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The noise of their battle with Numa had drawn an excitedhorde of savages from the nearby village, and a momentafter the lion's death the two men were surrounded bylithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and jabbering--athousand questions that drowned each ventured reply.

And then the women came, and the children--eager, curious,and, at sight of Tarzan, more questioning than ever.The ape-man's new friend finally succeeded in makinghimself heard, and when he had done talking the men andwomen of the village vied with one another in doing honorto the strange creature who had saved their fellow andbattled single-handed with fierce Numa.

At last they led him back to their village, where theybrought him gifts of fowl, and goats, and cooked food.When he pointed to their weapons the warriors hastenedto fetch spear, shield, arrows, and a bow. His friend of theencounter presented him with the knife with which he hadkilled Numa. There was nothing in all the village he couldnot have had for the asking.

How much easier this was, thought Tarzan, than murderand robbery to supply his wants. How close he had been tokilling this man whom he never had seen before, and whonow was manifesting by every primitive means at hiscommand friendship and affection for his would-be slayer.Tarzan of the Apes was ashamed. Hereafter he would at least waituntil he knew men deserved it before he thought of killing them.

The idea recalled Rokoff to his mind. He wished that hemight have the Russian to himself in the dark jungle for afew minutes. There was a man who deserved killing if everany one did. And if he could have seen Rokoff at that momentas he assiduously bent every endeavor to the pleasant taskof ingratiating himself into the affections of the beautifulMiss Strong, he would have longed more than ever to meteout to the man the fate he deserved.

Tarzan's first night with the savages was devoted to a wildorgy in his honor. There was feasting, for the hunters hadbrought in an antelope and a zebra as trophies of their skill,and gallons of the weak native beer were consumed. As thewarriors danced in the firelight, Tarzan was again impressedby the symmetry of their figures and the regularity of theirfeatures--the flat noses and thick lips of the typical WestCoast savage were entirely missing. In repose the faces of themen were intelligent and dignified, those of the womenofttimes prepossessing.

It was during this dance that the ape-man first noticedthat some of the men and many of the women wore ornamentsof gold--principally anklets and armlets of great weight,apparently beaten out of the solid metal. When heexpressed a wish to examine one of these, the owner removedit from her person and insisted, through the medium of signs,that Tarzan accept it as a gift. A close scrutiny of thebauble convinced the ape-man that the article was ofvirgin gold, and he was surprised, for it was the first timethat he had ever seen golden ornaments among the savagesof Africa, other than the trifling baubles those near thecoast had purchased or stolen from Europeans. He triedto ask them from whence the metal came, but he could notmake them understand.

When the dance was done Tarzan signified his intentionto leave them, but they almost implored him to accept thehospitality of a great hut which the chief set apart for hissole use. He tried to explain that he would return in themorning, but they could not understand. When he finallywalked away from them toward the side of the village oppositethe gate, they were still further mystified as to his intentions.

Tarzan, however, knew just what he was about. In thepast he had had experience with the rodents and verminthat infest every native village, and, while he was notoverscrupulous about such matters, he much preferred thefresh air of the swaying trees to the fetid atmosphere of a hut.

The natives followed him to where a great tree overhungthe palisade, and as Tarzan leaped for a lower branchand disappeared into the foliage above, precisely after themanner of Manu, the monkey, there were loud exclamationsof surprise and astonishment. For half an hour they calledto him to return, but as he did not answer them they atlast desisted, and sought the sleeping-mats within their huts.

Tarzan went back into the forest a short distance untilhe had found a tree suited to his primitive requirements,and then, curling himself in a great crotch, he fellimmediately into a deep sleep.

The following morning he dropped into the village streetas suddenly as he had disappeared the preceding night.For a moment the natives were startled and afraid, but whenthey recognized their guest of the night before theywelcomed him with shouts and laughter. That day heaccompanied a party of warriors to the nearby plains on agreat hunt, and so dexterous did they find this white manwith their own crude weapons that another bond of respectand admiration was thereby wrought.

For weeks Tarzan lived with his savage friends, huntingbuffalo, antelope, and zebra for meat, and elephant for ivory.Quickly he learned their simple speech, their native customs,and the ethics of their wild, primitive tribal life.He found that they were not cannibals--that they lookedwith loathing and contempt upon men who ate men.

Busuli, the warrior whom he had stalked to the village,told him many of the tribal legends--how, many yearsbefore, his people had come many long marches from thenorth; how once they had been a great and powerful tribe;and how the slave raiders had wrought such havoc amongthem with their death-dealing guns that they had beenreduced to a mere remnant of their former numbers and power.

"They hunted us down as one hunts a fierce beast," said Busuli."There was no mercy in them. When it was not slaves theysought it was ivory, but usually it was both. Our men werekilled and our women driven away like sheep. We foughtagainst them for many years, but our arrows and spearscould not prevail against the sticks which spit fireand lead and death to many times the distance that ourmightiest warrior could place an arrow. At last, when myfather was a young man, the Arabs came again, but ourwarriors saw them a long way off, and Chowambi, who waschief then, told his people to gather up their belongingsand come away with him--that he would lead them far tothe south until they found a spot to which the Arab raidersdid not come.

"And they did as he bid, carrying all their belongings,including many tusks of ivory. For months they wandered,suffering untold hardships and privations, for much of theway was through dense jungle, and across mighty mountains,but finally they came to this spot, and although they sentparties farther on to search for an even better location,none has ever been found."

"And the raiders have never found you here?" asked Tarzan.

"About a year ago a small party of Arabs and Manyuemastumbled upon us, but we drove them off, killing many.For days we followed them, stalking them for the wild beaststhey are, picking them off one by one, until but a handfulremained, but these escaped us."

As Busuli talked he fingered a heavy gold armlet thatencircled the glossy hide of his left arm. Tarzan's eyeshad been upon the ornament, but his thoughts were elsewhere.Presently he recalled the question he had tried to ask whenhe first came to the tribe--the question he could not at thattime make them understand. For weeks he had forgotten so triviala thing as gold, for he had been for the time a trulyprimeval man with no thought beyond today. But of a suddenthe sight of gold awakened the sleeping civilization that wasin him, and with it came the lust for wealth. That lessonTarzan had learned well in his brief experience of the waysof civilized man. He knew that gold meant power and pleasure.He pointed to the bauble.

"From whence came the yellow metal, Busuli?" he asked.

The black pointed toward the southeast.

"A moon's march away--maybe more," he replied.

"Have you been there?" asked Tarzan.

"No, but some of our people were there years ago, whenmy father was yet a young man. One of the parties thatsearched farther for a location for the tribe when first theysettled here came upon a strange people who wore manyornaments of yellow metal. Their spears were tipped with it,as were their arrows, and they cooked in vessels made allof solid metal like my armlet.

"They lived in a great village in huts that were built ofstone and surrounded by a great wall. They were very fierce,rushing out and falling upon our warriors before ever theylearned that their errand was a peaceful one. Our men werefew in number, but they held their own at the top of a littlerocky hill, until the fierce people went back at sunset into theirwicked city. Then our warriors came down from their hill,and, after taking many ornaments of yellow metal from thebodies of those they had slain, they marched back out ofthe valley, nor have any of us ever returned.

"They are wicked people--neither white like you nor blacklike me, but covered with hair as is Bolgani, the gorilla.Yes, they are very bad people indeed, and Chowambi wasglad to get out of their country."

"And are none of those alive who were with Chowambi, and sawthese strange people and their wonderful city?" asked Tarzan.

"Waziri, our chief, was there," replied Busuli. "He wasa very young man then, but he accompanied Chowambi,who was his father."

So that night Tarzan asked Waziri about it, and Waziri, whowas now an old man, said that it was a long march, but thatthe way was not difficult to follow. He remembered it well.

"For ten days we followed this river which runs besideour village. Up toward its source we traveled until on thetenth day we came to a little spring far up upon the side of alofty mountain range. In this little spring our river is born.The next day we crossed over the top of the mountain, andupon the other side we came to a tiny rivulet which wefollowed down into a great forest. For many days wetraveled along the winding banks of the rivulet that had nowbecome a river, until we came to a greater river, into whichit emptied, and which ran down the center of a mighty valley.

"Then we followed this large river toward its source, hopingto come to more open land. After twenty days of marchingfrom the time we had crossed the mountains and passed out ofour own country we came again to another range of mountains.Up their side we followed the great river, that had nowdwindled to a tiny rivulet, until we came to a little cavenear the mountain-top. In this cave was the mother of the river.

"I remember that we camped there that night, and that itwas very cold, for the mountains were high. The next daywe decided to ascend to the top of the mountains, and seewhat the country upon the other side looked like, and ifit seemed no better than that which we had so far traversedwe would return to our village and tell them that they hadalready found the best place in all the world to live.

"And so we clambered up the face of the rocky cliffsuntil we reached the summit, and there from a flatmountain-top we saw, not far beneath us, a shallow valley,very narrow; and upon the far side of it was a great villageof stone, much of which had fallen and crumbled into decay."

The balance of Waziri's story was practically the same asthat which Busuli had told.

"I should like to go there and see this strange city," saidTarzan, "and get some of their yellow metal from its fierceinhabitants."

"It is a long march," replied Waziri, "and I am an oldman, but if you will wait until the rainy season is over andthe rivers have gone down I will take some of my warriorsand go with you."

And Tarzan had to be contented with that arrangement,though he would have liked it well enough to have set off thenext morning--he was as impatient as a child. Really Tarzanof the Apes was but a child, or a primeval man, which isthe same thing in a way.

The next day but one a small party of hunters returned tothe village from the south to report a large herd of elephantsome miles away. By climbing trees they had had a fairlygood view of the herd, which they described as numberingseveral large tuskers, a great many cows and calves,and full-grown bulls whose ivory would be worth having.

The balance of the day and evening was filled with preparationfor a great hunt--spears were overhauled, quivers werereplenished, bows were restrung; and all the while thevillage witch doctor passed through the busy throngs disposingof various charms and amulets designed to protect the possessorfrom hurt, or bring him good fortune in the morrow's hunt.

At dawn the hunters were off. There were fifty sleek, blackwarriors, and in their midst, lithe and active as a youngforest god, strode Tarzan of the Apes, his brown skincontrasting oddly with the ebony of his companions. Except forcolor he was one of them. His ornaments and weapons werethe same as theirs--he spoke their language--he laughedand joked with them, and leaped and shouted in the briefwild dance that preceded their departure from the village, toall intent and purpose a savage among savages. Nor, had hequestioned himself, is it to be doubted that he would haveadmitted that he was far more closely allied to these peopleand their life than to the Parisian friends whose ways,apelike, he had successfully mimicked for a few short months.

But he did think of D'Arnot, and a grin of amusementshowed his strong white teeth as he pictured the immaculateFrenchman's expression could he by some means see Tarzanas he was that minute. Poor Paul, who had prided himself onhaving eradicated from his friend the last traces of wild savagery."How quickly have I fallen!" thought Tarzan; but in his hearthe did not consider it a fall--rather, he pitied the poorcreatures of Paris, penned up like prisoners in their sillyclothes, and watched by policemen all their poor lives,that they might do nothing that was not entirely artificialand tiresome.

A two hours' march brought them close to the vicinity inwhich the elephants had been seen the previous day.From there on they moved very quietly indeed searching forthe spoor of the great beasts. At length they found thewell-marked trail along which the herd had passed not manyhours before. In single file they followed it for about halfan hour. It was Tarzan who first raised his hand in signalthat the quarry was at hand--his sensitive nose had warnedhim that the elephants were not far ahead of them.

The blacks were skeptical when he told them how he knew.

"Come with me," said Tarzan, "and we shall see."

With the agility of a squirrel he sprang into a tree and rannimbly to the top. One of the blacks followed more slowlyand carefully. When he had reached a lofty limb beside theape-man the latter pointed to the south, and there, some fewhundred yards away, the black saw a number of huge blackbacks swaying back and forth above the top of the loftyjungle grasses. He pointed the direction to the watchers below,indicating with his fingers the number of beasts he could count.

Immediately the hunters started toward the elephants.The black in the tree hastened down, but Tarzan stalked, afterhis own fashion, along the leafy way of the middle terrace.

It is no child's play to hunt wild elephants with the crudeweapons of primitive man. Tarzan knew that few nativetribes ever attempted it, and the fact that his tribe did sogave him no little pride--already he was commencing tothink of himself as a member of the little community.As Tarzan moved silently through the trees he saw thewarriors below creeping in a half circle upon the stillunsuspecting elephants. Finally they were within sight of thegreat beasts. Now they singled out two large tuskers, and ata signal the fifty men rose from the ground where they hadlain concealed, and hurled their heavy war spears at the twomarked beasts. There was not a single miss; twenty-fivespears were embedded in the sides of each of the giant animals.One never moved from the spot where it stood when theavalanche of spears struck it, for two, perfectly aimed,had penetrated its heart, and it lunged forward uponits knees, rolling to the ground without a struggle.

The other, standing nearly head-on toward the hunters,had not proved so good a mark, and though every spearstruck not one entered the great heart. For a moment thehuge bull stood trumpeting in rage and pain, casting aboutwith its little eyes for the author of its hurt. The blackshad faded into the jungle before the weak eyes of the monsterhad fallen upon any of them, but now he caught the sound oftheir retreat, and, amid a terrific crashing of underbrushand branches, he charged in the direction of the noise.

It so happened that chance sent him in the direction ofBusuli, whom he was overtaking so rapidly that it was asthough the black were standing still instead of racing at fullspeed to escape the certain death which pursued him.Tarzan had witnessed the entire performance from the branchesof a nearby tree, and now that he saw his friend's peril heraced toward the infuriated beast with loud cries, hoping todistract him.

But it had been as well had he saved his breath, for thebrute was deaf and blind to all else save the particularobject of his rage that raced futilely before him.And now Tarzan saw that only a miracle could save Busuli,and with the same unconcern with which he had once huntedthis very man he hurled himself into the path of the elephantto save the black warrior's life.

He still grasped his spear, and while Tantor was yet sixor eight paces behind his prey, a sinewy white warriordropped as from the heavens, almost directly in his path.With a vicious lunge the elephant swerved to the right todispose of this temerarious foeman who dared intervenebetween himself and his intended victim; but he had notreckoned on the lightning quickness that could galvanizethose steel muscles into action so marvelously swift as tobaffle even a keener eyesight than Tantor's.

And so it happened that before the elephant realized thathis new enemy had leaped from his path Tarzan had drivenhis iron-shod spear from behind the massive shoulder straightinto the fierce heart, and the colossal pachyderm had toppledto his death at the feet of the ape-man.

Busuli had not beheld the manner of his deliverance, butWaziri, the old chief, had seen, and several of the otherwarriors, and they hailed Tarzan with delight as they swarmedabout him and his great kill. When he leaped upon the mightycarcass, and gave voice to the weird challenge with which heannounced a great victory, the blacks shrank back in fear,for to them it marked the brutal Bolgani, whom they fearedfully as much as they feared Numa, the lion; but with a fearwith which was mixed a certain uncanny awe of the manlikething to which they attributed supernatural powers.

But when Tarzan lowered his raised head and smiled uponthem they were reassured, though they did not understand.Nor did they ever fully understand this strange creaturewho ran through the trees as quickly as Manu, yet was evenmore at home upon the ground than themselves; who wasexcept as to color like unto themselves, yet as powerfulas ten of them, and singlehanded a match for the fiercestdenizens of the fierce jungle.

When the remainder of the warriors had gathered, thehunt was again taken up and the stalking of the retreatingherd once more begun; but they had covered a bare hundredyards when from behind them, at a great distance,sounded faintly a strange popping.

For an instant they stood like a group of statuary,intently listening. Then Tarzan spoke.

"Guns!" he said. "The village is being attacked."

"Come!" cried Waziri. "The Arab raiders have returnedwith their cannibal slaves for our ivory and our women!"