CHAPTER XV



THE MAP OF BLOOD


After Esteban and Owaza had buried the gold, they returned to
the spot where they had left their five boys, and proceeding
with them to the river made camp for the night. Here they
discussed their plans, deciding to abandon the balance of
the party to reach the coast as best they might, while they
returned to another section of the coast where they could
recruit sufficient porters to carry out the gold.

"Instead of going way back to the coast for porters," asked
Esteban, "why could we not just as well recruit them from
the nearest village?"

"Such men would not go with us way to the coast," replied
Owaza.  "They are not porters. At best they would but carry
our gold to the next village."

"Why not that, then?" inquired the Spaniard. "And at the
next village we could employ porters to carry us on still
farther, until we could employ other men to continue on with
us."

Owaza shook his head.  "It is a good plan, Bwana, but we
cannot do it, because we have nothing with which to pay our
porters."

Esteban scratched his head. "You are right," he said, "but
it would save us that damnable trip to the coast and
return."  They sat for some moments in silence, thinking. "I
have it!" at last exclaimed the Spaniard.  "Even if we had
the porters now we could not go directly to the coast for
fear of meeting Flora Hawkes's party--we must let them get
out of Africa before we take the gold to the coast. Two
months will be none too long to wait, for they are going to
have a devil of a time getting to the coast at all with that
bunch of mutinous porters. While we are waiting, therefore,
let us take one of the ingots of gold to the nearest point
at which we can dispose of it for trade goods. Then we can
return and hire porters to carry it from village to
village."

"The Bwana speaks words of wisdom," replied Owaza. "It is
not as far to the nearest trading post as it is back to the
coast, and thus we shall not only save time, but also many
long, hard marches."

"In the morning, then, we shall return and unearth one of
the ingots, but we must be sure that none of your men
accompanies us, for no one must know until it is absolutely
necessary where the gold is buried.  When we return for it,
of course, then others must know, too, but inasmuch as we
shall be with it constantly thereafter there will be little
danger of its being taken from us."

And so upon the following morning the Spaniard and Owaza
returned to the buried treasure, where they unearthed a
single ingot.

Before he left the spot the Spaniard drew upon the inner
surface of the leopard skin that he wore across his shoulder
an accurate map of the location of the treasure, making the
drawing with a sharpened stick, dipped in the blood of a
small rodent he had killed for the purpose. From Owaza he
obtained the native names of the river and of such landmarks
as were visible from the spot at which the treasure was
buried, together with as explicit directions as possible for
reaching the place from the coast. This information, too, he
wrote below the map, and when he had finished he felt much
relieved from the fear that should aught befall Owaza he
might never be able to locate the gold.


When Jane Clayton reached the coast to take passage for
London she found awaiting her a wire stating that her father
was entirely out of danger, and that there was no necessity
for her coming to him.  She, therefore, after a few days of
rest, turned her face again toward home, and commenced to
retrace the steps of the long, hot, weary journey that she
had just completed.  When, finally, she arrived at the
bungalow she learned, to her consternation, that Tarzan of
the Apes had not yet returned from his expedition to the
city of Opar after the gold from the treasure vaults.  She
found Korak, evidently much exercised, but unwilling to
voice a doubt as to the ability of his father to care for
himself.  She learned of the escape of the golden lion with
regret, for she knew that Tarzan had become much attached to
the noble beast.

It was the second day after her return that the Waziri who
had accompanied Tarzan returned without him. Then, indeed,
was her heart filled with fear for her lord and master. She
questioned the men carefully, and when she learned from them
that Tarzan had suffered another accident that had again
affected his memory, she immediately announced that she
would set out on the following day in search of him,
commanding the Waziri who had just returned to accompany
her.

Korak attempted to dissuade her, but failing in that
insisted upon accompanying her.

"We must not all be away at once," she said. "You remain
here, my son.  If I fail I shall return and let you go.

"I cannot let you go alone, Mother," replied Korak.

"I am not alone when the Waziri are with me," she laughed.
"And you know perfectly well, boy, that I am as safe
anywhere in the heart of Africa with them as I am here at
the ranch."

"Yes, yes, I suppose so," he replied, "but I wish I might
go, or that Meriem were here."

"Yes, I, too, wish that Meriem were here;" replied Lady
Greystoke.  "However, do not worry. You know that my jungle-
craft, while not equal to that of Tarzan or Korak, is by no
means a poor asset, and that, surrounded by the loyalty and
bravery of the Waziri, I shall be safe."

"I suppose you are right," replied Korak, "but I do not like
to see you go without me."

And so, notwithstanding his objections, Jane Clayton set out
the next morning with fifty Waziri warriors in search of her
savage mate.


When Esteban and Owaza had not returned to camp as they had
promised, the other members of the party were at first
inclined to anger, which was later replaced by concern, not
so much for the safety of the Spaniard but for fear that
Owaza might have met with an accident and would not return
to take them in safety to the coast, for of all the blacks
he alone seemed competent to handle the surly and mutinous
carriers.  The negroes scouted the idea that Owaza had
become lost and were more inclined to the opinion that he
and Esteban had deliberately deserted them.  Luvini, who
acted as head-man in Owaza's absence, had a theory of his
own.

"Owaza and the Bwana have gone after the ivory raiders
alone. By trickery they may accomplish as much as we could
have accomplished by force, and there will only be two among
whom to divide the ivory."

"But how may two men overcome a band of raiders?" inquired
Flora, skeptically.

"You do not know Owaza," answered Luvini. "If he can gain
the ears of their slaves he will win them over, and when the
Arabs see that he who accompanies Owaza and who fights at
the head of the mutinous slaves is Tarzan of the Apes, they
will flee in terror."

"I believe he is right," muttered Kraski, "it sounds just
like the Spaniard," and then suddenly he turned upon Luvini.
"Can you lead us to the raiders' camp?" he demanded.

"Yes," replied the negro.

"Good," exclaimed Kraski; "and now, Flora, what do you think
of this plan?  Let us send a swift runner to the raiders,
warning them against Owaza and the Spaniard, and telling
them that the latter is not Tarzan of the Apes, but an
impostor. We can ask them to capture and hold the two until
we come, and after we arrive we can make such further plans
as the circumstances permit. Very possibly we can carry out
our original design after we have once entered their camp as
friends."

"Yes, that sounds good," replied Flora, "and it is certainly
crooked enough--just like you, yourself."

The Russian blushed. "'Birds of a feather'"--he quoted.

The girl shrugged her shoulders indifferently, but Bluber,
who, with Peebles and Throck, had been silent listeners to
the conversation, blustered.

"Vot do you mean birds vit fedders?" he demanded. "Who vas a
crook? I tell you, Mister Carl Kraski, I am an honest man,
dot is von t'ing dot no man don't say about Adolph Bluber,
he is a crook."

"O shut up," snapped Kraski, "if there's anything in it
you'll be for it--if there's no risk. These fellows stole
the ivory themselves, and killed a lot of people, probably,
to do it. In addition they have taken slaves, which we will
free."

"O vell," said Bluber, "if it is fair und eqvitable, vy, all
right, but just remember, Mister Kraski, dot I am an honest
man.”

"Blime!" exclaimed Throck, "we're all honest; I've never
seen such a downy bunch of parsons in all me life."

"Sure we're honest," roared John Peebles, "and anyone 'at
says we ain't gets 'is bally 'ead knocked off, and 'ere we
are, 'n that's that."

The girl smiled wearily. "You can always tell honest men,"
she said. "They go around telling the world how honest they
are. But never mind that; the thing now is to decide whether
we want to follow Kraski's suggestion or not. It's something
we've got all pretty well to agree upon before we undertake
it.  There are five of us.  Let's leave it to a vote. Do we,
or don't we?"

"Will the men accompany us?" asked Kraski, turning to
Luvini.

"If they are promised a share of the ivory they will,"
replied the black.

"How many are in favor of Carl's plan?" asked Flora.

They were unanimously for it, and so it was decided that
they would undertake the venture, and a half hour later a
runner was despatched on the trail to the raiders' camp with
a message for the raider chief. Shortly after, the party
broke camp and took up its march in the same direction.

A week later, when they reached the camp of the raiders they
found that their messenger had arrived safely and that they
were expected. Esteban and Owaza had not put in an
appearance nor had anything been seen or heard of them in
the vicinity. The result was that the Arabs were inclined to
be suspicious and surly, fearing that the message brought to
them had been but a ruse to permit this considerable body of
whites and armed blacks to enter their stockade in safety.


Jane Clayton and her Waziri moving rapidly, picked up the
spoor of Flora Hawkes's safari at the camp where the Waziri
had last seen Esteban, whom they still thought to have been
Tarzan of the Apes.  Following the plainly marked trail, and
moving much more rapidly than the Hawkes safari, Jane and
the Waziri made camp within a mile of the ivory raiders only
about a week after the Hawkes party had arrived and where
they still remained, waiting either for the coming of Owaza
and Esteban, or for a propitious moment in which they could
launch their traitorous assault upon the Arabs. In the
meantime, Luvini and some of the other blacks had succeeded
in secretly spreading the propaganda of revolt among the
slaves of the Arabs.  Though he reported his progress daily
to Flora Hawkes, he did not report the steady growth and
development of a little private plan of his own, which
contemplated, in addition to the revolt of the slaves, and
the slaying of the Arabs, the murder of all the whites in
the camp, with the exception of Flora Hawkes, whom Luvini
wished to preserve either for himself or for sale to some
black sultan of the north. It was Luvini's shrewd plan to
first slay the Arabs, with the assistance of the whites, and
then to fall upon the whites and slay them, after their body
servants had stolen their weapons from them.

That Luvini would have been able to carry out his plan with
ease there is little doubt, had it not been for the loyalty
and affection of a young black boy attached to Flora Hawkes
for her personal service.

The young white woman, notwithstanding the length to which
she would go in the satisfaction of her greed and avarice,
was a kind and indulgent mistress. The kindnesses she had
shown this ignorant little black boy were presently to
return her dividends far beyond her investment.

Luvini had been to her upon a certain afternoon to advise
her that all was ready, and that the revolt of the slaves
and the murder of the Arabs should take place that evening,
immediately after dark. The cupidity of the whites had long
been aroused by the store of ivory possessed by the raiders,
with the result that all were more than eager for the final
step in the conspiracy that would put them in possession of
considerable wealth.

It was just before the evening meal that the little negro
boy crept into Flora Hawkes's tent. He was very wide-eyed,
and terribly frightened.

"What is the matter?" she demanded.

"S-sh!" he cautioned. "Do not let them hear you speak to me,
but put your ear close to me while I tell you in a low voice
what Luvini is planning."

The girl bent her head close to the lips of the little
black.  "You have been kind to me," he whispered, "and now
that Luvini would harm you I have come to tell you."

"What do you mean?" exclaimed Flora, in a low voice.

"I mean that Luvini, after the Arabs are killed, has given
orders that the black boys kill all the white men and take
you prisoner. He intends to either keep you for himself or
to sell you in the north for a great sum of money."

"But how do you know all this?" demanded the girl.

"All the blacks in camp know it," replied the boy.  "I was
to have stolen your rifle and your pistol, as each of the
boys will steal the weapons of his white master."

The girl sprang to her feet.  "I'll teach that nigger a
lesson," she cried, seizing her pistol and striding toward
the flap of the tent.

The boy seized her about the knees and held her. "No! no!"
he cried. "Do not do it. Do not say anything. It will only
mean that they will kill the white men sooner and take you
prisoner just the same.  Every black boy in the camp is
against you.  Luvini has promised that the ivory shall be
divided equally among them all. They are ready now, and if
you should threaten Luvini, or if in any other way they
should learn that you were aware of the plot, they would
fall upon you immediately."

"What do you expect me to do then?" she asked.

"There is but one hope, and that is in flight. You and the
white men must escape into the jungle. Not even I may
accompany you."

The girl stood looking at the little boy in silence for a
moment, and then finally she said, "Very well, I will do as
you say. You have saved my life. Perhaps I may never be able
to repay you, and perhaps, again, I may.  Go, now, before
suspicion alights upon you."

The black withdrew from the tent, crawling beneath the back
wall to avoid being seen by any of his fellows who were in
the center of the camp from which the front of the tent was
in plain view. Immediately he was gone Flora walked casually
into the open and went to Kraski's tent, which the Russian
occupied in common with Bluber.  She found the two men and
in low whispers apprised them of what the black had told
her. Kraski then called Peebles and Throck, it being decided
that they should give no outward sign of holding any
suspicion that aught was wrong. The Englishmen were for
jumping in upon the blacks and annihilating them, but Flora
Hawkes dissuaded them from any such rash act by pointing out
how greatly they were outnumbered by the natives, and how
hopeless it would be to attempt to overpower them.

Bluber, with his usual cunning and shrewdness which inclined
always to double dealing where there was the slightest
possibility for it, suggested that they secretly advise the
Arabs of what they had learned, and joining forces with them
take up as strong a position in the camp as possible and
commence to fire into the blacks without waiting for their
attack.

Again Flora Hawkes vetoed the suggestion. "It will not do,"
she said, "for the Arabs are at heart as much our enemies as
the blacks.  If we were successful in subduing the niggers
it would be but a question of minutes before the Arabs knew
every detail of the plot that we had laid against them,
after which our lives would not be worth that," and she
snapped her fingers.

"I guess Flora is right, as usual," growled Peebles, "but
what in 'ell are we goin' to do wanderin' around in this
'ere jungle without no niggers to hunt for us, or cook for
us, or carry things for us, or find our way for us, that's
wot I'd like to know, and 'ere we are, 'n that's that."

"No, I guess there ain't nothin' else to do," said Throck;
"but blime if I likes to run away, says I, leastwise not for
no dirty niggers."

There came then to the ears of the whites, rumbling from the
far distance in the jungle, the roar of a lion.

"Oi! Oi!" cried Bluber. "Ve go out all alone in dot jungle?
Mein Gott! I just as soon stay here und get killed like a
vite man."

"They won't kill you like a white man," said Kraski.
"They'll torture you if you stay."

Bluber wrung his hands, and the sweat of fear rolled down
his oily face. "Oi! vy did I done it? Vy did I done it?" he
wailed. "Vy didn't I stay home in London vere I belong?"

"Shut up!" snapped Flora. "Don't you know that if you do
anything to arouse the suspicion of these fellows they will
be on us at once? There is only one thing for us to do and
that is to wait until they precipitate the attack upon the
Arabs. We will still have our weapons, for they do not plan
to steal them from us until after the Arabs are killed. In
the confusion of the fight, we must make our escape into the
jungle, and after that--God knows--and God help us."

"Yes," blubbered Bluber, who was in a blue funk, "Gott help
us!"

A moment later Luvini came to them. "All is ready, Bwanas,"
he said. "As soon as the evening meal has been eaten, be in
readiness. You will hear a shot, that will be the signal.
Then open fire upon the Arabs."

"Good," said Kraski; "we have just been talking about it and
we have decided that we will take our stand near the gate to
prevent their escape."

"It is well," said Luvini, "but you must remain here." He
was addressing Flora. "It would not be safe for you to be
where there is to be fighting. Remain here in your tent, and
we will confine the fighting to the other side of the
village and possibly to the gate, if any of them makes a
break for escape."

"All right," said Flora, "I will remain here where it is
safe."

Satisfied that things could not have worked into his hands
to better advantage, the black left them, and presently the
entire camp was occupied with the evening meal.  There was an
atmosphere of restraint, and high, nervous tension
throughout the entire camp that must have been noticeable,
even to the Arabs, though they, alone of the entire company,
were ignorant as to its cause. Bluber was so terrified that
he could not eat, but sat white and trembling with his eyes
roving wildly about the camp--first to the blacks, then to
the Arabs, and then to the gate, the distance to which he
must have measured a hundred times as he sat there waiting
for the shot that was to be the signal for the massacre that
was to send him out into the jungle to be, he surely
thought, the immediate prey of the first hunting lion that
passed.

Peebles and Throck ate their meal stolidly, much to Bluber's
disgust.  Kraski, being of a highly nervous temperament, ate
but little, but he showed no signs of fear. Nor did Flora
Hawkes, though at heart she realized the hopelessness of
their situation.

Darkness had fallen.  Some of the blacks and Arabs were
still eating, when suddenly the silence was shattered by the
sharp staccato report of a rifle. An Arab sank silently to
the earth. Kraski rose and grasped Flora by the arm. "Come!"
he cried.

Followed by Peebles and Throck, and preceded by Bluber, to
whose feet fright had lent wings, they hurried toward the
gate of the palisade.

By now the air was filled with the hoarse cries of fighting
men and the report of rifles. The Arabs, who had numbered
but about a dozen, were putting up a game fight, and being
far better marksmen than the blacks, the issue of the battle
was still in doubt when Kraski opened the gate and the five
whites fled into the darkness of the jungle.

The outcome of the fight within the camp could not have been
other than it was, for so greatly did the blacks outnumber
the Arabs, that eventually, notwithstanding their poor
marksmanship, they succeeded in shooting down the last of
the nomads of the north. Then it was that Luvini turned his
attention to the other whites only to discover that they had
fled the village. The black realized two things instantly.
One was that someone had betrayed him, and the other, that
the whites couldn't have gone far in the short time since
they had left the camp.

Calling his warriors about him he explained to them what had
happened, and impressing upon them that the whites, if
permitted to escape, would eventually return with
reinforcements to punish the blacks, he aroused his
followers, who now numbered over two hundred warriors, to
the necessity of setting out immediately upon the trail of
the fugitives and overtaking them before they could carry
word even to a neighboring village, the nearest of which was
not more than a day's march distant.