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Chapter 20 - Jungle Island Again
The first consideration of the party was to locate fresh water and make camp, for
all knew that their term of existence upon Jungle Island might be drawn out to
months, or even years.
Tarzan knew the nearest water, and to this he immediately led the party. Here
the men fell to work to construct shelters and rude furniture while Tarzan went
into the jungle after meat, leaving the faithful Mugambi and the Mosula woman to
guard Jane, whose safety he would never trust to any member of the Kincaid's
cut-throat crew.
Lady Greystoke suffered far greater anguish than any other of the castaways, for
the blow to her hopes and her already cruelly lacerated mother-heart lay not in
her own privations but in the knowledge that she might now never be able to
learn the fate of her first-born or do aught to discover his whereabouts, or
ameliorate his condition--a condition which imagination naturally pictured in the
most frightful forms.
For two weeks the party divided the time amongst the various duties which had
been allotted to each. A daylight watch was maintained from sunrise to sunset
upon a bluff near the camp--a jutting shoulder of rock which overlooked the sea.
Here, ready for instant lighting, was gathered a huge pile of dry branches, while
from a lofty pole which they had set in the ground there floated an improvised
distress signal fashioned from a red undershirt which belonged to the mate of the
Kincaid.
But never a speck upon the horizon that might be sail or smoke rewarded the
tired eyes that in their endless, hopeless vigil strained daily out across the vast
expanse of ocean.
It was Tarzan who suggested, finally, that they attempt to construct a vessel that
would bear them back to the mainland. He alone could show them how to
fashion rude tools, and when the idea had taken root in the minds of the men
they were eager to commence their labours.
But as time went on and the Herculean nature of their task became more and
more apparent they fell to grumbling, and to quarrelling among themselves, so
that to the other dangers were now added dissension and suspicion.
More than before did Tarzan now fear to leave Jane among the half brutes of the
Kincaid's crew; but hunting he must do, for none other could so surely go forth
and return with meat as he. Sometimes Mugambi spelled him at the hunting;
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