Free The Greystoke Legacy by Andy Briggs Page B

certainly made her forget the pain in her leg.
    She looked at Tarzan and saw he was frowning and staring at her intently. Jane felt as if he was trying to tell her something but lacked the vocabulary.
    They sat on the edge of the lake watching the sun slowly sink behind the mountains. Chirping filled the air as familiar crimson-rumped waxbills darted to snatch flies and colorful butterflies made their last rounds on the flowers.
    As the shadows reached them, Tarzan finally spoke.
    â€œDark soon,” said Tarzan. “Dangerous for Jane.”
    Jane had come to the same conclusion so had decided not to pursue the matter of getting home. She followed him and the straggling gorillas back up the track to the aircraft. Some of the females and younger gorillas sat in the trees, bending branches into mattresses in the safety of the boughs. Larger silverbacks and blackbacks contented themselves with making their nests on the ground.
    Watching the animals bed down, Jane was surprised to feel safe.
    Then the image of Tarzan, his hands and mouth smeared in blood as he ate raw flesh came back to her and she shivered at the thought of spending the night so close to a killer.

7
    A billion insects chirped through the darkness and every single one of them was out to get Robbie. Or at least that’s what he thought as he huddled in the limb of a crabwood tree. He had tried sleeping on the ground, next to the small fire he had lit with deadwood, but the sounds of creeping bugs drove him to the tree where he thought he’d be safe from predators.
    He’d eaten an energy bar and a handful of trail mix, determined to be sensible with his rations, but he was still hungry. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the individual sounds around him. The rhythmic chirps of frogs, the high-pitched sawing of crickets, an occasional deep grunt in the canopy from a monkey, the flap of leathery bat wings as a colony of them hunted across the jungle and the incessant whine of mosquitoes as they nibbled his neck and ears. Archie had provided malaria tablets to his team, knowing it was the main disease likely to kill them out here. Robbie couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken them. Not that that would keep away the tsetse flies that carried the deadly African sleeping sickness. In his rush to find Jane, he’d forgotten to bring a bug spray or mosquito net.
    He sat miserably in the tree, not daring to move in case he fell out. His left leg was already numb as he curled up as tightly as possible and blanked out the din around him. He just hoped there were no snakes. In this dense jungle he wouldn’t know about it until it was too late.
    Then, as if to further his misery, the heavens opened up with a raging torrent. Thunder reverberated across the valley, and Robbie began to doubt the wisdom of sheltering in a tree during a thunderstorm; he thought he would be a magnet for lightning.
    He shivered, wrapping his arms around his numb legs. He was sure he could hear the gentle hiss of a snake.
    â€¢â€¢â€¢
    Archie watched the jagged lightning fork across the horizon, but the storm was still far off. Fear of another kidnapping gripped the camp when it was discovered that Robbie Canler was missing too. Clark and Mister David had searched the area in the fading light and had found Robbie’s footprints heading into the jungle.
    Archie had felt a twinge of guilt that Robbie had blundered off to look for his daughter while he had done nothing.
    â€œYou’ll call me a hypocrite since I made Robbie keep studyin’,” said Clark, drinking a whisky-laced coffee in front of the fire, “but the lad’s not as savvy as he thinks he is.”
    â€œAnd you think Jane is?”
    â€œIf Jane’s been taken by Tafari, that’s one thing. If Robbie goes in guns blazin’ then he’ll get them both killed.”
    Archie nodded grimly. Another flash of lightning ripped through the sky. The rain