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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.
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