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Chapter 19 - The Last of the "Kincaid"
Shortly after the break of day Tarzan was on deck noting the condition of the
weather. The wind had abated. The sky was cloudless. Every condition seemed
ideal for the commencement of the return voyage to Jungle Island, where the
beasts were to be left. And then--home!
The ape-man aroused the mate and gave instructions that the Kincaid sail at the
earliest possible moment. The remaining members of the crew, safe in Lord
Greystoke's assurance that they would not be prosecuted for their share in the
villainies of the two Russians, hastened with cheerful alacrity to their several
duties.
The beasts, liberated from the confinement of the hold, wandered about the deck,
not a little to the discomfiture of the crew in whose minds there remained a still
vivid picture of the savagery of the beasts in conflict with those who had gone to
their deaths beneath the fangs and talons which even now seemed itching for the
soft flesh of further prey.
Beneath the watchful eyes of Tarzan and Mugambi, however, Sheeta and the apes
of Akut curbed their desires, so that the men worked about the deck amongst
them in far greater security than they imagined.
At last the Kincaid slipped down the Ugambi and ran out upon the shimmering
waters of the Atlantic. Tarzan and Jane Clayton watched the verdure-clad shore-
line receding in the ship's wake, and for once the ape-man left his native soil
without one single pang of regret.
No ship that sailed the seven seas could have borne him away from Africa to
resume his search for his lost boy with half the speed that the Englishman would
have desired, and the slow-moving Kincaid seemed scarce to move at all to the
impatient mind of the bereaved father.
Yet the vessel made progress even when she seemed to be standing still, and
presently the low hills of Jungle Island became distinctly visible upon the western
horizon ahead.
In the cabin of Alexander Paulvitch the thing within the black box ticked, ticked,
ticked, with apparently unending monotony; but yet, second by second, a little
arm which protruded from the periphery of one of its wheels came nearer and
nearer to another little arm which projected from the hand which Paulvitch had
set at a certain point upon the dial beside the clockwork. When those two arms
touched one another the ticking of the mechanism would cease--for ever.
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