Part 24 (2/2)

Finally the entire expedition took refuge within the thatched huts--here, at least, they would be free froe, had one, and, balancing hi liiant h the thatched roof A howl of pain told hi salute to convince them that there was no safety for them anywhere within the country, Tarzan returned to the forest, collected his warriors, and withdrew a mile to the south to rest and eat He kept sentries in several trees that coe, but there was no pursuit

An inspection of his force showed not a single casualty--not even a h estimates of the enemies' loss convinced the blacks that no fewer than twenty had fallen before their arrows They ith elation, and were for finishi+ng the day in one glorious rush upon the village, during which they would slaughter the last of their foe the various tortures they would inflict, and gloating over the suffering of the Manyuema, for whom they entertained a peculiar hatred, when Tarzan put his foot down flatly upon the plan

”You are crazy!” he cried ”I have shown you the only way to fight these people Already you have killed twenty of thele warrior, whereas, yesterday, following your own tactics, which you would now renew, you lost at least a dozen, and killed not a single Arab or Manyueht, or I shall leave you and go back to htened when he threatened this, and promised to obey him scrupulously if he would but promise not to desert them

”Very well,” he said ”We shall return to the elephant BOMA for the night I have a plan to give the Arabs a little taste of what they may expect if they remain in our country, but I shall need no help Come!

If they suffer no more for the balance of the day they will feel reassured, and the relapse into fear will be even hten them all afternoon”

So they hting great fires, ate and recounted the adventures of the day until long after dark Tarzan slept until ht, then he arose and crept into the Cimmerian blackness of the forest An hour later he cae There was a ca within the palisade The ape- until he stood before the barred gates Through the interstices he saw a lone sentry sitting before the fire

Quietly Tarzan went to the tree at the end of the village street He climbed softly to his place, and fitted an arrow to his bow For several ht fairly upon the sentry, but the waving branches and flickering firelight convinced hireat--hethe quiet and sudden death his plan required

He had brought, besides, his bow, arrows, and rope, the gun he had taken the previous day fro all these in a convenient crotch of the tree, he dropped lightly to the ground within the palisade, ar knife The sentry's back was toward hi man He ithin two paces of him now--another instant and the knife would slide silently into the fellow's heart

Tarzan crouched for a spring, for that is ever the quickest and surest attack of the jungle beast--when theto his feet and faced the ape-man

Chapter 17

The White Chief of the Waziri

When the eyes of the black Manyuee apparition that confronted hiot the gun within his hands; he even forgot to cry out--his one thought was to escape this fearsoiant of a hty chest the flickering firelight played

But before he could turn Tarzan was upon hiht to screareat hand was upon his windpipe, and he was being borne to the earth He battled furiously but futilely--with the gri to his throat Swiftly and surely life was being choked froue protruded, his face turned to a ghastly purplish hue--there was a convulsive tre muscles, and the Manyuema sentry lay quite still

The ape-athering up the fellow's gun, trotted silently up the sleeping village street toward the tree that gave hie He bore the dead sentry into the midst of the leafy e belt and such orna it into a convenient crotch while his niers ran over it in search of the loot he could not plainly see in the dark

When he had finished he took the gun that had belonged to the man, and walked far out upon a limb, from the end of which he could obtain a better view of the huts Drawing a careful bead on the beehive structure in which he knew the chief Arabs to be, he pulled the trigger Alroan Tarzan s the shot there was a moment's silence in the ca frory hornets; but if the truth were known they were even ry The strain of the preceding day had wrought upon the fears of both black and white, and now this single shot in the night conjured all manner of terrible conjectures in their terrified minds

When they discovered that their sentry had disappeared, their fears were in no way allayed, and as though to bolster their courage by warlike actions, they began to fire rapidly at the barred gates of the village, although no ene roar of this fusillade to fire into the mob beneath hiclose saw one of their number crumple suddenly to the earth When they leaned over him he was dead They were panic-stricken, and it took all the brutal authority of the Arabs to keep the Manyuele--anywhere to escape froe

After a time they commenced to quiet down, and as no further ain But it was a short-lived respite, for just as they had concluded that they would not be disturbed again Tarzan gave voice to a weird moan, and as the raiders looked up in the direction froing the dead body of the sentry gently to and fro, suddenly shot the corpse far out above their heads

With howls of alar broke in all directions to escape this new and terrible creature who seeinations the body of the sentry, falling ide-sprawled arreat beast of prey In their anxiety to escape, many of the blacks scaled the palisade, while others tore down the bars fro toward the jungle

For a tihtened them, but Tarzan knew that they would in a moment, and when they discovered that it was but the dead body of their sentry, while they would doubtless be still further terrified, he had a rather definite idea as to what they would do, and so he faded silently away toward the south, taking the moonlit upper terrace back toward the camp of the Waziri

Presently one of the Arabs turned and saw that the thing that had leaped from the tree upon them lay still and quiet where it had fallen in the center of the village street Cautiously he crept back toward it until he saw that it was but a ure, and in another had recognized it as the corpse of the Manyueate