The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs (the reading strategies book TXT) 📖

alone in the jungle for two days?" he asked incredulously.

"Had it been for life," she said in a low voice, "it would scarce have repaid the debt I owe you."

For a long time he lay looking up into her eyes—longingly, wistfully.

"I wish that it had been for life," he said.

At first she did not quite realize what he meant, but presently the tired and hopeless expression of his eyes brought to her a sudden knowledge of his meaning.

"Oh, Bulan," she cried, "you must not say that. Why should you wish to die?"

"Because I love you, Virginia," he replied. "And because, when you know what I am, you will hate and loathe me."

On the girl's lips was an avowal of her own love, but as she bent closer to whisper the words in his ear there came the sound of men crashing through the jungle, and as she turned to face the peril that she thought approaching, von Horn sprang into view, while directly behind him came her father and Sing Lee.

Bulan saw them at the same instant, and as Virginia ran forward to greet her father he staggered weakly to his feet. Von Horn was the first to see the young giant, and with an oath sprang toward him, drawing his revolver as he came.

"You beast," he cried. "We have caught you at last."

At the words Virginia turned back toward Bulan with a little scream of warning and of horror. Professor Maxon was behind her.

"Shoot the monster, von Horn," he ordered. "Do not let him escape."

Bulan drew himself to his full height, and though he wavered from weakness, yet he towered mighty and magnificent above the evil faced man who menaced him.

"Shoot!" he said calmly. "Death cannot come too soon now."

At the same instant von Horn pulled the trigger. The giant's head fell back, he staggered, whirled about, and crumpled to the earth just as Virginia Maxon's arms closed about him.

Von Horn rushed close and pushing the girl aside pressed the muzzle of his gun to Bulan's temple, but an avalanche of wrinkled, yellow skin was upon him before he could pull the trigger a second time, and Sing had hurled him back a dozen feet and snatched his weapon.

Moaning and sobbing Virginia threw herself upon the body of the man she loved, while Professor Maxon hurried to her side to drag her away from the soulless thing for whom he had once intended her.

Like a tigress the girl turned upon the two white men.

"You are murderers," she cried. "Cowardly murderers. Weak and exhausted by fever he could not combat you, and so you have robbed the world of one of the noblest men that God ever created."

"Hush!" cried Professor Maxon. "Hush, child, you do not know what you say. The thing was a monster—a soulless monster."

At the words the girl looked up quickly at her father, a faint realization of his meaning striking her like a blow in the face.

"What do you mean?" she whispered. "Who was he?"

It was von Horn who answered.

"No god created that," he said, with a contemptuous glance at the still body of the man at their feet. "He was one of the creatures of your father's mad experiments—the soulless thing for whose arms his insane obsession doomed you. The thing at your feet, Virginia, was Number Thirteen."

With a piteous little moan the girl turned back toward the body of the young giant. A faltering step she took toward it, and then to the horror of her father she sank upon her knees beside it and lifting the man's head in her arms covered the face with kisses.

"Virginia!" cried the professor. "Are you mad, child?"

"I am not mad," she moaned, "not yet. I love him. Man or monster, it would have been all the same to me, for I loved him."

Her father turned away, burying his face in his hands.

"God!" he muttered. "What an awful punishment you have visited upon me for the sin of the thing I did."

The silence which followed was broken by Sing who had kneeled opposite Virginia upon the other side of Bulan, where he was feeling the giant's wrists and pressing his ear close above his heart.

"Do'n cly, Linee," said the kindly old Chinaman. "Him no dlead." Then, as he poured a pinch of brownish powder into the man's mouth from a tiny sack he had brought forth from the depths of one of his sleeves: "Him no mlonster either, Linee. Him white man, alsame Mlaxon. Sing know."

The girl looked up at him in gratitude.

"He is not dead, Sing? He will live?" she cried. "I don't care about anything else, Sing, if you will only make him live."

"Him live. Gettem lilee flesh wounds. Las all."

"What do you mean by saying that he is not a monster?" demanded von Horn.

"You waitee, you dam flool," cried Sing. "I tellee lot more I know. You waitee I flixee him, and then, by God, I flixee you."

Von Horn took a menacing step toward the Chinaman, his face black with wrath, but Professor Maxon interposed.

"This has gone quite far enough, Doctor von Horn," he said. "It may be that we acted hastily. I do not know, of course, what Sing means, but I intend to find out. He has been very faithful to us, and deserves every consideration."

Von Horn stepped back, still scowling. Sing poured a little water between Bulan's lips, and then asked Professor Maxon for his brandy flask. With the first few drops of the fiery liquid the giant's eyelids moved, and a moment later he raised them and looked about him.

The first face he saw was Virginia's. It was full of love and compassion.

"They have not told you yet?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied. "They have told me, but it makes no difference. You have given me the right to say it, Bulan, and I do say it now again, before them all—I love you, and that is all there is that makes any difference."

A look of happiness lighted his face momentarily, only to fade as quickly as it had come.

"No, Virginia," he said, sadly, "it would not be right. It would be wicked. I am not a human being. I am only a soulless monster. You cannot mate with such as I. You must go away with your father. Soon you will forget me."

"Never, Bulan!" cried the girl, determinedly.

The man was about to attempt to dissuade her, when Sing interrupted.

"You keepee still, Bulan," he said. "You wait till Sing tellee. You no mlonster. Mlaxon he no makee you. Sing he find you in low bloat jus' outsidee cove. You dummy. No know nothing. No know namee. No know where comee from. No talkee.

"Sing he jes' hearee Mlaxon tellee Hornee 'bout Nlumber Thlirteen. How he makee him for Linee. Makee Linee mally him. Sing he know what kindee fleaks Mlaxon makee. Linee always good to old Sing. Sing he been peeking thlu clack in wallee. See blig vlat where Thlirteen growing.

"Sing he takee you to Sing's shackee that night. Hide you till evlybody sleep. Then he sneak you in workee shop. Kickee over vlat. Leaves you. Nex' mlorning Mlaxon makee blig hulabaloo. Dance up and downee. Whoop! Thlirteen clome too soonee, but allight; him finee, perfec' man. Whoop!

"Anyway, you heap better for Linee than one Mlaxon's fleaks," he concluded, turning toward Bulan.

"You are lying, you yellow devil," cried von Horn.

The Chinaman turned his shrewd, slant eyes malevolently upon the doctor.

"Sing lies?" he hissed. "Mabbeso Sing lies when he ask what for you glet Bludleen steal tleasure. But Lajah Saffir he come and spoil it all while you tly glet Linee to the ship—Sing knows.

"Then you tellee Mlaxon Thlirteen steal Linee. You lie then and you knew you lie. You lie again when Thlirteen savee Linee flom Oulang Outang—you say you savee Linee.

"Then you make bad talkee with Lajah Saffir at long-house. Sing hear you all timee. You tly getee tleasure away from Dlyaks for your self. Then—"

"Stop!" roared von Horn. "Stop! You lying yellow sneak, before I put a bullet in you."

"Both of you may stop now," said Professor Maxon authoritatively. "There have been charges made here that cannot go unnoticed. Can you prove these things Sing?" he asked turning to the Chinaman.

"I plove much by Bludleen's lascar. Bludleen tell him all 'bout Hornee. I plove some more by Dyak chief at long-house. He knows lots. Lajah Saffir tell him. It all tlue, Mlaxon."

"And it is true about this man—the thing that you have told us is true? He is not one of those created in the laboratory?"

"No, Mlaxon. You no makee fine young man like Blulan—you know lat, Mlaxon. You makee One, Two, Thlee—all up to Twelve. All fleaks. You ought to know, Mlaxon, lat you no can makee a Blulan."

During these revelations Bulan had sat with his eyes fixed upon the Chinaman. There was a puzzled expression upon his wan, blood-streaked face. It was as though he were trying to wrest from the inner temple of his consciousness a vague and tantalizing memory that eluded him each time that he felt he had it within his grasp—the key to the strange riddle that hid his origin.

The girl kneeled close beside him, one small hand in his. Hope and happiness had supplanted the sorrow in her face. She tore the hem from her skirt, to bandage the bloody furrow that creased the man's temple. Professor Maxon stood silently by, watching the loving tenderness that marked each deft, little movement of her strong, brown hands.

The revelations of the past few minutes had shocked the old man into stupefied silence. It was difficult, almost impossible, for him to believe that Sing had spoken the truth and that this man was not one of the creatures of his own creation; yet from the bottom of his heart he prayed that it might prove the truth, for he saw that his daughter loved the man with a love that would be stayed by no obstacle or bound by no man-made law, or social custom.

The Chinaman's indictment of von Horn had come as an added blow to Professor Maxon, but it had brought its own supporting evidence in the flood of recollections it had induced in the professor's mind. Now he recalled a hundred chance incidents and conversations with his assistant that pointed squarely toward the man's disloyalty and villainy. He wondered that he had been so blind as not to have suspected his lieutenant long before.

Virginia had at last succeeded in adjusting her rude bandage and stopping the flow of blood. Bulan had risen weakly to his feet. The girl supported him upon one side, and Sing upon the other. Professor Maxon approached the little group.

"I do not know what to make of all that Sing has told us," he said. "If you are not Number Thirteen who are you? Where did you come from? It seems very strange indeed—impossible, in fact. However, if you will explain who you are, I shall be glad to—ah—consider—ah—permitting you to pay court to my daughter."

"I do not know who I am," replied Bulan. "I had always thought that I was only Number Thirteen, until Sing just spoke. Now I have a faint recollection of drifting for days upon the sea in an open boat—beyond that all is blank. I shall not force my attentions upon Virginia until I can prove my identity, and that my past is one which I can lay before her without shame—until then I shall not see her."

"You shall do nothing of the kind," cried the girl. "You love me, and I you. My father intended to force me to marry you while he still thought that you were a soulless thing. Now that it is quite apparent that you are a human being, and a gentleman, he hesitates, but I do not. As I have told you before, it makes no difference to me what you are. You have told me that you love me. You have demonstrated a love that is high, and noble, and self-sacrificing. More than that no girl needs to know. I am satisfied to be the wife of Bulan—if Bulan is satisfied