CHAPTER XVIII



THE SPOOR OF REVENGE


As Tarzan of the Apes, adapting his speed to that of Jad-bal-ja,
made his comparatively slow way toward home, he reviewed
with varying emotions the experiences of the past week.
While he had been unsuccessful in raiding the treasure
vaults of Opar, the sack of diamonds which he carried
compensated several-fold for this miscarriage of his plans.
His only concern now was for the safety of his Waziri, and,
perhaps, a troublesome desire to seek out the whites who had
drugged him and mete out to them the punishment they
deserved.  In view, however, of his greater desire to return
home he decided to make no effort at apprehending them for
the time being at least.


Hunting together, feeding together, and sleeping together,
the man and the great lion trod the savage jungle trails
toward home. Yesterday they shared the meat of Bara, the
deer, today they feasted upon the carcass of Horta, the
boar, and between them there was little chance that either
would go hungry.

They had come within a day's march of the bungalow when
Tarzan discovered the spoor of a considerable body of
warriors. As some men devour the latest stock-market
quotations as though their very existence depended upon an
accurate knowledge of them, so Tarzan of the Apes devoured
every scrap of information that the jungle held for him,
for, in truth, an accurate knowledge of all that this
information could impart to him had been during his lifetime
a sine qua non to his existence. So now he carefully
examined the spoor that lay before him, several days old
though it was and partially obliterated by the passage of
beasts since it had been made, but yet legible enough to the
keen eyes and nostrils of the ape-man. His partial
indifference suddenly gave way to keen interest, for among
the footprints of the great warriors he saw now and again
the smaller one of a white woman--a loved footprint that
he knew as well as you know your mother's face.

"The Waziri returned and told her that I was missing," he
soliloquized, "and now she has set out with them to search
for me." He turned to the lion. "Well, Jad-bal-ja, once
again we turn away from home--but no, where she is is
home."

The direction that the trail led rather mystified Tarzan of
the Apes, as it was not along the direct route toward Opar,
but in a rather more southerly direction. On the sixth day
his keen ears caught the sound of approaching men, and
presently there was wafted to his nostrils the spoor of
blacks.  Sending Jad-bal-ja into a thicket to hide, Tarzan
took to the trees and moved rapidly in the direction of the
approaching negroes. As the distance between them lessened
the scent became stronger, until, even before he saw them,
Tarzan knew that they were Waziri, but the one effluvium
that would have filled his soul with happiness was lacking.

It was a surprised Usula who, at the head of the sad and
dejected Waziri, came at the turning of the trail suddenly
face to face with his master.

"Tarzan of the Apes!" cried Usula. "Is it indeed you?"

"It is none other," replied the ape-man, "but where is Lady
Greystoke?"

"Ah, master, how can we tell you!" cried Usula.

"You do not mean--" cried Tarzan. "It cannot be. Nothing
could happen to her while she was guarded by my Waziri!"

The warriors hung their heads in shame and sorrow.  "We
offer our lives for hers," said Usula, simply.  He threw
down his spear and shield and, stretching his arms wide
apart, bared his great breast to Tarzan. "Strike, Bwana," he
said.

The ape-man turned away with bowed head. Presently he looked
at Usula again.  "Tell me how it happened," he said, "and
forget your foolish speech as I have forgotten the
suggestion which prompted it."

Briefly Usula narrated the events which had led up to the
death of Jane, and when he was done Tarzan of the Apes spoke
but three words, voicing a question which was typical of
him.

"Where is Luvini?" he asked.

"Ah, that we do not know," replied Usula.

"But I shall know," said Tarzan of the Apes. "Go upon your
way, my children, back to your huts, and your women and your
children, and when next you see Tarzan of the Apes you will
know that Luvini is dead."

They begged permission to accompany him, but he would not
listen to them.

"You are needed at home at this time of year," he said.
"Already have you been gone too long from the herds and
fields. Return, then, and carry word to Korak, but tell him
that it is my wish that he, too, remains at home--if I
fail, then may he come and take up my unfinished work if he
wishes to do so." As he ceased speaking he turned back in
the direction from which he had come, and whistled once a
single, low, long-drawn note, and a moment later Jad-bal-ja,
the golden lion, bounded into view along the jungle trail.

"The golden lion!" cried Usula. "When he escaped from
Keewazi, it was to search for his beloved Bwana."

Tarzan nodded. "He followed many marches to a strange
country until he found me," he said, and then he bid the
Waziri good-bye and bent his steps once more away from home
in search of Luvini and revenge.


John Peebles, wedged in the crotch of a tree, greeted the
coming dawn with weary eyes. Near him was Dick Throck,
similarly braced another crotch, while Kraski, more
intelligent or therefore possessing more inventive genius,
rigged a small platform of branches across two parallel
boughs, upon which he lay in comparative comfort. Ten feet
above him Bluber swung, half exhausted and wholly terrified,
to a smaller branch, supported in something that
approximated safety by a fork of the branch to which he
clung.

"Gord," groaned Peebles, "hi'll let the bloody lions 'ave me
before hi'll spend another such a night as this, an' 'ere we
are, 'n that's that!"

"And blime, too,"  said Throck, "hi sleeps on the ground
hafter this, lions or no lions."

"If the combined intelligence of the three of you was equal
to that of a walrus," remarked Kraski, "we might have slept
in comparative safety and comfort last night on the ground."

"Hey there, Bluber, Mister Kraski is spikin' to yer," called
Peebles in fine sarcasm, accenting the Mister.

"Oi! Oi!  I don't care vot nobody says," moaned Bluber.

"'E wants us to build a 'ouse for 'im hevery night,"
continued Peebles, "while 'e stands abaht and tells us
bloomin' well 'ow to do it, and 'im, bein' a fine gentleman,
don't do no work."

"Why should I do any work with my hands when you two big
beasts haven't got anything else work with?" asked Kraski.
"You would all have starved by this time if I hadn't found
food for you. And you'll be lion meat in the end, or die of
exhaustion if you don't listen to me--not that it would be
much loss."

The others paid no attention to his last sally. As a matter
of fact they had all been quarreling much for such a long
time that they really paid little attention to one another.
With the exception of Peebles and Throck they all hated one
another cordially, and only clung together because they were
afraid to separate.  Slowly Peebles lowered his bulk to the
ground. Throck followed and then came Kraski, and then,
finally, Bluber who stood for a moment in silence, looking
down at his disreputable clothing.

"Mein Gott!" he exclaimed at last. "Look at me! Dis suit,
vot it cost me tventy guineas, look at it.  Ruined.  Ruined.
It vouldn't bring vun penny in der pound."

"The hell with your clothes!" exclaimed Kraski. "Here we
are, lost, half starved, constantly menaced by wild animals,
and maybe, for all we know, by cannibals, with Flora missing
in the jungle, and you can stand there and talk about your
'tventy guinea' suit. You make me tired, Bluber. But come
on, we might as well be moving."

"Which way?" asked Throck.

"Why, to the west, of course," replied Kraski. "The coast is
there, and there is nothing else for us to do but try to
reach it."

"We can't reach it by goin' east," roared Peebles, "an' ere
we are, 'n that's that."

"Who said we could?" demanded Kraski.

"Well, we was travelin' east all day yesterday," said
Peebles. "I knew all the time that there was somethin'
wrong, and I just got it figured out."

Throck looked at his partner in stupid surprise. "What do
you mean?" he growled.  "What makes you think we was
travelin' east?"

"It's easy enough," replied Peebles, "and I can prove it to
you.  Because this party here knows so much more than the
rest of us we have been travelin' straight toward the
interior ever since the niggers deserted us." He nodded
toward the Russian, who stood with his hands on his hips,
eyeing the other quizzically.

"If you think I'm taking you in the wrong direction,
Peebles," said Kraski, "you just turn around and go the
other way; but I'm going to keep on the way we've been
going, which is the right way."

"It ain't the right way," retorted Peebles, "and I'll show
yer.  Listen here.  When you travel west the sun is at your
left side, isn't it--that is, all durin' the middle of the
day. Well, ever since we ve been travelin' without the
niggers the sun has been on our right. I thought all the
time there was somethin' wrong, but I could never figure it
out until just now. It's plain as the face on your nose.
We've been travelin' due east right along."

"Blime," cried Throck, "that we have, due east, and this
blighter thinks as 'ow 'e knows it all."

"Oi!" groaned Bluber, "und ve got to valk it all back again
yet, once more?"

Kraski laughed and turned away to resume the march in the
direction he had chosen.  "You fellows go on your own way if
you want to," he said, "and while you're traveling, just
ponder the fact that you're south of the equator and that
therefore the sun is always in the north, which, however,
doesn't change its old-fashioned habit of setting in the
west."

Bluber was the first to grasp the truth of Kraski's
statement.  "Come on, boys," he said, "Carl vas right," and
he turned and followed the Russian.

Peebles stood scratching his head, entirely baffled by the
puzzling problem, which Throck, also, was pondering deeply.
Presently the latter turned after Bluber and Kraski.  "Come
on, John," he said to Peebles, "hi don't hunderstand it, but
hi guess they're right.  They are headin' right toward where
the sun set last night, and that sure must be west."

His theory tottering, Peebles followed Throck, though he
remained unconvinced.

The four men, hungry and footsore, had dragged their weary
way along the jungle trail toward the west for several hours
in vain search for game. Unschooled in jungle craft they
blundered on. There might have been on every hand fierce
carnivore or savage warriors, but so dull are the perceptive
faculties of civilized man, the most blatant foe might have
stalked them unperceived.

And so it was that shortly after noon, as they were crossing
a small clearing, the zip of an arrow that barely missed
Bluber's head, brought them to a sudden, terrified halt.
With a shrill scream of terror the Jew crumpled to the
ground. Kraski threw his rifle to his shoulder and fired.

"There!" he cried, "behind those bushes," and then another
arrow, from another direction, pierced his forearm. Peebles
and Throck, beefy and cumbersome, got into action with less
celerity than the Russian, but, like him, they showed no
indication of fear.

"Down," cried Kraski, suiting the action to the word. "Lie
down and let them have it."

Scarcely had the three men dropped among the long grass when
a score of pigmy hunters came into the open, and a volley of
arrows whizzed above the prone men, while from a nearby tree
two steel-gray eyes looked down upon the ambush.

Bluber lay upon his belly with his face buried in his arms,
his useless rifle lying at his side, but Kraski, Peebles,
and Throck, fighting for their lives, pumped lead into the
band of yelling pigmies.

Kraski and Peebles each dropped a native with his rifle and
then the foe withdrew into the concealing safety of the
surrounding jungle.  For a moment there was a cessation of
hostilities. Bitter silence reigned, and then a voice broke
the quiet from the verdure of a nearby forest giant.

"Do not fire until I tell you to," it said, in English, "and
I will save you."

Bluber raised his head. "Come qvick! Come qvick!" he cried,
"ve vill not shoot. Safe me, safe me, und I giff you five
pounds."

From the tree from which the voice had issued there came a
single, low, long-drawn, whistled note, and then silence for
a time.

The pigmies, momentarily surprised by the mysterious voice
emanating from the foliage of a tree, ceased their
activities, but presently, hearing nothing to arouse their
fear, they emerged from the cover of the bushes and launched
another volley of arrows toward the four men lying among the
grasses in the clearing.  Simultaneously the figure of a
giant white leaped from the lower branches of a patriarch of
the jungle, as a great black-maned lion sprang from the
thicket below.

"Oi!" shrieked Bluber, and again buried his face in his
arms.

For an instant the pigmies stood terrified, and then their
leader cried:  "It is Tarzan!" and turned and fled into the
jungle.

"Yes, it is Tarzan--Tarzan of the Apes," cried Lord
Greystoke.  "It is Tarzan and the golden lion," but he spoke
in the dialect of the pigmies, and the whites understood no
word of what he said. Then he turned to them. "The Gomangani
have gone," he said; "get up."

The four men crawled to their feet. "Who are you, and what
are you doing here?" demanded Tarzan of the Apes. "But I do
not need to ask who you are. You are the men who drugged me,
and left me helpless in your camp, a prey to the first
passing lion or savage native."

Bluber stumbled forward, rubbing his palms together and
cringing and smiling.  "Oi! Oi! Mr. Tarzan, ve did not know
you. Neffer vould ve did vat ve done, had ve known it vas
Tarzan of the Apes.  Safe me!  Ten pounds--tventy pounds
--anyt'ing. Name your own price. Safe me, und it is yours."

Tarzan ignored the Jew and turned toward the others.  "I am
looking for one of your men," he said; "a black named
Luvini.  He killed my wife. Where is he?"

"We know nothing of that," said Kraski. "Luvini betrayed us
and deserted us. Your wife and another white woman were in
our camp at the time.  None of us knows what became of them.
They were behind us when we took our post to defend the camp
from our men and the slaves of the Arabs.  Your Waziri were
there. After the enemy had withdrawn we found that the two
women had disappeared.  We do not know what became of them.
We are looking for them now."

"My Waziri told me as much," said Tarzan, "but have you seen
aught of Luvini since?"

"No, we have not," replied Kraski.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Tarzan.

"We came with Mr. Bluber on a scientific expedition,"replied
the Russian.  "We have had a great deal of trouble.  Our
head-men, askari, and porters have mutinied and deserted. We
are absolutely alone and helpless."

"Oi! Oi!" cried Bluber.  "Safe us!  Safe us! But keep dot
lion avay.  He makes me nerfous."

"He will not hurt you--unless I tell him to," said Tarzan.

"Den please don't tell him to," cried Bluber.

"Where do you want to go?" asked Tarzan.

"We are trying to get back to the coast," replied Kraski,
"and from there to London."

"Come with me," said Tarzan, "possibly I can help you. You
do not deserve it, but I cannot see white men perish here in
the jungle."

They followed him toward the west, and that night they made
camp beside a small jungle stream. It was difficult for the
four Londoners to accustom themselves to the presence of the
great lion, and Bluber was in a state of palpable terror.

As they squatted around the fire after the evening meal,
which Tarzan had provided, Kraski suggested that they set to
and build some sort of a shelter against the wild beasts.

"It will not be necessary," said Tarzan. "Jad-bal-ja will
guard you. He will sleep here beside Tarzan of the Apes, and
what one of us does not hear the other will."

Bluber sighed. "Mein Gott!" he cried. "I should giff ten
pounds for vun night's sleep."

"You may have it tonight for less than that," replied
Tarzan, "for nothing shall befall you while Jad-bal-ja and I
are here."

"Vell, den I t'ink I say good night," said the Jew, and
moving a few paces away from the fire he curled up and was
soon asleep.  Throck and Peebles followed suit, and shortly
after Kraski, too.

As the Russian lay, half dozing, his eyes partially open, he
saw the ape-man rise from the squatting position he had
maintained before the fire, and turn toward a nearby tree.
As he did so something fell from beneath his loin cloth--a
little sack made of hides--a little sack, bulging with its
contents.

Kraski, thoroughly awakened now, watched it as the ape-man
moved off a short distance, accompanied by Jad-bal-ja, and
lay down to sleep.

The great lion curled beside the prostrate man, and
presently the Russian was assured that both slept.
Immediately he commenced crawling, stealthily and slowly
toward the little package lying beside the fire.  With each
forward move that he made he paused and looked at the
recumbent figures of the two ferocious beasts before him,
but both slept on peacefully.  At last the Russian could
reach out and grasp the sack, and drawing it toward him he
stuffed it quickly inside his shirt. Then he turned and
crawled slowly and carefully back to his place beyond the
fire. There, lying with his head upon one arm as though in
profound slumber, he felt carefully of the sack with the
fingers of his left hand.

"They feel like pebbles," he muttered to himself, "and
doubtless that is what they are, for the barbaric
ornamentation of this savage barbarian who is a peer of
England. It does not seem possible that this wild beast has
sat in the House of Lords."

Noiselessly Kraski undid the knot which held the mouth of
the sack closed, and a moment later he let a portion of the
contents trickle forth into his open palm.

"My God!" he cried, "diamonds!"

Greedily he poured them all out and gloated over them--
great scintillating stones of the first water--five pounds
of pure, white diamonds, representing so fabulous a fortune
that the very contemplation of it staggered the Russian.

"My God!" he repeated, "the wealth of Croesus in my own
hand."

Quickly he gathered up the stones and replaced them in the
sack, always with one eye upon Tarzan and Jad-bal-ja; but
neither stirred, and presently he had returned them all to
the pouch and slipped the package inside his shirt.

"Tomorrow,"  he muttered, "tomorrow--would to God that I
had the nerve to attempt it tonight."

In the middle of the following morning Tarzan, with the four
Londoners, approached a good-sized, stockaded village,
containing many huts. He was received not only graciously,
but with the deference due an emperor.

The whites were awed by the attitude of the black chief and
his warriors as Tarzan was conducted into their presence.

After the usual ceremony had been gone through, Tarzan
turned and waved his hand toward the four Europeans.  "These
are my friends," he said to the black chief, "and they wish
to reach the coast in safety. Send with them, then,
sufficient warriors to feed and guard them during the
journey.  It is I, Tarzan of the Apes, who requests this
favor."

"Tarzan of the Apes, the great chief, Lord of the Jungle,
has but to command," replied the black.

"Good!" exclaimed Tarzan, "feed them well and treat them
well.  I have other business to attend to and may not
remain."

"Their bellies shall be filled, and they shall reach the
coast unscathed," replied the chief.

Without a word of farewell, without even a sign that he
realized their existence, Tarzan of the Apes passed from the
sight of the four Europeans, while at his heels paced
Jad-bal-ja, the golden lion.