Beasts of Tarzan | Page 5

shave off that beard of yours, Alexis," he said to his
companion. "With it he would recognize you on the instant. We must
separate here in the hour, and when we meet again upon the deck of the
Kincaid, let us hope that we shall have with us two honoured guests
who little 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
by tomorrow night, if you follow my instructions carefully, you should
arrive with the other, provided, of course, that he returns to London as
quickly as I presume he will.
"There should be both profit and pleasure as well as other good things
to reward our efforts, my dear Alexis. Thanks to the stupidity of the
French, they have gone to such lengths to conceal the fact of my escape
for these many days that I have had ample opportunity to work out
every detail of our little adventure so carefully that there is little chance
of the slightest hitch occurring to mar our prospects. And now
good-bye, and good luck!"
Three hours later a messenger mounted the steps to the apartment of
Lieutenant D'Arnot.
"A telegram for Lord Greystoke," he said to the servant who answered

his 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 for
London.
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. "It has
come already."
The Frenchman took the telegram and read:
"Jack stolen from the garden through complicity of new servant. Come
at once.--JANE."
As Tarzan leaped from the roadster that had met him at the station and
ran up the steps to his London town house he was met at the door by a
dry-eyed but almost frantic woman.
Quickly Jane Porter Clayton narrated all that she had been able to learn
of the theft of the boy.
The baby's nurse had been wheeling him in the sunshine on the walk
before the house when a closed taxicab drew up at the corner of the
street. The woman had paid but passing attention to the vehicle, merely
noting that it discharged no passenger, but stood at the kerb with the
motor running as though waiting for a fare from the residence before
which it had stopped.
Almost immediately the new houseman, Carl, had come running from
the Greystoke house, saying that the girl's mistress wished to speak
with her for a moment, and that she was to leave little Jack in his care
until she returned.
The woman said that she entertained not the slightest suspicion of the
man's motives until she had reached the doorway of the house, when it
occurred to her to warn him not to turn the carriage so as to permit the

sun to shine in the baby's eyes.
As she turned about to call this to him she was somewhat surprised to
see that he was wheeling the carriage rapidly toward the corner, and at
the same time she saw the door of the taxicab open and a swarthy face
framed for a moment in the aperture.
Intuitively, the danger to the child flashed upon her, and with a shriek
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 his
confederate, slamming the door behind him. At the same time the
chauffeur attempted to start his machine, but it was evident that
something had gone wrong, as though the gears refused to mesh, and
the delay caused by this, while he pushed the lever into reverse and
backed the car a few inches before again attempting to go ahead, gave
the nurse time to reach the side of the taxicab.
Leaping to the running-board, she had attempted to snatch the baby
from the arms of the stranger, and here, screaming and fighting, she had
clung to her position even after the taxicab had got under way; nor was
it until the machine had passed the Greystoke residence at good speed
that Carl, with a heavy blow to her face, had succeeded in knocking her
to the pavement.
Her screams had attracted servants and members of the families from
residences near by, as well as from the Greystoke home. Lady
Greystoke had witnessed the girl's brave battle, and had herself tried to
reach the rapidly passing vehicle, but had been too late.
That was all that anyone knew, nor did Lady Greystoke dream of the
possible identity of the man at