Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

21

The Flight to the Jungle

Sleepless upon his blankets, Albert Werper let his evil mind dwell upon the charms of the woman in the nearby tent.  He had noted Mohammed Beyd’s sudden interest in the girl, and judging the man by his own standards, had guessed at the basis of the Arab’s sudden change of attitude toward the prisoner.

And as he let his imaginings run riot they aroused within him a bestial jealousy of Mohammed Beyd, and a great fear that the other might encompass his base designs upon the defenseless girl.  By a strange process of reasoning, Werper, whose designs were identical with the Arab’s, pictured himself as Jane Clayton’s protector, and presently convinced himself that the attentions which might seem hideous to her if proffered by Mohammed Beyd, would be welcomed from Albert Werper.

Her husband was dead, and Werper fancied that he could replace in the girl’s heart the position which had been vacated by the act of the grim reaper.  He could offer Jane Clayton marriage—­a thing which Mohammed Beyd would not offer, and which the girl would spurn from him with as deep disgust as she would his unholy lust.

It was not long before the Belgian had succeeded in convincing himself that the captive not only had every reason for having conceived sentiments of love for him; but that she had by various feminine methods acknowledged her new-born affection.

And then a sudden resolution possessed him.  He threw the blankets from him and rose to his feet.  Pulling on his boots and buckling his cartridge belt and revolver about his hips he stepped to the flap of his tent and looked out.  There was no sentry before the entrance to the prisoner’s tent!  What could it mean?  Fate was indeed playing into his hands.

Stepping outside he passed to the rear of the girl’s tent.  There was no sentry there, either!  And now, boldly, he walked to the entrance and stepped within.

Dimly the moonlight illumined the interior.  Across the tent a figure bent above the blankets of a bed.  There was a whispered word, and another figure rose from the blankets to a sitting position.  Slowly Albert Werper’s eyes were becoming accustomed to the half darkness of the tent.  He saw that the figure leaning over the bed was that of a man, and he guessed at the truth of the nocturnal visitor’s identity.

A sullen, jealous rage enveloped him.  He took a step in the direction of the two.  He heard a frightened cry break from the girl’s lips as she recognized the features of the man above her, and he saw Mohammed Beyd seize her by the throat and bear her back upon the blankets.

Cheated passion cast a red blur before the eyes of the Belgian.  No!  The man should not have her.  She was for him and him alone.  He would not be robbed of his rights.

Quickly he ran across the tent and threw himself upon the back of Mohammed Beyd.  The latter, though surprised by this sudden and unexpected attack, was not one to give up without a battle.  The Belgian’s fingers were feeling for his throat, but the Arab tore them away, and rising wheeled upon his adversary.  As they faced each other Werper struck the Arab a heavy blow in the face, sending him staggering backward.  If he had followed up his advantage he would have had Mohammed Beyd at his mercy in another moment; but instead he tugged at his revolver to draw it from its holster, and Fate ordained that at that particular moment the weapon should stick in its leather scabbard.

Before he could disengage it, Mohammed Beyd had recovered himself and was dashing upon him.  Again Werper struck the other in the face, and the Arab returned the blow.  Striking at each other and ceaselessly attempting to clinch, the two battled about the small interior of the tent, while the girl, wide-eyed in terror and astonishment, watched the duel in frozen silence.

Again and again Werper struggled to draw his weapon.  Mohammed Beyd, anticipating no such opposition to his base desires, had come to the tent unarmed, except for a long knife which he now drew as he stood panting during the first brief rest of the encounter.

“Dog of a Christian,” he whispered, “look upon this knife in the hands of Mohammed Beyd!  Look well, unbeliever, for it is the last thing in life that you shall see or feel.  With it Mohammed Beyd will cut out your black heart.  If you have a God pray to him now—­in a minute more you shall be dead,” and with that he rushed viciously upon the Belgian, his knife raised high above his head.

Werper was still dragging futilely at his weapon.  The Arab was almost upon him.  In desperation the European waited until Mohammed Beyd was all but against him, then he threw himself to one side to the floor of the tent, leaving a leg extended in the path of the Arab.

The trick succeeded.  Mohammed Beyd, carried on by the momentum of his charge, stumbled over the projecting obstacle and crashed to the ground.  Instantly he was up again and wheeling to renew the battle; but Werper was on foot ahead of him, and now his revolver, loosened from its holster, flashed in his hand.

The Arab dove headfirst to grapple with him, there was a sharp report, a lurid gleam of flame in the darkness, and Mohammed Beyd rolled over and over upon the floor to come to a final rest beside the bed of the woman he had sought to dishonor.

Almost immediately following the report came the sound of excited voices in the camp without.  Men were calling back and forth to one another asking the meaning of the shot.  Werper could hear them running hither and thither, investigating.

Jane Clayton had risen to her feet as the Arab died, and now she came forward with outstretched hands toward Werper.

“How can I ever thank you, my friend?” she asked.  “And to think that only today I had almost believed the infamous story which this beast told me of your perfidy and of your past.  Forgive me, M. Frecoult.  I might have known that a white man and a gentleman could be naught else than the protector of a woman of his own race amid the dangers of this savage land.”

Werper’s hands dropped limply at his sides.  He stood looking at the girl; but he could find no words to reply to her.  Her innocent arraignment of his true purposes was unanswerable.

Outside, the Arabs were searching for the author of the disturbing shot.  The two sentries who had been relieved and sent to their blankets by Mohammed Beyd were the first to suggest going to the tent of the prisoner.  It occurred to them that possibly the woman had successfully defended herself against their leader.

Werper heard the men approaching.  To be apprehended as the slayer of Mohammed Beyd would be equivalent to a sentence of immediate death.  The fierce and brutal raiders would tear to pieces a Christian who had dared spill the blood of their leader.  He must find some excuse to delay the finding of Mohammed Beyd’s dead body.

Returning his revolver to its holster, he walked quickly to the entrance of the tent.  Parting the flaps he stepped out and confronted the men, who were rapidly approaching.  Somehow he found within him the necessary bravado to force a smile to his lips, as he held up his hand to bar their farther progress.

“The woman resisted,” he said, “and Mohammed Beyd was forced to shoot her.  She is not dead—­only slightly wounded.  You may go back to your blankets.  Mohammed Beyd and I will look after the prisoner;” then he turned and re-entered the tent, and the raiders, satisfied by this explanation, gladly returned to their broken slumbers.

As he again faced Jane Clayton, Werper found himself animated by quite different intentions than those which had lured him from his blankets but a few minutes before.  The excitement of his encounter with Mohammed Beyd, as well as the dangers which he now faced at the hands of the raiders when morning must inevitably reveal the truth of what had occurred in the tent of the prisoner that night, had naturally cooled the hot passion which had dominated him when he entered the tent.

But another and stronger force was exerting itself in the girl’s favor.  However low a man may sink, honor and chivalry, has he ever possessed them, are never entirely eradicated from his character, and though Albert Werper had long since ceased to evidence the slightest claim to either the one or the other, the spontaneous acknowledgment of them which the girl’s speech had presumed had reawakened them both within him.

For the first time he realized the almost hopeless and frightful position of the fair captive, and the depths of ignominy to which he had sunk, that had made it possible for him, a well-born, European gentleman, to have entertained even for a moment the part that he had taken in the ruin of her home, happiness, and herself.

Too much of baseness already lay at the threshold of his conscience for him ever to hope entirely to redeem himself; but in the first, sudden burst of contrition the man conceived an honest intention to undo, in so far as lay within his power, the evil that his criminal avarice had brought upon this sweet and unoffending woman.

As he stood apparently listening to the retreating footsteps—­Jane Clayton approached him.

“What are we to do now?” she asked.  “Morning will bring discovery of this,” and she pointed to the still body of Mohammed Beyd.  “They will kill you when they find him.”

For a time Werper did not reply, then he turned suddenly toward the woman.

“I have a plan,” he cried.  “It will require nerve and courage on your part; but you have already shown that you possess both.  Can you endure still more?”

“I can endure anything,” she replied with a brave smile, “that may offer us even a slight chance for escape.”

“You must simulate death,” he explained, “while I carry you from the camp.  I will explain to the sentries that Mohammed Beyd has ordered me to take your body into the jungle.  This seemingly unnecessary act I shall explain upon the grounds that Mohammed Beyd had conceived a violent passion for you and that he so regretted the act by which he had become your slayer that he could not endure the silent reproach of your lifeless body.”

The girl held up her hand to stop.  A smile touched her lips.

“Are you quite mad?” she asked.  “Do you imagine that the sentries will credit any such ridiculous tale?”

“You do not know them,” he replied.  “Beneath their rough exteriors, despite their calloused and criminal natures, there exists in each a well-defined strain of romantic emotionalism—­you will find it among such as these throughout the world.  It is romance which lures men to lead wild lives of outlawry and crime.  The ruse will succeed—­never fear.”

Jane Clayton shrugged.  “We can but try it—­and then what?”

“I shall hide you in the jungle,” continued the Belgian, “coming for you alone and with two horses in the morning.”

“But how will you explain Mohammed Beyd’s death?” she asked.  “It will be discovered before ever you can escape the camp in the morning.”

“I shall not explain it,” replied Werper.  “Mohammed Beyd shall explain it himself—­we must leave that to him.  Are you ready for the venture?”

“Yes.”

“But wait, I must get you a weapon and ammunition,” and Werper walked quickly from the tent.

Very shortly he returned with an extra revolver and ammunition belt strapped about his waist.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Quite ready,” replied the girl.

“Then come and throw yourself limply across my left shoulder,” and Werper knelt to receive her.

“There,” he said, as he rose to his feet.  “Now, let your arms, your legs and your head hang limply.  Remember that you are dead.”

A moment later the man walked out into the camp, the body of the woman across his shoulder.

A thorn boma had been thrown up about the camp, to discourage the bolder of the hungry carnivora.  A couple of sentries paced to and fro in the light of a fire which they kept burning brightly.  The nearer of these looked up in surprise as he saw Werper approaching.

“Who are you?” he cried.  “What have you there?”

Werper raised the hood of his burnoose that the fellow might see his face.

“This is the body of the woman,” he explained.  “Mohammed Beyd has asked me to take it into the jungle, for he cannot bear to look upon the face of her whom he loved, and whom necessity compelled him to slay.  He suffers greatly—­he is inconsolable.  It was with difficulty that I prevented him taking his own life.”

Across the speaker’s shoulder, limp and frightened, the girl waited for the Arab’s reply.  He would laugh at this preposterous story; of that she was sure.  In an instant he would unmask the deception that M. Frecoult was attempting to practice upon him, and they would both be lost.  She tried to plan how best she might aid her would-be rescuer in the fight which must most certainly follow within a moment or two.

Then she heard the voice of the Arab as he replied to M. Frecoult.

“Are you going alone, or do you wish me to awaken someone to accompany you?” he asked, and his tone denoted not the least surprise that Mohammed Beyd had suddenly discovered such remarkably sensitive characteristics.

“I shall go alone,” replied Werper, and he passed on and out through the narrow opening in the boma, by which the sentry stood.

A moment later he had entered among the boles of the trees with his burden, and when safely hidden from the sentry’s view lowered the girl to her feet, with a low, “sh-sh,” when she would have spoken.

Then he led her a little farther into the forest, halted beneath a large tree with spreading branches, buckled a cartridge belt and revolver about her waist, and assisted her to clamber into the lower branches.

“Tomorrow,” he whispered, “as soon as I can elude them, I will return for you.  Be brave, Lady Greystoke—­we may yet escape.”

“Thank you,” she replied in a low tone.  “You have been very kind, and very brave.”

Werper did not reply, and the darkness of the night hid the scarlet flush of shame which swept upward across his face.  Quickly he turned and made his way back to camp.  The sentry, from his post, saw him enter his own tent; but he did not see him crawl under the canvas at the rear and sneak cautiously to the tent which the prisoner had occupied, where now lay the dead body of Mohammed Beyd.

Raising the lower edge of the rear wall, Werper crept within and approached the corpse.  Without an instant’s hesitation he seized the dead wrists and dragged the body upon its back to the point where he had just entered.  On hands and knees he backed out as he had come in, drawing the corpse after him.  Once outside the Belgian crept to the side of the tent and surveyed as much of the camp as lay within his vision—­no one was watching.

Returning to the body, he lifted it to his shoulder, and risking all on a quick sally, ran swiftly across the narrow opening which separated the prisoner’s tent from that of the dead man.  Behind the silken wall he halted and lowered his burden to the ground, and there he remained motionless for several minutes, listening.

Satisfied, at last, that no one had seen him, he stooped and raised the bottom of the tent wall, backed in and dragged the thing that had been Mohammed Beyd after him.  To the sleeping rugs of the dead raider he drew the corpse, then he fumbled about in the darkness until he had found Mohammed Beyd’s revolver.  With the weapon in his hand he returned to the side of the dead man, kneeled beside the bedding, and inserted his right hand with the weapon beneath the rugs, piled a number of thicknesses of the closely woven fabric over and about the revolver with his left hand.  Then he pulled the trigger, and at the same time he coughed.

The muffled report could not have been heard above the sound of his cough by one directly outside the tent.  Werper was satisfied.  A grim smile touched his lips as he withdrew the weapon from the rugs and placed it carefully in the right hand of the dead man, fixing three of the fingers around the grip and the index finger inside the trigger guard.

A moment longer he tarried to rearrange the disordered rugs, and then he left as he had entered, fastening down the rear wall of the tent as it had been before he had raised it.

Going to the tent of the prisoner he removed there also the evidence that someone might have come or gone beneath the rear wall.  Then he returned to his own tent, entered, fastened down the canvas, and crawled into his blankets.

The following morning he was awakened by the excited voice of Mohammed Beyd’s slave calling to him at the entrance of his tent.

“Quick!  Quick!” cried the black in a frightened tone.  “Come!  Mohammed Beyd is dead in his tent—­dead by his own hand.”

Werper sat up quickly in his blankets at the first alarm, a startled expression upon his countenance; but at the last words of the black a sigh of relief escaped his lips and a slight smile replaced the tense lines upon his face.

“I come,” he called to the slave, and drawing on his boots, rose and went out of his tent.

Excited Arabs and blacks were running from all parts of the camp toward the silken tent of Mohammed Beyd, and when Werper entered he found a number of the raiders crowded about the corpse, now cold and stiff.

Shouldering his way among them, the Belgian halted beside the dead body of the raider.  He looked down in silence for a moment upon the still face, then he wheeled upon the Arabs.

“Who has done this thing?” he cried.  His tone was both menacing and accusing.  “Who has murdered Mohammed Beyd?”

A sudden chorus of voices arose in tumultuous protest.

“Mohammed Beyd was not murdered,” they cried.  “He died by his own hand.  This, and Allah, are our witnesses,” and they pointed to a revolver in the dead man’s hand.

For a time Werper pretended to be skeptical; but at last permitted himself to be convinced that Mohammed Beyd had indeed killed himself in remorse for the death of the white woman he had, all unknown to his followers, loved so devotedly.

Werper himself wrapped the blankets of the dead man about the corpse, taking care to fold inward the scorched and bullet-torn fabric that had muffled the report of the weapon he had fired the night before.  Then six husky blacks carried the body out into the clearing where the camp stood, and deposited it in a shallow grave.  As the loose earth fell upon the silent form beneath the tell-tale blankets, Albert Werper heaved another sigh of relief—­his plan had worked out even better than he had dared hope.

With Achmet Zek and Mohammed Beyd both dead, the raiders were without a leader, and after a brief conference they decided to return into the north on visits to the various tribes to which they belonged, Werper, after learning the direction they intended taking, announced that for his part, he was going east to the coast, and as they knew of nothing he possessed which any of them coveted, they signified their willingness that he should go his way.

As they rode off, he sat his horse in the center of the clearing watching them disappear one by one into the jungle, and thanked his God that he had at last escaped their villainous clutches.

When he could no longer hear any sound of them, he turned to the right and rode into the forest toward the tree where he had hidden Lady Greystoke, and drawing rein beneath it, called up in a gay and hopeful voice a pleasant, “Good morning!”

There was no reply, and though his eyes searched the thick foliage above him, he could see no sign of the girl.  Dismounting, he quickly climbed into the tree, where he could obtain a view of all its branches.  The tree was empty—­Jane Clayton had vanished during the silent watches of the jungle night.