TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
“Then how do you know that he was killed by a bull elephant?” demanded the ape-man.
“We do not know,” spoke up another black. “He went away from camp and did not return.”
“There was an elephant about and we thought that it had killed him,” said the first black.
“You are not speaking true words,” said Tarzan.
“I shall tell you the truth,” said a third black. “Our Bwana ascended the slopes of the Wiramwazi and the spirits of the dead being angry seized him and carried him away.”
“I shall tell you the truth,” said Tarzan. “You have deserted your master and run away, leaving him alone in the forest.”
“We were afraid,” said the third black. “We warned him not to ascend the slopes of the Wiramwazi. We begged him to tum back. He would not listen to us, and the spirits of the dead carried him away.”
“How long ago was that?” asked the ape-man.
“Six, seven, perhaps ten marchings, I do not remember.”
“Where was he when you last saw him?”
As accurately as they could the blacks described the location of their last camp upon the slopes of the Wiramwazi.
“Go your way back to your own villages in the Urambi country. I shall know where to find you if I want you. If your Bwana is dead, you shall be punished,” and swinging into the branches of the lower terrace, Tarzan disappeared from the sight of the unhappy blacks in the direction of the Wiramwazi, while Nkima, screaming shrilly, raced through the trees to overtake him.
From his conversation with the deserting members of von Harben’s safari, Tarzan was convinced that the young man had been traitorously abandoned and that in all likelihood he was making his way alone back upon the trail of the deserters.
Not knowing Erich von Harben, Tarzan could not have guessed that the young man would push on alone into the unknown and forbidding depths of the Wiramwazi, but assumed on the contrary that be would adopt the more
prudent alternative and seek to overtake his men as rapidly
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