Chapter XI. "King of the Apes"

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

　　It was not yet dark when he reached the tribe, though hestopped to exhume and devour the remains of the wildboar he had cached the preceding day, and again to takeKulonga's bow and arrows from the tree top in which he hadhidden them.

　　It was a well-laden Tarzan who dropped from the branchesinto the midst of the tribe of Kerchak.

　　With swelling chest he narrated the glories of his adventureand exhibited the spoils of conquest.

　　Kerchak grunted and turned away, for he was jealous ofthis strange member of his band. In his little evil brain hesought for some excuse to wreak his hatred upon Tarzan.

　　The next day Tarzan was practicing with his bow and arrowsat the first gleam of dawn. At first he lost nearly everybolt he shot, but finally he learned to guide the little shaftswith fair accuracy, and ere a month had passed he was nomean shot; but his proficiency had cost him nearly his entiresupply of arrows.

　　The tribe continued to find the hunting good in the vicinityof the beach, and so Tarzan of the Apes varied his archerypractice with further investigation of his father's choicethough little store of books.

　　It was during this period that the young English lord foundhidden in the back of one of the cupboards in the cabin asmall metal box. The key was in the lock, and a few momentsof investigation and experimentation were rewardedwith the successful opening of the receptacle.

　　In it he found a faded photograph of a smooth facedyoung man, a golden locket studded with diamonds, linked toa small gold chain, a few letters and a small book.

　　Tarzan examined these all minutely.

　　The photograph he liked most of all, for the eyes weresmiling, and the face was open and frank. It was his father.

　　The locket, too, took his fancy, and he placed the chainabout his neck in imitation of the ornamentation he had seento be so common among the black men he had visited. Thebrilliant stones gleamed strangely against his smooth, brown hide.

　　The letters he could scarcely decipher for he had learnedlittle or nothing of script, so he put them back in the boxwith the photograph and turned his attention to the book.

　　This was almost entirely filled with fine script, but whilethe little bugs were all familiar to him, their arrangement andthe combinations in which they occurred were strange, andentirely incomprehensible.

　　Tarzan had long since learned the use of the dictionary,but much to his sorrow and perplexity it proved of no availto him in this emergency. Not a word of all that was writ inthe book could he find, and so he put it back in the metalbox, but with a determination to work out the mysteries of itlater on.

　　Little did he know that this book held between its coversthe key to his origin--the answer to the strange riddle ofhis strange life. It was the diary of John Clayton, LordGreystoke--kept in French, as had always been his custom.

　　Tarzan replaced the box in the cupboard, but always thereafterhe carried the features of the strong, smiling face of hisfather in his heart, and in his head a fixed determination tosolve the mystery of the strange words in the little black book.

　　At present he had more important business in hand, for hissupply of arrows was exhausted, and he must needs journeyto the black men's village and renew it.

　　Early the following morning he set out, and, travelingrapidly, he came before midday to the clearing. Once more hetook up his position in the great tree, and, as before, he sawthe women in the fields and the village street, and the cauldronof bubbling poison directly beneath him.

　　For hours he lay awaiting his opportunity to drop downunseen and gather up the arrows for which he had come; butnothing now occurred to call the villagers away from theirhomes. The day wore on, and still Tarzan of the Apescrouched above the unsuspecting woman at the cauldron.

　　Presently the workers in the fields returned. The huntingwarriors emerged from the forest, and when all were withinthe palisade the gates were closed and barred.

　　Many cooking pots were now in evidence about the village.Before each hut a woman presided over a boiling stew, whilelittle cakes of plantain, and cassava puddings were to be seenon every hand.

　　Suddenly there came a hail from the edge of the clearing.

　　Tarzan looked.

　　It was a party of belated hunters returning from the north,and among them they half led, half carried a struggling animal.

　　As they approached the village the gates were thrown opento admit them, and then, as the people saw the victim of thechase, a savage cry rose to the heavens, for the quarry was a man.

　　As he was dragged, still resisting, into the village street, thewomen and children set upon him with sticks and stones, andTarzan of the Apes, young and savage beast of the jungle,wondered at the cruel brutality of his own kind.

　　Sheeta, the leopard, alone of all the jungle folk, torturedhis prey. The ethics of all the others meted a quick andmerciful death to their victims.

　　Tarzan had learned from his books but scattered fragmentsof the ways of human beings.

　　When he had followed Kulonga through the forest he hadexpected to come to a city of strange houses on wheels,puffing clouds of black smoke from a huge tree stuck in theroof of one of them--or to a sea covered with mighty floatingbuildings which he had learned were called, variously, shipsand boats and steamers and craft.

　　He had been sorely disappointed with the poor little villageof the blacks, hidden away in his own jungle, and with not asingle house as large as his own cabin upon the distant beach.

　　He saw that these people were more wicked than his own apes,and as savage and cruel as Sabor, herself. Tarzan beganto hold his own kind in low esteem.

　　Now they had tied their poor victim to a great post nearthe center of the village, directly before Mbonga's hut, andhere they formed a dancing, yelling circle of warriors abouthim, alive with flashing knives and menacing spears.

　　In a larger circle squatted the women, yelling and beatingupon drums. It reminded Tarzan of the Dum-Dum, and so heknew what to expect. He wondered if they would spring upontheir meat while it was still alive. The Apes did not do suchthings as that.

　　The circle of warriors about the cringing captive drew closerand closer to their prey as they danced in wild and savageabandon to the maddening music of the drums. Presentlya spear reached out and pricked the victim. It was the signalfor fifty others.

　　Eyes, ears, arms and legs were pierced; every inch of thepoor writhing body that did not cover a vital organ becamethe target of the cruel lancers.

　　The women and children shrieked their delight.

　　The warriors licked their hideous lips in anticipation of thefeast to come, and vied with one another in the savagery andloathsomeness of the cruel indignities with which they torturedthe still conscious prisoner.

　　Then it was that Tarzan of the Apes saw his chance. All eyeswere fixed upon the thrilling spectacle at the stake. Thelight of day had given place to the darkness of a moonless night,and only the fires in the immediate vicinity of the orgy hadbeen kept alight to cast a restless glow upon the restless scene.

　　Gently the lithe boy dropped to the soft earth at the end ofthe village street. Quickly he gathered up the arrows--all ofthem this time, for he had brought a number of long fibers tobind them into a bundle.

　　Without haste he wrapped them securely, and then, ere heturned to leave, the devil of capriciousness entered his heart.He looked about for some hint of a wild prank to play uponthese strange, grotesque creatures that they might be againaware of his presence among them.

　　Dropping his bundle of arrows at the foot of the tree, Tarzancrept among the shadows at the side of the street until hecame to the same hut he had entered on the occasion of hisfirst visit.

　　Inside all was darkness, but his groping hands soon foundthe object for which he sought, and without further delay heturned again toward the door.

　　He had taken but a step, however, ere his quick ear caughtthe sound of approaching footsteps immediately without. Inanother instant the figure of a woman darkened the entranceof the hut.

　　Tarzan drew back silently to the far wall, and his handsought the long, keen hunting knife of his father. The womancame quickly to the center of the hut. There she paused foran instant feeling about with her hands for the thing shesought. Evidently it was not in its accustomed place, for sheexplored ever nearer and nearer the wall where Tarzan stood.

　　So close was she now that the ape-man felt the animalwarmth of her naked body. Up went the hunting knife, andthen the woman turned to one side and soon a guttural "ah"proclaimed that her search had at last been successful.

　　Immediately she turned and left the hut, and as she passedthrough the doorway Tarzan saw that she carried a cookingpot in her hand.

　　He followed closely after her, and as he reconnoiteredfrom the shadows of the doorway he saw that all the womenof the village were hastening to and from the various hutswith pots and kettles. These they were filling with water andplacing over a number of fires near the stake where the dyingvictim now hung, an inert and bloody mass of suffering.

　　Choosing a moment when none seemed near, Tarzan hastenedto his bundle of arrows beneath the great tree atthe end of the village street. As on the former occasion heoverthrew the cauldron before leaping, sinuous and catlike,into the lower branches of the forest giant.

　　Silently he climbed to a great height until he found a pointwhere he could look through a leafy opening upon the scenebeneath him.

　　The women were now preparing the prisoner for their cookingpots, while the men stood about resting after the fatigue oftheir mad revel. Comparative quiet reigned in the village.

　　Tarzan raised aloft the thing he had pilfered from the hut,and, with aim made true by years of fruit and coconut throwing,launched it toward the group of savages.

　　Squarely among them it fell, striking one of the warriorsfull upon the head and felling him to the ground. Then itrolled among the women and stopped beside the half-butcheredthing they were preparing to feast upon.

　　All gazed in consternation at it for an instant, and then,with one accord, broke and ran for their huts.

　　It was a grinning human skull which looked up at them fromthe ground. The dropping of the thing out of the open skywas a miracle well aimed to work upon their superstitious fears.

　　Thus Tarzan of the Apes left them filled with terror at thisnew manifestation of the presence of some unseen and unearthlyevil power which lurked in the forest about their village.

　　Later, when they discovered the overturned cauldron, andthat once more their arrows had been pilfered, it commencedto dawn upon them that they had offended some great god byplacing their village in this part of the jungle withoutpropitiating him. From then on an offering of food was dailyplaced below the great tree from whence the arrows haddisappeared in an effort to conciliate the mighty one.

　　But the seed of fear was deep sown, and had he but knownit, Tarzan of the Apes had laid the foundation for muchfuture misery for himself and his tribe.

　　That night he slept in the forest not far from the village,and early the next morning set out slowly on his homewardmarch, hunting as he traveled. Only a few berries and anoccasional grub worm rewarded his search, and he was halffamished when, looking up from a log he had been rootingbeneath, he saw Sabor, the lioness, standing in the centerof the trail not twenty paces from him.

　　The great yellow eyes were fixed upon him with a wickedand baleful gleam, and the red tongue licked the longing lipsas Sabor crouched, worming her stealthy way with bellyflattened against the earth.

　　Tarzan did not attempt to escape. He welcomed theopportunity for which, in fact, he had been searching fordays past, now that he was armed with something more than arope of grass.

　　Quickly he unslung his bow and fitted a well-daubed arrow,and as Sabor sprang, the tiny missile leaped to meet herin mid-air. At the same instant Tarzan of the Apes jumpedto one side, and as the great cat struck the ground beyondhim another death-tipped arrow sunk deep into Sabor's loin.

　　With a mighty roar the beast turned and charged oncemore, only to be met with a third arrow full in one eye; butthis time she was too close to the ape-man for the latter tosidestep the onrushing body.

　　Tarzan of the Apes went down beneath the great body ofhis enemy, but with gleaming knife drawn and striking home.For a moment they lay there, and then Tarzan realized thatthe inert mass lying upon him was beyond power ever againto injure man or ape.

　　With difficulty he wriggled from beneath the great weight,and as he stood erect and gazed down upon the trophy of hisskill, a mighty wave of exultation swept over him.

　　With swelling breast, he placed a foot upon the body of hispowerful enemy, and throwing back his fine young head,roared out the awful challenge of the victorious bull ape.

　　The forest echoed to the savage and triumphant paean.Birds fell still, and the larger animals and beasts of preyslunk stealthily away, for few there were of all the junglewho sought for trouble with the great anthropoids.

　　And in London another Lord Greystoke was speaking tohis kind in the House of Lords, but none trembled at thesound of his soft voice.

　　Sabor proved unsavory eating even to Tarzan of the Apes,but hunger served as a most efficacious disguise to toughnessand rank taste, and ere long, with well-filled stomach, theape-man was ready to sleep again. First, however, he mustremove the hide, for it was as much for this as for any otherpurpose that he had desired to destroy Sabor.

　　Deftly he removed the great pelt, for he had practicedoften on smaller animals. When the task was finished hecarried his trophy to the fork of a high tree, and there,curling himself securely in a crotch, he fell into deep anddreamless slumber.

　　What with loss of sleep, arduous exercise, and a full belly,Tarzan of the Apes slept the sun around, awakening aboutnoon of the following day. He straightway repaired to thecarcass of Sabor, but was angered to find the bones pickedclean by other hungry denizens of the jungle.

　　Half an hour's leisurely progress through the forestbrought to sight a young deer, and before the little creatureknew that an enemy was near a tiny arrow had lodged in its neck.

　　So quickly the virus worked that at the end of a dozenleaps the deer plunged headlong into the undergrowth, dead.Again did Tarzan feast well, but this time he did not sleep.

　　Instead, he hastened on toward the point where he had leftthe tribe, and when he had found them proudly exhibited theskin of Sabor, the lioness.

　　"Look!" he cried, "Apes of Kerchak. See what Tarzan, themighty killer, has done. Who else among you has ever killedone of Numa's people? Tarzan is mightiest amongst you forTarzan is no ape. Tarzan is--" But here he stopped, for in thelanguage of the anthropoids there was no word for man, andTarzan could only write the word in English; he could notpronounce it.

　　The tribe had gathered about to look upon the proof of hiswondrous prowess, and to listen to his words.

　　Only Kerchak hung back, nursing his hatred and his rage.

　　Suddenly something snapped in the wicked little brain ofthe anthropoid. With a frightful roar the great beast sprangamong the assemblage.

　　Biting, and striking with his huge hands, he killed andmaimed a dozen ere the balance could escape to the upperterraces of the forest.

　　Frothing and shrieking in the insanity of his fury, Kerchaklooked about for the object of his greatest hatred, and there,upon a near-by limb, he saw him sitting.

　　"Come down, Tarzan, great killer," cried Kerchak. "Comedown and feel the fangs of a greater! Do mighty fighters flyto the trees at the first approach of danger?" And then Kerchakemitted the volleying challenge of his kind.

　　Quietly Tarzan dropped to the ground. Breathlessly thetribe watched from their lofty perches as Kerchak, stillroaring, charged the relatively puny figure.

　　Nearly seven feet stood Kerchak on his short legs. Hisenormous shoulders were bunched and rounded with hugemuscles. The back of his short neck was as a single lump ofiron sinew which bulged beyond the base of his skull, so thathis head seemed like a small ball protruding from a hugemountain of flesh.

　　His back-drawn, snarling lips exposed his great fightingfangs, and his little, wicked, blood-shot eyes gleamed inhorrid reflection of his madness.

　　Awaiting him stood Tarzan, himself a mighty muscled animal,but his six feet of height and his great rolling sinewsseemed pitifully inadequate to the ordeal which awaited them.

　　His bow and arrows lay some distance away where he haddropped them while showing Sabor's hide to his fellow apes,so that he confronted Kerchak now with only his huntingknife and his superior intellect to offset the ferociousstrength of his enemy.

　　As his antagonist came roaring toward him, Lord Greystoketore his long knife from its sheath, and with an answeringchallenge as horrid and bloodcurdling as that of the beasthe faced, rushed swiftly to meet the attack. He was tooshrewd to allow those long hairy arms to encircle him, andjust as their bodies were about to crash together, Tarzan ofthe Apes grasped one of the huge wrists of his assailant, and,springing lightly to one side, drove his knife to the hilt intoKerchak's body, below the heart.

　　Before he could wrench the blade free again, the bull'squick lunge to seize him in those awful arms had torn theweapon from Tarzan's grasp.

　　Kerchak aimed a terrific blow at the ape-man's head with theflat of his hand, a blow which, had it landed, might easilyhave crushed in the side of Tarzan's skull.

　　The man was too quick, and, ducking beneath it, himselfdelivered a mighty one, with clenched fist, in the pit ofKerchak's stomach.

　　The ape was staggered, and what with the mortal wound inhis side had almost collapsed, when, with one mighty efforthe rallied for an instant--just long enough to enable him towrest his arm free from Tarzan's grasp and close in a terrificclinch with his wiry opponent.

　　Straining the ape-man close to him, his great jaws soughtTarzan's throat, but the young lord's sinewy fingers were atKerchak's own before the cruel fangs could close on the sleekbrown skin.

　　Thus they struggled, the one to crush out his opponent'slife with those awful teeth, the other to close forever thewindpipe beneath his strong grasp while he held the snarlingmouth from him.

　　The greater strength of the ape was slowly prevailing, andthe teeth of the straining beast were scarce an inch fromTarzan's throat when, with a shuddering tremor, the great bodystiffened for an instant and then sank limply to the ground.

　　Kerchak was dead.

　　Withdrawing the knife that had so often rendered himmaster of far mightier muscles than his own, Tarzan of theApes placed his foot upon the neck of his vanquished enemy,and once again, loud through the forest rang the fierce, wildcry of the conqueror.

　　And thus came the young Lord Greystoke into the kingship of the Apes.