 CHAPTER I. THE AFAIR ON THE LINER. Manifica! ejaculated the Countess de Coude, beneath her breath. Eh! questioned the Count, turning toward his young wife. What is it that is magnificent? And the Count bent his eyes in various directions, in quest of the object of her admiration. Oh! nothing at all, my dear! replied the Countess, a slight flash, momentarily colouring her already pink cheek. I was but recalling with admiration those stupendous skyscrapers, as they call them, of New York. And the fair Countess settled herself more comfortably in her steamer chair, and resumed the magazine, which nothing at all had caused her to let fall upon her lap. Her husband again buried himself in his book, but not without a mild wonderment that three days out from New York his Countess should suddenly have realised an admiration for the very building she had but recently characterised as Horrid. Presently the Count put down his book, it is very tiresome Olga, he said, I think that I shall hunt up some others who may be equally bored, and see if we cannot find enough for a game of cards. You are not very gallant, my husband, replied the young woman, smiling. But as I am equally bored I can forgive you. Go and play at your tiresome old cards then, if you will. When he had gone she let her eyes wander slyly to the figure of a tall young man stretched lazily in a chair not far distant. Magnifica! she breathed once more. The Countess Olga de Cude was twenty, her husband forty. She was a very faithful and loyal wife, but as she had had nothing whatever to do with the selection of a husband it is not at all unlikely that she was not wildly and passionately in love with the one that fate and her titled Russian father had selected for her. However simply because she was surprised into a tiny exclamation of approval at sight of a splendid young stranger it must not be inferred therefrom that her thoughts were in any way disloyal to her spouse. She merely admired as she might have admired a particularly fine specimen of any species. Furthermore the young man was unquestionably good to look at. As her furtive glance rested upon his profile he rose to leave the deck. The Countess de Cude beckoned to a passing steward. Who is that gentleman, she asked. He has booked, madam, as Monsieur Tarzan of Africa, replied the steward. Rather a large estate, thought the girl, but now her interest was still further aroused. As Tarzan watched slowly toward the smoking-room he came unexpectedly upon two men whispering excitedly just without. He would about safe them not even a passing thought, but for the strangely guilty glance that one of them shot in his direction. They reminded Tarzan of melodramatic villains he had seen at the theatres in Paris. Both were very dark, and this in connection with the shrugs and stealthy glances that accompanied their palpable, intriguing, then still greater force to the similarity. Tarzan entered the smoking-room and saw a chair a little apart from the others who were there. He felt in no mood for conversation, and as he sipped his absinthe he let his mind run rather sorrowfully over the past few weeks of his life. Time and again he had wondered if he had acted wisely in renouncing his birthright to a man to whom he owed nothing. It is true that he liked Clayton. Ah, but that was not the question. It was not for William Cecil Clayton, Lord Greystoke, that he had denied his birth. It was for the woman whom both he and Clayton had loved, and whom a strange freak of fate had given to Clayton instead of to him. That she loved him made the thing doubly difficult to bear. Yet he knew that he could have done nothing less than he did do that night within the little railway station in the far Wisconsin woods. To him her happiness was the first consideration of all, and his brief experience with civilization and civilized men had taught him that without money and position life to most of them was unendurable. Jane Porter had been born to both, and had Tarzan taken them away from her future husband it would doubtless have plunged her into a life of misery and torture, that she would have spurned Clayton once he had been stripped of both his title and his estates never for once occurred to Tarzan, for he credited to others the same honest loyalty that was so inherent a quality in himself, nor in this instance had he erred. Could any one thing have further bound Jane Porter to her promise to Clayton it would have been in the nature of some such misfortune as this overtaking him. Tarzan's thoughts drifted from the past to the future. He tried to look forward with pleasurable sensations to his return to the jungle of his birth and boyhood. The cruel fierce jungle in which he had spent twenty of his twenty-two years. But who or what of all the myriad jungle life would there be to welcome his return? Not one. Only Tantor the elephant could he call friend. The others would hunt him or flee from him as had been their way in the past. Not even the apes of his own tribe would extend the hand of fellowship to him. If civilization had done nothing else for Tarzan of the apes, it had to some extent taught him to crave the society of his own kind and to feel with genuine pleasure the congenial warmth of companionship and in the same ratio had it made any other life distasteful to him. It was difficult to imagine a world without a friend, without a living thing who spoke the new tongues which Tarzan had learned to love so well. And so it was that Tarzan looked with little relish upon the future he had mapped out for himself. As he sat musing over his cigarette his eyes fell upon a mirror before him, and in it he saw reflected a table at which four men sat at cards. Presently one of them rose to leave, and then another approached, and Tarzan could see that he curiously offered to fill the vacant chair that the game might not be interrupted. He was the smaller of the two whom Tarzan had seen whispering just outside the smoking room. It was this fact that aroused a faint spark of interest in Tarzan, and so as he speculated upon the future he watched in the mirror the reflection of the players at the table behind him. Aside from the man who had but just entered the game, Tarzan knew the name of but one of the other players. It was he who sat opposite the new player, Count Raoul de Couday, whom an overattentive steward had pointed out as one of the celebrities of the passage, describing him as a man high in the official family of the French Minister of War. Suddenly Tarzan's attention was riveted upon the picture in the glass. The other soire des plotters had entered, and was standing behind the Count's chair. Tarzan saw him turn and glance furtively about the room, but his eyes did not rest for a sufficient time upon the mirror to note the reflection of Tarzan's watchful eyes. Stealthily the man withdrew something from his pocket. Tarzan could not discern what the object was, for the man's hand covered it. Slowly the hand approached the Count, and then very deftly the thing that was in it was transferred to the Count's pocket. The man remained standing where he could watch the Frenchman's cards. Tarzan was puzzled, but he was all attention now, nor did he permit another detail of the incident to escape him. The play went on for some ten minutes after this, until the Count won a considerable wager from him who had last joined the game, and then Tarzan saw the fellow back of the Count's chair nod his head to his confederate. Instantly the player rose and pointed a finger at the Count. Had I known that Monsieur was a professional card-sharp, I had not been so ready to be drawn into the game, he said. Instantly the Count and the two other players were up on their feet. Day could day's face went white. What do you mean, sir? he cried. Do you know to whom you speak? I know that I speak for the last time to one who cheats at cards, replied the fellow. The Count leaned across the table and struck the man full in the mouth with his open palm, and then the others closed in between them. There is some mistake, sir, cried one of the other players, why this is Count de Couday of France. If I am mistaken, said the accuser, I shall gladly apologize, but before I do so, first let Monsieur lay Count explain the extra cards which I saw him drop into his side pocket, and then the man whom Tarzan had seen drop them there turned to sneak from the room, but to his annoyance he found the exit barred by a tall grey-eyed stranger. Pardon, said the man brusquely, attempting to pass to one side. Wait, said Tarzan, but why, Monsieur, exclaimed the other petulantly, permit me to pass Monsieur. Wait, said Tarzan, I think that there is a matter in here that you may doubtless be able to explain. The fellow had lost his temper by this time, and with a low oath seized Tarzan to push him to one side. The eight man but smiled as he twisted the big fellow about, and grasping him by the collar of his coat, escorted him back to the table, struggling, cursing, and striking and futile remonstrance. It was Nicholas Rockoff's first experience with the muscles that had brought their savage owner, Victorious, through encounters with Numa the Lion and Turcaus the Great Bull Ape. The man who had accused Degue Coudet, and the two others who had been playing, stood looking expectantly at the count. Several other passengers had drawn toward the scene of the altercation, and all awaited the denouement. The fellow is crazy, said the count. Gentlemen, I implore that one of you search me. The accusation is ridiculous, this from one of the players. You have but to slip your hand in the count's coat pocket, and you will see that the accusation is quite serious," insisted the accuser, and then, as the others still hesitated to do so, come, I shall do it myself if no other will, and he stepped forward toward the count. No, monsieur, said Degue Coudet. I will submit to a search only at the hands of a gentleman. It is unnecessary to search the count. The cards are in his pocket. I myself saw them placed there, all turned in surprise toward this new speaker, to behold a very well built young man urging a resisting captive toward them by the scruff of his neck. It is a conspiracy," cried Degue Coudet angrily. There are no cards in my coat, and with that he ran his hand into his pocket. As he did so, tense silence reigned in the little group. The count went dead white, and then very slowly he withdrew his hand, and in it were three cards. He looked at them in mute and horrified surprise, and slowly the red of mortification suffused his face. Expressions of pity and contempt tinned the features of those who looked on at the death of a man's honour. It is a conspiracy, monsieur. It was the grey-eyed stranger who spoke. Gentlemen, he continued, monsieur, Le Count, did not know that those cards were in his pocket. They were placed there without his knowledge, as he sat at play. From where I sat in that chair yonder I saw the reflection of it all in the mirror before me. This person, whom I just intercepted, in an effort to escape, placed the cards in the count's pocket. Degue Coudet had glanced from Tarzan to the man in his grasp. Maudu, Nicholas, he cried, you! Then he turned to his accuser and eyed him intently for a moment. And you, monsieur, I did not recognise you without your beard. It quite disguises you, Palvich. I see it all now. It is quite clear, gentlemen. What shall we do with them, monsieur? asked Tarzan. Turn them over to the captain. No, my friend, said the Count hastily. It is a personal matter, and I beg that you will let it drop. It is sufficient that I have been exonerated from the charge. The less we have to do with such fellows the better. But, monsieur, how can I thank you for the great kindness you have done me? Permit me to offer you my card, and should the time come when I may serve you, remember that I am yours to command. Tarzan had released Rokov, who with his confederate, Palvich, had hastened from the smoking-room. Just as he was leaving, Rokov turned to Tarzan. Monsieur will have ample opportunity to regret his interference in the affairs of others. Tarzan smiled, and then, bowing to the Count, handed him his own card. The Count read, M. Jean C. Tarzan. Monsieur Tarzan, he said, may indeed wish that he had never befriended me, for I can assure him that he has won the enmity of two of the most unmitigated scoundrels in all Europe. Avoid them, monsieur, by all means. I have had more awe-inspiring enemies, my dear Count, replied Tarzan, with a quiet smile. Yet I am still alive and unworried. I think that neither of these two will ever find the means to harm me. Let us hope not, monsieur, said D. Codet, but yet it will do no harm to be on the alert, and to know that you have made at least one enemy today who never forgets and never forgives, and in whose malignant brain there are always hatching new atrocities to perpetrate upon those who have thwarted or offended him, to say that Nicholas Rokov is a devil would be to place a want in the front upon his satanic majesty. That night, as Tarzan entered his cabin, he found a folded note upon the floor that had evidently been pushed beneath the door. He opened it and read, M. Tarzan, doubtless you did not realize the gravity of your offense or you would not have done the thing you did today. I am willing to believe that you acted in ignorance and without any intention to offend a stranger. For this reason I shall gladly permit you to offer an apology, and on receiving your assurances that you will not again interfere in affairs that do not concern you, I shall drop the matter. Otherwise? But I am sure that you will see the wisdom of adopting the course I suggest. Very respectfully, Nicholas Rokov. Tarzan permitted a grim smile to play upon his lips for a moment, then he promptly dropped the matter from his mind and went to bed. In a nearby cabin the Countess D. Codet was speaking to her husband. Why so grave, my dear Rao, she asked. You have been as glum as could be all evening. What worries you? Olga Nicholas is on board. Did you know it? Nicholas, she exclaimed, but it is impossible, Rao. It cannot be. Nicholas is under arrest in Germany. So I thought myself until I saw him today, him and that other arts scoundrel, Paulvitch. Olga, I cannot endure his persecution much longer. No, not even for you. Sooner or later I shall turn him over to the authorities. In fact, I am half-minded to explain all to the captain before we land. On a French liner it were an easy matter, Olga, permanently to settle this nemesis of ours. Oh, no, Rao! tried the Countess, sinking to her knees before him, as he sat with bowed head upon a divan. Do not do that. Remember your promise to me. Tell me, Rao, that you will not do that. Do not even threaten him, Rao. Day could day took his wife's hand in his, and gazed upon her pale and troubled countenance for some time before he spoke, as though he would rest from those beautiful eyes the real reason which prompted her to shield this man. Let it be, as you wish, Olga, he said at length. I cannot understand. He has forfeited all claim upon your love, loyalty, or respect. He is a menace to your life and honor, and the life and honor of your husband. I trust you may never regret championing him. I do not champion him, Rao. She interrupted vehemently. I believe that I hate him as much as you do, but, oh Rao, blood is thicker than water. I should today have liked to sample the consistency of his, Rao Day could day grimly. The two deliberately attempted to besmirch my honor, Olga, and then he told her of all that had happened in the smoking-room. Had it not been for this utter stranger they had succeeded, for who would have accepted my unsupported word against the damning evidence of those cards hidden on my person. I had almost begun to doubt myself when this Mr. Tarzan dragged your precious Nicholas before us and explained the whole cowardly transaction. Mr. Tarzan asked the Countess in evident surprise. Yes, do you know him, Olga? I have seen him. A steward pointed him out to me. I did not know that he was a celebrity, said the Count. Olga Day could day changed the subject. She discovered suddenly that she might find it difficult to explain just why the steward had pointed out the handsome mature Tarzan to her. Perhaps she flushed the least little bit, for was not the Count her husband gazing at her with a strangely quizzical expression? Ah, she thought, a guilty conscience is a most suspicious thing. CHAPTER II CHAPTER II FORGING BONDS OF HATE AND It was not until late the following afternoon that Tarzan saw anything more of the fellow-passengers into the midst of whose affairs his love of fair play had thrust him, and then he came most unexpectedly upon Rockoff and Palvich, at a moment when of all others the two might least appreciate his company. They were standing on deck at a point which was temporarily deserted, and as Tarzan came upon them they were in heated argument with a woman. Tarzan noted that she was richly apparelled, and that her slender, well-modeled figure denoted youth, but as she was heavily veiled he could not discern her features. The men were standing on either side of her, and the backs of all were toward Tarzan so that he was quite close to them without their being aware of his presence. He noticed that Rockoff seemed to be threatening, the woman pleading, but they spoke in a strange tongue, and he could only guess from appearances that the girl was afraid. Rockoff's attitude was so distinctly filled with the threat of physical violence that the eight men paused for an instant just behind the trio, instinctively sensing an atmosphere of danger. Scarcely had he hesitated, air of the man seized the woman roughly by the wrist, twisting it as though to ring a promise from her through torture. What would have happened next had Rockoff had his way, we may only conjecture, since he did not have his way at all. Instead steel fingers gripped his shoulder, and he was swung unceremoniously around to meet the cold gray eyes of the stranger who had thwarted him on the previous day. "'Supristi!' screamed the infuriated Rockoff. "'What do you mean? Are you a fool that you thus again insult Nicholas Rockoff? This is my answer to your note, monsieur,' said Tarzan in a low voice, and then he hurled the fellow from him with such force that Rockoff lunged sprawling against the rail. "'Name of a name!' shrieked Rockoff. "'Pig! But you shall die for this!' And springing to his feet he rushed upon Tarzan, tugging the meanwhile to draw a revolver from his hip pocket. The girl shrank back in terror. "'Nicholas!' she cried. "'Do not! Oh, do not do that! Quick, monsieur, fly, or he will surely kill you!' But instead of flying Tarzan advanced to meet the fellow. "'Do not make a fool of yourself, monsieur,' he said. Rockoff, who was in a perfect frenzy of rage at the humiliation the stranger had put upon him, had at last succeeded in drawing the revolver. He had stopped, and now he deliberately raised it to Tarzan's breast and pulled the trigger. The hammer fell with a futile click on an empty chamber. The eight-man's hand shot out like the head of an angry python. There was a quick wrench, and the revolver sailed far out across the ship's rail, and dropped into the Atlantic. For a moment the two men stood there facing one another. Rockoff had regained his self-possession. He was the first to speak. Twice now has monsieur seen fit to interfere in matters which do not concern him. Twice he has taken it upon himself to humiliate Nicholas Rockoff. The first offense was overlooked on the assumption that monsieur acted through ignorance, but this affair shall not be overlooked. If monsieur does not know who Nicholas Rockoff is, this last piece of effrontery will ensure that monsieur later has good reason to remember him, that you're a coward and a scoundrel, monsieur, replied Tarzan, is all that I care to know of you. And he turned to ask the girl if the man had hurt her, but she had disappeared. Then, without even a glance toward Rockoff and his companion, he continued his stroll along the deck. Tarzan could not but wonder what manner of conspiracy was on foot, or what the scheme of the two men might be. There had been something rather familiar about the appearance of the veiled woman to whose rescue he had just come, but as he had not seen her face, he could not be sure that he had ever seen her before. The only thing about her that he had particularly noticed was a ring of peculiar workmanship upon a finger of the hand that Rockoff had seized, and he determined to note the fingers of the women passengers he came upon thereafter that he might discover the identity of her whom Rockoff was persecuting and learn if the fellow had offered her further annoyance. Tarzan had sought his deck chair, where he sat speculating on the numerous instances of human cruelty, selfishness, and spite that had fallen to his lot to witness since that day in the jungle four years since that his eyes had first fallen upon a human being other than himself. The sleek black Coulonga, whose swift spear had that day found the vitals of Kayla, the great she-ape, and robbed the youth Tarzan of the only mother he had ever known. He recalled the murder of King by the rat-faced Snipes, the abandonment of Professor Porter and his party by the mutineers of the arrow, the cruelty of the black warriors and women of Mabonga to their captives, the petty jealousies of the civil and military officers of the West Coast Colony that had afforded him his first introduction to the civilized world. Maudu, he soliloquized, but they are all alike, cheating, murdering, lying, fighting, and all for things that the beasts of the jungle would not deign to possess, money to purchase the effeminate pleasures of weaklings, and yet with all bound down by silly customs that make them slaves to their unhappy lot, while firm in the belief that they may be the lords of creation, enjoying the only real pleasures of existence. In the jungle one would scarcely stand supinelly aside while another took his mate. It is a silly world, an idiotic world, and Tarzan of the Apes was a fool to renounce the freedom and the happiness of his jungle to come into it. Presently, as he sat there, the sudden feeling came over him that eyes were watching from behind, and the old instinct of the wild beast broke through the thin veneer of civilization, so that Tarzan wheeled about so quickly that the eyes of the young woman who had been surreptitiously regarding him had not even time to drop before the gray eyes of the ape-man shot an inquiring look straight into them. Then, as they fell, Tarzan saw a faint wave of crimson creep swiftly over the now half averted face. He smiled to himself at the result of his very uncivilized and un-gallant action, for he had not lured his eyes when they met those of the young woman. She was very young and equally good to look upon. Further there was something rather familiar about her that set Tarzan to wondering where he had seen her before. He resumed his former position, and presently he was aware that she had arisen and was leaving the deck. As she passed Tarzan turned to watch her, in the hope that he might discover a clue to satisfy his mild curiosity as to her identity. Nor was he disappointed entirely, for as she walked away she raised one hand to the black, waving mass at the nape of her neck, the peculiarly feminine gesture that admits cognizance of appraising eyes behind her, and Tarzan saw upon a finger of this hand the ring of strange workmanship that he had seen upon the finger of the veiled woman a short time before. So it was this beautiful young woman Rockoff had been persecuting. Tarzan wondered in a lazy sort of way whom she might be and what relations one so lovely could have with this surly bearded Russian. After dinner that evening Tarzan strolled forward, where he remained until after dark in conversation with the second officer, and when that gentleman's duties called him elsewhere, Tarzan lulled lazily by the rail watching the play of the moonlight upon the gently rolling waters. He was half hidden by a davit so that two men who approached along the deck did not see him, and as they passed Tarzan caught enough of their conversation to cause him to fall in behind them, to follow and learn what devil-tree they were up to. He had recognized the voice as that of Rockoff, and had seen that his companion was Polvich. Tarzan had overheard but a few words, and if she screams, you may choke her until, but those had been enough to arouse the spirit of adventure within him, and so he kept the two men in sight as they walked briskly now along the deck. To the smoking room he followed them, but they merely halted at the doorway long enough, apparently, to assure themselves that one whose whereabouts they wished to establish was within. Then they proceeded directly to the first-class cabins upon the promenade deck. Here Tarzan found greater difficulty in escaping detection, but he managed to do so successfully. As they halted before one of the polished hardwood doors, Tarzan slipped into the shadow of a passageway not a dozen feet from them. To their knock a woman's voice asked in French, Who is it? It is I, Olga. Nicholas, was the answer in Rockoff's now familiar guttural. May I come in? Why do you not cease persecuting me, Nicholas? came the voice of the woman from beyond the thin panel. I have never harmed you. Come, come, Olga, urged the man in propitory tones. I but ask a half-dozen words with you. I shall not harm you, nor shall I enter your cabin. But I cannot shout my message through the door. Tarzan heard the catch click as it was released from the inside. He stepped out from his hiding-place far enough to see what transpired when the door was opened, for he could not but recall the sinister words he had heard a few moments before upon the deck, and if she screams you may choke her. Rockoff was standing directly in front of the door. Pulvitch had flattened himself against the panel wall of the corridor beyond. The door opened. Rockoff half entered the room and stood with his back against the door, speaking in a low whisper to the woman, whom Tarzan could not see. Then Tarzan heard the woman's voice, level, but loud enough to distinguish her words. No, Nicholas, she was saying. It is useless. Threaten as you will. I shall never exceed your demands. Leave the room, please. You have no right here. You promise not to enter. Very well, Olga, I shall not enter. But before I am done with you, you shall wish a thousand times that you had done it once the favour I have asked. In the end I shall win anyway, so you might as well save trouble and time for me and disgrace for yourself, and your—'Never, Nicholas!' interrupted the woman. And then Tarzan saw Rockoff turn and nod to Pulvitch, who sprang quickly toward the doorway of the cabin, rushing in past Rockoff, who held the door open for him. Then the latter stepped quickly out. The door closed. Tarzan heard the click of the lock as Pulvitch turned it from the inside. Rockoff remained standing before the door, with head bent, as though to catch the words of the two within. A nasty smile curled his bearded lip. Tarzan could hear the woman's voice commanding the fellow to leave her cabin. "'I shall send for my husband,' she cried. "'He will show you no mercy,' Pulvitch's sneering laugh came through the polished panels. "'The purser will fetch your husband, madame,' said the man. "'In fact, that officer has already been notified that you are entertaining a man other than your husband behind the locked door of your cabin. "'Bah!' cried the woman. "'My husband will know. Most assuredly your husband will know, but the purser will not, nor will the newspaper men who shall in some mysterious way hear of it on our landing. But they will think it a fine story, and so will all your friends when they read of it at breakfast on—let me see, this is Tuesday—yes, when they read of it at breakfast next Friday morning. Nor will it detract from the interest they will all feel when they learn that the man whom madame entertained is a Russian servant. Her brother's valet, to be quite exact. "'Alexis Pulvitch,' came the woman's voice, cold and fearless. "'You are a coward, and when I whisper a certain name in your ear you will think better of your demands upon me and your threats against me, and then you will leave my cabin quickly. Nor do I think that ever again would you at least annoy me.' And there came a moment's silence in which Tarzan could imagine the woman leaning toward the scoundrel and whispering the thing she had hinted at into his ear. Only a moment of silence, and then a startled oath from the man, the scuffling of feet, a woman's scream, and silence. But scarcely had the cry ceased before the eight-man had leaped from his hiding place. Rockoff started to run, but Tarzan grasped him by the collar and dragged him back. Neither spoke, for both felt instinctively that murder was being done in that room, and Tarzan was confident that Rockoff had had no intention that his confederate should go that far. He felt that the man's aims were deeper than that, deeper and even more sinister than brutal, cold-blooded murder. Without hesitating to question those within, the eight-man threw his giant shoulder against the frail panel, and in a shower of splintered wood he entered the cabin, dragging Rockoff after him. Before him on a couch, the woman lay, and on top of her was Palvich, his fingers gripping the fair throat, while his victim's hands beat futilely at his face, tearing desperately at the cruel fingers that were forcing the life from her. The noise of his entrance brought Palvich to his feet, where he stood glowering menacingly at Tarzan. The girl rose falteringly to a sitting posture upon the couch. One hand was at her throat, and her breath came in little gasps. Although disheveled and very pale, Tarzan recognized her as the young woman whom he had caught staring at him on deck earlier in the day. What is the meaning of this? said Tarzan, turning to Rockoff, whom he intuitively singled out as the instigator of the outrage. The man remained silent, scowling. Touch the button, please, continued the eight-man. We will have one of the ship's officers here. This affair has gone quite far enough. No, no! cried the girl, coming suddenly to her feet. Please do not do that. I am sure that there was no real intention to harm me. I angered this person, and he lost control of himself. That is all. I could not care to have the matter go further. Please, missure. And there was such a note of pleading in her voice that Tarzan could not press the matter, though his better judgment warned him that there was something afoot here, of which the proper authority should be made cognizant. You wish me to do nothing, then, in the matter, he asked. Nothing, please, she replied. You are content that these two scoundrels should continue persecuting you? She did not seem to know what answer to make, and looked very troubled and unhappy. Tarzan saw a malicious grin of triumph curl Rockoff's lip. The girl evidently was in fear of these two. She dared not express her real desires before them. Then, said Tarzan, I shall act on my own responsibility. To you, he continued, turning to Rockoff, and this includes your accomplice. I may say that from now on to the end of the voyage I shall take it upon myself to keep an eye on you, and should there chance to come to my notice any act of either one of you that might even remotely annoy this young woman, you shall be called to account for it directly to me, nor shall the calling or the accounting be pleasant experiences for either of you. Now get out of here, and he grabbed Rockoff and Pulvitch each by the scruff of the neck, and thrust them forcibly through the doorway, giving each an added impetus down the corridor with the toe of his boot. Then he turned back to the stateroom and the girl. She was looking at him in wide-eyed astonishment. And you, madame, will confer a great favor upon me, if you will, but let me know if either of those rascals troubles you further. Oh, monsieur, she answered, I hope that you will not suffer for the kind deed you attempted. You have made a very wicked and resourceful enemy, who will stop at nothing to satisfy his hatred. You must be very careful indeed, monsieur. Pardon me, madame, my name is Tarsen. Monsieur Tarsen, and because I would not consent to notify the officers, do not think that I am not sincerely grateful to you for the brave and chivalrous protection you rendered me. Good night, monsieur Tarsen. I shall never forget the debt I owe you, and with a most winsome smile that displayed a row of perfect teeth the girl curtsied to Tarsen, who bade her good night and made his way on deck. It puzzled the man considerably that there should be two on board, this girl and Count Descudés, who severed indignities at the hands of Rockoff and his companion, and yet would not permit the offenders to be brought to justice. Before he turned in that night his thoughts reverted many times to the beautiful young woman into the evidently tangled web of whose life fate had so strangely introduced him. It occurred to him that he had not learned her name, that she was married had been evidenced by the narrow, gold band that encircled the third finger of her left hand. Involuntarily he wondered who the lucky man might be. Tarsen saw nothing further of any of the actors in the little drama that he had caught a fleeting glimpse of until late in the afternoon of the last day of the voyage. Then he came suddenly face to face with the young woman, as the two approached their deck-chairs from opposite directions. She greeted him with a pleasant smile, speaking almost immediately of the affair he had witnessed in her cabin two nights before. It was as though she had been perturbed by a conviction that he might have construed her acquaintance with such men as Rockoff and Pulvitch as a personal reflection upon herself. I trust, monsieur, has not judged me, she said, by the unfortunate occurrence of Tuesday evening. I have suffered much on account of it. This is the first time that I have ventured from my cabin since. I have been ashamed, she concluded, simply. One does not judge the gazelle by the lions that attack it, replied Tarsen. I had seen those two work before, in the smoking-room the day prior to their attack on you, if I recollect it correctly. And so, knowing their methods, I am convinced that their enmity is a sufficient guarantee of the integrity of its object. Men such as these must cleave only to the vile, hating all that is noblest and best. It is very kind of you to put it that way," she replied, smiling. I have already heard of the matter of the card game. My husband told me the entire story. He spoke especially of the strength and bravery of monsieur Tarsen, to whom he feels that he owes an immense debt of gratitude. Your husband, repeated Tarsen questioningly, Yes, I am the Countess Descoudés. I am already amply repaid, madame, in knowing that I have rendered a service to the wife of the Count Descoudés. Alas, monsieur, I already am so greatly indebted to you that I may never hope to settle my own account. So pray do not add further to my obligations. And she smiled so sweetly upon him that Tarsen felt that a man might easily attempt much greater things than he had accomplished solely for the pleasure of receiving the benediction of that smile. He did not see her again that day, and in the rush of landing on the following morning he missed her entirely, but there had been something in the expression of her eyes as they parted on deck the previous day that haunted him. It had been almost wistful as they had spoken of the strangeness of the swift friendships of an ocean crossing, and of the equal ease with which they are broken forever. Tarsen wondered if he should ever see her again. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of The Return of Tarsen This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Return of Tarsen by Edgar Rice-Burles Chapter 3 What Happened in the Room All On his arrival in Paris, Tarsen had gone directly to the apartments of his old friend Darno, where the naval lieutenant had scored him roundly for his decision to renounce the title and estates that were rightly his from his father, John Clayton, the late Lord Greystoke. You must be mad, my friend, said Darno, thus lightly to give up not alone wealth and position, but an opportunity to prove beyond doubt to all the world that in your veins flows the noble blood of two of England's most honoured houses, instead of the blood of a savage she-ape, it is incredible that they could have believed you, Miss Porter, least of all, why I never did believe it, even back in the wilds of your African jungle when you tore the raw meat of your kills with mighty jaws, like some wild beast, and wiped your greasy hands upon your thighs. Even then, before there was the slightest proof to the contrary, I knew that you were mistaken in the belief that Kayla was your mother. And now, with your father's diary of the terrible life led by him and your mother, on that wild African shore, with the account of your birth and final and most convincing proof of all, your own baby fingerprints upon the pages of it, it seems incredible to me that you are willing to remain a nameless, penniless vagabond. I do not need any better name than Tarzan, replied the ape-ma'am, and as for remaining a penniless vagabond, I have no intention of so doing. In fact, the next, and let us hope the last burden that I shall be forced to put upon your unselfish friendship, will be the finding of employment for me. Poufou, scoffed darno, you know that I did not mean that. Have I not told you a dozen times that I have enough for twenty men, and that half of what I have is yours? And if I gave it all to you, would it represent even the tenth part of the value I place upon your friendship, my Tarzan? Would it repay the services you did me in Africa? I do not forget, my friend, that but for you and your wondrous bravery I had died at the stake in the village of Mabonga's cannibals. Nor do I forget that to your self-sacrificing devotion I owe the fact that I recovered from the terrible wounds I received at their hands. I discovered later something of what it meant to you to remain with me in the amphitheater of apes, while your heart was urging you on to the coast. When we finally came there and found that Miss Porter and her party had left, I commenced to realize something of what you had done for an utter stranger. Nor am I trying to repay you with money, Tarzan. It is that just at present you need money, where it's sacrifice that I might offer you it were the same. My friendship must always be yours because our tastes are similar, and I admire you. That I cannot command, but the money I can and shall. Well, laptop Tarzan, we shall not quarrel over the money. I must live, and so I must have it. But I shall be more contented with something to do. You cannot show me your friendship in a more convincing manner than to find employment for me. I shall die of inactivity in a short while. As for my birthright, it is in good hands. Clayton is not guilty of robbing me of it. He truly believes that he is the real Lord Grey Stoke, and the chances are that he will make a better English Lord than a man who was born and raised in an African jungle. You know that I am but half-civilized even now. Let me see red in anger, but for a moment, at all the instincts of the savage beast that I really am, submerge what little I possess of the milder ways of culture and refinement. And then again, had I declared myself, I should have robbed the woman I love of the wealth and position that her marriage to Clayton will now insure to her. I could not have done that. Could I, Paul? Nor is the matter of birth of great importance to me, he went on, without waiting for a reply. Raised as I have been, I see no worth in man or beast that is not there by virtue of their own mental or physical prowess. And so I am as happy to think of Kayla as my mother as I would be to try to picture the poor, unhappy little English girl who passed away a year after she bore me. Kayla was always kind to me in her fierce and savage way. I must have nursed at her hairy breast from the time that my own mother died. She fought for me against the wild denizens of the forest, and against the savage members of our tribe with the ferocity of real mother-love. And I, on my part, loved her, Paul. I did not realize how much until after the cruel spear and the poisoned arrow of Mabonga's black warrior had stolen her away from me. I was still a child when that occurred, and I threw myself upon her dead body and wept out my anguish as a child might for his own mother. To you, my friend, she would have appeared a hideous and ugly creature, but to me she was beautiful, so gloriously does love transfigure its object. And so I am perfectly content to remain forever the son of Kayla, the she-ape. I do not admire you the less for your loyalty, said Darnell, but the time will come when you will be glad to claim your own. Remember what I say, and let us hope that it will be as easy then as it is now. You must bear in mind that Professor Porter and Mr. Philander are the only people in the world who can swear that the little skeleton found in the cabin with those of your father and mother was that of an infant-anthropoid ape and not the offspring of Lord and Lady Greystoke. That evidence is most important. They are both old men. They may not live many years longer. And then did it not occur to you that once Miss Porter knew the truth she would break her engagement with Clayton? You might easily have your title, your estates, and the woman you love, Tarzan. Had you not thought of that? Tarzan shook his head. You do not know her, he said. Nothing could bind her closer to her bargain than some misfortune to Clayton. She is from an old southern family in America, and Southerners pride themselves upon their loyalty. Tarzan spent the two following weeks renewing his former brief acquaintance with Paris. In the daytime he haunted the libraries and picture galleries. He had become an onnevarous reader, and the world of possibilities that were open to him in this seat of culture and learning fairly appalled him when he contemplated the very infinitismal crumb of the sum total of human knowledge that a single individual might hope to acquire even after a lifetime of study and research. But he learned what he could by day and threw himself into a search for relaxation and amusement at night. Nor did he find Paris a witless fertile field for his nocturnal avocation. If he smoked too many cigarettes and drank too much absinthe it was because he took civilization as he found it, and he did the things that he found his civilized brothers doing. The life was a new and alluring one, and in addition he had a sorrow in his breast and a great longing which he knew could never be fulfilled, and so he sought in study and in dissipation the two extremes to forget the past and inhibit contemplation of the future. He was sitting in a music-hall one evening, sipping his absinthe and admiring the art of a certain famous Russian dancer when he caught a passing glimpse of a pair of evil black eyes upon him. The man turned and was lost in the crowd at the exit before Tarzan could catch a good look at him, but he was confident that he had seen those eyes before and that they had been fastened on him this evening through no passing accident. He had had the uncanny feeling for some time that he was being watched, and it was in response to this animal instinct that was strong within him that he had turned suddenly and surprised the eyes in the very act of watching him. Before he left the music-hall the matter had been forgotten, nor did he notice the swarthy individual who stepped deeper into the shadows of an opposite doorway as Tarzan emerged from the brilliantly lighted amusement hall. Had Tarzan but known it he had been followed many times from this and other places of amusement, but seldom if ever had he been alone. Tonight Dornot had had another engagement, and Tarzan had come by himself. As he turned in the direction he was accustomed to taking from this part of Paris to his apartments the watcher across the street ran from his hiding place and hurried on ahead at a rapid pace. Tarzan had been wont to traverse the room all on his way home at night. Because it was very quiet and very dark it reminded him more of his beloved African jungle than did the noisy and garish streets surrounding it. If you are familiar with your Paris you will recall the narrow, forbidding precincts of the room all. If you are not you need but ask the police about it to learn that in all Paris there is no street to which you should give a wider berth after dark. On this night Tarzan had proceeded some two squares through the dense shadows of the squalid old tenements which line this dismal way when he was attracted by screams and cries for help from the third floor of an opposite building. The voice was a woman's. Before the echoes of her first cries had died Tarzan was bounding up the stairs and through the dark corridors to her rescue. At the end of the corridor on the third landing a door stood slightly ajar, and from within Tarzan heard again the same appeal that had lured him from the street. Another instant found him in the center of a dimly lighted room. An oil lamp burned upon a high old-fashioned mantle casting its dim rays over a dozen repulsive figures. All but one were men. The other was a woman of about thirty. Her face marked by low passions and dissipation might once have been lovely. She stood with one hand at her throat crouching against the farther wall. Help me, sure! she cried in a low voice as Tarzan entered the room. They were killing me! As Tarzan turned to the man about him he saw the crafty evil faces of habitual criminals. He wondered that they had made no effort to escape. A movement behind him caused him to turn. Two things his eyes saw, and one of them caused him considerable wonderment. A man was sneaking stealthily from the room, and in the brief glance that Tarzan had of him he saw that it was Rockoff. But the other thing that he saw was of more immediate interest. It was a great brute of a fellow, tip-toeing upon him from behind with a huge bludgeon in his hand, and then as the man and his confederate saw that he was discovered there was a concerted rush upon Tarzan from all sides. Some of the men drew knives, others picked up chairs, while the fellow with the bludgeon raised it high above his head in a mighty swing that would have crushed Tarzan's head had it ever descended upon it. But the brain and the agility and the muscles that had coped with the mighty strength and cruel craftiness of Turcaz and Numa in the fastness of their savvy jungle were not to be so easily subdued as these apaches of Paris had believed. Selecting his most formidable antagonist, the fellow with the bludgeon, Tarzan charged full upon him, dodging the falling weapon, and catching the man a terrific blow on the point of the chin that felled him in his tracks. Then he turned upon the others. This was sport. He was reveling in the joy of battle and the lust of blood. As though it had been but a brittle shell to break at the least rough usage, the thin veneer of his civilization fell from him, and the ten burly villains found themselves penned in a small room with a wild and savage beast against whose steel muscles their puny strength was less than futile. At the end of the corridor, without, stood Rockoff, waiting the outcome of the affair. He wished to be sure that Tarzan was dead before he left, but it was not a part of his plan to be one of those within the room when the murder occurred. The woman still stood where she had when Tarzan entered, but her face had undergone a number of changes with the few minutes which had elapsed. From the semblance of distress which it had worn when Tarzan first saw it, it had changed to one of craftiness as he had wheeled to meet the attack from behind, but the change Tarzan had not seen. Later an expression of surprise and then one of horror superseded the others, and who may wonder, for the immaculate gentleman her cries had lured to what was to aben his death had been suddenly metamorphosed into a demon of revenge. Instead of soft muscles and a weak resistance, she was looking upon a bearish bull Hercules gone mad. Maudu! she cried. He is a beast! For the strong white teeth of the ape-man had found the throat of one of his assailants, and Tarzan fought as he had learned to fight with the great bull apes of the tribe of Kerchak. He was in a dozen places at once, leaping hither and thither about the room in sinuous bounds that reminded the woman of a panther she had seen at the zoo. Now a wrist bone snapped in his iron grip. Now a shoulder was wrenched from its socket as he forced a victim's arm backward and upward. With shrieks of pain the men escaped into the hallway as quickly as they could, but even before the first one staggered bleeding and broken from the room Rockoff had seen enough to convince him that Tarzan would not be the one to lie dead in that house this night, and so the Russian had hastened to a nearby den and telephoned the police that a man was committing murder on the third floor of room All 27. When the officers arrived they found three men groaning on the floor, a frightened woman lying upon a filthy bed, her face buried in her arms, and what appeared to be a well-dressed young gentleman standing in the center of the room awaiting the reinforcements which he had thought the footsteps of the officers hurrying up the stairway had announced, but they were mistaken in the last. It was a wild beast that looked upon them through those narrowed lids and steel gray eyes. With the smell of blood the last vestige of civilization had deserted Tarzan, and now he stood at bay like a lion surrounded by hunters awaiting the next overt act and crouching to charge its author. What has happened here? asked one of the policemen. Tarzan explained briefly, but when he turned to the woman for confirmation of his statement he was appalled by her reply. He lies, she screams surely addressing the policeman. He came to my room while I was alone and for no good purpose. When I repulsed him he would have killed me had not my screams attracted these gentlemen who were passing the house at the time. He is a devil-missure, alone he is all but killed ten men with his bare hands and his teeth. So shocked was Tarzan by her ingratitude that for a moment he was struck dumb. The police were inclined to be a little skeptical, for they had had other dealings with this same lady and her lovely coterie of gentlemen friends. However they were policeman not judges, so they decided to place all the inmates of the room under arrest and let another whose business it was separate the innocent from the guilty. But they found that it was one thing to tell this well-dressed young man that he was under arrest but quite another to enforce it. I am guilty of no offence, he said quietly. I have but sought to defend myself. I do not know why the woman has told you what she has. She can have no enmity against me, for never until I came to this room in response to her cries for help had I seen her. Come, come, said one of the officers. There are judges to listen to all that, and he advanced to lay his hand upon Tarzan's shoulder. An instant later he lay crumpled in a corner of the room, and then as his comrades rushed in upon the ape-man they experienced a taste of what the apaches had but recently gone through. So quickly and so roughly did he handle them that they had not even an opportunity to draw their revolvers. During the brief fight Tarzan had noted the open window and beyond the stem of a tree or a telegraph pole he could not tell which. As the last officer went down one of his fellows succeeded in drawing his revolver and from where he lay on the floor fired at Tarzan. The shot missed and before the man could fire again Tarzan had swept the lamp from the mantle and plunged the room into darkness. The next they saw was a lithe form springed to the sill of the open window and leap, panther-like, onto the pole across the walk. When the police gathered themselves together and reached the street their prisoner was nowhere to be seen. They did not handle the woman and the men who had not escaped any too gently when they took them to the station. They were a very sore and humiliated detail of police. It galled them to think that it would be necessary to report that a single unarmed man had wiped the floor with the whole lot of them and then escaped them as easily as though they had not existed. The officer who had remained in the street swore that no one had leaped from the window or left the building from the time they entered until they had come out. His comrades thought that he lied, but they could not prove it. When Tarzan found himself clinging to the pole outside the window he followed his jungle instinct and looked below for enemies before he ventured down. It was well he did, for just beneath stood a policeman. Above Tarzan saw no one, so he went up instead of down. The top of the pole was opposite the roof of the building, so it was but the work of an instant for the muscles that had for years sent him hurtling through the treetops of his primeval forest to carry him across the little space between the pole and the roof. From one building he went to another and so on, with much climbing, until at Cross Street he discovered another pole down which he ran to the ground. For a square or two he ran swiftly. Then he turned into a little all-night café, and in the lavatory removed the evidences of his over-roof promenade from hands and clothes. When he emerged a few moments later it was to saunter slowly on toward his apartments. Not far from them he came to a well-lighted boulevard which it was necessary to cross. As he stood directly beneath a brilliant art-light waiting for a limousine that was approaching to pass him he heard his name called in a sweet feminine voice. Looking up he met the smiling eyes of Olga de Couday as she leaned forward upon the back seat of the machine. He bowed very low in response to her friendly greeting. When he straightened up the machine had borne her away. Rock-off and the Countess de Couday, both in the same evening, he soliloquized. Paris is not so large after all. CHAPTER IV. THE COUNTESS EXPLANES. Your Paris is more dangerous than my savage jungles, Paul, concluded Tarzan, after narrating his adventures to his friend the morning following his encounter with the Apaches and police in the room all. Why did they lure me there? Were they hungry? Darnol feigned a horrified shudder, but he laughed at the quaint suggestion. It is difficult to rise above the jungle standards and reason by the light of civilized ways. Is it not, my friend? he queried batteringly. Civilized ways, forsooth, scoffed Tarzan. Jungles standards do not countenance wanton atrocities. There we will kill for food and for self-preservation, or in the winning of mates and the protection of the young. Always, you see, in accordance with the dictates of some great natural law. But here, far, your civilized man is more brutal than the brutes. He kills wantonly, and worse than that he utilizes a noble sentiment, the brotherhood of man, as a lord to entice his unwary victim to his doom. It was in answer to an appeal from a fellow being that I hasten to that room where the assassins lay and wait for me. I did not realize, I could not realize for a long time afterward, that any woman could sink to such moral depravity as that one must have to call a would-be rescuer to death. But it must have been so. The sight of Rockoff there and the woman's later repudiation on me to the police make it impossible to place any other construction upon her acts. Rockoff must have known that I frequently pass through the room all. He lay and wait for me. His entire scheme worked out to the last detail, even to the woman's story, in case a hitch should occur in the program, such as really did happen. It is all perfectly plain to me. Well, said Dernal, among other things it has taught you what I have been unable to impress upon you, that the room all is a good place to avoid after dark. On the contrary, replied Tarzan with a smile, it has convinced me that it is the one worthwhile street in all Paris. Never again shall I miss an opportunity to reverse it, for it has given me the first real entertainment I have had since I left Africa. It may give you more than you will relish even without in another visit, said Dernal. You are not through with the police yet, remember? I know the Paris police well enough to assure you that they will not soon forget what you did to them. Sooner or later they will get you, my dear Tarzan, and then they will lock the wild man of the woods up behind iron bars. How will you like that? They will never lock Tarzan of the apes behind iron bars, replied he grimly. There was something in the man's voice, as he said it, that caused Dernal to look up sharply at his friend. What he saw in the set jaw and the cold gray eyes made the young Frenchman very apprehensive for this great child, who could recognize no law mightier than his own mighty physical prowess. He saw that something must be done to set Tarzan right with the police before another encounter was possible. You have much to learn, Tarzan, he said gravely. The law of man must be respected, whether you relish it or not. Nothing but trouble can come to you and your friend should you persist in defying the police. I can explain it to them once for you, and that I shall do this very day. But hereafter you must obey the law. If its representatives say come, you must come. If they say go, you must go. Now we will go to my great friend in the department and fix up this matter of the room all. Come. Together they entered the office of the police official a half hour later. He was very cordial. He remembered Tarzan from the visit the two had made him several months prior in the matter of fingerprints. When Dernal had concluded the narration of the events which had transpired the previous evening a grim smile was playing about the lips of the policeman. He touched a button near his hand, and as he waited for the clerk to respond to its summons he searched through the papers on his desk for one which he finally located. Here, jubon, he said as the clerk entered, summoned these officers and have them come to me at once, and he handed the man the paper he had sought. Then he turned to Tarzan. You have committed a very grave offence, monsieur, he said, not unkindly. And but for the explanation made by our good friend here I should be inclined to judge you harshly. I am instead about to do a rather unheard of thing. I have summoned the officers whom you maltreated last night. They shall hear Lieutenant Dernal's story, and then I shall leave it to their discretion to say whether you shall be prosecuted or not. You have much to learn about the ways of civilization, things that seem strange or unnecessary to you. You must learn to accept until you are able to judge the motives behind them. The officers whom you attacked were but doing their duty. They had no discretion in the matter. Every day they risked their lives in the protection of the lives or property of others. They would do the same for you. They are very brave men, and they are deeply mortified that a single unarmed man bested and beat them. Make it easy for them to overlook what you did. Unless I am gravely in error, you are yourself a very brave man, and brave men are proverbially magnanimous. Further conversation was interrupted by the appearance of the four policemen. As their eyes fell on Tarzan, surprise was writ large on each countenance. My children, said the official, here is the gentleman whom you met in the room all last evening. He has come voluntarily to give himself up. I wish you to listen attentively to Lieutenant Dernal, who will tell you a part of the story of Monsieur's life. It may explain his attitude toward you of last night. Proceed, my dear Lieutenant. Dernal spoke to the policemen for half an hour. He told them something of Tarzan's wild, jungle life. He explained the savage training that had taught him to battle like a wild beast in self-preservation. It became plain to them that the man had been guided by instinct rather than reason in his attack upon them. He had not understood their intentions. To him they had been little different from any of the various forms of life he had been accustomed to in his native jungle, where practically all were his enemies. Your pride has been wounded, said Dernal in conclusion. It is the fact that this man overcame you that hurts the most, but you need to feel no shame. You would not make apologies for defeat had you been penned in that small room with an African lion or with the great gorilla of the jungles, and yet you were battling with muscles that have time and time again been pitted and always victoriously against the terrors of the dark continent. It is no disgrace to fall beneath the superhuman strength of Tarzan of the apes. And then as the men stood looking first at Tarzan and then at their superior, the eight men did the one thing which was needed to erase the last remnant of animosity which they might have felt for him without stretched hand he advanced toward them. I am sorry for the mistake I made, he said simply, let us be friends. And that was the end of the whole matter except that Tarzan became a subject of much conversation in the barracks of the police and increased the number of his friends by four brave men, at least. On their return to Darno's apartments the lieutenant found a letter awaiting him from an English friend, William Cecil Clayton, Lord Greystone. The two had maintained a correspondence since the birth of their friendship on that ill-fated expedition in search of Jane Porter after her theft by Turca's the bull ape. They are to be married in London in about two months, said Darno, as he completed his perusal of the letter. Tarzan did not need to be told who was meant by they. He made no reply, but he was very quiet and thoughtful during the balance of the day. That evening they attended the opera. Tarzan's mind was still occupied by his gloomy thoughts. He paid little or no attention to what was transpiring upon the stage. Instead he saw only the lovely vision of a beautiful American girl, and heard not but a sad sweet voice acknowledging that his love was returned, and that she was to marry another. He shook himself to be rid of his unwelcome thoughts, and at the same instant he felt eyes upon him. With the instinct that was his by virtue of training he looked up squarely into the eyes that were looking at him to find that they were shining from the smiling face of Olga Countess de Coude. As Tarzan returned her bow he was positive that there was an invitation in her look, almost a plea. The next intermission found him beside her in her box. I have so much wished to see you, she was saying. It has troubled me not a little to think that after the service you rendered to both my husband and myself no adequate explanation was ever made you of what must have seemed in gratitude on our part in not taking the necessary steps to prevent a repetition of the attacks upon us by those two men. You wrong me, replied Tarzan. My thoughts of you have been only the most pleasant. You must not feel that any explanation is due me. Have they annoyed you further? They never cease, she replied sadly. I feel that I must tell someone, and I do not know another who so deserves an explanation as you. You must permit me to do so. It may be of service to you, for I know Nicholas Rockoff quite well enough to be positive that you have not seen the last of him. He will find some means to be revenged upon you. What I wish to tell you may be of aid to you in combating any scheme of revenge he may harbor. I cannot tell you here, but to-morrow I shall be at home to Monsieur Tarzan at five. It will be an eternity until to-morrow at five, he said, as he bade her good night. From a corner of the theatre Rockoff and Povich saw Monsieur Tarzan in the box of the Countess de Coude, and both men smiled. At four-thirty the following afternoon a swarthy bearded man rang the bell at the servant's entrance of the palace of the Count de Coude. The footman who opened the door raised his eyebrows in recognition, as he saw who stood without. A low conversation passed between the two. At first the footman demurred from some proposition that the bearded one made, but an instant later something passed from the hand of the caller to the hand of the servant. Then the latter turned and led the visitor by a roundabout way to a little curtained alcove off the apartment in which the Countess was wont to serve tea of an afternoon. A half-hour later Tarzan was ushered into the room, and presently his hostess entered, smiling, and without stretched hands. I am so glad that you came, she said. Nothing could have prevented, he replied. For a few moments they spoke of the opera, of the topics that were then occupying the attention of Paris, of the pleasure of renewing their brief acquaintance which had had its inception under such odd circumstances, and this brought them to the subject that was uppermost in the minds of both. You must have wondered, said the Countess, finally, what the object of Rokov's persecution could be. It is very simple. The Count is entrusted with many of the vital secrets of the Ministry of War. He often has in his possession papers that foreign powers would give a fortune to possess, secrets of state that their agents would commit murder and worse than murder to learn. There is such a matter now in his possession that would make the fame and fortune of any Russian who could divulge it to his government. Rokov and Pavlovich are Russian spies. They will stop at nothing to procure this information. The affair on the liner, I mean the matter of the card game, was for the purpose of blackmailing the knowledge they seek from my husband. Had he been convicted of cheating at cards, his career would have been blighted. He would have had to leave the War Department. He would have been socially ostracized. They intended to hold this club over him, the price of an avowal on their part that the Count was but the victim of the plot of enemies who wished to besmirch his name, was to have been the papers they seek. Youth warranted them in this. Then they concocted the scheme whereby my reputation was to be the price instead of the Count's. When Pavlovich entered my cabin, he explained it to me. If I would obtain the information for them he promised to go no farther, otherwise Rokov, who stood without, was to notify the purser that I was entertaining a man other than my husband behind the locked doors of my cabin. He was to tell everyone he met on the boat, and when we landed he was to have given the whole story to the newspaper men. Was it not too horrible? But I happened to know something of Mr. Pavlovich that would send him to the gallows in Russia if it were known by the police of St. Petersburg. I dared him to carry out his plan, and then I leaned toward him and whispered a name in his ear. Like that, and she snapped her fingers, he flew at my throat as a madman. He would have killed me had you not interfered. The Brutes, muttered Tarzan. They are worse than that, my friend, she said. They are devils. I fear for you because you have gained their hatred. I wish you to be on your guard constantly. Tell me that you will, for my sake, for I should never forgive myself should you suffer through the kindness you did me. I do not fear them, he replied. I have survived grimmer enemies than Rokov and Pavlovich. He saw that she knew nothing of the occurrence in the room all, nor did he mention it, fearing that it might distress her. For your own safety, he continued, Why do you not turn the scoundrels over to the authorities? They should make quick work of them. She hesitated for a moment before replying. There are two reasons, she said, finally. One of them it is that keeps the count from doing that very thing. The other, my real reason for fearing to expose them, I have never told. Only Rokov and I know it. I wonder, and then she paused looking intently at him for a long time. And what do you wonder, he asked, smiling. I was wondering why it is that I want to tell you the thing that I have not dared tell even to my husband. I believe that you would understand, and that you could tell me the right course to follow. I believe that you would not judge me too harshly. I fear that I should prove a very poor judge, madame, Tarzan replied. For, if you had been guilty of murder, I should say that the victim should be grateful to have met so sweet of fate. Oh, dear, no, she expostulated. It is not so terrible as that. But first let me tell you the reason the count has for not prosecuting these men. Then, if I can hold my courage, I shall tell you the real reason that I dare not. The first is that Nicholas Rokov is my brother. We are Russians. Nicholas has been a bad man since I can remember. He was casheered from the Russian army, in which he held a captaincy. There was a scandal for a time, but after a while it was partially forgotten, and my father obtained a position for him in the Secret Service. There have been many terrible crimes laid at Nicholas's door, but he has always managed to escape punishment. Of late he has accomplished it by trumped up evidence convicting his victims of treason against the Tsar, and the Russian police, who are always only too ready to fasten guilt of this nature upon any and all, have accepted his version and exonerated him. Have not his attempted crimes against you and your husband forfeited whatever rights the bonds of kinship might have accorded him, asked Tarzan. The fact that your his sister has not deterred him from seeking to besmirch your honour. You owe him no loyalty, madame. Ah, but there is that other reason. If I owe him no loyalty, though he be my brother, I cannot so easily disavow the fear I hold him in because of a certain episode in my life of which he is cognizant. I might as well tell you all, she resumed after a pause, for I see that it is in my heart to tell you sooner or later I was educated in a convent. While there I met a man whom I supposed to be a gentleman. I knew little or nothing about men and less about love. I got it in my foolish head that I love this man, and at his urgent request I ran away with him. We were to have been married. I was with him just three hours, all in the daytime and in public places, railroad stations and upon a train. When we reached our destination, where we were to have been married, two officers stepped up to my escort as we descended from the train and placed him under arrest. They took me also, but when I had told my story they did not detain me other than to send me back to the convent under the care of a matron. It seemed that the man who had wooed me was no gentleman at all, but a deserter from the army, as well as a fugitive from civil justice. He had a police record in nearly every country in Europe. The matter was hushed up by the authorities of the convent, not even my parents knew of it, but Nicholas met the man afterward and learned the whole story. Now he threatens to tell the count if I do not do just as he wishes me to. Tarzan laughed. You are still but a little girl. This story that you have told me cannot reflect in any way upon your reputation, and were you not a little girl at heart you would know it. Go to your husband tonight and tell him the whole story, just as you have told it to me. Unless I am much mistaken he will laugh at you for your fears and take immediate steps to put that precious brother of yours in prison where he belongs. I only wish that I dared, she said, but I am afraid. I learned early to fear men. First my father, then Nicholas, then the fathers in the convent. Nearly all my friends fear their husbands. Why should I not fear mine? It does not seem right that women should fear men, said Tarzan, an expression of puzzlement on his face. I am better acquainted with the jungle folk, and there it is more often the other way around, except among the black men, and they, to my mind, are in most ways lower in the scale than the beasts. No, I cannot understand why civilized women should fear men, the beings that are created to protect them. I should hate to think that any woman feared me. I do not think that any woman would fear you, my friend, said Olga de Cudey softly. I have known you but a short while, yet though it may seem foolish to say it, you are the only man I have ever known whom I think that I should never fear. It is strange, too, for you are very strong. I wondered, at the ease with which you handled Nicholas and Pulvitch that night in my cabin, it was marvelous. As Tarzan was leaving her a short time later, he wondered a little at the clinging pressure of her hand at parking, and the firm insistence with which she exacted a promise from him that he would call again on the moral. The memory of her half-veiled eyes and perfect lips as she had stood smiling up into his face as he bade her goodbye remained with him for the balance of the day. Olga de Cudey was a very beautiful woman, and Tarzan of the apes a very lonely young man, with a heart in him that was in need of the doctoring that only a woman may provide. As the countess turned back into the room after Tarzan's departure, she found herself face-to-face with Nicholas Rockoff. "'How long have you been here?' she cried, shrinking away from him. "'Since before your lover came,' he answered with a nasty lear. "'Stop!' she commanded. "'How dare you say such a thing to me, your sister!' "'Well, my dear Olga, if he is not your lover, accept my apologies. But it is no fault of yours that he is not. Had he won tenth the knowledge of women that I have, you would be in his arms this minute. He is a stupid fool, Olga. Why, your every word and act was an open invitation to him, and he had not the sense to see it. The woman put her hands to her ears. "'I will not listen. You are wicked to say such things as that. No matter what you may threaten me with, you know that I am a good woman. After to-night you will not dare to annoy me, for I shall tell Ray Hall all. He will understand, then, Mr. Nicholas, beware. "'You shall tell him nothing,' said Rockoff. "'I have this affair now, and with the help of one of your servants whom I may trust it will lack nothing in the telling when the time comes that the details of this sworn evidence shall be poured into your husband's ears. The other affair served its purpose well. We now have something tangible to work on, Olga, a real affair, and you, a trusted wife, shame, Olga, and the brute laugh.' So the Countess told her Count nothing, and matters were worse than they had been. From a vague fear her mind was transferred to a very tangible one. It may be, too, that conscience helped to enlarge it out of all proportion. END OF CHAPTER V THE PLOT THAT FAILED For a month Tarzan was a regular and very welcome devotee at the shrine of the beautiful Countess de Coude, often he met other members of the select little coterie that dropped in for tea of an afternoon. More often Olga found devices that would give her an hour of Tarzan alone. For a time she had been frightened by what Nicholas had insinuated. She had not thought of this big young man as anything more than a friend. But with the suggestion implanted by the evil words of her brother she had grown to speculate much upon the strange force which seemed to attract her toward the grey-eyed stranger. She did not wish to love him nor did she wish his love. She was much younger than her husband, and without having realized it she had been craving the haven of a friendship with one nearer her own age. Twenty is shy in exchanging confidences with forty. Tarzan was but two years her senior. He could understand her, she felt. Then he was clean and honorable and chivalrous. She was not afraid of him. That she could trust him she had felt instinctively from the first. From a distance Rockoff had watched this growing intimacy with malicious glee. Ever since he had learned that Tarzan knew that he was a Russian spy there had been added to his hatred for the ape-man a great fear that he would expose him. He was but waiting now until the moment was propitious for a master stroke. He wanted to rid himself forever of Tarzan, and at the same time reap an ample revenge for the humiliations and defeats that he had suffered at his hands. Tarzan was nearer to contentment than he had been since the peace and tranquility of his jungle had been broken in upon by the advent of the marooned porter-party. He enjoyed the pleasant social intercourse with Olga's friends, while the friendship which had sprung up between the fair countess and himself was a source of never-ending delight. It broke in upon and dispersed his gloomy thoughts, and served as a bomb to his lacerated heart. Sometimes Darno accompanied him on his visits to the Deku-de home, for he had long known both Olga and the count. Occasionally Deku-de dropped in, but the multitudinous affairs of his official position and the never-ending demands of politics kept him from home usually until late at night. Rockoff spied upon Tarzan almost constantly, waiting for the time that he should call at the Deku-de palace at night, but in this he was doomed to disappointment. On several occasions Tarzan accompanied the countess to her home after the opera, but he invariably left her at the entrance, much to the disgust of the lady's devoted brother. Finding that it seemed impossible to trap Tarzan through any voluntary act of his own, Rockoff and Pauvich put their heads together to hatch a plan that would trap the eight-man in all the circumstantial evidence of a compromising position. For days they watched the papers, as well as the movements of Deku-de and Tarzan. At length they were rewarded. A morning paper made brief mention of a smoker that was to be given on the following evening by the German minister. Deku-de's name was among those of the invited guests. If he attended, this meant that he would be absent from his home until after midnight. On the night of the banquet Pauvich waited at the curb before the residence of the German minister, where he could scan the face of each guest that arrived. He had not long to wait before Deku-de descended from his car and passed him. That was enough. Pauvich hastened back to his quarters where Rockoff awaited him. There they waited until after eleven. Then Pauvich took down the receiver of their telephone. He called a number. The apartments of Lieutenant Darno, he asked when he had obtained his connection. A message for Monsieur Tarzan, if he will be so kind as to step to the telephone. For a minute there was silence. Monsieur Tarzan? Ah, yes, Monsieur. This is Francois, in the service of the Countess Deku-de. Possibly, Monsieur does poor Francois the honour to recall him. Yes? Yes, Monsieur. I have a message, an urgent message, from the Countess. She asked that you hasten to her at once. She is in trouble, Monsieur. No, Monsieur. Poor Francois does not know. Shall I tell Madame that Monsieur will be here shortly? Thank you, Monsieur. The good God will bless you. Pauvich hung up the receiver and turned to grin at Rockoff. It will take him thirty minutes to get there. If you reach the German ministers in fifteen, Deku-de should arrive at his home in about forty-five minutes. It all depends upon whether the fool will remain fifteen minutes after he finds that a trick has been played upon him, but unless I am mistaken, Olga will be loath to let him go in so short a time as that. Here is the note for Deku-de. Hasten. Pauvich lost no time in reaching the German ministers. At the door he handed the note to a footman. This is for the Count Deku-de. It is very urgent. You must see that it is placed in his hands at once, and he dropped a piece of silver into the willing hand of the servant. Then he returned to his quarters. A moment later Deku-de was apologizing to his host as he tore open the envelope. What he read left his face white and his hand trembling. Monsieur le Count Deku-de, one who wishes to save the honour of your name, takes this means to warn you that the sanctity of your home is this minute in jeopardy. A certain man who for months has been a constant visitor there, during your absence, is now with your wife. If you go at once to your Countess's boudoir you will find them together. A friend. Twenty minutes after Pauvich had called Tarsen, Rockoff obtained a connection with Olga's private line. Her maid answered the telephone which was in the Countess's boudoir. But madame has retired, said the maid, and answered to Rockoff's request to speak with her. This is a very urgent message for the Countess's ears alone, replied Rockoff. Tell her that she must arise and slip something about her and come to the telephone. I shall call up again in five minutes. Then he hung up the receiver. A moment later Pauvich entered. The Count has the message, asked Rockoff. He should be on his way to his home by now, replied Pauvich. Good, my lady will be sitting in her boudoir very much in negligee about now. In a minute the faithful jock will escort Monsieur Tarsen into her presence without announcing him. It will take a few minutes for explanations. Olga will look very alluring in the filmy creation that is her night-dress, and the clinging robe which but half conceals the charms that the former does not conceal at all. Olga will be surprised, but not displeased. If there is a drop of red blood in the man the Count will break in upon a very pretty love scene in about fifteen minutes from now. I think we have planned marvelously, my dear Alexis. Let us go out and drink to the very good health of Monsieur Tarsen in some of old Plaincon's unparalleled absinthe, not forgetting that the Count Découdais is one of the best swordsmen in Paris, and by far the best shot in all France. When Tarsen reached Olga's, Jacques was awaiting him at the entrance. « These sway, Monsieur! » he said, and led the way up the broad marble staircase. In another moment he had opened a door, and drawing aside a heavy curtain, obsequiously bowed Tarsen into a dimly lighted apartment. Then Jacques vanished. Across the room from him Tarsen saw Olga seated before a little desk on which stood her telephone. She was tapping impatiently upon the poly surface of the desk. She had not heard him enter. « Olga! » he said. « What is wrong? » She turned toward him with a little cry of alarm. « Jean! » she cried. « What are you doing here? Who admitted you? What does it mean? » Tarsen was thunderstruck, but in an instant he realized a part of the truth. Then you did not send for me Olga? « Send for you at this time of night? » « More do, Jean! Do you think that I am quite mad? » « Francois telephoned me to come at once, that you were in trouble and wanted me. » « Francois? Who in the world is Francois? » He said that he was in your service. He spoke as though I should recall the fact. « There is no one by that name in my employ. Someone has played a joke upon you, Jean, and Olga laughed. I fear that it may be a most sinister joke, Olga! » he replied. « There is more back of it than humor. What do you mean? You do not think that. Where is the Count? » he interrupted. « At the German Ambassadors. This is another move by your estimable brother. Tomorrow the Count will hear of it. He will question the servants. Everything will point to what Rockoff wishes the Count to think. » « The scoundrel! » cried Olga. She had arisen and come close to Tarzan where she stood, looking up into his face. She was very frightened. In her eyes was an expression that the hunter sees in those of a poor, terrified doe. Puzzled, questioning. She trembled, and to steady herself raised her hands to his broad shoulders. « What shall we do, Jean? » she whispered. « It is terrible. Tomorrow all Paris will read of it. He will see to that. » Her look, her attitude, her words were eloquent of the age-old appeal of defenseless woman to her natural protector, man. Tarzan took one of the warm little hands that lay on his breast, in his own strongman. The act was quite involuntary, and almost equally so was the instinct of protection that threw a sheltering arm around the girl's shoulders. The result was electrical, never before had he been so close to her. In startled guilt they looked suddenly into each other's eyes, and where Olga Dekouday should have been strong she was weak, for she crept closer into the man's arms and clasped her own about his neck. And Tarzan of the Apes, he took the panting figure into his mighty arms and covered the hot lips with kisses. Raole Dekouday made hurried excuses to his host after he had read the note handed him by the ambassador's butler. Never afterward could he recall the nature of the excuses he made. Everything was quite a blur to him up to the time that he stood on the threshold of his own home. Then he became very cool, moving quietly and with caution. For some inexplicable reason Jacques had the door open before he was halfway to the steps. It did not strike him at the time as being unusual, though afterward he remarked it. Very softly he tiptoed up the stairs and along the gallery to the door of his wife's boudoir. In his hand was a heavy walking stick. In his heart, murder! Olga was the first to see him. With a horrified shriek she tore herself from Tarzan's arms and the eight-man turn just in time to ward with his arm a terrific blow that Dekouday had aimed at his head. Once, twice, three times the heavy stick fell with lightning rapidity and each blow aided in the transition of the eight-man back to the primordial. With the low guttural snarl of the bull-ape he sprang for the Frenchman. The great stick was torn from his grasp and broken in two as though it had been matchwood, to be flung aside as the now infuriated beast charged for his adversary's throat. Olga Dekouday stood a horrified spectator of the terrible scene which ensued during the next brief moment. Then she sprang to where Tarzan was murdering her husband, choking the life from him, shaking him as a terrier might shake a rat. Frantically she tore at his great hands. Mother of God! she cried! You are killing him! You are killing him! Oh, Jean, you are killing my husband! Tarzan was deaf with rage. Suddenly he hurled the body to the floor and placing his foot upon the upturned breast raged his head. Then through the palace of the Count Dekouday rang the awesome challenge of the bull-ape that has made a kill. From cellar to attic the horrid sound searched out the servants and left them blanched and trembling. The woman in the room sank to her knees beside the body of her husband and prayed. Slowly the red mist faded from Tarzan's eyes. Things began to take form. He was regaining the perspective of civilized man. His eyes fell upon the figure of the kneeling woman. Olga, he whispered, she looked up expecting to see the maniacal light of murder in the eyes above her. Instead she saw a sorrow and contrition. Oh, Jean! she cried, see what you have done! He was my husband. I loved him. And you have killed him! Very gently Tarzan raised the limp form of the Count Dekouday and bore it to a couch. Then he put his ear to the man's breast. Some brandy, Olga, he said. She brought it and together they forced it between his lips. Presently a faint gasp came from the white lips. The head turned and Dekouday groaned. He will not die, said Tarzan. Thank God. Why did you do it, Jean? She asked. I do not know. He struck me and I went mad. I have seen the apes of my tribe do the same thing. I have never told you my story, Olga. It would have been better had you known it. This might not have happened. I never saw my father. The only mother I knew was a ferocious she-ape. Until I was fifteen I had never seen a human being. I was twenty before I saw a white man. A little more than a year ago I was a naked beast of prey in an African jungle. Do not judge me too harshly. Two years is too short a time in which to attempt to work the change in an individual that it has taken countless ages to accomplish in the white race. I do not judge at all, Jean. The fault is mine. You must go now. He must not find you here when he regains consciousness. Goodbye. It was a sorrowful Tarzan who walked with bowed head from the palace of the Count Dekouday. Once outside his thoughts took definite shape to the end that twenty minutes later he entered a police station not far from the Rue Mall. Here he soon found one of the officers with whom he had had the encounter several weeks previous. The policeman was genuinely glad to see again the man who had so roughly handled him. After a moment of conversation Tarzan asked if he had ever heard of Nicholas Rokov or Alexis Palvich. Very often indeed, monsieur. Each has a police record, and while there is nothing charged against them now, we make it a point to know pretty well where they may be found should the occasion demand. It is only the same precaution that we take with every known criminal. Why does monsieur ask? They are known to me, replied Tarzan. I wish to see monsieur Rokov on a little matter of business. If you can direct me to his lodgings I shall appreciate it. A few minutes later he bade the policeman a due, and with a slip of paper in his pocket bearing a certain address in a semi-respectable quarter he walked briskly toward the nearest taxi stand. Rokov and Palvich had returned to their rooms and were sitting talking over the probable outcome of the evening's events. They had telephoned to the offices of two of the morning papers from which they momentarily expected representatives to hear the first report of the scandal that was to stir Social Paris on the moral. A heavy step sounded on the stairway. Ah, but these newspaper men are prompt, exclaimed Rokov, and as a knock fell upon the door of their room, enter, monsieur. The smile of welcome froze upon the Russian's face as he looked into the hard gray eyes of his visitor. Name of a name, he shouted, springing to his feet. What bring you here? Sit down, said Tarzan, so low that the men could barely catch the words but in a tone that brought Rokov to his chair and kept Palvich in his. You know what has brought me here, he continued in the same low tone. It should be to kill you, but because you are old Gedakude's brother, I shall not do that, now. I shall give you a chance for your lives. Palvich does not count much. He is merely a stupid, foolish little tool, and so I shall not kill him so long as I permit you to live. Before I leave you to a live in this room, you will have done two things. The first will be to write a full confession of your connection with tonight's plot and sign it. The second will be to promise me upon pain of death that you will permit no word of this affair to get into the newspapers. If you do not do both, neither of you will be alive when I pass next through that doorway. Do you understand? And without waiting for a reply, make haste, there is ink before you and paper and a pen. Rokov assumed a truculent air, attempting by Brevato to show how little he feared Tarzan's threats. An instant later he felt the eight man's steel fingers at his throat, and Palvich, who attempted to dodge them and reach the door, was lifted completely off the floor and hurled senseless into a corner. When Rokov commenced to blacken about the face, Tarzan released his hold and shoved the fellow back into his chair. After a moment of coughing, Rokov sat suddenly glaring at the man standing opposite him. Presently, Palvich came to himself and limped painfully back to his chair at Tarzan's command. Now write, said the eight man, if it is necessary to handle you again, I shall not be so lenient. Rokov picked up a pen and commenced to write. See that you omit no detail, and that you mention every name, cautioned Tarzan. Presently there was a knock at the door. Enter, said Tarzan. A dapper young man came in. I am from the Metin, he announced. I understand that mature Rokov has a story for me. Then you are mistaken, mature, replied Tarzan. You have no story for publication have you, my dear Nicholas? Rokov looked up from his writing with an ugly scowl upon his face. No, he growled. I have no story for publication, now. Nor ever, my dear Nicholas, and the reporter did not see the nasty light in the eight man's eye. But Nicholas Rokov did. Nor ever, he repeated hastily. It is too bad that mature has been troubled, said Tarzan, turning to the newspaper man. I bid mature good evening, and he bowed the dapper young man out of the room and closed the door in his face. An hour later Tarzan, with a rather bulky manuscript in his coat pocket, turned at the door leading from Rokov's room. Where I you I should leave France, he said, for sooner or later I shall find an excuse to kill you that will not in any way compromise your sister.