Nor was his madness lacking in method.He knew that the hearts of the Kor-ul-lul would be filled with rage when they discovered the thing that he had done and he knew too, that mixed with the rage would be a leaven of fear and it was fear of him that had made Tarzan master of many jungles--one does not win the respect of the killers with bonbons.
Below the village Tarzan returned to the foot of the cliff searching for a point where he could make the ascent to the ridge and thus back to the village of Om-at, the Kor-ul-ja.He came at last to a place where the river ran so close to the rocky wall that he was forced to swim it in search of a trail upon the opposite side and here it was that his keen nostrils detected a familiar spoor.It was the scent of Pan-at-lee at the spot where she had emerged from the pool and taken to the safety of the jungle.
Immediately the ape-man's plans were changed.Pan-at-lee lived, or at least she had lived after the leap from the cliff's summit.
He had started in search of her for Om-at, his friend, and for Om-at he would continue upon the trail he had picked up thus fortuitously by accident.It led him into the jungle and across the gorge and then to the point at which Pan-at-lee had commenced the ascent of the opposite cliffs.Here Tarzan abandoned the head of In-tan, tying it to the lower branch of a tree, for he knew that it would handicap him in his ascent of the steep escarpment.
Apelike he ascended, following easily the scent spoor of Pan-at-lee.Over the summit and across the ridge the trail lay, plain as a printed page to the delicate senses of the jungle-bred tracker.
Tarzan knew naught of the Kor-ul-gryf.He had seen, dimly in the shadows of the night, strange, monstrous forms and Ta-den and Om-at had spoken of great creatures that all men feared; but always, everywhere, by night and by day, there were dangers.From infancy death had stalked, grim and terrible, at his heels.He knew little of any other existence.To cope with danger was his life and he lived his life as simply and as naturally as you live yours amidst the dangers of the crowded city streets.The black man who goes abroad in the jungle by night is afraid, for he has spent his life since infancy surrounded by numbers of his own kind and safeguarded, especially at night, by such crude means as lie within his powers.But Tarzan had lived as the lion lives and the panther and the elephant and the ape--a true jungle creature dependent solely upon his prowess and his wits, playing a lone hand against creation.Therefore he was surprised at nothing and feared nothing and so he walked through the strange night as undisturbed and unapprehensive as the farmer to the cow lot in the darkness before the dawn.
Once more Pan-at-lee's trail ended at the verge of a cliff; but this time there was no indication that she had leaped over the edge and a moment's search revealed to Tarzan the stone pegs upon which she had made her descent.As he lay upon his belly leaning over the top of the cliff examining the pegs his attention was suddenly attracted by something at the foot of the cliff.He could not distinguish its identity, but he saw that it moved and presently that it was ascending slowly, apparently by means of pegs similar to those directly below him.He watched it intently as it rose higher and higher until he was able to distinguish its form more clearly, with the result that he became convinced that it more nearly resembled some form of great ape than a lower order.It had a tail, though, and in other respects it did not seem a true ape.
Slowly it ascended to the upper tier of caves, into one of which it disappeared.Then Tarzan took up again the trail of Pan-at-lee.He followed it down the stone pegs to the nearest cave and then further along the upper tier.The ape-man raised his eyebrows when he saw the direction in which it led, and quickened his pace.He had almost reached the third cave when the echoes of Kor-ul-gryf were awakened by a shrill scream of terror.