Tarzan of the Apes
provisions, ammunition, and carbines; the men were already armed with
revolvers.
Then, to Clayton’s inquiries as to how they had happened to anchor off
shore and fire a signal gun, the commander, Captain Dufranne, explained
that a month before they had sighted the _Arrow_ bearing southwest
under considerable canvas, and that when they had signaled her to come
about she had but crowded on more sail.
They had kept her hull-up until sunset, firing several shots after her,
but the next morning she was nowhere to be seen. They had then
continued to cruise up and down the coast for several weeks, and had
about forgotten the incident of the recent chase, when, early one
morning a few days before the lookout had described a vessel laboring
in the trough of a heavy sea and evidently entirely out of control.
As they steamed nearer to the derelict they were surprised to note that
it was the same vessel that had run from them a few weeks earlier. Her
forestaysail and mizzen spanker were set as though an effort had been
made to hold her head up into the wind, but the sheets had parted, and
the sails were tearing to ribbons in the half gale of wind.
In the high sea that was running it was a difficult and dangerous task
to attempt to put a prize crew aboard her; and as no signs of life had
been seen above deck, it was decided to stand by until the wind and sea
abated; but just then a figure was seen clinging to the rail and feebly
waving a mute signal of despair toward them.
Immediately a boat’s crew was ordered out and an attempt was
successfully made to board the _Arrow_. The sight that met the
Frenchmen’s eyes as they clambered over the ship’s side was appalling.
A dozen dead and dying men rolled hither and thither upon the pitching
deck, the living intermingled with the dead. Two of the corpses
appeared to have been partially devoured as though by wolves.
The prize crew soon had the vessel under proper sail once more and the
living members of the ill-starred company carried below to their
hammocks.
The dead were wrapped in tarpaulins and lashed on deck to be identified
by their comrades before being consigned to the deep.
None of the living was conscious when the Frenchmen reached the
_Arrow’s_ deck. Even the poor devil who had waved the single despairing
signal of distress had lapsed into unconsciousness before he had
learned whether it had availed or not.
It did not take the French officer long to learn what had caused the
terrible condition aboard; for when water and brandy were sought to
restore the men, it was found that there was none, nor even food of any
description.
He immediately signalled to the cruiser to send water, medicine, and
provisions, and another boat made the perilous trip to the _Arrow_.
When restoratives had been applied several of the men regained
consciousness, and then the whole story was told. That part of it we
know up to the sailing of the _Arrow_ after the murder of Snipes, and
the burial of his body above the treasure chest.
It seems that the pursuit by the cruiser had so terrorized the
mutineers that they had continued out across the Atlantic for several
days after losing her; but on discovering the meager supply of water
and provisions aboard, they had turned back toward the east.
With no one on board who understood navigation, discussions soon arose
as to their whereabouts; and as three days’ sailing to the east did not
raise land, they bore off to the north, fearing that the high north
winds that had prevailed had driven them south of the southern
extremity of Africa.
They kept on a north-northeasterly course for two days, when they were
overtaken by a calm which lasted for nearly a week. Their water was
gone, and in another day they would be without food.
Conditions changed rapidly from bad to worse. One man went mad and
leaped overboard. Soon another opened his veins and drank his own
blood.
When he died they threw him overboard also, though there were those
among them who wanted to keep the corpse on board. Hunger was changing
them from human beasts to wild beasts.
Two days before they had been picked up by the cruiser they had become
too weak to handle the vessel, and that same day three men died. On the
following morning it was seen that one of the corpses had been
partially devoured.
All that day the men lay glaring at each other like beasts of prey, and
the following morning two of the corpses lay almost entirely stripped
of flesh.
The men were but little stronger for their ghoulish repast, for the
want of water was by far the greatest agony with which they had to
contend. And then the cruiser had come.
When those who could had recovered, the entire story had been told to
the French commander; but the men were too ignorant to be able to tell
him at just what point on the coast the professor and his party had
been marooned, so the cruiser had steamed slowly along within sight of
land, firing occasional signal guns and scanning every inch of the
beach with glasses.
They had anchored by night so as not to neglect a particle of the shore
line, and it had happened that the preceding night had brought them off
the very beach where lay the little camp they sought.
The signal guns of the afternoon before had not been heard by those on
shore, it was presumed, because they had doubtless been in the thick of
the jungle searching for Jane Porter, where the noise of their own
crashing through the underbrush would have drowned the report of a far
distant gun.
By the time the two parties had narrated their several adventures, the
cruiser’s boat had returned with supplies and arms for the expedition.
Within a few minutes the little body of sailors and the two French
officers, together with Professor Porter and Clayton, set off upon
their hopeless and ill-fated quest into the untracked jungle.
CHAPTER XX.
Heredity
When Jane realized that she was being borne away a captive by the
strange forest creature who had rescued her from the clutches of the
ape she struggled desperately to escape, but the strong arms that held
her as easily as though she had been but a day-old babe only pressed a
little more tightly.
So presently she gave up the futile effort and lay quietly, looking
through half-closed lids at the face of the man who strode easily
through the tangled undergrowth with her.
The face above her was one of extraordinary beauty.
A perfect type of the strongly masculine, unmarred by dissipation, or
brutal or degrading passions. For, though Tarzan of the Apes was a
killer of men and of beasts, he killed as the hunter kills,
dispassionately, except on those rare occasions when he had killed for
hate—though not the brooding, malevolent hate which marks the features
of its own with hideous lines.
When Tarzan killed he more often smiled than scowled, and smiles are
the foundation of beauty.
One thing the girl had noticed particularly when she had seen Tarzan
rushing upon Terkoz—the vivid scarlet band upon his forehead, from
above the left eye to the scalp; but now as she scanned his features
she noticed that it was gone, and only a thin white line marked the
spot where it had been.
As she lay more quietly in his arms Tarzan slightly relaxed his grip
upon her.
Once he looked down into her eyes and smiled, and the girl had to close
her own to shut out the vision of that handsome, winning face.
Presently Tarzan took to the trees, and Jane, wondering that she felt
no fear, began to realize that in many respects she had never felt more
secure in her whole life than now as she lay in the arms of this
strong, wild creature, being borne, God alone knew where or to what
fate, deeper and deeper into the savage fastness of the untamed forest.
When, with closed eyes, she commenced to speculate upon the future, and
terrifying fears were conjured by a vivid imagination, she had but to
raise her lids and look upon that noble face so close to hers to
dissipate the last remnant of apprehension.
No, he could never harm her; of that she was convinced when she
translated the fine features and the frank, brave eyes above her into
the chivalry which they proclaimed.
On and on they went through what seemed to Jane a solid mass of
verdure, yet ever there appeared to open before this forest god a
passage, as by magic, which closed behind them as they passed.
Scarce a branch scraped against her, yet above and below, before and
behind, the view presented naught but a solid mass of inextricably
interwoven branches and creepers.
As Tarzan moved steadily onward his mind was occupied with many strange
and new thoughts. Here was a problem the like of which he had never
encountered, and he felt rather than reasoned that he must meet it as a
man and not as an ape.
The free movement through the middle terrace, which was the route he
had followed for the most part, had helped to cool the ardor of the
first fierce passion of his new found love.
Now he discovered himself speculating upon the fate which would have
fallen to the girl had he not rescued her from Terkoz.
He knew why the ape had not killed her, and he commenced to compare his
intentions with those of Terkoz.
True, it was the order of the jungle for the male to take his mate by
force; but could Tarzan be guided by the laws of the beasts? Was not
Tarzan a Man? But what did men do? He was puzzled; for he did not know.
He wished that he might ask the girl, and then it came to him that she
had already answered him in the futile struggle she had made to escape
and to repulse him.
But now they had come to their destination, and Tarzan of the Apes with
Jane in his strong arms, swung lightly to the turf of the arena where
the great apes held their councils and danced the wild orgy of the
Dum-Dum.
Though they had come many miles, it was still but midafternoon, and the
amphitheater was bathed in the half light which filtered through the
maze of encircling foliage.
The green turf looked soft and cool and inviting. The myriad noises of
the jungle seemed far distant and hushed to a mere echo of blurred
sounds, rising and falling like the surf upon a remote shore.
A feeling of dreamy peacefulness stole over Jane as she sank down upon
the grass where Tarzan had placed her, and as she looked up at his
great figure towering above her, there was added a strange sense of
perfect security.
As she watched him from beneath half-closed lids, Tarzan crossed the
little circular clearing toward the trees upon the further side. She
noted the graceful majesty of his carriage, the perfect symmetry of his
magnificent figure and the poise of his well-shaped head upon his broad
shoulders.
What a perfect creature! There could be naught of cruelty or baseness
beneath that godlike exterior. Never, she thought had such a man strode
the earth since God created the first in his own image.
With a bound Tarzan sprang into the trees and disappeared. Jane
wondered where he had gone. Had he left her there to her fate in the
lonely jungle?
She glanced nervously about. Every vine and bush seemed but the
lurking-place of some huge and horrible beast waiting to bury gleaming
fangs into her soft flesh. Every sound she magnified into the stealthy
creeping of a sinuous and malignant body.
How different now that he had left her!
For a few minutes that seemed hours to the frightened girl, she sat
with tense nerves waiting for the spring of the crouching thing that
was to end her misery of apprehension.
She almost prayed for the cruel teeth that would give her
unconsciousness and surcease from the agony of fear.
She heard a sudden, slight sound behind her. With a cry she sprang to
her feet and turned to face her end.