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Chapter 15 - Down the Ugambi
Halfway between the Ugambi and the village of the Waganwazam, Tarzan came
upon the pack moving slowly along his old spoor. Mugambi could scarce believe
that the trail of the Russian and the mate of his savage master had passed so
close to that of the pack.
It seemed incredible that two human beings should have come so close to them
without having been detected by some of the marvellously keen and alert beasts;
but Tarzan pointed out the spoor of the two he trailed, and at certain points the
black could see that the man and the woman must have been in hiding as the
pack passed them, watching every move of the ferocious creatures.
It had been apparent to Tarzan from the first that Jane and Rokoff were not
travelling together. The spoor showed distinctly that the young woman had been
a considerable distance ahead of the Russian at first, though the farther the ape-
man continued along the trail the more obvious it became that the man was
rapidly overhauling his quarry.
At first there had been the spoor of wild beasts over the footprints of Jane
Clayton, while upon the top of all Rokoff's spoor showed that he had passed over
the trail after the animals had left their records upon the ground. But later there
were fewer and fewer animal imprints occurring between those of Jane's and the
Russian's feet, until as he approached the river the ape-man became aware that
Rokoff could not have been more than a few hundred yards behind the girl.
He felt they must be close ahead of him now, and, with a little thrill of
expectation, he leaped rapidly forward ahead of the pack. Swinging swiftly
through the trees, he came out upon the river-bank at the very point at which
Rokoff had overhauled Jane as she endeavoured to launch the cumbersome
dugout.
In the mud along the bank the ape-man saw the footprints of the two he sought,
but there was neither boat nor people there when he arrived, nor, at first glance,
any sign of their whereabouts.
It was plain that they had shoved off a native canoe and embarked upon the
bosom of the stream, and as the ape-man's eye ran swiftly down the course of the
river beneath the shadows of the overarching trees he saw in the distance, just as
it rounded a bend that shut it off from his view, a drifting dugout in the stern of
which was the figure of a man.
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