choke her until--" But those had been enough to arouse the spirit
of adventure within him, and so he kept the two men in sight as
they walked, briskly now, along the deck. To the smoking-room he
followed them, but they merely halted at the doorway long enough,
apparently, to assure themselves that one whose whereabouts they
wished to establish was within.

Then they proceeded directly to the first-class cabins upon the
promenade deck. Here Tarzan found greater difficulty in escaping
detection, but he managed to do so successfully. As they halted
before one of the polished hardwood doors, Tarzan slipped into the
shadow of a passageway not a dozen feet from them.

To their knock a woman's voice asked in French: "Who is it?"

"It is I, Olga--Nikolas," was the answer, in Rokoff's now familiar
guttural. "May I come in?"

"Why do you not cease persecuting me, Nikolas?" came the voice of
the woman from beyond the thin panel. "I have never harmed you."

"Come, come, Olga," urged the man, in propitiary tones; "I but
ask a half dozen words with you. I shall not harm you, nor shall
I enter your cabin; but I cannot shout my message through the door."

Tarzan heard the catch click as it was released from the inside. He
stepped out from his hiding-place far enough to see what transpired
when the door was opened, for he could not but recall the sinister
words he had heard a few moments before upon the deck, "And if she
screams you may choke her."