 20. Jane Clayton, again a prisoner. Though her clothes were torn and her hair disheveled, Albert Werper realized that he never before had looked upon such a vision of loveliness as that which Lady Greystoke presented in the relief and joy which she felt in coming so unexpectedly upon a friend and rescuer when hope had seemed so far away. If the Belgian had entertained any doubts as to the woman's knowledge of his part in the perfidious attack upon her home and herself it was quickly dissipated by the genuine friendliness of her greeting. She told him quickly of all that had be fallen her since he had departed from her home, and as she spoke of the death of her husband her eyes were veiled by the tears which she could not repress. "'I am shocked,' said Werper in well-simulated sympathy, but I am not surprised, that deviled there, and he pointed toward the body of Achmet Zeck, has terrorized the entire country. Your wards here are either exterminated or have been driven out of their country far to the south. The men of Achmet Zeck occupy the plain about your former home, there is neither sanctuary nor escape in that direction. Our only hope lies in travelling northward as rapidly as we may, of coming to the camp of the raiders before the knowledge of Achmet Zeck's death reaches those who were let there, and of attaining through some ruse an escort toward the north. I think that the thing can be accomplished, for I was a guest of the raiders before I knew the nature of the man, and those at the camp are not aware that I turned against him when I discovered his villainy. Come, we will make all possible haste to reach the camp before those who accompanied Achmet Zeck upon his last raid have found his body and carried the news of his death to the cut-throats who remained behind. It is our only hope, Lady Grey Stoke, and you must place your entire faith in me if I am to succeed. Wait for me here a moment while I take from the Arab's body the wallet that he stole from me, and Werper stepped quickly to the dead man's side, and kneeling sought with quick fingers the pouch of jewels. To his consternation there was no sign of them in the garments of Achmet Zeck. Rising he walked back along the trail, searching for some trace of the missing pouch or its contents, but he found nothing, even though he searched carefully the vicinity of his dead horse, and for a few paces into the jungle on either side. Puzzle, disappointed and angry, he at last returned to the girl. The wallet is gone, he explained crisply, and I dare not delay longer in search of it. We must reach the camp before the returning raiders. Unsuspicious of the man's true character, Jane Clayton saw nothing peculiar in his plans, or in his specious explanation of his former friendship for the raider, and so she grasped with alacrity the seeming hope for safety which he proffered her, and turning about she set out with Albert Werper toward the hostile camp in which she so lately had been a prisoner. It was late in the afternoon of the second day before they reached their destination, and as they paused upon the edge of the clearing before the gates of the walled village, Werper cautioned the girl to exceed whatever he might suggest by his conversation with the raiders. I shall tell them, he said, that I apprehended you after you escaped from the camp, that I took you to Akmetzak, and that as he was engaged in a stubborn battle with the Waziri he directed me to return to camp with you, to obtain here a sufficient guard, and to ride north with you as rapidly as possible, and dispose of you at the most advantageous terms to a certain slave broker whose name he gave me. Again the girl was deceived by the apparent frankness of the Belgian. She realized that desperate situations required desperate handling, and though she trembled inwardly at the thought of again entering the vile and hideous village of the raiders, she saw no better course than that which her companion had suggested. Calling aloud to those who tended the gates, Werper grasping Jane Clayton by the arm walked boldly across the clearing. Those who opened the gates to him permitted their surprise to show clearly in their expressions, that the discredited and hunted lieutenant should be thus returning fearlessly of his own volition seemed to disarm them quite as effectually as his manner toward Lady Graystoke had deceived her. The centuries at the gate returned Werper salutations, and viewed with astonishment the prisoner whom he brought into the village with him. Immediately the Belgians sought the A-rab who had been left in charge of the camp during Akmet Zek's absence, and again his boldness disarmed suspicion, and won the acceptance of his false explanation of his return. The fact that he had brought back with him the woman prisoner who had escaped added strength to his claims, and Mohamed Bayad soon found himself fraternizing good-naturedly with the very man whom he would have slain without compunction had he discovered him alone in the jungle a half hour before. Jane Clayton was again confined to the prison hut she had formerly occupied, but as she realized that this was but a part of the deception which she and Fekou were playing upon the credulous raiders it was with quite a different sensation that she again entered the vial and felt the interior from that which she had previously experienced when hope was so far away. Once more she was bound and sent replaced before the door of her prison, but before Werper left her he whispered words of cheer into her ear. Then he left and made his way back to the tent of Mohamed Bayad. He had been wondering how long it would be before the raiders who had ridden out with Akmet Zek would return with the murdered body of their chief, and the more he thought upon the matter the greater his fear became that without accomplices his plan would fail. What even if he got away from the camp in safety before any return with the true story of his guilt of what value would this advantage be other than to protract for a few days his mental torture and his life. These hard writers familiar with every trail and by-path would get him long before he could hope to reach the coast. As these thoughts passed through his mind he entered the tent where Mohamed Bayad sat cross-legged upon a rug smoking. The A-Rab looked up as the European came into his presence. "'Greetings, O brother,' he said. "'Greetings,' replied Werper. For a while neither spoke further. The A-Rab was the first to break the silence. "'And my master, Akmet Zek, was veiled when you last saw him,' he asked. "'Never was he safer from the sins and dangers of mortality,' replied the Belgian. "'Eat his val,' said Mohamed Bayad, blowing a little puff of blue smoke straight out before him. Again there was silence for several minutes. "'And if he were dead,' asked the Belgian, determined to lead up to the truth and attempt to bribe Mohamed Bayad into his service, the A-Rab's eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward, his gaze boring straight into the eyes of the Belgian. "'I have been thinking much, Werper, since you returned so unexpectedly to the camp of the man whom you had deceived and who sought you with death in his heart. I have been with Akmet Zek for many years. His own mother never knew him so well as I. He never forgives. Much less would he again trust a man who had once betrayed him that I know. "'I have thought much,' as I said, and the result of my thinking has assured me that Akmet Zek is dead. For otherwise you would never have dealt return to his camp, unless you be either a braver man or a beaker fool than I have imagined. And if this evidence of my judgment is not sufficient, I have but just now received from your own leaps even more confirmatory witness. For did you not say that Akmet Zek was never more safe from the sins and dangers of mortality? "'Akmet Zek is dead. You need not deny it. I was not his mother or his mistress, so do not fear that my veiling shall disturb you. Tell me why you have come back here. Tell me what you want, and, Werper, if you still possess the jewels of which Akmet Zek told me, there is no reason why you and I should not ride north together and divide the ransom of the white woman and the contents of the pouch you wear about your person. Eh!' the evil eyes narrowed. A vicious thin-lipped smile tortured the villainous face as Mohammed Bay had grinned knowingly into the face of the Belgian. Werper was both relieved and disturbed by the Arab's attitude. The complacency with which he accepted the death of his chief lifted a considerable burden of apprehension from the shoulders of Akmet Zek's assassin. But his demand for a share of the jewels bowed a deal for Werper when Mohammed Bayad should have learned that the precious stones were no longer in the Belgians' possession. To act knowledge that he had lost the jewels might be to arouse the wrath or suspicion of the Arab to such an extent as would jeopardize his newfound chances of escape. His one hope seemed then to lie in fostering Mohammed Bayad's belief that the jewels were still in his possession and depend upon the accidents of the future to open an avenue of escape. Could he contrive to tent with the Arab upon the march north he might find opportunity in plenty to remove this menace to his life and liberty. It was worth trying, and further there seemed no other way out of his difficulty. Yes, he said, Akmet Zek is dead. He fell in battle with a company of a Visinian cavalry that held me captive. During the fighting I escaped. But I doubt if any of Akmet Zek's men live, and the gold they sought is in the possession of the Absinians. Even now they are doubtless marching on these camp, for they were sent by Menelak to punish Akmet Zek and his followers for a raid upon an Absinian village. There are many of them, and if we do not make haste to escape, we shall all suffer the same fate as Akmet Zek. Mohammed Bayad listened in silence. How much of the unbeliever's story he might safely believe he did not know. But as it afforded him an excuse for deserting the village and making for the north, he was not inclined to cross-question the Belgian too minutely. And if I ride north with you, he asked, hath the jewels and hath the ransom of the woman shall be mine?" Yes, replied Werper. Good, said Mohammed Bayad. I go now to give the order for the breaking of camp early on the morrow, and he rose to leave the tent. Werper laid a detaining hand upon his arm. Wait, he said. Let us determine how many shall accompany us. It is not well that we be burdened by the women and children, for then indeed we might be overtaken by the Absinians. It would be far better to select a small guard of your bravest men and leave word behind that we are riding west, then when the Absinians come they will put upon the wrong trail should they have it in their hearts to pursue us, and if they do not they will at least ride north with less rapidity than as though they thought that we were ahead of them. The Serpenties last vised, and Daal, Werper, said Mohammed Bayad, with a smile, each shall be done, as you say. Twenty men shall accompany us, and we shall ride west when we leave the village. Good, cried the Belgian, and so it was arranged. Early the next morning Jane Clayton, after an almost sleepless night, was aroused by the sound of voices outside her prison, and a moment later M. Fekul and two A-Rabs entered. The latter unbound her ankles and lifted her to her feet, then her wrists were loose, she was given a handful of dry bread, and led out into the faint light of dawn. She looked questioningly at Fekul, and at a moment that the A-Rab's attention was attracted in another direction the man leaned toward her and whispered that all was working out as he had planned. Thus assured the young woman felt a renewal of the hope which the long and miserable night of bondage had almost expunged. Shortly after she was lifted to the back of a horse and surrounded by A-Rabs was escorted through the gateway of the village and off into the jungle toward the west. Half an hour later the party turned north, and northerly was their direction for the balance of the march. M. Fekul spoke with her but seldom, and she understood that in carrying out his deception he must maintain the semblance of her captor rather than protect her, and so she suspected nothing though she saw the friendly relations which seemed to exist between the European and the A-Rab leader of the band. If Werper succeeded in keeping himself from conversation with the young woman he failed signally to expel her from his thoughts. A hundred times a day he found his eyes wandering in her direction and feasting themselves upon her charms of face and figure. Each hour his infatuation for her grew until his desire to possess her gained almost the proportions of madness. If either the girl or Mohamed Bayad could have guessed what passed in the mind of the man which each thought a friend and ally, the apparent harmony of the little company would have been rudely disturbed. Werper had not succeeded in arranging to tent with Mohamed Bayad, and so he revolved many plans for the assassination of the A-Rab that would have been greatly simplified had he been permitted to share the other's nightly shelter. Upon the second day out Mohamed Bayad reigned his horse to the side of the animal on which the captive was mounted. It was, apparently, the first notice which the A-Rab had taken of the girl, but many times during these two days had his cunning eyes peered greedily from beneath the hood of his bernouce to gloat upon the beauties of the prisoner. Nor was this hidden infatuation of any recent origin. He had conceived it when first the wife of the Englishman had fallen into the hands of Ahmed Zak, but while that austere chieftain lived Mohamed Bayad had not even dared hope for a realization of his imaginings. Now though it was different, only a despised dog of a Christian stood between himself and possession of the girl, how easy it would be to slay the unbeliever and take unto himself both the woman and the jewels. With the latter in his possession, the ransom which might be obtained for the captive would form no great inducement to her relinquishment in the face of the pleasures of sole ownership of her. Yes, he would kill Werper, retain all the jewels, and keep the Englishwoman. He turned his eyes upon her as she rode along at his side, how beautiful she was, his fingers opened and closed, skinny brown talons itching to feel the soft flesh of the victim in their remorseless clutch. "'Do you know?' he asked, leaning toward her. "'Fair this man would take you?' Jane Clayton nodded affirmatively. "'And are you willing to become the plaything of a black sultan?' The girl drew herself up to her full height and turned her head away. But she did not reply. She feared, lest her knowledge of the ruse that M. Fakul was playing upon the Arab might cause her to betray herself through an insufficient display of terror and diversion. "'You can escape these fate,' continued the Arab. "'Mohammed Bayad, veiled Saviour,' and he reached out a brown hand and seized the fingers of her right hand in a grasp so sudden and so fierce that this brutal passion was revealed as clearly in the act as though his lips had confessed it in words. Jane Clayton wrenched herself from his grasp. "'You beast!' she cried. "'Leave me, or I shall call M. Fakul.' Mohammed Bayad drew back with a scowl, his thin upper lip curled upward, revealing his smooth white teeth. "'M. Fakul,' he jeered. "'There is no such person. The man's name is Velper. "'He's a liar, a thief, and a murderer. "'He killed his captain in the Congo country and fled to the protection of Ahmed Zak. "'He led Ahmed Zak to the plunder of your home. "'He followed your husband and planned to steal his gold from him. "'He has told me that you think he'm your protector, and he has played upon this to veen your confidence that it might be easier to carry you north and sell you into some black sultan's harem. Mohammed Bayad is your only hope, and with this assertion, to provide the captive with food for thought, the Arab spurred forward toward the head of the column. Jane Clayton could not know how much of Mohammed Bayad's indictment might be true or how much false, but at least it had the effect of dampening her hopes and causing her to review with suspicion every past act of the man upon whom she had been looking as her sole protector in the midst of a world of enemies and dangers. On the march a separate tent had been provided for the captive, and at night it was pitched between those of Mohammed Bayad and Verper. A sentry was posted at the front and another at the back, and with these precautions it had not been thought necessary to confine the prisoner to bonds. The evening following her interview with Mohammed Bayad, Jane Clayton sat for some time at the opening of her tent, watching the rough activities of the camp. She had eaten the meal that had been brought her by Mohammed Bayad's negro slave, a meal of cassava cakes, and a nondescript stew in which a new-killed monkey, a couple of squirrels, and the remains of a zebra, slain the previous day, were impartially and unsavorily combined. But the one-time Baltimore bell had long since submerged in the stern battle for existence and aestheticism which formally revolted at much slighter provocation. As the girl's eyes wandered across the trampled jungle clearing, already squalid from the presence of man, she no longer apprehended either the nearer objects of the foreground, the uncouth men laughing or quarling among themselves, or the jungle beyond, which circumscribed the extreme range of her material vision. Her gaze passed through all these, unseeing, to center itself upon a distant bungalow and scenes of happy security which brought to her eyes tears of mingled joy and sorrow. She saw a tall broad-shouldered man riding in from distant fields. She saw herself waiting to greet him with an armful of fresh-cut roses from the bushes which flanked the little rustic gate before her. All this was gone, vanished into the past, wiped out by the torches and bullets and hatred of these hideous and degenerate men. With a stifled sob and a little shudder, Jane Clayton turned back into her tent and sought the pile of unclean blankets which were her bed. Throwing herself face downward upon them, she sobbed forth her misery until kindly sleep brought her at least temporary relief. And while she slept, a figure stole from the tent that stood to the right of hers. It approached the sentry before the doorway and whispered a few words in the man's ear. The latter nodded and strode off through the darkness in the direction of his own blankets. The figure passed to the rear of Jane Clayton's tent and spoke again to the sentry there, and this man also left, following in the trail of the first. Then he who had sent them away stole silently to the tent flap and untying the fastenings entered with the noiselessness of a disembodied spirit. This Libra box recording is in the public domain. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Sleepless upon his blankets, Albert Werper let his evil mind dwell upon the charms of the woman in the nearby tent. He had noted Mohamed Bayad's sudden interest in the girl, and, judging the man by his own standards, had guessed at the basis of the Arab sudden change of attitude toward the prisoner. And as he let his imaginings run riot, they aroused within him a bestial jealousy of Mohamed Bayad, and a great fear that the other might encompass his base designs upon the defenseless girl, by a strange process of reasoning, Werper, whose designs were identical with the Arabs, pictured himself as Jane Clayton's protector, and presently convinced himself that the attentions which might seem hideous to her, if proffered by Mohamed Bayad, would be welcomed from Albert Werper. Her husband was dead, and Werper fancied that he could replace in the girl's heart the position which had been vacated by the act of the grim reaper. He could offer Jane Clayton marriage, a thing which Mohamed Bayad would not offer, and which the girl would spurn from him with as deep disgust as she would his unholy lust. It was not long before the Belgian had succeeded in convincing himself that the captive not only had every reason for having conceived sentiments of love for him, but that she had by various feminine methods acknowledged her newborn affection, and then a sudden resolution possessed him. He threw the blankets from him, and rose to his feet. Pulling on his boots and buckling his cartridge belt and revolver about his hips, he stepped to the flap of his tent and looked out. There was no sentry before the entrance to the prisoner's tent. What could it mean? Fate was indeed playing into his hands. Stepping outside he passed to the rear of the girl's tent. There was no sentry there either. And now boldly he walked to the entrance and stepped within. Dimly the moonlight illumined the interior. Across the tent a figure bent above the blankets of a bed. There was a whispered word, and another figure rose from the blankets to a sitting position. Slowly Albert Werper's eyes were becoming accustomed to the half-darkness of the tent. He saw that the figure leaning over the bed was that of a man. And he guessed at the truth of the nocturnal visitor's identity. A sullen, jealous rage enveloped him. He took a step in the direction of the two. He heard a frightened cry break from the girl's lips as she recognized the features of the man above her. And he saw Mohammed Bayad seize her by the throat and bear her back upon the blankets. Cheated passion cast a red blur before the eyes of the Belgian. No, the man should not have her. She was for him and him alone. He would not be robbed of his rights. Quickly he ran across the tent and threw himself upon the back of Mohammed Bayad. The latter, though surprised by this sudden and unexpected attack, was not one to give up without a battle. The Belgian's fingers were feeling for his throat, but the Arab tore them away and rising a wheeled upon his adversary. As they faced each other, Werper struck the Arab a heavy blow in the face, sending him staggering backward. If he had followed up his advantage, he would have had Mohammed Bayad at his mercy in another moment, but instead he tugged at his revolver to dry it from its holster, and fate ordained that at that particular moment the weapon should stick in its leather scabbard. Before he could disengage it, Mohammed Bayad had recovered himself and was dashing upon him. Again Werper struck the other in the face, and the Arab returned the blow. Striking at each other and ceaselessly attempting to clinch, the two battled about the small interior of the tent, while the girl, wide-eyed in terror and astonishment, watched the duel in frozen silence. Again and again Werper struggled to draw his weapon. Mohammed Bayad, anticipating no such opposition to his base desires, had come to the tent unarmed, except for a long knife which he now drew as he stood panting during the first brief rest of the encounter. Dog of a Christian, he whispered, look upon this knife in the hands of Mohammed Bayad, look veil, unbeliever, for it is the last thing in life that you shall see or feel. With it, Mohammed Bayad veal, cut out your black heart, if you have a God, pray to him now, in a minute more you shall be dead. And with that he rushed viciously upon the Belgian, his knife raised high above his head. Werper was still dragging futilely at his weapon. The Arab was almost upon him. In desperation the European waited until Mohammed Bayad was all but against him. Then he threw himself to one side, to the floor of the tent, leaving a leg extended in the path of the Arab. The trick succeeded. Mohammed Bayad carried on by the momentum of his charge, stumbled over the projecting obstacle and crashed to the ground. Instantly he was up again, and wheeling to renew the battle. But Werper was on foot ahead of him, and now his revolver, Lucen, from its holster, flashed in his hand. The Arab dove head first to grapple with him. There was a sharp report, a lurid gleam of flame in the darkness, and Mohammed Bayad rolled over, and over upon the floor, to come to a final rest beside the bed of the woman he had sought to dishonor. Almost immediately following the report came the sound of excited voices in the camp without. Men were calling back and forth to one another, asking the meaning of the shot. Werper could hear them running hither and thither, investigating. Jane Clayton had risen to her feet as the Arab died, and now she came forward without stretched hands toward Werper. How can I ever thank you, my friend? she asked, and to think that only to-day I had almost believed the infamous story which this beast told me of your perfidy and of your past. Forgive me, M. Thakul. I might have known that a white man and a gentleman could be not else than the protector of a woman of his own race amid the dangers of this savage land. Werper's hands dropped limply at his sides. He stood looking at the girl, but he could find no words to reply to her. Her innocent arraignment of his true purposes was unanswerable. Outside the Arabs were searching for the author of the Disturbing Shot. The two sentries who had been relieved and sent to their blankets by Mohammed Bayad were the first to suggest going to the tent of the prisoner. It occurred to them that possibly the woman had successfully defended herself against their leader. Werper heard the man approaching. To be apprehended as the slayer of Mohammed Bayad would be equivalent to a sentence of immediate death, the fierce and brutal raiders would tear to pieces a Christian who had dared spill the blood of their leader. He must find some excuse to delay the finding of Mohammed Bayad's dead body. Returning his revolver to its holster he walked quickly to the entrance of the tent. Parting the flaps he stepped out and confronted the man who were rapidly approaching. Somehow he found within him the necessary bravado to force a smile to his lips as he held up his hand to bar their farther progress. The woman resisted, he said, and Mohammed Bayad was forced to shoot her. She is not dead, only slightly wounded. You may go back to your blankets. Mohammed Bayad and I will look after the prisoner. Then he turned and re-entered the tent, and the raiders satisfied by this explanation gladly returned to their broken slumbers. As he again faced Jane Clayton, Werper found himself animated by quite different intentions than those which had lured him from his blankets but a few minutes before. The excitement of his encounter with Mohammed Bayad as well as the dangers which he now faced at the hands of the raiders when mourning must inevitably reveal the truth of what had occurred in the tent of the prisoner that night had naturally cooled the hot passion which had dominated him when he entered the tent, but another and stronger force was exerting itself in the girl's favour. However low a man may sink, honour and chivalry, as he ever possessed them, are never entirely eradicated from his character, and although Albert Werper had long since ceased to evidence the slightest claim to either the one or the other, the spontaneous acknowledgement of them which the girl's speech had presumed had reawakened them both within him. For the first time he realised the almost hopeless and frightful position of the fair captive and the depths of ignominy to which he had sunk that had made it possible for him a well-born European gentleman to have entertained even for a moment the part that he had taken in the ruin of her home, happiness, and herself. Too much abaseness already lay at the threshold of his conscience for him ever to hope entirely to redeem himself, but in the first sudden burst of contrition the man conceived an honest intention to undo, insofar as lay within his power, the evil that his criminal avarice had brought upon this sweet and unoffending woman. As he stood apparently listening to the retreating footsteps, Jane Clayton approached him. What are we to do now? she asked. Morning will bring discovery of this, and she pointed to the still body of Mohammed Bayad. They will kill you when they find him. For a time Werper did not reply. Then he turned suddenly toward the woman. I have a plan, he cried. It will require nerve and courage on your part, but you have already shown that you possessed both. Can you endure still more? I can endure anything. She replied with a brave smile. That may offer us even a slight chance for escape. You must simulate death, he explained. While I carry you from the camp, I will explain to the centuries that Mohammed Bayad has ordered me to take your body into the jungle. This seemingly unnecessary act I shall explain upon the grounds that Mohammed Bayad had conceived a violent passion for you, and that he so regretted the act by which he had become your slayer, that he could not endure the silent reproach of your lifeless body. The girl held up her hand to stop, a smile touched her lips. Are you quite mad? she asked. Do you imagine that the centuries will credit any such ridiculous tale? You do not know them, he replied. Beneath their rough exteriors, despite their callous and criminal natures, there exists in each a well-defined strain of romantic emotionalism. You will find it among such as these throughout the world. It is romance which doors men to lead wild lives of outlawry and crime. The ruse will succeed, never fear. Jane Clayton shrugged. We can but try it. And then what? I shall hide you in the jungle, continued the Belgian, coming for you alone and with two horses in the morning. But how will you explain Mohamed Bayad's death? she asked. It will be discovered before ever you can escape the camp in the morning. I shall not explain it, replied Werper. Mohamed Bayad shall explain it himself. We must leave that to him. Are you ready for the venture? Yes, but wait, I must get you a weapon and ammunition. And Werper walked quickly from the tent. Very shortly he returned with an extra revolver and ammunition belt strapped about his waist. Are you ready? he asked. Quite ready, replied the girl. Then come and throw yourself nimbly across my left shoulder and Werper knelt to receive her. There, he said as he rose to his feet, now let your arms and your legs and your head hang nimbly. Remember that you are dead. A moment later the man walked out into the camp, the body of the woman across his shoulder. A thornboma had been thrown up about the camp to discourage the boulder of the hungry carnibra. A couple of centuries paced to and fro in the light of a fire which they kept burning brightly. The nearer of these looked up in surprise as he saw Werper approaching. Who are you? he cried. What have you there? Werper raised the hood of his bernouse that the fellow might see his face. This is the body of the woman, he explained. Mohamed Bayad has asked me to take it into the jungle, for he cannot bear to look upon the face of her whom he loved, and whom necessity compelled him to slay. He suffers greatly. He is inconsolable. It was with difficulty that I prevented him taking his own life. Across the speaker's shoulder, limp and frightened, the girl waited for the Arab's reply. He would laugh at this preposterous story, of that, she was sure. In an instant he would unmask the deception that M. Fekul was attempting to practice upon him, and they would both be lost. She tried to plan how best she might aid her would be rescuer in the fight which must most certainly follow within a moment or two. Then she heard the voice of the Arab as he replied to M. Fekul. Are you going alone, or do you wish me to awaken someone to accompany you? He asked, and his tone denoted not the least surprise that M. Bayad had suddenly discovered such remarkably sensitive characteristics. I shall go alone, replied Werper, and he passed on and out through the narrow opening in the Boma by which the sentry stood. A moment later he had entered among the bowls of the trees with his burden, and when safely hidden from the sentry's view, lured the girl to her feet with a low shh, shh, when she would have spoken. Then he led her a little farther into the forest, halted beneath a large tree with spreading branches, buckled a cartridge belt and revolver about her waist, and assisted her to clamor into the lower branches. Tomorrow, he whispered, as soon as I can elude them, I will return for you. Be brave, Lady Grey Stoke. We may yet escape. Thank you! she replied in a low tone. You have been very kind and very brave! Werper did not reply, and the darkness of the night hid the scarlet flush of shame which swept upward across his face. Quickly he turned and made his way back to camp. The sentry from his post saw him enter his own tent, but he did not see him crawl under the canvas at the rear and sneak cautiously to the tent which the prisoner had occupied, where now lay the dead body of Mohammed Bayad. Raising the lower edge of the rear wall, Werper crept within and approached the corpse. Without an instant's hesitation he seized the dead wrists and dragged the body upon its back to the point where he had just entered. On hands and knees he backed out as he had come in, drawing the corpse after him. Once outside the Belgian crept to the side of the tent and surveyed as much of the camp as lay within his vision. No one was watching. Returning to the body he lifted it to his shoulder, and risking all on a quick sally ran swiftly across the narrow opening which separated the prisoner's tent from that of the dead man. Behind the silken wall he halted and lowered his burden to the ground, and there he remained motionless for several minutes, listening. Satisfied at last that no one had seen him, he stooped and raised the bottom of the tent wall, backed in and dragged the thing that had been Mohammed Bayad after him. To the sleeping rugs of the dead raider he drew the corpse. Then he fumbled about in the darkness until he had found Mohammed Bayad's revolver. With the weapon in his hand he returned to the side of the dead man, kneeled beside the bedding, and inserted his right hand with the weapon beneath the rugs, piled a number of thicknesses of the closely woven fabric over and about the revolver with his left hand. Then he pulled the trigger, and at the same time he coughed. The muffled report could not have been heard above the sound of his cough by one directly outside the tent. Warper was satisfied. A grim smile touched his lips as he withdrew the weapon from the rugs and placed it carefully in the right hand of the dead man, fixing three of the fingers around the grip and the index finger inside the trigger guard. A moment longer he terried to rearrange the disordered rugs, and then he left as he had entered, fastening down the rear wall of the tent as it had been before he had raised it. Going to the tent of the prisoner he removed there also the evidence that someone might have come or gone beneath the rear wall. Then he returned to his own tent, entered, fastened down the canvas, and crawled into his blankets. The following morning he was awakened by the excited voice of Mohamed Bayard's slave calling to him at the entrance of his tent. Quick, quick! cried the black in a frightened tone. Come, Mohamed Bayard is dead in his tent, dead by his own hand. Warper sat up quickly in his blankets at the first alarm, a startled expression upon his countenance, but at the last words of the black a sigh of relief escaped his lips, and a slight smile replaced the tense lines upon his face. I come, he called to the slave, and drawing on his boot rose and went out of his tent. Excited air-abs and blacks were running from all parts of the camp toward the silt and tent of Mohamed Bayard, and when Warper entered he found a number of the raiders crowded about the corpse, now cold and stiff. Shouldering his way among them the Belgian halted beside the dead body of the raider. He looked down in silence for a moment upon the still face, then he wheeled upon the air-abs. Who has done this thing? he cried. His tone was both menacing and accusing. Who has murdered Mohamed Bayard? A sudden chorus of voices arose in tumultuous protest. Mohamed Bayard was not murdered. They cried. He died by his own hand. This and all are our witnesses. And they pointed to a revolver in the dead man's hand. For a time Warper pretended to be sceptical, but at last permitted himself to be convinced that Mohamed Bayard had indeed killed himself in remorse for the death of the white woman he had, all unknown to his followers, loved so devotedly. Warper himself wrapped the blankets of the dead man about the corpse, taking care to fold inward the scorched and bullet-torn fabric that had muffled the report of the weapon he had fired the night before. Then six husky blacks carried the body out into the clearing where the camp stood, and deposited it in a shallow grave. As the loose earth fell upon the silent form beneath the tell-tailed blankets, Albert Warper heaved another sigh of relief. His plan had worked out even better than he had dared hope. With Ahmed Zak and Mohamed Bayard both dead, the raiders were without a leader, and after a brief conference they decided to return into the north on visits to the various tribes to which they belonged. Warper, after learning the direction they intended taking, announced that for his part he was going east to the coast, and as they knew of nothing he possessed which any of them coveted, they signified their willingness that he should go his way. As they rode off he sat his horse in the center of the clearing, watching them disappear one by one into the jungle, and thanked his God that he had at last escaped their villainous clutches. When he could no longer hear any sound of them, he turned to the right and rode into the forest toward the tree where he had hidden Lady Grey Stoke, and, drawing rain beneath it, called up in a gay and hopeful voice, a pleasant, good morning! There was no reply, and though his eyes searched the thick foliage above him, he could see no sign of the girl. Dismounting he quickly climbed into the tree, where he could obtain a view of all its branches. The tree was empty. Jane Clayton had vanished during the silent watches of the jungle night. End of Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Of Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs Chapter 22 Tarzan Recovers His Reason As Tarzan let the pebbles from the recovered pouch run through his fingers, his thoughts returned to the pile of yellow ingots about which the Arabs and the Absinians had waged their relentless battle. What was there in common between that pile of dirty metal and the beautiful sparkling pebbles that had formerly been in his pouch? What was the metal? From whence had it come? What was that tantalizing half-conviction which seemed to demand the recognition of his memory that the yellow pile for which these men had fought and died had been intimately connected with his past, that it had been his? What had been his past? He shook his head. Vaguely the memory of his apes' childhood passed slowly in review, then came a strangely tangled mass of faces, figures, and events which seemed to have no relation to Tarzan of the apes, and yet which were, even in their fragmentary form, familiar. Slowly and painfully recollection was attempting to reassert itself, the hurt brain was mending, as the cause of its recent failure to function was being slowly absorbed or removed by the healing processes of perfect circulation. The people who now passed before his mind's eye for the first time in weeks wore familiar faces, but yet he could neither place them in the niches they had once filled in his past life, nor call them by name. One was a fair she, and it was her face which most often moved through the tangled recollections of his convalescing brain. Who was she? What had she been to Tarzan of the apes? He seemed to see her about the very spot upon which the pile of gold had been unearthed by the obscenience, but the surroundings were vastly different from those which now obtained. There was a building, there were many buildings, and there were hedges, fences, and flowers. Tarzan Puckardy's brow in puzzled study of the wonderful problem. For an instant he seemed to grasp the whole of a true explanation, and then, just as success was within his grasp, the picture faded into a jungle scene where a naked white youth danced in company with a band of hairy primordial ape things. Tarzan shook his head and sighed, why was it that he could not recollect? At least he was sure that in some way the pile of gold, the place where it lay, the subtle aroma of the elusive she he had been pursuing, the memory figure of the white woman, and he himself were inextricably connected by the ties of a forgotten past. If the woman belonged there, what better place to search or await her than the very spot which his broken recollection seemed to assign to her. It was worth trying. Tarzan slipped the thong of the empty pouch over his shoulder and started off through the trees in the direction of the plain. At the outskirts of the forest he met the A-Rabs returning in search of Akmet Zek, hiding he let them pass, and then resumed his way toward the charred ruins of the home he had been almost upon the point of recalling to his memory. His journey across the plain was interrupted by the discovery of a small herd of antelope in a little swale, where the cover and the wind were well combined to make stalking easy. A fat yearling rewarded a half hour of stealthy creeping and a sudden, savage rush, and it was late in the afternoon when the ape-men settled himself upon his haunches beside his kill to enjoy the fruits of his skill, his cunning and his prowess. His hunger satisfied, thirst next claimed his attention. The river lured him by the shortest path toward its refreshing waters, and when he had drunk, night already had fallen, and he was some half-mile or more downstream from the point where he had seen the pile of yellow ingots, and where he hoped to meet the memory woman, or find some clue to her whereabouts or her identity. To the jungle-bread time is usually a matter of small moment and haste except when engendered by terror, by rage, or by hunger is distasteful. Today was gone, therefore tomorrow of which there was an infinite procession would answer admirably for Tarzan's further quest, and besides the ape-man was tired and would sleep. A tree afforded him the safety, seclusion, and comforts of a well appointed bed-chamber, and to the chorus of the hunters and the hunted of the wild river-bank he soon dropped off into deep slumber, mourning founding both hungry and thirsty again, and dropping from his tree he made his way to the drinking-place at the river's edge. There he found Numa, the lion, ahead of him. The big fellow was lapping the water greedily, and at the approach of Tarzan along the trail in his rear he raised his head and turning his gaze backward across his main shoulders, glared at the intruder. A low growl of warning rumbled from his throat, but Tarzan guessing that the beast had but just quitted his kill and was well filled, merely made a slight detour and continued to the river, where he stopped a few yards above the tawny cat, and dropping upon his hands and knees plunged his face into the cool water. For a moment the lion continued to eye the man. Then he resumed his drinking, and man and beast quenched their thirst side by side, each apparently oblivious of the other's presence. Numa was the first to finish. Raising his head he gazed across the river for a few minutes with that stony fixity of attention which is characteristic of his kind, but for the ruffling of his black mane to the touch of the passing breeze he might have been wrought from gold and bronze, so motionless, so statuesque his pose. A deep sigh from the cavernous lungs dispelled the illusion. The mighty head swung slowly around until the yellow eyes rested upon the man. The bristled lip curved upward, exposing yellow fangs. Another warning growl vibrated the heavy jowls, and the king of beasts turned majestically about and paced slowly up the trail into the dense reeds. Tarzan of the apes drank on, but from the corners of his gray eyes he watched the great brute's every move until he had disappeared from view, and after his keen ears marked the movements of the carnivore. A plunge in the river was followed by a scant breakfast of eggs which Chance discovered to him, and then he set off up river toward the ruins of the bungalow where the golden ingots had marked the center of yesterday's battle. And when he came upon the spot great was his surprise and consternation, for the yellow metal had disappeared. The earth trampled by the feet of horses and men gave no clue. It was as though the ingots had evaporated into thin air. The ape-man was at last to know where to turn or what next to do. There was no sign of any spore which might denote that the she had been here. The metal was gone, and if there was any connection between the she and the metal it seemed useless to wait for her now that the latter had been removed elsewhere. Everything seemed to elude him. The pretty pebbles, the yellow metal, the she, his memory Tarzan was disgusted. He would go back into the jungle and look for chulk, and so he turned his steps once more toward the forest. He moved rapidly, swinging across the plain in a long easy trot, and at the edge of the forest taking to the trees with the agility and speed of a small monkey. His direction was aimless. He merely raced on and on through the jungle. The joy of unfettered action his principal urge, with the hope of stumbling upon some clue to chulk or the she, a secondary incentive. For two days he roamed about, killing, eating, drinking, and sleeping wherever inclination and the means to indulge it occurred simultaneously. It was upon the morning of the third day that the scent spore of horse and man were wafted faintly to his nostrils. Instantly he altered his course to glide silently through the branches in the direction from which the scent came. It was not long before he came upon a solitary horseman, riding toward the east. Instantly his eyes confirmed what his nose had previously suspected. The rider was he who had stolen his pretty pebbles. The light of rage flared suddenly in the gray eyes as the eight-man dropped lore among the branches until he moved almost directly above the unconscious whirper. There was a quick leap and the Belgian fell to heavy body hurdle onto the rump of his terror stricken mount. The horse snorting leaped forward, giant arms encircled the rider, and in the twinkling of an eye he was dragged from his saddle to find himself lying in the narrow trail with a naked white giant kneeling upon his breast. Recognition came to whirper with the first glance at his captor's face and a pallor of fear overspread his features. Strong fingers were at his throat, fingers of steel. He tried to cry out, to plead for his life, but the cruel fingers denied him speech as they were as surely denying him life. The pretty pebbles cried the man upon his breast. What did you with the pretty pebbles? With Tarzan's pretty pebbles. The fingers relaxed to permit a reply. For some time whirper could only choke and cough. At last he regained the powers of speech. Akhmet Zek, the Arab, stole them from me, he cried. He made me give up the pouch and the pebbles. I saw all that, replied Tarzan, but the pebbles in the pouch were not the pebbles of Tarzan. They were only such pebbles as fill the bottoms of the rivers and the shelving banks beside them. Even the Arab would not have them, for he threw them away in anger when he had looked upon them. It is my pretty pebbles that I want. Where are they? I do not know! I do not know! cried whirper. I gave them to Akhmet Zek, or he would have killed me. A few minutes later he followed me along the trail to slay me, although he had promised to molest me no further, and I shot and killed him, but the pouch was not upon his person, and though I searched about the jungle for some time I could not find it. I found it, I tell you, growled Tarzan, and I also found the pebbles which Akhmet Zek had thrown away and discussed. They were not Tarzan's pebbles. You have hidden them. Tell me where they are, or I will kill you, and the brown fingers of the eight-man closed a little tighter upon the throat of his victim. Whirper struggled to free himself. My heavens, Lord Grey Stoke! he managed to scream. Would you commit murder for a hen full of stones? The fingers at his throat relaxed. A puzzled, far away expression softened the gray eyes. Lord Grey Stoke! repeated the eight-man. Lord Grey Stoke! Who is Lord Grey Stoke? Where have I heard that name before? Why, man, you are Lord Grey Stoke! cried the Belgian. You were injured by a falling rock when the earthquake shattered the passage to the underground chamber to which you and your black wasiri had come to fetch golden ingots back to your bungalow. The blow shattered your memory. You are John Clayton, Lord Grey Stoke. Don't you remember? John Clayton, Lord Grey Stoke! repeated Tarzan. Then for a moment he was silent. Presently his hand went falteringly to his forehead. An expression of wonderment filled his eyes. Of wonderment and sudden understanding. The forgotten name had reawakened the returning memory that had been struggling to reassert itself. The eight-man relinquished his grasp upon the throat of the Belgian and leaped to his feet. By Jove, he cried, and then, Jane! Suddenly he turned upon Werper. My wife, he asked, what has become of her? The farm is in ruins. You know you have had something to do with all this. You followed me to Opar. You stole the jewels which I thought but pretty pebbles. You are a crook. Do not try to tell me that you are not. He is worse than a crook, said a quiet voice, close behind them. Tarzan turned in astonishment to see a tall man in uniform standing in the trail a few paces from him. Back of the man were a number of black soldiers in the uniform of the Congo Free State. He is a murderer, monsieur, continued the officer. I have followed him for a long time to take him back to stand trial for the killing of his superior officer. Werper was upon his feet now, gazing white and trembling, at the fate which had overtaken him even in the vastness of the labyrinthine jungle. Instinctively he turned to flee, but Tarzan of the apes reached out a strong hand and grasped him by the shoulder. Wait! said the eight-man to his captive. This gentleman wishes you and so do I. When I am through with you, he may have you. Tell me what has become of my wife. The Belgian officer eyed the almost naked white giant with curiosity. He noted the strange contrast of primitive weapons and apparel, and the easy fluent French which the man spoke. The former denoted the lowest, the latter the highest type of culture. He could not quite determine the social status of this strange creature, but he knew that he did not relish the easy assurance with which the fellow presumed to dictate when he might take possession of the prisoner. Pardon me, he said, stepping forward and placing his hand on Werper's other shoulder, but this gentleman is my prisoner. He must come with me. When I am through with him, replied Tarzan quietly, the officer turned and beckoned to the soldiers standing in the trail behind him. A company of uniformed blacks stepped quickly forward and pushing past the three surrounded the eight man and his captive. Both the law and the power to enforce it are upon my side, announced the officer. Let us have no trouble. If you have a grievance against this man, you may return with me and enter your charge regularly before an authorized tribunal. Your legal rights are not above suspicion, my friend, replied Tarzan, and your power to enforce your commands are only apparent, not real. You have presumed to enter British territory with an armed force. Where is your authority for this invasion? Where are the extradition papers which warrant the arrest of this man? And what assurance have you that I cannot bring an armed force about you that will prevent your return to the Congo Free State? The Belgian lost his temper. I have no disposition to argue with a naked savage, he cried, unless you wish to be hurt you will not interfere with me. Take the prisoner, Sergeant. Werper raised his lips close to Tarzan's ear. Keep me from them, and I can show you the very spot where I saw your wife last night, he whispered. She cannot be far from here at this very minute. The soldiers, following the signal from their sergeant, closed in to seize Werper. Tarzan grabbed the belts in about the waist, and bearing him beneath his arm as he might have borne a sack of flour, leaped forward in an attempt to break through the cordon. His right fist caught the nearest soldier upon the jaw, and sent him hurtling backward upon his fellows. Clubbed rifles were torn from the hands of those who barred his way, and right and left the black soldiers stumble aside in the face of the eight-man savage break for liberty. So completely did the blacks surround the two that they dared not fire for fear of hitting one of their own number, and Tarzan was already through them and upon the point of dodging into the concealing mazes of the jungle when one who had sneaked upon him from behind struck him a heavy blow up on the head with a rifle. In an instant the eight-man was down, and a dozen black soldiers were upon his back. When he regained consciousness he found himself securely bound, as was Werper also. The Belgian officer, success having crowned his efforts, was in good humor, and inclined to chaff his prisoners about the ease with which they had been captured, but from Tarzan of the apes he elicited no response. Werper, however, was valuable in his protest. He explained that Tarzan was an English lord, but the officer only laughed at the assertion, and advised his prisoner to save his breath for his defense in court. As soon as Tarzan regained his senses and it was found that he was not seriously injured the prisoners were hastened into line, and the return march toward the Congo Free State boundary commenced. Toward evening the column halted beside a stream, made camp, and prepared the evening meal. From the thick foliage of the nearby jungle a pair of fierce eyes watched the activities of the uniform blacks with silent intensity and curiosity. From beneath beatling brows the creature saw the Boma constructed, the fires built, and the supper prepared. Tarzan and Werper had been lying bound, behind a small pile of knapsacks, from the time that the company had halted, but with the preparation of the meal completed their guard ordered them to rise and come forward to one of the fires where their hands would be unfettered that they might eat. As the giant eight-man rose a startled expression of recognition entered the eyes of the watcher in the jungle and a low guttural broke from the savage lips. Instantly Tarzan was alert, but the answering growl died upon his lips, suppressed by the fear that it might arouse the suspicions of the soldiers. Suddenly an inspiration came to him. He turned toward Werper. I am going to speak to you in a loud voice, and in a tongue which you do not understand. Appear to listen intently to what I say, and occasionally mumble something as though replying in the same language. Our escape may hinge upon the success of your efforts. Werper nodded in assent and understanding, and immediately there broke from the lips of his companion a strange jargon which might have been compared with equal propriety to the barking and growling of a dog and the chattering of monkeys. The nearer soldiers looked in surprise at the eight-man. Some of them laughed while others drew away in evident superstitious fear. The officer approached the prisoners while Tarzan was still jabbering and halted behind them, listening in perplexed interest. When Werper mumbled some ridiculous jargon in reply, his curiosity broke bounds, and he stepped forward, demanding to know what language it was that they spoke. Tarzan had gauged the measure of the man's culture from the nature and quality of his conversation during the march, and he rested the success of his reply upon the estimate he had made. "'Greek,' he explained. "'Oh, I thought it was Greek,' replied the officer, "'but it has been so many years since I studied it that I was not sure. In future, however, I will thank you to speak in a language which I am more familiar with.' Werper turned his head to hide a grin, whispering to Tarzan, "'It was Greek to him all right, and to me too. But one of the black soldiers mumbled in a low voice to a companion. "'I have heard those sounds before. Once at night, when I was lost in the jungle, I heard the hairy men of the trees talking among themselves, and their words were like the words of this white man. I wish that we had not found him. He is not a man at all. He is a bad spirit, and we shall have bad luck if we do not let him go.' And the fellow rolled his eyes fearfully toward the jungle. His companion laughed nervously and moved away to repeat the conversation with variations and exaggerations to others of the black soldiery so that it was not long before a frightful tale of black magic and sudden death was woven about the giant prisoner, and had gone the rounds of the camp. And deep in the gloomy jungle, amidst the darkening shadows of the falling night, a hairy man-like creature swung swiftly southward upon some secret mission of his own. END OF CHAPTER XXII To Jane Clayton, waiting in the tree where Werper had placed her, it seemed that the long night would never end. Yet, and it did at last, and within an hour of the coming of dawn, her spirits leaped with renewed hope at sight of a solitary horseman approaching along the trail. The flowing bernouse with its loose hood hid both the face and the figure of the rider, but that it was M. Fakul, the girl well-knew, since he had been garbed as an Arab, and he alone might be expected to seek her hiding place. That which she saw relieved the strain of the long night vigil, but there was much that she did not see. She did not see the black face beneath the white hood, nor the file of ebb and horsemen beyond the trail's bend riding slowly in the wake of their leader. These things she did not see at first, and so she leaned downward toward the approaching rider, a cry of welcome forming in her throat. At the first word the man looked up, reigning in, in surprise, and as she saw the black face of Abdul Mourak, the obscenian, she shrank back in terror among the branches, but it was too late. The man had seen her, and now he called to her to descend. At first she refused, but when a dozen black cavalrymen drew up behind their leader, and at Abdul Mourak's command, one of them started to climb the tree after her, she realized that resistance was futile and came slowly down to stand upon the ground before this new captor and plead her cause in the name of justice and humanity. Angered by recent defeat, and by the loss of the gold, the jewels, and his prisoners, Abdul Mourak was in no mood to be influenced by any appeal to those softer sentiments to which, as a matter of fact, he was almost a stranger, even under the most favorable conditions. He looked for degradation and possible death in punishment for his failures and his misfortunes when he should have returned to his native land and made his report to Menelac, but an acceptable gift might temper the wrath of the emperor, and surely this fair flower of another race should be gratefully received by the black ruler. When Jane Clayton had concluded her appeal, Abdul Mourak replied briefly that he would promise her protection, but that he must take her to his emperor. The girl did not need ask him why, and once again hope died within her breast. Resignedly she permitted herself to be lifted to a seat behind one of the troopers, and again under new masters her journey was resumed toward what she now began to believe was her inevitable fate. Abdul Mourak, bereft of his guides by the battle he had waged against the raiders, and himself unfamiliar with the country, had wandered far from the trail he should have followed, and as a result had made but little progress toward the north since the beginning of his flight. Today he was beating toward the west in the hope of coming upon a village where he might obtain guides, but Knight found him still as far from a realization of his hopes as had the rising sun. It was a dispirited company which went into camp waterless and hungry in the dense jungle. Attracted by the horses, lions roared about the Boma, and to their hideous din was added the shrill nays of the terror-stricken beasts they hunted. There was little sleep for man or beast, and the sentries were doubled that there might be enough on duty both to guard against the sudden charge of an over-bold, or over-hungry lion, and to keep the fire-blazing which was an even more effectual barrier against them than the Thorniboma. It was well past midnight, and as yet Jane Clayton, not withstanding that she had passed a sleepless night the night before, had scarcely more than dozed. A sense of impending danger seemed to hang like a black pawl over the camp. The veteran troopers of the Black Emperor were nervous and ill at ease. Abdul Moraq left his blankets a dozen times to pace restlessly back and forth between the tethered horses and the crackling fire. The girl could see his great frame silhouetted against the lurid glare of the flames, and she guessed from the quick nervous movements of the man that he was afraid. The roaring of the lions rose in sudden fury until the earth trembled to the hideous chorus. The horses shrilled their nays of terror as they lay back upon their halter-ropes in their mad endeavors to break loose. A trooper braver than his fellows leaped among the kicking, plunging, fear-maddened beasts in a futile attempt to quiet them. A lion large and fierce and courageous leaped almost to the Boma, full in the bright light from the fire. A sentry raised his peace and fired, and the little leaden pellet unstuppered the vials of hell upon the terror-stricken camp. The shot plowed a deep and painful furrow in the lion's side, arousing all the bestial fury of the little brain, but abating not a whip, the power and vigor of the great body. Unwounded the Boma and the flames might have turned him back, but now the pain and the rage wiped caution from his mind, and with a loud and angry roar he topped the barrier with an easy leap and was among the horses. What had been pandemonium before became now an indescribable tumult of hideous sound, the stricken horse upon which the lion leaped shrieked out its terror and its agony. Several about it broke their tethers and plunged madly about the camp. Men leaped from their blankets and with guns ready ran toward the picket line, and then from the jungle beyond the Boma, a dozen lions emboldened by the example of their fellow charge fearlessly upon the camp. Singly and in twos and threes they leaped the Boma until the little enclosure was filled with cursing men and screaming horses, battling for their lives with the green-eyed devils of the jungle. With the charge of the first lion, Jane Clayton had scrambled to her feet, and now she stood hoarse struck at the scene of savage slaughter that swirled and eddyed about her. Once a bolting horse knocked her down, and a moment later a lion leaping in pursuit of another terror-stricken animal brushed her so closely that she was again thrown from her feet. Amidst the cracking of the rifles and the growls of the carnivora rose the death-screams of stricken men and horses as they were dragged down by the blood-mad cats. The leaping carnivora and the plunging horses prevented any concerted action by the obsinions. It was every man for himself, and in the melee the defenseless woman was either forgotten or ignored by her black captors. A score of times was her life menaced by charging lions, by plunging horses, or by the wildly fired bullets of the frightened troopers, yet there was no chance of escape. For now, with the fiendish cunning of their kind, the tawny hunters commenced a circle about their prey, hemming them within a ring of mighty yellow fangs and sharp long talons. Again and again an individual lion would dash suddenly among the frightened men and horses, and occasionally a horse goaded to frenzy by pain or terror succeeded in racing safely through the circling lions, leaping the Boma and escaping into the jungle. But for the men and the woman no such escape was possible. A horse struck by a stray bullet fell beside Jane Clayton. A lion leaped across the expiring beast, full upon the breast of a black trooper just beyond. The man clubbed his rifle and struck futilely at the broad head, and then he was down, and the carnivore was standing above him, shrieking out his terror the soldier clawed with puny fingers at the shaggy breast in vain endeavor to push away the grinning jaws. The lion lured his head, the gaping fangs closed with a single sickening crunch upon the fear distorted face, and turning strode back across the body of the dead horse, dragging his limp and bloody burden with him. Wide-eyed, the girl stood watching. She saw the carnivore step upon the corpse, stumblingly as the grisly thing swung between its forepaws, and her eyes remained fixed in fascination while the beast passed within a few paces of her. The interference of the body seemed to enrage the lion. He shook the inanimate clay venomously. He growled and roared hideously at the dead, insensate thing, and then he dropped it and raised his head to look about in search of some living victim upon which to wreak his ill temper. His yellow eyes fastened themselves balefully upon the figure of the girl, the bristling lips raised, disclosing the grinning fangs, a terrific roar broke from the savage throat, and the great beast crouched to spring upon this new and helpless victim. Quiet had fallen early upon the camp where Tarzan and Werper lay securely bound. Two nervous sentries paced their beets, their eyes rolling often toward the impenetrable shadows of the gloomy jungle. The other slept or tried to sleep. All but the eight man. Silently and powerfully he strained at the bonds which fettered his wrists. The muscles knotted beneath the smooth brown skin of his arms and shoulders. The vein stood out upon his temples from the force of his exertions. A strand parted, another and another, and one hand was free. Then from the jungle came a low guttural, and the eight man became suddenly a silent, rigid statue, with ears and nostrils straining to span the black void where his eyesight could not reach. Again came the uncanny sound from the thick verger beyond the camp. A sentry halted abruptly, straining his eyes into the gloom. The kinky wool upon his head stiffened and raised. He called to his comrade in a hoarse whisper. Did you hear it? He asked. The other came closer, trembling. Hear what? Again was the weird sound repeated, followed almost immediately by a similar and answering sound from the camp. The sentries drew close together, watching the black spot from which the voice seemed to come. Trees overhung the Boma at this point, which was upon the opposite side of the camp from them. They dared not approach. Their terror even prevented them from arousing their fellows. They could only stand in frozen fear and watch for the fearsome apparition they momentarily expected to see leap from the jungle. Nor had they longed to wait. A dim, bulky form dropped lightly from the branches of a tree into the camp. At sight of it one of the sentries recovered command of his muscles and his voice, screaming loudly to awaken the sleeping camp. He leaped toward the flickering watchfire and threw a massive brush upon it. The white officer and the black soldiers sprang from their blankets. Flames leaped high upon the rejuvenated fire, lighting the entire camp, and the awakened men shrank back in superstitious terror from the sight that met their frightened and astonished vision. A dozen huge and hairy forms loomed large beneath the trees at the far side of the enclosure. The white giant, one hand freed, had struggled to his knees and was calling to the frightful nocturnal visitors in a hideous medley of bestial gutterals, barkings, and growlings. Werper had managed to sit up. He too saw the savage faces of the approaching anthropoids and scarcely knew whether to be relieved or terror-stricken. Growling the great apes leaped forward toward Tarzan and Werper, Chulke leapt them. The Belgian officer called to his men to fire upon the intruders, but the negroes held back, filled as they were with superstitious terror of the hairy tree-men, and with the conviction that the white giant who could thus summon the beast of the jungle to his aid was more than human. Drawing his own weapon, the officer fired, and Tarzan, fearing the effect of the noise upon his really timid friends, called to them to hasten and fulfill his commands. A couple of the apes turned and fled at the sound of the firearm, but Chulke and a half-dozen others waddled rapidly forward, and following the eight man's directions, seized both him and Werper and bore them off toward the jungle. By dent of threats, reproaches, and profanity the Belgian officer succeeded in persuading his trembling command to fire a volley after the retreating apes, a ragged, straggling volley it was, but at least one of its bullets found a mark, for as the jungle closed about the hairy rescuers, Chulke, who bore Werper across one broad shoulder, staggered and fell. In an instant he was up again, but the Belgian guest from his unsteady gait that he was hard hit, he lagged far behind the others, and it was several minutes after they had halted at Tarzan's command, before he came slowly up to them, reeling from side to side, and at last falling again beneath the weight of his burden and the shock of his wound. As Chulke went down he dropped Werper so that the latter fell face downward with the body of the ape lying half across him. In this position the Belgian felt something resting against his hands, which were still bound at his back, something that was not a part of the hairy body of the ape. Mechanically the man's fingers felt of the object resting almost in their grasp. It was a soft pouch, filled with small hard particles. Werper gasped in wonderment as recognition filtered through the incredulity of his mind. It was impossible, and yet it was true. Feverishly he strove to remove the pouch from the ape and transfer it to his own possession, but the restricted radius to which his bonds held his hands prevented this, though he did succeed in tucking the pouch with its precious contents inside the waistband of his trousers. Tarzan sitting at a short distance was busy with the remaining knots of the cords which bound him. Presently he flung aside the last of them and rose to his feet. Approaching Werper he knelt beside him. For a moment he examined the ape. Quite dead, he announced. It is too bad. He was a splendid creature, and then he returned to the work of liberating the Belgian. He freed his hands first and then commenced upon the knots at his ankles. I can do the rest, said the Belgian. I have a small pocket knife which they overlooked when they searched me, and in this way he succeeded in ridding himself of the ape-man's attentions that he might find and open his little knife and cut the thong which fastened the pouch about Cholk's shoulder and transfer it from his waistband to the breast of his shirt. Then he rose and approached Tarzan. Once again had avarice claimed him. Forgotten were the good intentions which the confidence of Jane Clayton in his honour had awakened. What she had done, the little pouch had undone. How it had come upon the person of the great ape, Werper could not imagine, unless it had been that the anthropoid had witnessed his fight with Ochmet Zeck, seen the A-rab with the pouch, and taken away from him. But that this pouch contained the jewels of opar, Werper was positive, and that was all that interested him greatly. Now, said the ape-man, keep your promise to me. Lead me to the spot where you last saw my wife. It was slow work pushing through the jungle in the dead of night behind the slow-moving Belgian. The ape-man chafed at the delay, but the European could not swing through the trees as could his more agile and muscular companions, and so the speed of all was limited to that of the slowest. The apes trailed out behind the two white men for a matter of a few miles, but presently their interest lagged. The foremost of them halted in a little glade and the other stopped at his side. There they sat peering from beneath their shaggy brows at the figures of the two men forging steadily ahead until the latter disappeared in the leafy trail beyond the clearing. Then an ape sought a comfortable couch beneath a tree, and one by one the others followed his example, so that Werper and Tarzan continued their journey alone, nor was the latter either surprised or concerned. The two had gone but a short distance beyond the glade where the apes had deserted them when the roaring of distant lions fell upon their ears. The ape-man paid no attention to the familiar sounds until the crack of a rifle came faintly from the same direction, and when this was followed by the shrill naing of horses and an almost continuous fuselot of shots intermingled with increased and savage roaring of a large troop of lions he became immediately concerned. Someone is having trouble over there, he said, turning toward Werper. I'll have to go to them. They may be friends. Your wife might be among them, suggested the Belgium, for since he had again come into possession of the pouch he had become fearful and suspicious of the ape-man, and in his mind had constantly revolved many plans for eluding this giant Englishman, who was at once his saviour and his captor. At the suggestion Tarzan started as though struck with a whip. Oh! he cried. She might be, and the lions are attacking them. They are in the camp. I can tell from the screens of the horses. And there! That was a cry of a man in his death-agonies. Stay here, man. I will come back for you. I must go first to them, and swinging into a tree the lithe figure swung rapidly off into the night with the speed and silence of a disembodied spirit. For a moment Werper stood where the ape-man had left him. Then a cunning smile crossed his lips. Stay here, he asked himself. Stay here and wait until you return to find and take these jewels from me. Not I, my friend. Not I! And turning abruptly eastward, Albert Werper passed through the foliage of a hanging vine and out of the sight of his fellow man, forever. End of Chapter 23 Chapter 24 of Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burles Chapter 24 Home As Tarzan of the Apes hurdled through the trees, the discordant sounds of the battle between the obscenians and the lions smote more and more distinctly upon his sensitive ears, redoubling his assurance that the plight of the human element of the conflict was critical indeed. At last the glare of the campfire shone plainly through the intervening trees, and a moment later the giant figure of the ape-man paused upon an overhanging bow to look down upon the bloody scene of carnage below. His quick eye took in the whole scene with a single comprehending glance and stopped upon the figure of a woman standing facing a great lion across the carcass of a horse. The carnivore was crouching to spring as Tarzan discovered the tragic tableau. Numa was almost beneath the branch upon which the ape-man stood, naked and unarmed. There was not even an instant's hesitation upon the part of the latter. It was as though he had not even paused in his swift progress through the trees, so lightening like his survey and comprehension of the scene below him, so instantaneous his consequent action. So hopeless had seemed her situation to her that Jane Clayton but stood in lethargic apathy awaiting the impact of the huge body that would hurl her to the ground, awaiting the momentary agony that cruel talons and grisly fangs may inflict before the coming of the merciful oblivion which would end her sorrow and her suffering, what used to attempt escape, as well face the hideous end as to be dragged down from behind in futile flight. She did not even close her eyes to shut out the frightful aspect of that snarling face, and so it was that as she saw the lion preparing to charge, she saw too a bronzed and mighty figure leap from an overhanging tree at the instant that Numa rose in his spring, wide when her eyes in wonder and incredulity as she beheld this seeming apparition risen from the dead, the lion was forgotten, her own peril, everything saved the wondrous miracle of this strange recrudisance, with parted lips, with palms tight pressed against her heaving bosom, the girl leaned forward, large-eyed, enthralled by the vision of her dead mate. She saw the sinewy form leap to the shoulder of the lion, hurtling against the leaping beast like a huge, animate battering ram. She saw the carnivore brushed aside as he was almost upon her, and in the instance she realized that no substanceless wraith could thus turn the charge of a madden lion with brute force greater than the brutes. Tarzan, her Tarzan lived! A cry of unspeakable gladness broke from her lips, only to die in terror as she saw the utter defenselessness of her mate, and realized that the lion had recovered himself and was turning upon Tarzan in mad lust for vengeance. At the eight man's feet lay the discarded rifle of the dead obscenian whose mutilated corpse sprawled where Numa had abandoned it. The quick glance which had swept the ground for some weapon of defense discovered it, and as the lion reared upon his hind legs to seize the rash man thing who had dared interpose its puny strength between Numa and his prey, the heavy stock whirred through the air and splintered upon the broad forehead. Not as an ordinary mortal might strike a blow, did Tarzan of the Eight Strike, but with the madden frenzy of a wild beast backed by the steel fuse which his wild arboreal boyhood had bequeathed him. When the blow ended, the splintered stock was driven through the splintered skull into the savage brain, and the heavy iron barrel was bent into a rude V. In the instant that the lion sank lifeless to the ground, Jane Clayton threw herself into the eager arms of her husband. For a brief instant he strained her dear form to his breast, and then a glance about him awakened the eight man to the dangers which still surrounded them. Upon every hand the lions were still leaping upon new victims. Fear-madden horses still menaced them with their erratic bolting from one side of the enclosure to the other, bullets from the guns of the defenders who remained alive, but added to the perils of their situation. To remain was to court death. Tarzan seized Jane Clayton and lifted her to a broad shoulder. The blacks who had witnessed his advent looked on in amazement as they saw the naked giant leap easily into the branches of the tree from whence he had dropped so uncannily upon the scene, and vanish as he had come, burying away their prisoner with him. They were too well occupied in self-defense to attempt to halt him, nor could they have done so other than by the wasting of a precious bullet which might be needed the next instant to turn the charge of a savage foe. And so, unmolested, Tarzan passed from the camp of the obscenions, from which the den of conflict followed him deep into the jungle, until distance gradually obliterated it entirely. Back to the spot where he had left Werper went the eight man, joy in his heart now, where fear and sorrow had so recently reigned, and in his mind a determination to forgive the Belgian and aid him in making good his escape. But when he came to the place Werper was gone, and though Tarzan called aloud many times he received no reply. Convinced that the man had purposely eluded him for reasons of his own, John Clayton felt that he was under no obligations to expose his wife to further danger and discomfort in the prosecution of a more thorough search for the missing Belgian. He has acknowledged his guilt by his flight, Jane, he said. We will let him go to lie in the bed that he has made for himself. Straight as homing pigeons the two made their way toward the ruin and desolation that had once been the center of their happy lives, and which was soon to be restored by the willing black hands of laughing labourers, made happy again by the return of the master and mistress whom they had mourned as dead. Past the village of Ochmetzek their way led them, and there they found but the charred remains of the palisade and the native huts still smoking as mute evidence of the wrath and vengeance of a powerful enemy. The Waziri, commented Tarzan with a grim smile. God bless them, cried Jane Clayton. They cannot be far ahead of us, said Tarzan, Basuli and the others. The gold is gone and the jewels of Opar, Jane, but we have each other and the Waziri, and we have love and loyalty and friendship. And what are gold and jewels to these? If only poor Mugambi lived, she replied, and those other brave fellows who sacrifice their lives in vain endeavour to protect me. In the silence of mingled joy and sorrow they passed along through the familiar jungle, and as the afternoon was waning there came faintly to the ears of the eight man the murmuring cadence of distant voices. We are nearing the Waziri, Jane, he said, I can hear them ahead of us. They are going into camp for the night, I imagine. A half hour later the two came upon a horde of ebb and warriors which Basuli had collected for his war of vengeance upon the raiders. With them were the captured women of the tribe whom they had found in the village of Akmet Zek, and tall even among the giant Waziri loomed a familiar black form at the side of Basuli. It was Mugambi whom Jane had thought dead amidst the charred ruins of the bungalow. Ah, such a reunion! Long into the night the dancing and the singing and the laughter awoke the echoes of the somber wood. Again and again were the stories of their various adventures retold. Again and once again they fought their battles with savage beasts and savage man, and dawn was already breaking when Basuli, for the fortieth time, narrated how he and a handful of his warriors had watched the battle for the golden ingots which the obscenians of Abdul Mourak had waged against the Arab raiders of Akmet Zek, and how when the victors had ridden away they had sneaked out of the river reeds and stolen away with the precious ingots to hide them where no robber eye ever could discover them. Peaced out from the fragments of their various experiences with the Belgian, the truth concerning the malign activities of Albert Werper became apparent. Only Lady Grey Stout found ought to praise in the conduct of the man, and it was difficult even for her to reconcile his many heinous acts with this one evidence of chivalry and honour. Deep in the soul of every man, said Tarzan, must lurk the germ of righteousness. It was your own virtue, Jane, rather even than your helplessness which awakened for an instant the latent decency of this degraded man. In that one act he retreated himself, and when he is called to face his maker, may it outweigh in the balance all the sins he has committed, and Jane Clayton breed the fervent, amen. Months had passed, the labour of the Waziri and the gold of Opar had rebuilt and refurnished the wasted homestead of the Grey Stokes. Once more the simple life of the great African farm went on as it had before the coming of the Belgian and the Arab, forgotten were the sorrows and dangers of yesterday. For the first time in months Lord Grey Stoke felt that he might indulge in a holiday, and so a great hunt was organized that the faithful labourers might feast in celebration of the completion of their work. In itself the hunt was a success, and ten days after its inauguration a well-laden safari took up its return march toward the Waziri plain. Lord and Lady Grey Stoke, with Basuli and Mugambi, rode together at the head of the column, laughing and talking together in that easy familiarity which common interests and mutual respect breed between honest and intelligent men of any races. Jane Clayton's horse shied suddenly at an object half hidden in the long grasses of an open space in the jungle, Tarzan's keen eyes sought quickly for an explanation of the animal's action. What have we here, he cried, swinging from his saddle, and a moment later the four were grouped about a human skull and a little litter of whitened human bones. Tarzan stooped and lifted a leathern pouch from the grisly relics of a man. The hard outlines of the contents brought an exclamation of surprise to his lips. The jewels of opar, he cried, holding the pouch aloft, and, pointing to the bones at his feet, all that remains of warper the Belgian. Mugambi laughed. Look within, Buona, he cried, and you will see what are the jewels of opar. You will see what the Belgian gave his life for. And the black laughed aloud. Why do you laugh, asked Tarzan? Because, replied Mugambi, I filled the Belgian's pouch with river gravel before I escaped the camp of the obscenions whose prisoners we were. I left the Belgian only worthless stones while I brought away with me the jewels he had stolen from you. That they were afterward stolen from me while I slept in the jungle is my shame and my disgrace, but at least the Belgian lost them. Open his pouch, and you will see. Tarzan untied the thong which held the mouth of the leathern bag closed and permitted the contents to trickle slowly forth into his open palm. Mugambi's eyes went wide at the sight, and the others uttered exclamations of surprise and incredulity, for from the rusty and weather-worn pouch ran a stream of brilliance scintillating gems. The jewels of opar, cried Tarzan, but how did warper come upon them again? None could answer, for both Chulk and warper were dead, and no other knew. Poor devil, said the eight man, as he swung back into his saddle. Even in death he has made restitution. Let his sins lie with his bones.