Tarzan of the Apes | Page 4

tongue in yer 'ead, or they'll put a pill
between yer ribs, an' mark my word for it, sir," and the old fellow went
on with his polishing, which carried him away from where the Claytons
were standing.
"Deuced cheerful outlook, Alice," said Clayton.
"You should warn the captain at once, John. Possibly the trouble may
yet be averted," she said.
"I suppose I should, but yet from purely selfish motives I am almost

prompted to `keep a still tongue in my 'ead.' Whatever they do now
they will spare us in recognition of my stand for this fellow Black
Michael, but should they find that I had betrayed them there would be
no mercy shown us, Alice."
"You have but one duty, John, and that lies in the interest of vested
authority. If you do not warn the captain you are as much a party to
whatever follows as though you had helped to plot and carry it out with
your own head and hands."
"You do not understand, dear," replied Clayton. "It is of you I am
thinking--there lies my first duty. The captain has brought this
condition upon himself, so why then should I risk subjecting my wife
to unthinkable horrors in a probably futile attempt to save him from his
own brutal folly? You have no conception, dear, of what would follow
were this pack of cutthroats to gain control of the Fuwalda."
"Duty is duty, John, and no amount of sophistries may change it. I
would be a poor wife for an English lord were I to be responsible for
his shirking a plain duty. I realize the danger which must follow, but I
can face it with you."
"Have it as you will then, Alice," he answered, smiling. "Maybe we are
borrowing trouble. While I do not like the looks of things on board this
ship, they may not be so bad after all, for it is possible that the `Ancient
Mariner' was but voicing the desires of his wicked old heart rather than
speaking of real facts.
"Mutiny on the high sea may have been common a hundred years ago,
but in this good year 1888 it is the least likely of happenings.
"But there goes the captain to his cabin now. If I am going to warn him
I might as well get the beastly job over for I have little stomach to talk
with the brute at all."
So saying he strolled carelessly in the direction of the companionway
through which the captain had passed, and a moment later was
knocking at his door.

"Come in," growled the deep tones of that surly officer.
And when Clayton had entered, and closed the door behind him:
"Well?"
"I have come to report the gist of a conversation I heard to-day, because
I feel that, while there may be nothing to it, it is as well that you be
forearmed. In short, the men contemplate mutiny and murder."
"It's a lie!" roared the captain. "And if you have been interfering again
with the discipline of this ship, or meddling in affairs that don't concern
you you can take the consequences, and be damned. I don't care
whether you are an English lord or not. I'm captain of this here ship,
and from now on you keep your meddling nose out of my business."
The captain had worked himself up to such a frenzy of rage that he was
fairly purple of face, and he shrieked the last words at the top of his
voice, emphasizing his remarks by a loud thumping of the table with
one huge fist, and shaking the other in Clayton's face.
Greystoke never turned a hair, but stood eying the excited man with
level gaze.
"Captain Billings," he drawled finally, "if you will pardon my candor, I
might remark that you are something of an ass."
Whereupon he turned and left the captain with the same indifferent ease
that was habitual with him, and which was more surely calculated to
raise the ire of a man of Billings' class than a torrent of invective.
So, whereas the captain might easily have been brought to regret his
hasty speech had Clayton attempted to conciliate him, his temper was
now irrevocably set in the mold in which Clayton had left it, and the
last chance of their working together for their common good was gone.
"Well, Alice," said Clayton, as he rejoined his wife, "I might have
saved my breath. The fellow proved most ungrateful. Fairly jumped at

me like a mad dog.
"He and his blasted old ship may hang, for aught I care; and until we
are safely off the thing I shall spend my energies in looking after our
own welfare. And I rather fancy the first step to that end