The Return of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs [online e reader TXT] 📗

so surprised; but that it should come from one who posed as a man of culture and refinement, from a gentleman, she could scarcely credit.

“It is better that we die together, then,” said Clayton.

“That is for the majority to decide,” replied Monsieur Thuran. “As only one of us three will be the object of sacrifice, we shall decide. Miss Porter is not interested, since she will be in no danger.”

“How shall we know who is to be first?” asked Spider.

“It may be fairly fixed by lot,” replied Monsieur Thuran. “I have a number of franc pieces in my pocket. We can choose a certain date from among them—the one to draw this date first from beneath a piece of cloth will be the first.”

“I shall have nothing to do with any such diabolical plan,” muttered Clayton; “even yet land may be sighted or a ship appear—in time.”

“You will do as the majority decide, or you will be `the first’ without the formality of drawing lots,” said Monsieur Thuran threateningly. “Come, let us vote on the plan; I for one am in favor of it. How about you, Spider?” “And I,” replied the sailor.

“It is the will of the majority,” announced Monsieur Thuran, “and now let us lose no time in drawing lots. It is as fair for one as for another. That three may live, one of us must die perhaps a few hours sooner than otherwise.”

Then he began his preparation for the lottery of death, while Jane Porter sat wide-eyed and horrified at thought of the thing that she was about to witness. Monsieur Thuran spread his coat upon the bottom of the boat, and then from a handful of money he selected six franc pieces. The other two men bent close above him as he inspected them. Finally he handed them all to Clayton.

“Look at them carefully,” he said. “The oldest date is eighteen-seventy-five, and there is only one of that year.”

Clayton and the sailor inspected each coin. To them there seemed not the slightest difference that could be detected other than the dates. They were quite satisfied. Had they known that Monsieur Thuran’s past experience as a card sharp had trained his sense of touch to so fine a point that he could almost differentiate between cards by the mere feel of them, they would scarcely have felt that the plan was so entirely fair. The 1875 piece was a hair thinner than the other coins, but neither Clayton nor Spider could have detected it without the aid of a micrometer.

“In what order shall we draw?” asked Monsieur Thuran, knowing from past experience that the majority of men always prefer last chance in a lottery where the single prize is some distasteful thing—there is always the chance and the hope that another will draw it first. Monsieur Thuran, for reasons of his own, preferred to draw first if the drawing should happen to require a second adventure beneath the coat.

And so when Spider elected to draw last he graciously offered to take the first chance himself. His hand was under the coat for but a moment, yet those quick, deft fingers had felt of each coin, and found and discarded the fatal piece. When he brought forth his hand it contained an 1888 franc piece. Then Clayton drew. Jane Porter leaned forward with a tense and horrified expression on her face as the hand of the man she was to marry groped about beneath the coat. Presently he withdrew it, a franc piece lying in the palm. For an instant he dared not look, but Monsieur Thuran, who had leaned nearer to see the date, exclaimed that he was safe.

Jane Porter sank weak and trembling against the side of the boat. She felt sick and dizzy. And now, if Spider should not draw the 1875 piece she must endure the whole horrid thing again.

The sailor already had his hand beneath the coat. Great beads of sweat were standing upon his brow. He trembled as though with a fit of ague. Aloud he cursed himself for having taken the last draw, for now his chances for escape were but three to one, whereas Monsieur Thuran’s had been five to one, and Clayton’s four to one.

The Russian was very patient, and did not hurry the man, for he knew that he himself was quite safe whether the 1875 piece came out this time or not. When the sailor withdrew his hand and looked at the piece of money within, he dropped fainting to the bottom of the boat. Both Clayton and Monsieur Thuran hastened weakly to examine the coin, which had rolled from the man’s hand and lay beside him. It was not dated 1875. The reaction from the state of fear he had been in had overcome Spider quite as effectually as though he had drawn the fated piece.

But now the whole proceeding must be gone through again. Once more the Russian drew forth a harmless coin. Jane Porter closed her eyes as Clayton reached beneath the coat. Spider bent, wide-eyed, toward the hand that was to decide his fate, for whatever luck was Clayton’s on this last draw, the opposite would be Spider’s. Then William Cecil Clayton, Lord Greystoke, removed his hand from beneath the coat, and with a coin tight pressed within his palm where none might see it, he looked at Jane Porter. He did not dare open his hand.

“Quick!” hissed Spider. “My Gawd, let’s see it.”

Clayton opened his fingers. Spider was the first to see the date, and ere any knew what his intention was he raised himself to his feet, and lunged over the side of the boat, to disappear forever into the green depths beneath—the coin had not been the 1875 piece.

The strain had exhausted those who remained to such an extent that they lay half unconscious for the balance of the day, nor was the subject referred to again for several days. Horrible days of increasing weakness and hopelessness. At length Monsieur Thuran crawled to where Clayton lay.

“We must draw once more before we are too weak even to eat,” he whispered.

Clayton was in such a state that he was scarcely master of his own will. Jane Porter had not spoken for three days. He knew that she was dying. Horrible as the thought was, he hoped that the sacrifice of either Thuran or himself might be the means of giving her renewed strength, and so he immediately agreed to the Russian’s proposal.

They drew under the same plan as before, but there could be but one result—Clayton drew the 1875 piece.

“When shall it be?” he asked Thuran.

The Russian had already drawn a pocketknife from his trousers, and was weakly attempting to open it.

“Now,” he muttered, and his greedy eyes gloated upon the Englishman.

“Can’t you wait until dark?” asked Clayton. “Miss Porter must not see this thing done. We were to have been married, you know.”

A look of disappointment came over Monsieur Thuran’s face.

“Very well,” he replied hesitatingly. “It will not be long until night. I have waited for many days—I can wait a few hours longer.”

“Thank you, my friend,” murmured Clayton. “Now I shall go to her side and remain with her until it is time. I would like to have an hour or two with her before I die.”

When Clayton reached the girl’s side she was unconscious—he knew that she was dying, and he was glad that she should not have to see or know the awful tragedy that was shortly to be enacted. He took her hand and raised it to his cracked and swollen lips. For a long time he lay caressing the emaciated, clawlike thing that had once been the beautiful, shapely white hand of the young Baltimore belle.

It was quite dark before he knew it, but he was recalled to himself by a voice out of the night. It was the Russian calling him to his doom.

“I am coming, Monsieur Thuran,” he hastened to reply.

Thrice he attempted to turn himself upon his hands and knees, that he might crawl back to his death, but in the few hours that he had lain there he had become too weak to return to Thuran’s side.

“You will have to come to me, monsieur,” he called weakly. “I have not sufficient strength to gain my hands and knees.”

“SAPRISTI!” muttered Monsieur Thuran. “You are attempting to cheat me out of my winnings.”

Clayton heard the man shuffling about in the bottom of the boat. Finally there was a despairing groan. “I cannot crawl,” he heard the Russian wail. “It is too late. You have tricked me, you dirty English dog.”

“I have not tricked you, monsieur,” replied Clayton. “I have done my best to rise, but I shall try again, and if you will try possibly each of us can crawl halfway, and then you shall have your `winnings.’”

Again Clayton exerted his remaining strength to the utmost, and he heard Thuran apparently doing the same. Nearly an hour later the Englishman succeeded in raising himself to his hands and knees, but at the first forward movement he pitched upon his face.

A moment later he heard an exclamation of relief from Monsieur Thuran.

“I am coming,” whispered the Russian.

Again Clayton essayed to stagger on to meet his fate, but once more he pitched headlong to the boat’s bottom, nor, try as he would, could he again rise. His last effort caused him to roll over on his back, and there he lay looking up at the stars, while behind him, coming ever nearer and nearer, he could hear the laborious shuffling, and the stertorous breathing of the Russian.

It seemed that he must have lain thus an hour waiting for the thing to crawl out of the dark and end his misery. It was quite close now, but there were longer and longer pauses between its efforts to advance, and each forward movement seemed to the waiting Englishman to be almost imperceptible.

Finally he knew that Thuran was quite close beside him. He heard a cackling laugh, something touched his face, and he lost consciousness.