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The first intimation the watch had that there was another craft within a thousand

miles of the Cowrie came when he saw the head and shoulders of a man poked

over the ship's side. Instantly the fellow sprang to his feet with a cry and levelled

his revolver at the intruder. It was his cry and the subsequent report of the

revolver which threw Jane Clayton off her guard.

Upon deck the quiet of fancied security soon gave place to the wildest

pandemonium. The crew of the Cowrie rushed above armed with revolvers,

cutlasses, and the long knives that many of them habitually wore; but the alarm

had come too late. Already the beasts of Tarzan were upon the ship's deck, with

Tarzan and the two men of the Kincaid's crew.

In the face of the frightful beasts the courage of the mutineers wavered and

broke. Those with revolvers fired a few scattering shots and then raced for some

place of supposed safety. Into the shrouds went some; but the apes of Akut were

more at home there than they.

Screaming with terror the Maoris were dragged from their lofty perches. The

beasts, uncontrolled by Tarzan who had gone in search of Jane, loosed the full

fury of their savage natures upon the unhappy wretches who fell into their

clutches.

Sheeta, in the meanwhile, had felt his great fangs sink into but a single jugular.

For a moment he mauled the corpse, and then he spied Kai Shang darting down

the companionway toward his cabin.

With a shrill scream Sheeta was after him--a scream which awoke an almost

equally uncanny cry in the throat of the terror-stricken Chinaman.

But Kai Shang reached his cabin a fraction of a second ahead of the panther, and

leaping within slammed the door--just too late. Sheeta's great body hurtled

against it before the catch engaged, and a moment later Kai Shang was gibbering

and shrieking in the back of an upper berth.

Lightly Sheeta sprang after his victim, and presently the wicked days of Kai

Shang of Fachan were ended, and Sheeta was gorging himself upon tough and

stringy flesh.

A moment scarcely had elapsed after Schneider leaped upon Jane Clayton and

wrenched the revolver from her hand, when the door of the cabin opened and a

tall and half-naked white man stood framed within the portal.

159

The Beasts of Tarzan