FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>  
es could span the distance, Jane and Tarzan, standing upon the deck, saw the lonely figure of the shaggy anthropoid motionless upon the surf-beaten sands of Jungle Island. It was three days later that the Cowrie fell in with H.M. sloop-of-war Shorewater, through whose wireless Lord Greystoke soon got in communication with London. Thus he learned that which filled his and his wife's heart with joy and thanksgiving--little Jack was safe at Lord Greystoke's town house. It was not until they reached London that they learned the details of the remarkable chain of circumstances that had preserved the infant unharmed. It developed that Rokoff, fearing to take the child aboard the Kincaid by day, had hidden it in a low den where nameless infants were harboured, intending to carry it to the steamer after dark. His confederate and chief lieutenant, Paulvitch, true to the long years of teaching of his wily master, had at last succumbed to the treachery and greed that had always marked his superior, and, lured by the thoughts of the immense ransom that he might win by returning the child unharmed, had divulged the secret of its parentage to the woman who maintained the foundling asylum. Through her he had arranged for the substitution of another infant, knowing full well that never until it was too late would Rokoff suspect the trick that had been played upon him. The woman had promised to keep the child until Paulvitch returned to England; but she, in turn, had been tempted to betray her trust by the lure of gold, and so had opened negotiations with Lord Greystoke's solicitors for the return of the child. Esmeralda, the old Negro nurse whose absence on a vacation in America at the time of the abduction of little Jack had been attributed by her as the cause of the calamity, had returned and positively identified the infant. The ransom had been paid, and within ten days of the date of his kidnapping the future Lord Greystoke, none the worse for his experience, had been returned to his father's home. And so that last and greatest of Nikolas Rokoff's many rascalities had not only miserably miscarried through the treachery he had taught his only friend, but it had resulted in the arch-villain's death, and given to Lord and Lady Greystoke a peace of mind that neither could ever have felt so long as the vital spark remained in the body of the Russian and his malign mind was free to formulate new atrocities against t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>  



Top keywords:
Greystoke
 

Rokoff

 

returned

 

infant

 

learned

 
ransom
 
Paulvitch
 

unharmed

 
London
 

treachery


calamity

 

return

 
Esmeralda
 

positively

 
solicitors
 

distance

 
opened
 
negotiations
 

abduction

 

attributed


America

 

vacation

 

absence

 

suspect

 

played

 

standing

 

tempted

 

betray

 

identified

 

promised


Tarzan

 
England
 

remained

 

atrocities

 

formulate

 
Russian
 

malign

 
villain
 

experience

 
father

future
 

kidnapping

 
knowing
 
miscarried
 

taught

 

friend

 
resulted
 

miserably

 
rascalities
 

greatest