Chap­ter 15 – The Flight of Wer­p­er begins with Wer­p­er suc­cess­ful­ly sneak­ing out of his tent, intend­ing to escape his cap­tiv­i­ty. His des­ti­na­tion is Jane Clay­ton’s hold­ing hut, but upon arrival, he finds it emp­ty, quick­ly real­iz­ing she has escaped through a cut in the hut’s wall. Con­vinced that she fled the vil­lage, Wer­p­er decides not to pur­sue her but instead focus­es on his own escape. Reflect­ing on his ini­tial motives for res­cu­ing Jane, he remem­bers how he hoped to gain favor with the Eng­lish and envi­sioned a future with her, posi­tion­ing him­self as her sav­ior after Tarzan’s pre­sumed death. As Wer­p­er leaves the vil­lage, he uses the same method Jane had used to escape, employ­ing poles against the pal­isade to make his way out. His focus remains sole­ly on his free­dom, even as Jane’s plight lingers in his mind, show­ing the com­plex moti­va­tions dri­ving him through this per­ilous jour­ney.

In the jun­gle, Jane strug­gles to sur­vive as she hides from a lion, demon­strat­ing her quick think­ing and resource­ful­ness in the face of dan­ger. Mean­while, Wer­p­er, unaware of her strug­gle, finds him­self pur­sued by an Arab who soon becomes the tar­get of the same lion, allow­ing Wer­p­er to slip away. The lion’s attack on the Arab pro­vides Wer­p­er with an unex­pect­ed oppor­tu­ni­ty, and he seizes it by escap­ing on the Arab’s horse. Jane’s brav­ery and abil­i­ty to sur­vive in the wild stand in stark con­trast to Werper’s more self­ish and oppor­tunis­tic actions. As Jane nav­i­gates her escape, her inner strength and resilience are clear, mak­ing her the true hero of her own jour­ney. In this moment, the con­trast between Wer­per’s oppor­tunism and Jane’s gen­uine strug­gle high­lights the com­plex­i­ties of sur­vival in the dan­ger­ous and unpre­dictable jun­gle envi­ron­ment.

As Tarzan remains unaware of Jane’s cur­rent predica­ment, his focus shifts to revenge for the theft that Wer­p­er com­mit­ted against him. He encoun­ters a lion in his search for jus­tice, and although he suc­cess­ful­ly defeats the beast, he feels no sat­is­fac­tion. His hunt for Wer­p­er yields no results, as he finds no trace of the man he believes to be dead, alleged­ly killed by the lion’s attack. Tarzan’s frus­tra­tion grows as he real­izes that Wer­p­er has once again elud­ed him, adding a lay­er of ten­sion to the ongo­ing con­flict. This marks anoth­er chap­ter in Tarzan’s quest for ret­ri­bu­tion, as his desire for jus­tice inter­twines with the ongo­ing mys­ter­ies sur­round­ing Wer­p­er and Jane’s dis­ap­pear­ances. It also under­scores Tarzan’s deter­mi­na­tion, fueled by his fierce loy­al­ty to Jane and his inabil­i­ty to let go of the threat Wer­p­er pos­es.

Mean­while, Mugam­bi, still loy­al to Jane, embarks on a jour­ney to find her. His search leads him to an Abyssin­ian camp where he becomes entan­gled in a sit­u­a­tion involv­ing Achmet Zek. Wer­p­er, now cap­tured by the same group, seizes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to deceive them about his iden­ti­ty and inten­tions. He men­tions Achmet Zek to shift sus­pi­cion away from him­self and to mis­lead the cap­tors about Zek’s loca­tion, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing the tan­gled web of deceit. His manip­u­la­tive behav­ior hints at the lengths to which Wer­p­er will go to pro­tect him­self and avoid fac­ing the con­se­quences of his actions. Mugam­bi, on the oth­er hand, remains focused on Jane, even as he faces increas­ing dan­ger and uncer­tain­ty in his quest to res­cue her.

Both Wer­p­er and Mugam­bi are impris­oned, fac­ing an uncer­tain future as they are both pre­sent­ed to Menelek of Abyssinia. Mugam­bi, how­ev­er, remains deter­mined to escape, using his intel­li­gence and patience to gain the trust of the sol­diers guard­ing them. Werper’s inten­tions, how­ev­er, remain shroud­ed in secre­cy, and he con­tin­ues to plot his way out of the sit­u­a­tion. This chap­ter sets the stage for a con­fronta­tion between the two men, with each hid­ing their true motives while nav­i­gat­ing the treach­er­ous dynam­ics of the Abyssin­ian camp. Mugambi’s qui­et strat­e­gy con­trasts with Werper’s des­per­a­tion, reveal­ing the dif­fer­ences in their char­ac­ters and how each is try­ing to out­ma­neu­ver their cap­tors.

An acci­den­tal reveal of the Jew­els of Opar in Werper’s pos­ses­sion to Mugam­bi hints at a turn­ing point. This moment expos­es Werper’s des­per­a­tion to hold onto the jew­els and pro­vides a glimpse into his true pri­or­i­ties. Mugam­bi, rec­og­niz­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of the spilled trea­sure, begins to under­stand the poten­tial lever­age he has over Wer­p­er. This rev­e­la­tion adds a lay­er of intrigue to the sto­ry, set­ting the stage for future pow­er strug­gles between the two. The jew­els, once a sym­bol of wealth and pow­er, now serve as a key ele­ment in the com­plex rela­tion­ship between Wer­p­er and Mugam­bi, whose fates are tied togeth­er by their shared knowl­edge of the treasure’s val­ue.

The chap­ter intri­cate­ly weaves togeth­er the fates of Wer­p­er, Jane, Tarzan, and Mugam­bi, high­light­ing the diverse strug­gles and moti­va­tions dri­ving each char­ac­ter. Their actions, shaped by their desires for sur­vival, revenge, and loy­al­ty, cre­ate a web of inter­con­nect­ed sto­ries that deep­en the intrigue of the plot. As the stakes con­tin­ue to rise, the char­ac­ters’ paths become more entan­gled, lead­ing to an uncer­tain future filled with chal­lenges, decep­tion, and the ever-present threat of betray­al. The ten­sion between the char­ac­ters and their moti­va­tions sets the stage for fur­ther con­fronta­tions and rev­e­la­tions, promis­ing more action and emo­tion­al depth in the chap­ters to come. The jour­ney ahead holds promise, with the unre­solved con­flict around the trea­sure and the fate of Jane push­ing the sto­ry toward its next dra­mat­ic chap­ter.