The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Produced by Judith Boss and John Hamm. HTML version by Al Haines.
THE MONSTER MEN
by
Edgar Rice Burroughs
CONTENTS
1 THE RIFT 2 THE HEAVY CHEST 3 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 4 A NEW FACE 5 TREASON 6 TO KILL! 7 THE BULL WHIP 8 THE SOUL OF NUMBER 13 9 INTO SAVAGE BORNEO 10 DESPERATE CHANCE 11 "I AM COMING!" 12 PERFIDY 13 BURIED TREASURE 14 MAN OR MONSTER? 15 TOO LATE 16 SING SPEAKS 17 999 PRISCILLA
1
THE RIFT
As he dropped the last grisly fragment of the dismembered and mutilatedbody into the small vat of nitric acid that was to devour every traceof the horrid evidence which might easily send him to the gallows, theman sank weakly into a chair and throwing his body forward upon hisgreat, teak desk buried his face in his arms, breaking into dry,moaning sobs.
Beads of perspiration followed the seams of his high, wrinkledforehead, replacing the tears which might have lessened the pressureupon his overwrought nerves. His slender frame shook, as with ague,and at times was racked by a convulsive shudder. A sudden step uponthe stairway leading to his workshop brought him trembling and wideeyed to his feet, staring fearfully at the locked and bolted door.
Although he knew perfectly well whose the advancing footfalls were, hewas all but overcome by the madness of apprehension as they came softlynearer and nearer to the barred door. At last they halted before it,to be followed by a gentle knock.
"Daddy!" came the sweet tones of a girl's voice.
The man made an effort to take a firm grasp upon himself that notell-tale evidence of his emotion might be betrayed in his speech.
"Daddy!" called the girl again, a trace of anxiety in her voice thistime. "What IS the matter with you, and what ARE you doing? You'vebeen shut up in that hateful old room for three days now without amorsel to eat, and in all likelihood without a wink of sleep. You'llkill yourself with your stuffy old experiments."
The man's face softened.
"Don't worry about me, sweetheart," he replied in a well controlledvoice. "I'll soon be through now--soon be through--and then we'll goaway for a long vacation--for a long vacation."
"I'll give you until noon, Daddy," said the girl in a voice whichcarried a more strongly defined tone of authority than her father'ssoft drawl, "and then I shall come into that room, if I have to use anaxe, and bring you out--do you understand?"
Professor Maxon smiled wanly. He knew that his daughter was equal toher threat.
"All right, sweetheart, I'll be through by noon for sure--by noon forsure. Run along and play now, like a good little girl."
Virginia Maxon shrugged her shapely shoulders and shook her headhopelessly at the forbidding panels of the door.
"My dolls are all dressed for the day," she cried, "and I'm tired ofmaking mud pies--I want you to come out and play with me." ButProfessor Maxon did not reply--he had returned to view his grimoperations, and the hideousness of them had closed his ears to thesweet tones of the girl's voice.
As she turned to retrace her steps to the floor below Miss Maxon stillshook her head.
"Poor old Daddy," she mused, "were I a thousand years old, wrinkled andtoothless, he would still look upon me as his baby girl."
If you chance to be an alumnus of Cornell you may recall ProfessorArthur Maxon, a quiet, slender, white-haired gentleman, who for severalyears was an assistant professor in one of the departments of naturalscience. Wealthy by inheritance, he had chosen the field of educationfor his life work solely from a desire to be of some material benefitto mankind since the meager salary which accompanied his professorshipwas not of sufficient import to influence him in the slightest degree.
Always keenly interested in biology, his almost unlimited means hadpermitted him to undertake, in secret, a series of daring experimentswhich had carried him so far in advance of the biologists of his daythat he had, while others were still groping blindly for the secret oflife, actually reproduced by chemical means the great phenomenon.
Fully alive to the gravity and responsibilities of his marvellousdiscovery he had kept the results of his experimentation, and even theexperiments themselves, a profound secret not only from his colleagues,but from his only daughter, who heretofore had shared his every hopeand aspiration.
It was the very success of his last and most pretentious effort thathad placed him in the horrifying predicament in which he now foundhimself--with the corpse of what was apparently a human being in hisworkshop and no available explanation that could possibly be acceptableto a matter-of-fact and unscientific police.
Had he told them the truth they would have laughed at him. Had hesaid: "This is not a human being that you see, but the remains of achemically produced counterfeit created in my own laboratory," theywould have smiled, and either hanged him or put him away with the othercriminally insane.
This phase of the many possibilities which he had realized might becontingent upon even the partial success of his work alone had escapedhis consideration, so that the first wave of triumphant exultation withwhich he had viewed the finished result of this last experiment hadbeen succeeded by overwhelming consternation as he saw the thing whichhe had created gasp once or twice with the feeble spark of life withwhich he had endowed it, and expire--leaving upon his hands the corpseof what was, to all intent and purpose, a human being, albeit a mostgrotesque and misshapen thing.
Until nearly noon Professor Maxon was occupied in removing theremaining stains and evidences of his gruesome work, but when he atlast turned the key in the door of his workshop it was to leave behindno single trace of the successful result of his years of labor.
The following afternoon found him and Virginia crossing the stationplatform to board the express for New York. So quietly had their plansbeen made that not a friend was at the train to bid them farewell--thescientist felt that he could not bear the strain of attemptingexplanations at this time.
But there were those there who recognized them, and one especially whonoted the lithe, trim figure and beautiful face of Virginia Maxonthough he did not know even the name of their possessor. It was a tallwell built young man who nudged one of his younger companions as thegirl crossed the platform to enter her Pullman.
"I say, Dexter," he exclaimed, "who is that beauty?"
The one addressed turned in the direction indicated by his friend.
"By jove!" he exclaimed. "Why it's Virginia Maxon and the professor,her father. Now where do you suppose they're going?"
"I don't know--now," replied the first speaker, Townsend J. Harper,Jr., in a half whisper, "but I'll bet you a new car that I find out."
A week later, with failing health and shattered nerves, Professor Maxonsailed with his daughter for a long ocean voyage, which he hoped wouldaid him in rapid recuperation, and permit him to forget the nightmarememory of those three horrible days and nights in his workshop.
He believed that he had reached an unalterable decision never again tomeddle with the mighty, awe inspiring secrets of creation; but withreturning health and balance he found himself viewing his recenttriumph with feelings of renewed hope and anticipation.
The morbid fears superinduced by the shock following the sudden demiseof the first creature of his experiments had given place to a growingdesire to further prosecute his labors until enduring success hadcrowned his efforts with an achievement which he might exhibit withpride to the scientific world.
His recent disastrous success had convinced him that neither Ithaca norany other abode of civilization was a safe place to continue hisexperiments, but it was not until their cruising had brought them amongthe multitudinous islands of the East Indies that the plan occurred tohim that he finally adopted--a plan the outcome of which could he thenhave foreseen would ha
They were steaming up the China Sea when the idea first suggesteditself, and as he sat idly during the long, hot days the thought grewupon him, expanding into a thousand wonderful possibilities, until itbecame crystalized into what was a little short of an obsession.
The result was that at Manila, much to Virginia's surprise, heannounced the abandonment of the balance of their purposed voyage,taking immediate return passage to Singapore. His daughter did notquestion him as to the cause of this change in plans, for since thosethree days that her father had kept himself locked in his workroom athome the girl had noticed a subtle change in her parent--a markeddisinclination to share with her his every confidence as had been hiscustom since the death of her mother.
While it grieved her immeasurably she was both too proud and too hurtto sue for a reestablishment of the old relations. On all other topicsthan his scientific work their interests were as mutual as formerly,but by what seemed a manner of tacit agreement this subject was taboo.And so it was that they came to Singapore without the girl having theslightest conception of her father's plans.
Here they spent nearly a month, during which time Professor Maxon wasdaily engaged in interviewing officials, English residents and a motleyhorde of Malays and Chinamen.
Virginia met socially several of the men with whom her father wasengaged but it was only at the last moment that one of them let drop ahint of the purpose of the month's activity. When Virginia was presentthe conversation seemed always deftly guided from the subject of herfather's immediate future, and she was not long in discerning that itwas in no sense through accident that this was true. Thereafter herwounded pride made easy the task of those who seemed combined to keepher in ignorance.
It was a Dr. von Horn, who had been oftenest with her father, who gaveher the first intimation of what was forthcoming. Afterward, inrecollecting the conversation, it seemed to Virginia that the young manhad been directed to break the news to her, that her father might bespared the ordeal. It was evident then that he expected opposition,but the girl was too loyal to let von Horn know if she felt other thanin harmony with the proposal, and too proud to evince by surprise thefact that she was not wholly conversant with its every detail.
"You are glad to be leaving Singapore so soon?" he had asked, althoughhe knew that she had not been advised that an early departure wasplanned.
"I am rather looking forward to it," replied Virginia.
"And to a protracted residence on one of the Pamarung Islands?"continued von Horn.
"Why not?" was her rather non-committal reply, though she had not theremotest idea of their location.
Von Horn admired her nerve though he rather wished that she would asksome questions--it was difficult making progress in this way. Howcould he explain the plans when she evinced not the slightest sign thatshe was not already entirely conversant with them?
"We doubt if the work will be completed under two or three years,"answered the doctor. "That will be a long time in which to be isolatedupon a savage little speck of land off the larger but no less savageBorneo. Do you think that your bravery is equal to the demands thatwill be made upon it?"
Virginia laughed, nor was there the slightest tremor in its note.
"I am equal to whatever fate my father is equal to," she said, "nor doI think that a life upon one of these beautiful little islands would bemuch of a hardship--certainly not if it will help to promote thesuccess of his scientific experiments."
She used the last words on a chance that she might have hit upon thetrue reason for the contemplated isolation from civilization. They hadserved their purpose too in deceiving von Horn who was now halfconvinced that Professor Maxon must have divulged more of their plansto his daughter than he had led the medical man to believe. Perceivingher advantage from the expression on the young man's face, Virginiafollowed it up in an endeavor to elicit the details.
The result of her effort was the knowledge that on the second day theywere to sail for the Pamarung Islands upon a small schooner which herfather had purchased, with a crew of Malays and lascars, and von Horn,who had served in the American navy, in command. The precise point ofdestination was still undecided--the plan being to search out asuitable location upon one of the many little islets which dot thewestern shore of the Macassar Strait.
Of the many men Virginia had met during the month at Singapore von Hornhad been by far the most interesting and companionable. Such time ashe could find from the many duties which had devolved upon him in thematter of obtaining and outfitting the schooner, and signing her twomates and crew of fifteen, had been spent with his employer's daughter.
The girl was rather glad that he was to be a member of their littlecompany, for she had found him a much travelled man and an interestingtalker with none of the, to her, disgusting artificialities of theprofessional ladies' man. He talked to her as he might have talked toa man, of the things that interest intelligent people regardless of sex.
There was never any suggestion of familiarity in his manner; nor in hischoice of topics did he ever ignore the fact that she was a young girl.She had felt entirely at ease in his society from the first eveningthat she had met him, and their acquaintance had grown to a verysensible friendship by the time of the departure of the Ithaca--therechristened schooner which was to carry them away to an unguessed fate.
The voyage from Singapore to the Islands was without incident.Virginia took a keen delight in watching the Malays and lascars attheir work, telling von Horn that she had to draw upon her imaginationbut little to picture herself a captive upon a pirate ship--the halfnaked men, the gaudy headdress, the earrings, and the fiercecountenances of many of the crew furnishing only too realistically thenecessary savage setting.
A week spent among the Pamarung Islands disclosed no suitable site forthe professor's camp, nor was it until they had cruised up the coastseveral miles north of the equator and Cape Santang that they found atiny island a few miles off the coast opposite the mouth of a smallriver--an island which fulfilled in every detail their requirements.
It was uninhabited, fertile and possessed a clear, sweet brook whichhad its source in a cold spring in the higher land at the island'scenter. Here it was that the Ithaca came to anchor in a little harbor,while her crew under von Horn, and the Malay first mate, Bududreen,accompanied Professor Maxon in search of a suitable location for apermanent camp.
The cook, a harmless old Chinaman, and Virginia were left in solepossession of the Ithaca.
Two hours after the departure of the men into the jungle Virginia heardthe fall of axes on timber and knew that the site of her future homehad been chosen and the work of clearing begun. She sat musing on thestrange freak which had prompted her father to bury them in this savagecorner of the globe; and as she pondered there came a wistfulexpression to her eyes, and an unwonted sadness drooped the corners ofher mouth.
Of a sudden she realized how wide had become the gulf between them now.So imperceptibly had it grown since those three horrid days in Ithacajust prior to their departure for what was to have been but a fewmonths' cruise that she had not until now comprehended that the oldrelations of open, good-fellowship had gone, possibly forever.
Had she needed proof of the truth of her sad discovery it had beenenough to point to the single fact that her father had brought her hereto this little island without making the slightest attempt to explainthe nature of his expedition. She had gleaned enough from von Horn tounderstand that some important scientific experiments were to beundertaken; but what their nature she could not imagine, for she hadnot the slightest conception of the success that had crowned herfather's last experiment at Ithaca, although she had for years known ofhis keen interest in the subject.
The girl became aware also of other subtle changes in her father. Hehad long since ceased to be the jovial, carefree companion who hadshared with her her every girlish joy a
As she sat speculating on the strange change which had come over herfather her eyes had wandered aimlessly along the harbor's entrance; thelow reef that protected it from the sea, and the point of land to thesouth, that projected far out into the strait like a gigantic indexfinger pointing toward the mainland, the foliage covered heights ofwhich were just visible above the western horizon.
Presently her attention was arrested by a tossing speck far out uponthe rolling bosom of the strait. For some time the girl watched theobject until at length it resolved itself into a boat moving head ontoward the island. Later she saw that it was long and low, propelledby a single sail and many oars, and that it carried quite a company.
Thinking it but a native trading boat, so many of which ply thesouthern seas, Virginia viewed its approach with but idle curiosity.When it had come to within half a mile of the anchorage of the Ithaca,and was about to enter the mouth of the harbor Sing Lee's eyes chancedto fall upon it. On the instant the old Chinaman was electrified intosudden and astounding action.
"Klick! Klick!" he cried, running toward Virginia. "Go b'low, klick."
"Why should I go below, Sing?" queried the girl, amazed by the demeanorof the cook.
"Klick! Klick!" he urged grasping her by the arm--half leading, halfdragging her toward the companion-way. "Plilates! Mlalayplilates--Dyak plilates."
"Pirates!" gasped Virginia. "Oh Sing, what can we do?"
"You go b'low. Mebbyso Sing flighten 'em. Shoot cannon. Bling help.Maxon come klick. Bling men. Chase'm 'way," explained the Chinaman."But plilates see 'em pletty white girl," he shrugged his shoulders andshook his head dubiously, "then old Sing no can flighten 'em 'way."
The girl shuddered, and crouching close behind Sing hurried below. Amoment later she heard the boom of the old brass six pounder which formany years had graced the Ithaca's stern. In the bow Professor Maxonhad mounted a modern machine gun, but this was quite beyond Sing'ssimple gunnery. The Chinaman had not taken the time to sight theancient weapon carefully, but a gleeful smile lit his wrinkled, yellowface as he saw the splash of the ball where it struck the water almostat the side of the prahu.
Sing realized that the boat might contain friendly natives, but he hadcruised these waters too many years to take chances. Better kill ahundred friends, he thought, than be captured by a single pirate.
At the shot the prahu slowed up, and a volley of musketry from her crewsatisfied Sing that he had made no mistake in classifying her. Herfire fell short as did the ball from the small cannon mounted in herbow.
Virginia was watching the prahu from one of the cabin ports. She sawthe momentary hesitation and confusion which followed Sing's firstshot, and then to her dismay she saw the rowers bend to their oarsagain and the prahu move swiftly in the direction of the Ithaca.
It was apparent that the pirates had perceived the almost defenselesscondition of the schooner. In a few minutes they would be swarming thedeck, for poor old Sing would be entirely helpless to repel them. IfDr. von Horn were only there, thought the distracted girl. With themachine gun alone he might keep them off.
At the thought of the machine gun a sudden resolve gripped her. Whynot man it herself? Von Horn had explained its mechanism to her indetail, and on one occasion had allowed her to operate it on the voyagefrom Singapore. With the thought came action. Running to the magazineshe snatched up a feed-belt, and in another moment was on deck besidethe astonished Sing.
The pirates were skimming rapidly across the smooth waters of theharbor, answering Sing's harmless shots with yells of derision andwild, savage war cries. There were, perhaps, fifty Dyaks andMalays--fierce, barbaric men; mostly naked to the waist, or withwar-coats of brilliant colors. The savage headdress of the Dyaks, thelong, narrow, decorated shields, the flashing blades of parang and krissent a shudder through the girl, so close they seemed beneath theschooner's side.
"What do? What do?" cried Sing in consternation. "Go b'low. Klick!"But before he had finished his exhortation Virginia was racing towardthe bow where the machine gun was mounted. Tearing the cover from itshe swung the muzzle toward the pirate prahu, which by now was nearlywithin range above the vessel's side--a moment more and she would betoo close to use the weapon upon the pirates.
Virginia was quick to perceive the necessity for haste, while thepirates at the same instant realized the menace of the new danger whichconfronted them. A score of muskets belched forth their missiles atthe fearless girl behind the scant shield of the machine gun. Leadenpellets rained heavily upon her protection, or whizzed threateninglyabout her head--and then she got the gun into action.
At the rate of fifty a minute, a stream of projectiles tore into thebow of the prahu when suddenly a richly garbed Malay in the stern roseto his feet waving a white cloth upon the point of his kris. It wasthe Rajah Muda Saffir--he had seen the girl's face and at the sight ofit the blood lust in his breast had been supplanted by another.
At sight of the emblem of peace Virginia ceased firing. She saw thetall Malay issue a few commands, the oarsmen bent to their work, theprahu came about, making off toward the harbor's entrance. At the samemoment there was a shot from the shore followed by loud yelling, andthe girl turned to see her father and von Horn pulling rapidly towardthe Ithaca.