Beasts of Tarzan | Page 8

had approached to listen to the
conversation vouchsafed the information that a moment before as he
had been about to enter the "pub" he had seen two men leaving it who
walked toward the wharf.
"Show me the direction they went," cried the woman, slipping a coin
into the man's hand.
The fellow led her from the place, and together they walked quickly
toward the wharf and along it until across the water they saw a small
boat just pulling into the shadows of a near-by steamer.
"There they be," whispered the man.
"Ten pounds if you will find a boat and row me to that steamer," cried
the woman.
"Quick, then," he replied, "for we gotta go it if we're goin' to catch the
Kincaid afore she sails. She's had steam up for three hours an' jest been
a-waitin' fer that one passenger. I was a-talkin' to one of her crew 'arf
an hour ago."
As he spoke he led the way to the end of the wharf where he knew
another boat lay moored, and, lowering the woman into it, he jumped in
after and pushed off. The two were soon scudding over the water.
At the steamer's side the man demanded his pay and, without waiting to
count out the exact amount, the woman thrust a handful of bank-notes
into his outstretched hand. A single glance at them convinced the
fellow that he had been more than well paid. Then he assisted her up
the ladder, holding his skiff close to the ship's side against the chance
that this profitable passenger might wish to be taken ashore later.
But presently the sound of the donkey engine and the rattle of a steel
cable on the hoisting-drum proclaimed the fact that the Kincaid's
anchor was being raised, and a moment later the waiter heard the
propellers revolving, and slowly the little steamer moved away from

him out into the channel.
As he turned to row back to shore he heard a woman's shriek from the
ship's deck.
"That's wot I calls rotten luck," he soliloquized. "I might jest as well of
'ad the whole bloomin' wad."
When Jane Clayton climbed to the deck of the Kincaid she found the
ship apparently deserted. There was no sign of those she sought nor of
any other aboard, and so she went about her search for her husband and
the child she hoped against hope to find there without interruption.
Quickly she hastened to the cabin, which was half above and half
below deck. As she hurried down the short companion-ladder into the
main cabin, on either side of which were the smaller rooms occupied by
the officers, she failed to note the quick closing of one of the doors
before her. She passed the full length of the main room, and then
retracing her steps stopped before each door to listen, furtively trying
each latch.
All was silence, utter silence there, in which the throbbing of her own
frightened heart seemed to her overwrought imagination to fill the ship
with its thunderous alarm.
One by one the doors opened before her touch, only to reveal empty
interiors. In her absorption she did not note the sudden activity upon
the vessel, the purring of the engines, the throbbing of the propeller.
She had reached the last door upon the right now, and as she pushed it
open she was seized from within by a powerful, dark-visaged man, and
drawn hastily into the stuffy, ill-smelling interior.
The sudden shock of fright which the unexpected attack had upon her
drew a single piercing scream from her throat; then the man clapped a
hand roughly over the mouth.
"Not until we are farther from land, my dear," he said. "Then you may
yell your pretty head off."

Lady Greystoke turned to look into the leering, bearded face so close to
hers. The man relaxed the pressure of his fingers upon her lips, and
with a little moan of terror as she recognized him the girl shrank away
from her captor.
"Nikolas Rokoff! M. Thuran!" she exclaimed.
"Your devoted admirer," replied the Russian, with a low bow.
"My little boy," she said next, ignoring the terms of
endearment--"where is he? Let me have him. How could you be so
cruel--even as you--Nikolas Rokoff--cannot be entirely devoid of
mercy and compassion? Tell me where he is. Is he aboard this ship? Oh,
please, if such a thing as a heart beats within your breast, take me to my
baby!"
"If you do as you are bid no harm will befall him," replied Rokoff. "But
remember that it is your own fault that you are here. You came aboard
voluntarily, and you may take the consequences. I little thought," he
added to himself, "that any such good luck as