Part 3: The Revenge of Colonel Staquait

Chapter 37

"A Friend Within the Compound"

Following her time of torture in the pit, Jane was dragged back to her cell and thrown into it like a dead corpse. The sun and heat had caused her to shrivel up like a raisin and cause her to vomit profusely from inside her cell. Jane was afraid and worried that she would never be able to see her husband or father again and with each passing minute she could feel the sense of the fear of dying closing in on her. For the next few days, it seemed like Jane was losing more and more of her dignity as her friends helplessly watched while they were forced to work alongside their friend in hard labor.

On the 13th day, Jane was once again thrown into the pit and once again thrown into her cell like a caged animal. However, this time instead of once again crying herself to sleep, she heard a faint scratching from next to her cell and a piece of stone broke open and a small voice belonging to Antoine was heard.

"Are you Jane Porter?" he whispered. "Are you the wife of Tarzan?"

This made Jane surprised for a second and she weakly crept over to the hole and peered through it to see Antoine looking at her from inside his own cell. Jane was surprised to see how young Antoine was considering the fact that he was well under 21 and that he should be treated as a juvenile.

"Good heavens," she gasped in shock. "You're just a child."

"I am," replied Antoine. "I'm Antoine Dumont, Renard Dumont's son."

This made Jane gasp in horror again, shocked that she was talking to the son of Renard Dumont, the man who had befriended her and Tarzan for such a long time. The fact that Dumont even had a son was puzzling to Jane since Dumont had never talked about his family, let alone his own son.

"Well, I'm basically just a stranger to him now," continued Antoine. "He left me as a baby and I had live under a stepfather whom I always thought was my own father. My mother was a prostitute who married my stepfather because he had money. Nevertheless, I was never given the proper direction at home and I turned to petty theft to express my frustrations."

"What did you do that caused you to end up in here?" wondered Jane. "You certainly must have stolen something of significant importance."

"I stole a typewriter," continued Antoine. "I wanted to finance a way to escape from my mother and stepfather and at least make my own living. However, one of my stepfather's employees caught me and my stepfather turned me over to the authorities who sent me to an Observation Center and instead of taking me back in, my mother disowned me and had them send me here, just so she would never have to deal with me ever again. In other words, I was sentenced to life in prison without parole."

This made Jane feel a cold breeze down her spine. How could someone like a mother have her only son imprisoned just because she would never have to deal with him again, all because he stole a typewriter to make his own living. Nevertheless, being the good Catholic that she was, Jane was taught that stealing was against the Ten Commandments, so that Antoine did have to face the consequences to a certain degree.

"How long have you been in here?" Jane asked. "From the looks of it, it was not very long."

"I have been in here for over a year," said Antoine, feeling remorseful. "I was 14 when I was first brought in here and now I am 15 years old. If I ever get out of here, I would want to live my life with my real father and have a woman who would be a doting mother to me."

Jane started to get a little emotional when it came to those words as the words of motherhood and many others had started to tug at her heartstrings. Unlike Antoine, Jane's own mother had died at childbirth and she never knew her very well. However, she had always felt her presence for as long she was alive. However, Antoine quickly changed the subject.

"But, I have heard many stories about you from inside the prison," he said, trying to stay upbeat in front of Jane.

"How did you know that?" asked Jane, not realizing the whole truth about her. "There is no one in here who can possibly know about me."

"There is one man," said Antoine. "It's a man with blonde hair and very dashing looks. He's English, like you."

This made Jane freeze in thought that the man who had once loved her and betrothed to her was supposedly here in this prison. Then again, he was thrown in here because he tried to assassinate the Queen of England. She then looked over and saw down at the cell right by Staquait's office, the cell that housed her former lover, Bobby Canler. Jane looked over to see her lover was asleep and not realizing her conversation with Antoine. However, she still held a grudge against Bobby and chose to ignore him as he slept.

"He was my lover," hissed Jane, looking away in disgust. "Or rather he was my arraigned lover."

"In what way?" asked Antoine.

"In England and supposedly in France," explained Jane. "Men and Women were usually arranged to be together by their families so that they could maintain their status in society. For years, I was arranged to be married to Bobby and my father thought he and I would be the perfect match and it wasn't until I met and married Tarzan did I really meet a man who truly loved me for who I am."

"You may not love him, but he loves you," said Antoine. "He talks about you for as long as I have been in here. Why, if there was anything that was to happen in here, an event that would free us all, perhaps maybe you could acknowledge what he has done for you."

Jane looked at Bobby again and could see what Antoine was trying to say. However, at that moment, they began to hear the sounds of footfalls coming through the prison. Soldiers and guards with weapons drawn were running through the halls and even prisoners who had accepted their own fates were given weapons as well.

"What on Earth is happening?" wondered Jane and unbeknownst to her, there was going to be a large scale attack on Cape Doom by the British and French militaries. For as Colonel Staquait came out of his office armed with his sword and pistols, he stopped by Jane's cell and stared at her with evil eyes.

"Your rescuer is here," he said. "Just as I predicted: the cat has caught the bird."

"You won't get away with this," growled Jane, clutching the bars to her cell.

"I already have," he replied and walked away as Jane could now see that Tarzan was here to rescue her and her friends from the prison. As Jane braced herself for a full scale assault, Tarzan stood on the deck of the main British Navy ship looking out towards Cape Doom, determined to save Jane and her friends.

Little did anyone realize that this battle was not only going to be the one that would bring an end to the Cape Doom prison and the tyrannical ways of Colonel Staquait and his men, but also change the lives of many innocent men and women forever…