Part 2 (1/2)
”This is my answer to your note, monsieur,” said Tarzan, in a low voice And then he hurled the fellow froainst the rail
”Na, but you shall die for this,”
and, springing to his feet, he rushed upon Tarzan, tugging the irl shrank back in terror
”Nikolas!” she cried ”Do not--oh, do not do that Quick, monsieur, fly, or he will surely kill you!” But instead of flying Tarzan advanced to meet the fellow ”Do not make a fool of yourself, monsieur,” he said
Rokoff, as in a perfect frenzy of rage at the huer had put upon hi the revolver He had stopped, and now he deliberately raised it to Tarzan's breast and pulled the trigger The hammer fell with a futile click on an empty chary python; there was a quick wrench, and the revolver sailed far out across the shi+p's rail, and dropped into the Atlantic
For aone another Rokoff had regained his self-possession He was the first to speak
”Twice now has monsieur seen fit to interfere in matters which do not concern him Twice he has taken it upon himself to humiliate Nikolas Rokoff The first offense was overlooked on the assunorance, but this affair shall not be overlooked If monsieur does not knoho Nikolas Rokoff is, this last piece of effrontery will insure that ood reason to remember him”
”That you are a coward and a scoundrel, monsieur,” replied Tarzan, ”is all that I care to know of you,” and he turned to ask the girl if the man had hurt her, but she had disappeared Then, without even a glance toward Rokoff and his co the deck
Tarzan could not but wonder what manner of conspiracy was on foot, or what the sche rather familiar about the appearance of the veiled woman to whose rescue he had just come, but as he had not seen her face he could not be sure that he had ever seen her before The only thing about her that he had particularly noticed was a ring of peculiar worker of the hand that Rokoff had seized, and he deterers he caht discover the identity of her who, and learn if the fellow had offered her further annoyance
Tarzan had sought his deck chair, where he sat speculating on the numerous instances of human cruelty, selfishness, and spite that had fallen to his lot to witness since that day in the jungle four years since that his eyes had first fallen upon a hua, whose swift spear had that day found the vitals of Kala, the great she-ape, and robbed the youth, Tarzan, of the onlyby the rat-faced Snipes; the abandonment of Professor Porter and his party by the mutineers of the ARROW; the cruelty of the black warriors and woa to their captives; the petty jealousies of the civil and military officers of the West Coast colony that had afforded him his first introduction to the civilized world
”MON DIEU!” he soliloquized, ”but they are all alike Cheating, s that the beasts of the jungle would not deign to possess--s And yet withal bound down by silly customs that make them slaves to their unhappy lot while fir the only real pleasures of existence In the jungle one would scarcely stand supinely aside while another took his mate It is a silly world, an idiotic world, and Tarzan of the Apes was a fool to renounce the freedole to come into it”
Presently, as he sat there, the sudden feeling ca froh the thin veneer of civilization, so that Tarzan wheeled about so quickly that the eyes of the young wo hiray eyes of the ape-ht into them Then, as they fell, Tarzan saw a faint wave of crimson creep swiftly over the now half-averted face
He sallant action, for he had not lowered his own eyes when they , and equally good to look upon Further, there was so where he had seen her before He resumed his former position, and presently he are that she had arisen and was leaving the deck As she passed, Tarzan turned to watch her, in the hope that he ht discover a clew to satisfy his mild curiosity as to her identity
Nor was he disappointed entirely, for as she walked away she raised one hand to the black, waving esture that ad eyes behind her--and Tarzan saw upon a finger of this hand the ring of strange worker of the veiled wo wo
Tarzan wondered in a lazy sort of hoht be, and what relations one so lovely could have with the surly, bearded Russian
After dinner that evening Tarzan strolled forward, where he remained until after dark, in conversation with the second officer, and when that gentleman's duties called hi the play of thewaters He was half hidden by a davit, so that twothe deck did not see hih of their conversation to cause him to fall in behind them, to follow and learn what deviltry they were up to He had recognized the voice as that of Rokoff, and had seen that his companion was Paulvitch
Tarzan had overheard but a feords: ”And if she screah to arouse the spirit of adventure within hiht as they walked, briskly now, along the deck To the s-roo enough, apparently, to assure themselves that one whose whereabouts they wished to establish ithin
Then they proceeded directly to the first-class cabins upon the pro detection, but he ed to do so successfully As they halted before one of the polished hardwood doors, Tarzan slipped into the shadow of a passageway not a dozen feet from them
To their knock a woa--Nikolas,” was the answer, in Rokoff's now fauttural ”May I co me, Nikolas?” came the voice of the woman from beyond the thin panel ”I have never hared the man, in propitiary tones; ”I but ask a half dozen words with you I shall not harm you, nor shall I enter your cabin; but I cannot shout h the door”