Hello,Welcome!Log In to My AccountorCreate Account

Halfway between the Ugambi and the village of the Waganwazam,Tarzan came upon the pack moving slowly along his old spoor. Mugambi could scarce believe that the trail of the Russianand the mate of his savage master had passed so close tothat of the pack.

It seemed incredible that two human beings should havecome so close to them without having been detected by someof the marvellously keen and alert beasts; but Tarzan pointedout the spoor of the two he trailed, and at certain points theblack could see that the man and the woman must have beenin hiding as the pack passed them, watching every move ofthe ferocious creatures.

It had been apparent to Tarzan from the first that Jane andRokoff were not travelling together. The spoor showeddistinctly that the young woman had been a considerable distanceahead of the Russian at first, though the farther the ape-mancontinued along the trail the more obvious it became that theman was rapidly overhauling his quarry.

At first there had been the spoor of wild beasts over thefootprints of Jane Clayton, while upon the top of all Rokoff'sspoor showed that he had passed over the trail after the animalshad left their records upon the ground. But later therewere fewer and fewer animal imprints occurring betweenthose of Jane's and the Russian's feet, until as he approachedthe river the ape-man became aware that Rokoff could nothave been more than a few hundred yards behind the girl.

He felt they must be close ahead of him now, and, with alittle thrill of expectation, he leaped rapidly forward aheadof the pack. Swinging swiftly through the trees, he came outupon the river-bank at the very point at which Rokoff hadoverhauled Jane as she endeavoured to launch the cumbersome dugout.

In the mud along the bank the ape-man saw the footprintsof the two he sought, but there was neither boat nor peoplethere when he arrived, nor, at first glance, any sign oftheir whereabouts.

It was plain that they had shoved off a native canoe andembarked upon the bosom of the stream, and as the ape-man'seye ran swiftly down the course of the river beneath theshadows of the overarching trees he saw in the distance,just as it rounded a bend that shut it off from his view,a drifting dugout in the stern of which was the figure of a man.

Just as the pack came in sight of the river they saw theiragile leader racing down the river's bank, leaping from hummockto hummock of the swampy ground that spread between them anda little promontory which rose just where the river curvedinward from their sight.

To follow him it was necessary for the heavy, cumbersomeapes to make a wide detour, and Sheeta, too, who hated water. Mugambi followed after them as rapidly as he couldin the wake of the great white master.

A half-hour of rapid travelling across the swampy neck ofland and over the rising promontory brought Tarzan, by ashort cut, to the inward bend of the winding river, and therebefore him upon the bosom of the stream he saw the dugout,and in its stern Nikolas Rokoff.

Jane was not with the Russian.

At sight of his enemy the broad scar upon the ape-man'sbrow burned scarlet, and there rose to his lips the hideous,bestial challenge of the bull-ape.

Rokoff shuddered as the weird and terrible alarm fell uponhis ears. Cowering in the bottom of the boat, his teethchattering in terror, he watched the man he feared above allother creatures upon the face of the earth as he ran quicklyto the edge of the water.

Even though the Russian knew that he was safe from his enemy,the very sight of him threw him into a frenzy of trembling cowardice,which became frantic hysteria as he saw the white giant dive fearlesslyinto the forbidding waters of the tropical river.

With steady, powerful strokes the ape-man forged out intothe stream toward the drifting dugout. Now Rokoff seizedone of the paddles lying in the bottom of the craft, and,with terrorwide eyes still glued upon the living death thatpursued him, struck out madly in an effort to augment the speedof the unwieldy canoe.

And from the opposite bank a sinister ripple, unseen byeither man, moving steadily toward the half-naked swimmer.

Tarzan had reached the stern of the craft at last. One handupstretched grasped the gunwale. Rokoff sat frozen with fear,unable to move a hand or foot, his eyes riveted upon the faceof his Nemesis.

Then a sudden commotion in the water behind the swimmer caughthis attention. He saw the ripple, and he knew what caused it.

At the same instant Tarzan felt mighty jaws close upon hisright leg. He tried to struggle free and raise himself over theside of the boat. His efforts would have succeeded had notthis unexpected interruption galvanized the malign brain ofthe Russian into instant action with its sudden promise ofdeliverance and revenge.

Like a venomous snake the man leaped toward the stern of the boat,and with a single swift blow struck Tarzan across the head withthe heavy paddle. The ape-man's fingers slipped from their holdupon the gunwale.

There was a short struggle at the surface, and then a swirl of waters,a little eddy, and a burst of bubbles soon smoothed out by the flowingcurrent marked for the instant the spot where Tarzan of the Apes,Lord of the Jungle, disappeared from the sight of men beneath thegloomy waters of the dark and forbidding Ugambi.

Weak from terror, Rokoff sank shuddering into the bottom of the dugout.For a moment he could not realize the good fortune that had befallen him--all that he could see was the figure of a silent, struggling white mandisappearing beneath the surface of the river to unthinkable death inthe slimy mud of the bottom.

Slowly all that it meant to him filtered into the mind of theRussian, and then a cruel smile of relief and triumph touchedhis lips; but it was short-lived, for just as he wascongratulating himself that he was now comparatively safe toproceed upon his way to the coast unmolested, a mightypandemonium rose from the river-bank close by.

As his eyes sought the authors of the frightful sound hesaw standing upon the shore, glaring at him with hate-filledeyes, a devil-faced panther surrounded by the hideous apesof Akut, and in the forefront of them a giant black warriorwho shook his fist at him, threatening him with terrible death.

The nightmare of that flight down the Ugambi with the hideous horderacing after him by day and by night, now abreast of him, now lostin the mazes of the jungle far behind for hours and once for a whole day,only to reappear again upon his trail grim, relentless, and terrible,reduced the Russian from a strong and robust man to an emaciated,white-haired, fear-gibbering thing before ever the bay and the oceanbroke upon his hopeless vision.

Past populous villages he had fled. Time and again warriorshad put out in their canoes to intercept him, but eachtime the hideous horde had swept into view to send theterrified natives shrieking back to the shore to losethemselves in the jungle.

Nowhere in his flight had he seen aught of Jane Clayton. Not once had his eyes rested upon her since that moment atthe river's brim his hand had closed upon the rope attachedto the bow of her dugout and he had believed her safely inhis power again, only to be thwarted an instant later as thegirl snatched up a heavy express rifle from the bottom of thecraft and levelled it full at his breast.

Quickly he had dropped the rope then and seen her float awaybeyond his reach, but a moment later he had been racing up-streamtoward a little tributary in the mouth of which was hidden the canoein which he and his party had come thus far upon their journeyin pursuit of the girl and Anderssen.

What had become of her?

There seemed little doubt in the Russian's mind, however,but that she had been captured by warriors from one of theseveral villages she would have been compelled to pass onher way down to the sea. Well, he was at least rid of mostof his human enemies.

But at that he would gladly have had them all back in the landof the living could he thus have been freed from the menace ofthe frightful creatures who pursued him with awful relentlessness,screaming and growling at him every time they came within sight of him.The one that filled him with the greatest terror was the panther--theflaming-eyed, devil-faced panther whose grinning jaws gaped wide at himby day, and whose fiery orbs gleamed wickedly out across the waterfrom the Cimmerian blackness of the jungle nights.

The sight of the mouth of the Ugambi filled Rokoff withrenewed hope, for there, upon the yellow waters of the bay,floated the Kincaid at anchor. He had sent the little steameraway to coal while he had gone up the river, leaving Paulvitchin charge of her, and he could have cried aloud in his reliefas he saw that she had returned in time to save him.

Frantically he alternately paddled furiously toward her androse to his feet waving his paddle and crying aloud in anattempt to attract the attention of those on board. But loudas he screamed his cries awakened no answering challengefrom the deck of the silent craft.

Upon the shore behind him a hurried backward glance revealedthe presence of the snarling pack. Even now, he thought,these manlike devils might yet find a way to reach him evenupon the deck of the steamer unless there were those thereto repel them with firearms.

What could have happened to those he had left upon theKincaid? Where was Paulvitch? Could it be that the vesselwas deserted, and that, after all, he was doomed to be overtakenby the terrible fate that he had been flying from throughall these hideous days and nights? He shivered as might oneupon whose brow death has already laid his clammy finger.

Yet he did not cease to paddle frantically toward the steamer,and at last, after what seemed an eternity, the bow of the dugoutbumped against the timbers of the Kincaid. Over the ship's sidehung a monkey-ladder, but as the Russian grasped it to ascendto the deck he heard a warning challenge from above, and,looking up, gazed into the cold, relentless muzzle of a rifle.

After Jane Clayton, with rifle levelled at the breast of Rokoff,had succeeded in holding him off until the dugout inwhich she had taken refuge had drifted out upon the bosomof the Ugambi beyond the man's reach, she had lost no timein paddling to the swiftest sweep of the channel, nor did shefor long days and weary nights cease to hold her craft to themost rapidly moving part of the river, except when duringthe hottest hours of the day she had been wont to drift as thecurrent would take her, lying prone in the bottom of the canoe,her face sheltered from the sun with a great palm leaf.

Thus only did she gain rest upon the voyage; at other timesshe continually sought to augment the movement of the craftby wielding the heavy paddle.

Rokoff, on the other hand, had used little or no intelligencein his flight along the Ugambi, so that more often than nothis craft had drifted in the slow-going eddies, for he habituallyhugged the bank farthest from that along which the hideous hordepursued and menaced him.

Thus it was that, though he had put out upon the river buta short time subsequent to the girl, yet she had reached thebay fully two hours ahead of him. When she had first seenthe anchored ship upon the quiet water, Jane Clayton's hearthad beat fast with hope and thanksgiving, but as she drewcloser to the craft and saw that it was the Kincaid,her pleasure gave place to the gravest misgivings.

It was too late, however, to turn back, for the current thatcarried her toward the ship was much too strong for her muscles. She could not have forced the heavy dugout upstream against it,and all that was left her was to attempt either to make theshore without being seen by those upon the deck of the Kincaid,or to throw herself upon their mercy--otherwise she must beswept out to sea.

She knew that the shore held little hope of life for her, asshe had no knowledge of the location of the friendly Mosulavillage to which Anderssen had taken her through the darknessof the night of their escape from the Kincaid.

With Rokoff away from the steamer it might be possiblethat by offering those in charge a large reward they could beinduced to carry her to the nearest civilized port. It wasworth risking--if she could make the steamer at all.

The current was bearing her swiftly down the river, andshe found that only by dint of the utmost exertion could shedirect the awkward craft toward the vicinity of the Kincaid. Having reached the decision to board the steamer, she nowlooked to it for aid, but to her surprise the decks appeared tobe empty and she saw no sign of life aboard the ship.

The dugout was drawing closer and closer to the bow ofthe vessel, and yet no hail came over the side from anylookout aboard. In a moment more, Jane realized, she would beswept beyond the steamer, and then, unless they lowered aboat to rescue her, she would be carried far out to sea by thecurrent and the swift ebb tide that was running.

The young woman called loudly for assistance, but therewas no reply other than the shrill scream of some savagebeast upon the jungle-shrouded shore. Frantically Janewielded the paddle in an effort to carry her craft closealongside the steamer.

For a moment it seemed that she should miss her goal bybut a few feet, but at the last moment the canoe swung closebeneath the steamer's bow and Jane barely managed to graspthe anchor chain.

Heroically she clung to the heavy iron links, almost draggedfrom the canoe by the strain of the current upon her craft. Beyond her she saw a monkey-ladder dangling over thesteamer's side. To release her hold upon the chain and chanceclambering to the ladder as her canoe was swept beneath itseemed beyond the pale of possibility, yet to remain clingingto the anchor chain appeared equally as futile.

Finally her glance chanced to fall upon the rope in the bowof the dugout, and, making one end of this fast to the chain,she succeeded in drifting the canoe slowly down until it laydirectly beneath the ladder. A moment later, her rifle slungabout her shoulders, she had clambered safely to the deserted deck.

Her first task was to explore the ship, and this she did, herrifle ready for instant use should she meet with any humanmenace aboard the Kincaid. She was not long in discoveringthe cause of the apparently deserted condition of the steamer,for in the forecastle she found the sailors, who had evidentlybeen left to guard the ship, deep in drunken slumber.

With a shudder of disgust she clambered above, and to thebest of her ability closed and made fast the hatch above theheads of the sleeping guard. Next she sought the galley andfood, and, having appeased her hunger, she took her placeon deck, determined that none should board the Kincaidwithout first having agreed to her demands.

For an hour or so nothing appeared upon the surface ofthe river to cause her alarm, but then, about a bend upstream,she saw a canoe appear in which sat a single figure. It hadnot proceeded far in her direction before she recognized theoccupant as Rokoff, and when the fellow attempted to boardhe found a rifle staring him in the face.

When the Russian discovered who it was that repelled hisadvance he became furious, cursing and threatening in a mosthorrible manner; but, finding that these tactics failed tofrighten or move the girl, he at last fell to pleading and promising.

Jane had but a single reply for his every proposition, andthat was that nothing would ever persuade her to permit Rokoffupon the same vessel with her. That she would put herthreats into action and shoot him should he persist in hisendeavour to board the ship he was convinced.

So, as there was no other alternative, the great cowarddropped back into his dugout and, at imminent risk of beingswept to sea, finally succeeded in making the shore far downthe bay and upon the opposite side from that on which thehorde of beasts stood snarling and roaring.

Jane Clayton knew that the fellow could not alone andunaided bring his heavy craft back up-stream to theKincaid, and so she had no further fear of an attack by him. The hideous crew upon the shore she thought she recognized asthe same that had passed her in the jungle far up the Ugambiseveral days before, for it seemed quite beyond reason thatthere should be more than one such a strangely assorted pack;but what had brought them down-stream to the mouth of theriver she could not imagine.

Toward the day's close the girl was suddenly alarmed bythe shouting of the Russian from the opposite bank of thestream, and a moment later, following the direction of hisgaze, she was terrified to see a ship's boat approaching fromup-stream, in which, she felt assured, there could be onlymembers of the Kincaid's missing crew--only heartlessruffians and enemies.