What could be more terrifying than having your child snatched by your
archenemy? Well in this third installment Edgar Rice Burroughs tackles
that terrifying prospect. Originally appearing in the pages of All-Story Cavalier magazine in 1914 The Beasts of Tarzan
continues the amazing adventures of John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, or as
most know him, Tarzan of the Apes. In the previous installment, The Return of Tarzan,
we saw our ape man finally tying the knot with Jane Porter, and in the
intervening time the happy couple gave birth to a beautiful baby boy
they name Jack.
Immediately we have trouble in paradise as Tarzan
learns from his friend D’Arnot that the villainous Nicholas Rokoff has
escaped prison, fearing for the safety of his wife and child Tarzan
races home, but he is too late. The child has been kidnapped. Tarzan and
Jane receive a phone telling the ape man to come to the Dover docks, no
police, and his son will be returned to him. The caller claims to be an
associate of Rokoff’s but who wants no part in a kidnapping. That this
is clearly a trap does not occur to Tarzan, who races off into the night
to make the rendezvous, but Jane, once given time think, realizes it is
probably a trap and she races off into the night to help her husband.
The end result is that they are both captured and taken aboard the
Steamer Kincaid.
Tarzan is marooned on a small island off
the coast of Africa with but a note detailing Rokoff’s dastardly plan.
The note informs Tarzan that his infant son will be given to a group of
cannibals to be raised as one of their own, and it is only Tarzan’s
belief that Jane is safe in London that gives the ape man any solace.
Meanwhile Jane, having been held captive in a different part of the
ship, has gained the sympathy of the Kincaid’s Swedish chef (no relation to the one on the Muppet Show), and with his aid is able to escape the ship.
Back
on the island Tarzan is forced to kill the leader of a group of apes,
not wanting to be king of the apes of this group he tells the second in
command, Akut, who he had also saved from a leopard, that he can remain
king if he will stand by Tarzan’s side in any ensuing battles. Later
Tarzan frees a leopard that was pinned by a fallen tree, the cat follows
him around and eventually they share prey together. Thus Tarzan has
gathered a menagerie of killer beasts for his eventually war against
Rokoff
.
The Beasts of Tarzan
is loaded with thrilling action, brutal battle, and daring escapes as
Tarzan and friends make their way to the coast, stealing a war canoe
from some natives, even adding one of the locals to his crew, and then
fighting their way through hostile jungles to find Jane and his son. The
story jumps back and forth between Jane and Tarzan’s stories, a device
used in many of the books, until the hero and heroine are finally
reunited and the dastardly Rokoff finally meets his messy end at the
jaws of Tarzan’s leopard friend. The last act of the book is really the
only weak part, once Jane and company are together, having seized the Kincaid
and its remaining crew, the ship is sunk by Rokoff’s compatriot Alexis
Paulvitch, and they find themselves marooned once again on that small
island. Then they encounter a group of mutineers that have anchored
themselves off this selfsame island, and hijinks ensue. This last
section seems really tacked on and completely unnecessary, and most
likely added to make this book length.
But what of the poor baby,
did they rescue little Jack? Well the Swede helped Jane and the baby off
the boat but it turns out that the baby Rokoff brought aboard was not
the child of Jane and Tarzan; someone had pulled a switch back in
England and the baby Jane is lugging around is not her own. That she
doesn’t take a minute to look into her child’s face until deep in the
jungle is probably the most unbelievable part of this story. Needless to
say there are happy endings all round, well except for Rokoff, and
Tarzan is once again triumphant.
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