Chap­ter 21 – The beasts of Tarzan opens with a grow­ing sense of urgency and strain among Tarzan’s group as they labor to com­plete a skiff need­ed for escape. The ten­sion in the camp is pal­pa­ble. Mugam­bi remains loy­al and stead­fast, but the same can­not be said of every­one. Schnei­der, a man already marked by sus­pi­cion, aban­dons his assigned tasks under the pre­tense of hunt­ing. When he returns, he appears regret­ful, claim­ing to have spot­ted a herd of small deer in the jun­gle. This seem­ing­ly inno­cent news dis­tracts Tarzan, who decides to take advan­tage of the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gath­er fresh meat. What Tarzan doesn’t know is that this momen­tary diver­sion is all part of a more sin­is­ter plan. Schneider’s real goal is not to hunt but to manip­u­late Tarzan into leav­ing the camp unguard­ed so that an abduc­tion can be car­ried out with­out resis­tance.

As Tarzan dis­ap­pears into the dense for­est with his bow and instincts, the camp’s safe­ty crum­bles. Schnei­der quick­ly sends Mugam­bi away on a fab­ri­cat­ed errand, reduc­ing the num­ber of defend­ers. This leaves Jane and the Mosu­la woman vul­ner­a­ble. Mean­while, Gust, a man with his own per­son­al his­to­ry tied to the vil­lains, lurks in the shad­ows. He secret­ly fol­lows Kai Shang and oth­ers, hop­ing to under­mine their plans as part of his revenge. While his moti­va­tions are self­ish, they inter­sect with jus­tice at this moment. Gust dis­cov­ers the con­spir­a­cy in motion—Jane is to be kid­napped, her pro­tec­tors mis­led, and the cap­tors will use the “Cowrie” to sail away. With­out hes­i­ta­tion, Gust rush­es to find Tarzan, know­ing he must act quick­ly or all will be lost.

Tarzan, return­ing from the hunt with a grow­ing sense of unease, finds the camp aban­doned and silent. He instant­ly rec­og­nizes that Jane’s absence is not vol­un­tary. Observ­ing the ground, he notes signs of a hur­ried depar­ture toward the coast. Before long, Gust emerges and con­firms Tarzan’s sus­pi­cions. With fury build­ing, Tarzan wastes no time in gath­er­ing a res­cue par­ty. He doesn’t call on men alone. With a deep bel­low, he sum­mons his jun­gle allies—beasts who trust him, fol­low him, and will fight for him with­out ques­tion. Shee­ta, the sleek and dead­ly pan­ther, appears from the under­brush, and Akut’s apes move through the trees like silent shad­ows. Togeth­er, they fol­low Tarzan into bat­tle, their loy­al­ty forged through shared strug­gles and respect.

Approach­ing the “Cowrie,” Tarzan launch­es a sur­prise assault. The jun­gle explodes with life as his ani­mals over­whelm the crew. Screams echo across the beach as claws meet steel and apes seize their tar­gets with unmatched feroc­i­ty. Amid the chaos, Tarzan fights his way through the fray, res­cu­ing Jane and the Mosu­la woman. In this storm of vio­lence and jus­tice, no mer­cy is shown to the guilty. Schnei­der tries to escape but is dragged before Tarzan. There is no tri­al. Tarzan, burned by pre­vi­ous betray­als, deliv­ers a swift and final pun­ish­ment. The jun­gle offers no sec­ond chances when loy­al­ty is bro­ken.

With order restored, Tarzan takes com­mand of the “Cowrie.” Those who had sided with the trai­tors are forced to serve under strict super­vi­sion, their lives hang­ing by a thread. The ship is redi­rect­ed to Jun­gle Island, where Tarzan thanks his ani­mal allies and sets them free. Their roles com­plete, the beasts dis­ap­pear into the green, reminders of the bond Tarzan shares with the wild. Short­ly after, a pass­ing steam­er offers com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the out­side world. From this, Tarzan learns that his son, Jack, is alive and safe in Eng­land. A web of decep­tion spun by Rokoff and Paul­vitch is final­ly exposed. Their plot failed, but only nar­row­ly.

The reunion between Tarzan and Jane is bit­ter­sweet. Relief floods their hearts, but the pain of near loss lingers. Their son’s safe­ty, ensured by luck and courage, marks the true end of their ordeal. Back in civ­i­liza­tion, they reflect on every­thing they’ve endured—betrayal, dan­ger, sur­vival. The jun­gle test­ed them, and they emerged stronger. Tarzan’s sense of jus­tice is clear: wrong­do­ers are pun­ished, and those he loves are pro­tect­ed at any cost. The island is left behind, the beasts van­ish into leg­end once more, and peace returns. But the mem­o­ry of this chap­ter, shaped by instinct, brav­ery, and ret­ri­bu­tion, becomes yet anoth­er defin­ing sto­ry in the life of the jungle’s great­est pro­tec­tor.