Chapter 14
Alone in the Jungle
Tambudza, leading Tarzan of the Apes toward the camp of the Russian,moved very slowly along the winding jungle path, for she was old andher legs stiff with rheumatism.
So it was that the runners dispatched by M'ganwazam to warn Rokoff thatthe white giant was in his village and that he would be slain thatnight reached the Russian's camp before Tarzan and his ancient guidehad covered half the distance.
The guides found the white man's camp in a turmoil. Rokoff had thatmorning been discovered stunned and bleeding within his tent. When hehad recovered his senses and realized that Jane Clayton had escaped,his rage was boundless.
Rushing about the camp with his rifle, he had sought to shoot down thenative sentries who had allowed the young woman to elude theirvigilance, but several of the other whites, realizing that they werealready in a precarious position owing to the numerous desertions thatRokoff's cruelty had brought about, seized and disarmed him.
Then came the messengers from M'ganwazam, but scarce had they toldtheir story and Rokoff was preparing to depart with them for theirvillage when other runners, panting from the exertions of their swiftflight through the jungle, rushed breathless into the firelight, cryingthat the great white giant had escaped from M'ganwazam and was alreadyon his way to wreak vengeance against his enemies.
Instantly confusion reigned within the encircling boma. The blacksbelonging to Rokoff's safari were terror-stricken at the thought of theproximity of the white giant who hunted through the jungle with afierce pack of apes and panthers at his heels.
Before the whites realized what had happened the superstitious fears ofthe natives had sent them scurrying into the bush--their own carriersas well as the messengers from M'ganwazam--but even in their haste theyhad not neglected to take with them every article of value upon whichthey could lay their hands.
Thus Rokoff and the seven white sailors found themselves deserted androbbed in the midst of a wilderness.
The Russian, following his usual custom, berated his companions, layingall the blame upon their shoulders for the events which had led up tothe almost hopeless condition in which they now found themselves; butthe sailors were in no mood to brook his insults and his cursing.
In the midst of this tirade one of them drew a revolver and firedpoint-blank at the Russian. The fellow's aim was poor, but his act soterrified Rokoff that he turned and fled for his tent.
As he ran his eyes chanced to pass beyond the boma to the edge of theforest, and there he caught a glimpse of that which sent his cravenheart cold with a fear that almost expunged his terror of the seven menat his back, who by this time were all firing in hate and revenge athis retreating figure.
What he saw was the giant figure of an almost naked white man emergingfrom the bush.
Darting into his tent, the Russian did not halt in his flight, but keptright on through the rear wall, taking advantage of the long slit thatJane Clayton had made the night before.
The terror-stricken Muscovite scurried like a hunted rabbit through thehole that still gaped in the boma's wall at the point where his ownprey had escaped, and as Tarzan approached the camp upon the oppositeside Rokoff disappeared into the jungle in the wake of Jane Clayton.
As the ape-man entered the boma with old Tambudza at his elbow theseven sailors, recognizing him, turned and fled in the oppositedirection. Tarzan saw that Rokoff was not among them, and so he letthem go their way--his business was with the Russian, whom he expectedto find in his tent. As to the sailors, he was sure that the junglewould exact from them expiation for their villainies, nor, doubtless,was he wrong, for his were the last white man's eyes to rest upon anyof them.
Finding Rokoff's tent empty, Tarzan was about to set out in search ofthe Russian when Tambudza suggested to him that the departure of thewhite man could only have resulted from word reaching him fromM'ganwazam that Tarzan was in his village.
"He has doubtless hastened there," argued the old woman. "If you wouldfind him let us return at once."
Tarzan himself thought that this would probably prove to be the fact,so he did not waste time in an endeavour to locate the Russian's trail,but, instead, set out briskly for the village of M'ganwazam, leavingTambudza to plod slowly in his wake.
His one hope was that Jane was still safe and with Rokoff. If thiswas the case, it would be but a matter of an hour or more before heshould be able to wrest her from the Russian.
He knew now that M'ganwazam was treacherous and that he might have tofight to regain possession of his wife. He wished that Mugambi,Sheeta, Akut, and the balance of the pack were with him, for herealized that single-handed it would be no child's play to bring Janesafely from the clutches of two such scoundrels as Rokoff and the wilyM'ganwazam.
To his surprise he found no sign of either Rokoff or Jane in thevillage, and as he could not trust the word of the chief, he wasted notime in futile inquiry. So sudden and unexpected had been his return,and so quickly had he vanished into the jungle after learning thatthose he sought were not among the Waganwazam, that old M'ganwazam hadno time to prevent his going.
Swinging through the trees, he hastened back to the deserted camp hehad so recently left, for here, he knew, was the logical place to takeup the trail of Rokoff and Jane.
Arrived at the boma, he circled carefully about the outside of theenclosure until, opposite a break in the thorny wall, he came toindications that something had recently passed into the jungle. Hisacute sense of smell told him that both of those he sought had fledfrom the camp in this direction, and a moment later he had taken up thetrail and was following the faint spoor.
Far ahead of him a terror-stricken young woman was slinking along anarrow game-trail, fearful that the next moment would bring her face toface with some savage beast or equally savage man. As she ran on,hoping against hope that she had hit upon the direction that would leadher eventually to the great river, she came suddenly upon a familiarspot.
At one side of the trail, beneath a giant tree, lay a little heap ofloosely piled brush--to her dying day that little spot of jungle wouldbe indelibly impressed upon her memory. It was where Anderssen hadhidden her--where he had given up his life in the vain effort to saveher from Rokoff.
At sight of it she recalled the rifle and ammunition that the man hadthrust upon her at the last moment. Until now she had forgotten thementirely. Still clutched in her hand was the revolver she had snatchedfrom Rokoff's belt, but that could contain at most not over sixcartridges--not enough to furnish her with food and protection both onthe long journey to the sea.
With bated breath she groped beneath the little mound, scarce daring tohope that the treasure remained where she had left it; but, to herinfinite relief and joy, her hand came at once upon the barrel of theheavy weapon and then upon the bandoleer of cartridges.
As she threw the latter about her shoulder and felt the weight of thebig game-gun in her hand a sudden sense of security suffused her. Itwas with new hope and a feeling almost of assured success that sheagain set forward upon her journey.
That night she slept in the crotch of a tree, as Tarzan had so oftentold her that he was accustomed to doing, and early the next morningwas upon her way again. Late in the afternoon, as she was about tocross a little clearing, she was startled at the sight of a huge apecoming from the jungle upon the opposite side.
The wind was blowing directly across the clearing between them, andJane lost no time in putting herself downwind from the huge creature.Then she hid in a clump of heavy bush and watched, holding the rifleready for instant use.
To her consternation she saw that the apes were pausing in the centreof the clearing. They came together in a little knot, where they stoodlooking backward, as though in expectation of the coming of others oftheir tribe. Jane wished that they would go on, for she knew that atany moment some little, eddying gust of wind might carry her scent downto their nostrils, and then what would the protection of her rifleamount to in the f
ace of those gigantic muscles and mighty fangs?
Her eyes moved back and forth between the apes and the edge of thejungle toward which they were gazing until at last she perceived theobject of their halt and the thing that they awaited. They were beingstalked.
Of this she was positive, as she saw the lithe, sinewy form of apanther glide noiselessly from the jungle at the point at which theapes had emerged but a moment before.
Quickly the beast trotted across the clearing toward the anthropoids.Jane wondered at their apparent apathy, and a moment later her wonderturned to amazement as she saw the great cat come quite close to theapes, who appeared entirely unconcerned by its presence, and, squattingdown in their midst, fell assiduously to the business of preening,which occupies most of the waking hours of the cat family.
If the young woman was surprised by the sight of these natural enemiesfraternizing, it was with emotions little short of fear for her ownsanity that she presently saw a tall, muscular warrior enter theclearing and join the group of savage beasts assembled there.
At first sight of the man she had been positive that he would be tornto pieces, and she had half risen from her shelter, raising her rifleto her shoulder to do what she could to avert the man's terrible fate.
Now she saw that he seemed actually conversing with the beasts--issuingorders to them.
Presently the entire company filed on across the clearing anddisappeared in the jungle upon the opposite side.
With a gasp of mingled incredulity and relief Jane Clayton staggered toher feet and fled on away from the terrible horde that had just passedher, while a half-mile behind her another individual, following thesame trail as she, lay frozen with terror behind an ant-hill as thehideous band passed quite close to him.
This one was Rokoff; but he had recognized the members of the awfulaggregation as allies of Tarzan of the Apes. No sooner, therefore,had the beasts passed him than he rose and raced through the jungle asfast as he could go, in order that he might put as much distance aspossible between himself and these frightful beasts.
So it happened that as Jane Clayton came to the bank of the river, downwhich she hoped to float to the ocean and eventual rescue, NikolasRokoff was but a short distance in her rear.
Upon the bank the girl saw a great dugout drawn half-way from the waterand tied securely to a near-by tree.
This, she felt, would solve the question of transportation to the seacould she but launch the huge, unwieldy craft. Unfastening the ropethat had moored it to the tree, Jane pushed frantically upon the bow ofthe heavy canoe, but for all the results that were apparent she mightas well have been attempting to shove the earth out of its orbit.
She was about winded when it occurred to her to try working the dugoutinto the stream by loading the stern with ballast and then rocking thebow back and forth along the bank until the craft eventually workeditself into the river.
There were no stones or rocks available, but along the shore she foundquantities of driftwood deposited by the river at a slightly higherstage. These she gathered and piled far in the stern of the boat,until at last, to her immense relief, she saw the bow rise gently fromthe mud of the bank and the stern drift slowly with the current untilit again lodged a few feet farther down-stream.
Jane found that by running back and forth between the bow and stern shecould alternately raise and lower each end of the boat as she shiftedher weight from one end to the other, with the result that each timeshe leaped to the stern the canoe moved a few inches farther into theriver.
As the success of her plan approached more closely to fruition shebecame so wrapped in her efforts that she failed to note the figure ofa man standing beneath a huge tree at the edge of the jungle from whichhe had just emerged.
He watched her and her labours with a cruel and malicious grin upon hisswarthy countenance.
The boat at last became so nearly free of the retarding mud and of thebank that Jane felt positive that she could pole it off into deeperwater with one of the paddles which lay in the bottom of the rudecraft. With this end in view she seized upon one of these implementsand had just plunged it into the river bottom close to the shore whenher eyes happened to rise to the edge of the jungle.
As her gaze fell upon the figure of the man a little cry of terror roseto her lips. It was Rokoff.
He was running toward her now and shouting to her to wait or he wouldshoot--though as he was entirely unarmed it was difficult to discover justhow he intended making good his threat.
Jane Clayton knew nothing of the various misfortunes that had befallenthe Russian since she had escaped from his tent, so she believed thathis followers must be close at hand.
However, she had no intention of falling again into the man's clutches.She would rather die at once than that that should happen to her.Another minute and the boat would be free.
Once in the current of the river she would be beyond Rokoff's power tostop her, for there was no other boat upon the shore, and no man, andcertainly not the cowardly Rokoff, would dare to attempt to swim thecrocodile-infested water in an effort to overtake her.
Rokoff, on his part, was bent more upon escape than aught else. Hewould gladly have forgone any designs he might have had upon JaneClayton would she but permit him to share this means of escape that shehad discovered. He would promise anything if she would let him comeaboard the dugout, but he did not think that it was necessary to do so.
He saw that he could easily reach the bow of the boat before it clearedthe shore, and then it would not be necessary to make promises of anysort. Not that Rokoff would have felt the slightest compunction inignoring any promises he might have made the girl, but he disliked theidea of having to sue for favour with one who had so recently assaultedand escaped him.
Already he was gloating over the days and nights of revenge that wouldbe his while the heavy dugout drifted its slow way to the ocean.
Jane Clayton, working furiously to shove the boat beyond his reach,suddenly realized that she was to be successful, for with a littlelurch the dugout swung quickly into the current, just as the Russianreached out to place his hand upon its bow.
His fingers did not miss their goal by a half-dozen inches. The girlalmost collapsed with the reaction from the terrific mental, physical,and nervous strain under which she had been labouring for the past fewminutes. But, thank Heaven, at last she was safe!
Even as she breathed a silent prayer of thanksgiving, she saw a suddenexpression of triumph lighten the features of the cursing Russian, andat the same instant he dropped suddenly to the ground, grasping firmlyupon something which wriggled through the mud toward the water.
Jane Clayton crouched, wide-eyed and horror-stricken, in the bottom ofthe boat as she realized that at the last instant success had beenturned to failure, and that she was indeed again in the power of themalignant Rokoff.
For the thing that the man had seen and grasped was the end of thetrailing rope with which the dugout had been moored to the tree.