Chapter XV
Mysterious Footprints
As the British plane piloted by Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwickrose above the jungle wilderness where Bertha Kircher's life hadso often been upon the point of extinction, and sped toward theeast, the girl felt a sudden contraction of the muscles of herthroat. She tried very hard to swallow something that was not there.It seemed strange to her that she should feel regret in leavingbehind her such hideous perils, and yet it was plain to her thatsuch was the fact, for she was also leaving behind something besidethe dangers that had menaced her--a unique figure that had enteredher life, and for which she felt an unaccountable attraction.
Before her in the pilot's seat sat an English officer and gentlemanwhom, she knew, loved her, and yet she dared to feel regret in hiscompany at leaving the stamping ground of a wild beast!
Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick, on his part, was in the seventh heavenof elation. He was in possession again of his beloved ship, he wasflying swiftly in the direction of his comrades and his duty, andwith him was the woman he loved. The fly in the ointment, however,was the accusation Tarzan had made against this woman. He had saidthat she was a German, and a spy, and from the heights of bliss theEnglish officer was occasionally plunged to the depths of despairin contemplation of the inevitable, were the ape-man's charges toprove true. He found himself torn between sentiments of love andhonor. On the one hand he could not surrender the woman he lovedto the certain fate that must be meted out to her if she were intruth an enemy spy, while on the other it would be equally impossiblefor him as an Englishman and an officer to give her aid or protection.
The young man contented himself therefore with repeated mentaldenials of her guilt. He tried to convince himself that Tarzan wasmistaken, and when he conjured upon the screen of recollection theface of the girl behind him, he was doubly reassured that thoselines of sweet femininity and character, those clear and honesteyes, could not belong to one of the hated alien race.
And so they sped toward the east, each wrapped in his own thoughts.Below them they saw the dense vegetation of the jungle give placeto the scantier growth upon the hillside, and then before themthere spread the wide expanse of arid wastelands marked by the deepscarring of the narrow gorges that long-gone rivers had cut therein some forgotten age.
Shortly after they passed the summit of the ridge which formedthe boundary between the desert and the fertile country, Ska, thevulture, winging his way at a high altitude toward his aerie, caughtsight of a strange new bird of gigantic proportions encroaching uponthe preserves of his aerial domain. Whether with intent to givebattle to the interloper or merely impelled by curiosity, Ska rosesuddenly upward to meet the plane. Doubtless he misjudged the speedof the newcomer, but be that as it may, the tip of the propellerblade touched him and simultaneously many things happened. Thelifeless body of Ska, torn and bleeding, dropped plummet-like towardthe ground; a bit of splintered spruce drove backward to strikethe pilot on the forehead; the plane shuddered and trembled andas Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick sank forward in momentaryunconsciousness the ship dived headlong toward the earth.
Only for an instant was the pilot unconscious, but that instantalmost proved their undoing. When he awoke to a realization oftheir peril it was also to discover that his motor had stalled.The plane had attained frightful momentum, and the ground seemedtoo close for him to hope to flatten out in time to make a safelanding. Directly beneath him was a deep rift in the plateau, anarrow gorge, the bottom of which appeared comparatively level andsand covered.
In the brief instant in which he must reach a decision, the safestplan seemed to attempt a landing in the gorge, and this he did, butnot without considerable damage to the plane and a severe shaking-upfor himself and his passenger.
Fortunately neither of them was injured but their condition seemedindeed a hopeless one. It was a grave question as to whether theman could repair his plane and continue the journey, and it seemedequally questionable as to their ability either to proceed on footto the coast or retrace their way to the country they had justleft. The man was confident that they could not hope to cross thedesert country to the east in the face of thirst and hunger, whilebehind them in the valley of plenty lay almost equal danger in theform of carnivores and the warlike natives.
After the plane came to its sudden and disastrous stop, Smith-Oldwickturned quickly to see what the effect of the accident had been onthe girl. He found her pale but smiling, and for several secondsthe two sat looking at each other in silence.
"This is the end?" the girl asked.
The Englishman shook his head. "It is the end of the first leg,anyway," he replied.
"But you can't hope to make repairs here," she said dubiously.
"No," he said, "not if they amount to anything, but I may be ableto patch it up. I will have to look her over a bit first. Let ushope there is nothing serious. It's a long, long way to the Tangarailway."
"We would not get far," said the girl, a slight note of hopelessnessin her tone. "Entirely unarmed as we are, it would be little lessthan a miracle if we covered even a small fraction of the distance."
"But we are not unarmed," replied the man. "I have an extra pistolhere, that the beggars didn't discover," and, removing the coverof a compartment, he drew forth an automatic.
Bertha Kircher leaned back in her seat and laughed aloud, a mirthless,half-hysterical laugh. "That popgun!" she exclaimed. "What earthlygood would it do other than to infuriate any beast of prey youmight happen to hit with it?"
Smith-Oldwick looked rather crestfallen. "But it is a weapon," hesaid. "You will have to admit that, and certainly I could kill aman with it."
"You could if you happened to hit him," said the girl, "or thething didn't jam. Really, I haven't much faith in an automatic. Ihave used them myself."
"Oh, of course," he said ironically, "an express rifle would bebetter, for who knows but we might meet an elephant here in thedesert."
The girl saw that he was hurt, and she was sorry, for she realizedthat there was nothing he would not do in her service or protection,and that it was through no fault of his that he was so illy armed.Doubtless, too, he realized as well as she the futility of hisweapon, and that he had only called attention to it in the hope ofreassuring her and lessening her anxiety.
"Forgive me," she said. "I did not mean to be nasty, but thisaccident is the proverbial last straw. It seems to me that I haveborne all that I can. Though I was willing to give my life in theservice of my country, I did not imagine that my death agonies wouldbe so long drawn out, for I realize now that I have been dying formany weeks."
"What do you mean!" he exclaimed; "what do you mean by that! Youare not dying. There is nothing the matter with you."
"Oh, not that," she said, "I did not mean that. What I mean is thatat the moment the black sergeant, Usanga, and his renegade Germannative troops captured me and brought me inland, my death warrantwas signed. Sometimes I have imagined that a reprieve has beengranted. Sometimes I have hoped that I might be upon the verge ofwinning a full pardon, but really in the depths of my heart I haveknown that I should never live to regain civilization. I have donemy bit for my country, and though it was not much I can at leastgo with the realization that it was the best I was able to offer.All that I can hope for now, all that I ask for, is a speedyfulfillment of the death sentence. I do not wish to linger any moreto face constant terror and apprehension. Even physical torturewould be preferable to what I have passed through. I have no doubtthat you consider me a brave woman, but really my terror has beenboundless. The cries of the carnivores at night fill me with a dreadso tangible that I am in actual pain. I feel the rending talonsin my flesh and the cruel fangs munching upon my bones--it is asreal to me as though I were actually enduring the horrors of sucha death. I doubt if you can understand it--men are so different."
"Yes," he said, "I think I can understand it, and because I understandI can appreciate more than you imagine the heroism you have shownin your endurance
of all that you have passed through. There canbe no bravery where there is no fear. A child might walk into alion's den, but it would take a very brave man to go to its rescue."
"Thank you," she said, "but I am not brave at all, and now I amvery much ashamed of my thoughtlessness for your own feelings. Iwill try and take a new grip upon myself and we will both hope forthe best. I will help you all I can if you will tell me what I maydo."
"The first thing," he replied, "is to find out just how seriousour damage is, and then to see what we can do in the way of repairs."
For two days Smith-Oldwick worked upon the damaged plane--workedin the face of the fact that from the first he realized the casewas hopeless. And at last he told her.
"I knew it," she said, "but I believe that I felt much as you musthave; that however futile our efforts here might be, it would beinfinitely as fatal to attempt to retrace our way to the jungle wejust left or to go on toward the coast. You know and I know that wecould not reach the Tanga railway on foot. We should die of thirstand starvation before we had covered half the distance, and if wereturn to the jungle, even were we able to reach it, it would bebut to court an equally certain, though different, fate."
"So we might as well sit here and wait for death as to uselesslywaste our energies in what we know would be a futile attempt atescape?" he asked.
"No," she replied, "I shall never give up like that. What I meantwas that it was useless to attempt to reach either of the placeswhere we know that there is food and water in abundance, so wemust strike out in a new direction. Somewhere there may be waterin this wilderness and if there is, the best chance of our findingit would be to follow this gorge downward. We have enough food andwater left, if we are careful of it, for a couple of days and inthat time we might stumble upon a spring or possibly even reachthe fertile country which I know lies to the south. When Usangabrought me to the Wamabo country from the coast he took a southerlyroute along which there was usually water and game in plenty. Itwas not until we neared our destination that the country becameoverrun with carnivores. So there is hope if we can reach thefertile country south of us that we can manage to pull through tothe coast."
The man shook his head dubiously. "We can try it," he said."Personally, I do not fancy sitting here waiting for death."
Smith-Oldwick was leaning against the ship, his dejected gazedirected upon the ground at his feet. The girl was looking southdown the gorge in the direction of their one slender chance oflife. Suddenly she touched him on the arm.
"Look," she whispered.
The man raised his eyes quickly in the direction of her gaze tosee the massive head of a great lion who was regarding them frombeyond a rocky projection at the first turning of the gorge.
"Phew!" he exclaimed, "the beggars are everywhere."
"They do not go far from water do they," asked the girl hopefully.
"I should imagine not," he replied; "a lion is not particularlystrong on endurance."
"Then he is a harbinger of hope," she exclaimed.
The man laughed. "Cute little harbinger of hope!" he said. "Remindsme of Cock Robin heralding spring."
The girl cast a quick glance at him. "Don't be silly, and I don'tcare if you do laugh. He fills me with hope."
"It is probably mutual," replied Smith-Oldwick, "as we doubtlessfill him with hope."
The lion evidently having satisfied himself as to the nature ofthe creatures before him advanced slowly now in their direction.
"Come," said the man, "let's climb aboard," and he helped the girlover the side of the ship.
"Can't he get in here?" she asked.
"I think he can," said the man.
"You are reassuring," she returned.
"I don't feel so." He drew his pistol.
"For heaven's sake," she cried, "don't shoot at him with that thing.You might hit him."
"I don't intend to shoot at him but I might succeed in frighteninghim away if he attempts to reach us here. Haven't you ever seen atrainer work with lions? He carries a silly little pop-gun loadedwith blank cartridges. With that and a kitchen chair he subduesthe most ferocious of beasts."
"But you haven't a kitchen chair," she reminded him.
"No," he said, "Government is always muddling things. I have alwaysmaintained that airplanes should be equipped with kitchen chairs."
Bertha Kircher laughed as evenly and with as little hysteria asthough she were moved by the small talk of an afternoon tea.
Numa, the lion, came steadily toward them; his attitude seemedmore that of curiosity than of belligerency. Close to the side ofthe ship he stopped and stood gazing up at them.
"Magnificent, isn't he?" exclaimed the man.
"I never saw a more beautiful creature," she replied, "nor one withsuch a dark coat. Why, he is almost black."
The sound of their voices seemed not to please the lord of thejungle, for he suddenly wrinkled his great face into deep furrowsas he bared his fangs beneath snarling lips and gave vent to anangry growl. Almost simultaneously he crouched for a spring andimmediately Smith-Oldwick discharged his pistol into the ground infront of the lion. The effect of the noise upon Numa seemed but toenrage him further, and with a horrid roar he sprang for the authorof the new and disquieting sound that had outraged his ears.
Simultaneously Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick vaulted nimblyout of the cockpit on the opposite side of his plane, calling tothe girl to follow his example. The girl, realizing the futilityof leaping to the ground, chose the remaining alternative andclambered to the top of the upper plane.
Numa, unaccustomed to the idiosyncrasies of construction of anairship and having gained the forward cockpit, watched the girlclamber out of his reach without at first endeavoring to preventher. Having taken possession of the plane his anger seemed suddenlyto leave him and he made no immediate move toward followingSmith-Oldwick. The girl, realizing the comparative safety of herposition, had crawled to the outer edge of the wing and was callingto the man to try and reach the opposite end of the upper plane.
It was this scene upon which Tarzan of the Apes looked as herounded the bend of the gorge above the plane after the pistol shothad attracted his attention. The girl was so intent upon watchingthe efforts of the Englishman to reach a place of safety, and thelatter was so busily occupied in attempting to do so that neitherat once noticed the silent approach of the ape-man.
It was Numa who first noticed the intruder. The lion immediatelyevinced his displeasure by directing toward him a snarling countenanceand a series of warning growls. His action called the attention ofthe two upon the upper plane to the newcomer, eliciting a stifled"Thank God!" from the girl, even though she could scarce credit theevidence of her own eyes that it was indeed the savage man, whosepresence always assured her safety, who had come so providentiallyin the nick of time.
Almost immediately both were horrified to see Numa leap from thecockpit and advance upon Tarzan. The ape-man, carrying his stoutspear in readiness, moved deliberately onward to meet the carnivore,which he had recognized as the lion of the Wamabos' pit. He knewfrom the manner of Numa's approach what neither Bertha Kircher norSmith-Oldwick knew--that there was more of curiosity than belligerencyin it, and he wondered if in that great head there might not be asemblance of gratitude for the kindness that Tarzan had done him.
There was no question in Tarzan's mind but that Numa recognizedhim, for he knew his fellows of the jungle well enough to know thatwhile they oft-times forgot certain sensations more quickly thanman there are others which remain in their memories for years. Awell-defined scent spoor might never be forgotten by a beast if ithad first been sensed under unusual circumstances, and so Tarzanwas confident that Numa's nose had already reminded him of all thecircumstances of their brief connection.
Love of the sporting chance is inherent in the Anglo-Saxon race andit was not now Tarzan of the Apes but rather John Clayton, LordGreystoke, who smilingly welcomed the sporting chance which he musttake to discover how far-reaching was Numa's grati
tude.
Smith-Oldwick and the girl saw the two nearing each other. Theformer swore softly beneath his breath while he nervously fingeredthe pitiful weapon at his hip. The girl pressed her open palms toher cheeks as she leaned forward in stony-eyed, horror-strickensilence. While she had every confidence in the prowess of the godlikecreature who thus dared brazenly to face the king of beasts, shehad no false conception of what must certainly happen when theymet. She had seen Tarzan battle with Sheeta, the panther, and shehad realized then that powerful as the man was, it was only agility,cunning, and chance that placed him upon anywhere near an equalfooting with his savage adversary, and that of the three factorsupon his side chance was the greatest.
She saw the man and the lion stop simultaneously, not more thana yard apart. She saw the beast's tail whipping from side to sideand she could hear his deep-throated growls rumbling from hiscavernous breast, but she could read correctly neither the movementof the lashing tail nor the notes of the growl.
To her they seemed to indicate nothing but bestial rage while toTarzan of the Apes they were conciliatory and reassuring in theextreme. And then she saw Numa move forward again until his nosetouched the man's naked leg and she closed her eyes and coveredthem with her palms. For what seemed an eternity she waited forthe horrid sound of the conflict which she knew must come, but allshe heard was an explosive sigh of relief from Smith-Oldwick anda half-hysterical "By Jove! Just fancy it!"
She looked up to see the great lion rubbing his shaggy head againstthe man's hip, and Tarzan's free hand entangled in the black maneas he scratched Numa, the lion, behind a back-laid ear.
Strange friendships are often formed between the lower animalsof different species, but less often between man and the savagefelidae, because of the former's inherent fear of the great cats.And so after all, therefore, the friendship so suddenly developedbetween the savage lion and the savage man was not inexplicable.
As Tarzan approached the plane Numa walked at his side, and whenTarzan stopped and looked up at the girl and the man Numa stoppedalso.
"I had about given up hope of finding you," said the ape-man, "andit is evident that I found you just in time."
"But how did you know we were in trouble?" asked the English officer.
"I saw your plane fall," replied Tarzan. "I was watching you froma tree beside the clearing where you took off. I didn't have muchto locate you by other than the general direction, but it seemsthat you volplaned a considerable distance toward the south afteryou disappeared from my view behind the hills. I have been lookingfor you further toward the north. I was just about to turn backwhen I heard your pistol shot. Is your ship beyond repair?"
"Yes," replied Smith-Oldwick, "it is hopeless."
"What are your plans, then? What do you wish to do?" Tarzan directedhis question to the girl.
"We want to reach the coast," she said, "but it seems impossiblenow."
"I should have thought so a little while ago," replied the ape-man,"but if Numa is here there must be water within a reasonabledistance. I ran across this lion two days ago in the Wamabo country.I liberated him from one of their pits. To have reached this spothe must have come by some trail unknown to me--at least I crossedno game trail and no spoor of any animal after I came over the hillsout of the fertile country. From which direction did he come uponyou?"
"It was from the south," replied the girl. "We thought, too, thatthere must be water in that direction."
"Let's find out then," said Tarzan.
"But how about the lion?" asked Smith-Oldwick.
"That we will have to discover," replied the ape-man, "and we canonly do so if you will come down from your perch."
The officer shrugged his shoulders. The girl turned her gaze uponhim to note the effect of Tarzan's proposal. The Englishman grewsuddenly very white, but there was a smile upon his lips as withouta word he slipped over the edge of the plane and clambered to theground behind Tarzan.
Bertha Kircher realized that the man was afraid nor did she blamehim, and she also realized the remarkable courage that he had shownin thus facing a danger that was very real to him.
Numa standing close to Tarzan's side raised his head and glared atthe young Englishman, growled once, and looked up at the ape-man.Tarzan retained a hold upon the beast's mane and spoke to him inthe language of the great apes. To the girl and Smith-Oldwick thegrowling gutturals falling from human lips sounded uncanny in theextreme, but whether Numa understood them or not they appeared tohave the desired effect upon him, as he ceased growling, and asTarzan walked to Smith-Oldwick's side Numa accompanied him, nordid he offer to molest the officer.
"What did you say to him?" asked the girl.
Tarzan smiled. "I told him," he replied, "that I am Tarzan of theApes, mighty hunter, killer of beasts, lord of the jungle, and thatyou are my friends. I have never been sure that all of the otherbeasts understand the language of the Mangani. I know that Manu,the monkey, speaks nearly the same tongue and I am sure that Tantor,the elephant, understands all that I say to him. We of the jungleare great boasters. In our speech, in our carriage, in every detailof our demeanor we must impress others with our physical power andour ferocity. That is why we growl at our enemies. We are tellingthem to beware or we shall fall upon them and tear them to pieces.Perhaps Numa does not understand the words that I use but I believethat my tones and my manner carry the impression that I wish themto convey. Now you may come down and be introduced."
It required all the courage that Bertha Kircher possessed to lowerherself to the ground within reach of the talons and fangs of thisuntamed forest beast, but she did it. Nor did Numa do more thanbare his teeth and growl a little as she came close to the ape-man.
"I think you are safe from him as long as I am present," said theape-man. "The best thing to do is simply to ignore him. Make noadvances, but be sure to give no indication of fear and, if possiblealways keep me between you and him. He will go away presently I amsure and the chances are that we shall not see him again."
At Tarzan's suggestion Smith-Oldwick removed the remaining waterand provisions from the plane and, distributing the burden amongthem, they set off toward the south. Numa did not follow them, butstood by the plane watching until they finally disappeared fromview around a bend in the gorge.
Tarzan had picked up Numa's trail with the intention of followingit southward in the belief that it would lead to water. In the sandthat floored the bottom of the gorge tracks were plain and easilyfollowed. At first only the fresh tracks of Numa were visible, butlater in the day the ape-man discovered the older tracks of otherlions and just before dark he stopped suddenly in evident surprise.His two companions looked at him questioningly, and in answer totheir implied interrogations he pointed at the ground directly infront of him.
"Look at those," he exclaimed.
At first neither Smith-Oldwick nor the girl saw anything but aconfusion of intermingled prints of padded feet in the sand, butpresently the girl discovered what Tarzan had seen, and an exclamationof surprise broke from her lips.
"The imprint of human feet!" she cried.
Tarzan nodded.
"But there are no toes," the girl pointed out.
"The feet were shod with a soft sandal," explained Tarzan.
"Then there must be a native village somewhere in the vicinity,"said Smith-Oldwick.
"Yes," replied the ape-man, "but not the sort of natives which wewould expect to find here in this part of Africa where others allgo unshod with the exception of a few of Usanga's renegade Germannative troops who wear German army shoes. I don't know that you cannotice it, but it is evident to me that the foot inside the sandalthat made these imprints were not the foot of a Negro. If you willexamine them carefully you will notice that the impression of theheel and ball of the foot are well marked even through the sole ofthe sandal. The weight comes more nearly in the center of a Negro'sfootprint."
"Then you think these were made by a white person?"
"It looks that way," replied Ta
rzan, and suddenly, to the surpriseof both the girl and Smith-Oldwick, he dropped to his hands andknees and sniffed at the tracks--again a beast utilizing the sensesand woodcraft of a beast. Over an area of several square yards hiskeen nostrils sought the identity of the makers of the tracks. Atlength he rose to his feet.
"It is not the spoor of the Gomangani," he said, "nor is it exactlylike that of white men. There were three who came this way. Theywere men, but of what race I do not know."
There was no apparent change in the nature of the gorge except thatit had steadily grown deeper as they followed it downward until nowthe rocky and precipitous sides rose far above them. At differentpoints natural caves, which appeared to have been eroded by the actionof water in some forgotten age, pitted the side walls at variousheights. Near them was such a cavity at the ground's level--anarched cavern floored with white sand. Tarzan indicated it with agesture of his hand.
"We will lair here tonight," he said, and then with one of hisrare, slow smiles: "We will CAMP here tonight."
Having eaten their meager supper Tarzan bade the girl enter thecavern.
"You will sleep inside," he said. "The lieutenant and I will lieoutside at the entrance."
Tarzan the Untamed Page 15