prone

upon the floor before them--the whitened skeleton of a man.

A further glance revealed a second skeleton upon the bed.



"What horrible place are we in?" murmured the awe-struck

girl. But there was no panic in her fright.



At last, disengaging herself from the frantic clutch of the still

shrieking Esmeralda, Jane crossed the room to look into the little

cradle, knowing what she should see there even before the tiny

skeleton disclosed itself in all its pitiful and pathetic frailty.



What an awful tragedy these poor mute bones proclaimed!

The girl shuddered at thought of the eventualities which

might lie before herself and her friends in this ill-fated

cabin, the haunt of mysterious, perhaps hostile, beings.



Quickly, with an impatient stamp of her little foot, she

endeavored to shake off the gloomy forebodings, and turning to

Esmeralda bade her cease her wailing.



"Stop, Esmeralda, stop it this minute!" she cried. "You are

only making it worse."



She ended lamely, a little quiver in her own voice as she

thought of the three men, upon whom she depended for

protection, wandering in the depth of that awful forest.



Soon the girl found that the door was equipped with a

heavy wooden bar upon the inside, and after several efforts

the combined strength of the two enabled them to slip it into

place, the first time in twenty years.



Then they sat down upon a bench with their arms about

one another, and waited.

****

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