Rokoff is, this last piece of effrontery will insure that monsieur later has good reason to remember him."
"That you are a coward and a scoundrel, monsieur," replied Tarzan, "is all that I care to know of you," and he
turned to ask the girl if the man had hurt her, but she had disappeared. Then, without even a glance toward
Rokoff and his companion, he continued his stroll along the deck.
Tarzan could not but wonder what manner of conspiracy was on foot, or what the scheme of the two men
might be. There had been something rather familiar about the appearance of the veiled woman to whose
rescue he had just come, but as he had not seen her face he could not be sure that he had ever seen her before.
The only thing about her that he had particularly noticed was a ring of peculiar workmanship upon a finger of
the hand that Rokoff had seized, and he determined to note the fingers of the women passengers he came
upon thereafter, that he might discover the identity of her whom Rokoff was persecuting, and learn if the
fellow had offered her further annoyance.
Tarzan had sought his deck chair, where he sat speculating on the numerous instances of human cruelty,
selfishness, and spite that had fallen to his lot to witness since that day in the jungle four years since that his
eyes had first fallen upon a human being other than himself−−the sleek, black Kulonga, whose swift spear
had that 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.
The Return of Tarzan
The Return of Tarzan 8