Chapter XVII
Burials
As it was now quite light, the party, none of whom had eaten or sleptsince the previous morning, began to bestir themselves to prepare food.
The mutineers of the Arrow had landed a small supply of dried meats,canned soups and vegetables, crackers, flour, tea, and coffee for thefive they had marooned, and these were hurriedly drawn upon to satisfythe craving of long-famished appetites.
The next task was to make the cabin habitable, and to this end it wasdecided to at once remove the gruesome relics of the tragedy which hadtaken place there on some bygone day.
Professor Porter and Mr. Philander were deeply interested in examiningthe skeletons. The two larger, they stated, had belonged to a male andfemale of one of the higher white races.
The smallest skeleton was given but passing attention, as its location,in the crib, left no doubt as to its having been the infant offspringof this unhappy couple.
As they were preparing the skeleton of the man for burial, Claytondiscovered a massive ring which had evidently encircled the man'sfinger at the time of his death, for one of the slender bones of thehand still lay within the golden bauble.
Picking it up to examine it, Clayton gave a cry of astonishment, forthe ring bore the crest of the house of Greystoke.
At the same time, Jane discovered the books in the cupboard, and onopening the fly-leaf of one of them saw the name, JOHN CLAYTON, LONDON.In a second book which she hurriedly examined was the single name,GREYSTOKE.
"Why, Mr. Clayton," she cried, "what does this mean? Here are thenames of some of your own people in these books."
"And here," he replied gravely, "is the great ring of the house ofGreystoke which has been lost since my uncle, John Clayton, the formerLord Greystoke, disappeared, presumably lost at sea."
"But how do you account for these things being here, in this savageAfrican jungle?" exclaimed the girl.
"There is but one way to account for it, Miss Porter," said Clayton."The late Lord Greystoke was not drowned. He died here in this cabinand this poor thing upon the floor is all that is mortal of him."
"Then this must have been Lady Greystoke," said Jane reverently,indicating the poor mass of bones upon the bed.
"The beautiful Lady Alice," replied Clayton, "of whose many virtues andremarkable personal charms I often have heard my mother and fatherspeak. Poor woman," he murmured sadly.
With deep reverence and solemnity the bodies of the late Lord and LadyGreystoke were buried beside their little African cabin, and betweenthem was placed the tiny skeleton of the baby of Kala, the ape.
As Mr. Philander was placing the frail bones of the infant in a bit ofsail cloth, he examined the skull minutely. Then he called ProfessorPorter to his side, and the two argued in low tones for several minutes.
"Most remarkable, most remarkable," said Professor Porter.
"Bless me," said Mr. Philander, "we must acquaint Mr. Clayton with ourdiscovery at once."
"Tut, tut, Mr. Philander, tut, tut!" remonstrated Professor ArchimedesQ. Porter. "'Let the dead past bury its dead.'"
And so the white-haired old man repeated the burial service over thisstrange grave, while his four companions stood with bowed and uncoveredheads about him.
From the trees Tarzan of the Apes watched the solemn ceremony; but mostof all he watched the sweet face and graceful figure of Jane Porter.
In his savage, untutored breast new emotions were stirring. He couldnot fathom them. He wondered why he felt so great an interest in thesepeople--why he had gone to such pains to save the three men. But hedid not wonder why he had torn Sabor from the tender flesh of thestrange girl.
Surely the men were stupid and ridiculous and cowardly. Even Manu, themonkey, was more intelligent than they. If these were creatures of hisown kind he was doubtful if his past pride in blood was warranted.
But the girl, ah--that was a different matter. He did not reason here.He knew that she was created to be protected, and that he was createdto protect her.
He wondered why they had dug a great hole in the ground merely to burydry bones. Surely there was no sense in that; no one wanted to stealdry bones.
Had there been meat upon them he could have understood, for thus alonemight one keep his meat from Dango, the hyena, and the other robbers ofthe jungle.
When the grave had been filled with earth the little party turned backtoward the cabin, and Esmeralda, still weeping copiously for the twoshe had never heard of before today, and who had been dead twentyyears, chanced to glance toward the harbor. Instantly her tears ceased.
"Look at them low down white trash out there!" she shrilled, pointingtoward the Arrow. "They-all's a desecrating us, right here on thishere perverted island."
And, sure enough, the Arrow was being worked toward the open sea,slowly, through the harbor's entrance.
"They promised to leave us firearms and ammunition," said Clayton."The merciless beasts!"
"It is the work of that fellow they call Snipes, I am sure," said Jane."King was a scoundrel, but he had a little sense of humanity. If theyhad not killed him I know that he would have seen that we were properlyprovided for before they left us to our fate."
"I regret that they did not visit us before sailing," said ProfessorPorter. "I had proposed requesting them to leave the treasure with us,as I shall be a ruined man if that is lost."
Jane looked at her father sadly.
"Never mind, dear," she said. "It wouldn't have done any good, becauseit is solely for the treasure that they killed their officers andlanded us upon this awful shore."
"Tut, tut, child, tut, tut!" replied Professor Porter. "You are a goodchild, but inexperienced in practical matters," and Professor Porterturned and walked slowly away toward the jungle, his hands claspedbeneath his long coat tails and his eyes bent upon the ground.
His daughter watched him with a pathetic smile upon her lips, and thenturning to Mr. Philander, she whispered:
"Please don't let him wander off again as he did yesterday. We dependupon you, you know, to keep a close watch upon him."
"He becomes more difficult to handle each day," replied Mr. Philander,with a sigh and a shake of his head. "I presume he is now off toreport to the directors of the Zoo that one of their lions was at largelast night. Oh, Miss Jane, you don't know what I have to contend with."
"Yes, I do, Mr. Philander; but while we all love him, you alone arebest fitted to manage him; for, regardless of what he may say to you,he respects your great learning, and, therefore, has immense confidencein your judgment. The poor dear cannot differentiate between eruditionand wisdom."
Mr. Philander, with a mildly puzzled expression on his face, turned topursue Professor Porter, and in his mind he was revolving the questionof whether he should feel complimented or aggrieved at Miss Porter'srather backhanded compliment.
Tarzan had seen the consternation depicted upon the faces of the littlegroup as they witnessed the departure of the Arrow; so, as the ship wasa wonderful novelty to him in addition, he determined to hasten out tothe point of land at the north of the harbor's mouth and obtain anearer view of the boat, as well as to learn, if possible, thedirection of its flight.
Swinging through the trees with great speed, he reached the point onlya moment after the ship had passed out of the harbor, so that heobtained an excellent view of the wonders of this strange, floatinghouse.
There were some twenty men running hither and thither about the deck,pulling and hauling on ropes.
A light land breeze was blowing, and the ship had been worked throughthe harbor's mouth under scant sail, but now that they had cleared thepoint every available shred of canvas was being spread that she mightstand out to sea as handily as possible.
Tarzan watched the graceful movements of the ship in rapt admiration,and longed to be aboard her. Presently his keen eyes caught thefaintest suspicion of smoke on the far northern horizon, and hewondered over the cause of such a thing out on the great water
.
About the same time the look-out on the Arrow must have discerned it,for in a few minutes Tarzan saw the sails being shifted and shortened.The ship came about, and presently he knew that she was beating backtoward land.
A man at the bows was constantly heaving into the sea a rope to the endof which a small object was fastened. Tarzan wondered what the purposeof this action might be.
At last the ship came up directly into the wind; the anchor waslowered; down came the sails. There was great scurrying about on deck.
A boat was lowered, and in it a great chest was placed. Then a dozensailors bent to the oars and pulled rapidly toward the point whereTarzan crouched in the branches of a tree.
In the stern of the boat, as it drew nearer, Tarzan saw the rat-facedman.
It was but a few minutes later that the boat touched the beach. Themen jumped out and lifted the great chest to the sand. They were onthe north side of the point so that their presence was concealed fromthose at the cabin.
The men argued angrily for a moment. Then the rat-faced one, withseveral companions, ascended the low bluff on which stood the tree thatconcealed Tarzan. They looked about for several minutes.
"Here is a good place," said the rat-faced sailor, indicating a spotbeneath Tarzan's tree.
"It is as good as any," replied one of his companions. "If they catchus with the treasure aboard it will all be confiscated anyway. Wemight as well bury it here on the chance that some of us will escapethe gallows to come back and enjoy it later."
The rat-faced one now called to the men who had remained at the boat,and they came slowly up the bank carrying picks and shovels.
"Hurry, you!" cried Snipes.
"Stow it!" retorted one of the men, in a surly tone. "You're noadmiral, you damned shrimp."
"I'm Cap'n here, though, I'll have you to understand, you swab,"shrieked Snipes, with a volley of frightful oaths.
"Steady, boys," cautioned one of the men who had not spoken before."It ain't goin' to get us nothing by fightin' amongst ourselves."
"Right enough," replied the sailor who had resented Snipes' autocratictones; "but it ain't a-goin' to get nobody nothin' to put on airs inthis bloomin' company neither."
"You fellows dig here," said Snipes, indicating a spot beneath thetree. "And while you're diggin', Peter kin be a-makin' of a map of thelocation so's we kin find it again. You, Tom, and Bill, take a couplemore down and fetch up the chest."
"Wot are you a-goin' to do?" asked he of the previous altercation."Just boss?"
"Git busy there," growled Snipes. "You didn't think your Cap'n wasa-goin' to dig with a shovel, did you?"
The men all looked up angrily. None of them liked Snipes, and thisdisagreeable show of authority since he had murdered King, the realhead and ringleader of the mutineers, had only added fuel to the flamesof their hatred.
"Do you mean to say that you don't intend to take a shovel, and lend ahand with this work? Your shoulder's not hurt so all-fired bad asthat," said Tarrant, the sailor who had before spoken.
"Not by a damned sight," replied Snipes, fingering the butt of hisrevolver nervously.
"Then, by God," replied Tarrant, "if you won't take a shovel you'lltake a pickax."
With the words he raised his pick above his head, and, with a mightyblow, he buried the point in Snipes' brain.
For a moment the men stood silently looking at the result of theirfellow's grim humor. Then one of them spoke.
"Served the skunk jolly well right," he said.
One of the others commenced to ply his pick to the ground. The soilwas soft and he threw aside the pick and grasped a shovel; then theothers joined him. There was no further comment on the killing, butthe men worked in a better frame of mind than they had since Snipes hadassumed command.
When they had a trench of ample size to bury the chest, Tarrantsuggested that they enlarge it and inter Snipes' body on top of thechest.
"It might 'elp fool any as 'appened to be diggin' 'ereabouts," heexplained.
The others saw the cunning of the suggestion, and so the trench waslengthened to accommodate the corpse, and in the center a deeper holewas excavated for the box, which was first wrapped in sailcloth andthen lowered to its place, which brought its top about a foot below thebottom of the grave. Earth was shovelled in and tramped down about thechest until the bottom of the grave showed level and uniform.
Two of the men rolled the rat-faced corpse unceremoniously into thegrave, after first stripping it of its weapons and various otherarticles which the several members of the party coveted for their own.
They then filled the grave with earth and tramped upon it until itwould hold no more.
The balance of the loose earth was thrown far and wide, and a mass ofdead undergrowth spread in as natural a manner as possible over thenew-made grave to obliterate all signs of the ground having beendisturbed.
Their work done the sailors returned to the small boat, and pulled offrapidly toward the Arrow.
The breeze had increased considerably, and as the smoke upon thehorizon was now plainly discernible in considerable volume, themutineers lost no time in getting under full sail and bearing awaytoward the southwest.
Tarzan, an interested spectator of all that had taken place, satspeculating on the strange actions of these peculiar creatures.
Men were indeed more foolish and more cruel than the beasts of thejungle! How fortunate was he who lived in the peace and security ofthe great forest!
Tarzan wondered what the chest they had buried contained. If they didnot want it why did they not merely throw it into the water? Thatwould have been much easier.
Ah, he thought, but they do want it. They have hidden it here becausethey intend returning for it later.
Tarzan dropped to the ground and commenced to examine the earth aboutthe excavation. He was looking to see if these creatures had droppedanything which he might like to own. Soon he discovered a spade hiddenby the underbrush which they had laid upon the grave.
He seized it and attempted to use it as he had seen the sailors do. Itwas awkward work and hurt his bare feet, but he persevered until he hadpartially uncovered the body. This he dragged from the grave and laidto one side.
Then he continued digging until he had unearthed the chest. This alsohe dragged to the side of the corpse. Then he filled in the smallerhole below the grave, replaced the body and the earth around and aboveit, covered it over with underbrush, and returned to the chest.
Four sailors had sweated beneath the burden of its weight--Tarzan ofthe Apes picked it up as though it had been an empty packing case, andwith the spade slung to his back by a piece of rope, carried it offinto the densest part of the jungle.
He could not well negotiate the trees with his awkward burden, but hekept to the trails, and so made fairly good time.
For several hours he traveled a little north of east until he came toan impenetrable wall of matted and tangled vegetation. Then he took tothe lower branches, and in another fifteen minutes he emerged into theamphitheater of the apes, where they met in council, or to celebratethe rites of the Dum-Dum.
Near the center of the clearing, and not far from the drum, or altar,he commenced to dig. This was harder work than turning up the freshlyexcavated earth at the grave, but Tarzan of the Apes was perseveringand so he kept at his labor until he was rewarded by seeing a holesufficiently deep to receive the chest and effectually hide it fromview.
Why had he gone to all this labor without knowing the value of thecontents of the chest?
Tarzan of the Apes had a man's figure and a man's brain, but he was anape by training and environment. His brain told him that the chestcontained something valuable, or the men would not have hidden it. Histraining had taught him to imitate whatever was new and unusual, andnow the natural curiosity, which is as common to men as to apes,prompted him to open the chest and examine its contents.
But the heavy lock and massive iron bands baffled both his cunning andhis
immense strength, so that he was compelled to bury the chestwithout having his curiosity satisfied.
By the time Tarzan had hunted his way back to the vicinity of thecabin, feeding as he went, it was quite dark.
Within the little building a light was burning, for Clayton had foundan unopened tin of oil which had stood intact for twenty years, a partof the supplies left with the Claytons by Black Michael. The lampsalso were still useable, and thus the interior of the cabin appeared asbright as day to the astonished Tarzan.
He had often wondered at the exact purpose of the lamps. His readingand the pictures had told him what they were, but he had no idea of howthey could be made to produce the wondrous sunlight that some of hispictures had portrayed them as diffusing upon all surrounding objects.
As he approached the window nearest the door he saw that the cabin hadbeen divided into two rooms by a rough partition of boughs andsailcloth.
In the front room were the three men; the two older deep in argument,while the younger, tilted back against the wall on an improvised stool,was deeply engrossed in reading one of Tarzan's books.
Tarzan was not particularly interested in the men, however, so hesought the other window. There was the girl. How beautiful herfeatures! How delicate her snowy skin!
She was writing at Tarzan's own table beneath the window. Upon a pileof grasses at the far side of the room lay the Negress asleep.
For an hour Tarzan feasted his eyes upon her while she wrote. How helonged to speak to her, but he dared not attempt it, for he wasconvinced that, like the young man, she would not understand him, andhe feared, too, that he might frighten her away.
At length she arose, leaving her manuscript upon the table. She wentto the bed upon which had been spread several layers of soft grasses.These she rearranged.
Then she loosened the soft mass of golden hair which crowned her head.Like a shimmering waterfall turned to burnished metal by a dying sun itfell about her oval face; in waving lines, below her waist it tumbled.
Tarzan was spellbound. Then she extinguished the lamp and all withinthe cabin was wrapped in Cimmerian darkness.
Still Tarzan watched. Creeping close beneath the window he waited,listening, for half an hour. At last he was rewarded by the sounds ofthe regular breathing within which denotes sleep.
Cautiously he intruded his hand between the meshes of the lattice untilhis whole arm was within the cabin. Carefully he felt upon the desk.At last he grasped the manuscript upon which Jane Porter had beenwriting, and as cautiously withdrew his arm and hand, holding theprecious treasure.
Tarzan folded the sheets into a small parcel which he tucked into thequiver with his arrows. Then he melted away into the jungle as softlyand as noiselessly as a shadow.