"May Allah ever watch over and guard thee!" exclaimed Zeyd.
"Tell me," said Tarzan as the two moved along the jungle trail in the direction of the nearest village which lay two marches to the south of them, "tell me what Ibn Jad doth in this country. It is not true that he came for ivory alone. Am I not right?"
"Wellah yes, Sheik Tarzan," admitted Zeyd. "Ibn Jad came for treasure, but not for ivory."
"What, then?"
"In el-Habash lies the treasure city of Nimmr ," explained Zeyd. "This Ibn Jad was told by a learned Sahar. So great is the wealth of Nimmr that a thousand camels could carry away not a tenth part of it. It consists of gold and jewels and—a woman."
"A woman?"
"Yes, a woman of such wondrous beauty that in the north she alone would bring a price that would make Ibn Jad rich beyond dreams. Surely thou must have heard of Nimmr."
"Sometimes the Gallas speak of it," said Tarzan, "but always I thought it of no more reality than the other places of their legends. And Ibn Jad undertook this long and dangerous journey on no more than the word of a magician?"
"What could be better than the word of a learned Sahar?" demanded Zeyd.
Tarzan of the Apes shrugged.
During the two days that it took them to reach the village Tarzan learned of the white man who had come to the camp of Ibn Jad, but from Zeyd's description of him he was not positive whether it was Blake or Stimbol.
As Tarzan travelled south with Zeyd, Ibn Jad trekked northward into el-Habash, and Fahd plotted with Tollog, and Stimbol plotted with Fahd, while Fejjuan, the Galla slave, waited patiently for the moment of his delivery from bondage, and Ateja mourned for Zeyd.
"As a boy thou wert raised in this country, Fejjuan," she said one day to the Galla slave. "Tell me, dost thou think Zeyd could make his way alone to el-Guad?"
"Billah, nay," replied the black. "Doubtless he be dead by now."
The girl stifled a sob.
"Fejjuan mourns with thee, Ateja," said the black, "for Zeyd was a kindly man. Would that Allah had spared your lover and taken him who was guilty."
"What do you mean?" asked Ateja. "Knowest thou, Fejjuan, who fired the shot at Ibn Jad, my father? It was not Zeyd! Tell me it was not Zeyd! But thy words tell me that, which I well knew before. Zeyd could not have sought the life of my father!
"Nor did he," replied Fejjuan.
"Tell me what you know of this thing."
"And you will not tell another who told you?" he asked. "It would go hard with me if one I am thinking of knew that I had seen what I did see."
"I swear by Allah that I wilt not betray you, Fejjuan," cried the girl. "Tell me, what didst thou see?"
"I did not see who fired the shot at thy father, Ateja," replied the black, "but something else I saw before the shot was fired."
"Yes, what was it?"
"I saw Fahd creep into the beyt of Zeyd and come out again bearing Zeyd's matchlock. That I saw."
"I knew it! I knew it!" cried the girl.
"But Ibn Jad will not believe if you tell him."
"I know; but now that I am convinced perhaps I shall find a way to have Fahd's blood for the blood of Zeyd," cried the girl, bitterly.
For days Ibn Jad skirted the mountains behind which he thought lay the fabled city of Nimmr as he searched for an entrance which he hoped to find without having recourse to the natives whose haunts he had sedulously avoided lest through them opposition to his venture might develop.
The country was sparsely settled, which rendered it easy for the Aarab to avoid coming into close contact with the natives, though it was impossible that the Gallas were ignorant of their presence. If however the blacks were willing to leave them alone, Ibn Jad had no intention of molesting them unless he found that it would be impossible to carry his project to a successful issue without their assistance, in which event he was equally ready to approach them with false promises or ruthless cruelty, whichever seemed the more likely to better serve his purpose.
As the days passed Ibn Jad waxed increasingly impatient, for, search as he would, he could locate no pass across the mountains, nor any entrance to the fabled valley wherein lay the treasure city of Nimmr .
"Billah!" he exclaimed one day, "there be a city of Nimmr and there be an entrance to it, and, by Allah, I will find it! Summon the Habush, Tollog! From them or through them we shall have a clew in one way or another."
When Tollog had fetched the Galla slaves to the beyt of Ibn Jad, the old sheik questioned them but there was none who had definite knowledge of the trail leading to Nimmr.
"Then, by Allah," exclaimed Ibn Jad, "we shall have it from the native Habush!"
"They be mighty warriors, O brother," cried Tollog, "and we be far within their country. Should we anger them and they set upon us it might fare ill with us."
"We be Bedauwy," said Ibn Jad proudly, "and we be armed with muskets. What could their simple spears and arrows avail against us?"
"But they be many and we be few," insisted Tollog.
"We shall not fight unless we be driven to it," said Ibn Jad. "First we shall seek, by friendly overtures, to win their confidence and cajole the secret from them.
"Fejjuan!" he exclaimed, turning to the great black. "Thou are a Habashy. I have heard thee say that thou well rememberest the days of thy childhood in the hut of thy father and the story of Nimmr was no new story to you. Go, then, and seek out thy people. Make friends with them. Tell them that the great Sheik Ibn Jad comes among them in friendliness and that he hath gifts for their chiefs. Tell them also that he would visit the city of Nimmr , and if they will lead him there he will reward them well."
"I but await thy commands," said Fejjuan, elated at this opportunity to do what he had long dreamed of doing. "When shall I set forth?"
"Prepare thyself tonight and when dawn comes depart," replied the sheik.
And so it was that Fejjuan, the Galla slave, set forth early the following morning from the menzil of Ibn Jad, sheik of the fendy el-Guad, to search for a village of his own people.
By noon he had come upon a well-worn trail leading toward the west, and this he followed boldly, guessing that he would best disarm suspicion thus than by attempting to approach a Galla village by stealth. Also he well knew that there was little likelihood that he could accomplish the latter in any event. Fejjuan was no fool. He knew that it might be difficult to convince the Gallas that he was of their blood, for there was against him not alone his Aarab garments and weapons but the fact that he would be able to speak the Galla tongue but lamely after all these years.
That he was a brave man was evidenced by the fact that he well knew the suspicious and warlike qualities of his people and their inborn hatred of the Aarab and yet gladly embraced this opportunity to go amongst them.
How close he had approached a village Fejjuan did not know. There were neither sounds nor odors to enlighten him when there suddenly appeared in the trail ahead of him three husky Galla warriors and behind him he heard others, though he did not turn.
Instantly Fejjuan raised his hands in sign of peace and at the same time he smiled.
"What are you doing in the Galla country?" demanded one of the warriors.
"I am seeking the house of my father," replied Fejjuan.
"The house of your father is not in the country of the Gallas," growled the warrior. "You are one of these who come to rob us of our sons and daughters."
"No," replied Fejjuan. "I am a Galla."
"If you were a Galla you would speak the language of the Gallas better. We understand you, but you do not speak as a Galla speaks."
"That is because I was stolen away when I was a child and have lived among the Bedauwy since, speaking only their tongue."
"What is your name?"
"The Bedauwy call me Fejjuan, but my Galla name was Ulala."
"Do you think he speaks the truth?" demanded one of the blacks of a companion. "When I was a child I had a brother whose name was Ulala."
"Where is h
e?" asked the other warrior.
"We do not know. Perhaps Simba the lion devoured him. Perhaps the desert people took him. Who knows?"
"Perhaps he speaks the truth," said the second warrior. "Perhaps he is your brother. Ask him his father's name."
"What was your father's name?" demanded the first warrior.
"Naliny," replied Fejjuan.
At this reply the Galla warriors became excited and whispered among themselves for several seconds. Then the first warrior turned again to Fejjuan.
"Did you have a brother?" he demanded.
"Yes," replied Fejjuan.
"What was his name?"
"Tabo," answered Fejjuan without hesitation.
The warrior who had questioned him leaped into the air with a wild shout.
"It is Ulala!" he cried. "It is my brother. I am Tabo, Ulala. Do you not remember me?"
"Tabo!" cried Fejjuan. "No, I would not know you, for you were a little boy when I was stolen away and now you are a great warrior. Where are our father and mother? Are they alive? Are they well?"
"They are alive and well, Ulala," replied Tabo. "Today they are in the village of the chief, for there is a great council because of the presence of some desert people in our country. Came you with them?"
"Yes, I am a slave to the desert people," replied Fejjuan. "Is it far to the village of the chief? I would see my mother and my father and, too, I would talk with the chief about the desert people who have come to the country of the Gallas."
"Come, brother!" cried Tabo. "We are not far from the village of the chief. Ah, my brother, that I should see you again whom we thought to be dead all these years! Great will be the joy of our father and mother.
"But, tell me, have the desert people turned you against your own people? You have lived with them many years. Perhaps you have taken a wife among them. Are you sure that you do not love them better than you love those whom you have not seen for many years?"
"I do not love the Bedauwy," replied Fejjuan, "nor have I taken a wife among them. Always in my heart has been the hope of returning to the mountains of my own country, to the house of my father. I love my own people, Tabo. Never again shall I leave them."
"The desert people have been unkind to you—they have treated you with cruelty?" demanded Tabo.
"Nay, on the contrary they have treated me well," replied Feijuan. "I do not hate them, but neither do I love them. They are not of my own blood. I am a slave among them."
As they talked the party moved along the trail toward the village while two of the warriors ran ahead to carry the glad tidings to the father and mother of the long missing Ulala. And so it was that when they came within sight of the village they were met by a great crowd of laughing, shouting Gallas, and in the forerank were the father and mother of Fejjuan, their eyes blinded by the tears of love and joy that welled at sight of this long gone child.
After the greetings were over, and every man, woman and child in the company must crowd close and touch the returned wanderer, Tabo conducted Fejjuan into the village and the presence of the chief.
Batando was an old man. He had been chief when Ulala was stolen away. He was inclined to be skeptical, fearing a ruse of the desert people, and he asked many questions of Fejjuan concerning matters that he might hold in his memory from the days of his childhood. He asked him about the house of his father and the names of his playmates and other intimate things that an impostor might not know, and when he had done he arose and took Fejjuan in his arms and rubbed his cheek against the cheek of the prodigal.
"You are indeed Ulala," he cried. "Welcome back to the land of your people. Tell me now what the desert people do here. Have they come for slaves?"
"The desert people will always take slaves when they can get them, but Ibn Jad has not come first for slaves, but for treasure."
"Ai! what treasure?" demanded Batando.
"He has heard of the treasure city of Nimmr ," replied Fejjuan. "It is a way into the valley where lies Nimmr that he seeks. For this he sent me to find Gallas who would lead him to Nimmr. He will make gifts and he promises rich rewards when he shall have wrested the treasure from Nimmr."
"Are these true words?" asked Batando.
"There is no truth in the beards of the desert dwellers," replied Fejjuan.
"And if he does not find the treasure of Nimmr perhaps he will try to find treasure and slaves in the Galla country to repay the expense of the long journey he has undertaken from the desert country?" asked Batando.
"Batando speaks out of the great wisdom of many years," replied Fejjuan.
"What does he know of Nimmr?" asked the old chief.
"Naught other than what an old medicine man of the Aarab told him," replied Fejjuan. "He said to Ibn Jad that great treasure lay hoarded in the city of Nimmr and that there was a beautiful woman who would bring a great price in the far north."
"Nothing more he told him?" demanded Batando. "Did he not tell him of the difficulties of entering the forbidden valley?"
"Nay."
"Then we can guide him to the entrance to the valley," said Batando, smiling slyly.
Chapter Eleven
Sir James
AS Tarzan and Zeyd journeyed toward the village in which the ape-man purposed to enlist an escort for the Arab upon the first stage of his return journey toward his desert home, the Beduin had time to meditate much upon many matters, and having come to trust and respect his savage guide he at last unbosomed himself to Tarzan.
"Great Sheik of the Jungle," he said one day, "by thy kindness thou hast won the undying loyalty of Zeyd, who begs that thou wilt grant him one more favor."
"And what is that?" asked the ape-man.
"Ateja, whom I love, remains here in the savage country in constant danger so long as Fahd be near her. I dare not now return to the menzil of Ibn Jad even could I find it, but later, when the heat of Ibn Jad's anger will have had time to cool, then I might come again among them and convince him of my innocence, and be near Ateja and protect her from Fahd."
"What, then, would you do?" demanded Tarzan.
"I would remain in the village to which you are taking me until Ibn Jad returns this way toward el-Guad. It is the only chance that I have to see Ateja again in this life, as I could not cross the Soudan alone and on foot should you compel me to leave your country now."
"You are right," replied the ape-man. "You shall remain here six months. If Ibn Jad has not returned in that time I shall leave word that you be sent to my home. From there I can find a way to return you in safety to your own country."
"May the blessings of Allah be upon thee!" cried Zeyd.
And when they came at last to the village Tarzan received the promise of the chief to keep Zeyd until Ibn Jad returned.
After he had left the village again the ape-man headed north, for he was concerned over the report that Zeyd had given him of the presence of a European prisoner among the Aarab. That Stimbol, whom he had sent eastward toward the coast, should be so far north and west as Zeyd had reported appeared inconceivable, and so it seemed more probable that the prisoner was young Blake, for whom Tarzan had conceived a liking. Of course the prisoner might not be either Stimbol or Blake, but who ever he was Tarzan could not readily brook the idea of a white man being permitted to remain a prisoner of the Beduins.
But Tarzan was in no hurry, for Zeyd had told him that the prisoner was to be held for ransom. He would have a look about for Blake's camp first and then follow up the spoor of the Arabs. His progress, therefore, was leisurely. On the second day he met the apes of Toyat and for two days he hunted with them, renewing his acquaintance with Gayat and Zutho, listening to the gossip of the tribe, often playing with the balus.
Leaving them, he loafed on through the jungle, stopping once for half a day to bait Numa where he lay upon a fresh kill, until the earth trembled to the thunderous roars of the maddened king of beasts as the ape-man taunted and annoyed him.
Sloughed was the thin veneer of civilization tha
t was Lord Greystoke; back to the primitive, back to the savage beast the ape-man reverted as naturally, as simply, as one changes from one suit to another. It was only in his beloved jungle, surrounded by its savage denizens, that Tarzan of the Apes was truly Tarzan, for always in the presence of civilized men there was a certain restraint that was the outcome of that inherent suspicion that creatures of the wild ever feel for man.
Tired of throwing ripe fruit at Numa, Tarzan swung away through the middle terraces of the forest, lay up for the night far away and in the morning, scenting Bara the deer, made a kill and fed. Lazy, he slept again, until the breaking of twigs and the rustle of down tramped grasses awoke him.
He sniffed the air with sensitive nostrils and listened with ears that could hear an ant walk, and then he smiled. Tantor was coming.
For half a day he lolled on the huge back, listening to Manu the monkey chattering and scolding among the trees. Then he moved on again.
A day or two later he came upon a large band of monkeys. They seemed much excited and at sight of him they all commenced to jabber and chatter.
"Greetings, Manu!" cried the ape-man. "I am Tarzan, Tarzan of the Apes. What happens in the jungle?"
"Gomangani! Gomangani!" cried one.
"Strange Gomangani!" cried another.
"Gomangani with thunder sticks!" chattered a third.
"Where?" asked the ape-man.
"There! There!" they shouted in chorus, pointing toward the northeast.
"Many sleeps away?" asked Tarzan.
"Close! Close!" the monkeys answered.
"There is one Tarmangani with them?"
"No, only Gomangani. With their thunder sticks they kill little Manu and eat him. Bad Gomangani!"
"Tarzan will talk with them," said the ape-man.
"They will kill Tarzan with their thunder sticks and eat him," prophesied a graybeard.
The ape-man laughed and swung off through the trees in the direction Manu had indicated. He had not gone far when the scent spoor of blacks came faintly to his nostrils and this spoor he followed until presently he could hear their voices in the distance.
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle t-11 Page 9
