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21 - The Village of Torture · Tarzan of the Apes

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one, the Village of Torture. As the little
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  Speaker 1: expedition of sailors toiled through the dense jungle searching for
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  Speaker 1: signs of Jane Porter, the futility of their venture became
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  Speaker 1: more and more apparent, But the grief of the old
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  Speaker 1: man and the hopeless eyes of the young englishmen prevented
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  Speaker 1: the kind hearted d'arnault from turning back. He thought that
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  Speaker 1: there might be a bare possibility of finding her body
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  Speaker 1: or the remains of it, for he was positive that
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  Speaker 1: she had been devoured by some beast of prey. He
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  Speaker 1: deployed his men into a skirmish line from the point
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  Speaker 1: where Esmeralda had been found, and in this extended formation
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  Speaker 1: they pushed their way, sweating and panting, through the tangled
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  Speaker 1: vines and creepers. It was slow work. Noon found them
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  Speaker 1: but a few miles inland. They hauled for a brief rest. Then,
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  Speaker 1: and after pushing on for a short distance further, one
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  Speaker 1: of the men discovered a well marked trail. It was
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  Speaker 1: an old elephant track, and d'arnault, after consulting with Professor
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  Speaker 1: Porter and Clayton, decided to follow it. The path wound
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  Speaker 1: through the jungle in a northeasterly direction, and along it
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  Speaker 1: the column moved in single file. Lieutenant d'arnaulx was in
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  Speaker 1: the lead and moving at a quick pace, for the
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  Speaker 1: trail was comparatively open. Immediately behind him came Professor Porter,
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  Speaker 1: but as he could not keep pace with the younger man,
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  Speaker 1: Darnault was a hundred yards in advance when suddenly a
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  Speaker 1: half dozen Black warriors arose about him. Darnault gave a
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  Speaker 1: warning shout to his column as the Blacks closed on him,
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  Speaker 1: but before he could draw his revolver, he had been
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  Speaker 1: pinioned and dragged into the jungle. His cry had alarmed
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  Speaker 1: the sailors, and a dozen of them sprang forward past
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  Speaker 1: Professor Porter, running up the trail to their officer's aid.
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  Speaker 1: They did not know the cause of his outcry, only
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  Speaker 1: that it was a warning of danger ahead. They had
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  Speaker 1: rushed past the spot where Darnault had been seized when
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  Speaker 1: a spear hurled from the jungle, transfixed one of the men,
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  Speaker 1: and then a volley of arrows fell among them. Raising
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  Speaker 1: their rifles, they fired into the underbrush in the direction
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  Speaker 1: from which the missiles had come. By this time the
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  Speaker 1: balance of the party had come up, and volley after
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  Speaker 1: volley was fired toward the concealed foe. It was these
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  Speaker 1: shots that Tarzan and Jane Porter had heard. Lieutenant Charpentier,
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  Speaker 1: who had been bringing up the rear of the column,
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  Speaker 1: now came running to the scene, and, on hearing the
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  Speaker 1: details of the ambush, ordered the men to follow him
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  Speaker 1: and plunged into the tangled vegetation. In an instant they
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  Speaker 1: were in a hand to hand fight with some fifty
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  Speaker 1: black warriors of Mbonga's village. Arrows and bullets flew thick
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  Speaker 1: and fast. Queer African knives and French gun butts mingled
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  Speaker 1: for a moment in savage and bloody duels, but soon
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  Speaker 1: the natives fled into the jungle, leaving the frenchmen to
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  Speaker 1: count their losses. Four of the twin were dead, a
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  Speaker 1: dozen others were wounded, and Lieutenant d'arnault was missing. Night
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  Speaker 1: was falling rapidly, and their predicament was rendered doubly worse
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  Speaker 1: when they could not even find the elephant trail which
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  Speaker 1: they had been following. There was but one thing to do.
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  Speaker 1: Make camp where they were until daylight. Lieutenant Charpentier ordered
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  Speaker 1: a clearing maid and a circular abbetee of underbrush constructed
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  Speaker 1: about the camp. This work was not completed until long
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  Speaker 1: after dark, the men building a huge fire in the
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  Speaker 1: center of the clearing to give them light to work by.
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  Speaker 1: When all was safe as possible against attack of wild
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  Speaker 1: beasts and savage men, Lieutenant Charpentier placed sentries about the
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  Speaker 1: little camp, and the tired and hungry men threw themselves
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  Speaker 1: upon the ground to sleep. The groans of the wounded,
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  Speaker 1: mingled with the roaring and growling of the great beasts,
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  Speaker 1: which the noise and firelight had attracted, kept sleep except
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  Speaker 1: in its most fitful form the tired eyes. It was
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  Speaker 1: a sad and hungry party that lay through the long night,
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  Speaker 1: praying for dawn. The Blacks who had seized d'arnault had
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  Speaker 1: not waited to participate in the fight which followed, but
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  Speaker 1: instead had dragged their prisoner a little way through the jungle,
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  Speaker 1: and then struck the trail further on, beyond the scene
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  Speaker 1: of the fighting in which their fellows were engaged. They
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  Speaker 1: hurried him along, the sounds of battle, growing fainter and
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  Speaker 1: fainter as they drew away from the contestants, until there
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  Speaker 1: suddenly broke upon Darnault's vision a good sized clearing, at
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  Speaker 1: the end of which stood a thatched and pallisaded village.
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  Speaker 1: It was now dusk, but the watchers at the gate
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  Speaker 1: saw the approaching trio and distinguished one as a prisoner.
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  Speaker 1: Ere they reached the portals, a cry went up within
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  Speaker 1: the palisade. A great throng of women and children rushed
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  Speaker 1: out to meet the party, and then began for the
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  Speaker 1: French officer. The most terrifying experience which men can encounter
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  Speaker 1: upon Earth the reception of white prisoner into a village
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  Speaker 1: of African cannibals. To add to the fiendishness of their
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  Speaker 1: cruel savagery was the poignant memory of still crueler barbarities
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  Speaker 1: practiced upon them and theirs by the white officers of
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  Speaker 1: that arch hypocrite Leopold Too of Belgium, because of whose
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  Speaker 1: atrocities they had fled the Congo free state, a pitiful
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  Speaker 1: remnant of what once had been a mighty tribe. They
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  Speaker 1: fell upon d'arnault tooth and nail, beating him with sticks
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  Speaker 1: and stones and tearing at him with claw like hands.
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  Speaker 1: Every vestige of clothing was torn from him, and the
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  Speaker 1: merciless blows fell upon his bare and quivering flesh, But
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  Speaker 1: not once did the Frenchman cry out in pain. He
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  Speaker 1: breathed the silent prayer that he be quickly delivered from
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  Speaker 1: his torture. But the death he prayed for was not
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  Speaker 1: to be so easily. Had Soon the warriors beat the
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  Speaker 1: women away from their prisoner, he was to be saved
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  Speaker 1: for nobler sport than this, and the first wave of
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  Speaker 1: their passion having subsided, they contented themselves with crying out
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  Speaker 1: taunts and insults, and spitting upon him. Presently they reached
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  Speaker 1: the center of the village. There Darnault was bound securely
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  Speaker 1: to the great post, from which no live man had
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  Speaker 1: ever been released. A number of the women scattered to
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  Speaker 1: their several huts to fetch pots and water, while others
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  Speaker 1: built a row of fires on which portions of the
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  Speaker 1: feast were to be broiled, while the balance would be
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  Speaker 1: slowly dried in strips for future use. As they expected
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  Speaker 1: the other warriors to return with many prisoners, the festivities
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  Speaker 1: were delayed awaiting the return of the warriors who had
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  Speaker 1: remained to engage in the skirmish with the white men,
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  Speaker 1: so that it was quite late when all were in
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  Speaker 1: the village, and the dance of death commenced to circle
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  Speaker 1: around the doomed officer. Half fainting from pain and exhaustion,
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  Speaker 1: Darnault watched from beneath half closed lids what seemed but
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  Speaker 1: the vagary of delirium, or some horrid night mirror from
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  Speaker 1: which he must soon awake. The bestial faces daubed with color,
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  Speaker 1: the huge mouths and flabby hanging lips, the yellow teeth,
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  Speaker 1: sharp filed, the rolling demon eyes, the shining naked bodies,
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  Speaker 1: the cruel spears. Surely no such creatures really existed upon earth.
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  Speaker 1: He must indeed be dreaming. The savage, whirling bodies circled nearer.
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  Speaker 1: Now a spear sprang forth and touched his arm. The
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  Speaker 1: sharp pain and the feel of hot, trickling blood assured
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  Speaker 1: him of the awful reality of his hopeless position. Another spear,
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  Speaker 1: and then another touched him. He closed his eyes and
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  Speaker 1: held his teeth firm set. He would not cry out.
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  Speaker 1: He was a soldier of France, and he would teach
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  Speaker 1: these beasts how an officer and a gentleman died. Tarzan
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  Speaker 1: of the Apes needed no interpreter to translate the story
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  Speaker 1: of those distant shots. With Jane Porter's kisses still warm
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  Speaker 1: upon his lips. He was swinging with incredible rapidity through
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  Speaker 1: the forest trees, straight toward the village of Mabonga. He
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  Speaker 1: was not interested in the location of the encounter, for
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  Speaker 1: he judged that that would soon be over. Those who
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  Speaker 1: were killed he could not aid. Those who escaped would
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  Speaker 1: not need his assistance. It was to those who had
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  Speaker 1: neither been killed or escaped that he hastened, and he
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  Speaker 1: knew that he would find them by the great post
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  Speaker 1: in the center of Mabonga village. Many times had Tarzan
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  Speaker 1: seen Mabonga's black raiding parties returned from the northward with prisoners,
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  Speaker 1: and always were the same scenes enacted about that grim
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  Speaker 1: steak beneath the flaring light of many fires. He knew
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  Speaker 1: too that they seldom lost much time before consummating the
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  Speaker 1: fiendish purpose of their captures. He doubted that he would
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  Speaker 1: arrive in time to do more than avenge on. He sped.
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  Speaker 1: Night had fallen, and he traveled high along the upper terrace,
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  Speaker 1: where the gorgon Or's tropic moon lighted the dizzy pathway
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  Speaker 1: through the gently undulating branches of the tree tops. Presently
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  Speaker 1: he caught the reflection of a distant blaze. It lay
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  Speaker 1: to the right of his path. It must be the
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  Speaker 1: light from the campfire the two men had built before
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  Speaker 1: they were attacked. Tarzan knew nothing of the presence of
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  Speaker 1: the sailors. So sure was Tarzan of his jungle knowledge
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  Speaker 1: that he did not turn from his course, but passed
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  Speaker 1: the glare at a distance of a half mile. It
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  Speaker 1: was the campfire of the Frenchman. In a few minutes more,
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  Speaker 1: Tarzan swung into the trees above Mabonga's village. Ah, he
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  Speaker 1: was not quite too late, or was he He could
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  Speaker 1: not tell. The figure at the stake was very still,
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  Speaker 1: yet the Black warriors were but pricking it. Tarzan knew
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  Speaker 1: their customs. The death blow had not been struck. He
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  Speaker 1: could tell almost to a minute how far the dance
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  Speaker 1: had gone. In another instant, Mabanga's knife would sever one
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  Speaker 1: of the victim's ears. That would mark the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the end. For very shortly after, only a writhing mass
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  Speaker 1: of mutilated flesh would remain. There would still be life
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  Speaker 1: in it, but death then would be the only charity
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  Speaker 1: it craved. The stake stood forty feet from the nearest tree.
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  Speaker 1: Tarzan coiled his rope. Then there rose suddenly above the
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  Speaker 1: fiendish cries of the dancing demons, the awful challenge of
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  Speaker 1: the ape man. The dancers halted as though turned to stone.
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  Speaker 1: The rope sped with singing whirr high above the heads
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  Speaker 1: of the Blacks. It was quite invisible in the flaring
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  Speaker 1: lights of the camp fires. D'arnault opened his eyes. A
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  Speaker 1: huge black standing directly before him, lunged backward, as though
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  Speaker 1: felled by an invisible hand, Struggling and shrieking, His body,
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  Speaker 1: rolling from side to side, moved quickly toward the shadows
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  Speaker 1: beneath the leaves. The Blacks, their eyes protruding in horror,
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  Speaker 1: watched spellbound. Once beneath the trees, the body rose straight
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  Speaker 1: into the air, and as it disappeared into the foliage above,
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  Speaker 1: the terrified negroes, screaming with fright, broke into a mad
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  Speaker 1: race for the village gate. Darnault was left alone. He
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  Speaker 1: was a brave man, but he had felt the short
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  Speaker 1: hairs bristle upon the nape of his neck when that
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  Speaker 1: uncanny cry rose upon the air, as the writhing body
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  Speaker 1: of the black sword, as though by unearthly power, into
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  Speaker 1: the dense foliage of the forest. Darnault felt an icy shiver,
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  Speaker 1: run along his spine, as though death had risen from
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  Speaker 1: a dark grave, and laid a cold and clammy finger
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  Speaker 1: on his flesh. As Darnault watched the spot where the
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  Speaker 1: body had entered the tree, he heard the sounds of movement. There,
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  Speaker 1: the branches swayed, as though under the weight of a
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  Speaker 1: man's body. There was a crash, and the black came
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  Speaker 1: sprawling to earth again, to lie very quietly where he
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  Speaker 1: had fallen. Immediately after him came a white body, but
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  Speaker 1: this one alighted erect. Darnault saw a clean limbed, young
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  Speaker 1: giant emerge from the shadows into the firelight and come
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  Speaker 1: quickly toward him. What could it mean? Who could it be?
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  Speaker 1: Some new creature of torture and destruction? Doubtless, Darnault waited.
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  Speaker 1: His eyes never left the face of the advancing man,
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  Speaker 1: nor did the other's. Frank, clear eyes waver beneath Darnault's
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  Speaker 1: fixed gaze. Darnault was reassured, but still without much hope,
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  Speaker 1: though he felt that that face could not mask a
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  Speaker 1: cruel heart. Without a word, Tarzan of the Apes cut
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  Speaker 1: the bonds which held the Frenchman weak from suffering and
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  Speaker 1: loss of blood, he would have fallen but for the
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  Speaker 1: strong arm that caught him. He felt himself lifted from
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  Speaker 1: the ground. There was a sensation as of flying, and
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  Speaker 1: then he lost consciousness. End of chapter