Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan the Untamed

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TARZAN THE UNTAMED

Edgar Rice Burroughs

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I Murder and Pillage

II The Lion's Cave

III In the German Lines

IV When the Lion Fed

V The Golden Locket

VI Vengeance and Mercy

VII When Blood Told

VIII Tarzan and the Great Apes

IX Dropped from the Sky

X In the Hands of Savages

XI Finding the Airplane

XII The Black Flier

XIII Usanga's Reward

XIV The Black Lion

XV Mysterious Footprints

XVI The Night Attack

XVII The Walled City

XVIII Among the Maniacs

XIX The Queen's Story

XX Came Tarzan

XXI In the Alcove

XXII Out of the Niche

XXIII The Flight from Xuja

XXIV The Tommies

TARZAN

THE UNTAMED

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Murder and Pillage

Hauptmann Fritz Schneider trudged wearily through

the somber aisles of the dark forest. Sweat rolled down

his bullet head and stood upon his heavy jowls and bull

neck. His lieutenant marched beside him while Underlieutenant

von Goss brought up the rear, following with a handful of

askaris the tired and all but exhausted porters whom the black

soldiers, following the example of their white officer, en-

couraged with the sharp points of bayonets and the metal-shod

butts of rifles.

There were no porters within reach of Hauptmann Schnei-

der so he vented his Prussian spleen upon the askaris nearest

at hand, yet with greater circumspection since these men bore

loaded rifles -- and the three white men were alone with them

in the heart of Africa.

Ahead of the hauptmann marched half his company, be-

hind him the other half -- thus were the dangers of the savage

jungle minimized for the German captain. At the forefront

of the column staggered two naked savages fastened to each

other by a neck chain. These were the native guides im-

pressed into the service of Kultur and upon their poor, bruised

bodies Kultur's brand was revealed in divers cruel wounds and

bruises.

Thus even in darkest Africa was the light of German civili-

zation commencing to reflect itself upon the undeserving na-

tives just as at the same period, the fall of 1914, it was shed-

ding its glorious effulgence upon benighted Belgium.

It is true that the guides had led the party astray; but this

is the way of most African guides. Nor did it matter that ig-

norance rather than evil intent had been the cause of their

failure. It was enough for Hauptmann Fritz Schneider to

know that he was lost in the African wilderness and that he

had at hand human beings less powerful than he who could be

made to suffer by torture. That he did not kill them outright

was partially due to a faint hope that they might eventually

prove the means of extricating him from his difficulties and

partially that so long as they lived they might still be made

to suffer.

The poor creatures, hoping that chance might lead them at

last upon the right trail, insisted that they knew the way and

so led on through a dismal forest along a winding game trail

trodden deep by the feet of countless generations of the sav-

age denizens of the jungle.

Here Tantor, the elephant, took his long way from dust

wallow to water. Here Buto, the rhinoceros, blundered blindly

in his solitary majesty, while by night the great cats paced

silently upon their padded feet beneath the dense canopy of

overreaching trees toward the broad plain beyond, where they

found their best hunting.

It was at the edge of this plain which came suddenly and

unexpectedly before the eyes of the guides that their sad hearts

beat with renewed hope. Here the hauptmann drew a deep

sigh of relief, for after days of hopeless wandering through

almost impenetrable jungle the broad vista of waving grasses

dotted here and there with open parklike woods and in the

far distance the winding line of green shrubbery that denoted

a river appeared to the European a veritable heaven.

The Hun smiled in his relief, passed a cheery word with his

lieutenant, and then scanned the broad plain with his field

glasses. Back and forth they swept across the rolling land

until at last they came to rest upon a point near the center of

the landscape and close to the green-fringed contours of the

river.

"We are in luck," said Schneider to his companions. "Do

you see it?"

The lieutenant, who was also gazing through his own glasses,

finally brought them to rest upon the same spot that had

held the attention of his superior.

"Yes," he said, "an English farm. It must be Greystoke's,

for there is none other in this part of British East Africa. God

is with us, Herr Captain."

"We have come upon the English schweinhund long before

he can have learned that his country is at war with ours,"

replied Schneider. "Let him be the first to feel the iron hand

of Germany."

"Let us hope that he is at home," said the lieutenant, "that

we may take him with us when we report to Kraut at Nairobi.

It will go well indeed with Herr Hauptmann Fritz Schneider

if he brings in the famous Tarzan of the Apes as a prisoner

of war."

Schneider smiled and puffed out his chest. "You are right,

my friend," he said, "it will go well with both of us; but I

shall have to travel far to catch General Kraut before he

reaches Mombasa. These English pigs with their contemptible

army will make good time to the Indian Ocean."

It was in a better frame of mind that the small force set

out across the open country toward the trim and well-kept

farm buildings of John Clayton, Lord Greystoke; but disap-

pointment was to be their lot since neither Tarzan of the Apes

nor his son was at home.

Lady Jane, ignorant of the fact that a state of war existed

between Great Britain and Germany, welcomed the officers

most hospitably and gave orders through her trusted Waziri

to prepare a feast for the black soldiers of the enemy.

Far to the east, Tarzan of the Apes was traveling rapidly

from Nairobi toward the farm. At Nairobi he had received

news of the World War that had already started, and, antici-

pating an immediate invasion of British East Africa by the

Germans, was hurrying homeward to fetch his wife to a place

of greater security. With him were a score of his ebon war-

riors, but far too slow for the ape-man was the progress of

these trained and hardened woodsmen.

When necessity demanded, Tarzan of the Apes sloughed

the thin veneer of his civilization and with it the hampering

apparel that was its badge. In a moment the polished Eng-

lish gentleman reverted to the naked ape man.

His mate was in danger. For the time, that single thought

dominated. He did not think of her as Lady Jane Greystoke,

but rather as the she he had won by the might of his steel

thews, and that he must hold and protect by virtue of the

same offensive armament.

It was no member of the House of Lords who swung

swiftly and grimly through the tangled forest or trod with

untiring muscles the wide stretches of open plain -- it was a

great he ape filled with a single purpose that excluded all

thoughts of fatigue or danger.

Little Manu, the monkey, scolding and chattering in the

upper terraces of the forest, saw him pass. Long had it been

since he had thus beheld the great Tarmangani naked and

alone hurtling through the jungle. Bearded and gray was

Manu, the monkey, and to his dim old eyes came the fire of

recollection of those days when Tarzan of the Apes had ruled

supreme, Lord of the Jungle, over all the myriad life that trod

the matted vegetation between the boles of the great trees,

or flew or swung or climbed in the leafy fastness upward

to the very apex of the loftiest terraces.

And Numa, the lion, lying up for the day close beside last

night's successful kill, blinked his yellow-green eyes and

twitched his tawny tail as he caught the scent spoor of his

ancient enemy.

Nor was Tarzan senseless to the presence of Numa or Manu

or any of the many jungle beasts he passed in his rapid flight

towards the west. No particle had his shallow probing of

English society dulled his marvelous sense faculties. His nose

had picked out the presence of Numa, the lion, even before

the majestic king of beasts was aware of his passing.

He had heard noisy little Manu, and even the soft rustling

of the parting shrubbery where Sheeta passed before either

of these alert animals sensed his presence.

But however keen the senses of the ape-man, however

swift his progress through the wild country of his adoption,

however mighty the muscles that bore him, he was still mortal.

Time and space placed their inexorable limits upon him; nor

was there another who realized this truth more keenly than

Tarzan. He chafed and fretted that he could not travel with

the swiftness of thought and that the long tedious miles

stretching far ahead of him must require hours and hours of

tireless effort upon his part before he would swing at last from

the final bough of the fringing forest into the open plain and

in sight of his goal.

Days it took, even though he lay up at night for but a few

hours and left to chance the finding of meat directly on his

trail. If Wappi, the antelope, or Horta, the boar, chanced in

his way when he was hungry, he ate, pausing but long

enough to make the kill and cut himself a steak.

Then at last the long journey drew to its close and he was

passing through the last stretch of heavy forest that bounded

his estate upon the east, and then this was traversed and he

stood upon the plain's edge looking out across his broad

lands towards his home.

At the first glance his eyes narrowed and his muscles tensed.

Even at that distance he could see that something was amiss.

A thin spiral of smoke arose at the right of the bungalow

where the barns had stood, but there were no barns there

now, and from the bungalow chimney from which smoke

should have arisen, there arose nothing.

Once again Tarzan of the Apes was speeding onward, this

time even more swiftly than before, for he was goaded now

by a nameless fear, more product of intuition than of reason.

Even as the beasts, Tarzan of the Apes seemed to possess a

sixth sense. Long before he reached the bungalow, he had

almost pictured the scene that finally broke upon his view.

Silent and deserted was the vine-covered cottage. Smolder-

ing embers marked the site of his great barns. Gone were

the thatched huts of his sturdy retainers, empty the fields, the

pastures, and corrals. Here and there vultures rose and circled

above the carcasses of men and beasts.

It was with a feeling as nearly akin to terror as he ever had

experienced that the ape-man finally forced himself to enter

his home. The first sight that met his eyes set the red haze

of hate and bloodlust across his vision, for there, crucified

against the wall of the living-room, was Wasimbu, giant son

of the faithful Muviro and for over a year the personal body-

guard of Lady Jane.

The overturned and shattered furniture of the room, the

brown pools of dried blood upon the floor, and prints of

bloody hands on walls and woodwork evidenced something

of the frightfulness of the battle that had been waged within

the narrow confines of the apartment. Across the baby grand

piano lay the corpse of another black warrior, while before

the door of Lady Jane's boudoir were the dead bodies of three

more of the faithful Greystoke servants.

The door of this room was closed. With drooping shoulders

and dull eyes Tarzan stood gazing dumbly at the insensate

panel which hid from him what horrid secret he dared not

even guess.

Slowly, with leaden feet, he moved toward the door. Grop-

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摘要：

TARZANTHEUNTAMEDEdgarRiceBurroughsCONTENTSCHAPTERIMurderandPillageIITheLion'sCaveIIIIntheGermanLinesIVWhentheLionFedVTheGoldenLocketVIVengeanceandMercyVIIWhenBloodToldVIIITarzanandtheGreatApesIXDroppedfromtheSkyXIntheHandsofSavagesXIFindingtheAirplaneXIITheBlackFlierXIIIUsanga'sRewardXIVTheBlackLion...

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Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan the Untamed

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