Latest / Tarzan and the Golden Lion / 05 - The Fatal Drops
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter five, The Fatal Drops. At home, the life in
- 0:05Speaker 1: the bungalow and at the farm followed its usual routine
- 0:07Speaker 1: as it had before the departure of Tarzan. Korak, sometimes
- 0:11Speaker 1: on foot and sometimes on horseback, followed the activities of
- 0:14Speaker 1: the farm hands and the herders, sometimes alone, but more
- 0:16Speaker 1: often in company with the white foreman Jervis, and often,
- 0:19Speaker 1: especially when they rode, Jane accompanied them. The golden lion,
- 0:23Speaker 1: Korak exercised upon a leash, since he was not at
- 0:26Speaker 1: all confident of his powers of control over the beast,
- 0:29Speaker 1: and feared lest in the absence of his master, jad
- 0:31Speaker 1: Baljaw might take to the forest to revert to his
- 0:34Speaker 1: natural savage state. Such a lion abroad in the jungle
- 0:37Speaker 1: would be a distinct menace to human life. For jad Baljah,
- 0:40Speaker 1: reared among men, lacked that natural timidity of men that
- 0:43Speaker 1: is so marked a trait of all wild beasts. Trained
- 0:46Speaker 1: as he had been to make his kill at the
- 0:48Speaker 1: throat of a human effigy, it required no considerable powers
- 0:51Speaker 1: of imagination upon the part of Korak to visualize what
- 0:53Speaker 1: might occur should the golden lion, loosed from all restraint,
- 0:56Speaker 1: be thrown upon his own resources in the surrounding jungle.
- 1:00Speaker 1: It was during the first week of Tarzan's absence that
- 1:02Speaker 1: a runner from Nairobi brought a cable message to Lady
- 1:04Speaker 1: Greystoke announcing the serious illness of her father in London.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Mother and son discussed the situation. It would be five
- 1:11Speaker 1: or six weeks before Tarzan could return. Even if they
- 1:13Speaker 1: sent a runner after him and were Jane to await him,
- 1:16Speaker 1: there would be little likelihood of her reaching her father
- 1:19Speaker 1: in time. Even should she depart at once, there seemed
- 1:22Speaker 1: only a faint hope that she would arrive early enough
- 1:24Speaker 1: to see him alive. It was decided therefore that she
- 1:27Speaker 1: should set out immediately. Korak accompanied her as far as Nairobi,
- 1:32Speaker 1: and then returning to the ranch and resuming its general
- 1:34Speaker 1: supervision until his father's returned. It is a long trek
- 1:37Speaker 1: from the Greystoke estate to Nairobi, and Korak had not
- 1:40Speaker 1: yet returned when, about three weeks after Tarzan's departure, a
- 1:43Speaker 1: black whose duty it was to feed and care for
- 1:45Speaker 1: jad Baldjaf, carelessly left the door of the cage unfastened.
- 1:49Speaker 1: While he was cleaned, the golden Lion paced back and
- 1:51Speaker 1: forth while the Black wielded his broom within the cage.
- 1:54Speaker 1: They were old friends, and the Wazir felt no fear
- 1:56Speaker 1: of the great lion, with the result that his back
- 1:58Speaker 1: was as often turned to him as not. The Black
- 2:01Speaker 1: was working in the far corner of the cage when
- 2:03Speaker 1: jod Baljaw paused a moment at the door at the
- 2:05Speaker 1: opposite end. The beasts saw that the gate hung slightly
- 2:08Speaker 1: a jar upon its hinges. Silently, he raised a great
- 2:11Speaker 1: padded paw and inserted it in the opening. A slight
- 2:14Speaker 1: pull on the gate swung in instantly, the golden Lion
- 2:17Speaker 1: inserted his snout in the widened aperture, and as he
- 2:20Speaker 1: swung the barrier aside, the horrified Black looked up to
- 2:22Speaker 1: see his charge drop softly to the ground outside. Stop.
- 2:26Speaker 1: Jod Baljaw Stop, screamed the frightened Black, leaping after him,
- 2:29Speaker 1: but the golden Lion only increased his pace, and, leaping
- 2:32Speaker 1: the fence, loped off in the direction of the forest.
- 2:35Speaker 1: The Black pursued him with brandishing broom, emitting loud yells
- 2:38Speaker 1: that brought the inmates of the waziri huts into the open,
- 2:40Speaker 1: where they joined their fellow in pursuit of the line
- 2:43Speaker 1: across the rolling plains. They followed him, but as well
- 2:46Speaker 1: have sought to snare the elusive willow of the Wisp,
- 2:48Speaker 1: as this swift and wary fugitive who heated neither their
- 2:50Speaker 1: blandishments nor their threats. And so it was that they
- 2:54Speaker 1: saw the Golden Lion disappear into the primeval forest, and
- 2:57Speaker 1: though they searched diligently until almost dark, they were forced
- 3:01Speaker 1: at length to give up their quest and return crestfallen
- 3:03Speaker 1: to the farm. Ah, cried the unhappy black, who had
- 3:07Speaker 1: been responsible for the escape of jodh Baljah. What will
- 3:10Speaker 1: the big Buana say to me? What will he do
- 3:13Speaker 1: to me when he finds out that I have permitted
- 3:14Speaker 1: the Golden Iron to get away? You will be banished
- 3:18Speaker 1: from the bungalow for a long time, Kiwazi, old Muviro,
- 3:22Speaker 1: assured him. And doubtless you will be sent to the
- 3:24Speaker 1: grazing ground far to the east to guard the herd
- 3:27Speaker 1: there where you have plenty of lines for company, though
- 3:30Speaker 1: they will not be as friendly as was jod Baljah.
- 3:33Speaker 1: It is not half what you deserve. And were the
- 3:36Speaker 1: heart of the big Wuana not filled with love for
- 3:38Speaker 1: his black children were he like other white wannas old
- 3:41Speaker 1: Muviro has seen, you would be blashed until you could
- 3:45Speaker 1: not stand, perhaps until you died. I am a man,
- 3:50Speaker 1: replied Kiwazi. I am a warrior and av Waziri. Whatever
- 3:54Speaker 1: punishment the big Buana inflicts, I will accept as a
- 3:57Speaker 1: man should. It was that same night that Tarzan approached
- 4:00Speaker 1: the camp fires of the strange party he had been tracking.
- 4:03Speaker 1: Unseen by them, he halted in the foliage of a
- 4:05Speaker 1: tree directly in the center of their camp, which was
- 4:07Speaker 1: surrounded by an enormous thorn boma and brilliantly lighted by
- 4:11Speaker 1: numerous fires, which Blacks were diligently feeding with branches from
- 4:14Speaker 1: an enormous pile of firewood that they had evidently gathered
- 4:17Speaker 1: earlier in the day for this purpose. Near the center
- 4:20Speaker 1: of the camp were several tents, and before one, in
- 4:23Speaker 1: the light of a fire, sat four white men. Two
- 4:25Speaker 1: of them were great, bull necked, red faced fellows, apparently
- 4:28Speaker 1: Englishmen of the lower class. The third appeared to be
- 4:31Speaker 1: a short, fat German jew, while the fourth was a tall, slender,
- 4:35Speaker 1: handsome fellow with dark, wavy brown hair and regular features.
- 4:39Speaker 1: He and the German were most meticulously garbed for Central
- 4:41Speaker 1: African traveling after the highly idealized standard of motion pictures.
- 4:46Speaker 1: In fact, either one of them might have stepped directly
- 4:48Speaker 1: from a screening of the latest Jungle thriller. The young
- 4:51Speaker 1: man was evidently not of English descent, and Tarzan mentally
- 4:54Speaker 1: cataloged him almost immediately as a slav. Shortly after Tarzan's arrival,
- 4:59Speaker 1: this one arose and entered one of the nearby tents,
- 5:02Speaker 1: from which Tarzan immediately heard the sound of voices in
- 5:04Speaker 1: low conversation. He could not distinguish the words, but the
- 5:07Speaker 1: tones of one seemed quite distinctly feminine. The three remaining
- 5:11Speaker 1: at the fire were carrying on a desultory conversation when suddenly,
- 5:14Speaker 1: from near at hand, beyond the Boma wall, a lion's
- 5:17Speaker 1: roar broke the silence of the jungle with a startled shriek.
- 5:20Speaker 1: The Jew leaped to his feet so suddenly that he
- 5:22Speaker 1: cleared the ground a good foot, and then stepping backward,
- 5:25Speaker 1: he lost his balance, tripped over his campstool and sprawled
- 5:28Speaker 1: upon his back. My gold, Adolph, roared one of his companions.
- 5:32Speaker 1: If you do that again, damn me. If I don't
- 5:35Speaker 1: break your neck. Here we are, and that's that BlimE
- 5:38Speaker 1: me if he ain't worse than a bloomin lion, growled
- 5:41Speaker 1: the other. The Jew crawled to his feet. Mine gut,
- 5:44Speaker 1: he cried, his voice quavering. I thought for sure he
- 5:47Speaker 1: was coming over the fence. Help me if I ever
- 5:50Speaker 1: get out of this sniffer again. Not for alter gold
- 5:53Speaker 1: in Africa would I go through what I have been
- 5:55Speaker 1: through these past three months? Oi oi vina tink of
- 5:59Speaker 1: it oh oich cliants and leopards and renoso in hippopotamises
- 6:06Speaker 1: oich oich. His companions laughed, Dick, and I tell you
- 6:10Speaker 1: right long from the beginning that you had not come
- 6:12Speaker 1: into the interior, said one of them. Well Svah, buy
- 6:15Speaker 1: all these clothes, wailed the German. Myn God, this suit
- 6:20Speaker 1: it stands me twenty guineas. But I stand in ach.
- 6:24Speaker 1: Had I known something, Van Guineas would have brought me
- 6:27Speaker 1: my whole vardrobe Vincy Guineas for this Novan to see it.
- 6:31Speaker 1: But niggers wun't lions. Well you look like ellen it besides,
- 6:35Speaker 1: commented one of his friends. Once look at it, it's
- 6:38Speaker 1: all dirty and torn. How should I know it? I
- 6:41Speaker 1: spoiled this suit. It's my own eyes. I see it
- 6:44Speaker 1: at their princess theater. How'd their hero spend three months
- 6:48Speaker 1: in Africa hunting lions, in killing cannibals and when he
- 6:52Speaker 1: comes out he hasn't even got a grease stain on
- 6:54Speaker 1: his pants? How should I know it? Africa are so
- 6:57Speaker 1: dirty uns full of tarns. It was at this point
- 7:00Speaker 1: that Tarzan of the Apes elected to drop quietly into
- 7:03Speaker 1: the circle of firelight before them. The two Englishmen leaped
- 7:06Speaker 1: to their feet, quite evidently startled, and the Jew turned
- 7:09Speaker 1: and took a half step, as though in flight. But
- 7:11Speaker 1: immediately his eyes resting upon the Ape Man, he halted
- 7:14Speaker 1: a look of relief, supplanting that of terror which had
- 7:16Speaker 1: overspread his countenance. As Tarzan had dropped among them, apparently
- 7:19Speaker 1: from the heavens. Mangat Esteban shrilled the German valu come
- 7:24Speaker 1: back so soon? And for a valu come back like
- 7:26Speaker 1: thoughts Sadden, don't you suppose we got nerves? Tarzan was angry,
- 7:32Speaker 1: angry at these raw intruders who dared enter without his
- 7:34Speaker 1: permission the wide domain in which he kept peace and order.
- 7:38Speaker 1: When Tarzan was angry, they flamed upon his forehead. The
- 7:40Speaker 1: scar that Bolgani the guerrilla had placed there upon that
- 7:43Speaker 1: long gone day when the boy Tarzan had met the
- 7:46Speaker 1: great Beast in mortal combat and first learned the true
- 7:48Speaker 1: value of his father's hunting knife, the knife that had
- 7:51Speaker 1: placed him the comparatively weak little Tarmangani upon an even
- 7:54Speaker 1: footing with the great beasts of the jungle. His gray
- 7:57Speaker 1: eyes were narrowed. His voice came cold and level as
- 7:59Speaker 1: he had Who are you, he demanded, Who dare thus
- 8:04Speaker 1: invade the country of the Wazir, the land of Tarzan
- 8:07Speaker 1: without permission from the lord of the jungle. Where do
- 8:09Speaker 1: you get that stuff is duban, demanded one of the Englishmen.
- 8:13Speaker 1: And what nell are you doing back here alone? And
- 8:15Speaker 1: so soon? Where are your porters? Where's the blooming gold?
- 8:19Speaker 1: The ape man eyed the speaker in silence for a moment.
- 8:22Speaker 1: I am Tarzan of the apes, he said, I do
- 8:25Speaker 1: not know what you were talking about. I only know
- 8:27Speaker 1: that I come in search of him who slew Gobu,
- 8:29Speaker 1: the great Ape, him who slew bar the deer without
- 8:33Speaker 1: my permission. Oh well, exploded the other Englishman. Stow the Guphestevan,
- 8:39Speaker 1: if you're trying to be funny, we don't say the joke.
- 8:41Speaker 1: Here we are, and that's that Inside the tent which
- 8:45Speaker 1: the fourth white Man had injured. While Tarzan was watching
- 8:47Speaker 1: the camp from his hiding place in the tree above,
- 8:49Speaker 1: a woman, evidently suddenly stirred by terror, touched the arm
- 8:52Speaker 1: of her companion frantically and pointed toward the tall, almost
- 8:55Speaker 1: naked figure of the Ape man as he stood revealed
- 8:57Speaker 1: in the full light of the beast spires. God Karl,
- 9:01Speaker 1: she whispered, in trembling tones. Look what's wrong, Flora inquired
- 9:06Speaker 1: her companion. I see only Istevan. It is not Estebon,
- 9:11Speaker 1: is the girl. It is Lord Greystook himself. It is
- 9:14Speaker 1: Tarzan of the Apes. You are mad, Flora replied the man.
- 9:19Speaker 1: It cannot be he. It is he, though she insisted,
- 9:23Speaker 1: Do you suppose that I do not know him? Did
- 9:25Speaker 1: I not work in his townhouse for years? Did I
- 9:28Speaker 1: not see him nearly every day? Do you suppose that
- 9:31Speaker 1: I do not know Tarzan of the Apes? Look at
- 9:34Speaker 1: that red scar flaming on his forehead. I have heard
- 9:37Speaker 1: the story of that scar, and I have seen it
- 9:39Speaker 1: burn scarlet when he was aroused to anger. It is
- 9:42Speaker 1: scarlet now, and Tarzan the apes is angry. Well, suppose
- 9:47Speaker 1: it is Tarzan of the Apes. What can he do?
- 9:50Speaker 1: You do not know him, replied the girl. You do
- 9:52Speaker 1: not guess the tremendous power he wields here, the power
- 9:55Speaker 1: of life and death of a man and beast. If
- 9:58Speaker 1: he wore a mission here, not one of us would
- 10:00Speaker 1: ever reach the coast alive. The very fact that he's
- 10:03Speaker 1: here now makes me believe that he may have discovered
- 10:05Speaker 1: our purpose. And if he has, God help us. Unless, unless, unless,
- 10:12Speaker 1: what demanded the man. The girl was silent and thought
- 10:15Speaker 1: for a moment. There is only one way, she said. Finally,
- 10:19Speaker 1: we dare not kill him. His savage blacks would learn
- 10:22Speaker 1: of it, and no power on earth could save us.
- 10:24Speaker 1: Then there is a way, though, if we act quickly.
- 10:28Speaker 1: She turned and searched for a moment in one of
- 10:29Speaker 1: her bags, and presently handed the man a small bottle
- 10:32Speaker 1: containing liquid. Go out and talk to him, she said.
- 10:35Speaker 1: Make friends with him, lie to him, tell him anything,
- 10:39Speaker 1: promise anything. But get on friendly enough terms with him
- 10:42Speaker 1: so that you can offer him coffee. He does not
- 10:44Speaker 1: drink wine or anything with alcohol in it, but I don't
- 10:47Speaker 1: know that he likes coffee. I have often served it
- 10:49Speaker 1: to him in his room late at night, upon his
- 10:51Speaker 1: return from the theater or a ball. Get him to
- 10:54Speaker 1: drink coffee, and then you will know what to do
- 10:56Speaker 1: with this. And she indicated the bottle which the man
- 10:59Speaker 1: still held in his hand. Krasky nodded. I understand, he said,
- 11:04Speaker 1: and turning left the tent. He had taken but a
- 11:07Speaker 1: step when the girl recalled him. Do not let him
- 11:09Speaker 1: see me. Do not let him guess that I am here,
- 11:12Speaker 1: that you know me. The man nodded and left her.
- 11:14Speaker 1: Approaching the tense figures before the fire, he greeted Tarzan
- 11:17Speaker 1: with a pleasant smile and a cheery word. Well come,
- 11:20Speaker 1: he said. We had always glad to see a stranger
- 11:23Speaker 1: in our camp. Sit down, hang the gentleman a stool, john,
- 11:27Speaker 1: he said to Peebles. The ape man eyed Krasky as
- 11:30Speaker 1: he had eyed the others. There was no answering friendly
- 11:33Speaker 1: light in the eyes. Responding to the Russians greeting, I
- 11:36Speaker 1: have been trying to find out what your party is
- 11:38Speaker 1: doing here, he said sharply to the Russian. But they
- 11:41Speaker 1: still insist that I am some one whom I am not.
- 11:44Speaker 1: They are either fools or knaves, and I intend to
- 11:46Speaker 1: find out which and deal with them accordingly. Come, Come,
- 11:50Speaker 1: cried Krasky soothingly. There must be some mistake. I am sure,
- 11:54Speaker 1: but tell me who are of you? I am Tarzan
- 11:57Speaker 1: of the Apes, replied the Ape man. No hunters injured
- 12:00Speaker 1: this part of Africa without my permission. That fact is
- 12:03Speaker 1: so well known that there is no chance of your
- 12:05Speaker 1: having passed the coast without having been so advised. I
- 12:08Speaker 1: seek an explanation, and that quickly. Ah, you are Tarzan
- 12:13Speaker 1: of the Apes, exclaimed Krasky. Fortunate indeed are we? For
- 12:17Speaker 1: now we may be set straight upon our way and
- 12:19Speaker 1: escape from our frightful dilemma. Is assured. We are lost, sir,
- 12:23Speaker 1: inextricably lost, due to the ignorance or knavery of our
- 12:26Speaker 1: own guide, who deserted us several weeks ago. Surely we
- 12:30Speaker 1: knew of you, who does not know of Tarzan of
- 12:32Speaker 1: the Apes. But it was not our intention to cross
- 12:34Speaker 1: the boundaries of your territory. We were searching farther south
- 12:38Speaker 1: for specimens of the fauna of the district, which our
- 12:40Speaker 1: good friend and employer here, mister Adolph Blueber, is collecting
- 12:44Speaker 1: a great expense for presentation to a museum in his
- 12:46Speaker 1: home city in America. Now I ensure that you can
- 12:49Speaker 1: tell us where we are and direct us upon our
- 12:51Speaker 1: proper course. People's strock and Blueber stood fascinated by Krasky's
- 12:55Speaker 1: glib lies. But it was the German Jew who first
- 12:58Speaker 1: rose to the occasion to think the skulls of the
- 13:00Speaker 1: English pugs to grasp quickly the clever rules of the Russian.
- 13:04Speaker 1: That yes, said the oily Blueber, rubbing his palms together.
- 13:07Speaker 1: Dot is eat, Just what I was going to tell you.
- 13:11Speaker 1: Tarzan turned sharply upon him. Then what was all this
- 13:14Speaker 1: talk about Esteban? He asked? Was it not by that
- 13:17Speaker 1: name that these others addressed me? Ah, John will have
- 13:21Speaker 1: his lethal joke. He is ignorant of Africa. He has
- 13:25Speaker 1: never been here before. He taught, perhaps that you are
- 13:27Speaker 1: a native. John calls all their natives Esteban when he
- 13:31Speaker 1: has great jokes by himself meeting, because he knows they
- 13:34Speaker 1: cannot understand what he says. Hey, John, he is eat,
- 13:38Speaker 1: not so what it is I say. But the shrewd
- 13:41Speaker 1: Blueber did not wait for John to reply. You see,
- 13:44Speaker 1: he went on, if we are lost, won't you take
- 13:47Speaker 1: us out to meetist jungle? We pay you anything, you
- 13:50Speaker 1: name your price. Eight Man only half believed him, Yet
- 13:54Speaker 1: he was somewhat mollified by their evidently friendly intentions. Perhaps,
- 13:57Speaker 1: after all, they were telling him a half truth and
- 14:00Speaker 1: had really wandered into his territory unwittingly. That, however, he
- 14:04Speaker 1: would find out definitely from their native carriers, from whom
- 14:07Speaker 1: his own Lazirri would wan the truth. But the matter
- 14:10Speaker 1: of his having been mistaken for Esteban still piqued his curiosity. Also,
- 14:14Speaker 1: he was still desirous of learning the identity of the
- 14:16Speaker 1: slaver of Gobu the Great Eight. Please sit down, urged Krasky.
- 14:21Speaker 1: We were about to have coffee, and we should be
- 14:24Speaker 1: delighted the heavy join us. We meant no wrong in
- 14:27Speaker 1: coming here, and I can assure you that we will
- 14:29Speaker 1: gladly and willingly make full amens to you what to whom,
- 14:32Speaker 1: heyver else we may have unintentionally wronged. To take coffee
- 14:36Speaker 1: with these men would do no harm. Perhaps he had
- 14:39Speaker 1: wronged them, but however that might be a cup of
- 14:41Speaker 1: their coffee would place no great obligation upon him. Flora
- 14:44Speaker 1: had been right in her assertation that if Tarzan of
- 14:47Speaker 1: the Apes had any weakness, whatsoever it was for an
- 14:50Speaker 1: occasional cup of black coffee late at night. He did
- 14:52Speaker 1: not accept the proffered campstool, but squatted ape fashioned before them,
- 14:56Speaker 1: the flickering light of the beast fires playing upon his
- 14:59Speaker 1: bronzed hide, and bringing into relief the gracefully contoured muscles
- 15:02Speaker 1: of his godlike frame, not as the muscles of the
- 15:05Speaker 1: blacksmith or the professional strong man were the muscles of
- 15:08Speaker 1: Tarzan and the Apes, but rather those of Mercury or Apollo.
- 15:11Speaker 1: So symmetrically balanced were their proportions, suggesting only the great
- 15:14Speaker 1: strength that lay in them. Trained to speed and agility
- 15:17Speaker 1: were they as well as to strength, and thus clothing
- 15:21Speaker 1: as they did his giant frame. They imparted to hand
- 15:23Speaker 1: the appearance of a demi god. Throc Peeples and Blueber
- 15:27Speaker 1: sat watching him and spell bound fascination, while Krasky walked
- 15:30Speaker 1: over to the cook fire to arrange for the coffee.
- 15:32Speaker 1: The two Englishmen were as yet only half awakened to
- 15:34Speaker 1: the fact that they had mistaken this newcomer for another,
- 15:37Speaker 1: and as it was people still scratched his head and
- 15:40Speaker 1: grumbled to himself, an inarticulate half denial of Krasky's assumption
- 15:43Speaker 1: of the new identity of Tarzan, Bluber was inwardly terror stricken.
- 15:47Speaker 1: His keener intelligence had quickly grasped the truth of Kraski's
- 15:50Speaker 1: recognition of the men for what he was, rather than
- 15:52Speaker 1: for what peoples and Throck had thought him to be,
- 15:55Speaker 1: and as we would be nothing of Flora's plan, he
- 15:57Speaker 1: was in quite a state of funk as he tried
- 15:59Speaker 1: to visualize the outcome of Tarzan's discovery of them at
- 16:01Speaker 1: the very threshold of Opah. He did not realize, as
- 16:04Speaker 1: did Flora, that their very lives were in danger, that
- 16:07Speaker 1: it was Tarzan of the Apes, a beast of the
- 16:09Speaker 1: general with whom they had to deal, and not John Clayton,
- 16:12Speaker 1: Lord Greystoke, an English peer. Rather, was Uber considering the
- 16:16Speaker 1: two thousand pounds that they stood to lose through this
- 16:18Speaker 1: deplorable termination of their expedition, for he was sufficiently familiar
- 16:21Speaker 1: with the reputation of the Ape Man to know that
- 16:23Speaker 1: they would never be permitted to take with them the
- 16:25Speaker 1: gold that Esteban was very likely at this moment differing
- 16:28Speaker 1: from the vaults of Oparh. Really, Luba was almost upon
- 16:32Speaker 1: the verge of tears when Krasky returned with the coffee,
- 16:34Speaker 1: which he brought himself. From the dark shadows of the
- 16:37Speaker 1: tense interior flora, Hawks looked nervously out upon the scene
- 16:40Speaker 1: before her. She was terrified at the possibility of discovery
- 16:43Speaker 1: by her former employer, for she had been a maid
- 16:46Speaker 1: in the Greystoakes London Townhouse as well as at the
- 16:48Speaker 1: African Bungalow, and knew that Lloyd Greystoke would recognize her
- 16:52Speaker 1: instantly should he chance to see her. She entertained for
- 16:54Speaker 1: him now in his jungle haunts, a fear that was
- 16:56Speaker 1: possibly greater than Tarzan's true character warranted, but none the
- 17:00Speaker 1: less real was it to the girl, whose guilty conscience
- 17:02Speaker 1: conjured all sorts of possible punishments for her disloyalty those
- 17:05Speaker 1: who had always treated her with uniform kindliness and consideration.
- 17:09Speaker 1: Constant dreaming of the fabulous wealth of the treasury vaults
- 17:12Speaker 1: of Opar, concerning which she had heard so much in
- 17:14Speaker 1: detail from the conversations of the gray Stokes, had aroused
- 17:17Speaker 1: within her natural, crafty and unscrupulous mind a desire for possession,
- 17:21Speaker 1: and in consequence thereof she had slowly visualized the scheme.
- 17:24Speaker 1: Although she might loot the treasurevaults of a sufficient member
- 17:26Speaker 1: of the Golden Ingots to make her independently wealthy for life.
- 17:30Speaker 1: The entire plan had been hers. She had at first
- 17:32Speaker 1: intrusted Krasky, who had in turn enlisted the cooperation of
- 17:36Speaker 1: the two Englishmen and Bluebird, and these four had raised
- 17:39Speaker 1: the necessary money to defray the cost of the expedition.
- 17:42Speaker 1: It had been Flora who had searched for a type
- 17:44Speaker 1: of man who might successfully impersonate Tarzan in his own jungle,
- 17:47Speaker 1: and she had found Esteban Miranda, a handsome, powerful and
- 17:50Speaker 1: unscrupulous Spaniard whose histrionic ability, aided by the art of makeup,
- 17:54Speaker 1: of which she was a past master, permitted him to
- 17:56Speaker 1: almost flawlessly impersonate the character they desired him to portray.
- 18:00Speaker 1: In so far, at least as outward appearances were concerned,
- 18:03Speaker 1: the spaniard was not only powerful and active, but physically
- 18:06Speaker 1: courageous as well, And since he had shaved his beard
- 18:09Speaker 1: and donned the jungle habiliments of Tarzan, he had lost
- 18:11Speaker 1: no opportunity for emulating the ape man in every way
- 18:14Speaker 1: that lay within his ability of jungle craft he had none,
- 18:17Speaker 1: of course, and personal combats with the more savage jungle beasts.
- 18:20Speaker 1: Caution prompted him to a shoe, but he hunted the
- 18:23Speaker 1: lesser game the spear and with arrow, and practiced continually
- 18:26Speaker 1: with the grass rope that was a part of his
- 18:28Speaker 1: make up. And now Flora Hawks saw all her well
- 18:31Speaker 1: laid plans upon the verge of destruction. She trembled as
- 18:34Speaker 1: she watched the men before the fire, for her fear
- 18:36Speaker 1: of Tarzan was very real. And then she became tense
- 18:39Speaker 1: with nervous anticipation as she saw Krasky approaching the group
- 18:42Speaker 1: with the coffee pot in one hand and cups in
- 18:44Speaker 1: the other. Krasky set the pot and the cups down
- 18:46Speaker 1: the ground a little in the rear of Tarzan, and
- 18:49Speaker 1: as he filled the latter, she saw him pour a
- 18:51Speaker 1: portion of the contents of the bottle she had given
- 18:53Speaker 1: him into one of the cups. A cold sweat broke
- 18:55Speaker 1: out upon her forehead as Krasky lifted the cup and
- 18:58Speaker 1: offered it to the ape man take it, would he suspect?
- 19:02Speaker 1: If he did, suspect, what horrible punishment would be needed
- 19:04Speaker 1: to them all for their temerity. She saw Crasky hand
- 19:07Speaker 1: another cup to Peebles, Frock and Blueber and then to
- 19:10Speaker 1: the circle, with the last one for himself. As the
- 19:13Speaker 1: Russian raised it before his face and bowed politely to
- 19:15Speaker 1: the ape man, she saw the five men drink. The
- 19:18Speaker 1: reaction which ensued left her weak and spent. Turning. She
- 19:21Speaker 1: clapsed upon her cot and lay there trembling, her face
- 19:24Speaker 1: buried in her arm. And outside, Tarzan and the apes
- 19:27Speaker 1: drained his cup to the last draw end of chapter