CHAPTER 1
Kidnapped
"The entire affair is shrouded in mystery," said D\'Arnot. "I have it on
the best of authority that neither the police nor the special agents of the
general staff have the faintest conception of how it was accomplished. All
they know, all that anyone knows, is that Nikolas Rokoff has escaped."
John Clayton, Lord Greystoke--he who had been "Tarzan of the Apes"-
- sat in silence in the apartments of his friend, Lieutenant Paul D\'Arnot, in
Paris, gazing meditatively at the toe of his immaculate boot.
His mind revolved many memories, recalled by the escape of his archenemy
from the French military prison to which he had been sentenced for
life upon the testimony of the ape-man.
He thought of the lengths to which Rokoff had once gone to compass
his death, and he realized that what the man had already done would
doubtless be as nothing by comparison with what he would wish and plot
to do now that he was again free.
Tarzan had recently brought his wife and infant son to London to
escape the discomforts and dangers of the rainy season upon their vast
estate in Uziri--the land of the savage Waziri warriors whose broad
African domains the ape-man had once ruled.
He had run across the Channel for a brief visit with his old friend, but
the news of the Russian\'s escape had already cast a shadow upon his
outing, so that though he had but just arrived he was already
contemplating an immediate return to London.
"It is not that I fear for myself, Paul," he said at last. "Many times in
the past have I thwarted Rokoff\'s designs upon my life; but now there are
others to consider. Unless I misjudge the man, he would more quickly
strike at me through my wife or son than directly at me, for he doubtless
realizes that in no other way could he inflict greater anguish upon me. I
must go back to them at once, and remain with them until Rokoff is
recaptured--or dead."