登陆注册
15329300000068

第68章

By Jad-bal-lul

AS MO-SAR carried Jane Clayton from the palace of Ko-tan, the king, the woman struggled incessantly to regain her freedom.He tried to compel her to walk, but despite his threats and his abuse she would not voluntarily take a single step in the direction in which he wished her to go.Instead she threw herself to the ground each time he sought to place her upon her feet, and so of necessity he was compelled to carry her though at last he tied her hands and gagged her to save himself from further lacerations, for the beauty and slenderness of the woman belied her strength and courage.When he came at last to where his men had gathered he was glad indeed to turn her over to a couple of stalwart warriors, but these too were forced to carry her since Mo-sar's fear of the vengeance of Ko-tan's retainers would brook no delays.

And thus they came down out of the hills from which A-lur is carved, to the meadows that skirt the lower end of Jad-ben-lul, with Jane Clayton carried between two of Mo-sar's men.At the edge of the lake lay a fleet of strong canoes, hollowed from the trunks of trees, their bows and sterns carved in the semblance of grotesque beasts or birds and vividly colored by some master in that primitive school of art, which fortunately is not without its devotees today.

Into the stern of one of these canoes the warriors tossed their captive at a sign from Mo-sar, who came and stood beside her as the warriors were finding their places in the canoes and selecting their paddles.

"Come, Beautiful One," he said, "let us be friends and you shall not be harmed.You will find Mo-sar a kind master if you do his bidding," and thinking to make a good impression on her he removed the gag from her mouth and the thongs from her wrists, knowing well that she could not escape surrounded as she was by his warriors, and presently, when they were out on the lake, she would be as safely imprisoned as though he held her behind bars.

And so the fleet moved off to the accompaniment of the gentle splashing of a hundred paddles, to follow the windings of the rivers and lakes through which the waters of the Valley of Jad-ben-Otho empty into the great morass to the south.The warriors, resting upon one knee, faced the bow and in the last canoe Mo-sar tiring of his fruitless attempts to win responses from his sullen captive, squatted in the bottom of the canoe with his back toward her and resting his head upon the gunwale sought sleep.

Thus they moved in silence between the verdure-clad banks of the little river through which the waters of Jad-ben-lul emptied--now in the moonlight, now in dense shadow where great trees overhung the stream, and at last out upon the waters of another lake, the black shores of which seemed far away under the weird influence of a moonlight night.

Jane Clayton sat alert in the stern of the last canoe.For months she had been under constant surveillance, the prisoner first of one ruthless race and now the prisoner of another.Since the long-gone day that Hauptmann Fritz Schneider and his band of native German troops had treacherously wrought the Kaiser's work of rapine and destruction on the Greystoke bungalow and carried her away to captivity she had not drawn a free breath.That she had survived unharmed the countless dangers through which she had passed she attributed solely to the beneficence of a kind and watchful Providence.

At first she had been held on the orders of the German High Command with a view of her ultimate value as a hostage and during these months she had been subjected to neither hardship nor oppression, but when the Germans had become hard pressed toward the close of their unsuccessful campaign in East Africa it had been determined to take her further into the interior and now there was an element of revenge in their motives, since it must have been apparent that she could no longer be of any possible military value.

Bitter indeed were the Germans against that half-savage mate of hers who had cunningly annoyed and harassed them with a fiendishness of persistence and ingenuity that had resulted in a noticeable loss in morale in the sector he had chosen for his operations.They had to charge against him the lives of certain officers that he had deliberately taken with his own hands, and one entire section of trench that had made possible a disastrous turning movement by the British.Tarzan had out-generaled them at every point.He had met cunning with cunning and cruelty with cruelties until they feared and loathed his very name.The cunning trick that they had played upon him in destroying his home, murdering his retainers, and covering the abduction of his wife in such a way as to lead him to believe that she had been killed, they had regretted a thousand times, for a thousandfold had they paid the price for their senseless ruthlessness, and now, unable to wreak their vengeance directly upon him, they had conceived the idea of inflicting further suffering upon his mate.

In sending her into the interior to avoid the path of the victorious British, they had chosen as her escort Lieutenant Erich Obergatz who had been second in command of Schneider's company, and who alone of its officers had escaped the consuming vengeance of the ape-man.For a long time Obergatz had held her in a native village, the chief of which was still under the domination of his fear of the ruthless German oppressors.While here only hardships and discomforts assailed her, Obergatz himself being held in leash by the orders of his distant superior but as time went on the life in the village grew to be a veritable hell of cruelties and oppressions practiced by the arrogant Prussian upon the villagers and the members of his native command--for time hung heavily upon the hands of the lieutenant and with idleness combining with the personal discomforts he was compelled to endure, his none too agreeable temper found an outlet first in petty interference with the chiefs and later in the practice of absolute cruelties upon them.

同类推荐
  • 登裴秀才迪小台

    登裴秀才迪小台

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 翰林要诀

    翰林要诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 燕对录

    燕对录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 丹经极论

    丹经极论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 金师子章云间类解

    金师子章云间类解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 将心作道

    将心作道

    师傅说,人生千万道,道衍万千人。同化万般魔。我不懂,何谓道,何谓魔,又是什么样的能称为人。师傅又说,相由心生,心不变,则人不变。可是如果没有了心怎么办。没有了心,还能被当做是人吗。.........那是个下着雨的清晨就从那一刻起,我发誓我要踩着他们所有人,走出我的道
  • 六爻方圆三角预测之路

    六爻方圆三角预测之路

    科学网络高度发展的今天,现代大部分人对六爻摇卦不了解,认为是迷信,再加上现代六爻学者对于摇卦不是没有带铜钱就是场所不方便,而且抛铜钱起卦不能受外界干扰,非常要精力,难免会造成信息不到位。本人经过长期研究实验,发现六爻卦存在方圆三角概念,《六爻时空起卦》就是其中的一种,是根据古人的蓍草起卦法中的数字得到启发,以及铜钱排列原理在梅花时间卦的基础上进行改进创新,预测事物时无需摇卦,只要掌握好使用技术就能准确把握信息。
  • 进击的丧失

    进击的丧失

    天降陨石,僵尸横行他本是一个平凡人,却因为误吃陨石碎片,从此他的人生变得不平凡起来。
  • 人生,是一个决定

    人生,是一个决定

    一尘不染的女人在这世上没有朋友?男人并不蠢,谁会浪费弹药在一个他觉得最后会离开他的女人身上?你当然有权去等,只是,凡事有个期限好吗?如何巧妙又稳准狠地切断一场错误的恋情?如何应对暧昧关系?什么是恋情平淡期的加分项?男人什么时候最想结婚?爱情很难,但还是有个答案。请享受过程,也接纳变化,放胆去了解、领悟以及下定决心。懂得分轻重,学会聪明去爱,顺着命去活,就能活出好运。在魔幻爱情《第八号当铺》畅销百万之后,香港才女作家深雪带给你一次果断的爱情决定。用真实来直面真相,用决定去丰盈生命。爱是喜悦,不是折磨。爱得深是没用的,爱得对才天下无敌。100次自我摇摆,不如一次坚定的决心,不如一切从现在重新开始。
  • 紧急通知,萌宝来袭

    紧急通知,萌宝来袭

    她是他哥哥的未婚妻,却被迫成为他的女人。“暖暖,那个孩子是你们的私生子吗?”他将她压在墙壁上,冷冷逼问。他疼她宠她保护她,宠得无法无天。白暖知道,沈耀白的心情只分开心和不开心,而不管他开心不开心,都喜欢找她发泄……终于有一天,她难以承受一切选择逃跑,他断掉她所有的退路。“暖暖,从你跟我在一起的那天起,就注定你无处可逃。”
  • 都市系统邪少

    都市系统邪少

    一次意外让他获得了一个超凡的系统,从此他的生活发生了翻天覆地的变化!甲说:“我武功很高,轻功很好”“呵呵,没事咱有系统,咱兑换去,神马如来神掌啊!神马九阴真经啊!神马凌波微步啊!咱都会!”乙说:“我会放电,会喷火”“呵呵,咱有系统,会召唤,会透视……”
  • 执念之年,无边妄海

    执念之年,无边妄海

    为你,屠尽灵界,背上千古罪名,沉睡千年,忍下九千年寂寞,只愿有朝一日你我重逢,你,会记得我吗?
  • THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD'NHEAD WILSON

    THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD'NHEAD WILSON

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 邪帝绝宠,惑世小妖妃

    邪帝绝宠,惑世小妖妃

    上的了厅堂,下的了厨房,降的了神兽,斗的过小三,损的了渣男,修的了功法,赚的了钱财,逛的了青楼,养得起小倌……,只是,为毛这只大奇葩是个例外?“你就是一朵花,一朵奇葩!”某女愤恨的看着这个不请自来的某妖孽。“娘子,春宵一刻值千金”他长臂一伸,将她圈入怀中,“不如我们俩生几个小奇葩来玩玩?”
  • 一眼相见,半生情

    一眼相见,半生情

    “你相不相信有一见钟情啊!”“我只相信见色起意!”“……”由谁见色起意色7年的他,一代总裁爱了一个只见过一面的人7年……她,应为一句话爱了一个渣男10年……他痴情,她亦痴情……所以,他和她成了夫妻……“老公,我们约吗?”“老婆,我们不约!我是个有立场的人”“可是……老公,有人约我怎么办……”“老婆,我们现在约吧!”“………………”你的立场呢?