The Complete Tarzan Collection

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  "W'Allah, you speak wisely," replied Motlog. "What the sheikh doeth with this man in the sheikh's business. Come!"

  As they returned to where Tarzan stood he eyed them questioningly.

  "What have you decided to do with me?" he demanded. "If you are wise you will cut these bonds and lead me to your sheikh. I wish a word with him."

  "We are only poor men," said Motlog. "It is not for us to say what shall be done, and so we shall take you to our sheikh who will decide."

  The Sheikh Ibn Jad of the fendy el-Guad squatted in the open men's compartment of his beyt es- sh'ar, and beside him in the mukaad of his house of hair sat Tollog, his brother, and a young Beduin, Zeyd, who, doubtless, found less attraction in the company of the sheikh than in the proximity of the sheikh's harem whose quarters were separated from the mukaad only by a breast-high curtain suspended between the waist poles of the beyt, affording thus an occasional glimpse of Ateja, the daughter of Ibn Jad. That it also afforded an occasional glimpse of Hirfa, his wife, raised not the temperature of Zeyd an iota.

  As the men talked the two women were busy within their apartment at their housewifely duties. In a great brazen jidda Hirfa was placing mutton to be boiled for the next meal while Ateja fashioned sandals from an old bag of camel leather impregnated with the juice of the dates that it had borne upon many a rahla, and meanwhile they missed naught of the conversation that passed in the mukaad.

  "We have come a long way without mishap from our own beled," Ibn Jad was remarking, "and the way has been longer because I wished not to pass through el-Habash lest we be set upon or followed by the people of that country. Now may we turn north again and enter el-Habash close to the spot where the magician foretold we should find the treasure city of Nimmr."

  "And thinkest thou to find this fabled city easily, once we are within the boundaries of el-Habash?" asked Tollog, his brother.

  "W'Allah, yes. It is known to the people of this far south Habash. Fejjuan, himself an Habashy, though he has never been there, heard of it as a boy. We shall take prisoners among them and, by the grace of Allah, we shall find the means to loose their tongues and have the truth from them."

  "By Allah, I hope it does not prove like the treasure that lies upon the great rock el-Howwara in the plain of Medain Salih," said Zeyd. "An afrit guards it where it lay sealed in a stone tower and they say that should it be removed disaster would befall mankind; for men would turn upon their friends, and even upon their brothers, the sons of their fathers and mothers, and the kings of the world would give battle, one against another."

  "Yea," testified Tollog, "I had it from one of the fendy Hazim that a wise Moghreby came by there in his travels and consulting the cabalistic signs in his book of magic discovered that indeed the treasure lay there."

  "But none dared take it up," said Zeyd.

  "Billah!" exclaimed Ibn Jad. "There be no afrit guarding the treasures of Nimmr. Naught but flesh and blood Habush that may be laid low with ball and powder. The treasure is ours for the taking."

  "Allah grant that it may be as easily found as the treasure of Geryeh," said Zeyd, "which lays a journey north of Tebuk in the ancient ruins of a walled city. There, each Friday, the pieces of money roll out of the ground and run about over the desert until sunset."

  "Once we are come to Nimmr there will be no difficulty finding the treasure," Ibn Jad assured them. "The difficulty will lie in getting out of el-Habash with the treasure and the woman; and if she is as beautiful as the sahar said, the men of Nimmr may protect her even more savagely than they would the treasure."

  "Often do magicians lie," said Tollog.

  "Who comes?" exclaimed Ibn Jad, looking toward the jungle that hemmed the menzil upon all sides.

  "Billah! It is Fahd and Motlog returning from the hunt," said Tollog. "Allah grant that they bring ivory and meat."

  "They return too soon," said Zeyd.

  "But they do not come empty handed," and Ibn Jad pointed toward the naked giant that accompanied the returning hunters.

  The group surrounding Tarzan approached the sheikh's beyt and halted.

  Wrapped in his soiled calico thobe, his headkerchief drawn across the lower part of his face, Ibn Jad exposed but two villainous eyes to the intent scrutiny of the ape-man which simultaneously included the pock-marked, shifty-eyed visage of Tollog, the sheikh's brother, and the not ill-favored countenance of the youthful Zeyd.

  "Who is sheikh here?" demanded Tarzan in tones of authority that belied the camel leather thongs about his wrists.

  Ibn Jad permitted his thorrib to fall from before his face. "W'Allah, I am sheikh," he said, "and by what name art thou known, Nasrany?"

  "They call me Tarzan of the Apes, Moslem."

  "Tarzan of the Apes," mused Ibn Jad. "I have heard the name."

  "Doubtless. It is not unknown to Arab slave raiders. Why, then, came you to my country, knowing I do not permit my people to be taken into slavery?"

  "We do not come for slaves," Ibn Jad assured him. "We do but trade in peace for ivory."

  "Thou liest in thy beard, Moslem," returned Tarzan, quietly. "I recognize both Manyuema and Galla slaves in thy menzil, and I know that they are not here of their own choosing. Then, too, was I not present when your henchmen fired a shot at el- fil? Is that peaceful trading for ivory? No! it is poaching, and that Tarzan of the Apes does not permit in his country. You are raiders and poachers."

  "By Allah! we are honest men," cried Ibn Jad. "Fahd and Motlog did but hunt for meat. If they shot el- fil it must be that they mistook him for another beast."

  "Enough!" cried Tarzan. "Remove the thongs that bind me and prepare to return north from whence thou camest. Thou shalt have an escort and bearers to the Sudan. That will I arrange for."

  "We have come a long way and wish only to trade in peace," insisted Ibn Jad. "We shall pay our bearers for their labor and take no slaves, nor shall we again fire upon el- fil. Let us go our way and when we return we will pay you well for permission to pass through your country."

  Tarzan shook his head. "No! you shall go at once. Come, cut these bonds!"

  Ibn Jad's eyes narrowed. "We have offered thee peace and profits, Nasrany," he said, "but if thou wouldst have war let it be war. Thou art in our power and remember that dead enemies are harmless. Think it over." And to Fahd: "Take him away and bind his feet."

  "Be careful, Moslem," warned Tarzan, "the arms of the ape-man are long —they may reach out even in death and their fingers encircle your throat."

  "Thou shalt have until dark to decide, Nasrany, and thou mayst know that Ibn Jad will not turn back until he hath that for which he came."

  They took Tarzan then and at a distance from the beyt of Ibn Jad they pushed him into a smallhejra; but once within this tent it required three men to throw him to the ground and bind his ankles, even though his wrists were already bound.

  In the beyt of the sheikh the Beduins sipped their coffee, sickish with clove, cinnamon and other spice, the while they discussed the ill fortune that had befallen them; for, regardless of his bravado, Ibn Jad knew full well that only speed and most propitious circumstances could now place the seal of success upon his venture.

  "But for Motlog," said Fahd, "we would now have no cause for worry concerning the Nasrany, for I had my knife ready to slit the dog's throat when Motlog interfered."

  "And had word of his slaying spread broadcast over his country before another sunset and all his people at our heels," countered Motlog.

  "W'Allah," said Tollog, the sheikh's brother. "I wish Fahd had done the thing he wished. After all how much better off are we if we permit the Nasrany to live? Should we free him we know that he will gather his people and drive us from the country. If we keep him prisoner and an escaped slave carries word of it to his people will they not be upon us even more surely than as though we had slain him?"

  "Tollog, thou speakest words of wisdom," said Ibn Jad, nodding appreciatively.

  "But wait," said Tollog, "I have within me, uns
poken, words of even greater worth." He leaned forward motioning the others closer and lowered his voice. "Should this one whom they call Tarzan escape during the night, or should we set him free, there would be no bad word for an escaped slave to bear to his people."

  "Billah!" exclaimed Fahd disgustedly. "There would be no need for an escaped slave to bring word to his people—the Nasrany himself would do that and lead them upon us in person. Bah! the brains of Tollog are as camel's dung."

  "Thou hast not heard all that I would say, brother," continued Tollog, ignoring Fahd. "It would only seem to the slaves that this man had escaped, for in the morning he would be gone and we would make great lamentation over the matter, or we would say: 'W'Allah, it is true that Ibn Jad made peace with the stranger, who departed into the jungle, blessing him.'"

  "I do not follow thee, brother," said Ibn Jad.

  "The Nasrany lies bound in yonder hejra. The night will be dark. A slim knife between his ribs were enough. There be faithful Habush among us who will do our bidding, nor speak of the matter after. They can prepare a trench from the bottom of which a dead Tarzan may not reach out to harm us."

  "By Allah, it is plain that thou art of sheikhly blood, Tollog," exclaimed Ibn Jad. "The wisdom of thy words proclaims it Thou shalt attend to the whole matter. Then will it be done secretly and well. The blessings of Allah be upon thee!" and Ibn Jad arose and entered the quarters of his harem.

  2. COMRADES OF THE WILD

  Darkness fell upon the menzil of Ibn Jad the sheikh. Beneath the small flitting tent where his captors had left him, Tarzan still struggled with the bonds that secured his wrists, but the tough camel leather withstood even the might of his giant thews. At times he lay listening to the night noises of the jungle, many of them noises that no other human ear could have heard, and always he interpreted each correctly. He knew when Numa passed and Sheeta the leopard; and then from afar and so faintly that it was but the shadow of a whisper, there came down the wind the trumpeting of a bull elephant.

  Without the beyt of Ibn Jad Ateja, the sheikh's daughter, loitered, and with her was Zeyd. They stood very close to one another and the man held the maiden's hands in his.

  "Tell me, Ateja," he said, "that you love no other than Zeyd."

  "How many times must I tell you that?" whispered the girl.

  "And you do not love Fahd?" insisted the man.

  "Billah, no!" she ejaculated.

  "Yet your father gives the impression that one day you will be Fahd's."

  "My father wishes me to be of the harem of Fahd, but I mistrust the man, and I could not belong to one whom I neither loved nor trusted."

  "I, too, mistrust Fahd," said Zeyd. "Listen Ateja! I doubt his loyalty to thy father, and not his alone, but another whose name I dare not even whisper. Upon occasions I have seen them muttering together when they thought that there were no others about."

  The girl nodded her head. "I know. It is not necessary even to whisper the name to me—and I hate him even as I hate Fahd."

  "But he is of thine own kin," the youth reminded her.

  "What of that? Is he not also my father's brother? If that bond does not hold him loyal to Ibn Jad, who hath treated him well, why should I pretend loyalty for him? Nay, I think him a traitor to my father, but Ibn Jad seems blind to the fact. We are a long way from our own country and if aught should befall the sheikh, Tollog, being next of blood, would assume the sheikhly duties and honors. I think he hath won Fahd's support by a promise to further his suit for me with Ibn Jad, for I have noticed that Tollog exerts himself to praise Fahd in the hearing of my father."

  "And perhaps a division of the spoils of the ghrazzu upon the treasure city," suggested Zeyd.

  "It is not unlikely," replied the girl, "and—Allah! what was that?"

  The Beduins seated about the coffee fire leaped to their feet The black slaves, startled, peered out into the darkness from their rude shelters. Muskets were seized. Silence fell again upon the tense, listening menzil. The weird, uncanny cry that had unnerved them was not repeated.

  "Billah!" ejaculated Ibn Jad. "It came from the midst of the menzil, and it was the voice of a beast, where there are only men and a few domestic animals."

  "Could it have been—?" The speaker stopped as though fearful that the thing he would suggest might indeed be true.

  "But he is a man and that was the voice of a beast," insisted Ibn Jad. "It could not have been he."

  "But he is a Nasrany," reminded Fahd. "Perhaps he has league with Sheytan."

  "And the sound came from the direction where he lies bound in a hejra," observed another.

  "Come!" said Ibn Jad. "Let us investigate."

  With muskets ready the Arabs, lighting the way with paper lanterns, approached the hejrawhere Tarzan lay. Fearfully the foremost looked within.

  "He is here," he reported.

  Tarzan, who was sitting in the center of the tent, surveyed the Arabs somewhat contemptuously. Ibn Jad pressed forward.

  "You heard a cry?" he demanded of the ape-man.

  "Yes, I heard it. Camest thou, Sheikh Ibn Jad, to disturb my rest upon so trivial an errand, or yearnest thou to release me?"

  "What manner of cry was it? What did it signify?" asked Ibn Jad.

  Tarzan of the Apes smiled grimly. "It was but the call of a beast to one of his kind," he replied. "Does the noble Beduwy tremble thus always when he hears the voices of the jungle people?"

  "Gluck!" growled Ibn Jad, "the Beduw fear naught. We thought the sound came from thishejra and we hastened hither believing some jungle beast had crept within the menzil and attacked thee. Tomorrow it is the thought of Ibn Jad to release thee."

  "Why not tonight?"

  "My people fear thee. They would that when you are released you depart hence immediately."

  "I shall. I have no desire to remain in thy lice infested menzil."

  "We could not send thee alone into the jungle at night where el-adrea is abroad hunting," protested the sheikh'.

  Tarzan of the Apes smiled again, one of his rare smiles. "Tarzan is more secure in his teeming jungle than are the Beduw in their desert," he replied. "The jungle night has no terrors for Tarzan."

  "Tomorrow," snapped the shiek and then, motioning to his followers, he departed.

  Tarzan watched their paper lanterns bobbing across the camp to the sheikh's beyt and then he stretched himself at full length and pressed an ear to the ground.

  When the inhabitants of the Arab menzil heard the cry of the beast shatter the quiet of the new night it aroused within their breasts a certain vague unrest, but otherwise it was meaningless to them. Yet there was one far off in the jungle who caught the call faintly and understood—a huge beast, the great, gray dreadnought of the jungle, Tantor the elephant. Again he raised his trunk aloft and trumpeted loudly. His little eyes gleamed redly wicked as, a moment later, he swung off through the forest at a rapid trot.

  Slowly silence fell upon the menzil of Sheik Ibn Jad as the Arabs and their slaves sought their sleeping mats. Only the sheikh and his brother sat smoking in the sheikh's beyt —smoking and whispering in low tones.

  "Do not let the slaves see you slay the Nasrany, Tollog," cautioned Ibn Jad. "Attend to that yourself first in secrecy and in silence, then quietly arouse two of the slaves. Fejjuan would be as good as another, as he has been among us since childhood and is loyal. He will do well for one."

  "Abbas is loyal, too, and strong," suggested Tollog.

  "Yea, let him be the second," agreed Ibn Jad. "But it is well that they do not know how theNasrany came to die. Tell them that you heard a noise in the direction of his hejra and that when you had come to learn the nature of it you found him thus dead."

  "You may trust to my discretion, brother," Tollog assured.

  "And warn them to secrecy," continued the sheikh. "No man but we four must ever know of the death of the Nasrany, nor of his place of burial. In the morning we shall tell the others that he escaped during the night. Leave his cut bonds wi
thin the hejra as proof. You understand?"

  "By Allah, fully."

  "Good! Now go. The people sleep." The sheikh rose and Tollog, also. The former entered the apartment of his harem and the latter moved silently through the darkness of the night in the direction of the hejra where his victim lay.

  Through the jungle came Tantor the elephant and from his path fled gentle beasts and fierce. Even Numa the lion slunk growling to one side as the mighty pachyderm passed.

  Into the darkness of the hejra crept Tollog, the sheikh's brother; but Tarzan, lying with an ear to the ground, had heard him approaching from the moment that he had left the beyt of Ibn Jad. Tarzan heard other sounds as well and, as he interpreted these others, he interpreted the stealthy approach of Tollog and was convinced when the footsteps turned into the tent where he lay —convinced of the purpose of his visitor. For what purpose but the taking of his life would a Beduin visit Tarzan at this hour of the night?

  As Tollog, groping in the dark, entered the tent Tarzan sat erect and again there smote upon the ears of the Beduin the horrid cry that had disturbed the menzil earlier in the evening, but this time it arose in the very hejra in which Tollog stood.

  The Beduin halted, aghast "Allah!" he cried, stepping back. "What beast is there? Nasrany! Art thou being attacked?"

  Others in the camp were awakened, but none ventured forth to investigate. Tarzan smiled and remained silent.

  "Nasrany!" repeated Tollog, but there was no reply.

  Cautiously, his knife ready in his hand, the Beduin backed from the hejra. He listened but heard no sound from within. Running quickly to his own beyt he made a light in a paper lantern and hastened back to the hejra, and this time he carried his musket and it was at full cock. Peering within, the lantern held above his head, Tollog saw the ape-man sitting upon the ground looking at him. There was no wild beast! Then the Beduin understood.

  "Billah! It was thou, Nasrany, who made the fearful cries."

  "Beduwy, thou comest to kill the Nasrany, eh?" demanded Tarzan.