The Son of Tarzan | Page 6

monkey.
The fight had been witnessed by the captain and mate who were just
landing from the Marjorie W., and Paulvitch saw these two now
running forward with drawn revolvers while the two sailors who had
brought them ashore trailed at their heels. The ape stood looking about
him at the havoc he had wrought, but whether he was awaiting a
renewal of the attack or was deliberating which of his foes he should
exterminate first Paulvitch could not guess. What he could guess,
however, was that the moment the two officers came within firing
distance of the beast they would put an end to him in short order unless

something were done and done quickly to prevent. The ape had made
no move to attack the Russian but even so the man was none too sure
of what might happen were he to interfere with the savage beast, now
thoroughly aroused to bestial rage, and with the smell of new spilled
blood fresh in its nostrils. For an instant he hesitated, and then again
there rose before him the dreams of affluence which this great
anthropoid would doubtless turn to realities once Paulvitch had landed
him safely in some great metropolis like London.
The captain was shouting to him now to stand aside that he might have
a shot at the animal; but instead Paulvitch shuffled to the ape's side, and
though the man's hair quivered at its roots he mastered his fear and laid
hold of the ape's arm.
"Come!" he commanded, and tugged to pull the beast from among the
sailors, many of whom were now sitting up in wide eyed fright or
crawling away from their conqueror upon hands and knees.
Slowly the ape permitted itself to be led to one side, nor did it show the
slightest indication of a desire to harm the Russian. The captain came
to a halt a few paces from the odd pair.
"Get aside, Sabrov!" he commanded. "I'll put that brute where he won't
chew up any more able seamen."
"It wasn't his fault, captain," pleaded Paulvitch. "Please don't shoot him.
The men started it--they attacked him first. You see, he's perfectly
gentle--and he's mine--he's mine--he's mine! I won't let you kill him,"
he concluded, as his half-wrecked mentality pictured anew the pleasure
that money would buy in London--money that he could not hope to
possess without some such windfall as the ape represented.
The captain lowered his weapon. "The men started it, did they?" he
repeated. "How about that?" and he turned toward the sailors who had
by this time picked themselves from the ground, none of them much
the worse for his experience except the fellow who had been the cause
of it, and who would doubtless nurse a sore shoulder for a week or so.

"Simpson done it," said one of the men. "He stuck a pin into the monk
from behind, and the monk got him--which served him bloomin' well
right--an' he got the rest of us, too, for which I can't blame him, since
we all jumped him to once."
The captain looked at Simpson, who sheepishly admitted the truth of
the allegation, then he stepped over to the ape as though to discover for
himself the sort of temper the beast possessed, but it was noticeable
that he kept his revolver cocked and leveled as he did so. However, he
spoke soothingly to the animal who squatted at the Russian's side
looking first at one and then another of the sailors. As the captain
approached him the ape half rose and waddled forward to meet him.
Upon his countenance was the same strange, searching expression that
had marked his scrutiny of each of the sailors he had first encountered.
He came quite close to the officer and laid a paw upon one of the man's
shoulders, studying his face intently for a long moment, then came the
expression of disappointment accompanied by what was almost a
human sigh, as he turned away to peer in the same curious fashion into
the faces of the mate and the two sailors who had arrived with the
officers. In each instance he sighed and passed on, returning at length
to Paulvitch's side, where he squatted down once more; thereafter
evincing little or no interest in any of the other men, and apparently
forgetful of his recent battle with them.
When the party returned aboard the Marjorie W., Paulvitch was
accompanied by the ape, who seemed anxious to follow him. The
captain interposed no obstacles to the arrangement, and so the great
anthropoid was tacitly admitted to membership in the ship's company.
Once aboard he examined each new face minutely, evincing the same
disappointment in each instance that had marked his scrutiny of the
others. The officers and scientists