Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Tarzan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
But why should any animal wish to enter the hut? Tarzan lay upon his
back, gazing up through the darkness in the direction of the roof above
him as he tried to find an answer to his question. Presently, directly
above his head, he saw a little ray of moonlight. Whatever it was
upon the roof had made an opening that grew larger and larger as the
creature quietly tore away the thatching. The aperture was being made
close to the wall where the radiating rafters were farthest apart, but
whether this was through intent or accident Tarzan could not guess. As
the hole grew larger and he caught occasional glimpses of the thing
silhouetted against the moonlit sky, a broad smile illuminated the face
of the ape-man. Now he saw strong little fingers working at the twigs
that were fastened laterally across the rafters to support the thatch
and presently, after several of these had been removed, the opening
was entirely closed by a furry little body that wriggled through and
dropped to the floor close beside the prisoner.
"How did you find me, Nkima?" whispered Tarzan.
"Nkima followed," replied the little monkey. "All day he has been
sitting in a high tree above the village watching this place and
waiting for darkness. Why do you stay here, Tarzan of the Apes? Why do
you not come away with little Nkima?"
"I am fastened here with a chain," said Tarzan. "I cannot come away."
"Nkima will go and bring Muviro and his warriors," said Nkima.
Of course he did not use these words at all, but what he said in the
language of the apes conveyed the same meaning to Tarzan. Black apes
carrying sharp, long sticks was the expression that he used to describe
the Waziri warriors, and the name for Muviro was one of his own
coining, but he and Tarzan understood one another.
"No," said Tarzan. "If I am going to need Muviro, he could not get here
in time now to be of any help to me. Go back into the forest, Nkima,
and wait for me. Perhaps I shall join you very soon."
Nkima scolded, for he did not want to go away. He was afraid alone in
this strange forest; in fact, Nkima's life had been one long complex of
terror, relieved only by those occasions when he could snuggle in the
lap of his master, safe within the solid walls of Tarzan's bungalow.
One of the sentries heard the voices within the hut and crawled part
way in.
"There," said Tarzan to Nkima, "you see what you have done. Now you had
better do as Tarzan tells you and get out of here and into the forest
before they catch you and eat you."
"Who are you talking to?" demanded the sentry. He heard a scampering in
the darkness and at the same instant he caught sight of the hole in the
roof and almost simultaneously he saw something dark go through it and
disappear. "What was that?" he demanded, nervously.
"That," said Tarzan, "was the ghost of your grandfather. He came to
tell me that you and your wives and all your children would take sick
and die if anything happens to me. He also brought the same message for
Nyuto."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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