Chapter 2

The Journey and a Curious Discovery

Tarzan led them through the jungle towards the coastline. After reaching the coastline, he kept near it for some time and then swerved slightly towards the north.

"Tarzan?" Jane called. "Are you sure you remember the location correctly? We're not so much near the coastline now."

"Oh yes, I remember the place correctly." he answered her. "It's not so much near the coastline as I made it out to be."

Tantor started becoming suspicious. "We are not going to that place from where all those noises came from, are we?" he asked in a frightened voice.

"Oh yes, yes, maybe." said Turk.

Before Tantor could panic and run away, Jane and professor tried to reason with him.

"Don't worry, Tantor." said Jane. "Whatever lived there has surely gone away. Those noises don't come now."

"I'm sure there is a simple reason for those occurances." added the professor. "Just wait till we find it, Tantor. You'll feel silly to have been scared of it for so long and laugh on yourself!"

"But-but what if that creature is just lying quietly, waiting for us!" said Tantor starting to panic. Like all scared animals he had lost his reason suddenly.

"look here, Tantor." said Turk. "You, like us, has never come near this part of the jungle. If you want to go back, you can surely go. "But what if-" she continued in a dangerous tone, "-you met a leopard on your way. Or a lion, maybe."

And of course, that decided the matter for Tantor. He went with them, trembling a little.

After they had walked on for an hour or so, they reached a part where there was a thick tangle of bushes and undergrowth, which went on for a long way. Jane had learnt to tackle this kind of problem, but the professor needed help to get through.

Soon, Jane had torn a hole in her dress and she couldn't help feeling a little unhappy about it. Though, she had changed from the trim and proper lady that she used to be, she still couldn't manage to forget all her old customs, and missed her civilized life sometimes.

Suddenly, she stumbled and fell into the undergrowth. when she picked herself up, she was surprised to find herself holding...

"Good gracious, a shoe!" she exclaimed. "an old and broken one, too!"

"A shoe, my dear?" said the professor, who was having troubles of his own trying to scramble through the underbrush. "I think humans have got into this jungle again."

"No, Daddy," said Jane, "Just take a look at it. It's so old!"

So he did, and was surprised to find it in its current condition. It was actually a leather boot. But its sole had almost rotten away, it had gathered thorns in it, the leather left on it had gathered fungus and Turk said that it was the smelliest thing in the jungle and it was a wonder why she didn't sniff it out before.

Tarzan dared to ssniff at it closely and wrinkled up his nose in disgust. But still he was able to report that it faintly smelled of humans.

"What do you think it means, professor?" he asked the scientist.

"I think, my boy, someone who came in this jungle recently left this behind." the professor answered. "I certainly cannot think of another explanation."

"But daddy, it's so old!"said Jane repeating herself.

"Maybe, maybe-" began the professor, but was interupted by Tantor.

Please "throw it away." he protested. "Let's continue on. Whoever left this shoe behind is surely not going to come back for it." The truth was that Tantor was scared and wanted to finish this exploration as quickly as possible. The others knew this too, and Jane took pity on him.

So she threw the shoe away and they continued on their journey.

After going on for a long time, they noticed that the dense bushes and undergrowth started thinning out.

This meant that their journey was not so difficult now, and this thought enlivened their moods considerably. You see, the bushes had stained Jane's clothes more than she had expected, and as you can imagine she wasn't too pleased. Tarzan and the animals didn't had any problems of that kind, but they too prefered traveling on an easier path. As for the professor, well, must I tell you?

Tarzan and Jane got engrossed in professor's theories about various plants, and Turk and Tantor had just started teasing each other about silly things, when the former three were attracted to Turk's complaints about something rotten and metallic that she had stepped on. And it was then that they found what Jane described to be the last thing she had expected to find in that jungle.