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Chapter 5 - Mugambi
By the time that Tarzan had travelled entirely about the coast of the island, and
made several trips inland from various points, he was sure that he was the only
human being upon it.
Nowhere had he found any sign that men had stopped even temporarily upon this
shore, though, of course, he knew that so quickly does the rank vegetation of the
tropics erase all but the most permanent of human monuments that he might be
in error in his deductions.
The day following the killing of Numa, Tarzan and Sheeta came upon the tribe of
Akut. At sight of the panther the great apes took to flight, but after a time Tarzan
succeeded in recalling them.
It had occurred to him that it would be at least an interesting experiment to
attempt to reconcile these hereditary enemies. He welcomed anything that would
occupy his time and his mind beyond the filling of his belly and the gloomy
thoughts to which he fell prey the moment that he became idle.
To communicate his plan to the apes was not a particularly difficult matter,
though their narrow and limited vocabulary was strained in the effort; but to
impress upon the little, wicked brain of Sheeta that he was to hunt with and not
for his legitimate prey proved a task almost beyond the powers of the ape-man.
Tarzan, among his other weapons, possessed a long, stout cudgel, and after
fastening his rope about the panther's neck he used this instrument freely upon
the snarling beast, endeavouring in this way to impress upon its memory that it
must not attack the great, shaggy manlike creatures that had approached more
closely once they had seen the purpose of the rope about Sheeta's neck.
That the cat did not turn and rend Tarzan is something of a miracle which may
possibly be accounted for by the fact that twice when it turned growling upon the
ape-man he had rapped it sharply upon its sensitive nose, inculcating in its mind
thereby a most wholesome fear of the cudgel and the ape-beasts behind it.
It is a question if the original cause of his attachment for Tarzan was still at all
clear in the mind of the panther, though doubtless some subconscious
suggestion, superinduced by this primary reason and aided and abetted by the
habit of the past few days, did much to compel the beast to tolerate treatment at
his hands that would have sent it at the throat of any other creature.
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