Part 10 (2/2)
When her place upon the floor had been taken by another the bright-eyed Abdul saw her in conversation with two Arabs at the far side of the rooallery of which were the rooirls who danced in this cafe
At first he thought nothing of the matter, but presently he noticed from the corner of his eye one of the irl turn and shoot a furtive glance at Tarzan Then the Arabs h the doorway into the darkness of the court
When it cairl's turn to dance she hovered close to Tarzan, and for the ape-ly scoas cast upon the tall European by swarthy, dark-eyed sons of the desert, but neither smiles nor scowls produced any outwardly visible effect upon hiirl cast her handkerchief upon his shoulder, and again was she rewarded with a franc piece As she was sticking it upon her forehead, after the custo a quick word in his ear
”There are tithout in the court,” she said quickly, in broken French, ”ould harm m'sieur At first I promised to lure you to them, but you have been kind, and I cannot do it Go quickly, before they find that I have failed them I think that they are very badher that he would be careful, and, having finished her dance, she crossed to the little doorway and went out into the court But Tarzan did not leave the cafe as she had urged
For another half hour nothing unusual occurred, then a surly-looking Arab entered the cafe from the street He stood near Tarzan, where he deliberatelyreue Tarzan was entirely innocent of their purport until Abdul took it upon hi for trouble,” warned Abdul ”He is not alone
In fact, in case of a disturbance, nearly every ainst you It would be better to leave quietly, master”
”Ask the fellohat he wants,” co of a Christian' insulted the Ouled-Nail, who belongs to him He means trouble, m'sieur”
”Tell him that I did not insult his or any other Ouled-Nail, that I wish hio away and leave me alone That I have no quarrel with him, nor has he any withthisyourself that you are the son of one, and that your grandmother was a hyena Incidentally you are a liar”
The attention of those near by had now been attracted by the altercation, and the sneering laughs that followed this torrent of invective easily indicated the trend of the sympathies of the hed at, neither did he relish the terer as he arose from his seat upon the bench A half shty fist shot into the face of the scowling Arab, and back of it were the terrible muscles of the ape-man
At the instant that theinto the roo for their cue in the street before the cafe With cries of ”Kill the unbeliever!”
and ”Doith the dog of a Christian!” they er Arabs in the audience sprang to their feet to join in the assault upon the unarmed white man Tarzan and Abdul were rushed back toward the end of the roo Arab reht at his side
With tremendous blows the ape-man felled all who caht quietly and without a word, upon his lips the same half smile they had worn as he rose to strike down the man who had insulted him It seemed impossible that either he or Abdul could survive the sea of wicked-looking swords and knives that surrounded them, but the very numbers of their assailants proved the best bulwark of their safety So closely packed was the howling, cursing e, and none of the Arabs dared use a firear one of his co one of the most persistent of his attackers With a quick wrench he disar him before them as a shi+eld, he backed slowly beside Abdul toward the little door which led into the inner courtyard At the threshold he paused for an instant, and, lifting the struggling Arab above his head, hurled hih fro fellows
Then Tarzan and Abdul stepped into the sehtened Ouled-Nails were crouching at the tops of the stairs which led to their respective roo frorease to the ork of her door-fraht happen to traverse the dark inclosure
Scarcely had Tarzan and Abdul eed from the room ere a revolver spoke close at their backs from the shadows beneath one of the stairways, and as they turned totoward the as they came Tarzan leaped to meet these t assailants The foremost lay, a second later, in the tra from a broken wrist
Abdul's knife found the vitals of the second in the instant that the fellow's revolver missed fire as he held it to the faithful Arab's forehead
Theout in pursuit of their quarry The Ouled-Nails had extinguished their candles at a cry froht within the yard came feebly from the open and half-blocked door of the cafe Tarzan had seized a sword from the man who had fallen before Abdul's knife, and now he stood waiting for the rush of h the darkness
Suddenly he felt a light hand upon his shoulder fro, ”Quick, m'sieur; this way Follow me”
”Come, Abdul,” said Tarzan, in a low tone, to the youth; ”we can be no worse off elsewhere than we are here”