CHAPTER XX
THE DEAD RETURN
That night Esteban made his lonely camp beside a jungle
trail that wound through the dry wash of an old river bed,
along which a tiny rivulet still trickled, according the
Spaniard the water which he craved.
The obsession which possessed him that he was in truth
Tarzan of the Apes, imparted to him a false courage, so that
he could camp alone upon the ground without recourse to
artificial protection of any kind, and fortune had favored
him in this respect in that it had sent no prowling beasts
of prey to find him upon those occasions that he had dared
too much. During the period that Flora Hawkes had been with
him he had built shelters for her, but now that he had
deserted her and was again alone, he could not, in the role
that he had assumed, consider so effeminate an act as the
building of even a thorn boma for protection during the
darkness of the night.
He did, however, build a fire, for he had made a kill and
had not yet reached a point of primitive savagery which
permitted him even to imagine that he enjoyed raw meat.
Having devoured what meat he wanted and filled himself at
the little rivulet, Esteban came back and squatted before
his fire, where he drew the pouch of diamonds from his loin
cloth and, opening it, spilled a handful of the precious
gems into his palm. The flickering firelight playing upon
them sent scintillant gleams shooting into the dark of the
surrounding jungle night as the Spaniard let a tiny stream
of the sparkling stones trickle from one hand to the other,
and in the pretty play of light the Spaniard saw visions of
the future--power, luxury, beautiful women--all that
great wealth might purchase for a man. With half closed
eyes he dreamed of the ideal that he should search the world
over to obtain--the dream-woman for whom he had always
searched--the dream-woman he had never found, the fit
companion for such as Esteban Miranda imagined himself to
be. Presently through the dark lashes that veiled his
narrowed lids the Spaniard seemed to see before him in the
flickering light of his camp fire a vague materialization of
the figure of his dream--a woman's figure, clothed in
flowing diaphanous white which appeared to hover just above
him at the outer rim of his firelight at the summit of the
ancient river bank.
It was strange how the vision persisted. Esteban closed his
eyes tightly, and then opened them ever so little, and
there, as it had been before he closed them, the vision
remained. And then he opened his eyes wide, and still the
figure of the woman in white floated above him.
Esteban Miranda went suddenly pale. "Mother of God!" he
cried. "It is Flora. She is dead and has come back to haunt
me."
With staring eyes he slowly rose to his feet to confront the
apparition, when in soft and gentle tones it spoke.
"Heart of my heart," it cried, "it is really you!"
Instantly Esteban realized that this was no disembodied
spirit, nor was it Flora--but who was it? Who was this
vision of beauty, alone in the savage African wilderness?
Very slowly now it was descending the embankment and coming
toward him. Esteban returned the diamonds to the pouch and
replaced it inside his loin cloth.
With outstretched arms the girl came toward him. "My love,
my love," she cried, "do not tell me that you do not know
me." She was close enough now for the Spaniard to see her
rapidly rising and falling breasts and her lips trembling
with love and passion. A sudden wave of hot desire swept
over him, so with outstretched arms he sprang forward to
meet her and crush her to his breast.
Tarzan, following the spoor of the man and the woman, moved
in a leisurely manner along the jungle trail, for he
realized that no haste was essential to overtake these two.
Nor was he at all surprised when he came suddenly upon the
huddled figure of a woman, lying in the center of the
pathway. He knelt beside her and laid a hand upon her
shoulder, eliciting a startled scream.
"God!" she cried, "this is the end!"
"You are in no danger," said the ape-man. "I will not harm
you."
She turned her eyes and looked up at him. At first she
thought he was Esteban. "You have come back to save me,
Esteban?" she asked.
"Esteban!" he exclaimed. "I am not Esteban. That is not my
name." And then she recognized him.
"Lord Greystoke!" she cried. "It is really you?"
"Yes," he said, "and who are you?"
"I am Flora Hawkes. I was Lady Greystoke's maid."
"I remember you," he said. "What are you doing here?"
"I am afraid to tell you," she said. "I am afraid of your
anger."
"Tell me," he commanded. "You should know, Flora, that I do
not harm women."
"We came to get gold from the vaults of Opar," she said.
"But that you know."
"I know nothing of it," he replied. "Do you mean that you
were with those Europeans who drugged me and left me in
their camp?"
"Yes," she said, "we got the gold, but you came with your
Waziri and took it from us."
"I came with no Waziri and took nothing from you," said
Tarzan. "I do not understand you."
She raised her eyebrows in surprise, for she knew that
Tarzan of the Apes did not lie.
"We became separated," she said, "after our men turned
against us. Esteban stole me from the others, and then,
after a while Kraski found us. He was the Russian. He came
with a bagful of diamonds and then Esteban killed him and
took the diamonds."
It was now Tarzan's turn to experience surprise.
"And Esteban is the man who is with you?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, "but he has deserted me. I could not walk
farther on my sore feet. He has gone and left me here to die
and he has taken the diamonds with him."
"We shall find him," said the ape-man. "Come."
"But I cannot walk," said the girl.
"That is a small matter," he said, and, stooping, lifted her
to his shoulder.
Easily the ape-man bore the exhausted girl along the trail.
"It is not far to water," he said, "and water is what you
need. It will help to revive you and give you strength, and
perhaps I shall be able to find food for you soon."
"Why are you so good to me?" asked the girl.
"You are a woman. I could not leave you alone in the jungle
to die, no matter what you may have done," replied the
ape-man. And Flora Hawkes could only sob a broken plea for
forgiveness for the wrong she had done him.
It grew quite dark, but still they moved along the silent
trail until presently Tarzan caught in the distance the
reflection of firelight.
"I think we shall soon find your friend," he whispered.
"Make no noise."
A moment later his keen ears caught the sound of voices. He
halted and lowered the girl to her feet.
"If you cannot follow," he said, "wait here. I do not wish
him to escape. I will return for you. If you can follow on
slowly, do so." And then he left her and made his way
cautiously forward toward the light and the voices. He heard
Flora Hawkes moving directly behind him. It was evident
that she could not bear the thought of being left alone
again in the dark jungle. Almost simultaneously Tarzan heard
a low whine a few paces to his right. "Jad-bal-ja," he
whispered in a low voice, "heel," and the great black-maned
lion crept close to him, and Flora Hawkes, stifling a
scream, rushed to his side and grasped his arms.
"Silence," he whispered; "Jad-bal-ja will not harm you."
An instant later the three came to the edge of the ancient
river bank, and through the tall grasses growing there
looked down upon the little camp beneath.
Tarzan, to his consternation, saw a counterpart of himself
standing before a little fire, while slowly approaching the
man, with outstretched arms, was a woman, draped in flowing
white. He heard her words; soft words of love and
endearment, and at the sound of the voice and the scent
spoor that a vagrant wind carried suddenly to his nostrils,
strange complex of emotion overwhelmed him--happiness,
despair, rage, love, and hate.
He saw the man at the fire step forward with open arms to
take the woman to his breast, and then Tarzan separated the
grasses and stepped to the very edge of the embankment, his
voice shattering the jungle with a single word.
"Jane!" he cried, and instantly the man and woman turned and
looked up at him, where his figure was dimly revealed in the
light of the campfire. At sight of him the man wheeled and
raced for the jungle on the opposite side of the river, and
then Tarzan leaped to the bottom of the wash below and ran
toward the woman.
"Jane," he cried, "it is you, it is you!"
The woman showed her bewilderment. She looked first at the
retreating figure of the man she had been about to embrace
and then turned her eyes toward Tarzan. She drew her
fingers across her brow and looked back toward Esteban, but
Esteban was no longer in sight. Then she took a faltering
step toward the ape-man.
"My God," she cried, "what does it mean? Who are you, and if
you are Tarzan who was he?"
"I am Tarzan, Jane," said the ape-man.
She looked back and saw Flora Hawkes approaching. "Yes,"
she said, "you are Tarzan. I saw you when you ran off into
the jungle with Flora Hawkes. I cannot understand, John. I
could not believe that you, even had you suffered an
accident to your head, could have done such a thing."
"I, run off into the jungle with Flora Hawkes?" he asked, in
unfeigned surprise.
"I saw you," said Jane.
The ape-man turned toward Flora. "I do not understand it,"
he said.
"It was Esteban who ran off into the jungle with me, Lady
Greystoke," said the girl. "It was Esteban who was about to
deceive you again. This is indeed Lord Greystoke. The other
was an impostor, who only just deserted me and left me to
die in the jungle. Had not Lord Greystoke come when he did
I should be dead by now."
Lady Greystoke took a faltering step toward her husband.
"Ah, John," she said, "I knew it could not have been you. My
heart told me, but my eyes deceived me. Quick," she cried,
"that impostor must be captured. Hurry, John, before he
escapes."
"Let him go," said the ape-man. "As much as I want him, as
much as I want that which he has stolen from me, I will not
leave you alone again in the jungle, Jane, even to catch
him."
"But Jad-bal-ja," she cried. "What of him?"
"Ah", cried the ape-man, "I had forgotten," and turning to
the lion he pointed toward the direction that the Spaniard
had escaped. "Fetch him, Jad-bal-ja," he cried; and, with a
bound, the tawny beast was off upon the spoor of his quarry.
"He will kill him?" asked Flora Hawkes, shuddering. And yet
at heart she was glad of the just fate that was overtaking
the Spaniard.
"No, he will not kill him," said Tarzan of the Apes. "He may
maul him a bit, but he will bring him back alive if it is
possible." And then, as though the fate of the fugitive was
already forgotten, he turned toward his mate.
"Jane," he said, "Usula told me that you were dead. He said
that they found your burned body in the Arab village and
that they buried it there. How is it, then, that you are
here alive and unharmed? I have been searching the jungles
for Luvini to avenge your death. Perhaps it is well that I
did not find him."
"You would never have found him," replied Jane Clayton, "but
I cannot understand why Usula should have told you that he
had found my body and buried it."
"Some prisoners that he took," replied Tarzan, "told him
that Luvini had taken you bound hand and foot into one of
the Arab huts near the village gateway, and that there he
had further secured you to a stake driven into the floor of
the hut. After the village had been destroyed by fire Usula
and the other Waziri returned to search for you with some of
the prisoners they had taken who pointed out the location of
the hut, where the charred remains of a human body were
found beside a burned stake to which it had apparently been
tied."
"Ah!" exclaimed the girl, "I see. Luvini did bind me hand
and foot and tie me to the stake but later he came back into
the hut and removed the bonds. He attempted to attack me--
long we fought I do not know, but so engrosses were we in
our struggle that neither one of us was aware of the burning
of the village about us. As I persistently fought him off I
caught a glimpse of a knife in his belt, and then I let him
seize me and as his arms encircled me I grasped the knife
and, drawing it from its sheath, plunged it into his back,
below his left shoulder--that was the end. Luvini sank
lifeless to the floor of the hut. Almost simultaneously the
rear and roof of the structure burst into flames.
"I was almost naked, for he had torn nearly all my clothing
from me in our struggles. Hanging upon the wall of the hut
was this white burnoose, the property, doubtless, of one of
murdered Arabs. I seized it, and throwing about me ran into
the village street. The huts were now all aflame, and the
last of the natives was disappearing through the gateway. To
my right was a section of palisade that had not been
attacked by the flames. To escape into jungle by the gateway
would have meant into the arms of my enemies, and so,
somehow, I managed to scale the palisade and drop into the
jungle unseen by any.
"I have had considerable difficulty eluding the various
bands of blacks who escaped the village. A part of the time
I have been hunting for the Waziri and the balance I have
had to remain in hiding. I was resting in the crotch of a
tree, about half a mile from here, when I saw the light of
this man's fire, and when I came to investigate I was almost
stunned by joy to discover that I had, as I imagined,
stumbled upon my Tarzan."
"It was Luvini's body, then, and not yours that they
buried," said Tarzan.
"Yes," said Jane, "and it was this man who just escaped whom
I saw run off into the jungle with Flora, and not you, as I
believed."
Flora Hawkes looked up suddenly. "And it must have been
Esteban who came with the Waziri and stole the gold from us.
He fooled our men he must have fooled the Waziri, too."
"He might have fooled anyone if he could have me," said Jane
Clayton. "I should have discovered the deception in a few
minutes I have no doubt, but in the flickering light of the
campfire, and influenced as I was by the great joy of seeing
Lord Greystoke again, I believed quickly that which I wanted
to believe."
The ape-man ran his fingers through his thick shock of hair
in a characteristic gesture of meditation. "I cannot
understand how he fooled Usula in broad daylight," he said
with a shake of his head.
"I can," said Jane. "He told him that he had suffered an
injury to his head which caused him to lose his memory
partially--an explanation which accounted for many lapses
in the man's interpretation of your personality."
"He was a clever devil," commented the ape-man.
"He was a devil, all right," said Flora.
It was more than an hour later that the grasses at the river
bank suddenly parted and Jad-bal-ja emerged silently into
their presence. Grasped in his jaws was a torn and bloody
leopard skin which he brought and laid at the feet of his
master.
The ape-man picked the thing up and examined it, and then he
scowled. "I believe Jad-bal-ja killed him after all," he
said.
"He probably resisted," said Jane Clayton, "in which event
Jad-bal-ja could do nothing else in self-defense but slay
him."
"Do you suppose he ate him?"' cried Flora Hawkes, drawing
fearfully away from the beast.
"No," said Tarzan, "he has not had time. In the morning we
will follow the spoor and find his body. I should like to
have the diamonds again." And then he told Jane the strange
story connected with his acquisition of the great wealth
represented by the little bag of stones.
The following morning they set out in search of Esteban's
corpse. The trail led through dense brush and thorns to the
edge of the river farther down stream, and there it
disappeared, and though the ape-man searched both sides of
the river for a couple of miles above and below the point at
which he had lost the spoor, he found no further sign of the
Spaniard. There was blood along the tracks that Esteban had
made and blood upon the grasses at the river's brim.
At last the ape-man returned to the two women. “That is the
end of the man who would be Tarzan," he said.
"Do you think he is dead?" asked Jane.
"Yes, I am sure of it," said the ape-man. "From the blood I
imagine that Jad-bal-ja mauled him, but that he managed to
break away and get into the river. The fact that I can find
no indication of his having reached the bank within a
reasonable distance of this spot leads me to believe that he
has been devoured by crocodiles."
Again Flora Hawkes shuddered. "He was a wicked man," she
said, "but I would not wish even the wickedest such a fate
as that."
The ape-man shrugged. "He brought it upon himself, and,
doubtless, the world is better off without him."
"It was my fault," said Flora. "It was my wickedness that
brought him and the others here. I told them of what I had
heard of the gold in the treasure vaults of Opar--it was
my idea to come here and steal it and to find a man who
could impersonate Lord Greystoke. Because of my wickedness
many men have died, and you, Lord Greystoke, and your lady,
have almost met your death--I do not dare to ask for
forgiveness."
Jane Clayton put her arm about the girl's shoulder. "Avarice
has been the cause of many crimes since the world began,"
she said, "and when crime is invoked in its aid it assumes
its most repulsive aspect and brings most often its own
punishment, as you, Flora, may well testify. For my part I
forgive you. I imagine that you have learned your lesson."
"You have paid a heavy price for your folly," said the
ape-man. "You have been punished enough. We will take you
to your friends who are on their way to the coast under
escort of a friendly tribe. They cannot be far distant,
for, from the condition of the men when I saw them, long
marches are beyond their physical powers."
The girl dropped to her knees at his feet. "How can I thank
you for your kindness?" she said. "But I would rather remain
here in Africa with you and Lady Greystoke, and work for you
and show by my loyalty that I can redeem the wrong I did
you."
Tarzan glanced at his wife questioningly, and Jane Clayton
signified her assent to the girl's request.
"Very well, then," said the ape-man, "you may remain with
us, Flora."
"You will never regret it," said the girl. "I will work my
fingers off for you."
The three, and Jad-bal-ja, had been three days upon the
march toward home when Tarzan, who was in the lead, paused,
and, raising his head, sniffed the jungle air. Then he
turned to them with a smile. "My Waziri are disobedient,"
he said. "I sent them home and yet here they are, coming
toward us, directly away from home."
A few minutes later they met the van of the Waziri, and
great was the rejoicing of the blacks when they found both
their master and mistress alive and unscathed.
"And now that we have found you," said Tarzan, after the
greetings were over, and innumerable questions had been
asked and answered, "tell me what you did with the gold that
you took from the camp of the Europeans."
"We hid it, O Bwana, where you told us to hide it," replied
Usula.
"I was not with you, Usula," said the ape-man. "It was
another, who deceived Lady Greystoke even as he deceived you
--a bad man--who impersonated Tarzan of the Apes so
cleverly that it is no wonder that you were imposed upon."
"Then it was not you who told us that your head had been
injured and that you could not remember the language of the
Waziri?" demanded Usula.
"It was not I," said Tarzan, "for my head has not been
injured, and I remember well the language of my children."
"Ah," cried Usula, "then it was not our Big Bwana who ran
from Buto, the rhinoceros?"
Tarzan laughed. "Did the other run from Buto?"
"That he did," cried Usula; "he ran in great terror."
"I do not know that I blame him," said Tarzan, "for Buto is
no pleasant playfellow."
"But our Big Bwana would not run from him," said Usula,
proudly.
"Even if another than I hid the gold it was you who dug the
hole. Lead me to the spot then, Usula."
The Waziri constructed rude yet comfortable litters for the
two white women, though Jane Clayton laughed at the idea
that it was necessary that she be carried and insisted upon
walking beside her bearers more often than she rode. Flora
Hawkes, however, weak and exhausted as she was, could not
have proceeded far without being carried, and was glad of
the presence of the brawny Waziri who bore her along the
jungle trail so easily.
It was a happy company that marched in buoyant spirits
toward the spot where the Waziri had cached the gold for
Esteban. The blacks were overflowing with good nature
because they had found their master and their mistress,
while the relief and joy of Tarzan and Jane were too deep
for expression.
When at last they came to the place beside the river where
they had buried the gold the Waziri, singing and laughing,
commenced to dig for the treasure, but presently their
singing ceased and their laughter was replaced by
expressions of puzzled concern.
For a while Tarzan watched them in silence and then a slow
smile overspread his countenance.
"You must have buried it deep, Usula," he said.
The black scratched his head. "No, not so deep as this,
Bwana," he cried. "I cannot understand it. We should have
found the gold before this."
"Are you sure you are looking in the right place?" asked
Tarzan.
"This is the exact spot, Bwana," the black assured him, "but
the gold is not here. Someone has removed it since we buried
it."
"The Spaniard again," commented Tarzan. "He was a slick
customer."
"But he could not have taken it alone," said Usula. "There
were many ingots of it."
"No," said Tarzan, "he could not, and yet it is not here."
The Waziri and Tarzan searched carefully about the spot
where the gold had been buried, but so clever had been the
woodcraft of Owaza that he had obliterated even from the
keen senses of the ape-man every vestige of the spoor that
he and the Spaniard had made in carrying the gold from the
old hiding place to the new.
"It is gone," said the ape-man, "but I shall see that it
does not get out of Africa," and he despatched runners in
various directions to notify the chiefs of the friendly
tribes surrounding his domain to watch carefully every
safari crossing their territory, and to let none pass who
carried gold.
"That will stop them," he said after the runners had
departed.
That night as they made their camp upon the trail toward
home, the three whites were seated about a small fire with
Jad-bal-ja lying just behind the ape-man, who was examining
the leopard skin that the golden lion had retrieved in his
pursuit of the Spaniard, when Tarzan turned toward his wife.
You were right, Jane," he said. "The treasure vaults of Opar
are not for me. This time I have lost not only the gold but
a fabulous fortune in diamonds as well, beside risking that
greatest of all treasures--yourself."
"Let the gold and the diamonds go, John," she said; "we have
one another, and Korak."
"And a bloody leopard skin," he supplemented, "with a
mystery map painted upon it in blood."
Jad-bal-ja sniffed the hide and licked his chops in
anticipation or retrospection--which?