Part 1: The Fugitives

Chapter 3

"Strange Houseguests"

In all the years that she had lived on Earth, Jane had never had very many houseguests from her days of living on Cherry Tree Lane. All the houseguests that she and Archimedes had hosted were always civilized and had maintained manners to an utmost degree. However, in the case of Hugo and Hooft, it appeared to her that these were very strange men who seemed to look as though that they had never been to charm school, even they seemed to be very nice gentlemen. In fact, Tarzan wasn't very bothered by their appearance despite the fact that they were from the outside world and she knew that Tarzan would normally be considered troubled by outside humans.

However, that didn't seem to bother Hugo and Hooft as they had sat down with their hosts for a feast on fruit that Tarzan had gathered throughout the jungle. Hooft had enjoyed a peach while Hugo munched on a Watermelon in a very unmanneristicked way. Jane was very bothered by them and wanted to tell them to stop, but she knew that they had been through a lot and decided to not say what she wanted to say.

"Are you sure they are not pirates?" whispered Tantor into Tarzan's ear. "Ask them if they know Blackbeard."

A few days earlier, Jane had entertained Tarzan and the others with a rendition of the English pirate Blackbeard and being the nervous animal that he was, Tantor could not help but ask, much to Tarzan's confusion yet keen interest.

"They're not pirates," chuckled Tarzan as he watched his new friends eat their supply of fruit. "They're Americans."

"Okay," said Tantor with a deep hint of uncertainty. "But if you end up walking the plank, don't come crying to me."

While the elephant had his moments of uncertainty deep in his voice, Archimedes was more interested in Hugo and Hooft and where they came from. Giving the fact that he was a former soldier of the British Army, he had encountered many foreigners in his life and in his own mind, these men were no different.

"So, you gentlemen are with the Foreign Legion am I correct, hmm?" asked Archimedes. "You seem to have their uniforms on."

This made the two men stop eating and stare at the newly knighted professor with blank expressions, as if that he somewhat knew of what they really were.

"Well, we were," said Hugo nervously. "And then we busted our way out."

"Yeah," added Hooft who took another bite of the peach he was eating. "To the rank and file I suppose. You see, we are not really soldiers."

Jane was now starting to grow suspicious of her houseguests and gave a scowl at the two men as if to say she wanted to get the whole truth out of them .

"You're not?" she asked.

"We're not?" mimicked Hugo.

"No, no, no," replied Hooft, trying to conceal their true identity from their hosts. "We're secret super agents, formally disguised as soldiers."

"We're on a top secret mission right now," added Hugo. "Very hush hush."

This made Tarzan grow more and more interested by the minute at what Hugo and Hooft had to say. True, Jane had taught him everything about the human world, but this was something completely new to him and he wanted to learn more.

"Really?" asked Tarzan curiously. "What kind of mission?"

"Oh, a super-secret one of course," said Hooft.

"Yeah," added Hugo. "After all, we are super-secret agents I suppose."

Once again trusting her womanly instincts, Jane walked over to the two men and folding her arms, stared down at them as if to say that they were not telling the truth. She then took notice of the broken handcuffs that once binded them together.

"And where, pray tell," Jane asked, raising their once shackled arms together. "Might these be, exactly?"

Now, Hugo and Hooft were starting to get nervous that Jane was starting to find out the truth. One wrong move could exploit them for who they really were and that was something that Hugo and Hooft had to desperately avoid.

"Well," said Hooft nervously, pointing to the chain that was around his wrist. "There is a very logical explanation for this."

"These are decoder bracelets," explained Hugo.

"Yeah," added Hooft, chuckling. "Exactly, Junior."

But, Jane was not convinced by this. For she knew that a handcuff when she saw one and knew that the two "Americans" were lying through their teeth. Jane could well remember how Clayton lied to her and Archimedes in an effort to get close to the gorillas and that she vowed that she would not allow something like this to ever happen again. Nevertheless, Tarzan began to develop a pretty close bond with Hugo and Hooft much to Jane's annonyance and suspicion.

"I know somehow that those two are trouble," she said to herself as the two men got up and went down to the river to bathe.

Meanwhile, Colonel Staquait and his men had arrived in the jungle and discovered the boat that the two men had escaped on, still in the same condition it was in prior to being stolen from Cape Doom.

"Well," he chuckled as he admired the boat. "Those crooks know how to keep their property well preserved. Even if they are the disgusting slugs that they truly are, regardless."

He then turned to a group of soldiers and beckoned them over to him. They quickly ran over to him and stood at attention.

"All right, men," he said. "I need you to take this boat back to the ship. Have it looked over for evidence and any traces you find, bring them back to Cape Doom for analysis."

So, while he left the group of men to take the boat away, he led another group of men into the jungles and for one whole day and night, they searched every corner of the jungle and fired off rounds from their rifles to scare off any animals that were nearby. All they could find was a set of footprints that only went to a nearby river and then stopped at the edge.

"Nothing over here!" cried one soldier.

"No sign of them," said another soldier. But, Colonel Staquait was still determined to hunt for them and was not going to rest until the job was done.

"Keep looking," he ordered. "We must bring those criminals to justice."

Suddenly, he looked down and saw a piece of dark blue cloth on a nearby downed tree and grabbed his sword to pick it up. Much like before, he placed it to his nose and sniffed it, as if to pick up a scent that the two men left behind. He then looked out towards an open branch of jungle and then turned towards his men.

"Through here," he said, pointing to where they needed to go with his sword. "We continue east."

Following their commanders orders, the men followed Staquait to where they were heading in the direction that Staquait believed the two men were hiding.

"All right, now remember," he said. "They would have been tired and hungry by now. Those fools are no match for the hardships of this jungle."

So, they continued on and sooner or later, they would get their men and make a new enemy at the same time…