Presently from the jungle came an answering cry, and then another and
another. Gust shuddered. Among what sort of creatures had fate thrown
him? Were not Kai Shang and Momulla to be preferred to this great white
giant who stroked a panther and called to the beasts of the jungle?
In a few minutes the apes of Akut came crashing through the underbrush
and out upon the beach, while in the meantime the five men had been
struggling with the unwieldy bulk of the skiff’s hull.
By dint of Herculean efforts they had managed to get it to the water’s
edge. The oars from the two small boats of the Kincaid, which had been
washed away by an off-shore wind the very night that the party had
landed, had been in use to support the canvas of the sailcloth tents.
These were hastily requisitioned, and by the time Akut and his
followers came down to the water all was ready for embarkation.
Once again the hideous crew entered the service of their master, and
without question took up their places in the skiff. The four men, for
Gust could not be prevailed upon to accompany the party, fell to the
oars, using them paddle-wise, while some of the apes followed their
example, and presently the ungainly skiff was moving quietly out to sea
in the direction of the light which rose and fell gently with the
swell.
A sleepy sailor kept a poor vigil upon the Cowrie’s deck, while in the
cabin below Schneider paced up and down arguing with Jane Clayton. The
woman had found a revolver in a table drawer in the room in which she
had been locked, and now she kept the mate of the Kincaid at bay with
the weapon.
The Mosula woman kneeled behind her, while Schneider paced up and down
before the door, threatening and pleading and promising, but all to no
avail. Presently from the deck above came a shout of warning and a
shot. For an instant Jane Clayton relaxed her vigilance, and turned her
eyes toward the cabin skylight. Simultaneously Schneider was upon her.
The first intimation the watch had that there was another craft within
a thousand miles of the Cowrie came when he saw the head and shoulders
of a man poked over the ship’s side. Instantly the fellow sprang to his
feet with a cry and levelled his revolver at the intruder. It was his
cry and the subsequent report of the revolver which threw Jane Clayton
off her guard.
Upon deck the quiet of fancied security soon gave place to the wildest
pandemonium. The crew of the Cowrie rushed above armed with revolvers,
cutlasses, and the long knives that many of them habitually wore; but
the alarm had come too late. Already the beasts of Tarzan were upon the
ship’s deck, with Tarzan and the two men of the Kincaid’s crew.
In the face of the frightful beasts the courage of the mutineers
wavered and broke. Those with revolvers fired a few scattering shots
and then raced for some place of supposed safety. Into the shrouds went
some; but the apes of Akut were more at home there than they.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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