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Just as the pack came in sight of the river they saw their agile leader racing down

the river's bank, leaping from hummock to hummock of the swampy ground that

spread between them and a little promontory which rose just where the river

curved inward from their sight.

To follow him it was necessary for the heavy, cumbersome apes to make a wide

detour, and Sheeta, too, who hated water. Mugambi followed after them as

rapidly as he could in the wake of the great white master.

A half-hour of rapid travelling across the swampy neck of land and over the rising

promontory brought Tarzan, by a short cut, to the inward bend of the winding

river, and there before him upon the bosom of the stream he saw the dugout, and

in its stern Nikolas Rokoff.

Jane was not with the Russian.

At sight of his enemy the broad scar upon the ape-man's brow burned scarlet,

and there rose to his lips the hideous, bestial challenge of the bull-ape.

Rokoff shuddered as the weird and terrible alarm fell upon his ears. Cowering in

the bottom of the boat, his teeth chattering in terror, he watched the man he

feared above all other creatures upon the face of the earth as he ran quickly to

the edge of the water.

Even though the Russian knew that he was safe from his enemy, the very sight of

him threw him into a frenzy of trembling cowardice, which became frantic

hysteria as he saw the white giant dive fearlessly into the forbidding waters of the

tropical river.

With steady, powerful strokes the ape-man forged out into the stream toward the

drifting dugout. Now Rokoff seized one of the paddles lying in the bottom of the

craft, and, with terrorwide eyes still glued upon the living death that pursued

him, struck out madly in an effort to augment the speed of the unwieldy canoe.

And from the opposite bank a sinister ripple, unseen by either man, moved

steadily toward the half-naked swimmer.

Tarzan had reached the stern of the craft at last. One hand upstretched grasped

the gunwale. Rokoff sat frozen with fear, unable to move a hand or foot, his eyes

riveted upon the face of his Nemesis.

Then a sudden commotion in the water behind the swimmer caught his attention.

He saw the ripple, and he knew what caused it.

111

The Beasts of Tarzan