| 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 |
| 1 | 41 | 81 | 122 | 162 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
As the two crossed toward Gust's tent the Maori felt the edge of his long knife
with one grimy, calloused thumb. The Swede would have felt far from
comfortable could he have seen this significant action, or read what was passing
amid the convolutions of the brown man's cruel brain.
Now it happened that Gust was at that moment in the tent occupied by the cook,
and this tent stood but a few feet from his own. So that he heard the approach of
Kai Shang and Momulla, though he did not, of course, dream that it had any
special significance for him.
Chance had it, though, that he glanced out of the doorway of the cook's tent at
the very moment that Kai Shang and Momulla approached the entrance to his,
and he thought that he noted a stealthiness in their movements that comported
poorly with amicable or friendly intentions, and then, just as they two slunk
within the interior, Gust caught a glimpse of the long knife which Momulla the
Maori was then carrying behind his back.
The Swede's eyes opened wide, and a funny little sensation assailed the roots of
his hairs. Also he turned almost white beneath his tan. Quite precipitately he left
the cook's tent. He was not one who required a detailed exposition of intentions
that were quite all too obvious.
As surely as though he had heard them plotting, he knew that Kai Shang and
Momulla had come to take his life. The knowledge that he alone could navigate
the Cowrie had, up to now, been sufficient assurance of his safety; but quite
evidently something had occurred of which he had no knowledge that would
make it quite worth the while of his co-conspirators to eliminate him.
Without a pause Gust darted across the beach and into the jungle. He was afraid
of the jungle; uncanny noises that were indeed frightful came forth from its
recesses--the tangled mazes of the mysterious country back of the beach.
But if Gust was afraid of the jungle he was far more afraid of Kai Shang and
Momulla. The dangers of the jungle were more or less problematical, while the
danger that menaced him at the hands of his companions was a perfectly well-
known quantity, which might be expressed in terms of a few inches of cold steel,
or the coil of a light rope. He had seen Kai Shang garrotte a man at Pai-sha in a
dark alleyway back of Loo Kotai's place. He feared the rope, therefore, more than
he did the knife of the Maori; but he feared them both too much to remain within
reach of either. Therefore he chose the pitiless jungle.
152
Page
Quick Jump
|