Chap­ter 9 – The Theft of the Jew­els begins with Wer­p­er spend­ing two days search­ing for his group in the thick jun­gle, only to stum­ble upon the muti­lat­ed bod­ies of three non-slave mem­bers of his par­ty. These bod­ies serve as a grim reminder of a dead­ly upris­ing by the enslaved mem­bers, who had sought free­dom from their Arab mas­ter. The dis­cov­ery sends a chill down Wer­per’s spine, reveal­ing the dan­ger­ous and volatile nature of the jun­gle, while also leav­ing him thank­ful for his nar­row escape from the same fate. His sense of unease grows as the envi­ron­ment con­tin­ues to prove itself treach­er­ous, but he remains deter­mined to con­tin­ue his quest, dri­ven by his fear of what could hap­pen if he lingers too long in such a hos­tile place. The jun­gle becomes not only a phys­i­cal obsta­cle but also a psy­cho­log­i­cal one for Wer­p­er, as his sur­vival instincts bat­tle against the grow­ing threat around him.

Mean­while, Tarzan, who had recent­ly suf­fered a blow to the head, finds him­self revert­ing to his pri­mal instincts, shed­ding the lay­ers of civ­i­liza­tion he had once known. This trans­for­ma­tion back into the wild man of the jun­gle makes him less con­cerned with human cus­toms or the vio­lent death sur­round­ing him, instead focus­ing on what he knows best—survival. His abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate in French, how­ev­er, is a reminder of his past, show­ing that even as he embraces his wild nature, traces of his human upbring­ing remain. This dual­i­ty in Tarzan’s char­ac­ter becomes evi­dent as he speaks with Wer­p­er, nav­i­gat­ing between his past life and the pri­mal world he now inhab­its. His shift­ing between lan­guages high­lights the ten­sion between the two worlds he is caught between, giv­ing him a com­plex­i­ty that is both fas­ci­nat­ing and unnerv­ing to those around him.

One evening, as they trav­el, Tarzan’s instinc­tive pro­tec­tion of a col­lec­tion of gems intend­ed for a neck­lace becomes a defin­ing moment in his trans­for­ma­tion. When Wer­p­er attempts to exam­ine the jew­els, Tarzan instinc­tive­ly defends them, his pri­mal fierce­ness on full dis­play. This response strikes ter­ror into Wer­p­er, who begins to view Tarzan not just as an amne­si­ac man but as a dan­ger­ous and unpre­dictable creature—far more of a beast than a human. The fear that grows with­in Wer­p­er reflects his grow­ing real­iza­tion that Tarzan, despite his human ori­gins, is not a man to be eas­i­ly under­stood or con­trolled. The ten­sion between them ris­es as Wer­p­er grap­ples with his desire to steal the jew­els and his grow­ing fear of Tarzan’s unpre­dictable behav­ior, which com­pli­cates the sit­u­a­tion fur­ther.

As they con­tin­ue their jour­ney, avoid­ing encoun­ters with local war­riors who are laden with trea­sure, they approach the Waziri plains. Werper’s obses­sion with the stolen jew­els grows, and he begins to con­tem­plate how he can use the sit­u­a­tion to his advan­tage, obliv­i­ous to the dan­gers Tarzan’s fer­al nature presents. His thoughts are con­sumed with greed and the loom­ing threat of the Waziri war­riors, who are like­ly to pur­sue them once they real­ize what has hap­pened to Lady Greystoke. The ten­sion between the two com­pan­ions height­ens, as Werper’s moral blind­ness to the imme­di­ate threats around him con­trasts sharply with Tarzan’s grow­ing under­stand­ing of the jun­gle and its inhab­i­tants. As Wer­p­er con­tin­ues to plot, his desire for the jew­els blinds him to the true con­se­quences of his actions, set­ting the stage for con­flict and betray­al.

Upon reach­ing the out­skirts of the once peace­ful val­ley, Wer­p­er and Tarzan dis­cov­er the dev­as­ta­tion left by Achmet Zek’s raid­ing par­ty. The Greystoke bun­ga­low, a sym­bol of Tarzan’s human life, lies in ruins, destroyed by the vio­lence of the raiders. This destruc­tion serves as a bru­tal reminder of the con­stant cycle of vio­lence between the civ­i­lized world and the law­less jun­gle. The arrival of the Waziri war­riors, return­ing to find their lands des­e­crat­ed, marks the begin­ning of a new chap­ter in the con­flict, as they vow to take revenge on those respon­si­ble. The vicious cycle of vengeance con­tin­ues, as both the civ­i­lized and unciv­i­lized worlds are bound by their thirst for ret­ri­bu­tion and dom­i­nance. The chap­ter under­lines the ongo­ing con­flict and the deep wounds caused by vio­lence, show­ing the long-last­ing impact on all involved.

As night falls, Werper’s thoughts turn back to the jew­els, his obses­sion dri­ving him to new lev­els of des­per­a­tion. His plans to betray Tarzan to Achmet Zek begin to take shape, though he remains wary of the unpre­dictabil­i­ty of his fer­al com­pan­ion. Despite the dan­ger posed by Tarzan’s wild nature, Werper’s greed over­rides his fear, lead­ing him to care­ful­ly cal­cu­late his next move. The stark con­trast between Werper’s deceit­ful schem­ing and Tarzan’s instinc­tive need for sur­vival adds lay­ers to the sto­ry. Tarzan’s sim­ple prac­tice of bury­ing valu­ables for safe­keep­ing, inspired by the Waziri’s pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures, sym­bol­izes his deep­en­ing con­nec­tion to the jun­gle and its rules. As Wer­p­er waits for the right moment to strike, the ten­sion between the two men grows, set­ting the stage for an impend­ing clash that will reveal the true cost of their con­flict­ing desires.