Chapter Twenty-Two

Awazki, returning from the village of Obebe the cannibal, saw a bone

lying beside the trail. This, in itself, was nothing remarkable. Many

bones lie along savage trails in Africa. But this bone caused him to

pause. It was the bone of a child. Nor was that alone enough to give

pause to a warrior hastening through an unfriendly country back toward

his own people.

But Usula had heard strange tales in the village of Obebe the cannibal

where rumor had brought him in search of his beloved master. The Big

Bwana. Obebe had not seen nor heard anything of Tarzan of the Apes. Not

for years had he seen the giant white. He assured Usula of this fact many

times; but from other members of the tribe the Waziri learned that a

white man had been kept a prisoner by Obebe for a year or more and that

some time since he had escaped. At first Usula thought this white man

might have been Tarzan but when he verified the statement of the time

that had elapsed since the man was captured he knew that it could not

have been his master, and so he turned back along the trail toward home;

but when he saw the child's bone along the trail several days out he

recalled the story of the missing Uhha and he paused, just for a moment,

to look at the bone. And as he looked he saw something else--a small skin

bag, lying among some more bones a few feet off the trail. Usula stooped

and picked up the bag. He opened it and poured some of the contents into

his palm. He know what the things were and he knew that they had belonged

to his master, for Usula was a headman who knew much about his master's

affairs. These were the diamonds that had been stolen from the Big Bwana

many moons before by the white men who had found Opar. He would take them

back to the Big Bwana's lady.

Three days later as he moved silently along the trail close to the Great

Thorn Forest he came suddenly to a halt, the hand grasping his heavy

spear tensing in readiness. In a little open place he saw a man, an

almost naked man, lying upon the ground. The man was alive--he saw him

move--but what was he doing? Usula crept closer, making no noise. He moved

around until he could observe the man from another angle and then he saw

a horrid sight. The man was white and he lay beside the carcass of a

long-dead buffalo, greedily devouring the remnants of hide that clung to

the bleaching bones.

The man raised his head a little and Usula, catching a better view of his

face, gave a cry of horror. Then the man looked up and grinned. It was

the Big Bwana!

Usula ran to him and raised him upon his knees, but the man only laughed

and babbled like a child. At his side, caught over one of the horns of

the buffalo, was the Big Bwana's golden locket with the great diamonds

set in it Usula replaced it about the man's neck. He built a strong

shelter for him nearby and hunted food, and for many days he remained

until the man's strength came back; but his mind did not come back. And

thus, in this condition, the faithful Usula led home his master.

They found many wounds and bruises upon his body and his head, some old,

some new, some trivial, some serious; and they sent to England for a

great surgeon to come out to Africa and seek to mend the poor thing that

once had been Tarzan of the Apes.

The dogs that had once loved Lord Greystoke slunk from this brainless

creature. Jad-bal-ja, the Golden Lion, growled when the man was wheeled

near his cage.

Korak the Killer paced the floor in dumb despair, for his mother was on

her way from England, and what would be the effect upon her of this awful

blow? He hesitated even to contemplate it.

Khamis, the witch doctor, had searched untiringly for Uhha, his daughter,

since the river devil had stolen her from the village of Obebe the

cannibal. He had made pilgrimages to other villages, some of them remote

from his own country, but he had found no trace of her or her abductor.

He was returning from another fruitless search that had extended far to

the east of the village of Obebe, skirting the Great Thorn Forest a few

miles north of the Ugogo. It was early morning. He had just broken his

lonely camp and set out upon the last leg of his homeward journey when

his keen old eyes discovered something lying at the edge of a small open

space a hundred yards to his right. He had just a glimpse of something

that was not of the surrounding vegetation. He did not know what it was;

but instinct bade him investigate. Moving cautiously nearer he presently

identified the thing as a human knee just showing above the low grass

that covered the dealing. He crept closer and suddenly his eyes narrowed

and his breath made a single, odd little sound as it sucked idly between

his lips in mechanical reaction to surprise, for what he saw was the body

of the river devil lying upon its back, one knee flexed--the knee that he

had seen above the grasses.

His spear advanced and ready he approached until he stood above the

motionless body. Was the river devil dead, or was he asleep? Placing the

point of his spear against the brown breast Khamis prodded. The devil did

not awaken. He was not asleep, then! nor did he appear to be dead. Khamis

knelt and placed an ear above the other's heart He was not dead!

The witch doctor thought quickly. In his heart he did not believe in

river devils, yet there was a chance that there might be such things and

perhaps this one was shamming unconsciousness, or temporarily absent from

the flesh it assumed as a disguise that it might go among men without

arousing suspicion. But, too, it was the abductor of his daughter. That

thought filled him with rage and with courage. He must force the truth

from those lips even though the creature were a Devil.

He unwound a bit of fiber rope from about his waist and, turning the body

over upon its back, quickly bound the wrists behind it Then he sat down

beside it to wait. It was an hour before signs of returning consciousness

appeared, then the river devil opened his eyes.

"Where is Uhha, my daughter?" demanded the witch doctor.

The river devil tried to free his arms, but they were too tightly bound.

He made no reply to Khamis' question. It was as though he had not heard

it. He ceased struggling and lay back again, resting. After a while he

opened his eyes once more and lay looking at Khamis, but he did not

speak.

"Get up!" commanded the witch doctor and prodded him with a spear.

The river devil rolled over on his side, flexed his right knee, raised on

one elbow and finally got to his feet. Khamis prodded him in the

direction of the trail. Toward dusk they arrived at the village of Obebe.

When the warriors and the women and the children saw who it was that

Khamis was bringing to the village they became very much excited, and had

it not been for the witch doctor, of whom they were afraid, they would

have knifed and stoned the prisoner to death before he was fairly inside

the village gates; but Khamis did not want the river devil killed--not

yet. He wanted first to force from him the truth concerning Uhha. So far

he had been unable to get a word out of his prisoner. Incessant

questioning, emphasized by many prods of the spear point had elicited

nothing.

Khamis threw his prisoner into the same hut from which the River Devil

had escaped; but he bound him securely and placed two warriors on guard.

He had no mind to lose him again. Obebe came to see him. He, too,

questioned him; but the river devil only looked blankly in the face of

the chief.

"I will make him speak," said Obebe. "After we have finished eating, we

will have him out and make him speak. I know many ways."

"You must not kill him," said the witch doctor. "He knows what became of

Uhha, and until be tells me no one shall kill him."

"He will speak before he dies," said Obebe.

"He is a river devil and will never die," said Khamis, reverting to the

old controversy.

"He is Tarzan," cried Obebe, and the two were still arguing after they

had passed out of hearing of the prisoner lying in the filth of the hut.

After they had eaten he saw them heating irons in a fire near the hut of

the witch doctor, who was squatting before the entrance working rapidly

with numerous charms--bits of wood wrapped in leaves, pieces of stone,

some pebbles, a zebra's tail.

Villagers were congregating about Khamis until presently the prisoner

could no longer see him. A little later a black boy came and spoke to his

guards, and he was taken out and pushed roughly toward the hut of the

witch doctor.

Obebe was there, as he saw after the guards had opened a way through the

throng and he stood beside the fire in the center of the circle. It was

only a small fire; just enough to keep a couple of irons hot.

"Where is Uhha, my daughter?" demanded Khamis.

The river devil did not answer. Not once had he spoken since Khamis had

captured him.

"Burn out one of his eyes," said Obebe. "That will make him speak!"

"Cut out his tongue!" screamed a woman. "Cut out his tongue."

"Then he cannot speak at all, you fool," cried Khamis.

The witch doctor arose and put the question again, but received no reply.

Then he struck the river devil a heavy blow in the face. Khamis had lost

his temper, so that he did not fear even a river devil.

"You will answer me now!" he screamed, and stooping he seized a red-hot

iron.

"The right eye first!" shrilled Obebe.

The doctor came to the bungalow of the ape-man. Lady Greystoke brought him

with her. They were three tired and dusty travelers as they dismounted at

last before the rose-embowered entrance--the famous London surgeon, Lady

Greystoke, and Flora Hawkes, her maid. The surgeon and Lady Greystoke

went immediately to the room where Tarzan sat in an improvised

wheelchair. He looked up at them blankly as they entered.

"Don't you know me, John?" asked the woman.

Her son took her by the shoulders and led her away, weeping.

"He does not know any of us," he said. "Wait until after the operation,

mother, before you see him again. You can do him no good and to see him

this way is too hard upon you."

The great surgeon made his examination. There was pressure on the brain

from a recent fracture of the skull. An operation would relieve the

pressure and might restore the patient's mind and memory. It was worth

attempting.

Nurses and two doctors from Nairobi, engaged the day they arrived there,

followed Lady Greystoke and the London surgeon, reaching the bungalow the

day after their arrival. The operation took place the following morning.

Lady Greystoke, Korak and Meriem were awaiting, in an adjoining room, the

verdict of the surgeon. Was the operation a failure or a success? They

sat mutely staring at the door leading into the improvised operating

room. At last it opened, after what seemed ages, but was only perhaps, an

hour. The surgeon entered the room where they sat their eyes, dumbly

pleading, asked him the question that their lips dared not voice.

"I cannot tell you anything as yet," he said, "other than that the

operation, as an operation, was successful. What the result of it will be

only time will tell. I have given orders that no one is to enter his

room, other than the nurses for ten days. They are instructed not to

speak to him or allow him to speak for the same length of time; but he

will not wish to speak, for I shall keep him in a semiconscious

condition, by means of drugs, until the ten days have elapsed. Until

then, Lady Greystoke, we may only hope for the best; but I can assure you

that your husband has every chance for complete recovery. I think you may

safely hope for the best."

The witch doctor laid his left hand upon the shoulder of the river devil;

in his right hand was clutched a red-hot iron.

"The right eye first," shrilled Obebe again.

Suddenly the muscles upon the back and shoulders of the prisoner leaped

into action, rolling beneath his brown hide. For just an instant he

appeared to exert terrific physical force, there was a snapping sound at

his back as the strands about his wrists parted, and an instant later

steel-thewed fingers fell upon the right wrist of the witch doctor.

Blazing eyes burned into his. He dropped the red-hot rod, his fingers

paralyzed by the pressure upon his wrist, and he screamed, for he saw

death in the angry face of the god.

Obebe leaped to his feet. Warriors pressed forward, but not near enough

to be within reach of  the river devil . They had never been certain of the

safety of tempting Providence in any such manner as Khamis and Obebe had

been about to do. Now here was the result! The wrath of the river devil would fall upon them all. They fell back, some of them, and that was a

cue for others to fall back. In the minds of all was the thought[-]-if I have no hand in this the river devil will not be angry with me. Then they

turned and fled to their huts, stumbling over their women and their

children who were trying to outdistance their lords and masters.

Obebe turned now to flee also, and the river devil

picked Khamis up, and

held him in two hands high above his head, and ran after Obebe the chief.

The latter dodged into his own hut. He had scarce reached the center of

it when there came a terrific crash upon the light, thatched roof, which

gave way beneath a heavy weight A body descending upon the chief filled

him with terror. The river devil had leaped in through the roof of his

hut to destroy him! The instinct of self-preservation rose momentarily

above his fear of the supernatural, for now he was convinced that Khamis

had been right and the creature they had so long held prisoner was indeed

 the river devil . And Obebe drew the knife at his side and plunged it

again and again into the body of the creature that had leaped upon him,

and, when he knew that life was extinct, he rose and dragging the body

after him stepped out of his hut into the light of the moon and the

fires.

"Come, my people!" he cried. "You have nothing to fear, for I, Obebe,

your chief, have slain the river devil with my own hands," and then he

looked down at the thing trailing behind him, and gave a gasp, and sat

down suddenly in the dirt of the village street, for the body at his

heels was that of Kharnis, the witch doctor.

His people came and when they saw what had happened they said nothing,

but looked terrified. Obebe examined his hut and the ground around it. He

took several warriors and searched the village. The stranger had

departed. He went to the gates. They were closed; but in the dust before

them was the imprint of naked feet--the naked feet of a white man. Then he

came back to his hut, where his frightened people stood waiting him.

"Obebe was right," he said. "The creature was not the river devil--it was

Tarzan of the Apes, for only he could hurl Khamis so high above his head

that he would fall through the roof of a hut, and only he could pass

unaided over our gates."

The tenth day had come. The great surgeon was still at the Greystoke

bungalow awaiting the outcome of the operation. The patient was slowly

emerging from under the influence of the last dose of drugs that had been

given him during the preceding night, but he was regaining his

consciousness more slowly than the surgeon had hoped. The long hours

dragged by, morning ran into afternoon, and evening came, and still there

was no word from the sickroom.

It was dark. The lamps were lighted. The family were congregated in the

big living room. Suddenly the door opened and a nurse appeared. Behind

her was the patient There was a puzzled look upon his face; but the face

of the nurse was wreathed in smiles. The surgeon came behind, assisting

the man, who was weak from long inactivity.

"I think Lord Greystoke will recover rapidly now," he said. "There are

many things that you may have to tell him. He did not know who he was,

when he regained consciousness; but that is not unusual in such cases."

The patient took a few steps into the room, looking wonderingly about

"There is your wife, Greystoke," said the surgeon, kindly.

Lady Greystoke rose and crossed the room toward her husband, her arms

outstretched. A smile crossed the face of the invalid, as he stepped

forward to meet her and take her in his arms; but suddenly someone was

between them, holding them apart. It was Flora Hawkes.

"My Gawd, Lady Greystoke!" she cried. "He ain't your husband. It's

Miranda, Esteban Miranda! Don't you suppose I'd know him in a million? I

ain't seen him since we came back, never havin' been in the sick chamber,

but I suspicioned something the minute he stepped into this room and when

he smiled, I knew."

"Flora!" cried the distracted wife. "Are you sure? No! no! you must be

wrong! God has not given me back my husband only to steal him away again.

John! tell me, is it you? You would not lie to me?"

For a moment the man before them was silent. He swayed to and fro, as in

weakness. The surgeon stepped forward and supported him.

"I have been very sick," he said. "Possibly I have changed; But I am Lord

Greystoke. I do not remember this woman," and he indicated Flora Hawkes.

"He lies!" cried the girl.

"Yes, he lies," said a quiet voice behind them, and they all turned to

see the figure of a giant white standing in the open French windows

leading to the veranda.

"John!" cried Lady Greystoke, running toward him, "how could I have been

mistaken? I--" but the rest of the sentence was lost as Tarzan of the Apes

sprang into the room and taking his mate in his arms covered her lips

with kisses.

THE END