Chapter 27 revenge

It was dawn, and in the morning light, deep in the woods, the little French camp was a miserable, disappointing place. As soon as he had a clear view of his surroundings, Lieutenant Carpenter divided the sailors into teams of three and searched in all directions for the path.In only ten minutes, the road was found, and the "expedition team" hurried to the beach. They trudged on, very slowly.For having to carry six dead comrades—two more died during the night.In addition, there are several wounded people who need help even if they walk slowly. Carpenter decided to go back to the beach to ask for reinforcements, then find the blacks and rescue Dianot.

It was not until four or five o'clock in the afternoon that the exhausted group returned to the campsite in front of the beach.Because they knew the good news that Jenny was safe and sound as soon as they came back, everyone forgot their pain and sorrow for a while. When this small army walked out of the jungle, Professor Porter and Cecil Clayton saw Jenny standing at the door of the hut. With a cry of joy she ran to meet them.She hugged her father's neck and burst into tears.For the first time since she was thrown on the terrible, dangerous beach, she cried like this. Professor Porter tried to restrain his emotions.But his tense nerves and declining vitality could no longer bear the impact of this emotion, and he finally buried his wrinkled old face on the girl's shoulder, quietly sobbing like a tired child.

Jenny led him into the cabin.The French sailors made their way to the beach, from where some comrades were approaching them. Clayton, wishing father and daughter to be alone for a while, went over to the sailors and talked to a few officers until their boat rowed for the cruiser— Lieutenant Carpenter went to report the misadventures of their adventure. Clayton walked slowly toward the cottage, full of joy that the girl he loved was safe and sound. He didn't know what magical force had kept her from dying.It's unbelievable that she came back alive. As he approached the hut, he saw Miss Jenny walking out of the door, so he hastily greeted her.

"Jenny!" he cried, "God is too good to us. Tell me, how did you escape? How did the Almighty save you from danger for us?" He had never called her by her nickname like this before, without her last name.The joyous tenderness that would have filled Jenny's heart if that expression had come from Clayton's mouth forty hours ago now startled her. "Mr. Clayton," she said calmly, holding out her hand, "thank you first of all for your chivalrous devotion to my father. He has told me how noble you are, how Self-sacrifice. We don't know how to repay you."

Clayton noticed that Jenny hadn't responded to his intimate yet slightly casual greeting.But he didn't see it as anything to worry about.He realized that Jenny had been through so much and that now was not the time to declare his love to her. "I have been rewarded," said he, "and it is enough to see you and Mr. Potter together safely and happily. His silent, uncomplaining grief pains me so much. I cannot imagine that How long to endure. "It is the greatest sorrow I have ever seen in my life, Miss Potter. And besides that, there is my own sorrow--the greatest sorrow I have ever experienced. But his pain is a despair that makes one Pitiful despair. It taught me that there is no love, not even that of a husband for his wife, that can compare with the self-sacrifice and love that a father expresses in his daughter."

The girl lowered her head.She wanted to ask him a question, but when she sat next to the "God of the Forest" and smiled happily, eating delicious wild fruits, and sending each other affectionate glances, he and his father were thinking about her. She had been through terrible sufferings, and she could not speak of them, which she felt was a blasphemy against them. But love is such a wonderful feeling.Occasionally, she still expressed the doubt in her heart. "Where is that woodland geek who came to save you? Why hasn't he come back?" "I don't understand," said Clayton, "who are you referring to?"

"It's the one who saved you! It's he who saved me from the gorilla." "Oh," said Clayton in amazement, "he saved you? You haven't told me about your 'adventures' yet!" "You didn't see this strange man?" she asked anxiously. "He left me when he heard the distant, faint sound of gunfire in the jungle. Then, as soon as we came to this clearing, he flew away." He also ran towards the place where the fighting was going on. I know he went to help you." Her tone of voice was almost a kind of begging, and her expression was very tense because she tried her best to suppress the excitement in her heart.All this naturally cannot escape Clayton's eyes.He wondered why she was so excited and eager to know the whereabouts of that monster.

A feeling of loss arises spontaneously.Even he didn't know it, but at this moment, he planted the first seed of jealousy and suspicion towards Tai Shan who had saved his life. "We didn't see him at all," he said calmly, "he wasn't with us." After a while, he said thoughtfully, "Perhaps he was with his own tribe to attack us." people." He didn't know why he said that, because even he didn't believe it could be true. The girl looked at him with wide-open eyes. "No!" she cried excitedly--too excitedly, it seemed to him. "That's impossible! Those people are savages!"

Clayton was puzzled. "He's a strange wild man in this jungle too, Miss Potter. We don't know a thing about him. He neither speaks nor understands the languages ​​of Europe. His ornaments and weapons are like the wild men of the West African coast. exactly the same." Clayton spoke in one breath like a cannonball. "There's no race of people but savages for hundreds of miles around, Miss Potter. He must be a member of the tribe that attacked us, or some savage tribe. He may be a man-eating savage." Jenny was pale. "I don't believe it!" she whispered. "It can't be true!" She said to Clayton: "He'll come back and prove you wrong. You don't know him as well as I do.

Listen to me, he's a civilized man. " Clayton was a generous, somewhat rustic fellow.But Miss Jenny spared no effort to defend the eccentric of the woods, which made him jealous.In an instant, he forgot how much favor they had received from this "half-human, half-god" monster, and a contemptuous smile appeared on his lips. "Perhaps you're right, Miss Potter," he said, "but I don't think any of us need worry about this carrion eater. He might just as well be a half-mad rascal who won't wait for us." Forget him, and he'll forget us all. He's just a beast in the woods, Miss Potter."

The girl didn't answer, but she felt her heart convulse in pain. She knew that Clayton was speaking only of his own opinion.For the first time she began to analyze the basis of her newfound love, and to look upon the object of her love with a scrutinizing eye. She turned slowly and walked towards the cabin.She tried to imagine what it would be like if she sat in the saloon of the liner with the Satyr. She seemed to see him eating with his hands, tearing like a wild animal eating its prey, and wiping his greasy hands on his thighs.She couldn't help shivering. She seemed to see herself introducing him to her friends—a rough, uneducated bumpkin.Thinking of this, Jenny couldn't help but take a few steps back. Back in the hut, she sat on the bed covered with ferns and thatch, pressed her heaving chest with one hand, and felt the hard outline of the small golden plate that the man gave him. She took out the gold box and put it in the palm of her hand. She looked at it for a while with blurry tearful eyes, then raised it to her lips and kissed it passionately.A beautiful face was buried in the soft fern, sobbing sadly. "Beast?" she murmured. "Then let God make me a beast too. For man or beast, I am yours." She didn't see Clayton again that day.Esmeralda brought her supper. She told her to tell Dad that she was not feeling well from the scare and needed to rest. The next morning, Clayton and the rescue team went to Lieutenant Dianochi.This time, a total of 200 fully armed soldiers, ten officers, two military doctors, and enough food for a week went there. They also carry luggage and hammocks.Another use of this hammock is to transport the sick and wounded. This is an "angry division" that has made up its mind, a support soldier, and even a crusade team.Because this time we walked on a familiar path, there was no need to waste time looking around. Just after noon, the troops arrived at the place where the small-scale battle was held the previous day. The elephant-treaded road leads from here to Mubonga's village.At about two o'clock in the afternoon, the front troops had reached the edge of the clearing in the forest. The commander, Lieutenant Carpenter, immediately sent a part of his force through the jungle and rounded to the opposite side of the village.Another detachment guarded the gate, and he and the rest of his soldiers remained at the southern end of the clearing. Carpenter's plan was that the men lying in ambush to the north would be the last to move into position. When everything is ready, immediately launch a charge.Their gunshots were the signal for several squads to attack simultaneously from all sides, striving to take down the village in one fell swoop with lightning speed. Lieutenant Carpenter led the soldiers to squat in the dense woods for half an hour, waiting for the signal to charge.They feel as if a long time has passed. Negroes were working in the fields, and some were going in and out at the gate. Finally, there was a crisp sound of rifles, and the sailors ambushing in the west and south of the jungle opened fire at the same time. The blacks working in the fields threw down their tools and ran frantically towards the gate, falling down one after another in the rain of bullets.The French sailors rushed straight for the gate, stepping over the lying corpses. The attack was swift and unexpected, and the white men rushed into the village before the villagers could stand against the gate.The heavily armed men in the village streets began a hand-to-hand fight again, and the fight was inextricable. The negro held out for a while on the village street beyond the gate.The pistols, rifles, and short swords of the French beat down the spearmen of the blacks and the archers who had not had time to draw their bows. Soon, the fight turned into a frantic rout, and then into a brutal massacre.The French sailors saw several blacks wearing Diarnot's uniforms, and the flames of vengeance were all the more ignited. They spared children and women.By the time they finally stopped the massacre, sweating profusely and covered in blood, there was actually not even a single living samurai who dared to resist in Mubenjia's village. They searched every hut and every corner carefully, but they couldn't even find the shadow of D'Arnot.They asked the captives with gestures, but they didn't know why.One of the sailors, from his service in the Congo, could speak a few words in which the whites exchanged ideas with the more backward tribes living along the coast, and the blacks of this tribe happened to understand this poor language.But when asked about the whereabouts of D'Arnot, they still knew nothing. Moreover, as long as they asked about Diarnot, these black people would make gestures, chirp, and look panic-stricken.In the end it was agreed that this fear was proof that these diabolical rascals had killed their comrade two days earlier and had feasted on flesh. The French sailors were at last completely disappointed, and had to prepare to camp overnight in the village.The Chimen gathered the captives in three huts and sent "heavy soldiers" to guard them.Guard posts were also set up at the gate.The village fell asleep in deathly silence.Only the black women wailed a few times for the loss of a loved one from time to time. The next morning, they set out on their way home.They originally planned to set fire to the village, but seeing the weeping and groaning prisoners gave up the idea.In this way they at least have a roof to keep out the wind and rain, and a gate to block a column of wild animals. The "expedition team" walked slowly along the road they had walked the previous day.Ten stretchers slowed their march.Eight of them were badly wounded, and two more died. Clayton and Lieutenants Carpenter followed behind.The Englishman was silent and said nothing out of respect for the lieutenant's grief.D'Arnot and Carpenter have been inseparable friends since childhood. Seeing the French officer so sad, Clayton thought it must be caused by the worthlessness of D'Arnot's sacrifice.Jeanne was saved before Diarnot fell into the hands of the savages.And he died for something other than his duty, for a foreign girl whom he had never met in a foreign land.But when he told this to Carpenter, the lieutenant shook his head. "No, sir," he said, "D'Arnot preferred to die that way. I'm only sorry that I didn't die for him, or at least with him. I wish you knew him better, sir. He was a A true officer, and a truly educated man. This title is available to many, but not so well deserved. "He didn't die lightly. His death for an American girl he had never met would make comrades who are still alive braver to face death, no matter what kind of sacrifice it would be." Clayton made no answer, but deep down he felt a new admiration for the French, which did not abate a little later. Back at the hut on the beach, it was getting late.Before coming out of the jungle, they fired a shot to tell the "bivouac" and the people on board that the rescue force had arrived too late.They had agreed in advance to fire a shot a mile or two away from the "bivouac."One shot meant failure; three shots meant success; two shots meant that neither D'Arnot nor his black captor had been found. Those who waited for them to come back felt heavy when they heard the gunshots, their expressions were serious, and they didn't say anything when they met.They gently put the dead comrades in arms and wounded sailors into the boat, and silently rowed towards the cruiser. Jenny stood at the door of the cottage. "Where's the poor lieutenant?" she asked. "You haven't got a clue about him?" "We're too late, Miss Potter," replied Clayton sadly. "Tell me, what happened?" she asked. "Can't tell you, Miss Potter. It's horrible." "You mean, they tortured him?" she said softly. "We have no way of knowing what they did to him before they killed him," he replied.He looked tired and felt very sorry for poor D'Arnot. When he said this, he emphasized the word "before". "Before killing him! What do you mean? Did they... did they..." She suddenly remembered that Clayton had once said to him that the "Wonder of the Woods" might have some relationship with this tribe, and her heart trembled, and she could hardly utter those terrible words. "Yes, Miss Potter. They're . . . cannibals," he said almost viciously.Because he also suddenly remembered that "Wonderful Man in the Woods".That strange, unspeakable jealousy he had felt two days before came over him again. Just as an ape has nothing to do with thoughtfulness and politeness, so Clayton has nothing to do with brutality.But he blurted out: "There is no doubt that after your 'God of the Forest' left you, he hurried to the feast of human flesh." As soon as the words fell, he felt a burst of guilt, although he didn't know how cruelly he hurt the girl's heart.He was ashamed because he had baselessly denigrated the "God of the Forest" who had saved five of their lives without harming any of them. The girl held her head high. "There can only be one suitable answer to your assertion, Mr. Clayton." She said coldly, "It's a pity that I'm not a man, otherwise I would have told you the answer." She turned around and walked quickly into the hut. Clayton was an Englishman, and before he could figure out what Miss Potter meant, the girl had long since disappeared without a trace. "Oh!" he said in great dismay, "she thinks I'm a liar. This evaluation cannot be said to be unfair to me. '' He added thoughtfully: 'Clayton, little fool, I know you're too tired and nervous.But it would be too unreasonable to make a fool of yourself like this.You better sleep. " Before going to bed, he softly called Jenny from the sail side, wanting to apologize to her.However, this is no different from talking to the ancient Egyptian sphinx.Jenny ignored it there.He had to write a note and slip it under the canvas. Jenny saw the little note and still ignored it.She was very angry and her feelings were greatly hurt.However, she was a woman after all, so she finally picked up the note and read it. Dear Miss Potter: I have no reason to justify my actions.the only excuse is It's my nerves that are too tense-in fact, this is really not an excuse. Just pretend I didn't say those stupid things.I am very sad.At this In this world, the last thing I want to hurt is you.tell me you Already forgive me. William Cecil Clayton "He must have thought that, or he wouldn't have said that," said the girl, analyzing herself, "but it can't be true! Oh, I know, it can't be true!" There was a sentence in the note that startled her: "In this world, you are the last thing I want to hurt." A week ago those words would have filled her heart with joy.But now, it made her so bored. She really hoped that she had never met Clayton, but she also wanted to meet the "God of the Forest". And feel sad.No, actually she was very happy.There is another note in her hand, which is a "love letter" written by Tarzan the ape.She found it in the grass in front of the hut the day after she came back from the jungle. Who will this new suitor be?If he was another savage denizen of the dreadful jungle, what couldn't he do to get her? "Esmeralda! Wake up," she cried. "It bothers me that you can sleep so soundly and soundly, knowing that the world is full of sorrow and pain." "My God!" Esmeralda yelled, sitting up. "What's the matter? A hippopotamus? Where is it? Miss Jenny." "Nonsense, Esmeralda. Nothing. Go to sleep, you're annoying when you're asleep, and worse when you wake up!" "Yes, dear. But what's the matter with you? Honey. Why are you always so sullen tonight?" "Oh, Esmeralda, I'm just in a bad mood tonight," said the girl. "Leave me alone . . . good man." "Yes, darling. Go to sleep, too. You're so nervous. What's Mr. Philander telling us about? A man-eating devil. Lord, no wonder we're all so nervous." Jenny walked over, smiled and kissed the faithful woman, and wished Esmeralda good night.