"Your Paris is more dangerous than my savage jungles,Paul," concluded Tarzan, after narrating his adventuresto his friend the morning following his encounter withthe apaches and police in the Rue Maule. "Why did theylure me there? Were they hungry?"

D'Arnot feigned a horrified shudder, but he laughed at thequaint suggestion.

"It is difficult to rise above the jungle standards and reasonby the light of civilized ways, is it not, my friend?" hequeried banteringly.

"Civilized ways, forsooth," scoffed Tarzan. "Jungle standardsdo not countenance wanton atrocities. There we kill forfood and for self-preservation, or in the winning of matesand the protection of the young. Always, you see, inaccordance with the dictates of some great natural law.But here! Faugh, your civilized man is more brutal thanthe brutes. He kills wantonly, and, worse than that, heutilizes a noble sentiment, the brotherhood of man, as alure to entice his unwary victim to his doom. It was inanswer to an appeal from a fellow being that I hastenedto that room where the assassins lay in wait for me.

"I did not realize, I could not realize for a long timeafterward, that any woman could sink to such moral depravityas that one must have to call a would-be rescuer to death.But it must have been so--the sight of Rokoff there andthe woman's later repudiation of me to the police makeit impossible to place any other construction upon her acts.Rokoff must have known that I frequently passed throughthe Rue Maule. He lay in wait for me--his entire schemeworked out to the last detail, even to the woman's story incase a hitch should occur in the program such as really didhappen. It is all perfectly plain to me."

"Well," said D'Arnot, "among other things, it has taughtyou what I have been unable to impress upon you--thatthe Rue Maule is a good place to avoid after dark."

"On the contrary," replied Tarzan, with a smile, "it hasconvinced me that it is the one worth-while street in allParis. Never again shall I miss an opportunity to traverse it,for it has given me the first real entertainment I have hadsince I left Africa."

"It may give you more than you will relish even withoutanother visit," said D'Arnot. "You are not through with thepolice yet, remember. I know the Paris police well enoughto assure you that they will not soon forget what you didto them. Sooner or later they will get you, my dear Tarzan,and then they will lock the wild man of the woods up behindiron bars. How will you like that?"

"They will never lock Tarzan of the Apes behind iron bars,"replied he, grimly.

There was something in the man's voice as he said it thatcaused D'Arnot to look up sharply at his friend. What hesaw in the set jaw and the cold, gray eyes made the youngFrenchman very apprehensive for this great child, who couldrecognize no law mightier than his own mighty physicalprowess. He saw that something must be done to set Tarzanright with the police before another encounter was possible.

"You have much to learn, Tarzan," he said gravely. "Thelaw of man must be respected, whether you relish it or no.Nothing but trouble can come to you and your friendsshould you persist in defying the police. I can explain it tothem once for you, and that I shall do this very day, buthereafter you must obey the law. If its representatives say`Come,' you must come; if they say `Go,' you must go.Now we shall go to my great friend in the department andfix up this matter of the Rue Maule. Come!"

Together they entered the office of the police official a halfhour later. He was very cordial. He remembered Tarzan fromthe visit the two had made him several months prior in thematter of finger prints.

When D'Arnot had concluded the narration of the eventswhich had transpired the previous evening, a grim smile wasplaying about the lips of the policeman. He touched a buttonnear his hand, and as he waited for the clerk to respond toits summons he searched through the papers on his deskfor one which he finally located.

"Here, Joubon," he said as the clerk entered. "Summon theseofficers--have them come to me at once," and he handed theman the paper he had sought. Then he turned to Tarzan.

"You have committed a very grave offense, monsieur," hesaid, not unkindly, "and but for the explanation made byour good friend here I should be inclined to judge you harshly.I am, instead, about to do a rather unheard-of-thing.I have summoned the officers whom you maltreated last night.They shall hear Lieutenant D'Arnot's story, and then I shallleave it to their discretion to say whether you shall beprosecuted or not.

"You have much to learn about the ways of civilization.Things that seem strange or unnecessary to you, you mustlearn to accept until you are able to judge the motivesbehind them. The officers whom you attacked were but doingtheir duty. They had no discretion in the matter. Every daythey risk their lives in the protection of the lives orproperty of others. They would do the same for you. They arevery brave men, and they are deeply mortified that a singleunarmed man bested and beat them.

"Make it easy for them to overlook what you did.Unless I am gravely in error you are yourself a verybrave man, and brave men are proverbially magnanimous."

Further conversation was interrupted by the appearanceof the four policemen. As their eyes fell on Tarzan,surprise was writ large on each countenance.

"My children," said the official, "here is the gentlemanwhom you met in the Rue Maule last evening. He has comevoluntarily to give himself up. I wish you to listenattentively to Lieutenant D'Arnot, who will tell you a partof the story of monsieur's life. It may explain his attitudetoward you of last night. Proceed, my dear lieutenant."

D'Arnot spoke to the policemen for half an hour. He toldthem something of Tarzan's wild jungle life. He explainedthe savage training that had taught him to battle like awild beast in self-preservation. It became plain to themthat the man had been guided by instinct rather than reason inhis attack upon them. He had not understood their intentions.To him they had been little different from any of the variousforms of life he had been accustomed to in his native jungle,where practically all were his enemies.

"Your pride has been wounded," said D'Arnot, in conclusion."It is the fact that this man overcame you that hurts the most.But you need feel no shame. You would not make apologiesfor defeat had you been penned in that small room with anAfrican lion, or with the great Gorilla of the jungles.

"And yet you were battling with muscles that have timeand time again been pitted, and always victoriously, againstthese terrors of the dark continent. It is no disgrace tofall beneath the superhuman strength of Tarzan of the Apes."

And then, as the men stood looking first at Tarzan andthen at their superior the ape-man did the one thing whichwas needed to erase the last remnant of animosity whichthey might have felt for him. With outstretched hand headvanced toward them.

"I am sorry for the mistake I made," he said simply. "Letus be friends." And that was the end of the whole matter,except that Tarzan became a subject of much conversationin the barracks of the police, and increased the number ofhis friends by four brave men at least.

On their return to D'Arnot's apartments the lieutenantfound a letter awaiting him from an English friend, WilliamCecil Clayton, Lord Greystoke. The two had maintained acorrespondence since the birth of their friendship on thatill-fated expedition in search of Jane Porter after her theftby Terkoz, the bull ape.

"They are to be married in London in about two months,"said D'Arnot, as he completed his perusal of the letter.Tarzan did not need to be told who was meant by "they."He made no reply, but he was very quiet and thoughtfulduring the balance of the day.

That evening they attended the opera. Tarzan's mind wasstill occupied by his gloomy thoughts. He paid little or noattention to what was transpiring upon the stage. Instead hesaw only the lovely vision of a beautiful American girl, andheard naught but a sad, sweet voice acknowledging that hislove was returned. And she was to marry another!

He shook himself to be rid of his unwelcome thoughts, andat the same instant he felt eyes upon him. With the instinctthat was his by virtue of training he looked up squarelyinto the eyes that were looking at him, to find that theywere shining from the smiling face of Olga, Countess deCoude. As Tarzan returned her bow he was positive thatthere was an invitation in her look, almost a plea.The next intermission found him beside her in her box.

"I have so much wished to see you," she was saying."It has troubled me not a little to think that after theservice you rendered to both my husband and myself no adequateexplanation was ever made you of what must have seemedingratitude on our part in not taking the necessary steps toprevent a repetition of the attacks upon us by those two men."

"You wrong me," replied Tarzan. "My thoughts of youhave been only the most pleasant. You must not feel thatany explanation is due me. Have they annoyed you further?"

"They never cease," she replied sadly. "I feel that I musttell some one, and I do not know another who so deservesan explanation as you. You must permit me to do so. It maybe of service to you, for I know Nikolas Rokoff quite wellenough to be positive that you have not seen the last of him.He will find some means to be revenged upon you. What Iwish to tell you may be of aid to you in combating anyscheme of revenge he may harbor. I cannot tell you here, buttomorrow I shall be at home to Monsieur Tarzan at five."

"It will be an eternity until tomorrow at five," he said, ashe bade her good night.From a corner of the theater Rokoff and Paulvitch sawMonsieur Tarzan in the box of the Countess de Coude, andboth men smiled.

At four-thirty the following afternoon a swarthy, beardedman rang the bell at the servants' entrance of the palace ofthe Count de Coude. The footman who opened the door raisedhis eyebrows in recognition as he saw who stood without.A low conversation passed between the two.

At first the footman demurred from some propositionthat the bearded one made, but an instant later somethingpassed from the hand of the caller to the hand of theservant. Then the latter turned and led the visitor by aroundabout way to a little curtained alcove off the apartmentin which the countess was wont to serve tea of an afternoon.

A half hour later Tarzan was ushered into the room,and presently his hostess entered, smiling, and withoutstretched hands.

"I am so glad that you came," she said.

"Nothing could have prevented," he replied.

For a few moments they spoke of the opera, of the topicsthat were then occupying the attention of Paris, of thepleasure of renewing their brief acquaintance which had hadits inception under such odd circumstances, and this broughtthem to the subject that was uppermost in the minds of both.

"You must have wondered," said the countess finally, "whatthe object of Rokoff's persecution could be. It is very simple.The count is intrusted with many of the vital secrets of theministry of war. He often has in his possession papers thatforeign powers would give a fortune to possess--secretsof state that their agents would commit murder andworse than murder to learn.

"There is such a matter now in his possession that wouldmake the fame and fortune of any Russian who coulddivulge it to his government. Rokoff and Paulvitch areRussian spies. They will stop at nothing to procure thisinformation. The affair on the liner--I mean the matter of thecard game--was for the purpose of blackmailing the knowledgethey seek from my husband.

"Had he been convicted of cheating at cards, his careerwould have been blighted. He would have had to leave thewar department. He would have been socially ostracized.They intended to hold this club over him--the price of anavowal on their part that the count was but the victim of theplot of enemies who wished to besmirch his name was to havebeen the papers they seek.

"You thwarted them in this. Then they concocted thescheme whereby my reputation was to be the price, insteadof the count's. When Paulvitch entered my cabin he explainedit to me. If I would obtain the information for themhe promised to go no farther, otherwise Rokoff, who stoodwithout, was to notify the purser that I was entertaining aman other than my husband behind the locked doors of mycabin. He was to tell every one he met on the boat, andwhen we landed he was to have given the whole story to thenewspaper men."Was it not too horrible? But I happened to know somethingof Monsieur Paulvitch that would send him to the gallowsin Russia if it were known by the police of St. Petersburg.I dared him to carry out his plan, and then I leanedtoward him and whispered a name in his ear. Like that"--andshe snapped her fingers--"he flew at my throat as a madman.He would have killed me had you not interfered."

"The brutes!" muttered Tarzan.

"They are worse than that, my friend," she said."They are devils. I fear for you because you have gainedtheir hatred. I wish you to be on your guard constantly.Tell me that you will, for my sake, for I should never forgivemyself should you suffer through the kindness you did me."

"I do not fear them," he replied. "I have survived grimmerenemies than Rokoff and Paulvitch." He saw that she knewnothing of the occurrence in the Rue Maule, nor did hemention it, fearing that it might distress her.

"For your own safety," he continued, "why do you not turnthe scoundrels over to the authorities? They should makequick work of them."

She hesitated for a moment before replying.

"There are two reasons," she said finally. "One of themit is that keeps the count from doing that very thing.The other, my real reason for fearing to expose them, I havenever told--only Rokoff and I know it. I wonder," andthen she paused, looking intently at him for a long time.

"And what do you wonder?" he asked, smiling.

"I was wondering why it is that I want to tell you thething that I have not dared tell even to my husband.I believe that you would understand, and that you could tellme the right course to follow. I believe that you would notjudge me too harshly."

"I fear that I should prove a very poor judge, madame,"Tarzan replied, "for if you had been guilty of murder Ishould say that the victim should be grateful to have metso sweet a fate."

"Oh, dear, no," she expostulated; "it is not so terrible as that.But first let me tell you the reason the count has for notprosecuting these men; then, if I can hold my courage, Ishall tell you the real reason that I dare not. The first isthat Nikolas Rokoff is my brother. We are Russians.Nikolas has been a bad man since I can remember. He wascashiered from the Russian army, in which he held a captaincy.There was a scandal for a time, but after a while it waspartially forgotten, and my father obtained a position for himin the secret service.

"There have been many terrible crimes laid at Nikolas' door,but he has always managed to escape punishment. Of latehe has accomplished it by trumped-up evidence convictinghis victims of treason against the czar, and the Russianpolice, who are always only too ready to fasten guilt ofthis nature upon any and all, have accepted his versionand exonerated him."

"Have not his attempted crimes against you and yourhusband forfeited whatever rights the bonds of kinship mighthave accorded him?" asked Tarzan. "The fact that you are hissister has not deterred him from seeking to besmirch your honor.You owe him no loyalty, madame."

"Ah, but there is that other reason. If I owe him no loyaltythough he be my brother, I cannot so easily disavow thefear I hold him in because of a certain episode in my life ofwhich he is cognizant.

"I might as well tell you all," she resumed after a pause,"for I see that it is in my heart to tell you sooner or later.I was educated in a convent. While there I met a man whomI supposed to be a gentleman. I knew little or nothing aboutmen and less about love. I got it into my foolish head thatI loved this man, and at his urgent request I ran away with him.We were to have been married.

"I was with him just three hours. All in the daytime andin public places--railroad stations and upon a train.When we reached our destination where we were to have beenmarried, two officers stepped up to my escort as we descendedfrom the train, and placed him under arrest. They took mealso, but when I had told my story they did not detain me,other than to send me back to the convent under the care ofa matron. It seemed that the man who had wooed me was nogentleman at all, but a deserter from the army as well asa fugitive from civil justice. He had a police record innearly every country in Europe.

"The matter was hushed up by the authorities of the convent.Not even my parents knew of it. But Nikolas met the manafterward, and learned the whole story. Now he threatensto tell the count if I do not do just as he wishes me to."

Tarzan laughed. "You are still but a little girl. The storythat you have told me cannot reflect in any way upon yourreputation, and were you not a little girl at heart you wouldknow it. Go to your husband tonight, and tell him the wholestory, just as you have told it to me. Unless I am much mistakenhe will laugh at you for your fears, and take immediate stepsto put that precious brother of yours in prisonwhere he belongs."

"I only wish that I dared," she said; "but I am afraid.I learned early to fear men. First my father, then Nikolas,then the fathers in the convent. Nearly all my friends feartheir husbands--why should I not fear mine?"

"It does not seem right that women should fear men,"said Tarzan, an expression of puzzlement on his face."I am better acquainted with the jungle folk, and there itis more often the other way around, except among the black men,and they to my mind are in most ways lower in the scale thanthe beasts. No, I cannot understand why civilized womenshould fear men, the beings that are created to protect them.I should hate to think that any woman feared me."

"I do not think that any woman would fear you, my friend,"said Olga de Coude softly. "I have known you but a shortwhile, yet though it may seem foolish to say it, you arethe only man I have ever known whom I think that I shouldnever fear--it is strange, too, for you are very strong.I wondered at the ease with which you handled Nikolas andPaulvitch that night in my cabin. It was marvellous."As Tarzan was leaving her a short time later he wondereda little at the clinging pressure of her hand at parting,and the firm insistence with which she exacted a promisefrom him that he would call again on the morrow.

The memory of her half-veiled eyes and perfect lips as shehad stood smiling up into his face as he bade her good-byremained with him for the balance of the day. Olga deCoude was a very beautiful woman, and Tarzan of the Apesa very lonely young man, with a heart in him that was inneed of the doctoring that only a woman may provide.

As the countess turned back into the room after Tarzan'sdeparture, she found herself face to face with Nikolas Rokoff.

"How long have you been here?" she cried, shrinking away from him.

"Since before your lover came," he answered, with a nasty leer.

"Stop!" she commanded. "How dare you say such a thingto me--your sister!"

"Well, my dear Olga, if he is not your lover, accept myapologies; but it is no fault of yours that he is not.Had he one-tenth the knowledge of women that I have youwould be in his arms this minute. He is a stupid fool, Olga.Why, your every word and act was an open invitation to him,and he had not the sense to see it."

The woman put her hands to her ears.

"I will not listen. You are wicked to say such things as that.No matter what you may threaten me with, you know that Iam a good woman. After tonight you will not dare to annoyme, for I shall tell Raoul all. He will understand, and then,Monsieur Nikolas, beware!"

"You shall tell him nothing," said Rokoff. "I have this affairnow, and with the help of one of your servants whom I may trustit will lack nothing in the telling when the time comes that thedetails of the sworn evidence shall be poured into your husband'sears. The other affair served its purpose well--we now havesomething tangible to work on, Olga. A real AFFAIR--and you a trusted wife. Shame, Olga," and the brute laughed.

So the countess told her count nothing, and matters wereworse than they had been. From a vague fear her mind wastransferred to a very tangible one. It may be, too, thatconscience helped to enlarge it out of all proportion.