The Return of Tarzan | Page 9

day
found the vitals of Kala, the great she-ape, and robbed the youth,

Tarzan, of the only mother he had ever known.
He recalled the murder of King by the rat-faced Snipes; the
abandonment of Professor Porter and his party by the mutineers of the
ARROW; the cruelty of the black warriors and women of Mbonga to
their captives; the petty jealousies of the civil and military officers of
the West Coast colony that had afforded him his first introduction to
the civilized world.
"MON DIEU!" he soliloquized, "but they are all alike. Cheating,
murdering, lying, fighting, and all for things that the beasts of the
jungle would not deign to possess--money to purchase the effeminate
pleasures of weaklings. And yet withal bound down by silly customs
that make them slaves to their unhappy lot while firm in the belief that
they be the lords of creation enjoying the only real pleasures of
existence. In the jungle one would scarcely stand supinely aside while
another took his mate. It is a silly world, an idiotic world, and Tarzan
of the Apes was a fool to renounce the freedom and the happiness of
his jungle to come into it."
Presently, as he sat there, the sudden feeling came over him that eyes
were watching from behind, and the old instinct of the wild beast broke
through the thin veneer of civilization, so that Tarzan wheeled about so
quickly that the eyes of the young woman who had been surreptitiously
regarding him had not even time to drop before the gray eyes of the
ape-man shot an inquiring look straight into them. Then, as they fell,
Tarzan saw a faint wave of crimson creep swiftly over the now
half-averted face.
He smiled to himself at the result of his very uncivilized and ungallant
action, for he had not lowered his own eyes when they met those of the
young woman. She was very young, and equally good to look upon.
Further, there was something rather familiar about her that set Tarzan
to wondering where he had seen her before. He resumed his former
position, and presently he was aware that she had arisen and was
leaving the deck. As she passed, Tarzan turned to watch her, in the
hope that he might discover a clew to satisfy his mild curiosity as to her
identity.

Nor was he disappointed entirely, for as she walked away she raised
one hand to the black, waving mass at the nape of her neck--the
peculiarly feminine gesture that admits cognizance of appraising eyes
behind her--and Tarzan saw upon a finger of this hand the ring of
strange workmanship that he had seen upon the finger of the veiled
woman a short time before.
So it was this beautiful young woman Rokoff had been persecuting.
Tarzan wondered in a lazy sort of way whom she might be, and what
relations one so lovely could have with the surly, bearded Russian.
After dinner that evening Tarzan strolled forward, where he remained
until after dark, in conversation with the second officer, and when that
gentleman's duties called him elsewhere Tarzan lolled lazily by the rail
watching the play of the moonlight upon the gently rolling waters. He
was half hidden by a davit, so that two men who approached along the
deck did not see him, and as they passed Tarzan caught enough of their
conversation to cause him to fall in behind them, to follow and learn
what deviltry they were up to. He had recognized the voice as that of
Rokoff, and had seen that his companion was Paulvitch.
Tarzan had overheard but a few words: "And if she screams you may
choke her until--" But those had been enough to arouse the spirit of
adventure within him, and so he kept the two men in sight as they
walked, briskly now, along the deck. To the smoking-room he followed
them, but they merely halted at the doorway long enough, apparently,
to assure themselves that one whose whereabouts they wished to
establish was within.
Then they proceeded directly to the first-class cabins upon the
promenade deck. Here Tarzan found greater difficulty in escaping
detection, but he managed to do so successfully. As they halted before
one of the polished hardwood doors, Tarzan slipped into the shadow of
a passageway not a dozen feet from them.
To their knock a woman's voice asked in French: "Who is it?"
"It is I, Olga--Nikolas," was the answer, in Rokoff's now familiar

guttural. "May I come in?"
"Why do you not cease persecuting me, Nikolas?" came the voice of
the woman from beyond the thin panel. "I have never harmed you."
"Come, come, Olga," urged the man, in propitiary tones; "I but ask a
half dozen words with you. I shall not harm you, nor