Part 27 (2/2)
The Russian had already drawn a pocketknife fro to open it
”Now,” he lishman
”Can't you wait until dark?” asked Clayton ”Miss Porterdone We were to have been married, you know”
A look of disappointment came over Monsieur Thuran's face
”Very well,” he replied hesitatingly ”It will not be long until night I have waited for er”
”Thank you, o to her side and remain with her until it is time I would like to have an hour or tith her before I die”
When Clayton reached the girl's side she was unconscious--he knew that she was dying, and he was glad that she should not have to see or know the awful tragedy that was shortly to be enacted He took her hand and raised it to his cracked and swollen lips For a long ti that had once been the beautiful, shapely white hand of the young Baltimore belle
It was quite dark before he knew it, but he was recalled to hi hi, Monsieur Thuran,” he hastened to reply
Thrice he atteht crawl back to his death, but in the few hours that he had lain there he had become too weak to return to Thuran's side
”You will have to come to th to gain my hands and knees”
”SAPRISTI!”to cheatabout in the bottoroan ”I cannot crawl,” he heard the Russian wail ”It is too late You have tricked ”
”I have not tricked you, monsieur,” replied Clayton ”I have done ain, and if you will try possibly each of us can crawl halfway, and then you shall have your 'winnings'”
Again Clayton exerted his reth to the ut the sa himself to his hands and knees, but at the first forward movement he pitched upon his face
A moment later he heard an excla,” whispered the Russian
Again Clayton essayed to stagger on toto the boat's bottoain rise His last effort caused hi up at the stars, while behind hi ever nearer and nearer, he could hear the laborious shuffling, and the stertorous breathing of the Russian
It see to crawl out of the dark and end his er pauses between its efforts to advance, and each forward lishman to be almost imperceptible
Finally he knew that Thuran was quite close beside hi touched his face, and he lost consciousness
Chapter 19
The City of Gold
The very night that Tarzan of the Apes beca in a tiny boat two hundredhis naked fellow savages, the firelight glea th, the woman who loved him lay thin and emaciated in the last coma that precedes death by thirst and starvation
The week following the induction of Tarzan into the kingshi+p of the Waziri was occupied in escorting the Manyuema of the Arab raiders to the northern boundary of Waziri in accordance with the promise which Tarzan had e froainst the Waziri in the future, nor was it a difficult promise to obtain They had had sufficient experience with the fighting tactics of the new Waziri chief not to have the slightest desire to accompany another predatory force within the boundaries of his doe Tarzan co an expedition in search of the ruined city of gold which old Waziri had described to him He selected fifty of the sturdiest warriors of his tribe, choosing only men who seemed anxious to accoers of a new and hostile country
The fabulous wealth of the fabled city had been almost constantly in his e adventures of the former expedition which had stumbled upon the vast ruins by chance
The lure of adventureTarzan of the Apes to undertake the journey as the lure of gold, but the lure of gold was there, too, for he had learned aht by the possessor of the olden fortune in the heart of savage Africa it had not occurred to hih to possess the power to onders, even though he never had an opportunity to employ it