Part 3 (1/2)
It puzzled the irl and Count de Coude--who suffered indignities at the hands of Rokoff and his coht to justice Before he turned in that night his thoughts revertedwoled web of whose life fate had so strangely introduced him It occurred to him that he had not learned her naold band that encircled the third finger of her left hand Involuntarily he wondered who the luckyfurther of any of the actors in the little dralimpse of until late in the afternoon of the last day of the voyage Then he ca woman as the two approached their deck chairs froreeted hi almost ihts before It was as though she had been perturbed by a conviction that he ht have construed her acquaintance with such men as Rokoff and Paulvitch as a personal reflection upon herself
”I trust ed me,” she said, ”by the unfortunate occurrence of Tuesday evening I have suffered much on account of it--this is the first time that I have ventured from my cabin since; I have been ashaazelle by the lions that attack it,” replied Tarzan ”I had seen those tork before--in the s-room the day prior to their attack on you, if I recollect it correctly, and so, knowing their uarantee of the integrity of its object Men such as theyall that is noblest and best”
”It is very kind of you to put it that way,” she replied, same My husband told th and bravery of Monsieur Tarzan, to whoratitude”
”Your husband?” repeated Tarzan questioningly
”Yes I am the Countess de Coude”
”I a that I have rendered a service to the wife of the Count de Coude”
”Alas, reatly indebted to you that I may never hope to settle ations,” and she sht easily attes than he had acco the benediction of that sain that day, and in the rush of landing on the followingin the expression of her eyes as they parted on deck the previous day that haunted hieness of the swift friendshi+ps of an ocean crossing, and of the equal ease hich they are broken forever
Tarzan wondered if he should ever see her again
Chapter 3
What Happened in the Rue Maule
On his arrival in Paris, Tarzan had gone directly to the apartments of his old friend, D'Arnot, where the naval lieutenant had scored him roundly for his decision to renounce the title and estates that were rightly his from his father, John Clayton, the late Lord Greystoke
”You ive up not alone wealth and position, but an opportunity to prove beyond doubt to all the world that in your veins flows the noble blood of two of England's e she-ape It is incredible that they could have believed you--Miss Porter least of all
”Why, I never did believe it, even back in the wilds of your African jungle, when you tore the raw hty jaws, like sohs Even then, before there was the slightest proof to the contrary, I knew that you were mistaken in the belief that Kala was your mother
”And noith your father's diary of the terrible life led by him and your mother on that wild African shore; with the account of your birth, and, final and er prints upon the pages of it, it see to reabond”
”I do not need any better na a penniless vagabond, I have no intention of so doing
In fact, the next, and let us hope the last, burden that I shall be forced to put upon your unselfish friendshi+p will be the finding of employment for me”
”Pooh, pooh!” scoffed D'Arnot ”You know that I did not mean that
Have I not told you a dozen tih for twenty ave it all to you, would it represent even the tenth part of the value I place upon your friendshi+p, my Tarzan? Would it repay the services you did et, my friend, that but for you and your wondrous bravery I had died at the stake in the village of Mbonga's cannibals
Nor do I forget that to your self-sacrificing devotion I owe the fact that I recovered from the terrible wounds I received at their hands--I discovered later so of what it meant to you to remain withyou on to the coast
”When we finally came there, and found that Miss Porter and her party had left, I co of what you had done for an utter stranger Nor a to repay you with money, Tarzan It is that just at present you need ht offer you it were the same--my friendshi+p must always be yours, because our tastes are similar, and I admire you That I cannot cohed Tarzan, ”we shall not quarrel over the money I must live, and so Ito do You cannot showmanner than to find employment for me--I shall die of inactivity in a short while As for uilty of robbing me of it He truly believes that he is the real Lord Greystoke, and the chances are that he will lish lord than a le You know that I aer but for a e beast that I really ae what little I possess of the ain, had I declared myself I should have robbed the woe to Clayton will now insure to her I could not have done that--could I, Paul?
”Nor is the reat i for a reply ”Raised as I have been, I see no worth in man or beast that is not theirs by virtue of their own mental or physical prowess And so I am as happy to think of Kala as my mother as I would be to try to picture the poor, unhappy little English girl who passed away a year after she bore e way I must have nursed at her hairy breast froainst the wild denizens of the forest, and against the savage members of our tribe, with the ferocity of real mother love
”And I, on my part, loved her, Paul I did not realize how much until after the cruel spear and the poisoned arrow of Mbonga's black warrior had stolen her away from me I was still a child when that occurred, and I threw uish as a child ht for his own mother To you, ly creature, but to ure its object And so I am perfectly content to remain forever the son of Kala, the she-ape”