Chapter XIX. The Call of the Primitive

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

　　From the time Tarzan left the tribe of great anthropoids inwhich he had been raised, it was torn by continual strifeand discord. Terkoz proved a cruel and capricious king, sothat, one by one, many of the older and weaker apes, upon whomhe was particularly prone to vent his brutish nature, took theirfamilies and sought the quiet and safety of the far interior.

　　But at last those who remained were driven to desperationby the continued truculence of Terkoz, and it so happenedthat one of them recalled the parting admonition of Tarzan:

　　"If you have a chief who is cruel, do not do as the otherapes do, and attempt, any one of you, to pit yourself againsthim alone. But, instead, let two or three or four of you attackhim together. Then, if you will do this, no chief will dare tobe other than he should be, for four of you can kill any chiefwho may ever be over you."

　　And the ape who recalled this wise counsel repeated it toseveral of his fellows, so that when Terkoz returned to thetribe that day he found a warm reception awaiting him.

　　There were no formalities. As Terkoz reached the group,five huge, hairy beasts sprang upon him.

　　At heart he was an arrant coward, which is the way withbullies among apes as well as among men; so he did not remainto fight and die, but tore himself away from them as quicklyas he could and fled into the sheltering boughs of the forest.

　　Two more attempts he made to rejoin the tribe, but oneach occasion he was set upon and driven away. At last hegave it up, and turned, foaming with rage and hatred, intothe jungle.

　　For several days he wandered aimlessly, nursing his spite andlooking for some weak thing on which to vent his pent anger.

　　It was in this state of mind that the horrible, man-likebeast, swinging from tree to tree, came suddenly upon twowomen in the jungle.

　　He was right above them when he discovered them. Thefirst intimation Jane Porter had of his presence was when thegreat hairy body dropped to the earth beside her, and she sawthe awful face and the snarling, hideous mouth thrust withina foot of her.

　　One piercing scream escaped her lips as the brute handclutched her arm. Then she was dragged toward those awfulfangs which yawned at her throat. But ere they touched thatfair skin another mood claimed the anthropoid.

　　The tribe had kept his women. He must find others to replacethem. This hairless white ape would be the first of his newhousehold, and so he threw her roughly across his broad, hairyshoulders and leaped back into the trees, bearing Jane away.

　　Esmeralda's scream of terror had mingled once with thatof Jane, and then, as was Esmeralda's manner under stress ofemergency which required presence of mind, she swooned.

　　But Jane did not once lose consciousness. It is true thatthat awful face, pressing close to hers, and the stench of thefoul breath beating upon her nostrils, paralyzed her with terror;but her brain was clear, and she comprehended all that transpired.

　　With what seemed to her marvelous rapidity the brute bore herthrough the forest, but still she did not cry out or struggle.The sudden advent of the ape had confused her to such an extentthat she thought now that he was bearing her toward the beach.

　　For this reason she conserved her energies and her voiceuntil she could see that they had approached near enough tothe camp to attract the succor she craved.

　　She could not have known it, but she was being borne fartherand farther into the impenetrable jungle.

　　The scream that had brought Clayton and the two oldermen stumbling through the undergrowth had led Tarzan of theApes straight to where Esmeralda lay, but it was notEsmeralda in whom his interest centered, though pausingover her he saw that she was unhurt.

　　For a moment he scrutinized the ground below and thetrees above, until the ape that was in him by virtue oftraining and environment, combined with the intelligence that washis by right of birth, told his wondrous woodcraft the wholestory as plainly as though he had seen the thing happen withhis own eyes.

　　And then he was gone again into the swaying trees, followingthe high-flung spoor which no other human eye couldhave detected, much less translated.

　　At boughs' ends, where the anthropoid swings from one treeto another, there is most to mark the trail, but least topoint the direction of the quarry; for there the pressure isdownward always, toward the small end of the branch, whetherthe ape be leaving or entering a tree. Nearer the center ofthe tree, where the signs of passage are fainter, the directionis plainly marked.

　　Here, on this branch, a caterpillar has been crushed by thefugitive's great foot, and Tarzan knows instinctively wherethat same foot would touch in the next stride. Here he looksto find a tiny particle of the demolished larva, ofttimes notmore than a speck of moisture.

　　Again, a minute bit of bark has been upturned by thescraping hand, and the direction of the break indicates thedirection of the passage. Or some great limb, or the stem of thetree itself has been brushed by the hairy body, and a tinyshred of hair tells him by the direction from which it iswedged beneath the bark that he is on the right trail.

　　Nor does he need to check his speed to catch these seeminglyfaint records of the fleeing beast.

　　To Tarzan they stand out boldly against all the myriadother scars and bruises and signs upon the leafy way. Butstrongest of all is the scent, for Tarzan is pursuing up thewind, and his trained nostrils are as sensitive as a hound's.

　　There are those who believe that the lower orders arespecially endowed by nature with better olfactory nervesthan man, but it is merely a matter of development.

　　Man's survival does not hinge so greatly upon the perfectionof his senses. His power to reason has relieved them ofmany of their duties, and so they have, to some extent,atrophied, as have the muscles which move the ears and scalp,merely from disuse.

　　The muscles are there, about the ears and beneath the scalp,and so are the nerves which transmit sensations to the brain,but they are under-developed because they are not needed.

　　Not so with Tarzan of the Apes. From early infancy hissurvival had depended upon acuteness of eyesight, hearing,smell, touch, and taste far more than upon the more slowlydeveloped organ of reason.

　　The least developed of all in Tarzan was the sense of taste,for he could eat luscious fruits, or raw flesh, long buriedwith almost equal appreciation; but in that he differed butslightly from more civilized epicures.

　　Almost silently the ape-man sped on in the track of Terkozand his prey, but the sound of his approach reached the earsof the fleeing beast and spurred it on to greater speed.

　　Three miles were covered before Tarzan overtook them, andthen Terkoz, seeing that further flight was futile, droppedto the ground in a small open glade, that he might turn andfight for his prize or be free to escape unhampered if he sawthat the pursuer was more than a match for him.

　　He still grasped Jane in one great arm as Tarzan boundedlike a leopard into the arena which nature had provided forthis primeval-like battle.

　　When Terkoz saw that it was Tarzan who pursued him, hejumped to the conclusion that this was Tarzan's woman, sincethey were of the same kind--white and hairless--and so herejoiced at this opportunity for double revenge upon hishated enemy.

　　To Jane the strange apparition of this god-like man was aswine to sick nerves.

　　From the description which Clayton and her father andMr. Philander had given her, she knew that it must be thesame wonderful creature who had saved them, and she saw inhim only a protector and a friend.

　　But as Terkoz pushed her roughly aside to meet Tarzan'scharge, and she saw the great proportions of the ape and themighty muscles and the fierce fangs, her heart quailed. Howcould any vanquish such a mighty antagonist?

　　Like two charging bulls they came together, and like twowolves sought each other's throat. Against the long canines ofthe ape was pitted the thin blade of the man's knife.

　　Jane--her lithe, young form flattened against the trunk ofa great tree, her hands tight pressed against her rising andfalling bosom, and her eyes wide with mingled horror,fascination, fear, and admiration--watched the primordial apebattle with the primeval man for possession of a woman--for her.

　　As the great muscles of the man's back and shoulders knottedbeneath the tension of his efforts, and the huge bicepsand forearm held at bay those mighty tusks, the veil ofcenturies of civilization and culture was swept from theblurred vision of the Baltimore girl.

　　When the long knife drank deep a dozen times of Terkoz'heart's blood, and the great carcass rolled lifeless uponthe ground, it was a primeval woman who sprang forward withoutstretched arms toward the primeval man who had foughtfor her and won her.

　　And Tarzan?

　　He did what no red-blooded man needs lessons in doing.He took his woman in his arms and smothered her upturned,panting lips with kisses.

　　For a moment Jane lay there with half-closed eyes. For amoment--the first in her young life--she knew the meaningof love.

　　But as suddenly as the veil had been withdrawn it droppedagain, and an outraged conscience suffused her face with itsscarlet mantle, and a mortified woman thrust Tarzan of theApes from her and buried her face in her hands.

　　Tarzan had been surprised when he had found the girl he hadlearned to love after a vague and abstract manner a willingprisoner in his arms. Now he was surprised that she repulsed him.

　　He came close to her once more and took hold of her arm.She turned upon him like a tigress, striking his great breastwith her tiny hands.

　　Tarzan could not understand it.

　　A moment ago and it had been his intention to hasten Janeback to her people, but that little moment was lost now in thedim and distant past of things which were but can never be again,and with it the good intentions had gone to join the impossible.

　　Since then Tarzan of the Apes had felt a warm, lithe formclose pressed to his. Hot, sweet breath against his cheek andmouth had fanned a new flame to life within his breast, andperfect lips had clung to his in burning kisses that had seareda deep brand into his soul--a brand which marked a new Tarzan.

　　Again he laid his hand upon her arm. Again she repulsedhim. And then Tarzan of the Apes did just what his firstancestor would have done.

　　He took his woman in his arms and carried her into the jungle.

　　Early the following morning the four within the little cabinby the beach were awakened by the booming of a cannon.Clayton was the first to rush out, and there, beyond theharbor's mouth, he saw two vessels lying at anchor.

　　One was the Arrow and the other a small French cruiser.The sides of the latter were crowded with men gazing shoreward,and it was evident to Clayton, as to the others who had nowjoined him, that the gun which they had heard had been firedto attract their attention if they still remained at the cabin.

　　Both vessels lay at a considerable distance from shore, andit was doubtful if their glasses would locate the waving hatsof the little party far in between the harbor's points.

　　Esmeralda had removed her red apron and was waving itfrantically above her head; but Clayton, still fearing that eventhis might not be seen, hurried off toward the northern pointwhere lay his signal pyre ready for the match.

　　It seemed an age to him, as to those who waited breathlesslybehind, ere he reached the great pile of dry branchesand underbrush.

　　As he broke from the dense wood and came in sight of thevessels again, he was filled with consternation to see that theArrow was making sail and that the cruiser was alreadyunder way.

　　Quickly lighting the pyre in a dozen places, he hurried tothe extreme point of the promontory, where he stripped offhis shirt, and, tying it to a fallen branch, stood waving it backand forth above him.

　　But still the vessels continued to stand out; and he hadgiven up all hope, when the great column of smoke, risingabove the forest in one dense vertical shaft, attracted theattention of a lookout aboard the cruiser, and instantly adozen glasses were leveled on the beach.

　　Presently Clayton saw the two ships come about again; andwhile the Arrow lay drifting quietly on the ocean, thecruiser steamed slowly back toward shore.

　　At some distance away she stopped, and a boat was loweredand dispatched toward the beach.

　　As it was drawn up a young officer stepped out.

　　"Monsieur Clayton, I presume?" he asked.

　　"Thank God, you have come!" was Clayton's reply. "Andit may be that it is not too late even now."

　　"What do you mean, Monsieur?" asked the officer.

　　Clayton told of the abduction of Jane Porter and the needof armed men to aid in the search for her.

　　"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the officer, sadly. "Yesterday andit would not have been too late. Today and it may be betterthat the poor lady were never found. It is horrible, Monsieur.It is too horrible."

　　Other boats had now put off from the cruiser, and Clayton,having pointed out the harbor's entrance to the officer,entered the boat with him and its nose was turned toward thelittle landlocked bay, into which the other craft followed.

　　Soon the entire party had landed where stood ProfessorPorter, Mr. Philander and the weeping Esmeralda.

　　Among the officers in the last boats to put off from thecruiser was the commander of the vessel; and when he hadheard the story of Jane's abduction, he generously calledfor volunteers to accompany Professor Porter and Claytonin their search.

　　Not an officer or a man was there of those brave andsympathetic Frenchmen who did not quickly beg leave tobe one of the expedition.

　　The commander selected twenty men and two officers,Lieutenant D'Arnot and Lieutenant Charpentier. A boat wasdispatched to the cruiser for provisions, ammunition, andcarbines; the men were already armed with revolvers.

　　Then, to Clayton's inquiries as to how they had happenedto anchor off shore and fire a signal gun, the commander,Captain Dufranne, explained that a month before they hadsighted the Arrow bearing southwest under considerablecanvas, and that when they had signaled her to come about shehad but crowded on more sail.

　　They had kept her hull-up until sunset, firing several shotsafter her, but the next morning she was nowhere to be seen.They had then continued to cruise up and down the coast forseveral weeks, and had about forgotten the incident of therecent chase, when, early one morning a few days before thelookout had described a vessel laboring in the trough of aheavy sea and evidently entirely out of control.

　　As they steamed nearer to the derelict they were surprisedto note that it was the same vessel that had run from them afew weeks earlier. Her forestaysail and mizzen spanker wereset as though an effort had been made to hold her head upinto the wind, but the sheets had parted, and the sails weretearing to ribbons in the half gale of wind.

　　In the high sea that was running it was a difficult anddangerous task to attempt to put a prize crew aboard her; and asno signs of life had been seen above deck, it was decided tostand by until the wind and sea abated; but just then a figurewas seen clinging to the rail and feebly waving a mute signalof despair toward them.

　　Immediately a boat's crew was ordered out and an attemptwas successfully made to board the Arrow.

　　The sight that met the Frenchmen's eyes as they clamberedover the ship's side was appalling.

　　A dozen dead and dying men rolled hither and thither uponthe pitching deck, the living intermingled with the dead.Two of the corpses appeared to have been partially devouredas though by wolves.

　　The prize crew soon had the vessel under proper sail oncemore and the living members of the ill-starred companycarried below to their hammocks.

　　The dead were wrapped in tarpaulins and lashed on deckto be identified by their comrades before being consigned tothe deep.

　　None of the living was conscious when the Frenchmenreached the Arrow's deck. Even the poor devil who hadwaved the single despairing signal of distress had lapsed intounconsciousness before he had learned whether it had availedor not.

　　It did not take the French officer long to learn what hadcaused the terrible condition aboard; for when water andbrandy were sought to restore the men, it was found thatthere was none, nor even food of any description.

　　He immediately signalled to the cruiser to send water,medicine, and provisions, and another boat made the periloustrip to the Arrow.

　　When restoratives had been applied several of the men regainedconsciousness, and then the whole story was told. That part ofit we know up to the sailing of the Arrow after the murderof Snipes, and the burial of his body above the treasure chest.

　　It seems that the pursuit by the cruiser had so terrorizedthe mutineers that they had continued out across the Atlanticfor several days after losing her; but on discovering themeager supply of water and provisions aboard, they hadturned back toward the east.

　　With no one on board who understood navigation, discussionssoon arose as to their whereabouts; and as three days'sailing to the east did not raise land, they bore off to thenorth, fearing that the high north winds that had prevailedhad driven them south of the southern extremity of Africa.

　　They kept on a north-northeasterly course for two days,when they were overtaken by a calm which lasted for nearlya week. Their water was gone, and in another day they wouldbe without food.

　　Conditions changed rapidly from bad to worse. One manwent mad and leaped overboard. Soon another opened hisveins and drank his own blood.

　　When he died they threw him overboard also, though therewere those among them who wanted to keep the corpse on board.Hunger was changing them from human beasts to wild beasts.

　　Two days before they had been picked up by the cruiserthey had become too weak to handle the vessel, and thatsame day three men died. On the following morning it wasseen that one of the corpses had been partially devoured.

　　All that day the men lay glaring at each other like beastsof prey, and the following morning two of the corpses layalmost entirely stripped of flesh.

　　The men were but little stronger for their ghoulish repast,for the want of water was by far the greatest agony withwhich they had to contend. And then the cruiser had come.

　　When those who could had recovered, the entire story hadbeen told to the French commander; but the men were tooignorant to be able to tell him at just what point on the coastthe professor and his party had been marooned, so the cruiserhad steamed slowly along within sight of land, firing occasionalsignal guns and scanning every inch of the beach with glasses.

　　They had anchored by night so as not to neglect a particleof the shore line, and it had happened that the precedingnight had brought them off the very beach where lay thelittle camp they sought.

　　The signal guns of the afternoon before had not beenheard by those on shore, it was presumed, because they haddoubtless been in the thick of the jungle searching for JanePorter, where the noise of their own crashing through theunderbrush would have drowned the report of a far distant gun.

　　By the time the two parties had narrated their severaladventures, the cruiser's boat had returned with suppliesand arms for the expedition.

　　Within a few minutes the little body of sailors and the twoFrench officers, together with Professor Porter and Clayton,set off upon their hopeless and ill-fated quest into theuntracked jungle.