"I thought that nothing more could ever sound strange to me after I met Buckingham this morning and heard him speak English—a bull gorilla!"
"You met Buckingham? It was he who captured me and brought me to this city. Did he capture you too?"
Tarzan shook his head. "No. He had captured Naomi Madison."
"Naomi! What became of her?"
"She is with Orman and West and one of the Arabs at the foot of the falls. I came here to find you and take you to them; but it is commencing to look as though I had made a mess of it—getting captured myself."
"But how did Naomi get away from Buckingham?" demanded the girl.
"I killed him."
"You killed Buckingham!" She looked at him with wide, unbelieving eyes.
From the reactions of the others toward his various exploits Tarzan had already come to understand that Obroski's friends had not held his courage in very high esteem, and so it amused him all the more that they should mistake him for this unquestioned coward.
The girl surveyed him in silence through level eyes for several moments as though she were trying to read his soul and learn the measure of his imposture; then she shook her head.
"You're not a bad kid, Stanley," she said; "but you mustn't tell naughty stories to your Aunt Rhonda."
One of the ape-man's rare smiles bared his strong, white teeth. "No one can fool you, can they?" he asked admiringly.
"Well, I'll admit that they'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to put anything over on Rhonda Terry. But what I can't understand is that make-up of yours—the scenery—where did you get it and why? I should think you'd freeze."
"You will have to ask Rungula, chief of the Bansutos," replied Tarzan.
"What has he to do with it?"
"He appropriated the Obroski wardrobe."
"I commence to see the light. But if you were captured by the Bansutos, how did you escape?"
"If I told you you would not believe me. You do not believe that I killed Buckingham."
"How could I, unless you sneaked up on him while he was asleep? It just isn't in the cards, Stanley, for any man to have killed that big gorilla unless he had a rifle—that's it! You shot him."
"And then threw my rifle away?" inquired the ape-man.
"M-m-m, that doesn't sound reasonable, does it? No, I guess you're just a plain damn liar, Stanley."
"Thank you."
"Don't get sore. I really like you and always have; but I have seen too much of life to believe in miracles, and the idea of you killing Buckingham single-handed would be nothing short of a miracle."
Tarzan turned away and commenced to examine the room in which they were confined. The flickering light of the torch in the adjoining room lighted it dimly. He found a square chamber the walls of which were faced with roughly hewn stone. The ceiling was of planking supported by huge beams. The far end of the room was so dark that he could not see the ceiling at that point; the last beam cast a heavy shadow there upon the ceiling. He thought he detected a steady current of air moving from the barred doorway of the other room to this far corner of their cell, suggesting an opening there; but he could find none, and abandoned the idea.
Having finished his inspection he came and sat down on the straw beside Rhonda. "You say you have been here a week?" he inquired.
"In the city—not right here," she replied. "Why?"
"I was thinking—they must feed you, then?" he inquired.
"Yes; celery, bamboo tips, fruit, and nuts—it gets monotonous."
"I was not thinking of what they fed you but of how. How is your food brought to you and when? I mean since you have been in this room."
"When they brought me here yesterday they gave me enough food for the day; this morning they brought me another day's supply. They bring it into that next room and shove it through the bars—no dishes or anything like that—they just shove it through onto the floor with their dirty, bare hands, or paws. All except the water—they bring water in that gourd there in the corner."
"They don't open the door, then, and come into the room?"
"No."
"That is too bad."
"Why?"
"If they opened the door we might have a chance to escape," explained the ape-man.
"Not a chance—the food is brought by a big bull gorilla. Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed, laughing, "You'd probably break him in two and throw him in the waste basket like you did Buckingham."
Tarzan laughed with her. "I keep forgetting that I am a coward," he said. "You must be sure to remind me if any danger threatens us."
"I guess you won't have to be reminded, Stanley." She was looking at him again closely. "But you have changed in some way," she ventured finally. "I don't know just how to explain it, but you seem to have more assurance. And you sure put up a good front when you were talking to God. Say! Do you suppose what you've been through the past few weeks has affected your mind?"
Further conversation was interrupted by the return of God. He pulled a chair up in front of the barred door and sat down.
"Henry is a fool," he announced. "He's trying to work his followers up to a pitch that will make it possible for him to induce them to attack heaven and kill God. Henry wants to be God. But he gave them too much to drink; and now most of them are asleep in the palace courtyard, including Henry. They won't bother me tonight; so I thought I'd come down and have a pleasant visit with you. There won't be many more opportunities, for you will have to serve your purpose before something happens to prevent. I can't take any chances."
"What is this strange purpose we are to serve?" asked Rhonda.
"It is purely scientific; but it is a long story and I shall have to start at the beginning," explained God.
"The beginning!" he repeated dreamily. "How long ago it was! It was while I was still an undergraduate at Oxford that I first had a glimmering of the light that finally dawned. Let me see—that must have been about 1855. No, it was before that—I graduated in '55. That's right, I was born in '33 and I was twenty-two when I graduated.
"I had always been intrigued by Lamarck's investigations and later by Darwin 's. They were on the right track, but they did not go far enough; then, shortly after my graduation, I was traveling in Austria when I met a priest at Brunn who was working along lines similar to mine. His name was Mendel. We exchanged ideas. He was the only man in the world who could appreciate me, but he could not go all the way with me. I got some help from him; but, doubtless, he got more from me; though I never heard anything more about him before I left England.
"In 1857 I felt that I had practically solved the mystery of heredity, and in that year I published a monograph on the subject. I will explain the essence of my discoveries in as simple language as possible, so that you may understand the purpose you are to serve.
"Briefly, there are two types of cells that we inherit from our parents—body cells and germ cells. These cells are composed of chromosomes containing genes—a separate gene for each mental and physical characteristic. The body cells, dividing, multiplying, changing, growing, determine the sort of individual we are to be; the germ cells, remaining practically unchanged from our conception, determine what characteristics our progeny will inherit, through us, from our progenitors and from us.
"I determined that heredity could be controlled through the transference of these genes from one individual to another. I learned that the genes never die; they are absolutely indestructible—the basis of all life on earth, the promise of immortality throughout all eternity.
"I was certain of all this, but I could carry on no experiments. Scientists scoffed at me, the public laughed at me, the authorities threatened to lock me up in a madhouse. The church wished to crucify me.