www.freeclassicebooks.com

never free herself of the conviction that it would require less provocation to

witness it put to other and less harmless uses.

His manner toward her was surly, yet she never failed to meet him with a

pleasant smile and a word of thanks when he brought her food to her, though

more often than not she hurled the bulk of it through the tiny cabin port the

moment that the door closed behind him.

During the days of anguish that followed Jane Clayton's imprisonment, but two

questions were uppermost in her mind--the whereabouts of her husband and her

son. She fully believed that the baby was aboard the Kincaid, provided that he

still lived, but whether Tarzan had been permitted to live after having been lured

aboard the evil craft she could not guess.

She knew, of course, the deep hatred that the Russian felt for the Englishman,

and she could think of but one reason for having him brought aboard the ship--to

dispatch him in comparative safety in revenge for his having thwarted Rokoff's

pet schemes, and for having been at last the means of landing him in a French

prison.

Tarzan, on his part, lay in the darkness of his cell, ignorant of the fact that his

wife was a prisoner in the cabin almost above his head.

The same Swede that served Jane brought his meals to him, but, though on

several occasions Tarzan had tried to draw the man into conversation, he had

been unsuccessful. He had hoped to learn through this fellow whether his little

son was aboard the Kincaid, but to every question upon this or kindred subjects

the fellow returned but one reply, "Ay tank it blow purty soon purty hard." So

after several attempts Tarzan gave it up.

For weeks that seemed months to the two prisoners the little steamer forged on

they knew not where. Once the Kincaid stopped to coal, only immediately to take

up the seemingly interminable voyage.

Rokoff had visited Jane Clayton but once since he had locked her in the tiny

cabin. He had come gaunt and hollow-eyed from a long siege of sea-sickness.

The object of his visit was to obtain from her her personal cheque for a large sum

in return for a guarantee of her personal safety and return to England.

When you set me down safely in any civilized port, together with my son and my

husband," she replied, "I will pay you in gold twice the amount you ask; but until

then you shall not have a cent, nor the promise of a cent under any other

conditions."

The Beasts of Tarzan