THE NIGHT OF THE GOLDEN WOLF

  The full moon cast its borrowed light on the ape man as he navigated through the trees that surrounded the small glade, in which he lighted after first sniffing the scents brought by the breeze. The scent which came to his nostrils was not in Tarzan's normal spoor catalog but he was still able to identify it. The odor was of the Golden African Wolf, which was more common in the Cape Horn region than the area of the Dark Continent which was his domain. But still there had been reports of such beasts sometimes ranging this far north.

  Strangely, though, the scent was mixed with that of man. So, was this a man who was somehow traveling with a wolf, or had the wolf recently tangled with a human, perhaps even having one for its supper?

  The answer was neither, as Tarzan soon realized. The scent which had been carried to him by Usha, the wind, became stronger and he heard the fumbling gait of a beast that didn't know if it should be ambulating on two legs or four.

  Speculation about the creature was interesting, but survival was more important. The ape man drew from its scabbard the hunting knife of his long-dead sire just in time, for at that moment there burst from the surrounding verdure a beast that was stranger than any that Tarzan had ever encountered.

  He had only an instant to examine the vile thing but in that time he saw a large wolf-like beast which, yet, had somewhat manlike features on what sufficed for a face. The thing was snarling with rage and flecks of foam flew from its mouth like so much confetti.

  The clawlike hands were extended toward him and Tarzan knew he would do best to avoid those. Nimbly, he leaped to the side as the beast charged. Its momentum carried it forward and the ape man turned and leaped onto its back and encircled its neck with his left arm, raising his knife hand to strike a fatal blow.

  But at that moment the creature spoke in a rasp. "No, not with an ordinary knife. It must be silver. Silver. Or you will become what I am."

  Tarzan of the Apes was a quick study. Though he had read Professor Porter's journals on documented case of lycanthrophy, he had digested them with mere academic interest and hardly believed that he himself would ever be confronted by such a creature, or even that he believed the various superstitions.

  Tarzan had made his decision. He plunged the knife deep into the chest of the monster and rolled it onto its back to see if he needed to add a coup de grace. The creature was close to death and yet it opened its yellow eyes and gazed up at him with an expression of hatred mixed, oddly, with relief.

  Having slain the disgusting piece of garbage and given the corpse a quick boot in a sensitive spot to see if there was any life remaining, the ape man was satisfied it was dead .

  But he was not alone. A voice came from behind him and he cursed for allowing himself to become so wrapped up in the kill that he had momentarily ignored his other senses. But as he whirled, knife still in hand, he relaxed. It was only an old native woman sitting in a cart to which were hitched two domesticated oryxes.

  The petite woman, swathed in colorful sashes, large earrings and a head scarf, began to speak: "Now, when the light of the full moon shines upon you, the way you walk will be thorny. You too will become a wolf, with the instincts of the wild beast."

  Tarzan made a face and ignored the woman. There was something he had yet to do. Turning back to the dead beast, which had somehow lost its hirsute characteristics and was beginning to look strangely like a man, he placed one foot on the chest of the vanquished foe and lifted his head to the moon, hurling from his throat the wild and weird cry of his people, sending it echoing again and again through the surrounding jungle. In the seconds that followed, he heard manu scream in fright, the rapidly decreasing footfalls of a fleeing feline, and the hoarse whisper of an intimidated impala.

  He turned back to the woman and glared. "And if you speak the truth, old woman," he said, "I don't think that things will be all that much different than what I've been doing all my life."