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Updated: May 11, 2025
Inscrutable Nature had demanded of the accomplice a greater penalty than his principal had paid. In the mind of Alexis Paulvitch there lingered no thoughts of revenge only a dull hatred of the man whom he and Rokoff had tried to break, and failed. There was hatred, too, of the memory of Rokoff, for Rokoff had led him into the horrors he had undergone.
What the product was none on board the Marjorie W. knew except the scientists, nor is it of any moment to us, other than that it led the ship to a certain island off the coast of Africa after Alexis Paulvitch had been taken aboard. The ship lay at anchor off the coast for several weeks. The monotony of life aboard her became trying for the crew.
When he handed the packet to Rokoff in the seclusion of their stateroom the larger man rang for a steward, and ordered a pint of champagne. "We must celebrate, my dear Alexis," he said. "It was luck, Nikolas," explained Paulvitch. "It is evident that he carries these papers always upon his person just by chance he neglected to transfer them when he changed coats a few minutes since.
"Never, Nikolas!" interrupted the woman, and then Tarzan saw Rokoff turn and nod to Paulvitch, who sprang quickly toward the doorway of the cabin, rushing in past Rokoff, who held the door open for him. Then the latter stepped quickly out. The door closed. Tarzan heard the click of the lock as Paulvitch turned it from the inside.
"You are to be set at liberty here," he said. Tarzan's plan for immediate physical revenge upon the Russian vanished. He thought the land before him the mainland of Africa, and he knew that should they liberate him here he could doubtless find his way to civilization with comparative ease. Paulvitch took the cheque. "Remove your clothing," he said to the ape-man. "Here you will not need it."
He was half hidden by a davit, so that two men who approached along the deck did not see him, and as they passed Tarzan caught enough of their conversation to cause him to fall in behind them, to follow and learn what deviltry they were up to. He had recognized the voice as that of Rokoff, and had seen that his companion was Paulvitch.
There was time, just time enough, to reach the Kincaid by nightfall. Would the black fool never quit his skiff? Paulvitch squirmed and fidgeted. The lad yawned and stretched. With exasperating deliberateness he examined the arrows in his quiver, tested his bow, and looked to the edge upon the hunting-knife in his loin-cloth.
Thoughts of the hideous pack which tenanted the ship induced cold tremors along the spine of the cowardly prowler; but life itself depended upon the success of his venture, and so he was enabled to steel himself to the frightful chances which lay before him. No sound or sign of watch appeared upon the ship's deck. Paulvitch crept stealthily toward the forecastle. All was silence.
After a moment of conversation Tarzan asked if he had ever heard of Nikolas Rokoff or Alexis Paulvitch. "Very often, indeed, monsieur. Each has a police record, and while there is nothing charged against them now, we make it a point to know pretty well where they may be found should the occasion demand. It is only the same precaution that we take with every known criminal. Why does monsieur ask?"
Aside from this he knew nothing. And there, at the door of a grimy, old building in the slums of London, the searchers came to a blank wall baffled. The day following the death of Alexis Paulvitch a youth accompanying his invalid grandmother, boarded a steamer at Dover.
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