Early the next morning, when we were loading the boats, Dad called out to Will, addressing him as Mr. Clayton. Petrus froze and moved slowly forward to Will, his hand outstretched.
"Clayton?" he asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. Will nodded, Petrus gasped and his lips trembled. Everybody stopped what they were doing to look upon the scene. Cyril walked up to his father to try and calm him down, but it was near impossible.
"Sixteen years!" he gasped. "Sixteen years ago, a young couple and their son came to my town. They were so kind and so young. I let them stay in my house for a week. Cyril can still remember them! Then they left in a boat, traveling south. They never came back." Petrus took a shaky breath. "Their names were John and Alice Clayton!" To Will, this seemed to be shocking news. He was completely speechless. Cyril took this opportunity to wrench his father away and he took him to another part of the deck to calm him down.
"Will? Mr. Clayton? What was he talking about?" Dad asked curiously, shaking Will's arm. Will finally snapped out of whatever trance he was in and stared at my Dad for a few long seconds.
"He was talking about my Uncle John, Aunt Alice, and my cousin Johnny," he replied in a monotone voice as if he could scarcely believe it himself. "They went to visit Africa sixteen years ago and never came back. We searched, but couldn't find anything. I was only five or six when it happened." We were all silent for a few moments before Dad cleared his throat loudly.
"Well, let's get back to work!" he said loudly. "I want to get camp set up before the sun sets and we'll never get that done at this rate." He clapped Will on the shoulder and moved away. It was the closest I had ever come to feeling any sort of pity for him, but I couldn't let him see that. I knew Will, and he'd use it to his advantage.
Soon, I was in a boat with Dad, Esme, Zuma, Will, and Cyril. It was a tight fit since we had some equipment in our boat, too, but it was a short trip to the shore. No sooner were my feet on the sand, than did Dad come and fit me with all the equipment I mentioned to Zuma, plus a handgun and some rope. The first I was nervous about having anywhere near me.
"It's on safety, now," he told me as he slipped it into my holster. "Only use it if your life is in grave danger. Otherwise, use the tranquilizer gun." He tapped the butt of that gun with his index finger. "Now, if you use the flare gun, try to go into an open area so you don't hit the trees. We don't want to be staring any forest fires, do we?" I nodded and told him I understood his directions. I had a feeling if Mom was still alive, he'd warn me not to tell her he had let me have posession of a gun. He went off to help unload more equipment while my eyes scanned up and down the beach, taking in the scenery that was so dark in the night. Now it was light and colorful.
Something caught my eye on the other end of the beach, where it curved out of sight. Curious I moved toward it-the mysterious shape in the trees. When I was less than a hundred yards away from it, I heard my name being called from down the beach.
"Jane! Jane get back here!" Dad was calling. He was running down the beach after me, tailed by Luke and Zuma. "What are you thinking?" he called again as he came closer. I pointed up to the trees I had been moving toward.
"There's a cabin up there," I told them. As they grew nearer they slowed as, one by one, they all gazed up and realized I was right. Built high above the earth, there was a cabin built between four trees. It was covered in branches and leaves and vines, but it was still a cabin, nonetheless.
"How strange," Dad remarked. Luke scratched his blonde head, as was his custom when he was puzzled. Zuma rubbed his beard as he studied the building with an intent curiosity. Dad tugged on my arm.
"We'll come back and look at it later," he decided. "After camp is set up. We even thought to bring a ladder, Jane! We'll be able to get up there, no problem. Just don't wander off like that again." Reluctantly, I turned from the curious sight and went back down the beach.
It was a long day of dragging equipment and setting up camp with Dad and Ghazi calling out orders.
"Make sure if you aren't using something, keep it locked away in your trunks," Ghazi cautioned. "When I was here with my men, clearing the path, some mischievous little monkey stole one of my men's spare pair of trousers. He never got them back, but he was able to get another pair from the ship."
We set the tents up in a circle in the clearing, around what would be soon be our campfire. Around noon, after we had all eaten lunch, Dad, Will, Luke, Mr. Philander, Esme, and myself all set out for the cabin I had found earlier. Will and Luke carried the ladder, but they made slow progress because Will had to stop every once in a while to try and get his thick brown hair out of his eyes. Eventually, Esme got fed up with this and took out a hair band from her pocket and tied his hair back in a miniscule ponytail.
I climbed up the ladder first, eager to explore this new discovery, but I froze at the top when my eyes fixed themselves on a new addition to the cabin that had definitely not been there before.
"What's wrong?" Esme asked through cupped hands. I didn't say anything for another few moments, trying to find my voice.
"There's a note!" I called down.
They were all silent on the ground. Finally, Mr. Philander asked "Where?"
"On-on the door!" I stuttered, pushing myself up onto the landing outside the door. I read the note. My eyes grew wide. I read it again.
"What does it say?" Dad called, clearly impatient.
I cleared my throat and read it back to them: "'This is the house of Tarzan, killer of beasts. Do not harm the things which are Tarzan's. Tarzan watches.' It's signed Tarzan of the Apes." Will came up the ladder and looked at the note himself. He adjusted his rectangular glasses and gave a grunt.
"Great," Will complained. "We have a crazy guy who thinks he's a monkey."
"I wouldn't judge," Luke warned as he climbed up after us. "You thought the same thing last New Year's Eve."
While they argued I studied the door. How to open it? Then I saw the latch and undid it, making the door swing open into the still and quiet cabin. That stopped their arguing. We moved into the cabin cautiously, looking around and being careful not to touch anything. Everything was orderly and neat with a thick coat of dust on everything. At the same time, we spotted them: the skeletons.
"What's in here?" Esme asked curiously from behind me. She spotted the skeletons and promptly fainted before any of us could catch her.
"Who's idea was it to bring her?" I muttered, while Will poked his head out the cabin door to say "Your sister's fainted!"
Stepping around her and over the skeleton over the floor, I went straight to the little bed-a box with blankets and dried leaves- in the corner. A small teddy bear sat on the foot of the bed and a smaller skeleton was sprawled across it. I was moved by this, the death of a small child, and I thought I might cry, but upon closer inspection of the skeleton, I found that it was not of a human child at all, but definitely human-like. That was when my Dad and Mr. Philander entered the room.
"Oh, dear," Dad remarked, taking off his hat and exposing his head of gray hair. "These poor souls alone all this time. Who knows how long they were here? Oh." He was behind me now. "A child too. How terrible. How…that's not a human child at all. It's a gorilla."
"How does that happen?" Will asked, coming over to us. "Two humans and a baby gorilla just doesn't make any sense. Jane, what are you doing? These people are dead, you just don't go looking through dead people's stuff." He was referring to the book I found and started to flip through.
"Well, sorry, but I thought that this book would interest you," I retorted. Then I showed him the spine. In gold letters, the name Clayton was printed out. He tried to grab it from me but I pulled back. "You can't read it," I told him.
"It has my name on it," Will insisted.
I rolled my eyes. "It's in French." He finally desisted and everyone, save Esme, gathered around me to listen. I was the only one who took French out of the entire group. I flipped to the last entry.
"'My little son is crying for nourishment-Oh Alice, Alice, what shall I do?' It's dated about fifteen years ago." That was it. I looked up at Will, like everyone else was doing. We all knew now what happened to his aunt and uncle. "Sorry," I murmured. I put the diary back where I found it. Will's brow furrowed as he looked at the tiny bed.
"What about Johnny?" he said, puzzled. I shrugged.
"That's all it said about him. Sorry," I repeated.
Dad put a hand on his shoulder. "We can bury them here, if you like. Or we can bring their remains back home with us to be properly buried."
Will thought about it. "We'll bring them back when this trip is over," he decided. That's when Esme began to stir and we turned her quickly away from the skeletal remains so she wouldn't faint again.
When she had her strength back again, she descended back down the ladder. I was the last to come back down, I was looking at the note on the door again. I touched it, considering pocketing it, but decided against it and dropped my hand to my side. It was then that I felt like somebody was staring at me. I looked down, but they were all talking amongst themselves. I scanned the beach, the jungle, but I saw nobody.
"Jane! Come on! I want to get back to camp!" Luke complained from below. Casting one more glance toward the jungle, I descended the ladder to the beach below.
That first night in camp was unsettling with so many strange animal noises surrounding us. I was comforted by the men who would occasionally walk by my tent with their guns loaded and ready. When I was on the edge of sleep, I saw somebody's silhouette on the back of the tent. They didn't pass by like the men with the guns. They were crouched down on the ground. With one hand they reached out and touched the tent. I realized it had to be Will or Luke out there trying to scare me. Annoyed, I grabbed my tranquilizer gun and unzipped my tent, stepping outside.
"Would you just-" I began, pointing my gun toward the back of the tent. Nobody was in sight.
"Is something wrong Ms. Porter?" Ghazi called out as he walked swiftly toward me, gun ready. I lowered mine and shook my head.
"No. I'm just really tired so I keep thinking the trees are something else," I mumbled rubbing my eyes. Ghazi nodded.
"That's alright, Ms. Porter. Go back to sleep now, you need your rest. We have everything under control. Oh, and Ms. Porter-it's nice to see that you're taking steps to protect yourself. Even if it is against trees." He laughed and held open the entrance for the tent for me while I climbed inside. As I drifted back to sleep again, I heard that same animal yell from the night before, but it must've been farther away because it was even fainter than when I had first heard it. Somehow, it reminded me of my grandmother's dog and how he'd howl during the night. Just like then, I felt comfortable and safe and I didn't wake again until day.