'Very well, then. If you have all finished eating, we'll start. I've left a note stuck up in the shelter telling about our accident and the direction we are taking, and giving the names of all in the party, just on the chance, the very remote chance, that someone might pass this way some day—some white hunter who could take our message out in case we never get out ourselves. Are you all ready?'
'All ready,' said Alexis. 'Tibbs, my luggage.'
Tibbs walked over to where his small handbag, a large Gladstone , and two suitcases were stacked.
'Where's your luggage, Jane?' asked Alexis. 'Brown could carry that.'
'I'm carrying my own,' replied Jane, 'what little I'm taking.'
'But you haven't any,' said the prince.
'I am carrying all that I am going to take. We are not travelling de luxe.'
They were all standing silently watching Tibbs trying to gather up the four pieces of baggage so that he could carry them.
'Beg pardon, sir,' he said, 'but if I may make so bold as to say so, I don't think that I can carry them all.'
'Well, let Annette carry that small bag of yours, then. You certainly ought to be able to manage three pieces. I've seen porters carry twice that much.'
'Not across Africa ,' said Jane.
'Well,' said Alexis, 'I've only brought along what I actually need; I've left nearly all of my stuff behind. Tibbs will have to manage somehow. If Brown were the right sort he'd help Mm.'
Only by the exercise of all his will-power had Brown remained silent; but now he exploded. 'Listen, mister,' he said, 'I ain't going to carry none of your stuff, and neither is Annette, and if Tibbs does, he's a damned fool.'
'I fancy I rather agree with you, Mr. Brown,' said Tibbs, and dropped all three of the pieces of baggage.
'What?' demanded Alexis. 'You refuse to carry my lug gage? Why, you impudent upstart, I'll—'
'No you won't, sir,' said Tibbs; 'I know just what you are going to say, sir, if I may make so bold as to say so; but it won't be necessary, sir.' He drew himself up haughtily. 'I am giving notice, sir; I am leaving your employ now, immediately.'
'Lady Greystoke,' said Alexis, with great dignity, 'you have assumed command here. I demand that you compel these people to carry my luggage.'
'Nonsense,' said Jane. 'Take an extra pair of shoes and some socks and whatever else you can carry, and come along. We can't waste any more time here.'
And thus the unhappy party started upon the trail toward the east. They had had but two guesses; and they had guessed wrong, but fortunately they could not know the dangers and the terrors that lay ahead of them on the trail toward the east.
Chapter 16 The Message
THE three Bukena warriors crept into the hut where Tarzan and the ten Waziri warriors lay waiting for them in silence.
As the last of the three entered, Tarzan leaped upon him. Powerful fingers closed about the fellow's throat; and simultaneously the other two were dragged down by Muviro and a couple of his warriors. There was no outcry; there was only the subdued sound of the shuffling feet of struggling men, and that for but a moment.
Quickly the three were bound and gagged; then the Waziri, headed by Tarzan, carried them to the tree beside the chiefs hut, where a corner of the latter concealed them from the sight of the drunken natives assembled in the street in front.
Shouldering one of the warriors, Tarzan swarmed up into the tree; then after he had deposited his burden safely where it would not fall, the Waziri handed the other two up to him.
Taking his victims up into the denser foliage where they would not be visible from the ground, Tarzan laid them side by side across the huge branch that projected out over the Negroes assembled below.
Tarzan ran his rope through the bonds that encircled the ankles of one of the prisoners. Then he removed the gag from the fellow's mouth and lowered him, head foremost, toward the ground; but before the fellow's head broke through the foliage and came in sight of those below, Tarzan voiced the warning cry of the bull ape. Instantly the dancing stopped; the natives looked around them in evident terror; the sound was very close; it seemed right beside them, but as yet they had been unable to locate it.
Silence followed; and then the head of one of their fellows broke through the foliage above them, and slowly his body descended.
The blacks were already on the verge of panic, for this was a mysterious, supernatural occurrence for which they could find no explanation in their past experience; yet they hesitated, perhaps fascinated and momentarily incapable of movement.
The deep voice rang out above them. 'I am Tarzan of the Apes. Let those beware who would harm Tarzan or his Waziri. Open the gates and let my people go in peace, or many of you shall die by the hand of Tarzan.'
The victim hanging head downward found his tongue. 'Open the gates,' he screamed. 'Let them go before they kill me.'
Still the blacks hesitated.
'The time is short,' said Tarzan, and then he started to drag the warrior back up into the tree again.
'Do you promise that none of us will be harmed if we open the gates?' demanded Udalo.
'None will be harmed if you open the gates and let us go in peace, returning their weapons to my Waziri.'
'It shall be done,' said Udalo. 'Fetch the weapons of the Waziri; open the gates; let them go, and may they never return.'
Tarzan drew the warrior back up into the tree and laid him beside his fellows.
'Keep still,' he warned them, 'and I shall kill none of you.' Then he dropped to the ground and joined the Waziri.
Fearlessly they walked around the end of the hut; and the blacks gave way fearfully, opening a path before them. Some little boys ran timidly forward with their weapons, for the warriors had not dared to do so. The gates were opened, and Tarzan led his Waziri toward them.
'Where are my three warriors?' demanded Udalo. 'You have not kept your word.'
'You will find your three warriors alive in the tree above your hut,' replied the ape-man. He halted and turned toward the chief. 'And now, Udalo, when strangers come to your kraal, treat them well, and especially Tarzan and the Waziri.' A moment later the black jungle night beyond the palisade had swallowed them.
Little Naika, the daughter of Gupingu, the witch-doctor danced up and down and clapped her hands. 'It is he!' she cried. 'It is the white warrior who saved me. I am glad that he and his Waziri got away before we killed them. I told you not to do it.'
'Shut up,' cried Udalo, 'and go to your hut. I never want to hear that white man spoken of again.'
'I thought that it was the end,' said Muviro, as they crossed the clearing toward the forest.
'Thanks to Nkima's bad memory, it came very near being the end,' replied the ape-man. Then he voiced a strange, weird note; and an answer came from the blackness of the jungle trees.
'He is still there,' said the ape-man to Muviro.
'Hurry, hurry,' cried the monkey. 'Little Nkima is fighting with Sheeta, the panther; he is beating him on the head with a stick; he is pounding him on the nose. Sheeta is very frightened.'
Tarzan grinned and walked on slowly through the forest, and when he came under the first tree, the little monkey dropped down upon his shoulder. 'Where is Sheeta?' demanded Tarzan.
'Little Nkima beat him so hard on the face that he ran away.'
'Little Nkima is very brave,' said the ape-man.
'Yes,' replied the monkey, 'little Nkima is a mighty fighter, a mighty hunter.'
The following day, Tarzan and the Waziri moved slowly toward the north, resting often, for the latter were still suffering from the effects of the drug that had been administered to them by Gupingu, the witch-doctor. Finally,
