That night he perched high among the smaller branches where Sheeta, the panther, cannot go.
Chapter 19 Hate and Lust
THE discovery that Annette was missing from the camp momentarily stunned the remaining members of the ill-fated expedition.
"What could possibly have become of her?" demanded Jane. "I know that she wouldn't just have wandered off into the jungle. She was too much afraid of it."
Brown advanced slowly upon Sborov. There was murder in his heart and it was reflected in his eyes. "You know where she is, you rat," he said. "Tell me what you've done with her."
Sborov fell back, instinctively raising his hands in defense. "I know nothing about her," he said; "I was asleep."
"You lie," said Brown, still advancing.
"Keep away from me," cried Sborov; "don't let him get me, Jane; he'll kill me."
"You're right I'm going to kill you," growled Brown. It was then that Sborov turned and ran.
Brown sprang forward. In a dozen steps he had overtaken the terrified man and seized him by the shoulder. Screaming, Sborov wheeled to fight with all the mad ferocity of the cornered rat fighting for its life. He pounded and scratched and bit, but the American bore him to the ground and closed his fingers upon his throat.
"Where is she?" demanded the American. "Where is she, you—"
"I don't know," gasped Sborov. "As God is my judge, I don't know."
"If you don't know, you might as well be killed anyway, for you ain't no good for anything then nohow."
Brown's fingers tightened upon the throat of the terrified Sborov, who still struggled and fought furiously to free himself.
All that it takes so long to tell happened in the span of a few brief seconds.
Nor during this time was Jane idle. The instant that she realized the gravity of the situation and that Brown was really intent upon destroying Sborov, she seized her spear and ran toward them.
"Stop it, Brown," she commanded. "Let the prince up."
"Not 'til I've given him what's coming to him," cried the pilot; "and he's going to get it, even if I hang for it."
Jane placed the point of her spear beneath Brown's left shoulder-blade and pushed until he felt the sharp point against his flesh.
"Drop him, Brown," demanded Jane; "or I'll run this spear straight through your heart."
"What do you want to kill me for, Miss?" demanded Brown. "You need me."
"I don't want to kill you, Brown," she said; "but that fact won't do you any good unless you obey my command and remember that I am leader of this expedition. You are doing a foolish thing, Brown; you haven't any evidence to uphold your judgment. Remember, we haven't made the slightest investigation. We should do that first to determine the direction in which Annette left camp, and whether she left alone or was accompanied by another. We can also tell by examining the spoor if she went willingly or was taken by force."
Slowly Brown's fingers relaxed upon the throat of the struggling, gasping prince; then he released him and rose slowly to his feet.
"I guess you're right, Miss," he said; "you're always right; but poor little Annette—what she told me yesterday about that rat made me see red."
"What did she tell you?" asked Jane.
"He waylaid her yesterday and tried to take that piece of coat sleeve away from her, and then he threatened to kill her if she told. It wasn't no snake that made her scream yesterday, Miss, leastways not an honest-to-God respectable snake; it was him. She was terribly afraid of him, Miss."
Alexis was gasping his breath back slowly. He was trembling from head to foot from terror.
"Is this true, Alexis?" demanded Jane.
"No," he gasped. "I just asked her for the coat sleeve so that I could see if it was really mine, and she commenced to scream just to get me in trouble. She did it just for spite."
"Well," said Jane, "we're not accomplishing anything this way. The rest of you stay where you are while I look for some kind of tracks. If we all wander around looking for them, we'll obliterate any that there may be."
She started to circle the camp slowly, examining the ground carefully. "Here they are," she said presently; "she walked out this way, and she went alone."
Jane walked slowly for a few yards, following the footprints of the missing girl; then she stopped. "They end here," she said, "right under this tree. There is no indication of a struggle, no sign that she was forced. As a matter of fact, she walked very slowly. There are no other footprints near hers. It is all very strange."
Jane stood for a moment, looking first at the footprints that ended so mysteriously and then up into the branches of the tree above. Suddenly she sprang upward, seized a branch and drew herself up into the tree.
Brown came running forward and stood beneath her. "Have you found anything, Miss?" he asked.
"There's only one explanation," she replied. "People do not vanish in thin air. Annette walked from the camp to the spot where her footprints ended beneath this tree; she did not return to the camp. There is only one place that she could have gone, and that is up here where I am."
"But she couldn't have jumped up there the way you did," protested Brown. "She just couldn't have done it."
"She didn't jump," said Jane. "Her tracks would have shown it, if she had jumped. She was lifted up."
"Lifted up! My God, Miss, by what?" Brown's voice was trembling with emotion.
"It might have been a snake, Miss, if you'll pardon me for suggesting it," said Tibbs; "it could have reached down and wound itself around her and pulled her up into the tree."
"She would have screamed," said Brown; "we'd have heard her."
"Snakes charm their victims so that they are helpless," said Tibbs.
"That is all poppycock, Tibbs," said Jane, impatiently. "I don't believe snakes do anything of the sort, and it wasn't a snake that got her anyway. There has been a man up here. He has been in this tree for a long time, or if not a man some sort of a man-like creature."
"How can you tell that?" demanded Brown.
"I can see where he squatted on this big branch," she replied. "The bark is scuffed a little, for he must have remained in the same position for a long time; and then in a line between where his eyes would have been and the camp, some small twigs have been cut away with a knife, giving a less obstructed view of the camp. Whatever it was, sat here for a long time watching us."
Sborov and Tibbs had approached and were standing nearby. "I told you I had nothing to do with it," said the former.
"I can't figure it out," said Brown; "I just can't figure it out. If she had been frightened, she would have screamed for help and some of us would have heard her."
"I don't know," said Tibbs, "but I saw something like it once before, sir. His Grace had a castle on the east coast up in Lincoln . It was a most lonely place, overlooking the North Sea . We only went there once a year for about six weeks; but that was enough, and what happened there the last time was why I gave notice. I couldn't stand the place any longer. Her Grace, the Duchess, was murdered there one night, and that was 'arrowing enough; but what 'appened three days later was, to my way of thinking, even worse.
"Her Grace had a maid she was very fond of, and three nights after the duchess was murdered, the maid disap peared. She just vanished in thin air, as it were, sir. There was never a trace found of her from then until now, and the country folk round said that Her Grace had come back for her—that it had 'appened before in the Castle of the Duke of Doningham—so I was thinking—"
"For Pete's sake, shut up!" cried Brown. "You'll have us all nuts."
"Horrible," muttered Alexis.
"Well, whatever it was, it wasn't a ghost," said Jane. She dropped to the ground beside Brown and laid a hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, Brown," she said; "I know you were very fond of her, but I don't believe that there is anything we can do, except to try to reach some outpost of civilization and report the matter. Then a search will be made."