"The entire affair is shrouded in mystery," said D'Arnot. "I have it on the best of authority that neither the policenor the special agents of the general staff have the faintestconception 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 ofhis arch-enemy from the French military prison to which hehad been sentenced for life upon the testimony of the ape-man.

He thought of the lengths to which Rokoff had once goneto compass his death, and he realized that what the man hadalready done would doubtless be as nothing by comparison withwhat he would wish and plot to do now that he was again free.

Tarzan had recently brought his wife and infant son to Londonto escape the discomforts and dangers of the rainy season upontheir vast estate in Uziri--the land of the savage Waziri warriorswhose 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 shadowupon his outing, so that though he had but just arrived he wasalready 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 designsupon my life; but now there are others to consider.Unless I misjudge the man, he would more quickly strikeat me through my wife or son than directly at me, for hedoubtless realizes that in no other way could he inflictgreater anguish upon me. I must go back to them at once,and remain with them until Rokoff is recaptured--or dead."

As these two talked in Paris, two other men were talkingtogether in a little cottage upon the outskirts of London. Both were dark, sinister-looking men.

One was bearded, but the other, whose face wore the pallorof long confinement within doors, had but a few days' growthof black beard upon his face. It was he who was speaking.

"You must needs shave off that beard of yours, Alexis,"he said to his companion. "With it he would recognize youon the instant. We must separate here in the hour, and whenwe meet again upon the deck of the Kincaid, let us hope thatwe shall have with us two honoured guests who little anticipatethe pleasant voyage we have planned for them.

"In two hours I should be upon my way to Dover with one of them,and by tomorrow night, if you follow my instructions carefully,you should arrive with the other, provided, of course,that he returns to London as quickly as I presume he will.

"There should be both profit and pleasure as well as othergood things to reward our efforts, my dear Alexis. Thanks tothe stupidity of the French, they have gone to such lengthsto conceal the fact of my escape for these many days that Ihave had ample opportunity to work out every detail of ourlittle adventure so carefully that there is little chanceof the slightest hitch occurring to mar our prospects.And now good-bye, and good luck!"

Three hours later a messenger mounted the steps to theapartment of Lieutenant D'Arnot.

"A telegram for Lord Greystoke," he said to the servantwho answered his summons. "Is he here?"

The man answered in the affirmative, and, signing forthe message, carried it within to Tarzan, who was alreadypreparing to depart for London.

Tarzan tore open the envelope, and as he read his face went white.

"Read it, Paul," he said, handing the slip of paper to D'Arnot."It has come already."

The Frenchman took the telegram and read:

"Jack stolen from the garden through complicity of new servant. Come at once.--JANE."

As Tarzan leaped from the roadster that had met him at thestation and ran up the steps to his London town house hewas met at the door by a dry-eyed but almost frantic woman.

Quickly Jane Porter Clayton narrated all that she had beenable to learn of the theft of the boy.

The baby's nurse had been wheeling him in the sunshineon the walk before the house when a closed taxicab drew upat the corner of the street. The woman had paid but passingattention to the vehicle, merely noting that it discharged nopassenger, but stood at the kerb with the motor running as thoughwaiting for a fare from the residence before which it had stopped.

Almost immediately the new houseman, Carl, had comerunning from the Greystoke house, saying that the girl'smistress wished to speak with her for a moment, and that shewas to leave little Jack in his care until she returned.

The woman said that she entertained not the slightest suspicionof the man's motives until she had reached the doorway of the house,when it occurred to her to warn him not to turn the carriage so asto permit the sun to shine in the baby's eyes.

As she turned about to call this to him she was somewhatsurprised to see that he was wheeling the carriage rapidlytoward the corner, and at the same time she saw the door ofthe taxicab open and a swarthy face framed for a moment inthe aperture.

Intuitively, the danger to the child flashed upon her, andwith a shriek she dashed down the steps and up the walktoward the taxicab, into which Carl was now handing thebaby to the swarthy one within.

Just before she reached the vehicle, Carl leaped in besidehis confederate, slamming the door behind him. At the sametime the chauffeur attempted to start his machine, but it wasevident that something had gone wrong, as though the gearsrefused to mesh, and the delay caused by this, while hepushed the lever into reverse and backed the car a few inchesbefore again attempting to go ahead, gave the nurse time toreach the side of the taxicab.

Leaping to the running-board, she had attempted to snatchthe baby from the arms of the stranger, and here, screamingand fighting, she had clung to her position even after thetaxicab had got under way; nor was it until the machine hadpassed the Greystoke residence at good speed that Carl, witha heavy blow to her face, had succeeded in knocking her tothe pavement.

Her screams had attracted servants and members of thefamilies from residences near by, as well as from theGreystoke home. Lady Greystoke had witnessed the girl's bravebattle, and had herself tried to reach the rapidly passingvehicle, but had been too late.

That was all that anyone knew, nor did Lady Greystokedream of the possible identity of the man at the bottom ofthe plot until her husband told her of the escape of NikolasRokoff from the French prison where they had hoped he waspermanently confined.

As Tarzan and his wife stood planning the wisest course to pursue,the telephone bell rang in the library at their right. Tarzan quicklyanswered the call in person.

"Lord Greystoke?" asked a man's voice at the other end of the line.

"Yes."

"Your son has been stolen," continued the voice, "and I alonemay help you to recover him. I am conversant with the plotof those who took him. In fact, I was a party to it, and wasto share in the reward, but now they are trying to ditch me,and to be quits with them I will aid you to recover himon condition that you will not prosecute me for my part inthe crime. What do you say?"

"If you lead me to where my son is hidden," replied theape-man, "you need fear nothing from me."

"Good," replied the other. "But you must come alone to meet me,for it is enough that I must trust you. I cannot take thechance of permitting others to learn my identity."

"Where and when may I meet you?" asked Tarzan.

The other gave the name and location of a public-houseon the water-front at Dover--a place frequented by sailors.

"Come," he concluded, "about ten o'clock tonight. It woulddo no good to arrive earlier. Your son will be safe enoughin the meantime, and I can then lead you secretly to wherehe is hidden. But be sure to come alone, and under nocircumstances notify Scotland Yard, for I know you well andshall be watching for you.

"Should any other accompany you, or should I see suspiciouscharacters who might be agents of the police, I shall not meet you,and your last chance of recovering your son will be gone."

Without more words the man rang off.

Tarzan repeated the gist of the conversation to his wife. She begged to be allowed to accompany him, but he insistedthat it might result in the man's carrying out his threat ofrefusing to aid them if Tarzan did not come alone, and sothey parted, he to hasten to Dover, and she, ostensibly to waitat home until he should notify her of the outcome of his mission.

Little did either dream of what both were destined to passthrough before they should meet again, or the far-distant--but why anticipate?

For ten minutes after the ape-man had left her Jane Clayton walkedrestlessly back and forth across the silken rugs of the library. Her mother heart ached, bereft of its firstborn. Her mind wasin an anguish of hopes and fears.

Though her judgment told her that all would be well wereher Tarzan to go alone in accordance with the mysteriousstranger's summons, her intuition would not permit her tolay aside suspicion of the gravest dangers to both her husbandand her son.

The more she thought of the matter, the more convincedshe became that the recent telephone message might be buta ruse to keep them inactive until the boy was safely hiddenaway or spirited out of England. Or it might be that it hadbeen simply a bait to lure Tarzan into the hands of theimplacable Rokoff.

With the lodgment of this thought she stopped in wide-eyed terror. Instantly it became a conviction. She glanced atthe great clock ticking the minutes in the corner of the library.

It was too late to catch the Dover train that Tarzan was to take. There was another, later, however, that would bring her tothe Channel port in time to reach the address the strangerhad given her husband before the appointed hour.

Summoning her maid and chauffeur, she issued instructions rapidly. Ten minutes later she was being whisked through the crowdedstreets toward the railway station.

It was nine-forty-five that night that Tarzan entered thesqualid "pub" on the water-front in Dover. As he passedinto the evil-smelling room a muffled figure brushed past himtoward the street.

"Come, my lord!" whispered the stranger.

The ape-man wheeled about and followed the other into theill-lit alley, which custom had dignified with the titleof thoroughfare. Once outside, the fellow led the way into thedarkness, nearer a wharf, where high-piled bales, boxes, andcasks cast dense shadows. Here he halted.

"Where is the boy?" asked Greystoke.

"On that small steamer whose lights you can just see yonder,"replied the other.

In the gloom Tarzan was trying to peer into the features ofhis companion, but he did not recognize the man as onewhom he had ever before seen. Had he guessed that his guidewas Alexis Paulvitch he would have realized that naught buttreachery lay in the man's heart, and that danger lurked inthe path of every move.

"He is unguarded now," continued the Russian. "Those whotook him feel perfectly safe from detection, and withthe exception of a couple of members of the crew, whom Ihave furnished with enough gin to silence them effectuallyfor hours, there is none aboard the Kincaid. We can goaboard, get the child, and return without the slightest fear."

Tarzan nodded.

"Let's be about it, then," he said.

His guide led him to a small boat moored alongside the wharf. The two men entered, and Paulvitch pulled rapidly towardthe steamer. The black smoke issuing from her funnel didnot at the time make any suggestion to Tarzan's mind. All histhoughts were occupied with the hope that in a few momentshe would again have his little son in his arms.

At the steamer's side they found a monkey-ladder danglingclose above them, and up this the two men crept stealthily. Once on deck they hastened aft to where the Russian pointedto a hatch.

"The boy is hidden there," he said. "You had better godown after him, as there is less chance that he will cry infright than should he find himself in the arms of a stranger. I will stand on guard here."

So anxious was Tarzan to rescue the child that he gave notthe slightest thought to the strangeness of all the conditionssurrounding the Kincaid. That her deck was deserted, thoughshe had steam up, and from the volume of smoke pouringfrom her funnel was all ready to get under way made noimpression upon him.

With the thought that in another instant he would fold thatprecious little bundle of humanity in his arms, the ape-manswung down into the darkness below. Scarcely had he releasedhis hold upon the edge of the hatch than the heavycovering fell clattering above him.

Instantly he knew that he was the victim of a plot, and thatfar from rescuing his son he had himself fallen into the handsof his enemies. Though he immediately endeavoured to reachthe hatch and lift the cover, he was unable to do so.

Striking a match, he explored his surroundings, findingthat a little compartment had been partitioned off from themain hold, with the hatch above his head the only means ofingress or egress. It was evident that the room had beenprepared for the very purpose of serving as a cell for himself.

There was nothing in the compartment, and no other occupant. If the child was on board the Kincaid he was confined elsewhere.

For over twenty years, from infancy to manhood, the ape-manhad roamed his savage jungle haunts without human companionshipof any nature. He had learned at the most impressionable periodof his life to take his pleasures and his sorrows as the beaststake theirs.

So it was that he neither raved nor stormed against fate,but instead waited patiently for what might next befall him,though not by any means without an eye to doing the utmost tosuccour himself. To this end he examined his prison carefully,tested the heavy planking that formed its walls, and measuredthe distance of the hatch above him.

And while he was thus occupied there came suddenly to himthe vibration of machinery and the throbbing of the propeller.

The ship was moving! Where to and to what fate was it carrying him?

And even as these thoughts passed through his mind therecame to his ears above the din of the engines that whichcaused him to go cold with apprehension.

Clear and shrill from the deck above him rang the screamof a frightened woman.