Chapter 15
Down the Ugambi
Halfway between the Ugambi and the village of the Waganwazam, Tarzancame upon the pack moving slowly along his old spoor. Mugambi couldscarce believe that the trail of the Russian and the mate of his savagemaster had passed so close to that of the pack.
It seemed incredible that two human beings should have come so close tothem without having been detected by some of the marvellously keen andalert beasts; but Tarzan pointed out the spoor of the two he trailed,and at certain points the black could see that the man and the womanmust have been in hiding as the pack passed them, watching every moveof the ferocious creatures.
It had been apparent to Tarzan from the first that Jane and Rokoff werenot travelling together. The spoor showed distinctly that the youngwoman had been a considerable distance ahead of the Russian at first,though the farther the ape-man continued along the trail the moreobvious it became that the man was rapidly overhauling his quarry.
At first there had been the spoor of wild beasts over the footprints ofJane Clayton, while upon the top of all Rokoff's spoor showed that hehad passed over the trail after the animals had left their records uponthe ground. But later there were fewer and fewer animal imprintsoccurring between those of Jane's and the Russian's feet, until as heapproached the 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 a little thrillof expectation, he leaped rapidly forward ahead of the pack. Swingingswiftly through the trees, he came out upon the river-bank at the verypoint at which Rokoff had overhauled Jane as she endeavoured to launchthe cumbersome dugout.
In the mud along the bank the ape-man saw the footprints of the two hesought, but there was neither boat nor people there when he arrived,nor, at first glance, any sign of their whereabouts.
It was plain that they had shoved off a native canoe and embarked uponthe bosom of the stream, and as the ape-man's eye ran swiftly down thecourse of the river beneath the shadows of the overarching trees he sawin the distance, just as it rounded a bend that shut it off from hisview, 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 their agile leaderracing down the river's bank, leaping from hummock to hummock of theswampy ground that spread between them and a little promontory whichrose just where the river curved inward from their sight.
To follow him it was necessary for the heavy, cumbersome apes to make awide detour, and Sheeta, too, who hated water. Mugambi followed afterthem as rapidly as he could in the wake of the great white master.
A half-hour of rapid travelling across the swampy neck of land and overthe rising promontory brought Tarzan, by a short cut, to the inwardbend of the winding river, and there before him upon the bosom of thestream 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's brow burnedscarlet, and there rose to his lips the hideous, bestial challenge ofthe bull-ape.
Rokoff shuddered as the weird and terrible alarm fell upon his ears.Cowering in the bottom of the boat, his teeth chattering in terror, hewatched the man he feared above all other creatures upon the face ofthe earth as he ran quickly to the edge of the water.
Even though the Russian knew that he was safe from his enemy, the verysight of him threw him into a frenzy of trembling cowardice, whichbecame frantic hysteria as he saw the white giant dive fearlessly intothe forbidding waters of the tropical river.
With steady, powerful strokes the ape-man forged out into the streamtoward the drifting dugout. Now Rokoff seized one of the paddles lyingin the bottom of the craft, and, with terrorwide eyes still glued uponthe living death that pursued him, struck out madly in an effort toaugment the speed of the unwieldy canoe.
And from the opposite bank a sinister ripple, unseen by either man,moved 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, unableto move a hand or foot, his eyes riveted upon the face of his Nemesis.
Then a sudden commotion in the water behind the swimmer caught hisattention. He saw the ripple, and he knew what caused it.
At the same instant Tarzan felt mighty jaws close upon his right leg.He tried to struggle free and raise himself over the side of the boat.His efforts would have succeeded had not this unexpected interruptiongalvanized the malign brain of the Russian into instant action with itssudden promise of deliverance and revenge.
Like a venomous snake the man leaped toward the stern of the boat, andwith a single swift blow struck Tarzan across the head with the heavypaddle. The ape-man's fingers slipped from their hold upon 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, Lordof the Jungle, disappeared from the sight of men beneath the gloomywaters 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 befallenhim--all that he could see was the figure of a silent, struggling whiteman disappearing beneath the surface of the river to unthinkable deathin the slimy mud of the bottom.
Slowly all that it meant to him filtered into the mind of the Russian,and then a cruel smile of relief and triumph touched his lips; but itwas short-lived, for just as he was congratulating himself that he wasnow comparatively safe to proceed upon his way to the coast unmolested,a mighty pandemonium rose from the river-bank close by.
As his eyes sought the authors of the frightful sound he saw standingupon the shore, glaring at him with hate-filled eyes, a devil-facedpanther surrounded by the hideous apes of Akut, and in the forefront ofthem a giant black warrior who shook his fist at him, threatening himwith 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 lost inthe 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 warriors had putout in their canoes to intercept him, but each time the hideous hordehad swept into view to send the terrified natives shrieking back to theshore to lose themselves in the jungle.
Nowhere in his flight had he seen aught of Jane Clayton. Not once hadhis eyes rested upon her since that moment at the river's brim his handhad closed upon the rope attached to the bow of her dugout and he hadbelieved her safely in his power again, only to be thwarted an instantlater as the girl snatched up a heavy express rifle from the bottom ofthe craft and levelled it full at his breast.
Quickly he had dropped the rope then and seen her float away beyond hisreach, but a moment later he had been racing up-stream toward a littletributary in the mouth of which was hidden the canoe in which he andhis party had come thus far upon their journey in pursuit of the girland Anderssen.
What had become of her?
There seemed little doubt in the Russian's mind, however, but that shehad been captured by warriors from one of the several villages shewould have been compelled to pass on her way down to the sea. Well, hewas at least rid of most of his human enemies.
But at that he would gladly have had them all back in the land of theliving could he thus have been freed from the menace of the frightfulcreatures who pursued him with awful relentlessness, screaming andgrowling at him every time they came within sight of him. The one thatfilled him with the greatest terror was the panther--the flaming-eyed,devil-faced panther whose grinning jaws gaped wide at him by day, andwhose
fiery orbs gleamed wickedly out across the water from theCimmerian blackness of the jungle nights.
The sight of the mouth of the Ugambi filled Rokoff with renewed hope,for there, upon the yellow waters of the bay, floated the Kincaid atanchor. He had sent the little steamer away to coal while he had goneup the river, leaving Paulvitch in charge of her, and he could havecried aloud in his relief as he saw that she had returned in time tosave him.
Frantically he alternately paddled furiously toward her and rose to hisfeet waving his paddle and crying aloud in an attempt to attract theattention of those on board. But loud as he screamed his criesawakened no answering challenge from the deck of the silent craft.
Upon the shore behind him a hurried backward glance revealed thepresence of the snarling pack. Even now, he thought, these manlikedevils might yet find a way to reach him even upon the deck of thesteamer unless there were those there to repel them with firearms.
What could have happened to those he had left upon the Kincaid? Wherewas Paulvitch? Could it be that the vessel was deserted, and that,after all, he was doomed to be overtaken by the terrible fate that hehad been flying from through all these hideous days and nights? Heshivered as might one upon whose brow death has already laid his clammyfinger.
Yet he did not cease to paddle frantically toward the steamer, and atlast, after what seemed an eternity, the bow of the dugout bumpedagainst the timbers of the Kincaid. Over the ship's side hung amonkey-ladder, but as the Russian grasped it to ascend to the deck heheard a warning challenge from above, and, looking up, gazed into thecold, relentless muzzle of a rifle.
After Jane Clayton, with rifle levelled at the breast of Rokoff, hadsucceeded in holding him off until the dugout in which she had takenrefuge had drifted out upon the bosom of the Ugambi beyond the man'sreach, she had lost no time in paddling to the swiftest sweep of thechannel, nor did she for long days and weary nights cease to hold hercraft to the most rapidly moving part of the river, except when duringthe hottest hours of the day she had been wont to drift as the currentwould take her, lying prone in the bottom of the canoe, her facesheltered from the sun with a great palm leaf.
Thus only did she gain rest upon the voyage; at other times shecontinually sought to augment the movement of the craft by wielding theheavy paddle.
Rokoff, on the other hand, had used little or no intelligence in hisflight along the Ugambi, so that more often than not his craft haddrifted in the slow-going eddies, for he habitually hugged the bankfarthest from that along which the hideous horde pursued and menacedhim.
Thus it was that, though he had put out upon the river but a short timesubsequent to the girl, yet she had reached the bay fully two hoursahead of him. When she had first seen the anchored ship upon the quietwater, Jane Clayton's heart had beat fast with hope and thanksgiving,but as she drew closer 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 that carriedher toward the ship was much too strong for her muscles. She could nothave forced the heavy dugout up-stream against it, and all that wasleft her was to attempt either to make the shore without being seen bythose upon the deck of the Kincaid, or to throw herself upon theirmercy--otherwise she must be swept out to sea.
She knew that the shore held little hope of life for her, as she had noknowledge of the location of the friendly Mosula village to whichAnderssen had taken her through the darkness of the night of theirescape from the Kincaid.
With Rokoff away from the steamer it might be possible that by offeringthose in charge a large reward they could be induced to carry her tothe nearest civilized port. It was worth risking--if she could makethe steamer at all.
The current was bearing her swiftly down the river, and she found thatonly by dint of the utmost exertion could she direct the awkward crafttoward the vicinity of the Kincaid. Having reached the decision toboard the steamer, she now looked to it for aid, but to her surprisethe decks appeared to be empty and she saw no sign of life aboard theship.
The dugout was drawing closer and closer to the bow of the vessel, andyet no hail came over the side from any lookout aboard. In a momentmore, Jane realized, she would be swept beyond the steamer, and then,unless they lowered a boat to rescue her, she would be carried far outto sea by the current and the swift ebb tide that was running.
The young woman called loudly for assistance, but there was no replyother than the shrill scream of some savage beast upon thejungle-shrouded shore. Frantically Jane wielded the paddle in aneffort to carry her craft close alongside the steamer.
For a moment it seemed that she should miss her goal by but a few feet,but at the last moment the canoe swung close beneath the steamer's bowand Jane barely managed to grasp the anchor chain.
Heroically she clung to the heavy iron links, almost dragged from thecanoe by the strain of the current upon her craft. Beyond her she sawa monkey-ladder dangling over the steamer's side. To release her holdupon the chain and chance clambering to the ladder as her canoe wasswept beneath it seemed beyond the pale of possibility, yet to remainclinging to the anchor chain appeared equally as futile.
Finally her glance chanced to fall upon the rope in the bow of thedugout, and, making one end of this fast to the chain, she succeeded indrifting the canoe slowly down until it lay directly beneath theladder. A moment later, her rifle slung about her shoulders, she hadclambered safely to the deserted deck.
Her first task was to explore the ship, and this she did, her rifleready for instant use should she meet with any human menace aboard theKincaid. She was not long in discovering the cause of the apparentlydeserted condition of the steamer, for in the forecastle she found thesailors, who had evidently been left to guard the ship, deep in drunkenslumber.
With a shudder of disgust she clambered above, and to the best of herability closed and made fast the hatch above the heads of the sleepingguard. Next she sought the galley and food, and, having appeased herhunger, she took her place on deck, determined that none should boardthe Kincaid without first having agreed to her demands.
For an hour or so nothing appeared upon the surface of the river tocause her alarm, but then, about a bend up-stream, she saw a canoeappear in which sat a single figure. It had not proceeded far in herdirection before she recognized the occupant as Rokoff, and when thefellow attempted to board he found a rifle staring him in the face.
When the Russian discovered who it was that repelled his advance hebecame furious, cursing and threatening in a most horrible manner; but,finding that these tactics failed to frighten or move the girl, he atlast fell to pleading and promising.
Jane had but a single reply for his every proposition, and that wasthat nothing would ever persuade her to permit Rokoff upon the samevessel with her. That she would put her threats into action and shoothim should he persist in his endeavour to board the ship he wasconvinced.
So, as there was no other alternative, the great coward dropped backinto his dugout and, at imminent risk of being swept to sea, finallysucceeded in making the shore far down the bay and upon the oppositeside from that on which the horde of beasts stood snarling and roaring.
Jane Clayton knew that the fellow could not alone and unaided bring hisheavy craft back up-stream to the Kincaid, and so she had no furtherfear of an attack by him. The hideous crew upon the shore she thoughtshe recognized as the same that had passed her in the jungle far up theUgambi several days before, for it seemed quite beyond reason thatthere should be more than one such a strangely assorted pack; but whathad brought them down-stream to the mouth of the river she could notimagine.
Toward the day's close the girl was suddenly alarmed by the shouting ofthe Russian from the opposite bank of the stream, and a moment later,following the direction of his gaze, she was terrified to see a ship'sboat approaching from up-stream, in which, she felt assured, therecould be only members of the Kincaid's missing crew--only heartlessruffians and enemies.