Chapter 17

Beasts of Tarzan

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER 17, BEASTS OF TARZAN by Edgar R. Burroughs
An eText from LiteratureClassics.com.

Please see the eText readme for important copyright information (available from the options menu above if you are browsing online or as a separate file in the archive if you are browsing offline.)




On the Deck of the "Kincaid"


When Mugambi had turned back into the jungle with the pack
he had a definite purpose in view. It was to obtain a
dugout wherewith to transport the beasts of Tarzan to the
side of the Kincaid. Nor was he long in coming upon the
object which he sought.

Just at dusk he found a canoe moored to the bank of a
small tributary of the Ugambi at a point where he had
felt certain that he should find one.

Without loss of time he piled his hideous fellows into the
craft and shoved out into the stream. So quickly had they
taken possession of the canoe that the warrior had not noticed
that it was already occupied. The huddled figure sleeping in
the bottom had entirely escaped his observation in the darkness
of the night that had now fallen.

But no sooner were they afloat than a savage growling
from one of the apes directly ahead of him in the dugout
attracted his attention to a shivering and cowering figure
that trembled between him and the great anthropoid. To Mugambi's
astonishment he saw that it was a native woman. With difficulty
he kept the ape from her throat, and after a time succeeded
in quelling her fears.

It seemed that she had been fleeing from marriage with an
old man she loathed and had taken refuge for the night in the
canoe she had found upon the river's edge.

Mugambi did not wish her presence, but there she was,
and rather than lose time by returning her to the shore
the black permitted her to remain on board the canoe.

As quickly as his awkward companions could paddle the
dugout down-stream toward the Ugambi and the Kincaid they
moved through the darkness. It was with difficulty that
Mugambi could make out the shadowy form of the steamer, but
as he had it between himself and the ocean it was much more
apparent than to one upon either shore of the river.

As he approached it he was amazed to note that it seemed
to be receding from him, and finally he was convinced that
the vessel was moving down-stream. Just as he was about to
urge his creatures to renewed efforts to overtake the steamer
the outline of another canoe burst suddenly into view not
three yards from the bow of his own craft.

At the same instant the occupants of the stranger discovered
the proximity of Mugambi's horde, but they did not at first
recognize the nature of the fearful crew. A man in the
bow of the oncoming boat challenged them just as the two
dugouts were about to touch.

For answer came the menacing growl of a panther, and the
fellow found himself gazing into the flaming eyes of Sheeta,
who had raised himself with his forepaws upon the bow of the
boat, ready to leap in upon the occupants of the other craft.

Instantly Rokoff realized the peril that confronted him and
his fellows. He gave a quick command to fire upon the occupants
of the other canoe, and it was this volley and the scream of the
terrified native woman in the canoe with Mugambi that both
Tarzan and Jane had heard.

Before the slower and less skilled paddlers in Mugambi's
canoe could press their advantage and effect a boarding of
the enemy the latter had turned swiftly down-stream and were
paddling for their lives in the direction of the Kincaid,
which was now visible to them.

The vessel after striking upon the bar had swung loose again
into a slow-moving eddy, which returns up-stream close to the
southern shore of the Ugambi only to circle out once more and
join the downward flow a hundred yards or so farther up.
Thus the Kincaid was returning Jane Clayton directly into
the hands of her enemies.

It so happened that as Tarzan sprang into the river the
vessel was not visible to him, and as he swam out into the
night he had no idea that a ship drifted so close at hand.
He was guided by the sounds which he could hear coming from
the two canoes.

As he swam he had vivid recollections of the last occasion
upon which he had swum in the waters of the Ugambi, and
with them a sudden shudder shook the frame of the giant.

But, though he twice felt something brush his legs from
the slimy depths below him, nothing seized him, and of a
sudden he quite forgot about crocodiles in the astonishment
of seeing a dark mass loom suddenly before him where he
had still expected to find the open river.

So close was it that a few strokes brought him up to the
thing, when to his amazement his outstretched hand came in
contact with a ship's side.

As the agile ape-man clambered over the vessel's rail there
came to his sensitive ears the sound of a struggle at the
opposite side of the deck.

Noiselessly he sped across the intervening space.

The moon had risen now, and, though the sky was still
banked with clouds, a lesser darkness enveloped the scene
than that which had blotted out all sight earlier in
the night. His keen eyes, therefore, saw the figures
of two men grappling with a woman.

That it was the woman who had accompanied Anderssen
toward the interior he did not know, though he suspected as
much, as he was now quite certain that this was the deck of
the Kincaid upon which chance had led him.

But he wasted little time in idle speculation. There was a
woman in danger of harm from two ruffians, which was enough
excuse for the ape-man to project his giant thews into the
conflict without further investigation.

The first that either of the sailors knew that there was a
new force at work upon the ship was the falling of a mighty
hand upon a shoulder of each. As if they had been in the grip
of a fly-wheel, they were jerked suddenly from their prey.

"What means this?" asked a low voice in their ears.

They were given no time to reply, however, for at the sound
of that voice the young woman had sprung to her feet and
with a little cry of joy leaped toward their assailant.

"Tarzan!" she cried.

The ape-man hurled the two sailors across the deck, where
they rolled, stunned and terrified, into the scuppers upon the
opposite side, and with an exclamation of incredulity gathered
the girl into his arms.

Brief, however, were the moments for their greeting.

Scarcely had they recognized one another than the clouds
above them parted to show the figures of a half-dozen men
clambering over the side of the Kincaid to the steamer's deck.

Foremost among them was the Russian. As the brilliant
rays of the equatorial moon lighted the deck, and he realized
that the man before him was Lord Greystoke, he screamed
hysterical commands to his followers to fire upon the two.

Tarzan pushed Jane behind the cabin near which they had
been standing, and with a quick bound started for Rokoff.
The men behind the Russian, at least two of them, raised
their rifles and fired at the charging ape-man; but those
behind them were otherwise engaged--for up the monkey-
ladder in their rear was thronging a hideous horde.

First came five snarling apes, huge, manlike beasts,
with bared fangs and slavering jaws; and after them a
giant black warrior, his long spear gleaming in the moonlight.

Behind him again scrambled another creature, and of all the
horrid horde it was this they most feared--Sheeta, the panther,
with gleaming jaws agape and fiery eyes blazing at them
in the mightiness of his hate and of his blood lust.

The shots that had been fired at Tarzan missed him, and he
would have been upon Rokoff in another instant had not the
great coward dodged backward between his two henchmen, and,
screaming in hysterical terror, bolted forward toward
the forecastle.

For the moment Tarzan's attention was distracted by the
two men before him, so that he could not at the time pursue
the Russian. About him the apes and Mugambi were battling
with the balance of the Russian's party.

Beneath the terrible ferocity of the beasts the men were soon
scampering in all directions--those who still lived to scamper,
for the great fangs of the apes of Akut and the tearing talons
of Sheeta already had found more than a single victim.

Four, however, escaped and disappeared into the forecastle,
where they hoped to barricade themselves against further assault.
Here they found Rokoff, and, enraged at his desertion of them
in their moment of peril, no less than at the uniformly
brutal treatment it had been his wont to accord them,
they gloated upon the opportunity now offered them to
revenge themselves in part upon their hated employer.

Despite his prayers and grovelling pleas, therefore, they
hurled him bodily out upon the deck, delivering him to the
mercy of the fearful things from which they had themselves
just escaped.

Tarzan saw the man emerge from the forecastle--saw and
recognized his enemy; but another saw him even as soon.

It was Sheeta, and with grinning jaws the mighty beast
slunk silently toward the terror-stricken man.

When Rokoff saw what it was that stalked him his shrieks for
help filled the air, as with trembling knees he stood, as one
paralyzed, before the hideous death that was creeping upon him.

Tarzan took a step toward the Russian, his brain burning
with a raging fire of vengeance. At last he had the murderer
of his son at his mercy. His was the right to avenge.

Once Jane had stayed his hand that time that he sought to take
the law into his own power and mete to Rokoff the death that
he had so long merited; but this time none should stay him.

His fingers clenched and unclenched spasmodically as he approached
the trembling Russ, beastlike and ominous as a brute of prey.

Presently he saw that Sheeta was about to forestall him,
robbing him of the fruits of his great hate.

He called sharply to the panther, and the words, as if
they had broken a hideous spell that had held the Russian,
galvanized him into sudden action. With a scream he turned
and fled toward the bridge.

After him pounced Sheeta the panther, unmindful of his
master's warning voice.

Tarzan was about to leap after the two when he felt a light
touch upon his arm. Turning, he found Jane at his elbow.

"Do not leave me," she whispered. "I am afraid."

Tarzan glanced behind her.

All about were the hideous apes of Akut. Some, even,
were approaching the young woman with bared fangs and
menacing guttural warnings.

The ape-man warned them back. He had forgotten for the
moment that these were but beasts, unable to differentiate
his friends and his foes. Their savage natures were roused by
their recent battle with the sailors, and now all flesh outside
the pack was meat to them.

Tarzan turned again toward the Russian, chagrined that
he should have to forgo the pleasure of personal revenge--
unless the man should escape Sheeta. But as he looked he saw
that there could be no hope of that. The fellow had retreated
to the end of the bridge, where he now stood trembling and
wide-eyed, facing the beast that moved slowly toward him.

The panther crawled with belly to the planking, uttering
uncanny mouthings. Rokoff stood as though petrified,
his eyes protruding from their sockets, his mouth agape,
and the cold sweat of terror clammy upon his brow.

Below him, upon the deck, he had seen the great anthropoids,
and so had not dared to seek escape in that direction.
In fact, even now one of the brutes was leaping to seize the
bridge-rail and draw himself up to the Russian's side.

Before him was the panther, silent and crouched.

Rokoff could not move. His knees trembled. His voice
broke in inarticulate shrieks. With a last piercing wail he
sank to his knees--and then Sheeta sprang.

Full upon the man's breast the tawny body hurtled,
tumbling the Russian to his back.

As the great fangs tore at the throat and chest, Jane Clayton
turned away in horror; but not so Tarzan of the Apes. A cold
smile of satisfaction touched his lips. The scar upon his
forehead that had burned scarlet faded to the normal hue of his
tanned skin and disappeared.

Rokoff fought furiously but futilely against the growling,
rending fate that had overtaken him. For all his countless
crimes he was punished in the brief moment of the hideous
death that claimed him at the last.

After his struggles ceased Tarzan approached, at Jane's
suggestion, to wrest the body from the panther and give what
remained of it decent human burial; but the great cat rose
snarling above its kill, threatening even the master it loved
in its savage way, so that rather than kill his friend of the
jungle, Tarzan was forced to relinquish his intentions.

All that night Sheeta, the panther, crouched upon the grisly
thing that had been Nikolas Rokoff. The bridge of the
Kincaid was slippery with blood. Beneath the brilliant
tropic moon the great beast feasted until, when the sun rose
the following morning, there remained of Tarzan's great enemy
only gnawed and broken bones.


Of the Russian's party, all were accounted for except Paulvitch.
Four were prisoners in the Kincaid's forecastle. The rest were dead.

With these men Tarzan got up steam upon the vessel, and with
the knowledge of the mate, who happened to be one of those surviving,
he planned to set out in quest of Jungle Island; but as the morning
dawned there came with it a heavy gale from the west which raised
a sea into which the mate of the Kincaid dared not venture.
All that day the ship lay within the shelter of the mouth of the river;
for, though night witnessed a lessening of the wind, it was thought
safer to wait for daylight before attempting the navigation of
the winding channel to the sea.

Upon the deck of the steamer the pack wandered without
let or hindrance by day, for they had soon learned through
Tarzan and Mugambi that they must harm no one upon the
Kincaid; but at night they were confined below.

Tarzan's joy had been unbounded when he learned from
his wife that the little child who had died in the village of
M'ganwazam was not their son. Who the baby could have
been, or what had become of their own, they could not imagine,
and as both Rokoff and Paulvitch were gone, there was
no way of discovering.

There was, however, a certain sense of relief in the knowledge
that they might yet hope. Until positive proof of the baby's
death reached them there was always that to buoy them up.

It seemed quite evident that their little Jack had not been
brought aboard the Kincaid. Anderssen would have known
of it had such been the case, but he had assured Jane time
and time again that the little one he had brought to her cabin
the night he aided her to escape was the only one that had
been aboard the Kincaid since she lay at Dover.