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06 - Tarzan Twins by Edgar Rice Burroughs · Tarzan Twins

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter five. Crouching close together, Dick and Doc sat in
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: silence upon the filthy floor of the hut. They could
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: hear Zopinga talking to the guards at the entrance, and
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  Speaker 1: after he had gone away, they could still hear the
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  Speaker 1: guards conversing. It was most aggravating to be unable to
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  Speaker 1: understand a word of what was said, nor to gain
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  Speaker 1: a single clue to the nature of the people into
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  Speaker 1: whose power an unkind fate had delivered them, nor any
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  Speaker 1: hint of the intentions of their captors toward them, for
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  Speaker 1: they were both now convinced that they were indeed captives. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: Doc put his lips close to Dick's ear. Do you
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  Speaker 1: hear anything, he whispered. Dick nodded. It sounds like something
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  Speaker 1: breathing over there, he said, it is. Doc's voice trembled
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  Speaker 1: just a little. I can see something over against that wall.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Their eyes were becoming accustomed to the gloom of the interior,
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  Speaker 1: and slowly things were taking form within. Dick stra his
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  Speaker 1: eyes in the direction of the sound. I see it.
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  Speaker 1: There are two of them. Do you suppose they are men?
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  Speaker 1: Or or what, asked Doc? Lions are something, suggested Dick weakly.
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  Speaker 1: Doc felt in his pants pocket and brought out a knife,
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  Speaker 1: but his fingers were trembling so that he had difficulty
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  Speaker 1: in opening the blade. It's getting up, he whispered. They
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  Speaker 1: sat with their eyes riveted upon the dark bulk that
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  Speaker 1: moved against the back wall of the hut. It seemed
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  Speaker 1: very large and entirely ominous, though as yet it had
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  Speaker 1: taken on no definite form that they might recognize. It's
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  Speaker 1: it's coming, Tortoise chattered Doc. I wish it was a lion.
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be as scared if I knew it was
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  Speaker 1: a lion, as I am not knowing what it is. Gosh,
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  Speaker 1: it might be anything. Here comes the other one, announced Dick.
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  Speaker 1: Say I believe they are men. I'm so I can
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  Speaker 1: see better in this old hole. Yes they are men.
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  Speaker 1: Then they must be prisoners too, said Doc. Just the same.
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  Speaker 1: You better get your knife out too, said Dick. I've
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: had mine out. I was just going to tell you
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to get yours out. They sat very still as the
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  Speaker 1: two forms crept toward them on all fours, and presently
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  Speaker 1: they saw that one was a very large negro and
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  Speaker 1: the other either a very small one or a child.
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  Speaker 1: Tell him to keep away or we'll stick him with
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  Speaker 1: our knives, said Doc. They wouldn't understand if we did
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  Speaker 1: tell him, replied Dick, and then in pigeon English, that
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  Speaker 1: they could barely understand. One of the blacks announced that
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  Speaker 1: he spoke excellent English. Gee, exclaimed Doc, with a sigh
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  Speaker 1: of relief. I could almost kiss him. The boys asked
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  Speaker 1: questions that the Black understood only with the greatest difficulty,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and equally arduous were their efforts to translate his replies.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: But at length they had found a medium of communication. However,
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  Speaker 1: we can uns, and they were slowly coming to a
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: realization of the predicament in which their foolhardy ventured to
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  Speaker 1: the jungle had placed them. What are they gonna do
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  Speaker 1: with us in here, asked Dick. Make us fat, explained
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the Black. Make us fat? What for, demanded Doc. Gee.
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  Speaker 1: I'm too fat already. Make us fat to eat, explained
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  Speaker 1: the Negro. Golly, cried Dick. They're cannibals. Is that what
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  Speaker 1: he means? Yes, bad men, cannibals. The Black shook his head.
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  Speaker 1: The boys were silent for a long time. Their thoughts
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  Speaker 1: were far away, far across continents and oceans, to distant homes,
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  Speaker 1: to mothers, to all the loving and beloved friends they
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  Speaker 1: were never to see again. And to think that no
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  Speaker 1: one will ever know what became of us, said Dick solemnly. Golly,
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  Speaker 1: it's awful, Doc, it hasn't happened yet, Dick replied his cousin.
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  Speaker 1: It's up to us to see that it doesn't happen.
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  Speaker 1: There must be some way to escape. Anyway, We mustn't
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  Speaker 1: give up. Not until they began to ask which is preferred,
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  Speaker 1: dark meat or light, Dick grinned, you bet we won't
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  Speaker 1: give up, doc, old boy. We'll learn all we can
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  Speaker 1: from this fellow so that when the time comes, we'll
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  Speaker 1: have a better chance of making our get away. The
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  Speaker 1: first thing to do is to try to learn the language.
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  Speaker 1: If we only knew what they were talking about, that
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  Speaker 1: might help us. And anyway, if we do escape, we'll
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  Speaker 1: be better off if we know how to inquire our way. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: we might meet a traffic cop. Don't be an idiot.
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  Speaker 1: Dick turned to the black squatting beside them. What's your name,
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  Speaker 1: he asked. Bulallah replied the black, and then he explained
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  Speaker 1: that he had been a cook or safari for a
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  Speaker 1: white man who was hunting big game, but that something
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  Speaker 1: had gone wrong, and he had run away to go
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  Speaker 1: back to his home and had been captured by these
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  Speaker 1: people whom he had described as the Bagala tribe. Do
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  Speaker 1: you speak the same language as these Bagotla, demanded Doc.
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  Speaker 1: We understand each other, replied Balala. Will you teach us
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  Speaker 1: your language? Billaala was greatly pleased with the idea, and
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  Speaker 1: set out at once upon the roll of tutor. And
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  Speaker 1: never in the world had a tutor such eager pupils,
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  Speaker 1: And never had Dick and Doc applied themselves so diligently
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  Speaker 1: to the acquisition of useful knowledge, say, said Doc, this
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  Speaker 1: language is a cinch if you learn it as well
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  Speaker 1: as you did French, said Dick. You ought to be
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  Speaker 1: able to understand yourself in about a hundred years, even
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  Speaker 1: if nobody else can understand you. Is that so, demanded Doc, Well,
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  Speaker 1: you're not so good yourself. As the boy's eyes had
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  Speaker 1: become more and more accustomed to the dim light of
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  Speaker 1: the interior of the hut, they discovered the scant furnishings,
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  Speaker 1: the filth, and their fellow prisoners. Balaala was evidently a
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  Speaker 1: densely ignorant, but happy natured West coast black, while the other,
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  Speaker 1: whom Balaala referred to as a Kundu, was a pygmy, and,
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  Speaker 1: though a full grown man, came barely to the shoulders
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  Speaker 1: of the twins. When Ukundu discovered that Bollala was attempting
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  Speaker 1: to teach the boys his language, he developed a great
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  Speaker 1: interest in the experiment, and as he was much brighter
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  Speaker 1: than Bullala, it was more often his own dialect that
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  Speaker 1: the boys learned than that of the tribe to which
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  Speaker 1: Ballala had belonged. As for the furnishings of the hut,
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  Speaker 1: they consisted of several filthy sleeping mats that must have
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  Speaker 1: been discarded by their original owners as absolutely impossible for
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  Speaker 1: human use, and when anything becomes too filthy for a
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  Speaker 1: native African, its condition must be beyond words. Ukundu generously
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  Speaker 1: dragged two of them and took place for the boys,
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  Speaker 1: but when they examined them, they both drew away. If
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  Speaker 1: it weren't for the guards outside, I'd lead mine out
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  Speaker 1: and tie it to a tree, said Doc. Afraid it
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  Speaker 1: would run away, asked Dick. Now, I'd be afraid it
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  Speaker 1: would crawl back in here with us. At dusk, some
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  Speaker 1: food was brought them videously, a repulsive, melodorous stuff that
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  Speaker 1: neither of the boys could touch to their lips, half
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  Speaker 1: starved though they were. But Bollala and a Kundu were
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  Speaker 1: not so particular, and gobbled down their own portions, and
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  Speaker 1: the boys as well, to the accompaniment of sounds that
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  Speaker 1: remind a dock of feeding time at the hog house
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  Speaker 1: on his grandfather's farm. With the coming of night, there
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  Speaker 1: came also the night noises of the village and the jungle.
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  Speaker 1: Through the aperture in the base of the hut that
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  Speaker 1: served both as door and window, the boys saw fires
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  Speaker 1: twinkling in the village. Snatches of conversation came to them,
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  Speaker 1: and the sound of laughter. They saw figures moving about
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  Speaker 1: the fires, and caught glimpses of savage dancers, and heard
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  Speaker 1: the sound of tom toms. But the heat from the
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  Speaker 1: blazing fires did not enter the cold, damp hut, nor
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  Speaker 1: did the laughter warm their hearts. They crept close together
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  Speaker 1: for warmth, and at last fell asleep, hungry, cold, and exhausted.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter five