Part 25 (1/2)

His coathered around at his call, and after a moment's excited conversation they did precisely what Tarzan had reasoned they would Raising their guns to their shoulders, they poured volley after volley into the tree from which the corpse had been thrown--had Tarzan remained there he would have been riddled by a hundred bullets

When the Arabs and Manyuema discovered that the only iant finger prints upon his swollen throat they were again thrown into deeper apprehension and despair That they were not even safe within a palisaded village at night came as a distinct shock to them That an enemy could enter into the midst of their camp and kill their sentry with bare hands seemed outside the bounds of reason, and so the superstitious Manyuema commenced to attribute their ill luck to supernatural causes; nor were the Arabs able to offer any better explanation

With at least fifty of their nuhtest knowledge of when their uncanny foehter they had commenced, it was a desperate band of cut-throats that waited sleeplessly for the dawn

Only on the proe at daybreak, and hasten onward toward their own land, would the reer Not even fear of their cruel masters was sufficient to overcome this new terror

And so it was that when Tarzan and his warriors returned to the attack the nextthey found the raiders prepared to e The Manyuerinned, for he knew that they would not carry it far Then he saw so which caused hi torches in the ree

Tarzan was perched in a tall tree so a truue: ”Do not fire the huts, or we shall kill you all! Do not fire the huts, or we shall kill you all!”

A dozen times he repeated it The Manyue his torch into the campfire The others were about to do the sa the thes Then he stood erect upon the swaying branch a hundred feet above the ground, and, raising one of the Arab guns to his shoulder, took careful ai on his e fell in his tracks, and the Manyuee The last Tarzan saw of thele, while their forround and fired at theht have been at the insubordination of their slaves, they were at least convinced that it would be the better part of wisdoiven them two such nasty receptions In their hearts, however, they swore to return again with such force as would enable them to sweep the entire country for e of human life remained

They had looked in vain for the owner of the voice which had frightened off the men who had been detailed to put the torch to the huts, but not even the keenest eye a them had been able to locate hi the shot that brought down the Arab, but, though a volley had ie, there had been no indication that it had been effective

Tarzan was too intelligent to be caught in any such trap, and so the report of his shot had scarcely died away before the ape- for another tree a hundred yards away Here he again found a suitable perch from which he could watch the preparations of the raiders It occurred to hiain he called to theh his improvised trumpet

”Leave the ivory!” he cried ”Leave the ivory! Dead men have no use for ivory!”

Some of the Manyueether too much for the avaricious Arabs With loud shouts and curses they ai instant death to any who e, but the thought of abandoning this enormous fortune in ivory was quite beyond their conception--better death than that

And so they e of the Waziri, and on the shoulders of their slaves was the ivory ransos

Toward the north they e settlement in the wild and unknown country which lies back froo in the uttermost depths of The Great Forest, and on either side of them traveled an invisible and relentless foe

Under Tarzan's guidance the black Waziri warriors stationed the the trail on either side in the densest underbrush They stood at far intervals, and, as the colule arrow or a heavy spear, well aimed, would pierce a Manyuema or an Arab Then the Waziri would melt into the distance and run ahead to take his stand farther on They did not strike unless success were sure and the danger of detection al, and so the arrows and the spears were few and far between, but so persistent and inevitable that the slow- column of heavy-laden raiders was in a constant state of panic--panic at the uncertainty of who the next would be to fall, and when

It ith the greatest difficulty that the Arabs prevented theirlike frightened rabbits up the trail toward the north And so the day wore on--a frightful nightmare of a day for the raiders--a day of weary but well-repaid work for the Waziri At night the Arabs constructed a rude BOMA in a little clearing by a river, and went into caht a rifle would bark close above their heads, and one of the dozen sentries which they now had posted would turound Such a condition was insupportable, for they saw that by means of these hideous tactics they would be cole death upon their enemy

But yet, with the persistent avariciousness of the whitecame forced the deer on into the jungle

For three days the withering coluhtful march Each hour was hts were un that made sentry duty equivalent to a death sentence

On theof the fourth day the Arabs were compelled to shoot two of their blacks before they could compel the balance to take up the hated ivory, and as they did so a voice rang out, clear and strong, frole: ”Today you die, oh, Manyuema, unless you lay down the ivory Fall upon your cruel uns, why do you not use them? Kill the Arabs, and ill not hare and feed you, and lead you out of our country in safety and in peace Lay down the ivory, and fall upon your masters--ill help you Else you die!”

As the voice died down the raiders stood as though turned to stone

The Arabs eyed their Manyuema slaves; the slaves looked first at one of their fellows, and then at another--they were but waiting for some one to take the initiative There were some thirty Arabs left, and about one hundred and fifty blacks All were ar as porters had their rifles slung across their backs

The Arabs drew together The sheik ordered the Manyuema to take up the march, and as he spoke he cocked his rifle and raised it But at the same instant one of the blacks thren his load, and, snatching his rifle froroup of Arabs In an instant the cauns and knives and pistols The Arabs stood together, and defended their lives valiantly, but with the rain of lead that poured upon them from their own slaves, and the shower of arrows and spears which now leaped frole aimed solely at them, there was little question from the first what the outcome would be In ten minutes from the time the first porter had thron his load the last of the Arabs lay dead

When the firing had ceased Tarzan spoke again to the Manyuee, from whence you stole it We shall not harm you”