“When, with my own hands, I kill Tarzan of the Apes, then indeed shall I laugh,” replied the chief, “and when I and my warriors have eaten his heart and his flesh, then, indeed, shall we no longer fear any of your devils.”
“Wait,” cried the witch doctor angrily, “and you shall see.”
They took the Spaniard, securely bound, and threw him into a filthy hut, through the doorway of which he could see the women of the village preparing cooking fires and pots for the feast of the coming night. A cold sweat stood out upon the brow of Esteban Miranda as he watched these gruesome preparations, the significance of which he could not misinterpret, when coupled with the gestures and the glances that were directed toward the hut where he lay, by the inhabitants of the village.
The afternoon was almost spent and the Spaniard felt that he could count the hours of life remaining to him upon possibly two fingers of one hand, when there came from the direction of the river a series of piercing screams which shattered the quiet of the jungle, and brought the inhabitants of the village to startled attention, and an instant later sent them in a mad rush in the direction of the fear-laden shrieks. But they were too late and reached the river only just in time to see a woman dragged beneath the surface by a huge crocodile.
“Ah, Obebe, what did I tell you?” demanded the witch doctor, exultantly. “Already has the devil god commenced his revenge upon your people.”
The ignorant villagers, steeped in superstition, looked fearfully from their witch doctor to their chief. Obebe scowled, “He is Tarzan of the Apes,” he insisted.
“He is the river devil who has taken the shape of Tarzan of the Apes,” insisted the witch doctor.
“We shall see,” replied Obebe. “If he is the river devil he can escape our bonds. If he is Tarzan of the Apes he cannot. If he is the river devil he will not die a natural death, like men die, but will live on forever. If he is Tarzan of the Apes some day he will die. We will keep him, then, and see, and that will prove whether or not he is Tarzan of the Apes or the river devil.”
“How?” asked the witch doctor.
“It is very simple,” replied Obebe. “If some morning we find that he has escaped we will know that he is the river devil, and because we have not harmed him but have fed him well while he has been here in our village, he will befriend us and no harm will come of it. But if he does not escape we will know that he is Tarzan of the Apes, provided he dies a natural death. And so, if he does not escape, we shall keep him until he dies and then we shall know that he was, indeed, Tarzan of the Apes.”