16 - Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Night Attack

Episode Transcript

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Chapter sixteen of Tarzan the Untamed.This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
recordings are in the public domain.For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recording byDan Mason, Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar
Burroughs, Chapter sixteen, the nightAttack. As the girl turned to bid

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them good night, she thought thatshe saw a shadowy form moving in the
darkness beyond them, and almost simultaneouslyshe was sertin he heard the sounds of
stealthy movements in the same direction.What was that, she whispered. There's
something out there in the darkness.Yes, replied Tarzan. It's a lion,
and it's been there for some time. Hadn't you noticed it before?

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Oh, cried the girl, breathinga sigh of relief. Is it our
lion, No, said Tarzan,It's not our lion. It is another
lion, and he's hunting. Ishe stalking us, asked the girl.
He is, replied the ape manSmith Oldwig fingered the grip of his pistol.
Tarzan saw the involuntary movement and shookhis head. Leave that thing where

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it is, Lieutenant, he said. The officer laughed nervously. I couldn't
help it, you know, oldman, he said, instinct of self
preservation, and all that it wouldprove an instinct of self destruction, said
Tarzan. There are at least threehunting lions out there watching us. If
we had a fire or the moonwere up, you would see their eyes
plainly. Presently they may come afterus, but the chances are that they

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will not. If you are veryanxious that they should fire your pistol and
hit one of them. What ifthey do charge, asked the girl.
There is no means of escape.Why we should have to fight them,
replied Tarzan. What chance would wethree have against them, asked the girl.

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The ape man shrugged his shoulders.One must die some time, he
said, te doubtless. It mayseem terrible such a death, But Tarzan
the apes has always expected to goout in some such way. A few
of us die of old age inthe jungle. Nor should I care to
die thus? Some day Numa willget me, or Sheeta, or a

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black warrior, these or some ofthe others. What difference does it make
which it is, or whether itcomes to night or next year or in
ten years after it is over,it will be all the same. The
girl shuddered. Yes, she saidin a dull, hopeless voice. After
it is over, it will beall the same. Then she went into

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the cavern and lay down upon thesand. Smith Oldwick sat in the entrance
and leaned against the cliff. Tarzansquatted on the opposite side. May I
smoke, questioned the officer of Tarzan. I'd been hoarding a few cigarettes,
and if it won't attract those bouncersout there, I would like to have
one last smoke before I cash in. Will you join me? And he

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proffered the ape man as sarette.No thanks, said Tarzan, but it
will be all right if you smoke. No wild animal is particularly fond of
the fumes of tobacco, so itcertainly won't entice them any closer. Smith
Oldwick lighted his cigarette and sat puffingslowly upon it. He had proffered one
to the girl, but she hadrefused, and thus they sat in silence

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for some time, the silence ofthe night ruffled occasionally by the faint crushing
of padded feet upon the soft sandsof the gorgeous floor. It was smith
Oldwick who broke the silence, aren'tthey unusually quiet for lions, he asked,
No, replied the ape man.The lion that goes roaring around the
jungle does not do it to attractprey. They are very quiet when they

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are stalking their query. I wishthey would roar, said the officer.
I wish they would do anything,even charge. Just knowing that they are
there and occasionally seeing something like ashadow in the darkness, and the faint
sounds that come to us from themare getting on my nerves. But I
hope he said that all three.Don't charge it on three, said Tarzan.

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There are seven of them out therenow, good lord, exclaimed Smith
Oldwick. Couldn't we build a fire, asked the girl, and frighten them
away. I don't know that woulddo any good, said Tarzan, as
I have an idea that these lionsare a little different from any that we
are familiar with, and possibly forthe same reason which at first puzzled me

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a little. I refer to theapparent docility in the presence of a man
of the lion who was with ustoday. A man is out there now
with those lions. It is impossible, exclaimed Smith Oldwick, they would tear
him to pieces. What makes youthink there is a man there, asked
the girl. Tarzan smiled and shookhis head. I am afraid you would

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not understand, he replied. Itis difficult for us to understand anything that
is beyond our own powers. Whatdo you mean by that, asked the
officer. Well, said Tarzan.If you had been born without eyes,
you could not understand sense impressions thatthe eyes of others transmit to their brains,
And as you have both been bornwithout any sense of smell, I

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am afraid you cannot understand how Ican know that there is a man there.
You mean that you scent a man, asked the girl. Tarzan nodded
affirmatively. And in the same way. You know the number of lions,
asked the man. Yes, saidTarzan. No two lions look alike,
No two have the same scent.The young englishman shook his head. No,

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he said, I cannot understand.I doubt if the lions or the
man are here necessarily for the purposeof harming us, said Tarzan, because
there has been nothing to prevent theirdoing so long before they wish to.
I have a theory, but it'sutterly preposterous. What is it, asked
the girl. I think they arehere, replied Tarzan, to prevent us

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from going some place that they donot wish us to go. In other
words, we are under surveillance,and possibly as long as we do not
go where we are not wanted,we shall not be bothered. But how
are we to know where they don'twant us to go, asked Smith Oldwick.
We can't know, replied Tarzan.And the chances are that the very
place we are seeking is a placethey don't wish us to trespass on.

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You mean the water, asked thegirl. Yes, replied Tarzan. For
some time they sat in silence,which was broken only by an occasional sound
of movement from the outer darkness.It must have been an hour later that
the ape man rose quietly and drewhis long blade from its sheath. Smith
Oldwick was dozing against the rocky wallof the cavern entrance, while the girl,

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exhausted by the excitement and fatigue ofthe day, had fallen into a
deep slumber. An instant after Tarzanarose, Smith Oldwick and the girl were
aroused by a volley of thunderous roarsand the noise of many padded feet,
rushing towards them. Tarzan of theApes stood directly before the entrance of the
cavern, his knife in his hand, awaiting the charge. The ape man

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had not expected any such concerted action, as he now realized, had been
taken by those watching them. Hehad known for some time that the other
men had joined those who were withthe lions earlier in the evening, and
when he arose to his feet,it was because he knew that the lions
and the men were moving cautiously closerto him and his party. He might
easily have eluded them, for hehad seen that the face of the cliff

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rising above the mouth of the cavernmight be scaled by as good a climber
as himself. It might have beenwiser had he tried to escape, for
he knew that in the face ofsuch odds even he was helpless. But
he stood his ground, though Idoubt if he could have told why.
He owed nothing either of duty orfriendship to the girls sleeping the cavern,

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nor could he longer be of anyprotection to her or her companion. Yet
something held him there in feudal selfsacrifice. The great Tarmangani had not even
the satisfaction of striking a blow inself defense. A veritable avalanche of savage
beasts rolled over him and threw himheavily to the ground. In falling,
his head struck the rocky surface ofthe cliff, stunning him. It was

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daylight when he regained consciousness. Thefirst dim impression borne to his awakening mind
was a confusion of savage sounds,which gradually resolved themselves into the growling of
lions. And then little by littlethere came back to him the recollections of
what had preceded the blows that hadfelled him. Strong in his nostrils was
the scent of Numa, the lion, and against one naked leg he could

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feel the cod of some animal.Slowly, Tarzan opened his eyes. He
was lying on his side, andas he looked down his body, he
saw that a great lion stood straddlinghim, a great lion who growled hideously
at something which Tarzan could not see. With the full return of his senses,
Tarzan's nose told him that the beastabove him was Numa of the Mamabo

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pit. Thus reassured, the apeman spoke to the lion, and at
the same time made a motion asthough he would arise immediately, Numa stepped
from above him. As Tarzan raisedhis head, he saw that he still
lay where he had fallen before theopening of the cliff, where the girl
had been sleeping, and that Numa, backed against the cliff side, was
apparently defending him from two other lions, who paced to and fro at a

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short distance from their intended victim.And then Tarzan turned his eyes into the
cave and saw that the girl andsmith Oldwick were gone. His efforts had
been for naught. With an angrytoss of his head, the ape man
turned upon the two lions, whohad continued to pace back and forth a
few yards from him. Numa,of the lion pit, turned a friendly

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glance in Tarzan's direction, rubbed hishead against the ape Man's side, and
then directed his snarling countenance towards thetwo hunters. I think, said Tarzan
to Numa, that you and Itogether can make these beasts very unhappy.
He spoke in English, which ofcourse Numa did not understand at all,
But there must have been something reassuringin the tone, for Numa whined pleadingly

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and moved impatiently to and fro parallelto their antagonists, come, said Tarzan
suddenly, and grasping the lion's manewith his left hand, he moved towards
the other lions, his companion pacingat his side. As the two advanced,
the others drew slowly back, and, finally separating, moved off to
either side. Tarzan and Numa passedbetween them, but neither the great black

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maned lion nor the man failed tokeep an eye on the beast near him,
so that they were not caught unawareswhen, as though at some preconcerted
signal, the two cats charged simultaneouslyfrom opposite directions. The ape man met
the charge of his antagonist after thesame fashion of fighting that he had been
accustomed to employing in previous encounters withNuma and Sheetah. To have attempted to

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meet the full shock of a lion'scharge would have been suicidal, even for
the giant Tarmangani. Instead, heresorted to methods of agility and cunning.
For quick as are the great cats, even quicker is Tarzan of the apes.
With outspread raking tags, allons andbared fangs, Numa sprang for the
naked chest of the ape man,throwing up his left arm as a boxer

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might ward off a blow. Tarzanstruck upward beneath the left forearm of the
lion, and at the same timerushing in with his shoulder beneath the animal's
body, and simultaneously drove his bladeinto the tawny hide behind the shoulder.
With a roar of pain, Numawheeled again, the personification of beastial rage.
Now, indeed, would he exterminatethis presumptuous man thing who dared even

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to think that he could thwart theking of beasts in his desires. But
as he wheeled, his intended querywheeled with him. Brown fingers locked into
the heavy mane on the powerful neck, and again the blade struck deep into
the lion's side. Then it wasthat Numa went mad with hate and pain,
and at the same instant the apeman leaped full upon his back.

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Easily before had Tarzan locked his legsbeneath the belly of a lion while he
clung to its long mane and stabbedit until his point reached its heart.
So easy it had seen before thathe experienced a sharp feeling of resentment that
he was unable to do so now, for the quick movements of the lion
prevented him, and presently to hisdismay, As the lion leaped and threw

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him about, the ape man realizedthat he was swinging inevitably beneath those frightful
talons. With a final effort,he threw himself from Numa's back and sought,
by his quickness to elude the frenziedbeast for the fraction of an instant
that would permit him to regain hisfeet and meet the animal again upon a
more even footing. But this timeNuma was too quick for him, and
he was but parsely up when agreat paw struck him on the side of

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the head and bowled him over.As he fell, he saw a black
streak shoot above him and another lionclose upon his antagonist. Rolling from beneath
the two battling lions, Tarzan regainedhis feet, though he was half dazed
and staggering from the impact of theterrible blow he had received. Behind him,
he saw a lifeless lion lying tornand bleeding upon the sand, and

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before him, Numa the pit wassavagely mauling the second lion. He of
the black coat tremendously outclasped his adversaryin point of size and strength, as
well as in ferocity. The battlingbeasts made a few fans and passes at
each other, before the larger succeededin fastening his fangs in the other's throat.
And then, as a cat shakesa mouse, the larger lion shook

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the lesser, And when his dyingfoe sought to roll beneath and rake his
conqueror with his hind claws, theother met him half way at his own
game, and as his great talonsburied themselves in the lower part of the
other's chests, and then were rakeddownward with all the terrific strength of the
mighty hind legs, the battle wasended as Numa rose from his second victim

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and shook himself. Tarzan could notbut again note the wondrous proportions and symmetry
of the beast. The lions theyhad bested were splendid specimens themselves, and
in their coats, Tarzan noted asuggestion of the black which was such a
strongly marked characteristic of Numa the pit, but their manes were just a trifle

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darker than an ordinary black maned lion, but the tawny shade of the balance
of their coats predominated. However,the ape man realized that they were a
distant species from any he had seen, as though they had sprung originally from
a cross between the forest lion ofhis acquaintance and a breed of which Numa
the Pit might be typical. Theimmediate obstruction in his way having been removed,

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Tarzan was for setting out in searchof the spoor of the girl and
smith Oldwick, that he might discovertheir fate. He suddenly found himself tremendously
hungry, and as he circled aboutover the sandy bottom, searching among the
tangled network of innumerable tracks for thoseof his proteges, there broke from his
lips involuntarily the whine of a hungrybeast. Immediately, Numa the Pit pricked

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up his ears, and, regardingthe ape man steadily for a moment,
he answered the call of hunger andstarted briskly off towards the south, stopping
occasionally to see see if Tarzan wasfollowing. The ape man realized that the
beast was leading him to food,and so he followed, and as he
followed. His keen eyes and sensitivenostrils sought for some indication of the direction

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taken by the man and the girl. Presently, out of the mass of
lion tracks, Tarzan picked up thoseof many sandaled feet, and the scent
spoor of the members of the strangerace, such as had been with the
lions the night before. And thenfaintly he caught the scent spoor of the
girl, and a little later thatof Smith Oldwick. Presently the tracks thinned,
and here those of the girl andthe Englishman became well marked. They

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had been walking side by side,and there had been men and lions to
the right and left of them,and men and lions in front and behind.
The ape man was puzzled by thepossibilities suggested by the tracks, but
in the light of any previous experience, he could not explain satisfactorily to himself
what his perceptions indicated. There waslittle change in the formation of the gorge.

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It still wound its erratic course betweenprecipitous cliffs. In places it widened
out, and again it become verynarrow and always deeper, the further south
they traveled. Presently, the bottomof the gorge began to slope more rapidly
here, and there were indications ofancient rapids and waterfalls. The trail became
more difficult, but was well markedand showed indications of great antiquity and in

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places the handiwork of man. Theyproceeded for a half or three quarters of
a mile, when at a turningof the gorge, Tarzan saw before him
a narrow valley cut deep into theliving rock of the Earth's crust, with
the lofty mountain ranges bounding it uponthe south. How far it extended east
and west he could not see,but apparently it was no more than three

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or four miles across from north tosouth. That it was a well watered
valley was indicated by the wealth ofvegetation that carpeted its floor from the rocky
cliffs upon the north to the mountainson the south. Over the edge of
the cliffs from which the ape manviewed the valley, a trail had been
hewn that led downward to the base. Preceded by the lion, Tarzan descended

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into the valley, which at thispoint was forested with large trees. Before
him, the trail wound onward towardthe center of the valley. Rucous voiced
birds of brilliant plumage screamed among thebranches, while innumerable monkeys chattered and scolded
above him. The forest teemed withlife, and yet there was borne in
upon the ape man a sense ofan utterable loneliness, a sensation that he

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had never before had felt in hisbeloved jungles. There was an unreality in
everything about him, in the valleyitself, lying hidden and forgotten in what
was supposed to be an arid waste. The birds and the monkeys, while
similar in type to many with whichhe was familiar, were identical with none.
Nor was the vegetation without idiosyncrasies.It was as though he had been

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suddenly transported to another world, andhe felt a strange restlessness that might easily
have been a premonition of danger.Fruits were growing among the trees, and
some of these he saw that Manuthe monkey ate. Being hungry, he
swung to the lower branches, and, amidst the great chattering of the monkeys,
proceeded to eat such of the fruitas he saw the monkeys ate in

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safety. When he had partially satisfiedhis hunger for meat alone, could fully
do so. He looked about himfor Numa of the pit, to discover
that the lion had gone. Endof Chapter sixteen. Recording by Dan Mason
of Midland, Michigan.