Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar · Chapter
XIX: Jane Clayton and the Beasts of the Jungle explained
Jane Clayton, having witnessed the brutal death of an ape by Numa, spends a terrified night in a tree.
What happens
Jane Clayton, having witnessed the brutal death of an ape by Numa, spends a terrified night in a tree. The next day, she continues southward toward the Waziri plains, hoping to find safety. She hears gunfire and observes a confrontation between Jules Frecoult and Achmet Zek, culminating in Frecoult shooting Zek. Meanwhile, Mugambi, weakened and lost, builds a shelter and is stalked by the ape Chulk, who steals his pouch and knob-stick. Later, Jane encounters Numa again while trying to escape, but manages to climb a tree to safety as the lion feeds on the ape's remains. She spends another night in the tree, surrounded by hyenas.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Adaptation
Jane Clayton uses stealth and patience to escape Numa, while Mugambi builds a shelter and hunts to regain strength in an unfamiliar jungle.
Greed and Betrayal
Werper, posing as Frecoult, betrays and murders Achmet Zek, highlighting treachery among the characters.
Characters to notice
- Jane Clayton
Survives a night in a tree after witnessing Numa kill an ape; later escapes Numa by climbing another tree; observes Frecoult shoot Achmet Zek.
- Albert Werper
Disguised as Jules Frecoult, he ambushes and shoots Achmet Zek from hiding.
- Achmet Zek
Pursues Frecoult along the trail and is shot and killed by Werper.
- Mugambi
Wanders lost and weakened, builds a boma and shelter, and is stalked by Chulk, who steals his pouch and knob-stick.
- Chulk
Observes Mugambi from a tree, then sneaks into his boma and steals his pouch and knob-stick while Mugambi sleeps.
- Numa
Kills and feeds on an ape; later charges Jane Clayton but she escapes into a tree.
Key passages
“the remnants of the mangled ape not been immediately usurped by a pack of hyenas, Jane Clayton would scarcely have dared venture from her refuge in the face of impending night”
If hyenas hadn't taken over the ape's remains, Jane wouldn't have dared leave her tree as night fell.
Highlights Jane's fear of the jungle at night and the role of scavengers.
“Tired nature at last overcame even her fears, and she dropped into a deep slumber, cradled in a comparatively safe, though rather uncomfortable, position against the bole of the tree”
Exhaustion finally overpowered her fear, and she fell asleep wedged between branches.
Shows her physical and emotional exhaustion.
“Mugambi, after his successful break for liberty, had fallen upon hard times.”
After escaping, Mugambi struggled to survive in unfamiliar territory.
Introduces Mugambi's difficult journey.
“Seizing these two articles, as better than nothing at all, Chulk retreated with haste, and every indication of nervous terror, to the safety of the tree”
Chulk grabbed the pouch and stick and quickly fled back up the tree in fear.
Illustrates Chulk's cautious thievery.
“Fear can work wonders, and though the upward spring of the lion as he neared the tree into which she was scrambling brought his talons in contact with her boots she eluded his raking grasp”
Driven by fear, Jane climbed so fast that the lion's claws only touched her boots as she escaped.
Emphasizes her desperate escape from Numa.
