Chapter 10 Desert Girl Saves the Jungle

As Tarzan walked along that valley under the bright moonlight of Black Africa, the distant jungle seemed to call to him.This isolated and wild freedom filled his heart with vitality and joy.He returns once again as Tarzan the ape in the jungle.Every nerve, every sense organ is in a state of excitement, guarding against any incoming enemy.At the same time, holding his head high, feeling his strength proudly, he walked briskly forward. In the middle of the night, all kinds of sounds in Shanxi were very fresh to him, like whispers of love that was almost forgotten, gently falling into his eardrums.Many sounds are felt intuitively.Ah, how familiar this sound is, it is Zita the leopard coughing.But there was another strange tone in this moan, which made him doubt his judgment. Later, he recognized that it was a black panther.

Presently he heard another sound--a furtive, tiptoeing sound among the others.Probably no one except Mount Tai would notice this sound.At first, he didn't recognize what kind of sound it was, but later he realized that it was a group of people walking barefoot.They were stalking towards him from behind - he was being stalked. Tarzan suddenly understood the reason why Gnoes threw him in the canyon. However, despite his careful planning, something went wrong-these people came too late.The footsteps were getting closer.Tarzan stopped and turned to face them, gun in hand, and saw a white cloth robe flashing in the night, and asked them loudly in French what they were doing?The answer was the tongue of flame from a spear.

The ape Tarzan fell to the ground in response. The Arabs didn't rush over right away.They waited for a while, and seeing that Tai Shan hadn't got up again, they got out from the hiding place, rushed up, and bent down to inspect his injuries.They found that Taishan was not dead.One guy put his gun on the back of Tarzan's head to kill him, but another guy pushed him away and said, "If you bring a alive one back, we will pay us more." So they tied his hands and feet, picked him up, put him on the shoulders of four strong men, and carried him to the desert.When they got out of the big hills they turned and walked south, and at dawn they came to the place where the horses were tied up, and the horses were tended by two men.

From here, their progress picked up speed.Taishan had regained consciousness at this time.He was tied to an unridden horse—which was apparently what the Arabs had brought the horse for.His injury was not serious, just a slight scratch, scratching the flesh of his temples.The blood had stopped flowing, but there were dried blood stains on his face and clothes.He has not said a word since he fell into the hands of these Arabs.They only said a few words to him when they went to the horses and "give orders" to him. They bumped for a full six hours in the scorching desert.There are oases near the main road, but these people always avoid them.Around noon, they arrived at a pastoral village with more than 20 tents.

After stopping, an Arab came and untied the rope that bound him to the horse.A group of men, women, and children gathered around.Many guishi in the tribe, especially the women, seemed willing to make fun of this captive. They insulted him to their heart's content, some even stoned him and poked him with sticks.At this time an old chief came up and chased them away. "Ali ibn Ahmed told me," he said, "that this man killed a lion alone in the mountains. Why the stranger hired us to hunt him down, I do not know; when we handed him over to him, What he will do with him, I don't know. But this captive is a brave man. As long as he is in our hands, we will pay him due respect. For he killed the "big lion" in the night."

Tarzan had heard that the Arabs respected those who killed lions.He was glad that fate had given him such a chance to avoid being tortured.After a while, he was taken into a sheepskin tent on a high slope in the pastoral village.They gave him something to eat, then tied him up firmly and left him lying alone on the local rug in the tent. He saw a man guarding the door of this tented "prison" that could never stand "scrutiny".He tried hard, trying to break the ropes that bound his hands and feet, but immediately found that his captors really didn't need to guard him any more.Because although he is extremely strong, he will never be able to break free from such a strong rope.

At dusk, several people entered the tent, all dressed in Arab attire.One of the fellows went up to Tarzan and untied the turban that covered the lower half of his head, and Tarzan caught a glimpse of the ferocious face of Nicholas Zhukov, with a savage smile on his bearded lips. "Ah, Mr. Tarzan!" he said, "it's a pleasure to see you! But why don't you stand up to greet the guests?" Then he immediately yelled, "Get up, you dog!" kicked Taishan's stomach fiercely. One kick, two kicks, three kicks... He continued to kick Tarzan in the face and stomach.

"You hurt me once, and I'll kick you." Tarzan said nothing - in fact he hadn't looked up at him since he first recognized the Russian.The chief stood there, watching this despicable beating of a defenseless captive, and said nothing for a while, and at last he couldn't stand it anymore, and said sharply: "Don't kick! You can kill him if you like. But I don't want to see this kind of behavior that is rampant on the prisoner. I really want to untie him and see how long you can kick him." The chief's threats stopped Zhukov's atrocities.He didn't want the chief to untie Taishan, and he didn't want Taishan's powerful hands to pinch his neck.

"Very well," he said to the Arab, "I'll kill him in a moment." "Don't touch my land," said the chief, "I must let him leave my tribe alive. In the desert, you can do what you want with him, it's none of my business. But I can't do it for others. Let the people in your own tribe be stained with the blood of the French. You must know that the government will send soldiers to kill our people, burn our tents, and drive away our sheep.” "Just do as you say," growled Zhukov, "I'll take him to the desert and kill him there."

"After you leave my village, you have to ride for a day before you start." The chief said, his attitude was very firm, "I will send my children to follow you all the time, and see with my own eyes that you have not broken your promise to me. Otherwise, they will kill you in the desert." Zhukov shrugged. "Then I'll have to wait until tomorrow, and it's dark now." "As you like," said the chief, "but you must leave my village within an hour of daylight. I don't like heathens at all. I don't like cowards like you." Zhukov wanted to refute a few words, but he controlled himself again.He understood that the old man might turn against him at any time.They walked out of the tent together.Walking out the door, Rukov couldn't help turning his face and mocking Taishan viciously.

"Sleep well, sir," he said, "and don't forget to say your prayers. You'll be too scared to pray for blasphemy when you die tomorrow." Since noon, no one brought food and water to Taishan. He was very thirsty and wanted to ask the guard for a drink.But after asking two or three times, the man was still indifferent, so he had to give up. He heard a lion roaring in the mountains far away.An urge to answer the challenge according to his own kind raised his head to the sky and roared to the sky again.But who is his kind?He almost forgot whether he was a man or an ape.He struggled under the tightly bound rope.God!His mouth full of mighty teeth would surely break the rope if he could get near it.But his efforts to win freedom can only be attributed to failure.He felt a wild wave of madness surging in his heart. A male lion roared one after another.It can be heard that it obviously came down from the mountain to look for food.This is a starving lion.Tarzan envied it because it was free.No one will tie it up with a rope and slaughter it like a sheep.Tarzan the ape is sad and miserable.He was not afraid of death, it was the shame of being defeated before he died that made him angry and angry-he didn't even have a chance to fight for life. Taishan thought, it must be almost midnight, and he only had a few hours to live.But he had to travel a long distance tomorrow, and he might be able to fight Rukov to the death if he had an opportunity on the way.At this time, he heard that the fierce "King of Beasts" was very close here, maybe it was looking for the cattle and sheep locked in the livestock pen in the village to fill its stomach. For a long time, there was silence all around, and Tarzan's well-trained ears heard what animals seemed to be sneaking up.The sound came from the back of the tent near the mountain, getting closer.Tarzan listened intently, waiting for it to pass by the tent.For a while there was a dead silence outside.Taishan wondered why he couldn't even hear the animal's breathing.Because he could hear it must be squatting under the back "wall" of the tent. Ah, it moved again and crawled closer.Tarzan turned his face in the direction of the sound.It was pitch black in the tent.Slowly the sheepskin that was spread over the back of the tent was pushed up by a head and shoulders.But because the night was getting dark, only a dark figure could be seen.Behind the figure is a desert illuminated by stars. There was a sneer at the corner of Taishan's mouth.At least, Zhukov miscalculated.He will go crazy with rage!Taishan knew that it was better to die under the claws of this beast than to die at the hands of Rukov. The sheepskin that was thatched behind the tent fell down again, and it was pitch black.Whatever it was that got in was already in the tent with him. He heard it crawling toward him, all the way to his side.Tarzan closed his eyes, waiting for the claws that would break his throat.But what touched his face was a slender hand groping in the dark, and a girl called his name in an almost inaudible voice. "Yes, it's me," he answered softly, "but, my God! who are you?" "I am the dancing girl Seti Aisa," replied the girl.Taishan felt that she was cutting the rope that bound him while she was talking, and the cold knife occasionally touched his flesh.After a while, he was free. "Go!" she whispered. On all fours, he followed her and crawled out of the hole she had crawled in just now.She continued to crawl forward, climbed to the side of a bush, and stopped to wait for Tarzan.Tai Shan crawled to her side, looked at her for a long time before speaking. "I don't understand," he said at last, "how did you get here? How did you know I was locked in this tent? Why did you come to rescue me instead of someone else?" She smiled sweetly: "Tonight, I walked a long way." She said, "We still have a long way to go before we are out of danger. Let's go, I will tell you the whole way." The two of them stood up and walked across the desert towards the mountains. "I'm not at all sure I'll see you all this way," she said at last. "The black lion, El-Ari, came out again tonight. After I tied up the horse, I felt he was following. Me, it really scares me enough." "You are a brave girl," said Tarzan. "Why do you risk so much for a stranger, a foreigner, a heretic?" The girl held her head proudly. "I am the daughter of Chief Khand ben Heaton," she replied, "you saved my life when you thought I was just an ordinary dancer. What will I look like if I don't save you now? Goodbye to my father?" "Anyway, you are a very brave girl. But how did you know I was caught here?" Tarzan asked. "My cousin Archimedes Din Tebu came to the tribe to see some friends. He happened to be there when you were brought into the village.When he got home, he told us that Ali bin Ahmed had been hired by a white man to catch a big Frenchman.The white man is going to kill the big man.From his description, I heard that you must have been caught by them. My father was not at home. I tried to mobilize several people to rescue you with me.But they didn't want to, and they all said: "If those heathens want to, let them kill each other, it's none of our business! If we disrupt Ali ibn Ahmed's plan, we can only do it in our own hands." People start a melee.' "So, I had to wait until it was dark, and a man ran out secretly on a horse. I also pulled out a horse and tied it to a bush not far from here. When it was daylight, we returned to my father's village Now, he is probably home too. Therefore, even if they know that I saved you, they dare not come to catch the friends of Kande ben Heaton." For a while they walked in silence. "It's time to hitch the horse," said the girl. "It's strange, why can't I find it?" After a while, she stopped and let out a cry of surprise. "The horse is gone!" she said, "and here I am tied." Taishan bent down and inspected carefully, and found a tall bush that had been uprooted.He seemed to have discovered something else. When he straightened up and turned to look at the girl, there was a wry smile on his face. "The black lion was here. Judging by the hoof prints, the two horses have escaped from his claws. They were only frightened and ran into the wilderness, which is safer." As a result, they had to walk.The path cuts across the low slopes of the mountains and is rugged.But the girl is as familiar with this road as she is familiar with her mother's face.Tai Shan walked behind the girl, only a fist away from her.In this way, she will lead the way, so as not to stumble.They chatted as they walked, stopping from time to time to hear if anyone was following them. It was a beautiful night, with a clear sky.Behind is the endless desert, dotted with oases.On the fertile land they had just left, the date palms and the sheepskin tents forming a circle were clearly outlined against the long yellow sand.It was a dreamlike Garden of Eden in a dreamlike sea of ​​sand.Standing in front of me was a stern and silent mountain.Blood surged in Taishan's veins.Ah, such is life.He looked down at the girl and thought: The daughter of the desert and the son of the jungle walk side by side across the world as silent as death.The thought made him smile.He wished he had a sister, wished she could be like this girl beside him.If so, she must be his best partner. Into the mountains, they walked more slowly, the path became steeper and more bumpy. For several minutes they were silent.The girl wondered if they could rush back to her father's village before the pursuers arrived.Taishan hoped that he would go on like this forever.If the girl had been a man, he might have had his way.He looks forward to having a friend who likes the mountain life as much as he does.He longs for companionship.Unfortunately, he knew people who would rather go to the club in spotless clothes than live naked in the primeval forest.For Tarzan, this seems difficult to understand.But for others, obviously, there is no question of understanding or not understanding at all. Taishan and the girl had just rounded a protruding rock when they stopped suddenly. In the middle of the road stood the black lion.It bared its teeth, its eyes glowed green, and it looked very fierce, and its tail lashed angrily on its dark chestnut back.It roared violently.It was the terrible roar of a hungry lion. "Your knife." Tarzan said to the girl, holding out his hand to her.She thrust the handle of the knife into his hand, and he grabbed the knife and hurriedly pushed the girl behind him. "Run to the desert quickly! If you hear me calling you, it means you're all right and come back." "It's useless." She said helplessly, "It's all over now." "Do as I say!" he said in a commanding tone, "Quick! It's coming." The girl stepped back a few steps and stood there dumbfounded, knowing in her heart that something terrible was about to happen. . The lion approached Mount Tai slowly, with the tip of its nose touching the ground, like a bull fighting.A tail spread out, trembling with excitement. Tarzan the Ape stood there squatting, the long Arabian hunting knife gleaming coldly in the moonlight.The terrified girl stood behind him, motionless, like a statue.She leaned forward slightly, with her mouth open and her eyes wide open. All she could think of was amazement at Tarzan's bravery—that he dared to fight the King of Beasts face to face with only a hunting knife.The people of her tribe would only kneel and pray in such a situation, and would just sit there and die under the terrible teeth.Of course, even if you fight, you will inevitably die.But when her eyes fell on the heroic Taishan, she couldn't help feeling a surge of admiration in her heart.His huge body stood upright without the slightest trembling.His demeanor was like that of a black lion, full of hatred and contempt. Now the lion was only a few paces away from him.It crouched down, let out a deafening growl, and swooped.