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09 - The Shaft of Death · Tarzan and the Golden Lion

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine, The Shaft of Death. As the huge, man
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  Speaker 1: like guerrilla entered the compound, the warriors closed the gate
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  Speaker 1: and fell back respectfully as he advanced to the center
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  Speaker 1: of the village, where he stood for a moment, looking about.
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  Speaker 1: Where are the shes and the bhalus, he asked, tersely,
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  Speaker 1: call them. The women and the children must have heard
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  Speaker 1: the command, but they did not emerge from their hiding places.
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  Speaker 1: The warriors moved about uneasily, evidently torn by the conflicting
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  Speaker 1: emotions of fear of the creature who had issued the
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  Speaker 1: order and reluctance to fulfill his commands. Call them, he repeated,
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  Speaker 1: or go and fetch them. But at last one of
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  Speaker 1: the warriors mustered the courage to address him. These feelage
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  Speaker 1: has already furnished one woman within the moon, he said,
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  Speaker 1: it is the turn of another village. Silence roared the
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  Speaker 1: gorilla man, advancing threateningly toward him. You are a rash
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  Speaker 1: gal Mangani. To threaten the will of a Bulghani, I
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  Speaker 1: speak with the voice of Muma the Emperor. Obey or die. Trembling,
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  Speaker 1: the black turned and called the women and children, but
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  Speaker 1: none responded to his summons. The Bolgani gestured impatiently. Go
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  Speaker 1: and fetch them, he demanded, and the blacks, cringing, moved
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  Speaker 1: solemnly across the compound toward the hiding places of their
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  Speaker 1: women and children. Presently they returned, dragging them with them
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  Speaker 1: by the arms, sometimes but usually by the hair. Although
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  Speaker 1: they had seemed loath to give them up, they showed
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  Speaker 1: no gentleness toward them, nor any indication of affection. Their
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  Speaker 1: attitude toward them, however, was presently explained to Tarzan by
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  Speaker 1: the next words of the warrior who had spoken previously.
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  Speaker 1: Great Boghani, he said, addressing the guerrilla man, if Numa
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  Speaker 1: takes always from this village, there will soon be not
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  Speaker 1: enough women for the warriors here, and there will be
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  Speaker 1: too few children, and in a little time there will
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  Speaker 1: be none of us left. What of that, growled the
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  Speaker 1: gorilla man. There are already too many Gumangani in the world.
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  Speaker 1: For what other purpose were you created than to serve Numa,
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  Speaker 1: the Emperor and his chosen people The Bolgani. As he spoke,
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  Speaker 1: he was examining the women and children, pinching their flesh
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  Speaker 1: and pounding upon their chests and Backssently, he returned to
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  Speaker 1: a comparatively young woman straddling whose hip was a small child.
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  Speaker 1: This one will do, he said, snatching the child from
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  Speaker 1: its mother and hurling it roughly across the compound, where
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  Speaker 1: it lay against the face of the palisade, moaning pitifully
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  Speaker 1: and perchance broken and dying. The poor stupid mother, apparently
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  Speaker 1: more beast than human, stood for a moment, trembling in
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  Speaker 1: dumb anguish, and then she started to rush forward to
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  Speaker 1: her child, but the grilla man seized her with one
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  Speaker 1: of his great hands and hurled her to the ground. Simultaneously,
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  Speaker 1: there arose from the silent foliage above them the fierce
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  Speaker 1: and terrible scream of the challenging bull. Ape in terror,
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  Speaker 1: the simple blacks cast a frighted glances upward, while the
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  Speaker 1: grilla man raised his hideous face in snarling anger toward
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  Speaker 1: the author of the beastial cry. Swaying upon a leafy bough,
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  Speaker 1: they beheld such a creature as none of them had
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  Speaker 1: ever looked upon before, a white man, a tarmangani with
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  Speaker 1: hide as hairless as the body of Histah the snake.
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  Speaker 1: In the instant that they looked, they saw the spear
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  Speaker 1: hand of the stranger drive forward, and the shaft, speeding
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  Speaker 1: with the swiftness of thought, bury itself in the breast
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  Speaker 1: of the Bolmungani. With a single scream of rage and pain.
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  Speaker 1: The gorilla man crumbled to the earth, where he struggled
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  Speaker 1: spasmodically for a moment, and then lay still in death.
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  Speaker 1: The ape man held no great love for the Gomangani
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  Speaker 1: as a race, but inherent in his English brain and
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  Speaker 1: heart was the spirit of fair play, which prompted him
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  Speaker 1: to spontaneous espousal of the cause of the weak. On
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  Speaker 1: the other hand, Bolgani was his hereditary enemy. His first
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  Speaker 1: battle had been with Bolgani and his first kill. The
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  Speaker 1: poor blacks were still standing in stupefied wonderment when he
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  Speaker 1: dropped from the tree to the ground among them. They
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  Speaker 1: stepped back in terror, and simultaneously they raised their spears
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  Speaker 1: menacingly against him. I am a friend, he said, I
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  Speaker 1: am Tarzan of the apes. Lower your spears, And then
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  Speaker 1: he turned and withdrew his own weapon from the carcass
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  Speaker 1: of Bolgani. Who is this creature that may come into
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  Speaker 1: your village and slay your balus and steal your shees?
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  Speaker 1: Who is he that you dare not drive your spears
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  Speaker 1: through him. He is one of the great Bulgani, said
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  Speaker 1: the warrior who seemed to be the spokesman and the
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  Speaker 1: leader of the village. He is one the chosen people
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  Speaker 1: of Numah, the Emperor. And when Numah learns that he
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  Speaker 1: has been killed in our village, we shall all die
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  Speaker 1: for what you have done. Who is Numah, demanded the
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  Speaker 1: ape man, to whom Numah, in the language of the
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  Speaker 1: great Apes, meant only lion. Numah is the Emperor, replied
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  Speaker 1: the black who lives with the Bolgani in the palace
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  Speaker 1: of diamonds. He did not express himself in just these words,
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  Speaker 1: for the meager language of the gray Apes, even though
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  Speaker 1: amplified by the higher intelligence and greater development of the Oparians,
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  Speaker 1: is still primitive in the extreme. What he had really
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  Speaker 1: said was more nearly Numah, the king of kings, who
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  Speaker 1: lives in the King's hut of glittering stones, which carried
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  Speaker 1: to the ape man's mind the faithful impression of the fact.
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  Speaker 1: Numah evidently was the name adopted by the king of
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  Speaker 1: the Bolgani, and the title Emperor indicated merely his pre
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  Speaker 1: eminence among the chiefs. The instant that Bolgani had fallen
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  Speaker 1: the bereaved mother rushed forward and gathered her injured infant
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  Speaker 1: into her arms. She squatted now against the palis, cuddling
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  Speaker 1: it to her breast and crooning softly to pacify its cries,
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  Speaker 1: which Tarzan suddenly discovered were more the result of fright
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  Speaker 1: than injury. At first, the mother had been frightened when
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  Speaker 1: he had attempted to examine the child, drawing away and
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  Speaker 1: bearing her fighting fangs, much after the manner of a
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  Speaker 1: wild beast. But presently there had seemed to come to
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  Speaker 1: her dull brain a realization that this creature had saved
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  Speaker 1: her from Bolgani, that he had permitted her to recover
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  Speaker 1: her infant, that he was making no effort to harm
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  Speaker 1: either of them. Convinced at last that the child was
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  Speaker 1: only bruised, Tarzan turned again toward the warriors, who were
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  Speaker 1: talking together in an excited little group a few paces away.
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  Speaker 1: As they saw him advancing, they spread into a semicircle
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  Speaker 1: and stood facing him. The Bolgani will send and slay
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  Speaker 1: us all, they said, when they learn what has happened
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  Speaker 1: in our village, unless we can take to them the
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  Speaker 1: creature that cast this spear. Therefore, Tarmangani you shall go
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  Speaker 1: with us to the Palace of Diamonds, and there we
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  Speaker 1: shall give you over to the Bolgani, and perhaps Numa
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  Speaker 1: will forgive us. The ape man smiled. What kind of
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  Speaker 1: creature did the simple blacks think him to believe that
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  Speaker 1: he would permit himself to be easily led into the
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  Speaker 1: avenging hands of Numa, the Emperor of the Bolgani. Although
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  Speaker 1: he was fully aware of the risk that he had
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  Speaker 1: taken in entering the village, he knew too that because
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  Speaker 1: he was Tarzan of the apes, there was a greater
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  Speaker 1: chance that he would be able to escape than that
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  Speaker 1: they could hold him. He had faced savage spearmen before
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  Speaker 1: and knew precisely what to expect in the event of hostilities.
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  Speaker 1: He preferred, however, to make peace with these people, for
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  Speaker 1: it had been in his mind to find some means
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  Speaker 1: of questioning them the moment that he had discovered their
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  Speaker 1: village hidden away in this wild forest. Wait, he said, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: would you betray a friend who enters your village to
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  Speaker 1: protect you from an enemy? We will not slay you, Tarmangani.
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  Speaker 1: We will take you to the Bolgani for Numah the Emperor,
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  Speaker 1: but that would amount to the same thing, returned Tarzan.
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  Speaker 1: For you well know that Numa the Emperor will have
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  Speaker 1: me slain that we cannot help, replied the spokesman. If
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  Speaker 1: we could save you, we would, But when the Bolgani
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  Speaker 1: discover what has happened in our village, it is we
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  Speaker 1: who must suffer, unless perhaps they are satisfied to punish
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  Speaker 1: you instead. But why need they know that the Bolgani
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  Speaker 1: was slain in your village, asked Tarzan. Will they not
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  Speaker 1: see his body next time they come, asked the spokesman.
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  Speaker 1: Not if you remove his body, replied Tarzan, the blacks
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  Speaker 1: scratch their heads into their dull, ignorant minds. I crept
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  Speaker 1: no such suggestion of explusion of their problem. What the
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  Speaker 1: stranger said was true. None but they and he knew
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  Speaker 1: the Bolgani had been slain within their palisade. To remove
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  Speaker 1: the body then would be to remove all suspicion from
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  Speaker 1: their village. But where were they to take it? And
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  Speaker 1: I put the question to Tarzan. I will dispose of
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  Speaker 1: him for you, replied the Tarmangani. Answer my questions truthfully,
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  Speaker 1: and I will promise to take him away and dispose
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  Speaker 1: of him in such a manner that no one will
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  Speaker 1: know how he died or where. What are your questions,
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  Speaker 1: asked the spokesman. I am a stranger in your country.
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  Speaker 1: I am lost here, replied the ape man. And I
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  Speaker 1: would find a way out of the valley in that direction,
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  Speaker 1: and he pointed toward the southeast. The Black shook his head.
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  Speaker 1: There may be a way out of the valley in
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  Speaker 1: that direction, he said, But what lies beyond no man knows,
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  Speaker 1: nor do I know whether there be a way out,
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  Speaker 1: or whether there be anything beyond. It is said that
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  Speaker 1: all is fire beyond the mountain, and no one dares
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  Speaker 1: to go and see. As for myself, I have never
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  Speaker 1: been far from my village, at most, only a day's march,
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  Speaker 1: to hunt for game for the Bolgani, and to gather
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  Speaker 1: fruit and nuts and plantains for them. If there is
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  Speaker 1: a way out, I do not know, nor would any
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  Speaker 1: man dare take it if there were. Does no one
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  Speaker 1: ever leave the valley, asked Tarzan. I know not what
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  Speaker 1: others do, replied the spokesman. But those of this village
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  Speaker 1: never leave the valley. What lies in that direction, asked Tarzan,
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  Speaker 1: pointing toward o par I do not know, replied the Black,
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  Speaker 1: only that sometimes the Bolgani come from that way, bringing
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  Speaker 1: with them strange creatures, little men with white skins and
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  Speaker 1: much hair, with short crooked legs and long arms, and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes white shes, who did not look at all like
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  Speaker 1: the stranger of Tarmangani. But where they get them I
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  Speaker 1: do not know, nor do they ever tell us. Are
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  Speaker 1: these all the questions that you wish to ask? Yes?
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  Speaker 1: That is all, replied Tarzan, saying that he could gain
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  Speaker 1: no information whatsoever from these ignorant villagers. Realizing that he
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  Speaker 1: must find his own way out of the valley, and
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  Speaker 1: knowing that he could do so much more quickly answer
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  Speaker 1: safely if he was alone, he decided to sound the
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  Speaker 1: Blacks in relation to a plan that had entered his mind.
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  Speaker 1: If I take the Bulgani away so that the others
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  Speaker 1: will not know that he was slain in your village,
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  Speaker 1: will you treat me as a friend, he asked, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: replied the spokesman. Then said, Tarzan, will you keep here
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  Speaker 1: for me my white she until I return again to
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  Speaker 1: your village. You can hide her in one of your
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  Speaker 1: huts if a Boghani comes and no one need ever
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  Speaker 1: know that she is among you. What do you say
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  Speaker 1: the Blacks looked around. We do not see her, said
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  Speaker 1: the spokesman. Where is she? If you will promise to
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  Speaker 1: protect her and hide her, I will bring her here,
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  Speaker 1: replied the ape man. I will not harm her, said
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  Speaker 1: the headman. But I do not know about the others.
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  Speaker 1: Tarzan turned toward the others, who were clustered about listening.
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  Speaker 1: I am going to bring my mate into your village,
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  Speaker 1: he said, And you are going to hide her and
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  Speaker 1: feed her and protect her until I return. I shall
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  Speaker 1: take away the body of Bolgani so that no suspicion
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  Speaker 1: shall fall upon you. And when I come back, I
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  Speaker 1: expect I find my mate safe and unharmed. He had
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  Speaker 1: thought it best to describe Law as his mate, since
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  Speaker 1: thus they might understand that she was under his protection,
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  Speaker 1: and if they felt either gratitude or fear toward him,
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  Speaker 1: Law would be safer. Raising his face toward the tree
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  Speaker 1: where she was hidden, he called to Law to descend,
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  Speaker 1: and a moment later, she clambered down to the lower
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  Speaker 1: branches of one of the trees in the compound and
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  Speaker 1: dropped into Tarzan's arms. This is she, he said to
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  Speaker 1: the assembled blacks. Guard her well and hide her from
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  Speaker 1: the Bulghani. If upon my return, I find that any
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  Speaker 1: harm has befallen her. I shall take word to the
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  Speaker 1: Bulghani that it was you who did this. And he
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  Speaker 1: pointed to the corpse of the guerrilla man. Law turned
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  Speaker 1: appealingly toward him, fear showing in her eyes. You are
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  Speaker 1: not going to leave me here, she asked, temporarily, only
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  Speaker 1: replied Tarzan. These poor people are afraid that if the
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  Speaker 1: death of this creature is traced to their village, they
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  Speaker 1: shall all suffer the wrath of his fellows. And so
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  Speaker 1: I have promised that I will remove the evidence in
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  Speaker 1: such a way as to direct suspicion elsewhere, if they
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  Speaker 1: are sufficiently high in the scale of evolution to harbor
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  Speaker 1: sentiments of gratitude, which I doubt they will feel obligated
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  Speaker 1: to me for having slain this beast, as well as
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  Speaker 1: for preventing suspicion falling upon them. For these reasons, they
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  Speaker 1: should protect you. But to make assurance doubly sure, I
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  Speaker 1: have appealed also to their fear of the BOLGANI, a
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  Speaker 1: characteristic which I know they possess. I am sure that
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  Speaker 1: you will be as safe here as with me until
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  Speaker 1: I return. Otherwise I would not leave you, but alone
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  Speaker 1: I can travel much faster. And while I am gone,
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  Speaker 1: I intend to find a way out of this valley.
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  Speaker 1: Then I shall return for you, and together we may
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  Speaker 1: make our escape easily, or at least with greater assurance
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  Speaker 1: of success than were we to blunder slowly about. Together.
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  Speaker 1: You will come back, she asked, a note of fear,
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  Speaker 1: longing and appeal in her voice. I will come back,
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  Speaker 1: he replied, and then turning to the blacks, clear out
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  Speaker 1: one of these huts for my mate. And see that
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  Speaker 1: she is not molested, and that she is furnished with
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  Speaker 1: food and water. And remember what I said upon her safety.
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  Speaker 1: Your lives depend Stooping, Tarzan lifted the dead guerrilla man
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  Speaker 1: to his shoulder, and the simple blacks marveled at his
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  Speaker 1: prowess of great physical strength themselves. There was not one
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  Speaker 1: of them that would have staggered an to the weight
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  Speaker 1: of Bolgani. Yet this strange Tarmangani walked easily beneath his burden,
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  Speaker 1: and when they had opened the gate in the palisade,
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  Speaker 1: he trotted down the jungle trail as though he carried
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  Speaker 1: nothing but his own frame. A moment later he disappeared
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  Speaker 1: at a turn and was swallowed by the forest. Law
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  Speaker 1: turned to the blacks. Prepare my hut, she said, for
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  Speaker 1: she was very tired and longed to rest. They eyed
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  Speaker 1: her askins and whispered among themselves. It was evident to
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  Speaker 1: her that there was a difference of opinion among them,
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  Speaker 1: and presently, from snatches of conversation which she overheard, she
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  Speaker 1: realized that while some of the blacks were in favor
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  Speaker 1: of obeying Tarzan's injunctions implicitly, there were others who objected
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  Speaker 1: strenuously and who wished to rid their village of her,
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  Speaker 1: lest she be discovered there by the Bolgani and the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: villagers be punished accordingly, it would be better, she heard
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  Speaker 1: one of the blacks say, to turn her over to
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  Speaker 1: Bogani at once and tell them that we saw her
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  Speaker 1: mates lay the messenger of Numah. We will say that
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  Speaker 1: we tried to capture the Tarmangani, but that he escaped,
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  Speaker 1: and that we were only able to seize his mate.
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  Speaker 1: Thus we shall win the favor of Numah, and perhaps
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  Speaker 1: then he will not take so many of our women
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  Speaker 1: and children. But the Tarmangani is great, replied one of
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  Speaker 1: the others. But he's more powerful even than Bogani. He
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  Speaker 1: would make a terrible enemy. And as the chances are
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  Speaker 1: that the Boghani would not believe us, we should then
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  Speaker 1: have not only them, but the Tarmangani to fear. You
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  Speaker 1: are right, cried law. The Tarmangani is great. Far better
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  Speaker 1: will it be for you to have him for friend
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  Speaker 1: than enemy. Single handed he grapples with Numa the lion,
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  Speaker 1: and slays him. You saw with what ease he lifted
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  Speaker 1: the body of the mighty Bogani to his shoulder. You
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  Speaker 1: saw him trot lightly down the jungle trail beneath his burden.
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  Speaker 1: With equal ease will he carry the corpse through the
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  Speaker 1: trees of the forest, far above the ground. In all
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  Speaker 1: the world, there is no other like him, no other
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  Speaker 1: like Tarzan of the apes. If you are wise, Gomangani,
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  Speaker 1: you will have Tarzan for a friend. The blacks listened
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  Speaker 1: to her, their dull faces revealing nothing of what was
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  Speaker 1: passing in their stupid brains. For a few moments they
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  Speaker 1: stood thus in silence, the hulking, ignorant blacks upon one side,
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  Speaker 1: the slender, beautiful white woman upon the other. Then lost
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  Speaker 1: spoke go, she cried, imperiously, and prepare my hut it
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: was the high priestess of the flaming god, Law, the
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  Speaker 1: Queen of Opar, addressing slaves her regal mien. Her commanding
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: tones brought an instant change in the villagers, and Law
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  Speaker 1: knew that Tarzan was right in his assumption that they
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  Speaker 1: could be moved only through fear. For now they turned quickly,
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  Speaker 1: cowering like whipped dogs, and hastened to a nearby hut,
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  Speaker 1: which they quickly prepared for her, fetching fresh leaves and
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  Speaker 1: grasses for its floor, and fruit and nuts and plantains
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  Speaker 1: for her meal. When all was ready, Law clambered up
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  Speaker 1: the rope and threw the circular opening in the floor
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  Speaker 1: of the hanging hut, which she found large and airy
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  Speaker 1: and now reasonably clean. She drew the rope up after
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  Speaker 1: her and threw herself upon the soft bed they had
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  Speaker 1: prepared for her. And soon the gentle swaying of the
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  Speaker 1: swinging hut, the soft murmur of the leaves above her,
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  Speaker 1: the voices of the birds and insects, combined with her
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  Speaker 1: own physical exhaustion to lull her into deep slumber. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter