then it will be 'Comrade Oubanovitch, this, and 'Comrade Oubanovitch, that.' Now I go to my comrades who have risen in their might and cast the yoke of Capitalism from their necks.'
He crossed jubilantly to the camp of the Lascars. 'Comrades!' he cried. 'Congratulations on your glorious achievement. I have come to lead you on to greater victories. We will march on the camp of the Capitalists who threw us out. We will liquidate them, and we will take all their guns and ammunition and all their supplies.'
Fifteen scowling men looked at him in silence for a moment; then one of them said, 'Get out.'
'But!' exclaimed Oubanovitch, 'I have come to join you; together we will go on to glorious-'
'Get out,' repeated the Lascar.
Oubanovitch hesitated until several of them started toward him; then he turned and went back to the other camp. 'Well, Comrade,' said Schmidt, with a sneer, 'is the revolution over?'
'They are stupid fools,' said Oubanovitch.
That night the four men had to attend to their own fire, which the Lascars had kept burning for them in the past as a safeguard against wild beasts; and they had had to gather the wood for it, too. Now it devolved upon them to take turns standing guard.
'Well, Comrade,' said Schmidt to Oubanovitch, 'how do you like revolutions now that you are on the other side of one?'
The Lascars, having no white man to command them, all went to sleep and let their fire die out. Abdullah Abu Nejm was on guard in the smaller camp when he heard a series of ferocious growls from the direction of the Lascar's camp, and then a scream of pain and terror. The other three men awoke and sprang to their feet.
'What is it?' demanded Schmidt
'El adrea, Lord of the Broad Head,' replied the Arab.
'What's that?' asked Oubanovitch.
'A lion,' said Krause; 'he got one of them.'
The screams of the unfortunate victim was still blasting the silence of the night, but they were farther from the camp of the Lascars now, as the lion dragged his prey farther away from the presence of the other men. Presently the screams ceased, and then came an even more grisly and horrifying sound—the tearing and rending of flesh and bones mingled with the growls of the carnivore.
Krause piled more wood upon the fire. 'That damn wildman,' he said—'turning those beasts loose here.'
'Serves you right,' said Schmidt; 'you had no business catching a white man and putting him in a cage.'
'It was Abdullah's idea,' whined Krause; 'I never would have thought of it if he hadn't put it into my head.'
There was no more sleep in the camp that night. They could hear the lion feeding until daylight, and then in the lesser darkness of dawn, they saw him rise from his kill and go to the river to drink; then he disappeared into the jungle.
'He will lie up for the day,' said Abdullah, 'but he will come out again and feed.'
As Abdullah ceased speaking, a foul sound came from the edge of the jungle, and two forms slunk out; the hyenas had scented the lion's kill, and presently they were tearing at what was left of the Lascar.
The next night, the Lascars built no fire at all; and another was taken. 'The fools!' exclaimed Krause; 'that lion has got the habit by now, and none of us will ever be safe again here.'
'They are fatalists.' said Schmidt; 'they believe that whatever is foreordained to happen must happen, and that nothing they can do about it can prevent it.'
'Well, I'm no fatalist,' said Krause. 'I'm going to sleep in a tree after this,' and he spent the next day building a platform in a tree at the edge of the forest, setting an example which the other three men were quick to follow. Even the Lascars were impressed, and that night the lion came and roared through empty camps.
'I've stood all of this that I can,' said Krause; 'I'm going back and see that fellow, Tarzan. I'll promise anything if he'll let us stay in his camp.'
'How are you going to get there?' asked Schmidt. 'I wouldn't walk through that jungle again for twenty million marks.'
'I don't intend to walk through the jungle,' said Krause. 'I'm going to follow the beach. I could always run out into the ocean if I met anything.'
'I think El adrea would be kinder to us than Tarzan of the Apes,' said the Arab.
'I never did anything to him,' said Oubanovitch; 'he ought to let me come back.'
'He's probably afraid you'd start a revolution,' said Schmidt. But they finally decided to try it; and early the next morning, they set out along the beach toward the other camp.
Chapter XX
Chand, the Lascar, watched Krause and his three companions start along the beach in the direction of Camp Saigon . 'They are going to the other camp,' he said to his fellows. 'Come, we will go too;' and a moment later they were trailing along the beach in the wake of the others.
In Camp Saigon , Tarzan was eating his breakfast alone. He had arisen early, for he had planned a full day's work. Only Lum Kip was astir, going about his work quietly preparing breakfast. Presently Patricia Leigh-Burden came from her hut and joined Tarzan, sitting down beside him.
'You are up early this morning,' she said.
'I am always earlier than the others,' he replied, 'but today I had a special reason; I want to get an early start. '
'Where are you going?' she asked.
'I'm going exploring,' he replied, 'I want to see what is on the other side of the island.'
Patricia leaned forward eagerly, placing a hand upon his knee. 'Oh, may I go with you?' she asked. 'I'd love it.'
From the little shelter that had been built especially for her, Itzl Cha watched them. Her black eyes narrowed and snapped, and she clenched her little hands tightly.
'You couldn't make it, Patricia,' said Tarzan, 'not the way I travel.'
'I've hiked through jungles in India ,' she said.
'No;' he said, quite definitely; 'traveling on the ground in there is too dangerous. I suppose you've heard it mentioned that there are wild animals there.'
'Then if it's dangerous you shouldn't go,' she said, 'carrying nothing but a silly bow and some arrows. Let me go along with a rifle; I'm a good shot, and I've hunted tigers in India .'
Tarzan rose, and Patricia jumped to her feet, placing her bands on his shoulders. 'Please don't go,' she begged, 'I'm afraid for you,' but he only laughed and turned and trotted off toward the jungle.
Patricia watched him until he swung into a tree and disappeared; then she swished around angrily and went to her hut. 'I'll show him,' she muttered under her breath.
Presently she emerged with a rifle and ammunition. Itzl Cha watched her as she entered the jungle at the same place that Tarzan had, right at the edge of the little stream. The little Mayan girl bit her lips, and the tears came to her eyes—tears of frustration and anger. Lum Kip, working around the cook fire, commenced to hum to himself.
Chal Yip Xiu, the high priest, was still furious about the theft of Itzl Cha from beneath the sacred sacrificial knife. 'The temple has been defiled,' he growled, 'and the gods will be furious.'
'Perhaps not,' said Cit Coh Xiu, the king; 'perhaps after all that was indeed Che, Lord Forest .'
Chal Yip Xiu looked at the king, disgustedly. 'He was only one of the strangers that Xatl Din saw on the beach. If you would not arouse the anger of the gods, you should send a force of warriors to the camp of the strangers, to bring Itzl Cha back, for that is where she will be found.'
'Perhaps you are right,' said the king; 'at least it will do no harm,' and he sent for Xatl Din and ordered him to take a hundred warriors and go to the camp of the strangers and get Itzl Cha. 'With a hundred warriors, you should be able to kill many of them and bring back prisoners to Chichen Itza .'
Tibbett, with a boatload of sailors, was rowing out to the reef to continue the work of salvaging lumber from
