new that Kai Shang
and Momulla had come to take his life. The knowledge that he alone
could navigate the Cowrie had, up to now, been sufficient assurance of
his safety; but quite evidently something had occurred of which he had
no knowledge that would make it quite worth the while of his
co-conspirators to eliminate him.

Without a pause Gust darted across the beach and into the jungle. He
was afraid of the jungle; uncanny noises that were indeed frightful
came forth from its recesses--the tangled mazes of the mysterious
country back of the beach.

But if Gust was afraid of the jungle he was far more afraid of Kai
Shang and Momulla. The dangers of the jungle were more or less
problematical, while the danger that menaced him at the hands of his
companions was a perfectly well-known quantity, which might be
expressed in terms of a few inches of cold steel, or the coil of a
light rope. He had seen Kai Shang garrotte a man at Pai-sha in a dark
alleyway back of Loo Kotai's place. He feared the rope, therefore,
more than he did the knife of the Maori; but he feared them both too
much to remain within reach of either. Therefore he chose the pitiless
jungle.

Chapter 21

The Law of the Jungle

In Tarzan's camp, by dint of threats and promised rewards, the ape-man
had finally succeeded in getting the hull of a large skiff almost
completed. Much of the work he and Mugambi had done with their own
hands in addition to furnishing the camp with meat.

Schneider, the mate, had been doing considerable grumbling, and had at
last openly deserted the work and gone off into the jungle with Schmidt
to hunt. He said that he wanted a rest, and Tarzan, rather than add to
the unpleasantness which already made camp life almost unendurable, had
permitted the two men to depart without a remonstrance.

Upon the following day, however, Schneider affected a feeling of
remorse for his action, and set to work with a will upon the skiff.
Schmidt also worked good-naturedly, and Lord Greystoke congratulated
himself that at last the men had awakened to the necessity for the
labour which was being asked of them and to their obligations to the
balance of the party.

It was with a feeling of greater relief than he had experienced for
many a day that he set out that noon to hunt deep in the jungle for a
herd of small deer which Schneider reported that he and Schmidt had
seen there the day before.

The direction in which Schneider