'You having a pipe dream, Lum?' demanded de Groote. 'No pipe dleam; you waitee see.'
'How about Chinee boys?' asked de Groote, who was now thoroughly worried.
'They no killee you.'
'Will they fight Lascar boys?'
'You betee; you give 'em gun.'
'No have gun,' said de Groote; 'tell 'em get capstan bars, belaying pins; knives. You savvy?'
'Me savvy.'
'And when the trouble starts, you boys light into the Lascars.'
'You betee.'
'And thank you, Lum; I'll not forget this.'
De Groote went at once to Larsen; but found him rolling on his bunk, delirious with fever; then he went to Krause's cabin, where he found Krause and Janette Laon and explained the situation to them.
'Do you believe the Chink?' asked Krause.
'There's no reason for him to have made up such a cock-and-bull story,' replied de Groote; 'yes, I believe him; he's one of the best hands on the ship-a quiet little fellow who always does his work and minds his own business.'
'What had we better do?' asked Krause.
'I'd put Schmidt under arrest immediately,' said de Groote.
The cabin door swung open; and Schmidt stood in the doorway, an automatic in his hand. 'Like hell, you'll put me under arrest, you damned Dutchman,' he said. 'We saw that dirty little Chink talking to you, and we had a pretty good idea what he saying.'
Half a dozen Lascars pressed behind Schmidt, outside the doorway. 'Tie 'em up,' he said to them.
The sailors brushed past Schmidt into the cabin; de Groote stepped in front of the girl. 'Keep your dirty hands off her,' he said to the Lascars. One of them tried to push him aside and reach Janette, and de Groote knocked him down. Instantly there was a free-for-all; but only de Groote and Janette took part in it on their side; Krause cowered in a corner and submitted fearfully to having his hands tied behind his back. Janette picked up a pair of heavy binoculars and felled one of the Lascars while de Groote sent two more to the floor, but the odds were against them. When the fight was over, they were both trussed up and de Groote was unconscious from a blow on the head.
'This is mutiny, Schmidt,' said Krause; 'you'll hang for this if you don't let me go.'
'This is not mutiny,' replied Schmidt. 'This is an English ship, and I'm taking it in the name of our Fuhrer.'
'But I'm a German,' Krause objected; 'I chartered this ship-it is a German Ship.'
'Oh, no,' said Schmidt; 'it is registered in England , and you sail it under English colors. If you're a German, then you're a traitor, and in Germany we know what to do with traitors.'
Chapter IV
Tarzan knew that something had happened aboard the ship, but he did not know what. He saw a Chinese sailor strung up by the thumbs and lashed. For two days he saw nothing of the girl or the young 1st mate, and now he was not fed regularly or kept supplied with water. He saw that the 2nd mate, who had spit on him, was in command of the ship; and so, while he did not know, he surmised what had happened. Abdullah Abu Nejm occasionally passed his cage, but without molesting him; and Tarzan knew why-the Arab was afraid of him, even though he were penned up in an iron cage. He would not always be in a cage: Tarzan knew this and Abdullah Abu Nejm feared it.
Now, Lascars swaggered about the ship and the Chinese did most of the work. These, Schmidt cuffed and kicked on the slightest provocation or on none at all. Tarzan had seen the man who had been strung up by his thumbs and lashed cut down after an hour and carried to the forecastle. The cruelty of the punishment disgusted him, but of course he did not know but that the man deserved it.
The 2nd mate never passed Tarzan's cage without stopping to curse him. The very sight of Tarzan seemed to throw him into a fit of uncontrollable rage, as did anything that stimulated his inferiority complex. Tarzan could not understand why the man hated him so; he did not know that Schmidt, being a psychopath, did not have to have a reason for anything that he did.
Once he came to the cage with a harpoon in his hands and jabbed it through the bars at the ape-man while Abdullah Abu Nejm looked on approvingly. Tarzan seized the haft and jerked the thing from Schmidt's hands as effortlessly as he might have taken it from a baby. Now that the wild man was armed, Schmidt no longer came close to the cage.
On the third day from that on which he had last seen the girl, Tarzan saw his wooden cage and a larger iron cage hoisted to the deck and lashed down near his; and a little later he saw the girl led on deck by a couple of Lascar sailors and put into the wooden cage; then de Groote and Krause were brought up and locked in the iron cage, and presently Schmidt came from the bridge and stopped in front of them.
'What is the meaning of this, Schmidt?' demanded de Groote.
'You complained about being locked up below, didn't you? You should thank me for having you brought on deck instead of finding fault. You'll get plenty of fresh air up here and a good tan; I want you all to look your best when I exhibit you with the other specimens of the lower orders in Berlin,' and Schmidt laughed.
'If you want to amuse yourself by keeping Krause and me penned up here like wild beasts, go ahead; but you can't mean that you're going to keep Miss Laon here, a white woman exhibited before a lot of Lascar sailors.' It had been with difficulty that de Groote had kept his anger and contempt from being reflected in his voice, but he had long since come to the conclusion that they were in the hands of a madman and that to antagonize him further would be but to add to the indignities he had already heaped upon them.
'If Miss Laon wishes to, she may share the captain's cabin with me,' replied Schmidt; 'I have had Larsen taken elsewhere.'
'Miss Laon prefers the cage of a wild animal,' said the girl.
Schmidt shrugged. 'That is a good idea,' he said; 'I shall see about putting you into the cage of one of Herr Krause's lions, or perhaps you would prefer a tiger.'
'Either one, to you,' replied the girl.
'Or maybe into the cage with the wild man you have been so fond of,' suggested Schmidt; 'that might afford a spectacle all would enjoy. From what Abdullah tells me, the man is probably a cannibal. I shall not feed him after I put you in with him.'
Schmidt was laughing to himself as he walked away.
'The man is absolutely crazy,' said de Groote. 'I have known right along that he was a little bit off, but I never expected that he was an out-and-out madman.'
'Do you suppose that he will do what he has threatened?' asked Janette.
Neither de Groote nor Krause replied, and their silence answered her questions and confirmed her own fears. It had been all right to feed the wild man and see that he had water, but she had always been ready to spring away from his cage if he attempted to seize her. She had really been very much afraid of him, but her natural kindness had prompted her to befriend him. Furthermore, she had known that it annoyed Krause, whom she secretly detested.
Stranded in Batavia , Janette had seized upon Krause's offer so that she might get away, anywhere; and the prospect of New York had also greatly intrigued her. She had heard much of the great American metropolis and fabulous stories of the ease with which a beautiful girl might acquire minks and sables and jewels there, and Janette Laon knew that she would be beautiful in any country.
Although neither de Groote nor Krause had answered Janette's question, it was soon answered. Schmidt returned with several sailors; he and two of the Lascars were armed with pistols, and the others carried prod poles such as were used in handling the wild animals.
The sailors unlashed Janette's cage and pushed it against that in which Tarzan was confined, the two doors in contact; then they raised both doors.
