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Chapter 21 - The Law of the Jungle
In Tarzan's camp, by dint of threats and promised rewards, the ape-man had
finally succeeded in getting the hull of a large skiff almost completed. Much of
the work he and Mugambi had done with their own hands in addition to
furnishing the camp with meat.
Schneider, the mate, had been doing considerable grumbling, and had at last
openly deserted the work and gone off into the jungle with Schmidt to hunt. He
said that he wanted a rest, and Tarzan, rather than add to the unpleasantness
which already made camp life almost unendurable, had permitted the two men to
depart without a remonstrance.
Upon the following day, however, Schneider affected a feeling of remorse for his
action, and set to work with a will upon the skiff. Schmidt also worked good-
naturedly, and Lord Greystoke congratulated himself that at last the men had
awakened to the necessity for the labour which was being asked of them and to
their obligations to the balance of the party.
It was with a feeling of greater relief than he had experienced for many a day that
he set out that noon to hunt deep in the jungle for a herd of small deer which
Schneider reported that he and Schmidt had seen there the day before.
The direction in which Schneider had reported seeing the deer was toward the
south-west, and to that point the ape-man swung easily through the tangled
verdure of the forest.
And as he went there approached from the north a half-dozen ill-featured men
who went stealthily through the jungle as go men bent upon the commission of a
wicked act.
They thought that they travelled unseen; but behind them, almost from the
moment they quitted their own camp, a tall man crept upon their trail. In the
man's eyes were hate and fear, and a great curiosity. Why went Kai Shang and
Momulla and the others thus stealthily toward the south? What did they expect
to find there? Gust shook his low-browed head in perplexity. But he would
know. He would follow them and learn their plans, and then if he could thwart
them he would--that went without question.
At first he had thought that they searched for him; but finally his better judgment
assured him that such could not be the case, since they had accomplished all
they really desired by chasing him out of camp. Never would Kai Shang or
Momulla go to such pains to slay him or another unless it would put money into
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