You have more than balanced
your obligations to him and from what he told me I feel that you
especially should not remain here longer."
The girl looked up at him in astonishment. "What do you mean?" she
asked.
"I do not like to tell," said the Englishman, digging nervously at
the turf with the point of a stick, "but you have my word that he
would rather you were not here."
"Tell me what he said," she insisted, "I have a right to know."
Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick squared his shoulders and raised his eyes
to those of the girl. "He said that he hated you," he blurted. "He
has only aided you at all from a sense of duty because you are a
woman."
The girl paled and then flushed. "I will be ready to go," she said,
"in just a moment. We had better take some of this meat with us.
There is no telling when we will be able to get more."
And so the two set out down the river toward the south. The man
carried the short spear that Tarzan had left with the girl, while
she was entirely unarmed except for a stick she had picked up from
among those left after the building of the hut. Before departing
she had insisted that the man leave a note for Tarzan thanking him
for his care of them and bidding him goodbye. This they left pinned
to the inside wall of the hut with a little sliver of wood.
It was necessary that they be constantly on the alert since they
never knew what might confront them at the next turn of the winding
jungle trail or what might lie concealed in the tangled bushes at
either side.
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