17
The Deadly Peril of Jane Clayton
Lieutenant Albert Werper, terrified by contemplation of the fate
which might await him at Adis Abeba, cast about for some scheme
of escape, but after the black Mugambi had eluded their vigilance
the Abyssinians redoubled their precautions to prevent Werper
following the lead of the Negro.
For some time Werper entertained the idea of bribing Abdul Mourak
with a portion of the contents of the pouch; but fearing that the
man would demand all the gems as the price of liberty, the Belgian,
influenced by avarice, sought another avenue from his dilemma.
It was then that there dawned upon him the possibility of the success
of a different course which would still leave him in possession
of the jewels, while at the same time satisfying the greed of the
Abyssinian with the conviction that he had obtained all that Werper
had to offer.
And so it was that a day or so after Mugambi had disappeared, Werper
asked for an audience with Abdul Mourak. As the Belgian entered
the presence of his captor the scowl upon the features of the
latter boded ill for any hope which Werper might entertain, still
he fortified himself by recalling the common weakness of mankind,
which permits the most inflexible of natures to bend to the consuming
desire for wealth.
Abdul Mourak eyed him, frowningly. "What do you want now?" he
asked.
"My liberty," replied Werper.
The Abyssinian sneered. "And you disturbed me thus to tell me what
any fool might know," he said.
"I can pay for it," said Werper.
Abdul Mourak laughed loudly. "Pay for it?" he cried. "What
with--the rags that you have upon your back? Or, perhaps you are
concealing beneath your coat a thousand pounds of ivory. Get out!
You are a fool. Do not bother me again or I shall have you whipped."
But Werper persisted. His liberty and perhaps his life depended
upon his success.
"Listen to me," he pleaded. "If I can give you as much gold as ten
men may carry will you promise that I shall be conducted in safety
to the nearest English commissioner?"
"As much gold as ten men may carry!" repeated Abdul Mourak. "You
are crazy. Where have you so much gold as that?"
"I know where it is hid," said Werper. "Promise, and I will lead
you to it--if ten loads is enough?"
Abdul Mourak had ceased to laugh. He was eyeing the Belgian
intently. The fellow seemed sane enough--yet ten loads of gold! It
was preposterous. The Abyssinian thought in silence for a moment.
"Well, and if I promise," he said. "How far is this gold?"
"A long week's march to the south," replied Werper.
"And if we do not find it where you say it is, do you realize what
your punishment will be?"
"If it is not there I will forfeit my life," replied the Belgian.
"I know it is there, for I saw it buried with my own eyes. And
more--there are not only ten loads, but as many as fifty men
may carry. It is all yours if you will promise to see me safely
delivered into the protection of the English."
"You will stake your life against the finding of the gold?" asked
Abdul.
Werper assented with a nod.
"Very well," said the Abyssinian, "I promise, and even if there be
but five loads you shall have your freedom; but until the gold is
in my possession you remain a prisoner."
"I am satisfied," said Werper. "Tomorrow we start?"
Abdul Mourak nodded, and the Belgian returned to his guards. The
following day the Abyssinian soldiers were surprised to receive
an order which turned their faces from the northeast to the south.
And so it happened that upon the very night that Tarzan and the
two apes entered the village of the raiders, the Abyssinians camped
but a few miles to the east of the same spot.
While Werper dreamed of freedom and the unmolested enjoyment of the
fortune in his stolen pouch, and Abdul Mourak lay awake in greedy
contemplation of the fifty loads of gold which lay but a few days
farther to the south of him, Achmet Zek gave orders to his lieutenants
that they should prepare a force of fighting men and carriers to
proceed to the ruins of the Englishman's DOUAR on the morrow and
bring back the fabulous fortune which his renegade lieutenant had
told him was buried there.
And as he delivered his instructions to those within, a silent
listener crouched without his tent, waiting for the time when
he might enter in safety and prosecute his search for the missing
pouch and the pretty pebbles that had caught his fancy.
At last the swarthy companions of Achmet Zek quitted his tent, and
the leader went with them to smoke a pipe with one of their number,
leaving his own silken habitation unguarded. Scarcely had they
left the interior when a knife blade was thrust through the fabric
of the rear wall, some six feet above the ground, and a swift
downward stroke opened an entrance to those who waited beyond.
Through the opening stepped the ape-man, and close behind him came
the huge Chulk; but Taglat did not follow them. Instead he turned
and slunk through the darkness toward the hut where the she who
had arrested his brutish interest lay securely bound. Before the
doorway the sentries sat upon their haunches, conversing in monotones.
Within, the young woman lay upon a filthy sleeping mat, resigned,
through utter hopelessness to whatever fate lay in store for her
until the opportunity arrived which would permit her to free herself
by the only means which now seemed even remotely possible--the
hitherto detested act of self-destruction.
Creeping silently toward the sentries, a white-burnoosed figure
approached the shadows at one end of the hut. The meager intellect
of the creature denied it the advantage it might have taken of its
disguise. Where it could have walked boldly to the very sides of
the sentries, it chose rather to sneak upon them, unseen, from the
rear.
It came to the corner of the hut and peered around. The sentries
were but a few paces away; but the ape did not dare expose himself,
even for an instant, to those feared and hated thunder-sticks which
the Tarmangani knew so well how to use, if there were another and
safer method of attack.
Taglat wished that there was a tree nearby from the over-hanging
branches of which he might spring upon his unsuspecting prey; but,
though there was no tree, the idea gave birth to a plan. The eaves
of the hut were just above the heads of the sentries--from them
he could leap upon the Tarmangani, unseen. A quick snap of those
mighty jaws would dispose of one of them before the other realized
that they were attacked, and the second would fall an easy prey to
the strength, agility and ferocity of a second quick charge.
Taglat withdrew a few paces to the rear of the hut, gathered himself
for the effort, ran quickly forward and leaped high into the air.
He struck the roof directly above the rear wall of the hut, and
the structure, reinforced by the wall beneath, held his enormous
weight for an instant, then he moved forward a step, the roof
sagged, the thatching parted and the great anthropoid shot through
into the interior.
The sentries, hearing the crashing of the roof poles, leaped to
their feet and rushed into the hut. Jane Clayton tried to roll
aside as the great form lit upon the floor so close to her that
one foot pinned her clothing to the ground.
The ape, feeling the movement beside him, reached down and gathered
the girl in the hollow of one mighty arm. The burnoose covered the
hairy body so that Jane Clayton believed that a human arm supported
her, and from the extremity of hopelessness a great hope sprang
into her breast that at last she was in the keeping of a rescuer.
The two sentries were now within the hut, but hesitating because
of doubt as to the nature of the cause of the disturbance. Their
eyes, not yet accustomed to the darkness of the interior, told them
nothing, nor did they hear any sound, for the ape stood silently
awaiting their attack.
Seeing that they stood without advancing, and realizing that,
handicapped as he was by the weight of the she, he could put up but
a poor battle, Taglat elected to risk a sudden break for liberty.
Lowering his head, he charged straight for the two sentries who
blocked the doorway. The impact of his mighty shoulders bowled
them over upon their backs, and before they could scramble to their
feet, the ape was gone, darting in the shadows of the huts toward
the palisade at the far end of the village.
The speed and strength of her rescuer filled Jane Clayton with
wonder. Could it be that Tarzan had survived the bullet of the
Arab? Who else in all the jungle could bear the weight of a grown
woman as lightly as he who held her? She spoke his name; but there
was no response. Still she did not give up hope.
At the palisade the beast did not even hesitate. A single mighty
leap carried it to the top, where it poised but for an instant
before dropping to the ground upon the opposite side. Now the girl
was almost positive that she was safe in the arms of her husband,
and when the ape took to the trees and bore her swiftly into the
jungle, as Tarzan had done at other times in the past, belief became
conviction.
In a little moonlit glade, a mile or so from the camp of the raiders,
her rescuer halted and dropped her to the ground. His roughness
surprised her, but still she had no doubts. Again she called
him by name, and at the same instant the ape, fretting under the
restraints of the unaccustomed garments of the Tarmangani, tore
the burnoose from him, revealing to the eyes of the horror-struck
woman the hideous face and hairy form of a giant anthropoid.
With a piteous wail of terror, Jane Clayton swooned, while, from
the concealment of a nearby bush, Numa, the lion, eyed the pair
hungrily and licked his chops.
Tarzan, entering the tent of Achmet Zek, searched the interior
thoroughly. He tore the bed to pieces and scattered the contents
of box and bag about the floor. He investigated whatever his eyes
discovered, nor did those keen organs overlook a single article
within the habitation of the raider chief; but no pouch or pretty
pebbles rewarded his thoroughness.
Satisfied at last that his belongings were not in the possession
of Achmet Zek, unless they were on the person of the chief himself,
Tarzan decided to secure the person of the she before further
prosecuting his search for the pouch.
Motioning for Chulk to follow him, he passed out of the tent by
the same way that he had entered it, and walking boldly through
the village, made directly for the hut where Jane Clayton had been
imprisoned.
He noted with surprise the absence of Taglat, whom he had expected
to find awaiting him outside the tent of Achmet Zek; but, accustomed
as he was to the unreliability of apes, he gave no serious attention
to the present defection of his surly companion. So long as Taglat
did not cause interference with his plans, Tarzan was indifferent
to his absence.
As he approached the hut, the ape-man noticed that a crowd
had collected about the entrance. He could see that the men who
composed it were much excited, and fearing lest Chulk's disguise
should prove inadequate to the concealment of his true identity
in the face of so many observers, he commanded the ape to betake
himself to the far end of the village, and there await him.
As Chulk waddled off, keeping to the shadows, Tarzan advanced
boldly toward the excited group before the doorway of the hut. He
mingled with the blacks and the Arabs in an endeavor to learn the
cause of the commotion, in his interest forgetting that he alone
of the assemblage carried a spear, a bow and arrows, and thus might
become an object of suspicious attention.
Shouldering his way through the crowd he approached the doorway,
and had almost reached it when one of the Arabs laid a hand upon
his shoulder, crying: "Who is this?" at the same time snatching
back the hood from the ape-man's face.
Tarzan of the Apes in all his savage life had never been accustomed
to pause in argument with an antagonist. The primitive instinct of
self-preservation acknowledges many arts and wiles; but argument is
not one of them, nor did he now waste precious time in an attempt
to convince the raiders that he was not a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Instead he had his unmasker by the throat ere the man's words had
scarce quitted his lips, and hurling him from side to side brushed
away those who would have swarmed upon him.
Using the Arab as a weapon, Tarzan forced his way quickly
to the doorway, and a moment later was within the hut. A hasty
examination revealed the fact that it was empty, and his sense of
smell discovered, too, the scent spoor of Taglat, the ape. Tarzan
uttered a low, ominous growl. Those who were pressing forward
at the doorway to seize him, fell back as the savage notes of the
bestial challenge smote upon their ears. They looked at one another
in surprise and consternation. A man had entered the hut alone,
and yet with their own ears they had heard the voice of a wild
beast within. What could it mean? Had a lion or a leopard sought
sanctuary in the interior, unbeknown to the sentries?
Tarzan's quick eyes discovered the opening in the roof, through
which Taglat had fallen. He guessed that the ape had either come
or gone by way of the break, and while the Arabs hesitated without,
he sprang, catlike, for the opening, grasped the top of the wall
and clambered out upon the roof, dropping instantly to the ground
at the rear of the hut.
When the Arabs finally mustered courage to enter the hut, after
firing several volleys through the walls, they found the interior
deserted. At the same time Tarzan, at the far end of the village,
sought for Chulk; but the ape was nowhere to be found.
Robbed of his she, deserted by his companions, and as much in
ignorance as ever as to the whereabouts of his pouch and pebbles,
it was an angry Tarzan who climbed the palisade and vanished into
the darkness of the jungle.
For the present he must give up the search for his pouch, since it
would be paramount to self-destruction to enter the Arab camp now
while all its inhabitants were aroused and upon the alert.
In his escape from the village, the ape-man had lost the spoor of
the fleeing Taglat, and now he circled widely through the forest
in an endeavor to again pick it up.
Chulk had remained at his post until the cries and shots of the
Arabs had filled his simple soul with terror, for above all things
the ape folk fear the thunder-sticks of the Tarmangani; then he
had clambered nimbly over the palisade, tearing his burnoose in
the effort, and fled into the depths of the jungle, grumbling and
scolding as he went.
Tarzan, roaming the jungle in search of the trail of Taglat and the
she, traveled swiftly. In a little moonlit glade ahead of him the
great ape was bending over the prostrate form of the woman Tarzan
sought. The beast was tearing at the bonds that confined her ankles
and wrists, pulling and gnawing upon the cords.
The course the ape-man was taking would carry him but a short
distance to the right of them, and though he could not have seen
them the wind was bearing down from them to him, carrying their
scent spoor strongly toward him.
A moment more and Jane Clayton's safety might have been assured, even
though Numa, the lion, was already gathering himself in preparation
for a charge; but Fate, already all too cruel, now outdid herself--the
wind veered suddenly for a few moments, the scent spoor that would
have led the ape-man to the girl's side was wafted in the opposite
direction; Tarzan passed within fifty yards of the tragedy that
was being enacted in the glade, and the opportunity was gone beyond
recall.
