Title: Tarzan and the Ant-men

Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs

* A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook *

eBook No.:  0600651.txt

Edition:    1

Language:   English

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Title: Tarzan and the Ant-men

Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Chapter One

In the filth of a dark hut, in the village of Obebe the cannibal, upon

the banks of the Ugogo, Esteban Miranda squatted upon his haunches and

gnawed upon the remnants of a half-cooked fish. About his neck was an

iron slave collar from which a few feet of rusty chain ran to a stout

post set deep in the ground near the low entranceway that let upon the

village street not far from the hut of Obebe himself.

For a year Esteban Miranda had been chained thus, like a dog, and like a

dog he sometimes crawled through the low doorway of his kennel and basked

in the sun outside. Two diversions had he; and only two. One was the

persistent idea that he was Tarzan of the Apes, whom he had impersonated

for so long and with such growing success that, like the good actor he

was, he had come not only to act the part, but to live it--to be it. He

way, as far as he was concerned, Tarzan of the Apes--there was no

other--and he was Tarzan of the Apes to Obebe, too; but the village witch

doctor still insisted that he was the river devil and as such, one to

propitiate rather than to anger.

It had been this difference of opinion between the chief and the witch

doctor that had kept Esteban Miranda from the fleshpots of the village,

for Obebe had wanted to eat him, thinking him his old enemy the ape-man;

but the witch doctor had aroused the superstitious fears of the villagers

by half convincing them that their prisoner was the river devil

masquerading as Tarzan, and, as such, dire disaster would descend upon

the village were he harmed. The result of this difference between Obebe

and the witch doctor had been to preserve the life of the Spaniard until

the truth of one claim or the other was proved--if Esteban died a natural

death he was Tarzan, the mortal, and Obebe the chief was vindicated; if

he lived on forever, or mysteriously disappeared, the claim of the witch

doctor would be accepted as gospel.

After he had learned their language and thus come to a realization of the

accident of fate that had guided his destiny by so narrow a margin from

the cooking pots of the cannibals he was less eager to proclaim himself

Tarzan of the Apes. Instead he let drop mysterious suggestions that he

was, indeed, none other than the river devil. The witch doctor was

delighted, and everyone was fooled except Obebe, who was old and wise and

did not believe in river devils, and the witch doctor who was old and

wise and did not believe in them either, but realized that they were

excellent things for his parishioners to believe in.

Esteban Miranda's other diversion, aside from secretly believing himself

Tarzan, consisted in gloating over the bag of diamonds that Kraski the

Russian had stolen from the ape-man, and that had fallen into the

Spaniard's hands after he had murdered Kraski--the same bag of diamonds

that the man had handed to Tarzan in the vaults beneath the Tower of

Diamonds, in the Valley of the Palace of Diamonds, when he had rescued

the Gomangani of the valley from the tyrannical oppression of the

Bolgani.

For hours at a time Esteban Miranda sat in the dim light of his dirty

kennel counting and fondling the brilliant stones. A thousand times had

he weighed each one in an appraising palm, computing its value and

translating it into such pleasures of the flesh as great wealth might buy

for him in the capitals of the world. Mired in his own filth, feeding

upon rotted scraps tossed to him by unclean hands, he yet possessed the

wealth of a Croesus, and it was as Croesus he lived in his imaginings,

his dismal hut changed into the pomp and circumstance of a palace by the

scintillant gleams of the precious stones. At the sound of each

approaching footstep he would hastily hide his fabulous fortune in the

wretched loin cloth that was his only garment, and once again become a

prisoner in a cannibal hut.

And now, after a year of solitary confinement, came a third diversion, in

the form of Uhha, the daughter of Khamis the witch doctor. Uhha was

fourteen, comely and curious. For a year now she had watched the

mysterious prisoner from a distance until, at last, familiarity had

overcome her fears and one day she approached him as he lay in the sun

outside his hut. Esteban, who had been watching her half-timorous advance,

smiled encouragingly. He had not a friend among the villagers. If he

could make but one his lot would be much the easier and freedom a step

nearer. At last Uhha came to a halt a few steps from him. She was a

child, ignorant and a savage; but she was a woman-child and Esteban

Miranda knew women.

"I have been in the village of the chief Obebe for a year," he said

haltingly, in the laboriously acquired language of his captors, "but

never before did I guess that its walls held one so beautiful as you.

What is your name?"

Uhha was pleased. She smiled broadly. "I am Uhha," she told him. "My

father is Khamis the witch doctor."

It was Esteban who was pleased now. Fate, after rebuffing him for long,

was at last kind. She had sent him one who, with cultivation, might prove

a flower of hope indeed.

"Why have you never come to see me before?" asked Esteban.

"I was afraid," replied Uhha simply.

"Why?"

"I was afraid--" she hesitated.

"Afraid that I was the river devil and would harm you?" demanded the

Spaniard, smiling.

"Yes," she said.

"Listen!" whispered Esteban; "but tell no one. I am the river devil, but

I shall not harm you."

"If you are the river devil why then do you remain chained to a stake?"

inquired Uhha. "Why do you not change yourself to something else and

return to the river?"

"You wonder about that, do you?" asked Miranda, sparring for time that he

might concoct a plausible answer.

"It is not only Uhha who wonders," said the girl. "Many others have asked

the same question of late. Obebe asked it first and there was none to

explain. Obebe says that you are Tarzan, the enemy of Obebe and his

people; but my father Khamis says that you are the river devil, and that

if you wanted to get away you would change yourself into a snake and

crawl through the iron collar that is about your neck. And the people

wonder why you do not, and many of them are commencing to believe that

you are not the river devil at all."

"Come closer, beautiful Uhha," whispered Miranda, "that no other ears

than yours may hear what I am about to tell you."

The girl came a little closer and leaned toward him where he squatted

upon the ground.

"I am indeed the river devil," said Esteban, "and I come and go as I

wish. At night, when the village sleeps, I am wandering through the

waters of the Ugogo, but always I come back again. I am waiting, Uhha, to

try the people of the village of Obebe that I may know which are my

friends and which my enemies. Already have I learned that Obebe is no

friend of mine, and I am not sure of Khamis. Had Khamis been a good

friend he would have brought me fine food and beer to drink. I could go

when I pleased, but I wait to see if there be one in the village of Obebe

who will set me free, thus may I learn which is my best friend. Should

there be such a one, Uhha, fortune would smile upon him always, his every

wish would be granted and he would live to a great age, for he would have

nothing to fear from the river devil, who would help him in all his

undertakings. But listen, Uhha, tell no one what I have told you! I shall

wait a little longer and then if there be no such friend in the village

of Obebe I shall return to my father and mother, the Ugogo, and destroy

the people of Obebe. Not one shall remain alive."

The girl drew away, terrified. It was evident that she was much

impressed.

"Do not be afraid," he reassured her. "I shall not harm you."

"But if you destroy all the people?" she demanded.

"Then, of course," he said, "I cannot help you; but let us hope that

someone comes and sets me free so that I shall know that I have at least

one good friend here. Now run along, Uhha, and remember that you must

tell no one what I have told you."

She moved off a short distance and then returned.

"When will you destroy the village?" she asked.

"In a few days," he said.

Uhha, trembling with terror, ran quickly away in the direction of the hut

of her father, Khamis, the witch doctor. Esteban Miranda smiled a

satisfied smile and crawled back into his hole to play with his diamonds.

Khamis the witch doctor was not in his hut when Uhha his daughter, faint

from fright, crawled into the dim interior. Nor were his wives. With

their children, the latter were in the fields beyond the palisade, where

Uhha should have been. And so it was that the girl had time for thought

before she saw any of them again, with the result that she recalled

distinctly, what she had almost forgotten in the first frenzy of fear,

that the river devil had impressed upon her that she must reveal to no

one the thing that he had told her.

And she had been upon the point of telling her father all!

What dire calamity then would have befallen her? She trembled at the very

suggestion of a fate so awful that she could not even imagine it. How

close a call she had had! But what was she to do?

She lay huddled upon a mat of woven grasses, racking her poor, savage

little brain for a solution of the immense problem that confronted

her--the first problem that had ever entered her young life other than the

constantly recurring one of how most easily to evade her share of the

drudgery of the fields. Presently she sat suddenly erect, galvanized into

statuesque rigidity by a thought engendered by the recollection of one of

the river devil's remarks. Why had it not occurred to her before? Very

plainly he had said, and he had repeated it, that if he were released he

would know that he had at least one friend in the village of Obebe, and

that whoever released him would live to a great age and have every thing

he wished for; but after a few minutes of thought Uhha drooped again. How

was she, a little girl, to compass the liberation of the river devil

alone?

"How, baba," she asked her father, when he had returned to the hut, later

in the day, "does the river devil destroy those who harm him?"

"As the fish in the river, so are the ways of the river devil--without

number," replied Khamis. "He might send the fish from the river and the

game from the jungle and cause our crops to die. Then we should starve.

He might bring the fire out of the sky at night and strike dead all the

people of Obebe."

"And you think he may do these things to us, baba?"

"He will not harm Khamis, who saved him from the death that Obebe would

have inflicted," replied the witch doctor.

Uhha recalled that the river devil had complained that Khamis had not

brought him good food nor beer, but she said nothing about that, although

she realized that her father was far from being so high in the good

graces of the river devil as he seemed to think he was. Instead, she took

another tack.

"How can he escape," she asked "while the collar is about his neck--who

will remove it for him?"

"No one can remove it but Obebe, who carries in his pouch the bit of

brass that makes the collar open," replied Khamis; "but the river devil

needs no help, for when the time comes that he wishes to be free he has

but to become a snake and crawl forth from the iron band about his neck.

Where are you going, Uhha?"

"I am going to visit the daughter of Obebe," she called back over her

shoulder.

The chief's daughter was grinding maize, as Uhha should have been doing.

She looked up and smiled as the daughter of the witch doctor approached.

"Make no noise, Uhha," she cautioned, "for Obebe, my father, sleeps

within." She nodded toward the hut. The visitor sat down and the two

girls chatted in low tones. They spoke of their ornaments, their

coiffures, of the young men of the village, and often, when they spoke of

these, they giggled. Their conversation was not unlike that which might

pass between two young girls of any race or clime. As they talked, Uhha's

eyes often wandered toward the entrance to Obebe's hut and many times her

brows were contracted in much deeper thought than their idle passages

warranted.

"Where," she demanded suddenly, "is the armlet of copper wire that your

father's brother gave you at the beginning of the last moon?"

Obebe's daughter shrugged. "He took it back from me," she replied, "and

gave it to the sister of his youngest wife."

Uhha appeared crestfallen. Could it be that she had coveted the copper

bracelet? Her eyes closely scrutinized the person of her friend. Her

brows almost met, so deeply was she thinking. Suddenly her face

brightened.

"The necklace of many beads that your father took from the body of the

warrior captured for the last feast!" she exclaimed. "You have not lost

it?"

"No," replied her friend. "It is in the house of my father. When I grind

maize it gets in my way and so I laid it aside."

"May I see it?" asked Uhha. "I will fetch it."

"No, you will awaken Obebe and he will be very angry," said the chief’s

daughter.

"I will not awaken him," replied Uhha, and started to crawl toward the

hut's entrance.

Her friend tried to dissuade her. "I will fetch it as soon as baba has

awakened," she told Uhha, but Uhha paid no attention to her and presently

was crawling cautiously into the interior of the hut. Once within she

waited silently until her eyes became accustomed to the dim light.

Against the opposite wall of the hut Obebe lay sprawled upon a sleeping

mat. He snored lustily. Uhha crept toward him. Her stealth was the

stealth of Sheeta the leopard. Her heart was beating like the tom-tom

when the dance is at its height. She feared that its noise and her rapid

breathing would awaken the old chief, of whom she was as terrified as of

the river devil; but Obebe snored on.

Uhha came close to him. Her eyes were accustomed now to the half-light of

the hut's interior. At Obebe's side and half beneath his body she saw the

chief’s pouch. Cautiously she reached forth a trembling hand and laid hold

upon it. She tried to draw it from beneath Obebe's weight. The sleeper

stirred uneasily and Uhha drew back, terrified. Obebe changed his

position and Uhha thought that he had awakened. Had she not been frozen

with horror she would have rushed into headlong flight, but fortunately

for her she could not move, and presently she heard Obebe resume his

interrupted snoring; but her nerve was gone and she thought now only of

escaping from the hut without being detected. She cast a last frightened

glance at the chief to reassure herself that he still slept. Her eyes

fell upon the pouch. Obebe had turned away from it and it now lay within

her reach, free from the weight of his body.

She reached for it only to withdraw her hand suddenly. She turned away.

Her heart was in her mouth. She swayed dizzily and then she thought of

the river devil and of the possibilities for horrid death that lay within

his power. Once more she reached for the pouch and this time she picked

it up. Hurriedly opening it she examined the contents. The brass key was

there. She recognized it because it was the only thing the purpose of

which she was not familiar with. The collar, chain and key had been taken

from an Arab slave raider that Obebe had killed and eaten and as some of

the old men of Obebe's village had worn similar bonds in the past, there

was no difficulty in adapting it to its intended purpose when occasion

demanded.

Uhha hastily closed the pouch and replaced it at Obebe's side. Then,

clutching the key in a clammy palm, she crawled hurriedly toward the

doorway.

That night, after the cooking fires had died to embers and been covered

with earth and the people of Obebe had withdrawn into their huts, Esteban

Miranda heard a stealthy movement at the entrance to his kennel. He

listened intently. Someone was creeping into the interior--someone or

something.

"Who is it?" demanded the Spaniard in a voice that he tried hard to keep

from trembling.

"Hush!" responded the intruder in soft tones. "It is I, Uhha, the

daughter of Khamis the witch doctor. I have come to set you free that you

may know that you have a good friend in the village of Obebe and will,

therefore, not destroy us."

Miranda smiled. His suggestion had borne fruit more quickly than he had

dared to hope, and evidently the girl had obeyed his injunction to keep

silent. In that matter he had reasoned wrongly, but of what moment that,

since his sole aim in life--freedom--was to be accomplished. He had

cautioned the girl to silence believing this the surest way to

disseminate the word he had wished spread through the village, where, he

was positive, it would have come to the ears of some one of the

superstitious savages with the means to free him now that the incentive

was furnished.

"And how are you going to free me?" demanded Miranda.

"See!" exclaimed Uhha. "I have brought the key to the collar about your

neck."

"Good," cried the Spaniard. "Where is it?"

Uhha crawled closer to the man and handed him the key. Then she would

have fled.

"Wait!" demanded the prisoner. "When I am free you must lead me forth

into the jungle. Whoever sets me free must do this if he would win the

favor of the river god."

Uhha was afraid, but she did not dare refuse. Miranda fumbled with the

ancient lock for several minutes before it at last gave to the worn key

the girl had brought Then he snapped the padlock again and carrying the

key with him crawled toward the entrance.

"Get me weapons," he whispered to the girl and Uhha departed through the

shadows of the village street. Miranda knew that she was terrified but

was confident that this very terror would prove the means of bringing her

back to him with the weapons. Nor was he wrong, for scarce five minutes

had elapsed before Uhha had returned with a quiver of arrows, a bow and a

stout knife.

"Now lead me to the gate," commanded Esteban.

Keeping out of the main street and as much in rear of the huts as

possible Uhha led the fugitive toward the village gates. It surprised her

a little that he, a river devil, should not know how to unlock and open

them, for she had thought that river devils were all-wise; but she did as

he bid and showed him how the great bar could be withdrawn, and helped

him push the gates open enough to permit him to pass through. Beyond was

the clearing that led to the river, on either hand rose the giants of the

jungle. It was very dark out there and Esteban Miranda suddenly

discovered that his new-found liberty had its drawbacks. To go forth

alone at night into the dark, mysterious jungle filled him with a

nameless dread.

Uhha drew back from the gates. She had done her part and saved the

village from destruction. Now she wished to close the gates again and

hasten back to the hut of her father, there to lie trembling in nervous

excitement and terror against the morning that would reveal to the

village the escape of the river devil.

Esteban reached forth and took her by the arm. "Come," he said, "and

receive your reward."

Uhha shrank away from him. "Let me go!" she cried. "I am afraid."

But Esteban was afraid, too, and he had decided that the company of this

little negro girl would be better than no company at all in the depths of

the lonely jungle. Possibly when daylight came he would let her go back

to her people, but tonight he shuddered at the thought of entering the

jungle without human companionship.

Uhha tried to tear herself free from his grasp. She struggled like a

little lion cub, and at last would have raised her voice in a wild scream

for help had not Miranda suddenly clapped his palm across her mouth,

lifted her bodily from the ground and, running swiftly across the clearing,

disappeared into the jungle.

Behind them the warriors of Obebe the cannibal slept in peaceful

ignorance of the sudden tragedy that had entered the life of little Uhha

and before them, far out in the jungle, a lion roared thunderously.