บทที่ บทที่ 12 · Man’s Reason

. Man’s Reason

There was one of the tribe of Tarzan who questioned his authority, and

that was Terkoz, the son of Tublat, but he so feared the keen knife and

the deadly arrows of his new lord that he confined the manifestation of

his objections to petty disobediences and irritating mannerisms; Tarzan

knew, however, that he but waited his opportunity to wrest the kingship

from him by some sudden stroke of treachery, and so he was ever on his

guard against surprise.

For months the life of the little band went on much as it had before,

except that Tarzan’s greater intelligence and his ability as a hunter

were the means of providing for them more bountifully than ever before.

Most of them, therefore, were more than content with the change in

rulers.

Tarzan led them by night to the fields of the black men, and there,

warned by their chief’s superior wisdom, they ate only what they

required, nor ever did they destroy what they could not eat, as is the

way of Manu, the monkey, and of most apes.

So, while the blacks were wroth at the continued pilfering of their

fields, they were not discouraged in their efforts to cultivate the

land, as would have been the case had Tarzan permitted his people to

lay waste the plantation wantonly.

During this period Tarzan paid many nocturnal visits to the village,

where he often renewed his supply of arrows. He soon noticed the food

always standing at the foot of the tree which was his avenue into the

palisade, and after a little, he commenced to eat whatever the blacks

put there.

When the awe-struck savages saw that the food disappeared overnight

they were filled with consternation and dread, for it was one thing to

put food out to propitiate a god or a devil, but quite another thing to

have the spirit really come into the village and eat it. Such a thing

was unheard of, and it clouded their superstitious minds with all

manner of vague fears.

Nor was this all. The periodic disappearance of their arrows, and the

strange pranks perpetrated by unseen hands, had wrought them to such a

state that life had become a veritable burden in their new home, and

now it was that Mbonga and his head men began to talk of abandoning the

village and seeking a site farther on in the jungle.

Presently the black warriors began to strike farther and farther south

into the heart of the forest when they went to hunt, looking for a site

for a new village.

More often was the tribe of Tarzan disturbed by these wandering

huntsmen. Now was the quiet, fierce solitude of the primeval forest

broken by new, strange cries. No longer was there safety for bird or

beast. Man had come.

Other animals passed up and down the jungle by day and by night—fierce,

cruel beasts—but their weaker neighbors only fled from their immediate

vicinity to return again when the danger was past.

With man it is different. When he comes many of the larger animals

instinctively leave the district entirely, seldom if ever to return;

and thus it has always been with the great anthropoids. They flee man

as man flees a pestilence.

For a short time the tribe of Tarzan lingered in the vicinity of the

beach because their new chief hated the thought of leaving the

treasured contents of the little cabin forever. But when one day a

member of the tribe discovered the blacks in great numbers on the banks

of a little stream that had been their watering place for generations,

and in the act of clearing a space in the jungle and erecting many

huts, the apes would remain no longer; and so Tarzan led them inland

for many marches to a spot as yet undefiled by the foot of a human

being.

Once every moon Tarzan would go swinging rapidly back through the

swaying branches to have a day with his books, and to replenish his

supply of arrows. This latter task was becoming more and more

difficult, for the blacks had taken to hiding their supply away at

night in granaries and living huts.

This necessitated watching by day on Tarzan’s part to discover where

the arrows were being concealed.

Twice had he entered huts at night while the inmates lay sleeping upon

their mats, and stolen the arrows from the very sides of the warriors.

But this method he realized to be too fraught with danger, and so he

commenced picking up solitary hunters with his long, deadly noose,

stripping them of weapons and ornaments and dropping their bodies from

a high tree into the village street during the still watches of the

night.

These various escapades again so terrorized the blacks that, had it not

been for the monthly respite between Tarzan’s visits, in which they had

opportunity to renew hope that each fresh incursion would prove the

last, they soon would have abandoned their new village.

The blacks had not as yet come upon Tarzan’s cabin on the distant

beach, but the ape-man lived in constant dread that, while he was away

with the tribe, they would discover and despoil his treasure. So it

came that he spent more and more time in the vicinity of his father’s

last home, and less and less with the tribe. Presently the members of

his little community began to suffer on account of his neglect, for

disputes and quarrels constantly arose which only the king might settle

peaceably.

At last some of the older apes spoke to Tarzan on the subject, and for

a month thereafter he remained constantly with the tribe.

The duties of kingship among the anthropoids are not many or arduous.

In the afternoon comes Thaka, possibly, to complain that old Mungo has

stolen his new wife. Then must Tarzan summon all before him, and if he

finds that the wife prefers her new lord he commands that matters

remain as they are, or possibly that Mungo give Thaka one of his

daughters in exchange.

Whatever his decision, the apes accept it as final, and return to their

occupations satisfied.

Then comes Tana, shrieking and holding tight her side from which blood

is streaming. Gunto, her husband, has cruelly bitten her! And Gunto,

summoned, says that Tana is lazy and will not bring him nuts and

beetles, or scratch his back for him.

So Tarzan scolds them both and threatens Gunto with a taste of the

death-bearing slivers if he abuses Tana further, and Tana, for her

part, is compelled to promise better attention to her wifely duties.

And so it goes, little family differences for the most part, which, if

left unsettled would result finally in greater factional strife, and

the eventual dismemberment of the tribe.

But Tarzan tired of it, as he found that kingship meant the curtailment

of his liberty. He longed for the little cabin and the sun-kissed

sea—for the cool interior of the well-built house, and for the

never-ending wonders of the many books.

As he had grown older, he found that he had grown away from his people.

Their interests and his were far removed. They had not kept pace with

him, nor could they understand aught of the many strange and wonderful

dreams that passed through the active brain of their human king. So

limited was their vocabulary that Tarzan could not even talk with them

of the many new truths, and the great fields of thought that his

reading had opened up before his longing eyes, or make known ambitions

which stirred his soul.

Among the tribe he no longer had friends as of old. A little child may

find companionship in many strange and simple creatures, but to a grown

man there must be some semblance of equality in intellect as the basis

for agreeable association.

Had Kala lived, Tarzan would have sacrificed all else to remain near

her, but now that she was dead, and the playful friends of his

childhood grown into fierce and surly brutes he felt that he much

preferred the peace and solitude of his cabin to the irksome duties of

leadership amongst a horde of wild beasts.

The hatred and jealousy of Terkoz, son of Tublat, did much to

counteract the effect of Tarzan’s desire to renounce his kingship among

the apes, for, stubborn young Englishman that he was, he could not

bring himself to retreat in the face of so malignant an enemy.

That Terkoz would be chosen leader in his stead he knew full well, for

time and again the ferocious brute had established his claim to

physical supremacy over the few bull apes who had dared resent his

savage bullying.

Tarzan would have liked to subdue the ugly beast without recourse to

knife or arrows. So much had his great strength and agility increased

in the period following his maturity that he had come to believe that

he might master the redoubtable Terkoz in a hand to hand fight were it

not for the terrible advantage the anthropoid’s huge fighting fangs

gave him over the poorly armed Tarzan.

The entire matter was taken out of Tarzan’s hands one day by force of

circumstances, and his future left open to him, so that he might go or

stay without any stain upon his savage escutcheon.

It happened thus:

The tribe was feeding quietly, spread over a considerable area, when a

great screaming arose some distance east of where Tarzan lay upon his

belly beside a limpid brook, attempting to catch an elusive fish in his

quick, brown hands.

With one accord the tribe swung rapidly toward the frightened cries,

and there found Terkoz holding an old female by the hair and beating

her unmercifully with his great hands.

As Tarzan approached he raised his hand aloft for Terkoz to desist, for

the female was not his, but belonged to a poor old ape whose fighting

days were long over, and who, therefore, could not protect his family.

Terkoz knew that it was against the laws of his kind to strike this

woman of another, but being a bully, he had taken advantage of the

weakness of the female’s husband to chastise her because she had

refused to give up to him a tender young rodent she had captured.

When Terkoz saw Tarzan approaching without his arrows, he continued to

belabor the poor woman in a studied effort to affront his hated

chieftain.

Tarzan did not repeat his warning signal, but instead rushed bodily

upon the waiting Terkoz.

Never had the ape-man fought so terrible a battle since that long-gone

day when Bolgani, the great king gorilla had so horribly manhandled him

ere the new-found knife had, by accident, pricked the savage heart.

Tarzan’s knife on the present occasion but barely offset the gleaming

fangs of Terkoz, and what little advantage the ape had over the man in

brute strength was almost balanced by the latter’s wonderful quickness

and agility.

In the sum total of their points, however, the anthropoid had a shade

the better of the battle, and had there been no other personal

attribute to influence the final outcome, Tarzan of the Apes, the young

Lord Greystoke, would have died as he had lived—an unknown savage beast

in equatorial Africa.

But there was that which had raised him far above his fellows of the

jungle—that little spark which spells the whole vast difference between

man and brute—Reason. This it was which saved him from death beneath

the iron muscles and tearing fangs of Terkoz.

Scarcely had they fought a dozen seconds ere they were rolling upon the

ground, striking, tearing and rending—two great savage beasts battling

to the death.

Terkoz had a dozen knife wounds on head and breast, and Tarzan was torn

and bleeding—his scalp in one place half torn from his head so that a

great piece hung down over one eye, obstructing his vision.

But so far the young Englishman had been able to keep those horrible

fangs from his jugular and now, as they fought less fiercely for a

moment, to regain their breath, Tarzan formed a cunning plan. He would

work his way to the other’s back and, clinging there with tooth and

nail, drive his knife home until Terkoz was no more.

The maneuver was accomplished more easily than he had hoped, for the

stupid beast, not knowing what Tarzan was attempting, made no

particular effort to prevent the accomplishment of the design.

But when, finally, he realized that his antagonist was fastened to him

where his teeth and fists alike were useless against him, Terkoz hurled

himself about upon the ground so violently that Tarzan could but cling

desperately to the leaping, turning, twisting body, and ere he had

struck a blow the knife was hurled from his hand by a heavy impact

against the earth, and Tarzan found himself defenseless.

During the rollings and squirmings of the next few minutes, Tarzan’s

hold was loosened a dozen times until finally an accidental

circumstance of those swift and everchanging evolutions gave him a new

hold with his right hand, which he realized was absolutely

unassailable.

His arm was passed beneath Terkoz’s arm from behind and his hand and

forearm encircled the back of Terkoz’s neck. It was the half-Nelson of

modern wrestling which the untaught ape-man had stumbled upon, but

superior reason showed him in an instant the value of the thing he had

discovered. It was the difference to him between life and death.

And so he struggled to encompass a similar hold with the left hand, and

in a few moments Terkoz’s bull neck was creaking beneath a full-Nelson.

There was no more lunging about now. The two lay perfectly still upon

the ground, Tarzan upon Terkoz’s back. Slowly the bullet head of the

ape was being forced lower and lower upon his chest.

Tarzan knew what the result would be. In an instant the neck would

break. Then there came to Terkoz’s rescue the same thing that had put

him in these sore straits—a man’s reasoning power.

“If I kill him,” thought Tarzan, “what advantage will it be to me? Will

it not rob the tribe of a great fighter? And if Terkoz be dead, he will

know nothing of my supremacy, while alive he will ever be an example to

the other apes.”

“_Ka-goda?_” hissed Tarzan in Terkoz’s ear, which, in ape tongue,

means, freely translated: “Do you surrender?”

For a moment there was no reply, and Tarzan added a few more ounces of

pressure, which elicited a horrified shriek of pain from the great

beast.

“_Ka-goda?_” repeated Tarzan.

“_Ka-goda!_” cried Terkoz.

“Listen,” said Tarzan, easing up a trifle, but not releasing his hold.

“I am Tarzan, King of the Apes, mighty hunter, mighty fighter. In all

the jungle there is none so great.

“You have said: ‘_Ka-goda_’ to me. All the tribe have heard. Quarrel no

more with your king or your people, for next time I shall kill you. Do

you understand?”

“_Huh_,” assented Terkoz.

“And you are satisfied?”

“_Huh_,” said the ape.

Tarzan let him up, and in a few minutes all were back at their

vocations, as though naught had occurred to mar the tranquility of

their primeval forest haunts.

But deep in the minds of the apes was rooted the conviction that Tarzan

was a mighty fighter and a strange creature. Strange because he had had

it in his power to kill his enemy, but had allowed him to

live—unharmed.

That afternoon as the tribe came together, as was their wont before

darkness settled on the jungle, Tarzan, his wounds washed in the waters

of the stream, called the old males about him.

“You have seen again to-day that Tarzan of the Apes is the greatest

among you,” he said.

“_Huh_,” they replied with one voice, “Tarzan is great.”

“Tarzan,” he continued, “is not an ape. He is not like his people. His

ways are not their ways, and so Tarzan is going back to the lair of