3

Tarzan the Terrible

by Edgar R. Burroughs

3, TARZAN THE TERRIBLE by Edgar R. Burroughs
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Pan-at-lee

NIGHT had fallen upon unchartered Pal-ul-don. A slender moon, low
in the west, bathed the white faces of the chalk cliffs presented
to her, in a mellow, unearthly glow. Black were the shadows in
Kor-ul-ja, Gorge-of-lions, where dwelt the tribe of the same name
under Es-sat, their chief. From an aperture near the summit of
the lofty escarpment a hairy figure emerged--the head and
shoulders first--and fierce eyes scanned the cliff side in every
direction.

It was Es-sat, the chief. To right and left and below he looked
as though to assure himself that he was unobserved, but no other
figure moved upon the cliff face, nor did another hairy body
protrude from any of the numerous cave mouths from the high-flung
abode of the chief to the habitations of the more lowly members
of the tribe nearer the cliff's base. Then he moved outward upon
the sheer face of the white chalk wall. In the half-light of the
baby moon it appeared that the heavy, shaggy black figure moved
across the face of the perpendicular wall in some miraculous
manner, but closer examination would have revealed stout pegs, as
large around as a man's wrist protruding from holes in the cliff
into which they were driven. Es-sat's four handlike members and
his long, sinuous tail permitted him to move with consummate ease
whither he chose--a gigantic rat upon a mighty wall. As he
progressed upon his way he avoided the cave mouths, passing
either above or below those that lay in his path.

The outward appearance of these caves was similar. An opening
from eight to as much as twenty feet long by eight high and four
to six feet deep was cut into the chalklike rock of the cliff, in
the back of this large opening, which formed what might be
described as the front veranda of the home, was an opening about
three feet wide and six feet high, evidently forming the doorway
to the interior apartment or apartments. On either side of this
doorway were smaller openings which it were easy to assume were
windows through which light and air might find their way to the
inhabitants. Similar windows were also dotted over the cliff
face between the entrance porches, suggesting that the entire
face of the cliff was honeycombed with apartments. From many of
these smaller apertures small streams of water trickled down the
escarpment, and the walls above others was blackened as by smoke.
Where the water ran the wall was eroded to a depth of from a few
inches to as much as a foot, suggesting that some of the tiny
streams had been trickling downward to the green carpet of
vegetation below for ages.

In this primeval setting the great pithecanthropus aroused no
jarring discord for he was as much a part of it as the trees that
grew upon the summit of the cliff or those that hid their feet
among the dank ferns in the bottom of the gorge.

Now he paused before an entrance-way and listened and then,
noiselessly as the moonlight upon the trickling waters, he merged
with the shadows of the outer porch. At the doorway leading into
the interior he paused again, listening, and then quietly pushing
aside the heavy skin that covered the aperture he passed within a
large chamber hewn from the living rock. From the far end,
through another doorway, shone a light, dimly. Toward this he
crept with utmost stealth, his naked feet giving forth no sound.
The knotted club that had been hanging at his back from a thong
about his neck he now removed and carried in his left hand.

Beyond the second doorway was a corridor running parallel with
the cliff face. In this corridor were three more doorways, one at
each end and a third almost opposite that in which Es-sat stood.
The light was coming from an apartment at the end of the corridor
at his left. A sputtering flame rose and fell in a small stone
receptacle that stood upon a table or bench of the same material,
a monolithic bench fashioned at the time the room was excavated,
rising massively from the floor, of which it was a part.

In one corner of the room beyond the table had been left a dais
of stone about four feet wide and eight feet long. Upon this
were piled a foot or so of softly tanned pelts from which the fur
had not been removed. Upon the edge of this dais sat a young
female Waz-don. In one hand she held a thin piece of metal,
apparently of hammered gold, with serrated edges, and in the
other a short, stiff brush. With these she was occupied in going
over her smooth, glossy coat which bore a remarkable resemblance
to plucked sealskin. Her loin cloth of yellow and black striped
jato-skin lay on the couch beside her with the circular
breastplates of beaten gold, revealing the symmetrical lines of
her nude figure in all its beauty and harmony of contour, for
even though the creature was jet black and entirely covered with
hair yet she was undeniably beautiful.

That she was beautiful in the eyes of Es-sat, the chief, was
evidenced by the gloating expression upon his fierce countenance
and the increased rapidity of his breathing. Moving quickly
forward he entered the room and as he did so the young she looked
up. Instantly her eyes filled with terror and as quickly she
seized the loin cloth and with a few deft movements adjusted it
about her. As she gathered up her breastplates Es-sat rounded the
table and moved quickly toward her.

"What do you want?" she whispered, though she knew full well.

"Pan-at-lee," he said, "your chief has come for you."

"It was for this that you sent away my father and my brothers to
spy upon the Kor-ul-lul? I will not have you. Leave the cave of
my ancestors!"

Es-sat smiled. It was the smile of a strong and wicked man who
knows his power--not a pleasant smile at all. "I will leave,
Pan-at-lee," he said; "but you shall go with me--to the cave of
Es-sat, the chief, to be the envied of the shes of Kor-ul-ja.
Come!"

"Never!" cried Pan-at-lee. "I hate you. Sooner would I mate with
a Ho-don than with you, beater of women, murderer of babes."

A frightful scowl distorted the features of the chief. "She-jato!"
he cried. "I will tame you! I will break you! Es-sat, the chief,
takes what he will and who dares question his right, or combat
his least purpose, will first serve that purpose and then be
broken as I break this," and he picked a stone platter from the
table and broke it in his powerful hands. "You might have been
first and most favored in the cave of the ancestors of Es-sat;
but now shall you be last and least and when I am done with you
you shall belong to all of the men of Es-sat's cave. Thus for
those who spurn the love of their chief!"

He advanced quickly to seize her and as he laid a rough hand upon
her she struck him heavily upon the side of his head with her
golden breastplates. Without a sound Es-sat, the chief, sank to
the floor of the apartment. For a moment Pan-at-lee bent over
him, her improvised weapon raised to strike again should he show
signs of returning consciousness, her glossy breasts rising and
falling with her quickened breathing. Suddenly she stooped and
removed Es-sat's knife with its scabbard and shoulder belt.
Slipping it over her own shoulder she quickly adjusted her
breastplates and keeping a watchful glance upon the figure of the
fallen chief, backed from the room.

In a niche in the outer room, just beside the doorway leading to
the balcony, were neatly piled a number of rounded pegs from
eighteen to twenty inches in length. Selecting five of these she
made them into a little bundle about which she twined the lower
extremity of her sinuous tail and thus carrying them made her way
to the outer edge of the balcony. Assuring herself that there
was none about to see, or hinder her, she took quickly to the
pegs already set in the face of the cliff and with the celerity
of a monkey clambered swiftly aloft to the highest row of pegs
which she followed in the direction of the lower end of the gorge
for a matter of some hundred yards. Here, above her head, were a
series of small round holes placed one above another in three
parallel rows. Clinging only with her toes she removed two of
the pegs from the bundle carried in her tail and taking one in
either hand she inserted them in two opposite holes of the outer
rows as far above her as she could reach. Hanging by these new
holds she now took one of the three remaining pegs in each of her
feet, leaving the fifth grasped securely in her tail. Reaching
above her with this member she inserted the fifth peg in one of
the holes of the center row and then, alternately hanging by her
tail, her feet, or her hands, she moved the pegs upward to new
holes, thus carrying her stairway with her as she ascended.

At the summit of the cliff a gnarled tree exposed its time-worn
roots above the topmost holes forming the last step from the
sheer face of the precipice to level footing. This was the last
avenue of escape for members of the tribe hard pressed by enemies
from below. There were three such emergency exits from the
village and it were death to use them in other than an emergency.
This Pan-at-lee well knew; but she knew, too, that it were worse
than death to remain where the angered Es-sat might lay hands
upon her.

When she had gained the summit, the girl moved quickly through
the darkness in the direction of the next gorge which cut the
mountain-side a mile beyond Kor-ul-ja. It was the Gorge-of-water,
Kor-ul-lul, to which her father and two brothers had been sent by
Es-sat ostensibly to spy upon the neighboring tribe. There was a
chance, a slender chance, that she might find them; if not there
was the deserted Kor-ul-gryf several miles beyond, where she
might hide indefinitely from man if she could elude the frightful
monster from which the gorge derived its name and whose presence
there had rendered its caves uninhabitable for generations.

Pan-at-lee crept stealthily along the rim of the Kor-ul-lul.
Just where her father and brothers would watch she did not know.
Sometimes their spies remained upon the rim, sometimes they
watched from the gorge's bottom. Pan-at-lee was at a loss to know
what to do or where to go. She felt very small and helpless alone
in the vast darkness of the night. Strange noises fell upon her
ears. They came from the lonely reaches of the towering mountains
above her, from far away in the invisible valley and from the
nearer foothills and once, in the distance, she heard what she
thought was the bellow of a bull gryf. It came from the direction
of the Kor-ul-gryf. She shuddered.

Presently there came to her keen ears another sound. Something
approached her along the rim of the gorge. It was coming from
above. She halted, listening. Perhaps it was her father, or a
brother. It was coming closer. She strained her eyes through the
darkness. She did not move--she scarcely breathed. And then, of a
sudden, quite close it seemed, there blazed through the black
night two yellow-green spots of fire.

Pan-at-lee was brave, but as always with the primitive, the
darkness held infinite terrors for her. Not alone the terrors of
the known but more frightful ones as well--those of the unknown.
She had passed through much this night and her nerves were keyed
to the highest pitch--raw, taut nerves, they were, ready to react
in an exaggerated form to the slightest shock.

But this was no slight shock. To hope for a father and a brother
and to see death instead glaring out of the darkness! Yes,
Pan-at-lee was brave, but she was not of iron. With a shriek that
reverberated among the hills she turned and fled along the rim of
Kor-ul-lul and behind her, swiftly, came the devil-eyed lion of
the mountains of Pal-ul-don.

Pan-at-lee was lost. Death was inevitable. Of this there could be
no doubt, but to die beneath the rending fangs of the carnivore,
congenital terror of her kind--it was unthinkable. But there was
an alternative. The lion was almost upon her--another instant
and he would seize her. Pan-at-lee turned sharply to her left.
Just a few steps she took in the new direction before she
disappeared over the rim of Kor-ul-lul. The baffled lion,
planting all four feet, barely stopped upon the verge of the
abyss. Glaring down into the black shadows beneath he mounted an
angry roar.

Through the darkness at the bottom of Kor-ul-ja, Om-at led the
way toward the caves of his people. Behind him came Tarzan and
Ta-den. Presently they halted beneath a great tree that grew
close to the cliff.

"First," whispered Om-at, "I will go to the cave of Pan-at-lee.
Then will I seek the cave of my ancestors to have speech with my
own blood. It will not take long. Wait here--I shall return soon.
Afterward shall we go together to Ta-den's people."

He moved silently toward the foot of the cliff up which Tarzan
could presently see him ascending like a great fly on a wall. In
the dim light the ape-man could not see the pegs set in the face
of the cliff. Om-at moved warily. In the lower tier of caves
there should be a sentry. His knowledge of his people and their
customs told him, however, that in all probability the sentry was
asleep. In this he was not mistaken, yet he did not in any way
abate his wariness. Smoothly and swiftly he ascended toward the
cave of Pan-at-lee while from below Tarzan and Ta-den watched
him.

"How does he do it?" asked Tarzan. "I can see no foothold upon
that vertical surface and yet he appears to be climbing with the
utmost ease."

Ta-den explained the stairway of pegs. "You could ascend easily,"
he said, "although a tail would be of great assistance."

They watched until Om-at was about to enter the cave of
Pan-at-lee without seeing any indication that he had been
observed and then, simultaneously, both saw a head appear in the
mouth of one of the lower caves. It was quickly evident that its
owner had discovered Om-at for immediately he started upward in
pursuit. Without a word Tarzan and Ta-den sprang forward toward
the foot of the cliff. The pithecanthropus was the first to reach
it and the ape-man saw him spring upward for a handhold on the
lowest peg above him. Now Tarzan saw other pegs roughly
paralleling each other in zigzag rows up the cliff face. He
sprang and caught one of these, pulled himself upward by one hand
until he could reach a second with his other hand; and when he
had ascended far enough to use his feet, discovered that he could
make rapid progress. Ta-den was outstripping him, however, for
these precarious ladders were no novelty to him and, further, he
had an advantage in possessing a tail.

Nevertheless, the ape-man gave a good account of himself, being
presently urged to redoubled efforts by the fact that the Waz-don
above Ta-den glanced down and discovered his pursuers just before
the Ho-don overtook him. Instantly a wild cry shattered the
silence of the gorge--a cry that was immediately answered by
hundreds of savage throats as warrior after warrior emerged from
the entrance to his cave.

The creature who had raised the alarm had now reached the recess
before Pan-at-lee's cave and here he halted and turned to give
battle to Ta-den. Unslinging his club which had hung down his
back from a thong about his neck he stood upon the level floor of
the entrance-way effectually blocking Ta-den's ascent. From all
directions the warriors of Kor-ul-ja were swarming toward the
interlopers. Tarzan, who had reached a point on the same level
with Ta-den but a little to the latter's left, saw that nothing
short of a miracle could save them. Just at the ape-man's left
was the entrance to a cave that either was deserted or whose
occupants had not as yet been aroused, for the level recess
remained unoccupied. Resourceful was the alert mind of Tarzan of
the Apes and quick to respond were the trained muscles. In the
time that you or I might give to debating an action he would
accomplish it and now, though only seconds separated his nearest
antagonist from him, in the brief span of time at his disposal he
had stepped into the recess, unslung his long rope and leaning
far out shot the sinuous noose, with the precision of long
habitude, toward the menacing figure wielding its heavy club
above Ta-den. There was a momentary pause of the rope-hand as
the noose sped toward its goal, a quick movement of the right
wrist that closed it upon its victim as it settled over his head
and then a surging tug as, seizing the rope in both hands, Tarzan
threw back upon it all the weight of his great frame.

Voicing a terrified shriek, the Waz-don lunged headforemost from
the recess above Ta-den. Tarzan braced himself for the coming
shock when the creature's body should have fallen the full length
of the rope and as it did there was a snap of the vertebrae that
rose sickeningly in the momentary silence that had followed the
doomed man's departing scream. Unshaken by the stress of the
suddenly arrested weight at the end of the rope, Tarzan quickly
pulled the body to his side that he might remove the noose from
about its neck, for he could not afford to lose so priceless a
weapon.

During the several seconds that had elapsed since he cast the
rope the Waz-don warriors had remained inert as though paralyzed
by wonder or by terror. Now, again, one of them found his voice
and his head and straightway, shrieking invectives at the strange
intruder, started upward for the ape-man, urging his fellows to
attack. This man was the closest to Tarzan. But for him the
ape-man could easily have reached Ta-den's side as the latter was
urging him to do. Tarzan raised the body of the dead Waz-don
above his head, held it poised there for a moment as with face
raised to the heavens he screamed forth the horrid challenge of
the bull apes of the tribe of Kerchak, and with all the strength
of his giant sinews he hurled the corpse heavily upon the
ascending warrior. So great was the force of the impact that not
only was the Waz-don torn from his hold but two of the pegs to
which he clung were broken short in their sockets.

As the two bodies, the living and the dead, hurtled downward
toward the foot of the cliff a great cry arose from the Waz-don.
"Jad-guru-don! Jad-guru-don!" they screamed, and then: "Kill him!
Kill him!"

And now Tarzan stood in the recess beside Ta-den. Jad-guru-don!"
repeated the latter, smiling--"The terrible man! Tarzan the
Terrible! They may kill you, but they will never forget you."

"They shall not ki--What have we here?" Tarzan's statement as to
what "they" should not do was interrupted by a sudden ejaculation
as two figures, locked in deathlike embrace, stumbled through the
doorway of the cave to the outer porch. One was Om-at, the other
a creature of his own kind but with a rough coat, the hairs of
which seemed to grow straight outward from the skin, stiffly,
unlike Om-at's sleek covering. The two were quite evidently well
matched and equally evident was the fact that each was bent upon
murder. They fought almost in silence except for an occasional
low growl as one or the other acknowledged thus some new hurt.

Tarzan, following a natural impulse to aid his ally, leaped
forward to enter the dispute only to be checked by a grunted
admonition from Om-at. "Back!" he said. "This fight is mine,
alone."

The ape-man understood and stepped aside.

"It is a gund-bar," explained Ta-den, "a chief-battle. This
fellow must be Es-sat, the chief. If Om-at kills him without
assistance Om-at may become chief."

Tarzan smiled. It was the law of his own jungle--the law of the
tribe of Kerchak, the bull ape--the ancient law of primitive man
that needed but the refining influences of civilization to
introduce the hired dagger and the poison cup. Then his
attention was drawn to the outer edge of the vestibule. Above it
appeared the shaggy face of one of Es-sat's warriors. Tarzan
sprang to intercept the man; but Ta-den was there ahead of him.
"Back!" cried the Ho-don to the newcomer. "It is gund-bar." The
fellow looked scrutinizingly at the two fighters, then turned his
face downward toward his fellows. "Back!" he cried, "it is
gund-bar between Es-sat and Om-at." Then he looked back at Ta-den
and Tarzan. "Who are you?" he asked.

"We are Om-at's friends," replied Ta-den.

The fellow nodded. "We will attend to you later," he said and
disappeared below the edge of the recess.

The battle upon the ledge continued with unabated ferocity,
Tarzan and Ta-den having difficulty in keeping out of the way of
the contestants who tore and beat at each other with hands and
feet and lashing tails. Es-sat was unarmed--Pan-at-lee had seen
to that--but at Om-at's side swung a sheathed knife which he made
no effort to draw. That would have been contrary to their savage
and primitive code for the chief-battle must be fought with
nature's weapons.

Sometimes they separated for an instant only to rush upon each
other again with all the ferocity and nearly the strength of mad
bulls. Presently one of them tripped the other but in that
viselike embrace one could not fall alone--Es-sat dragged Om-at
with him, toppling upon the brink of the niche. Even Tarzan held
his breath. There they surged to and fro perilously for a moment
and then the inevitable happened--the two, locked in murderous
embrace, rolled over the edge and disappeared from the ape-man's
view.

Tarzan voiced a suppressed sigh for he had liked Om-at and then,
with Ta-den, approached the edge and looked over. Far below, in
the dim light of the coming dawn, two inert forms should be lying
stark in death; but, to Tarzan's amazement, such was far from the
sight that met his eyes. Instead, there were the two figures
still vibrant with life and still battling only a few feet below
him. Clinging always to the pegs with two holds--a hand and a
foot, or a foot and a tail, they seemed as much at home upon the
perpendicular wall as upon the level surface of the vestibule;
but now their tactics were slightly altered, for each seemed
particularly bent upon dislodging his antagonist from his holds
and precipitating him to certain death below. It was soon evident
that Om-at, younger and with greater powers of endurance than
Es-sat, was gaining an advantage. Now was the chief almost wholly
on the defensive. Holding him by the cross belt with one mighty
hand Om-at was forcing his foeman straight out from the cliff,
and with the other hand and one foot was rapidly breaking first
one of Es-sat's holds and then another, alternating his efforts,
or rather punctuating them, with vicious blows to the pit of his
adversary's stomach. Rapidly was Es-sat weakening and with the
knowledge of impending death there came, as there comes to every
coward and bully under similar circumstances, a crumbling of the
veneer of bravado which had long masqueraded as courage and with
it crumbled his code of ethics. Now was Es-sat no longer chief of
Kor-ul-ja--instead he was a whimpering craven battling for life.
Clutching at Om-at, clutching at the nearest pegs he sought any
support that would save him from that awful fall, and as he
strove to push aside the hand of death, whose cold fingers he
already felt upon his heart, his tail sought Om-at's side and the
handle of the knife that hung there.

Tarzan saw and even as Es-sat drew the blade from its sheath he
dropped catlike to the pegs beside the battling men. Es-sat's
tail had drawn back for the cowardly fatal thrust. Now many
others saw the perfidious act and a great cry of rage and disgust
arose from savage throats; but as the blade sped toward its goal,
the ape-man seized the hairy member that wielded it, and at the
same instant Om-at thrust the body of Es-sat from him with such
force that its weakened holds were broken and it hurtled
downward, a brief meteor of screaming fear, to death.