Chap­ter 10 – Achmet Zek Sees the Jew­els begins with Achmet Zek anx­ious­ly wait­ing for his lieu­tenant, Albert Wer­p­er, to return while Jane Clay­ton remains cap­tive in the raiders’ camp. Despite being injured, Mugam­bi remains unde­terred in his mis­sion to track down the raiders and res­cue Jane. Jane, though cap­tive, refus­es to lose hope, hold­ing tight­ly to the belief that Tarzan’s strength and instinct will bring him to her aid. Mean­while, Wer­p­er, hav­ing fled the jun­gle, returns to camp and begins spin­ning a sto­ry about trea­sure hid­den by the Waziri, intend­ing to manip­u­late Achmet Zek into focus­ing on the trea­sure instead of Jane. Zek, eager for more wealth, believes Werper’s tale and decides to send him north with Jane, plan­ning to sell her while he focus­es on recov­er­ing the hid­den trea­sure. This deci­sion, root­ed in greed, cre­ates a rift between the two men, reveal­ing the fragili­ty of their already ten­u­ous trust.

As Wer­p­er pre­pares to leave, his thoughts shift toward the jew­els he secret­ly plans to keep for him­self. The jew­els, which he had stolen from Opar, are still hid­den away, and he begins to fan­ta­size about escap­ing with them and start­ing a new life, free and rich. How­ev­er, his moment of self-con­grat­u­la­tion is abrupt­ly inter­rupt­ed when he notices Achmet Zek’s reflec­tion behind him in a pol­ished mir­ror. It is in this moment that Wer­p­er real­izes his betray­al has been dis­cov­ered, and dan­ger is no longer an abstract concept—it is real and imme­di­ate. Though pan­ic sets in, Wer­p­er hides his fear, pre­tend­ing to rest for the night, ful­ly aware that his life and the jew­els are both in jeop­ardy. The sus­pense builds, as Wer­p­er strug­gles to main­tain his com­po­sure while know­ing that both his trea­sure and his life hang by a thread.

Lat­er that night, Achmet Zek, act­ing on his sus­pi­cion, enters Werper’s tent with the intent to kill him and take the jew­els. Upon find­ing a clev­er­ly arranged dum­my in Wer­per’s bed, Zek’s rage inten­si­fies. Enraged by the betray­al, he orders a search and mobi­lizes his men to track down the flee­ing Wer­p­er under the cov­er of dark­ness. In the midst of this chaos, Mugam­bi, hav­ing been watch­ing from the jungle’s edge, sees an oppor­tu­ni­ty and infil­trates the camp. While Zek and his men are dis­tract­ed, Mugam­bi moves silent­ly, look­ing for Jane or any valu­able infor­ma­tion that might help her escape. His brav­ery and cun­ning present a stark con­trast to the des­per­a­tion and greed dri­ving Zek and Wer­p­er, adding depth to the nar­ra­tive as Mugam­bi remains focused on his mis­sion to pro­tect Jane.

The jun­gle becomes a bat­tle­ground of both phys­i­cal and moral con­flict, where the stakes are high and the moti­va­tions are com­pli­cat­ed. Mugambi’s unwa­ver­ing loy­al­ty and resolve stand in stark oppo­si­tion to the cor­rup­tion and treach­ery that dri­ve both Zek and Wer­p­er. While Jane remains trapped, her strength and endurance are bol­stered by her unshak­en faith in Tarzan, who rep­re­sents hope in the face of over­whelm­ing dan­ger. This moral con­trast high­lights the ten­sion between right and wrong in the harsh jun­gle envi­ron­ment, where sur­vival often requires a bal­ance of strength and integri­ty. Greed dri­ves Zek to mad­ness, and Wer­per’s duplic­i­ty con­tin­ues to unrav­el his plans, yet it is Mugam­bi’s silent brav­ery and devo­tion to Jane that emerge as a moral cen­ter in the chaos. These con­trast­ing char­ac­ters cre­ate a rich nar­ra­tive, where every deci­sion has con­se­quences, and each char­ac­ter’s true inten­tions are test­ed in the cru­cible of the jun­gle.

As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, the bound­aries between preda­tor and prey become increas­ing­ly blurred. Wer­p­er, once a manip­u­la­tive fig­ure, now becomes the hunt­ed, flee­ing from the very peo­ple he once sought to deceive. Zek, blind­ed by his desire for wealth, grows more unsta­ble, fail­ing to rec­og­nize the frac­tures with­in his own camp. Mugam­bi, oper­at­ing under the cov­er of night, takes on a piv­otal role, draw­ing clos­er to Jane with every step. The jun­gle, vast and indif­fer­ent, becomes a con­stant reminder that no one tru­ly con­trols it—they are mere­ly sur­viv­ing with­in it. Every action car­ries risk, and each deci­sion will either bring them clos­er to their goal or pull them fur­ther into dan­ger. This chap­ter intri­cate­ly builds the ten­sion, set­ting the stage for the inevitable con­fronta­tion that will chal­lenge each character’s strength, resolve, and sur­vival instincts.

In this chap­ter, themes of betray­al, greed, and resilience are brought to the fore­front. The stolen jew­els, once sym­bols of immense wealth, now rep­re­sent the des­per­a­tion of those who seek them, and their impact reach­es beyond the desire for rich­es. Werper’s escape and cun­ning high­light the fleet­ing nature of loy­al­ty among thieves, and the fragili­ty of trust in a world dri­ven by self­ish­ness. Jane’s unwa­ver­ing belief in Tarzan and Mugambi’s deter­mined brav­ery pro­vide a coun­ter­bal­ance to the chaos around them. As the pur­suit con­tin­ues and the jun­gle grows dark­er, the sto­ry sets the stage for fur­ther tests of char­ac­ter, where each indi­vid­ual will con­front their own moral com­pass in the face of sur­vival. The unre­solved ten­sion and the con­stant shift­ing of alliances promise more intrigue and adven­ture in the chap­ters to come.