Part 25 (1/2)

At last came the tardy dawn Slowly the sun topped the distant mountains beyond Jad-in-lul And yet she hesitated to loosen the fastenings of her door and look out upon the thing below But itthat secured the barrier She looked down and only the grass and the flowers looked up at her She caround upon the opposite side of the tree-there was no dead man there, nor anywhere as far as she could see Slowly she descended, keeping a wary eye and an alert ear ready for the first intier

At the foot of the tree was a pool of blood and a little trail of cri away parallel with the shore of Jad-ben-lul Then she had not slain hiuely aware of a peculiar, double sensation of relief and regret Now she would be always in doubt He ht return; but at least she would not have to live above his grave

She thought so the bloody spoor on the chance that he ave up the idea for fear that she ht find him dead nearby, or, worse yet badly wounded What then could she do? She could not finish him with her spear-no, she knew that she could not do that, nor could she bring him back and nurse hier or of thirst, or to beco beast It were better then not to search for hiht find hi to every sudden sound The day before she would have said that her nerves were of iron; but not today She kne the shock that she had suffered and that this was the reaction To told her that never again would her little shelter and the patch of forest and jungle that she called her own be the sa over theer would she pass restful nights of deep slumber The peace of her little world was shattered forever

That night she s of rawhide cut from the pelt of the buck she had slain the day that she atz She was very tired for she had lostti into the darkness What saw she there? Visions that brought tears to those brave and beautiful eyes-visions of a raalow that had been home to her and that was no more, destroyed by the same cruel force that haunted her even now in this re ain; visions of a tall, straight son who looked at her adoringly out of brave, s eyes that were like his father's Always the vision of the crude sialow rather than of the stately halls that had been as much a part of her life as the other But he had loved the bungalow and the broad, free acres best and so she had come to love them best, too

At last she slept, the sleep of utter exhaustion How long it lasted she did not know; but suddenly she ide awake and once again she heard the scuffing of a body against the bark of her tree and again the liht He had returned! She went cold, treue Was it he, or, O God! had she killed hiht from her ain she crept to the door, for the thing was outside just as it had been last night Her hands tre She wondered if it would scream as it fell

21

The Maniac

The last bar that would h to permit his body to pass had been re beyond the stone door of his prison Long since had the rope of hide been braided To secure one end to the re bar that he had left for this purpose was the work of but a moment, and while the warriors whispered without, the brown body of the ape-h the small aperture and disappeared below the sill

Tarzan's escape from the cell left him still within the walled area that cos He had reconnoitered as best he h bars to per, so that he knehat lay i and usually deserted alleyway leading in the direction of the outer gate that opened frorounds into the city

The darkness would facilitate his escape He ht even pass out of the palace and the city without detection If he could elude the guard at the palace gate the rest would be easy He strode along confidently, exhibiting no fear of detection, for he reasoned that thus would he disarm suspicion In the darkness he easily could pass for a Ho-don and in truth, though he passed several after leaving the deserted alley, no one accosted or detained hiuard of a half-dozen warriors before the palace gate These he atteht have succeeded had it not been for one who ca: ”Let no one pass the gates! The prisoner has escaped from the pal-ul-JA!”

Instantly a warrior barred his way and sinized him ”Xot tor!” he exclaimed: ”Here he is now Fall upon him! Fall upon him! Back! Back before I kill you”

The others came forward It cannot be said that they rushed forward If it was their wish to fall upon him there was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm other than that which directed their efforts to persuade sohter had been too long a topic of conversation for the good of the morale of Mo-sar's warriors It were safer to stand at a distance and hurl their clubs and this they did, but the ape- of the use of this weapon since he had arrived in Pal-ul-don And as he learned great had grown his respect for this most pries he had known had never appreciated the possibilities of their knob sticks, nor had he, and he had discovered, too, why the Pal-ul-donians had turned their ancient spears into plowshares and pinned their faith to the heavy-ended club alone In deadly execution it was far more effective than a spear and it answered, too, every purpose of a shi+eld, co the burden of the warrior Thrown as they throw it, after the ames, an ordinary shi+eld would proveenough to prove a protection would be too heavy to carry Only another club, deftly wielded to deflect the course of an eneainst these formidable weapons and, too, the war club of Pal-ul-don can be throith accuracy a far greater distance than any spear

And noas put to the test that which Tarzan had learned from Om-at and Ta-den His eyes and his muscles trained by a lifetiht and his brain functioned with an uncanny celerity that suggested nothing less than prescience, and these things more than compensated for his lack of experience with the war club he handled so dexterously Weapon after weapon he warded off and always he le idea in onists But they ary for they feared this strange creature to whom the superstitious fears of many of theed to keep between Tarzan and the gateway and all the time they bawled lustily for reinforcements Should these come before he had ainst him would be unsurmountable, and so he redoubled his efforts to carry out his design

Following their usual tactics two or three of the warriors were always circling behind hi the thrown clubs when Tarzan's attention was directed elsewhere He himself retrieved several of them which he hurled with such deadly effect as to dispose of two of his antagonists, but now he heard the approach of hurrying warriors, the patter of their bare feet upon the stone pavee cries which were to bolster the courage of their fellows and fill the enemy with fear

There was no ti one he hurled it at a warrior before hied he rushed in and seized hi his second club at another of his opponents The Ho-don horappled reached instantly for his knife but the ape- of a bone and an agonized scream, then the warrior was lifted bodily from his feet and held as a shi+eld between his fellows and the fugitive as the latter backed through the gateway Beside Tarzan stood the single torch that lighted the entrance to the palace grounds The warriors were advancing to the succor of their fellohen the ape- him full in the face of the foremost attacker The felloent down and two directly behind hi over their companion as the ape-rounds to be extinguished as it struck the bodies of those who led the charging reinforce darkness Tarzan disappeared in the streets of Tu-lur beyond the palace gate For a time he are of sounds of pursuit but the fact that they trailed away and died in the direction of Jad-in-lul infor direction, for he had turned south out of Tu-lur purposely to throw them off his track Beyond the outskirts of the city he turned directly toward the northwest, in which direction lay A-lur

In his path he knew lay Jad-bal-lul, the shore of which he was compelled to skirt, and there would be a river to cross at the lower end of the great lake upon the shores of which lay A-lur What other obstacles lay in his way he did not know but he believed that he couldto steal a canoe and force his way up streale paddle It was his intention to put as much distance as possible between himself and Tu-lur before he slept for he was sure that Mo-sar would not lightly accept his loss, but that with the co of day, or possibly even before, he would dispatch warriors in search of him

A mile or two from the city he entered a forest and here at last he felt such a measure of safety as he never knew in open spaces or in cities The forest and the jungle were his birthright No creature that went upon the ground upon four feet, or cli the trees, or crawled upon its belly had any advantage over the ape-man in his native heath As etation in the nostrils of the great Tar his head filled his lungs with the air that he loved best The heavy fragrance of tropical blooled odors of the le went to his head with a pleasurable intoxication far es of civilization

He took to the trees now, not from necessity but from pure love of the wild freedoh it was dark and the forest strange yet he e uncanny sense than wondrous skill He heard JAsoht of hi familiar sounds that iht to you or to me, but on the contrary one of companionshi+p for they betokened the presence of his fellows of the jungle, and whether friend or foe it was all the same to the ape-man

He came at last to a little stream at a spot where the trees did not round and wade through the water and upon the opposite shore he stopped as though suddenly his Godlike figure had been trans nostrils bespoke his pulsing vitality For a long moment he stood there thus and then swiftly, but with a caution and silence that were inherent in hiain, but now his whole attitude bespoke a new urge There was a definite and masterful purpose in everysoftly beneath the soal that quite evidently filled hireater enthusiasm than had the possible event of his return to A-lur

And so he careat tree and there he stopped and looked up above hihly rectangular bulk loo sensation in Tarzan's throat as he raised hih his heart were swelling either to a great happiness or a great fear