So it was that the runners dispatched by M'ganwazam to warn Rokoff that the white giant was in his village and that he would be slain3 that night reached the Russian's camp before Tarzan and his ancient guide had covered half the distance.
The guides found the white man's camp in a turmoil4. Rokoff had that morning been discovered stunned5 and bleeding within his tent. When he had recovered his senses and realized that Jane Clayton had escaped, his rage was boundless6.
Rushing about the camp with his rifle, he had sought to shoot down the native sentries7 who had allowed the young woman to elude8 their vigilance, but several of the other whites, realizing that they were already in a precarious9 position owing to the numerous desertions that Rokoff's cruelty had brought about, seized and disarmed10 him.
Then came the messengers from M'ganwazam, but scarce had they told their story and Rokoff was preparing to depart with them for their village when other runners, panting from the exertions11 of their swift flight through the jungle, rushed breathless into the firelight, crying that the great white giant had escaped from M'ganwazam and was already on his way to wreak12 vengeance13 against his enemies.
Instantly confusion reigned14 within the encircling boma. The blacks belonging to Rokoff's safari15 were terror-stricken at the thought of the proximity16 of the white giant who hunted through the jungle with a fierce pack of apes and panthers at his heels.
Before the whites realized what had happened the superstitious17 fears of the natives had sent them scurrying18 into the bush—their own carriers as well as the messengers from M'ganwazam—but even in their haste they had not neglected to take with them every article of value upon which they could lay their hands.
Thus Rokoff and the seven white sailors found themselves deserted19 and robbed in the midst of a wilderness20.
The Russian, following his usual custom, berated21 his companions, laying all the blame upon their shoulders for the events which had led up to the almost hopeless condition in which they now found themselves; but the sailors were in no mood to brook22 his insults and his cursing.
In the midst of this tirade23 one of them drew a revolver and fired point-blank at the Russian. The fellow's aim was poor, but his act so terrified Rokoff that he turned and fled for his tent.
As he ran his eyes chanced to pass beyond the boma to the edge of the forest, and there he caught a glimpse of that which sent his craven heart cold with a fear that almost expunged24 his terror of the seven men at his back, who by this time were all firing in hate and revenge at his retreating figure.
What he saw was the giant figure of an almost naked white man emerging from the bush.
Darting25 into his tent, the Russian did not halt in his flight, but kept right on through the rear wall, taking advantage of the long slit26 that Jane Clayton had made the night before.
The terror-stricken Muscovite scurried27 like a hunted rabbit through the hole that still gaped28 in the boma's wall at the point where his own prey29 had escaped, and as Tarzan approached the camp upon the opposite side Rokoff disappeared into the jungle in the wake of Jane Clayton.
As the ape-man entered the boma with old Tambudza at his elbow the seven sailors, recognizing him, turned and fled in the opposite direction. Tarzan saw that Rokoff was not among them, and so he let them go their way—his business was with the Russian, whom he expected to find in his tent. As to the sailors, he was sure that the jungle would exact from them expiation30 for their villainies, nor, doubtless, was he wrong, for his were the last white man's eyes to rest upon any of them.
Finding Rokoff's tent empty, Tarzan was about to set out in search of the Russian when Tambudza suggested to him that the departure of the white man could only have resulted from word reaching him from M'ganwazam that Tarzan was in his village.
"He has doubtless hastened there," argued the old woman. "If you would find him let us return at once."
Tarzan himself thought that this would probably prove to be the fact, so he did not waste time in an endeavour to locate the Russian's trail, but, instead, set out briskly for the village of M'ganwazam, leaving Tambudza to plod31 slowly in his wake.
His one hope was that Jane was still safe and with Rokoff. If this was the case, it would be but a matter of an hour or more before he should be able to wrest32 her from the Russian.
He knew now that M'ganwazam was treacherous33 and that he might have to fight to regain34 possession of his wife. He wished that Mugambi, Sheeta, Akut, and the balance of the pack were with him, for he realized that single-handed it would be no child's play to bring Jane safely from the clutches of two such scoundrels as Rokoff and the wily M'ganwazam.
To his surprise he found no sign of either Rokoff or Jane in the village, and as he could not trust the word of the chief, he wasted no time in futile35 inquiry36. So sudden and unexpected had been his return, and so quickly had he vanished into the jungle after learning that those he sought were not among the Waganwazam, that old M'ganwazam had no time to prevent his going.
Swinging through the trees, he hastened back to the deserted camp he had so recently left, for here, he knew, was the logical place to take up the trail of Rokoff and Jane.
Arrived at the boma, he circled carefully about the outside of the enclosure until, opposite a break in the thorny37 wall, he came to indications that something had recently passed into the jungle. His acute sense of smell told him that both of those he sought had fled from the camp in this direction, and a moment later he had taken up the trail and was following the faint spoor.
Far ahead of him a terror-stricken young woman was slinking along a narrow game-trail, fearful that the next moment would bring her face to face with some savage38 beast or equally savage man. As she ran on, hoping against hope that she had hit upon the direction that would lead her eventually to the great river, she came suddenly upon a familiar spot.
At one side of the trail, beneath a giant tree, lay a little heap of loosely piled brush—to her dying day that little spot of jungle would be indelibly impressed upon her memory. It was where Anderssen had hidden her—where he had given up his life in the vain effort to save her from Rokoff.
At sight of it she recalled the rifle and ammunition40 that the man had thrust upon her at the last moment. Until now she had forgotten them entirely41. Still clutched in her hand was the revolver she had snatched from Rokoff's belt, but that could contain at most not over six cartridges42—not enough to furnish her with food and protection both on the long journey to the sea.
With bated breath she groped beneath the little mound43, scarce daring to hope that the treasure remained where she had left it; but, to her infinite relief and joy, her hand came at once upon the barrel of the heavy weapon and then upon the bandoleer of cartridges.
As she threw the latter about her shoulder and felt the weight of the big game-gun in her hand a sudden sense of security suffused44 her. It was with new hope and a feeling almost of assured success that she again set forward upon her journey.
That night she slept in the crotch of a tree, as Tarzan had so often told her that he was accustomed to doing, and early the next morning was upon her way again. Late in the afternoon, as she was about to cross a little clearing, she was startled at the sight of a huge ape coming from the jungle upon the opposite side.
The wind was blowing directly across the clearing between them, and Jane lost no time in putting herself downwind from the huge creature. Then she hid in a clump45 of heavy bush and watched, holding the rifle ready for instant use.
To her consternation46 she saw that the apes were pausing in the centre of the clearing. They came together in a little knot, where they stood looking backward, as though in expectation of the coming of others of their tribe. Jane wished that they would go on, for she knew that at any moment some little, eddying47 gust48 of wind might carry her scent49 down to their nostrils50, and then what would the protection of her rifle amount to in the face of those gigantic muscles and mighty51 fangs52?
Her eyes moved back and forth53 between the apes and the edge of the jungle toward which they were gazing until at last she perceived the object of their halt and the thing that they awaited. They were being stalked.
Of this she was positive, as she saw the lithe54, sinewy55 form of a panther glide56 noiselessly from the jungle at the point at which the apes had emerged but a moment before.
Quickly the beast trotted57 across the clearing toward the anthropoids. Jane wondered at their apparent apathy58, and a moment later her wonder turned to amazement59 as she saw the great cat come quite close to the apes, who appeared entirely unconcerned by its presence, and, squatting60 down in their midst, fell assiduously to the business of preening61, which occupies most of the waking hours of the cat family.
If the young woman was surprised by the sight of these natural enemies fraternizing, it was with emotions little short of fear for her own sanity62 that she presently saw a tall, muscular warrior63 enter the clearing and join the group of savage beasts assembled there.
At first sight of the man she had been positive that he would be torn to pieces, and she had half risen from her shelter, raising her rifle to her shoulder to do what she could to avert64 the man's terrible fate.
Now she saw that he seemed actually conversing65 with the beasts—issuing orders to them.
Presently the entire company filed on across the clearing and disappeared in the jungle upon the opposite side.
With a gasp66 of mingled67 incredulity and relief Jane Clayton staggered to her feet and fled on away from the terrible horde68 that had just passed her, while a half-mile behind her another individual, following the same trail as she, lay frozen with terror behind an ant-hill as the hideous69 band passed quite close to him.
This one was Rokoff; but he had recognized the members of the awful aggregation70 as allies of Tarzan of the Apes. No sooner, therefore, had the beasts passed him than he rose and raced through the jungle as fast as he could go, in order that he might put as much distance as possible between himself and these frightful71 beasts.
So it happened that as Jane Clayton came to the bank of the river, down which she hoped to float to the ocean and eventual39 rescue, Nikolas Rokoff was but a short distance in her rear.
Upon the bank the girl saw a great dugout drawn72 half-way from the water and tied securely to a near-by tree.
This, she felt, would solve the question of transportation to the sea could she but launch the huge, unwieldy craft. Unfastening the rope that had moored73 it to the tree, Jane pushed frantically74 upon the bow of the heavy canoe, but for all the results that were apparent she might as well have been attempting to shove the earth out of its orbit.
She was about winded when it occurred to her to try working the dugout into the stream by loading the stern with ballast and then rocking the bow back and forth along the bank until the craft eventually worked itself into the river.
There were no stones or rocks available, but along the shore she found quantities of driftwood deposited by the river at a slightly higher stage. These she gathered and piled far in the stern of the boat, until at last, to her immense relief, she saw the bow rise gently from the mud of the bank and the stern drift slowly with the current until it again lodged75 a few feet farther down-stream.
Jane found that by running back and forth between the bow and stern she could alternately raise and lower each end of the boat as she shifted her weight from one end to the other, with the result that each time she leaped to the stern the canoe moved a few inches farther into the river.
As the success of her plan approached more closely to fruition she became so wrapped in her efforts that she failed to note the figure of a man standing76 beneath a huge tree at the edge of the jungle from which he had just emerged.
The boat at last became so nearly free of the retarding79 mud and of the bank that Jane felt positive that she could pole it off into deeper water with one of the paddles which lay in the bottom of the rude craft. With this end in view she seized upon one of these implements80 and had just plunged81 it into the river bottom close to the shore when her eyes happened to rise to the edge of the jungle.
As her gaze fell upon the figure of the man a little cry of terror rose to her lips. It was Rokoff.
He was running toward her now and shouting to her to wait or he would shoot—though as he was entirely unarmed it was difficult to discover just how he intended making good his threat.
Jane Clayton knew nothing of the various misfortunes that had befallen the Russian since she had escaped from his tent, so she believed that his followers82 must be close at hand.
However, she had no intention of falling again into the man's clutches. She would rather die at once than that that should happen to her. Another minute and the boat would be free.
Once in the current of the river she would be beyond Rokoff's power to stop her, for there was no other boat upon the shore, and no man, and certainly not the cowardly Rokoff, would dare to attempt to swim the crocodile-infested water in an effort to overtake her.
Rokoff, on his part, was bent83 more upon escape than aught else. He would gladly have forgone84 any designs he might have had upon Jane Clayton would she but permit him to share this means of escape that she had discovered. He would promise anything if she would let him come aboard the dugout, but he did not think that it was necessary to do so.
He saw that he could easily reach the bow of the boat before it cleared the shore, and then it would not be necessary to make promises of any sort. Not that Rokoff would have felt the slightest compunction in ignoring any promises he might have made the girl, but he disliked the idea of having to sue for favour with one who had so recently assaulted and escaped him.
Already he was gloating over the days and nights of revenge that would be his while the heavy dugout drifted its slow way to the ocean.
Jane Clayton, working furiously to shove the boat beyond his reach, suddenly realized that she was to be successful, for with a little lurch85 the dugout swung quickly into the current, just as the Russian reached out to place his hand upon its bow.
His fingers did not miss their goal by a half-dozen inches. The girl almost collapsed86 with the reaction from the terrific mental, physical, and nervous strain under which she had been labouring for the past few minutes. But, thank Heaven, at last she was safe!
Even as she breathed a silent prayer of thanksgiving, she saw a sudden expression of triumph lighten the features of the cursing Russian, and at the same instant he dropped suddenly to the ground, grasping firmly upon something which wriggled87 through the mud toward the water.
Jane Clayton crouched88, wide-eyed and horror-stricken, in the bottom of the boat as she realized that at the last instant success had been turned to failure, and that she was indeed again in the power of the malignant89 Rokoff.
For the thing that the man had seen and grasped was the end of the trailing rope with which the dugout had been moored to the tree.
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1
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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2
rheumatism
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| n.风湿病 | |
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3
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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4
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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5
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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6
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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7
sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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8
elude
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| v.躲避，困惑 | |
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9
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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10
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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11
exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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12
wreak
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| v.发泄；报复 | |
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13
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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14
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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15
safari
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| n.远征旅行(探险、考察)；探险队，狩猎队 | |
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16
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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17
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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18
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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19
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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20
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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21
berated
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| v.严厉责备，痛斥( berate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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23
tirade
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| n.冗长的攻击性演说 | |
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24
expunged
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| v.擦掉( expunge的过去式和过去分词 )；除去；删去；消除 | |
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25
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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26
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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27
scurried
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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29
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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30
expiation
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| n.赎罪，补偿 | |
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31
plod
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| v.沉重缓慢地走，孜孜地工作 | |
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32
wrest
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| n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲 | |
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33
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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34
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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35
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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36
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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37
thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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38
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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39
eventual
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| adj.最后的，结局的，最终的 | |
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40
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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41
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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42
cartridges
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| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
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43
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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44
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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46
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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47
eddying
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| 涡流，涡流的形成 | |
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48
gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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49
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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50
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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51
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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52
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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53
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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54
lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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55
sinewy
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| adj.多腱的，强壮有力的 | |
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56
glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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57
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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58
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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59
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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60
squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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61
preening
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| v.（鸟）用嘴整理（羽毛）( preen的现在分词 ) | |
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62
sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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63
warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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64
avert
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| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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65
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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66
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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67
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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68
horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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69
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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70
aggregation
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| n.聚合，组合；凝聚 | |
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71
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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72
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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73
moored
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| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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74
frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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75
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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76
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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78
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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79
retarding
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| 使减速( retard的现在分词 )； 妨碍； 阻止； 推迟 | |
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80
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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81
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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82
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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83
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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84
forgone
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| v.没有也行，放弃( forgo的过去分词 ) | |
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85
lurch
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| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
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86
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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87
wriggled
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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88
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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