17
The Deadly Peril of Jane Clayton
Lieutenant Albert Werper, terrified by contemplation of the fate whichmight await him at Adis Abeba, cast about for some scheme of escape,but after the black Mugambi had eluded their vigilance the Abyssiniansredoubled their precautions to prevent Werper following the lead of theNegro.
For some time Werper entertained the idea of bribing Abdul Mourak witha portion of the contents of the pouch; but fearing that the man woulddemand all the gems as the price of liberty, the Belgian, influenced byavarice, sought another avenue from his dilemma.
It was then that there dawned upon him the possibility of the successof a different course which would still leave him in possession of thejewels, while at the same time satisfying the greed of the Abyssinianwith 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, Werperasked for an audience with Abdul Mourak. As the Belgian entered thepresence of his captor the scowl upon the features of the latter bodedill for any hope which Werper might entertain, still he fortifiedhimself by recalling the common weakness of mankind, which permits themost 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 anyfool might know," he said.
"I can pay for it," said Werper.
Abdul Mourak laughed loudly. "Pay for it?" he cried. "What with--therags that you have upon your back? Or, perhaps you are concealingbeneath your coat a thousand pounds of ivory. Get out! You are afool. Do not bother me again or I shall have you whipped."
But Werper persisted. His liberty and perhaps his life depended uponhis success.
"Listen to me," he pleaded. "If I can give you as much gold as ten menmay carry will you promise that I shall be conducted in safety to thenearest English commissioner?"
"As much gold as ten men may carry!" repeated Abdul Mourak. "You arecrazy. Where have you so much gold as that?"
"I know where it is hid," said Werper. "Promise, and I will lead youto 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 waspreposterous. 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 yourpunishment will be?"
"If it is not there I will forfeit my life," replied the Belgian. "Iknow it is there, for I saw it buried with my own eyes. Andmore--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 theprotection 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 butfive loads you shall have your freedom; but until the gold is in mypossession you remain a prisoner."
"I am satisfied," said Werper. "Tomorrow we start?"
Abdul Mourak nodded, and the Belgian returned to his guards. Thefollowing day the Abyssinian soldiers were surprised to receive anorder which turned their faces from the northeast to the south. And soit happened that upon the very night that Tarzan and the two apesentered the village of the raiders, the Abyssinians camped but a fewmiles to the east of the same spot.
While Werper dreamed of freedom and the unmolested enjoyment of thefortune in his stolen pouch, and Abdul Mourak lay awake in greedycontemplation of the fifty loads of gold which lay but a few daysfarther to the south of him, Achmet Zek gave orders to his lieutenantsthat they should prepare a force of fighting men and carriers toproceed to the ruins of the Englishman's DOUAR on the morrow and bringback the fabulous fortune which his renegade lieutenant had told himwas buried there.
And as he delivered his instructions to those within, a silent listenercrouched without his tent, waiting for the time when he might enter insafety and prosecute his search for the missing pouch and the prettypebbles that had caught his fancy.
At last the swarthy companions of Achmet Zek quitted his tent, and theleader went with them to smoke a pipe with one of their number, leavinghis own silken habitation unguarded. Scarcely had they left theinterior when a knife blade was thrust through the fabric of the rearwall, some six feet above the ground, and a swift downward strokeopened an entrance to those who waited beyond.
Through the opening stepped the ape-man, and close behind him came thehuge Chulk; but Taglat did not follow them. Instead he turned andslunk through the darkness toward the hut where the she who hadarrested his brutish interest lay securely bound. Before the doorwaythe sentries sat upon their haunches, conversing in monotones. Within,the young woman lay upon a filthy sleeping mat, resigned, through utterhopelessness to whatever fate lay in store for her until theopportunity arrived which would permit her to free herself by the onlymeans which now seemed even remotely possible--the hitherto detestedact of self-destruction.
Creeping silently toward the sentries, a white-burnoosed figureapproached the shadows at one end of the hut. The meager intellect ofthe creature denied it the advantage it might have taken of itsdisguise. Where it could have walked boldly to the very sides of thesentries, it chose rather to sneak upon them, unseen, from the rear.
It came to the corner of the hut and peered around. The sentries werebut a few paces away; but the ape did not dare expose himself, even foran instant, to those feared and hated thunder-sticks which theTarmangani knew so well how to use, if there were another and safermethod of attack.
Taglat wished that there was a tree nearby from the over-hangingbranches of which he might spring upon his unsuspecting prey; but,though there was no tree, the idea gave birth to a plan. The eaves ofthe hut were just above the heads of the sentries--from them he couldleap upon the Tarmangani, unseen. A quick snap of those mighty jawswould dispose of one of them before the other realized that they wereattacked, 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 himselffor the effort, ran quickly forward and leaped high into the air. Hestruck the roof directly above the rear wall of the hut, and thestructure, reinforced by the wall beneath, held his enormous weight foran instant, then he moved forward a step, the roof sagged, thethatching parted and the great anthropoid shot through into theinterior.
The sentries, hearing the crashing of the roof poles, leaped to theirfeet and rushed into the hut. Jane Clayton tried to roll aside as thegreat form lit upon the floor so close to her that one foot pinned herclothing to the ground.
The ape, feeling the movement beside him, reached down and gathered thegirl in the hollow of one mighty arm. The burnoose covered the hairybody so that Jane Clayton believed that a human arm supported her, andfrom the extremity of hopelessness a great hope sprang into her breastthat at last she was in the keeping of a rescuer.
The two sentries were now within the hut, but hesitating because ofdoubt 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 theirattack.
Seeing that they stood without advancing, and realizing that,handicapped as he was by the weight of the she, he could put up but apoor battle, Taglat elected to risk a sudden break for liberty.Lowering his head, he charged straight for the two sentries who blockedthe doorway. The impact of his mighty shoulders bowled them over upontheir backs, and before they could scramble to their feet, the ape wasgone, darting in the shadows of the huts toward the palisade at the farend 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 elsein all the jungle could bear the weight of a grown woman as lightly ashe who held her? She spoke his name; but there was no response. Stillshe did not give up hope.
At the palisade the beast did not even hesitate. A single mighty leapcarried it to the top, where it poised but for an instant beforedropping to the ground upon the opposite side. Now the girl was almostpositive that she was safe in the arms of her husband, and when the apetook to the trees and bore her swiftly into the jungle, as Tarzan haddone 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 roughnesssurprised her, but still she had no doubts. Again she called him byname, and at the same instant the ape, fretting under the restraints ofthe unaccustomed garments of the Tarmangani, tore the burnoose fromhim, revealing to the eyes of the horror-struck woman the hideous faceand hairy form of a giant anthropoid.
With a piteous wail of terror, Jane Clayton swooned, while, from theconcealment of a nearby bush, Numa, the lion, eyed the pair hungrilyand licked his chops.
Tarzan, entering the tent of Achmet Zek, searched the interiorthoroughly. He tore the bed to pieces and scattered the contents ofbox and bag about the floor. He investigated whatever his eyesdiscovered, nor did those keen organs overlook a single article withinthe habitation of the raider chief; but no pouch or pretty pebblesrewarded his thoroughness.
Satisfied at last that his belongings were not in the possession ofAchmet Zek, unless they were on the person of the chief himself, Tarzandecided to secure the person of the she before further prosecuting hissearch for the pouch.
Motioning for Chulk to follow him, he passed out of the tent by thesame way that he had entered it, and walking boldly through thevillage, made directly for the hut where Jane Clayton had beenimprisoned.
He noted with surprise the absence of Taglat, whom he had expected tofind awaiting him outside the tent of Achmet Zek; but, accustomed as hewas to the unreliability of apes, he gave no serious attention to thepresent defection of his surly companion. So long as Taglat did notcause interference with his plans, Tarzan was indifferent to hisabsence.
As he approached the hut, the ape-man noticed that a crowd hadcollected about the entrance. He could see that the men who composedit were much excited, and fearing lest Chulk's disguise should proveinadequate to the concealment of his true identity in the face of somany observers, he commanded the ape to betake himself to the far endof the village, and there await him.
As Chulk waddled off, keeping to the shadows, Tarzan advanced boldlytoward the excited group before the doorway of the hut. He mingledwith the blacks and the Arabs in an endeavor to learn the cause of thecommotion, in his interest forgetting that he alone of the assemblagecarried a spear, a bow and arrows, and thus might become an object ofsuspicious attention.
Shouldering his way through the crowd he approached the doorway, andhad almost reached it when one of the Arabs laid a hand upon hisshoulder, crying: "Who is this?" at the same time snatching back thehood from the ape-man's face.
Tarzan of the Apes in all his savage life had never been accustomed topause in argument with an antagonist. The primitive instinct ofself-preservation acknowledges many arts and wiles; but argument is notone of them, nor did he now waste precious time in an attempt toconvince 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 hadscarce quitted his lips, and hurling him from side to side brushed awaythose who would have swarmed upon him.
Using the Arab as a weapon, Tarzan forced his way quickly to thedoorway, and a moment later was within the hut. A hasty examinationrevealed the fact that it was empty, and his sense of smell discovered,too, the scent spoor of Taglat, the ape. Tarzan uttered a low, ominousgrowl. Those who were pressing forward at the doorway to seize him,fell back as the savage notes of the bestial challenge smote upon theirears. They looked at one another in surprise and consternation. A manhad entered the hut alone, and yet with their own ears they had heardthe voice of a wild beast within. What could it mean? Had a lion or aleopard sought sanctuary in the interior, unbeknown to the sentries?
Tarzan's quick eyes discovered the opening in the roof, through whichTaglat had fallen. He guessed that the ape had either come or gone byway of the break, and while the Arabs hesitated without, he sprang,catlike, for the opening, grasped the top of the wall and clambered outupon the roof, dropping instantly to the ground at the rear of the hut.
When the Arabs finally mustered courage to enter the hut, after firingseveral volleys through the walls, they found the interior deserted.At the same time Tarzan, at the far end of the village, sought forChulk; but the ape was nowhere to be found.
Robbed of his she, deserted by his companions, and as much in ignoranceas ever as to the whereabouts of his pouch and pebbles, it was an angryTarzan who climbed the palisade and vanished into the darkness of thejungle.
For the present he must give up the search for his pouch, since itwould be paramount to self-destruction to enter the Arab camp now whileall its inhabitants were aroused and upon the alert.
In his escape from the village, the ape-man had lost the spoor of thefleeing Taglat, and now he circled widely through the forest in anendeavor to again pick it up.
Chulk had remained at his post until the cries and shots of the Arabshad filled his simple soul with terror, for above all things the apefolk fear the thunder-sticks of the Tarmangani; then he had clamberednimbly over the palisade, tearing his burnoose in the effort, and fledinto the depths of the jungle, grumbling and scolding as he went.
Tarzan, roaming the jungle in search of the trail of Taglat and theshe, traveled swiftly. In a little moonlit glade ahead of him thegreat ape was bending over the prostrate form of the woman Tarzansought. The beast was tearing at the bonds that confined her anklesand wrists, pulling and gnawing upon the cords.
The course the ape-man was taking would carry him but a short distanceto the right of them, and though he could not have seen them the windwas bearing down from them to him, carrying their scent spoor stronglytoward him.
A moment more and Jane Clayton's safety might have been assured, eventhough Numa, the lion, was already gathering himself in preparation fora charge; but Fate, already all too cruel, now outdid herself--the windveered suddenly for a few moments, the scent spoor that would have ledthe ape-man to the girl's side was wafted in the opposite direction;Tarzan passed within fifty yards of the tragedy that was being enactedin the glade, and the opportunity was gone beyond recall.