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enclosure. Slowly her numbed senses were returning to her and she was
commencing to think very fast indeed. Quickly her eyes ran round the interior of
the tent, taking in every detail of its equipment and contents.
Now the Russian was lifting her to her feet and attempting to drag her to the
camp cot that stood at one side of the tent. At his belt hung a heavy revolver.
Jane Clayton's eyes riveted themselves upon it. Her palm itched to grasp the
huge butt. She feigned again to swoon, but through her half-closed lids she
waited her opportunity.
It came just as Rokoff was lifting her upon the cot. A noise at the tent door
behind him brought his head quickly about and away from the girl. The butt of
the gun was not an inch from her hand. With a single, lightning-like move she
snatched the weapon from its holster, and at the same instant Rokoff turned
back toward her, realizing his peril.
She did not dare fire for fear the shot would bring his people about him, and with
Rokoff dead she would fall into hands no better than his and to a fate probably
even worse than he alone could have imagined. The memory of the two brutes
who stood and laughed as Rokoff struck her was still vivid.
As the rage and fear-filled countenance of the Slav turned toward her Jane
Clayton raised the heavy revolver high above the pasty face and with all her
strength dealt the man a terrific blow between the eyes.
Without a sound he sank, limp and unconscious, to the ground. A moment later
the girl stood beside him--for a moment at least free from the menace of his lust.
Outside the tent she again heard the noise that had distracted Rokoff's attention.
What it was she did not know, but, fearing the return of the servant and the
discovery of her deed, she stepped quickly to the camp table upon which burned
the oil lamp and extinguished the smudgy, evil-smelling flame.
In the total darkness of the interior she paused for a moment to collect her wits
and plan for the next step in her venture for freedom.
About her was a camp of enemies. Beyond these foes a black wilderness of
savage jungle peopled by hideous beasts of prey and still more hideous human
beasts.
There was little or no chance that she could survive even a few days of the
constant dangers that would confront her there; but the knowledge that she had
already passed through so many perils unscathed, and that somewhere out in the
faraway world a little child was doubtless at that very moment crying for her,
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