Edgar Rice Burroughs - The Beast of Tarzan

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The Beasts of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Table of Contents

The Beasts of Tarzan..........................................................................................................................................1

Edgar Rice Burroughs..............................................................................................................................1

The Beasts of Tarzan

Edgar Rice Burroughs

1 Kidnapped• 2 Marooned• 3 Beasts at Bay• 4 Sheeta• 5 Mugambi• 6 A Hideous Crew• 7 Betrayed• 8 The Dance of Death• 9 Chivalry or Villainy• 10 The Swede• 11 Tambudza• 12 A Black Scoundrel.• 13 Escape• 14 Alone in the Jungle• 15 Down the Ugambi• 16 In the Darkness of the Night• 17 On the Deck of the "Kincaid"• 18 Paulvitch Plots Revenge• 19 The Last of the "Kincaid"• 20 Jungle Island Again• 21 The Law of the Jungle•

To Joan Burroughs

Chapter 1. Kidnapped

"The entire affair is shrouded in mystery," said D'Arnot. "I have it on the best of authority that neither the

police nor the special agents of the general staff have the faintest conception of how it was accomplished. All

they know, all that anyone knows, is that Nikolas Rokoff has escaped."

John Clayton, Lord Greystoke−−he who had been "Tarzan of the Apes"−− sat in silence in the apartments of

his friend, Lieutenant Paul D'Arnot, in Paris, gazing meditatively at the toe of his immaculate boot.

His mind revolved many memories, recalled by the escape of his arch−enemy from the French military prison

to which he had been sentenced for life upon the testimony of the ape−man.

He thought of the lengths to which Rokoff had once gone to compass his death, and he realized that what the

man had already done would doubtless be as nothing by comparison with what he would wish and plot to do

now that he was again free.

Tarzan had recently brought his wife and infant son to London to escape the discomforts and dangers of the

rainy season upon their vast estate in Uziri−−the land of the savage Waziri warriors whose broad African

domains the ape−man had once ruled.

The Beasts of Tarzan 1

He had run across the Channel for a brief visit with his old friend, but the news of the Russian's escape had

already cast a shadow upon his outing, so that though he had but just arrived he was already contemplating an

immediate return to London.

"It is not that I fear for myself, Paul," he said at last. "Many times in the past have I thwarted Rokoff's designs

upon my life; but now there are others to consider. Unless I misjudge the man, he would more quickly strike

at me through my wife or son than directly at me, for he doubtless realizes that in no other way could he

inflict greater anguish upon me. I must go back to them at once, and remain with them until Rokoff is

recaptured−−or dead."

As these two talked in Paris, two other men were talking together in a little cottage upon the outskirts of

London. Both were dark, sinister−looking men.

One was bearded, but the other, whose face wore the pallor of long confinement within doors, had but a few

days' growth of black beard upon his face. It was he who was speaking.

"You must needs shave off that beard of yours, Alexis," he said to his companion. "With it he would

recognize you on the instant. We must separate here in the hour, and when we meet again upon the deck of

the Kincaid, let us hope that we shall have with us two honoured guests who little anticipate the pleasant

voyage we have planned for them.

"In two hours I should be upon my way to Dover with one of them, and by tomorrow night, if you follow my

instructions carefully, you should arrive with the other, provided, of course, that he returns to London as

quickly as I presume he will.

"There should be both profit and pleasure as well as other good things to reward our efforts, my dear Alexis.

Thanks to the stupidity of the French, they have gone to such lengths to conceal the fact of my escape for

these many days that I have had ample opportunity to work out every detail of our little adventure so

carefully that there is little chance of the slightest hitch occurring to mar our prospects. And now good−bye,

and good luck!"

Three hours later a messenger mounted the steps to the apartment of Lieutenant D'Arnot.

"A telegram for Lord Greystoke," he said to the servant who answered his summons. "Is he here?"

The man answered in the affirmative, and, signing for the message, carried it within to Tarzan, who was

already preparing to depart for London.

Tarzan tore open the envelope, and as he read his face went white.

"Read it, Paul," he said, handing the slip of paper to D'Arnot. "It has come already."

The Frenchman took the telegram and read:

"Jack stolen from the garden through complicity of new servant. Come at once.−−JANE."

As Tarzan leaped from the roadster that had met him at the station and ran up the steps to his London town

house he was met at the door by a dry−eyed but almost frantic woman.

Quickly Jane Porter Clayton narrated all that she had been able to learn of the theft of the boy.

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The baby's nurse had been wheeling him in the sunshine on the walk before the house when a closed taxicab

drew up at the corner of the street. The woman had paid but passing attention to the vehicle, merely noting

that it discharged no passenger, but stood at the kerb with the motor running as though waiting for a fare from

the residence before which it had stopped.

Almost immediately the new houseman, Carl, had come running from the Greystoke house, saying that the

girl's mistress wished to speak with her for a moment, and that she was to leave little Jack in his care until she

returned.

The woman said that she entertained not the slightest suspicion of the man's motives until she had reached the

doorway of the house, when it occurred to her to warn him not to turn the carriage so as to permit the sun to

shine in the baby's eyes.

As she turned about to call this to him she was somewhat surprised to see that he was wheeling the carriage

rapidly toward the corner, and at the same time she saw the door of the taxicab open and a swarthy face

framed for a moment in the aperture.

Intuitively, the danger to the child flashed upon her, and with a shriek she dashed down the steps and up the

walk toward the taxicab, into which Carl was now handing the baby to the swarthy one within.

Just before she reached the vehicle, Carl leaped in beside his confederate, slamming the door behind him. At

the same time the chauffeur attempted to start his machine, but it was evident that something had gone

wrong, as though the gears refused to mesh, and the delay caused by this, while he pushed the lever into

reverse and backed the car a few inches before again attempting to go ahead, gave the nurse time to reach the

side of the taxicab.

Leaping to the running−board, she had attempted to snatch the baby from the arms of the stranger, and here,

screaming and fighting, she had clung to her position even after the taxicab had got under way; nor was it

until the machine had passed the Greystoke residence at good speed that Carl, with a heavy blow to her face,

had succeeded in knocking her to the pavement.

Her screams had attracted servants and members of the families from residences near by, as well as from the

Greystoke home. Lady Greystoke had witnessed the girl's brave battle, and had herself tried to reach the

rapidly passing vehicle, but had been too late.

That was all that anyone knew, nor did Lady Greystoke dream of the possible identity of the man at the

bottom of the plot until her husband told her of the escape of Nikolas Rokoff from the French prison where

they had hoped he was permanently confined.

As Tarzan and his wife stood planning the wisest course to pursue, the telephone bell rang in the library at

their right. Tarzan quickly answered the call in person.

"Lord Greystoke?" asked a man's voice at the other end of the line.

"Yes."

"Your son has been stolen," continued the voice, "and I alone may help you to recover him. I am conversant

with the plot of those who took him. In fact, I was a party to it, and was to share in the reward, but now they

are trying to ditch me, and to be quits with them I will aid you to recover him on condition that you will not

prosecute me for my part in the crime. What do you say?"

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"If you lead me to where my son is hidden," replied the ape−man, "you need fear nothing from me."

"Good," replied the other. "But you must come alone to meet me, for it is enough that I must trust you. I

cannot take the chance of permitting others to learn my identity."

"Where and when may I meet you?" asked Tarzan.

The other gave the name and location of a public−house on the water−front at Dover−−a place frequented by

sailors.

"Come," he concluded, "about ten o'clock tonight. It would do no good to arrive earlier. Your son will be safe

enough in the meantime, and I can then lead you secretly to where he is hidden. But be sure to come alone,

and under no circumstances notify Scotland Yard, for I know you well and shall be watching for you.

"Should any other accompany you, or should I see suspicious characters who might be agents of the police, I

shall not meet you, and your last chance of recovering your son will be gone."

Without more words the man rang off.

Tarzan repeated the gist of the conversation to his wife. She begged to be allowed to accompany him, but he

insisted that it might result in the man's carrying out his threat of refusing to aid them if Tarzan did not come

alone, and so they parted, he to hasten to Dover, and she, ostensibly to wait at home until he should notify her

of the outcome of his mission.

Little did either dream of what both were destined to pass through before they should meet again, or the

far−distant−− but why anticipate?

For ten minutes after the ape−man had left her Jane Clayton walked restlessly back and forth across the silken

rugs of the library. Her mother heart ached, bereft of its firstborn. Her mind was in an anguish of hopes and

fears.

Though her judgment told her that all would be well were her Tarzan to go alone in accordance with the

mysterious stranger's summons, her intuition would not permit her to lay aside suspicion of the gravest

dangers to both her husband and her son.

The more she thought of the matter, the more convinced she became that the recent telephone message might

be but a ruse to keep them inactive until the boy was safely hidden away or spirited out of England. Or it

might be that it had been simply a bait to lure Tarzan into the hands of the implacable Rokoff.

With the lodgment of this thought she stopped in wide− eyed terror. Instantly it became a conviction. She

glanced at the great clock ticking the minutes in the corner of the library.

It was too late to catch the Dover train that Tarzan was to take. There was another, later, however, that would

bring her to the Channel port in time to reach the address the stranger had given her husband before the

appointed hour.

Summoning her maid and chauffeur, she issued instructions rapidly. Ten minutes later she was being whisked

through the crowded streets toward the railway station.

It was nine−forty−five that night that Tarzan entered the squalid "pub" on the water−front in Dover. As he

passed into the evil−smelling room a muffled figure brushed past him toward the street.

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"Come, my lord!" whispered the stranger.

The ape−man wheeled about and followed the other into the ill−lit alley, which custom had dignified with the

title of thoroughfare. Once outside, the fellow led the way into the darkness, nearer a wharf, where

high−piled bales, boxes, and casks cast dense shadows. Here he halted.

"Where is the boy?" asked Greystoke.

"On that small steamer whose lights you can just see yonder," replied the other.

In the gloom Tarzan was trying to peer into the features of his companion, but he did not recognize the man

as one whom he had ever before seen. Had he guessed that his guide was Alexis Paulvitch he would have

realized that naught but treachery lay in the man's heart, and that danger lurked in the path of every move.

"He is unguarded now," continued the Russian. "Those who took him feel perfectly safe from detection, and

with the exception of a couple of members of the crew, whom I have furnished with enough gin to silence

them effectually for hours, there is none aboard the Kincaid. We can go aboard, get the child, and return

without the slightest fear."

Tarzan nodded.

"Let's be about it, then," he said.

His guide led him to a small boat moored alongside the wharf. The two men entered, and Paulvitch pulled

rapidly toward the steamer. The black smoke issuing from her funnel did not at the time make any suggestion

to Tarzan's mind. All his thoughts were occupied with the hope that in a few moments he would again have

his little son in his arms.

At the steamer's side they found a monkey−ladder dangling close above them, and up this the two men crept

stealthily. Once on deck they hastened aft to where the Russian pointed to a hatch.

"The boy is hidden there," he said. "You had better go down after him, as there is less chance that he will cry

in fright than should he find himself in the arms of a stranger. I will stand on guard here."

So anxious was Tarzan to rescue the child that he gave not the slightest thought to the strangeness of all the

conditions surrounding the Kincaid. That her deck was deserted, though she had steam up, and from the

volume of smoke pouring from her funnel was all ready to get under way made no impression upon him.

With the thought that in another instant he would fold that precious little bundle of humanity in his arms, the

ape−man swung down into the darkness below. Scarcely had he released his hold upon the edge of the hatch

than the heavy covering fell clattering above him.

Instantly he knew that he was the victim of a plot, and that far from rescuing his son he had himself fallen

into the hands of his enemies. Though he immediately endeavoured to reach the hatch and lift the cover, he

was unable to do so.

Striking a match, he explored his surroundings, finding that a little compartment had been partitioned off

from the main hold, with the hatch above his head the only means of ingress or egress. It was evident that the

room had been prepared for the very purpose of serving as a cell for himself.

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There was nothing in the compartment, and no other occupant. If the child was on board the Kincaid he was

confined elsewhere.

For over twenty years, from infancy to manhood, the ape−man had roamed his savage jungle haunts without

human companionship of any nature. He had learned at the most impressionable period of his life to take his

pleasures and his sorrows as the beasts take theirs.

So it was that he neither raved nor stormed against fate, but instead waited patiently for what might next

befall him, though not by any means without an eye to doing the utmost to succour himself. To this end he

examined his prison carefully, tested the heavy planking that formed its walls, and measured the distance of

the hatch above him.

And while he was thus occupied there came suddenly to him the vibration of machinery and the throbbing of

the propeller.

The ship was moving! Where to and to what fate was it carrying him?

And even as these thoughts passed through his mind there came to his ears above the din of the engines that

which caused him to go cold with apprehension.

Clear and shrill from the deck above him rang the scream of a frightened woman.

Chapter 2. Marooned

As Tarzan and his guide had disappeared into the shadows upon the dark wharf the figure of a heavily veiled

woman had hurried down the narrow alley to the entrance of the drinking−place the two men had just quitted.

Here she paused and looked about, and then as though satisfied that she had at last reached the place she

sought, she pushed bravely into the interior of the vile den.

A score of half−drunken sailors and wharf−rats looked up at the unaccustomed sight of a richly gowned

woman in their midst. Rapidly she approached the slovenly barmaid who stared half in envy, half in hate, at

her more fortunate sister.

"Have you seen a tall, well−dressed man here, but a minute since," she asked, "who met another and went

away with him?"

The girl answered in the affirmative, but could not tell which way the two had gone. A sailor who 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 nearby steamer.

"There they be," whispered the man.

"Ten pounds if you will find a boat and row me to that steamer," cried the woman.

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"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.

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"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 this would come to me."

He went on deck then, locking the cabin−door upon his prisoner, and for several days she did not see him.

The truth of the matter being that Nikolas Rokoff was so poor a sailor that the heavy seas the Kincaid

encountered from the very beginning of her voyage sent the Russian to his berth with a bad attack of

sea−sickness.

During this time her only visitor was an uncouth Swede, the Kincaid's unsavoury cook, who brought her

meals to her. His name was Sven Anderssen, his one pride being that his patronymic was spelt with a double

"s."

The man was tall and raw−boned, with a long yellow moustache, an unwholesome complexion, and filthy

nails. The very sight of him with one grimy thumb buried deep in the lukewarm stew, that seemed, from the

frequency of its repetition, to constitute the pride of his culinary art, was sufficient to take away the girl's

appetite.

His small, blue, close−set eyes never met hers squarely. There was a shiftiness of his whole appearance that

even found expression in the cat−like manner of his gait, and to it all a sinister suggestion was added by the

long slim knife that always rested at his waist, slipped through the greasy cord that supported his soiled

apron. Ostensibly it was but an implement of his calling; but the girl could never free herself of the

conviction that it would require less provocation to witness it put to other and less harmless uses.

His manner toward her was surly, yet she never failed to meet him with a pleasant smile and a word of thanks

when he brought her food to her, though more often than not she hurled the bulk of it through the tiny cabin

port the moment that the door closed behind him.

During the days of anguish that followed Jane Clayton's imprisonment, but two questions were uppermost in

her mind−−the whereabouts of her husband and her son. She fully believed that the baby was aboard the

Kincaid, provided that he still lived, but whether Tarzan had been permitted to live after having been lured

aboard the evil craft she could not guess.

She knew, of course, the deep hatred that the Russian felt for the Englishman, and she could think of but one

reason for having him brought aboard the ship−−to dispatch him in comparative safety in revenge for his

having thwarted Rokoff's pet schemes, and for having been at last the means of landing him in a French

prison.

Tarzan, on his part, lay in the darkness of his cell, ignorant of the fact that his wife was a prisoner in the cabin

almost above his head.

The same Swede that served Jane brought his meals to him, but, though on several occasions Tarzan had tried

to draw the man into conversation, he had been unsuccessful. He had hoped to learn through this fellow

whether his little son was aboard the Kincaid, but to every question upon this or kindred subjects the fellow

returned but one reply, "Ay tank it blow purty soon purty hard." So after several attempts Tarzan gave it up.

The Beasts of Tarzan

The Beasts of Tarzan 8

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