Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Monster Men Edgar Rice Burroughs

Virginia and Sing were compelled to narrate the adventure of the afternoon a dozen times. The Chinaman was at a loss to understand what had deterred the pirates at the very threshold ofvictory. Von Horn thought that they had seen the reinforcements embarking from the shore, butSing explained that that was impossible since the Ithaca had been directly between them and thepoint at which the returning crew had entered the boats. Virginia was positive that her fusillade had frightened them into a hasty retreat, but againSing discouraged any such idea when he pointed to the fact that another instant would havecarried the prahu close to the Ithaca's side and out of the machine gun's radius of action. The old Chinaman was positive that the pirates had some ulterior motive for simulatingdefeat, and his long years of experience upon pirate infested waters gave weight to his opinion. The weak spot in his argument was his inability to suggest a reasonable motive. And so it wasthat for a long time they were left to futile conjecture as to the action that had saved them from abloody encounter with these bloodthirsty sea wolves. For a week the men were busy constructing the new camp, but never again was Virginia leftwithout a sufficient guard for her protection. Von Horn was always needed at the work, for tohim had fallen the entire direction of matters of importance that were at all of a practical nature. Professor Maxon wished to watch the building of the houses and the stockade, that he mightoffer such suggestions as he thought necessary, and again the girl noticed her father'scomparative indifference to her welfare. She had been shocked at his apathy at the time of the pirate attack, and chagrined that itshould have been necessary for von Horn to have insisted upon a proper guard being left with herthereafter. The nearer the approach of the time when he might enter again upon those experimentswhich had now been neglected for the better part of a year the more self absorbed and moodybecame the professor. At times he was scarcely civil to those about him, and never now did hehave a pleasant word or a caress for the daughter who had been his whole life but a few shortmonths before. It often seemed to Virginia when she caught her father's eyes upon her that there was a gleamof dislike in them, as though he would have been glad to have been rid of her that she might notin any way embarrass or interfere with his work.