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"Further, I may say that only by meeting M. Rokoff's just demands may you avert

the most unpleasant consequences to your wife and child, and at the same time

retain your own life and regain your liberty."

What is the amount?" asked Tarzan. "And what assurance have I that you will

live up to your end of the agreement? I have little reason to trust two such

scoundrels as you and Rokoff, you know."

The Russian flushed.

"You are in no position to deliver insults," he said. "You have no assurance that

we will live up to our agreement other than my word, but you have before you the

assurance that we can make short work of you if you do not write out the cheque

we demand.

"Unless you are a greater fool than I imagine, you should know that there is

nothing that would give us greater pleasure than to order these men to fire. That

we do not is because we have other plans for punishing you that would be

entirely upset by your death."

"Answer one question," said Tarzan. "Is my son on board this ship?"

No," replied Alexis Paulvitch, "your son is quite safe elsewhere; nor will he be

killed until you refuse to accede to our fair demands. If it becomes necessary to

kill you, there will be no reason for not killing the child, since with you gone the

one whom we wish to punish through the boy will be gone, and he will then be to

us only a constant source of danger and embarrassment. You see, therefore, that

you may only save the life of your son by saving your own, and you can only save

your own by giving us the cheque we ask."

"Very well," replied Tarzan, for he knew that he could trust them to carry out any

sinister threat that Paulvitch had made, and there was a bare chance that by

conceding their demands he might save the boy.

That they would permit him to live after he had appended his name to the cheque

never occurred to him as being within the realms of probability. But he was

determined to give them such a battle as they would never forget, and possibly to

take Paulvitch with him into eternity. He was only sorry that it was not Rokoff.

He took his pocket cheque-book and fountain-pen from his pocket.

What is the amount?" he asked.

Paulvitch named an enormous sum. Tarzan could scarce restrain a smile.

The Beasts of Tarzan