5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
1 | 41 | 81 | 122 | 162 |
www.freeclassicebooks.com
For ten minutes after the ape-man had left her Jane Clayton walked restlessly
back and forth across the silken rugs of the library. Her mother heart ached,
bereft of its first-born. Her mind was in an anguish of hopes and fears.
Though her judgment told her that all would be well were her Tarzan to go alone
in accordance with the mysterious stranger's summons, her intuition would not
permit her to lay aside suspicion of the gravest dangers to both her husband and
her son.
The more she thought of the matter, the more convinced she became that the
recent telephone message might be but a ruse to keep them inactive until the boy
was safely hidden away or spirited out of England. Or it might be that it had
been simply a bait to lure Tarzan into the hands of the implacable Rokoff.
With the lodgment of this thought she stopped in wide-eyed terror. Instantly it
became a conviction. She glanced at the great clock ticking the minutes in the
corner of the library.
It was too late to catch the Dover train that Tarzan was to take. There was
another, later, however, that would bring her to the Channel port in time to reach
the address the stranger had given her husband before the appointed hour.
Summoning her maid and chauffeur, she issued instructions rapidly. Ten
minutes later she was being whisked through the crowded streets toward the
railway station.
It was nine-forty-five that night that Tarzan entered the squalid "pub" on the
water-front in Dover. As he passed into the evil-smelling room a muffled figure
brushed past him toward the street.
"Come, my lord!" whispered the stranger.
The ape-man wheeled about and followed the other into the ill-lit alley, which
custom had dignified with the title of thoroughfare. Once outside, the fellow led
the way into the darkness, nearer a wharf, where high-piled bales, boxes, and
casks cast dense shadows. Here he halted.
"
"
Where is the boy?" asked Greystoke.
On that small steamer whose lights you can just see yonder," replied the other.
In the gloom Tarzan was trying to peer into the features of his companion, but he
did not recognize the man as one whom he had ever before seen. Had he guessed
that his guide was Alexis Paulvitch he would have realized that naught but
7
Page
Quick Jump
|