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After that they went more slowly, and presently, when Jane's rifle had found

another member of the party, the canoe withdrew to the shore, where it lay as

long as daylight lasted.

The savage, snarling pack upon the opposite shore had been directed in their

pursuit by the black warrior, Mugambi, chief of the Wagambi. Only he knew

which might be foe and which friend of their lost master.

Could they have reached either the canoe or the Kincaid they would have made

short work of any whom they found there, but the gulf of black water intervening

shut them off from farther advance as effectually as though it had been the broad

ocean that separated them from their prey.

Mugambi knew something of the occurrences which had led up to the landing of

Tarzan upon Jungle Island and the pursuit of the whites up the Ugambi. He

knew that his savage master sought his wife and child who had been stolen by

the wicked white man whom they had followed far into the interior and now back

to the sea.

He believed also that this same man had killed the great white giant whom he

had come to respect and love as he had never loved the greatest chiefs of his own

people. And so in the wild breast of Mugambi burned an iron resolve to win to

the side of the wicked one and wreak vengeance upon him for the murder of the

ape-man.

But when he saw the canoe come down the river and take in Rokoff, when he saw

it make for the Kincaid, he realized that only by possessing himself of a canoe

could he hope to transport the beasts of the pack within striking distance of the

enemy.

So it happened that even before Jane Clayton fired the first shot into Rokoff's

canoe the beasts of Tarzan had disappeared into the jungle.

After the Russian and his party, which consisted of Paulvitch and the several men

he had left upon the Kincaid to attend to the matter of coaling, had retreated

before her fire, Jane realized that it would be but a temporary respite from their

attentions which she had gained, and with the conviction came a determination

to make a bold and final stroke for freedom from the menacing threat of Rokoff's

evil purpose.

With this idea in view she opened negotiations with the two sailors she had

imprisoned in the forecastle, and having forced their consent to her plans, upon

pain of death should they attempt disloyalty, she released them just as darkness

closed about the ship.

121

The Beasts of Tarzan