Jap soldiers was temporarily billeted.
He had two reasons for hurrying. He was anxious to impart his information to the enemy. That was one reason. The other was terror. He had not realized how late it was. Darkness would fall before he could reach the village. It is then that my lord the tiger walks abroad in the forest.
He was still a couple of kilometers from home, and dusk was heralding the short equatorial twilight when Amat's worst fear was realized. The hideous face of the lord of the jungle loomed directly in his path. The terrifying eyes, the wrinkled, snarling face of a tiger, between which and its intended victim there are no iron bars and only a few yards of lonely jungle trail, are probably as horrifying a sight as the eyes of man have ever envisaged.
The tiger did not for long leave Amat in any doubt as to its intentions. It charged. Amat shrieked, and leaped for a tree. Still shrieking, he clawed his way upward. The tiger sprang for him; and, unfortunately, missed. Amat scrambled higher, sweating and panting. He clung there, trembling; and there we may leave him until morning.
Chapter 11
'GEEZE! wot a country,' growled Shrimp, as they toiled up the steep trail out of the valley in the light of a new day. 'If you ain't crawlin' down into a hole, you're crawlin' up outta one. God must a-been practicin' when He made this.'
'And when he got through practicing, I suppose, He made Chicago ,' suggested Bubonovitch.
'Now you're shoutin', wise guy. God sure made Chi. Wen He wasn't lookin', somebody else made Brooklyn . Geeze! I wisht I was in dear ol' Chi right now. Why, de steepest hill dere is de approach to de Madison Street bridge.'
'Look at the view, man. Have you no eye for beauty?'
'Sure, I got an eye for beauty; but my feet ain't. They joined up for de air force, an' now they ain't nuttin' but goddam doughboys.'
But all things must end, and eventually they reached the top of the escarpment. Tarzan examined the trail. 'There was a native here recently,' he said. 'Probably late yesterday afternoon. He may have seen us. He stood right here for several minutes, where he could look down on our camp.'
As the little party continued along the trail into the forest, Amat rushed breathlessly into his village, bursting with the information that had been seething within him during a night of terror. So excited was he that he failed to bow to a Jap private and got slapped and almost bayoneted. But at last he stood before Lt. Kumajiro Tada, this time not forgetting to bow very low.
Excitedly he rattled off an account of what he had seen. Tada, not understanding a word of the native dialect and being particularly godlike thus early in the morning, kicked Amat in the groin. Amat screamed, grabbed his hurt, and sank to the ground. Tada drew his sword. It had been a long time since he had lopped off a head, and he felt like lopping off a head before breakfast.
A sergeant who had overheard Amat's report and who understood the dialect, saluted and bowed. Sucking wind through his teeth, he informed the honorable lieutenant that Amat had seen a party of whites and that that was what he had been trying to tell the honorable lieutenant. Reluctantly, Tada scabbarded his sword and listened as the sergeant interpreted.
A couple of miles from the point at which they had entered the forest, Tarzan stopped and examined the trail minutely. 'Here,' he said, 'our native friend was treed by a tiger. He remained in this tree all night, coming down only a short tune ago, probably as soon as it was light. You can see where the pugs of the beast obliterated the spoor the fellow made last night. Here is where he jumped down this morning and continued on his way.'
They continued on and presently came to a fork in the trail. Again Tarzan stopped. He showed them which way the native had gone. In the other fork he pointed out evidence that a number of men had gone that way perhaps several days before. 'These were not natives,' he said, 'nor do I think they were Japs. These are the footprints of very large men. Jerry, suppose you folks follow along the trail the native took, while I investigate the other one. These chaps may be Dutch guerrillas. If they are, they might prove mighty helpful to us. Don't travel too fast, and I may catch up with you.'
'We'll probably come to a native village,' said Jerry. 'If we do, perhaps we'd better hole up in the jungle until you come along; so that we can all approach it together. In the meantime, I'll look the place over.'
Tarzan nodded assent and swung into the trees, following the left hand fork of the trail. They watched him until he was out of sight. 'That guy likes to travel de hard way?' said Shrimp.
'It doesn't look so hard when you watch him,' said Bu-bonovitch. 'It's only when you try to do it yourself.'
'It's an ideal way to travel, under the circumstances,' Jerry said. 'It leaves no trail, and it gives him every advantage over any enemy he might meet.'
'It is beautiful,' said Corrie. 'He is so graceful, and he moves so quietly.' She sighed. 'If we could all do it, how much safer we should be!'
'I t'ink I'll practice up,' said Shrimp. 'An' w'en I gets home I goes out to Garfield Park and swings t'rough de trees some Sunday w'en dey's a gang dere.'
'And get pinched,' said Bubonovitch.
'Sure I'd get pinched, but I'd make de front pages wit pitchurs. Maybe I'd get a job wit Sol Lesser out in Hollywood .'
'Where'd you get the reefers, Shrimp?' inquired Bubonovitch.
Shrimp grinned. 'Me? I don't use 'em. I don't work fer Petrillo. I just get dat way from associatin' wit you.'
They were moving leisurely along the trail toward Amat's village, Bubonovitch in the lead, Rosetti behind him. Jerry and Corrie followed several yards in the rear. Then Corrie stopped to retie the laces of one of her moccasins, and Jerry waited for her. The others passed out of sight beyond a turn in the winding trail.
'Don't you feel a little lost without Tarzan?' Corrie asked as she straightened up. Then she voiced a little exclamation of dismay. 'Oh, I don't mean that I haven't every confidence in you and Bubonovitch and Rosetti, but —'
Jerry smiled. 'Don't apologize. I feel the same way you do. We're all out of our natural environment. He's not. He's right at home here. I don't know what we should have done without him.'
'We should have been just a lot of babes in the—'
'Listen!' cautioned Jerry, suddenly alert. He heard voices ahead. Hoarse shouts in a strange tongue. 'Japs!' he exclaimed. He started to run toward the sounds. Then he stopped and turned back. His was a cruel decision any way he looked at it. He must desert either his two sergeants or the girl. But he was accustomed to making hair trigger decisions.
He seized Corrie by an arm and dragged her into the tangle of undergrowth beside the trail. They wormed their way in farther and farther as long as the sound of the voices came no nearer. When they did, indicating that the Japs were investigating the trail in their direction, they lay flat on the ground beneath a riot of equatorial verdure. A searcher might have passed within a foot of them without seeing them.
A dozen soldiers surprised and captured Bubonovitch and Rosetti. They didn't have a chance. The Japs slapped them around and threatened them with bayonets until Lt. Tada called them off. Tada spoke English. He had worked as a dishwasher in a hotel in Eugene while attending the University of Oregon , and he had sized up the prisoners immediately as Americans. He questioned them, and each gave his name, rank, and serial number.
'You were from that bomber that was shot down?' demanded Tada.
'We have given you all the information we are required or permitted to give.'
Tada spoke to a soldier in Japanese. The man advanced and pushed the point of his bayonet against Bubonovitch's belly. 'Now will you answer my question?' growled Tada.
'You know the rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war,' said Bubonovitch, 'but I don't suppose that makes any difference to you. It does to me, though. I won't answer any more questions.'
'You are a damn fool,' said Tada. He turned to Rosetti. 'How about you?' he demanded. 'Will you answer?'
'Nuttin' doin',' said Rosetti.
