The Beasts of Tarzan

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Produced by Judith Boss. HTML version by Al Haines.

  The Beasts of Tarzan

  By

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  To Joan Burroughs

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  1 Kidnapped 2 Marooned 3 Beasts at Bay 4 Sheeta 5 Mugambi 6 A Hideous Crew 7 Betrayed 8 The Dance of Death 9 Chivalry or Villainy 10 The Swede 11 Tambudza 12 A Black Scoundrel 13 Escape 14 Alone in the Jungle 15 Down the Ugambi 16 In the Darkness of the Night 17 On the Deck of the "Kincaid" 18 Paulvitch Plots Revenge 19 The Last of the "Kincaid" 20 Jungle Island Again 21 The Law of the Jungle

  Chapter 1

  Kidnapped

  "The entire affair is shrouded in mystery," said D'Arnot. "I have iton the best of authority that neither the police nor the special agentsof the general staff have the faintest conception of how it wasaccomplished. All they know, all that anyone knows, is that NikolasRokoff has escaped."

  John Clayton, Lord Greystoke--he who had been "Tarzan of the Apes"--satin silence in the apartments of his friend, Lieutenant Paul D'Arnot, inParis, gazing meditatively at the toe of his immaculate boot.

  His mind revolved many memories, recalled by the escape of hisarch-enemy from the French military prison to which he had beensentenced for life upon the testimony of the ape-man.

  He thought of the lengths to which Rokoff had once gone to compass hisdeath, and he realized that what the man had already done woulddoubtless be as nothing by comparison with what he would wish and plotto do now that he was again free.

  Tarzan had recently brought his wife and infant son to London to escapethe discomforts and dangers of the rainy season upon their vast estatein Uziri--the land of the savage Waziri warriors whose broad Africandomains the ape-man had once ruled.

  He had run across the Channel for a brief visit with his old friend,but the news of the Russian's escape had already cast a shadow upon hisouting, so that though he had but just arrived he was alreadycontemplating an immediate return to London.

  "It is not that I fear for myself, Paul," he said at last. "Manytimes in the past have I thwarted Rokoff's designs upon my life; butnow there are others to consider. Unless I misjudge the man, he wouldmore quickly strike at me through my wife or son than directly at me,for he doubtless realizes that in no other way could he inflict greateranguish upon me. I must go back to them at once, and remain with themuntil Rokoff is recaptured--or dead."

  As these two talked in Paris, two other men were talking together in alittle cottage upon the outskirts of London. Both were dark,sinister-looking men.

  One was bearded, but the other, whose face wore the pallor of longconfinement within doors, had but a few days' growth of black beardupon his face. It was he who was speaking.

  "You must needs shave off that beard of yours, Alexis," he said to hiscompanion. "With it he would recognize you on the instant. We mustseparate here in the hour, and when we meet again upon the deck of theKincaid, let us hope that we shall have with us two honoured guests wholittle anticipate the pleasant voyage we have planned for them.

  "In two hours I should be upon my way to Dover with one of them, and bytomorrow night, if you follow my instructions carefully, you shouldarrive with the other, provided, of course, that he returns to Londonas quickly as I presume he will.

  "There should be both profit and pleasure as well as other good thingsto reward our efforts, my dear Alexis. Thanks to the stupidity of theFrench, they have gone to such lengths to conceal the fact of my escapefor these many days that I have had ample opportunity to work out everydetail of our little adventure so carefully that there is little chanceof the slightest hitch occurring to mar our prospects. And nowgood-bye, and good luck!"

  Three hours later a messenger mounted the steps to the apartment ofLieutenant D'Arnot.

  "A telegram for Lord Greystoke," he said to the servant who answeredhis summons. "Is he here?"

  The man answered in the affirmative, and, signing for the message,carried it within to Tarzan, who was already preparing to depart forLondon.

  Tarzan tore open the envelope, and as he read his face went white.

  "Read it, Paul," he said, handing the slip of paper to D'Arnot. "Ithas come already."

  The Frenchman took the telegram and read:

  "Jack stolen from the garden through complicity of new servant. Comeat once.--JANE."

  As Tarzan leaped from the roadster that had met him at the station andran up the steps to his London town house he was met at the door by adry-eyed but almost frantic woman.

  Quickly Jane Porter Clayton narrated all that she had been able tolearn of the theft of the boy.

  The baby's nurse had been wheeling him in the sunshine on the walkbefore the house when a closed taxicab drew up at the corner of thestreet. The woman had paid but passing attention to the vehicle,merely noting that it discharged no passenger, but stood at the kerbwith the motor running as though waiting for a fare from the residencebefore which it had stopped.

  Almost immediately the new houseman, Carl, had come running from theGreystoke house, saying that the girl's mistress wished to speak withher for a moment, and that she was to leave little Jack in his careuntil she returned.

  The woman said that she entertained not the slightest suspicion of theman's motives until she had reached the doorway of the house, when itoccurred to her to warn him not to turn the carriage so as to permitthe sun to shine in the baby's eyes.

  As she turned about to call this to him she was somewhat surprised tosee that he was wheeling the carriage rapidly toward the corner, and atthe same time she saw the door of the taxicab open and a swarthy faceframed for a moment in the aperture.

  Intuitively, the danger to the child flashed upon her, and with ashriek she dashed down the steps and up the walk toward the taxicab,into which Carl was now handing the baby to the swarthy one within.

  Just before she reached the vehicle, Carl leaped in beside hisconfederate, slamming the door behind him. At the same time thechauffeur attempted to start his machine, but it was evident thatsomething had gone wrong, as though the gears refused to mesh, and thedelay caused by this, while he pushed the lever into reverse and backedthe car a few inches before again attempting to go ahead, gave thenurse time to reach the side of the taxicab.

  Leaping to the running-board, she had attempted to snatch the baby fromthe arms of the stranger, and here, screaming and fighting, she hadclung to her position even after the taxicab had got under way; nor wasit until the machine had passed the Greystoke residence at good speedthat Carl, with a heavy blow to her face, had succeeded in knocking herto the pavement.

  Her screams had attracted servants and members of the families fromresidences near by, as well as from the Greystoke home. Lady Greystokehad witnessed the girl's brave battle, and had herself tried to reachthe rapidly passing vehicle, but had been too late.

  That was all that anyone knew, nor did Lady Greystoke dream of thepossible identity of the man at the bottom of the plot until herhusband told her of the escape of Nikolas Rokoff from the French prisonwhere they had hoped he was permanently confined.

  As Tarzan and his wife stood planning the wisest course to pursue, thetelephone bell rang in the library at their right. Tarzan quicklyanswered the call in person.

  "Lord Greystoke?" asked a man's voice at the other end of the line.

  "Yes."

  "Your son has been stolen," continued the voice, "and I alone may helpyou to recover him. I am conversant with the plot of those who tookhim. In fact, I was a party to it, and was to share in the reward, butnow they are trying to ditch me, and to be quits with them I will aidyou to recover him on condition that you will not prosecute me for mypar
t in the crime. What do you say?"

  "If you lead me to where my son is hidden," replied the ape-man, "youneed fear nothing from me."

  "Good," replied the other. "But you must come alone to meet me, for itis enough that I must trust you. I cannot take the chance ofpermitting others to learn my identity."

  "Where and when may I meet you?" asked Tarzan.

  The other gave the name and location of a public-house on thewater-front at Dover--a place frequented by sailors.

  "Come," he concluded, "about ten o'clock tonight. It would do no goodto arrive earlier. Your son will be safe enough in the meantime, and Ican then lead you secretly to where he is hidden. But be sure to comealone, and under no circumstances notify Scotland Yard, for I know youwell and shall be watching for you.

  "Should any other accompany you, or should I see suspicious characterswho might be agents of the police, I shall not meet you, and your lastchance of recovering your son will be gone."

  Without more words the man rang off.

  Tarzan repeated the gist of the conversation to his wife. She beggedto be allowed to accompany him, but he insisted that it might result inthe man's carrying out his threat of refusing to aid them if Tarzan didnot come alone, and so they parted, he to hasten to Dover, and she,ostensibly to wait at home until he should notify her of the outcome ofhis mission.

  Little did either dream of what both were destined to pass throughbefore they should meet again, or the far-distant--but why anticipate?

  For ten minutes after the ape-man had left her Jane Clayton walkedrestlessly back and forth across the silken rugs of the library. Hermother heart ached, bereft of its first-born. Her mind was in ananguish of hopes and fears.

  Though her judgment told her that all would be well were her Tarzan togo alone in accordance with the mysterious stranger's summons, herintuition would not permit her to lay aside suspicion of the gravestdangers to both her husband and her son.

  The more she thought of the matter, the more convinced she became thatthe recent telephone message might be but a ruse to keep them inactiveuntil the boy was safely hidden away or spirited out of England. Or itmight be that it had been simply a bait to lure Tarzan into the handsof the implacable Rokoff.

  With the lodgment of this thought she stopped in wide-eyed terror.Instantly it became a conviction. She glanced at the great clockticking the minutes in the corner of the library.

  It was too late to catch the Dover train that Tarzan was to take.There was another, later, however, that would bring her to the Channelport in time to reach the address the stranger had given her husbandbefore the appointed hour.

  Summoning her maid and chauffeur, she issued instructions rapidly. Tenminutes later she was being whisked through the crowded streets towardthe railway station.

  It was nine-forty-five that night that Tarzan entered the squalid "pub"on the water-front in Dover. As he passed into the evil-smelling rooma muffled figure brushed past him toward the street.

  "Come, my lord!" whispered the stranger.

  The ape-man wheeled about and followed the other into the ill-litalley, which custom had dignified with the title of thoroughfare. Onceoutside, the fellow led the way into the darkness, nearer a wharf,where high-piled bales, boxes, and casks cast dense shadows. Here hehalted.

  "Where is the boy?" asked Greystoke.

  "On that small steamer whose lights you can just see yonder," repliedthe other.

  In the gloom Tarzan was trying to peer into the features of hiscompanion, but he did not recognize the man as one whom he had everbefore seen. Had he guessed that his guide was Alexis Paulvitch hewould have realized that naught but treachery lay in the man's heart,and that danger lurked in the path of every move.

  "He is unguarded now," continued the Russian. "Those who took him feelperfectly safe from detection, and with the exception of a couple ofmembers of the crew, whom I have furnished with enough gin to silencethem effectually for hours, there is none aboard the Kincaid. We cango aboard, get the child, and return without the slightest fear."

  Tarzan nodded.

  "Let's be about it, then," he said.

  His guide led him to a small boat moored alongside the wharf. The twomen entered, and Paulvitch pulled rapidly toward the steamer. Theblack smoke issuing from her funnel did not at the time make anysuggestion to Tarzan's mind. All his thoughts were occupied with thehope that in a few moments he would again have his little son in hisarms.

  At the steamer's side they found a monkey-ladder dangling close abovethem, and up this the two men crept stealthily. Once on deck theyhastened aft to where the Russian pointed to a hatch.

  "The boy is hidden there," he said. "You had better go down after him,as there is less chance that he will cry in fright than should he findhimself in the arms of a stranger. I will stand on guard here."

  So anxious was Tarzan to rescue the child that he gave not theslightest thought to the strangeness of all the conditions surroundingthe Kincaid. That her deck was deserted, though she had steam up, andfrom the volume of smoke pouring from her funnel was all ready to getunder way made no impression upon him.

  With the thought that in another instant he would fold that preciouslittle bundle of humanity in his arms, the ape-man swung down into thedarkness below. Scarcely had he released his hold upon the edge of thehatch than the heavy covering fell clattering above him.

  Instantly he knew that he was the victim of a plot, and that far fromrescuing his son he had himself fallen into the hands of his enemies.Though he immediately endeavoured to reach the hatch and lift thecover, he was unable to do so.

  Striking a match, he explored his surroundings, finding that a littlecompartment had been partitioned off from the main hold, with the hatchabove his head the only means of ingress or egress. It was evidentthat the room had been prepared for the very purpose of serving as acell for himself.

  There was nothing in the compartment, and no other occupant. If thechild was on board the Kincaid he was confined elsewhere.

  For over twenty years, from infancy to manhood, the ape-man had roamedhis savage jungle haunts without human companionship of any nature. Hehad learned at the most impressionable period of his life to take hispleasures and his sorrows as the beasts take theirs.

  So it was that he neither raved nor stormed against fate, but insteadwaited patiently for what might next befall him, though not by anymeans without an eye to doing the utmost to succour himself. To thisend he examined his prison carefully, tested the heavy planking thatformed its walls, and measured the distance of the hatch above him.

  And while he was thus occupied there came suddenly to him the vibrationof machinery and the throbbing of the propeller.

  The ship was moving! Where to and to what fate was it carrying him?

  And even as these thoughts passed through his mind there came to hisears above the din of the engines that which caused him to go cold withapprehension.

  Clear and shrill from the deck above him rang the scream of afrightened woman.