Part 34 (2/2)

”They dragged her along--sorew upon her head; and always they kicked and beat her Oh, but it was great fun to watch them”

”God!” muttered Tarzan

”Where were they when you saw the?”

continued the ape-man

”They were beside the second water back there,” and he pointed to the south ”When they passed e of the water”

”When was this?” asked Tarzan

”Half ainto the trees and fled like a diseotten city of Opar

Chapter 24

How Tarzan Caain to Opar

When Clayton returned to the shelter and found Jane Porter was rief He found Monsieur Thuran quite rational, the fever having left hi suddenness which is one of its peculiarities The Russian, weak and exhausted, still lay upon his bed of grasses within the shelter

When Clayton asked hiirl he seemed surprised to know that she was not there

”I have heard nothing unusual,” he said ”But then I have been unconscious much of the time”

Had it not been for the man's very evident weakness, Clayton should have suspected hiirl's whereabouts; but he could see that Thuran lacked sufficient vitality even to descend, unaided, from the shelter He could not, in his present physical condition, have harirl, nor could he have climbed the rude ladder back to the shelter

Until dark the English one or a sign of the trail of her abductor But though the spoor left by the fifty frightful men, unversed in woodcraft as they were, would have been as plain to the densest denizen of the jungle as a city street to the Englishman, yet he crossed and recrossed it twenty tihtest indication that many men had passed that way but a few short hours since

As he searched, Clayton continued to call the girl's name aloud, but the only result of this was to attract Nu its way toward him in time to climb into the branches of a tree before the beast was close enough to reach him This put an end to his search for the balance of the afternoon, as the lion paced back and forth beneath him until dark

Even after the beast had left, Clayton dared not descend into the awful blackness beneath hiht in the tree The nextthe last hope of succoring Jane Porter

During the week that followed, Monsieur Thuran rapidly regained his strength, lying in the shelter while Clayton hunted food for both The men never spoke except as necessity demanded Clayton now occupied the section of the shelter which had been reserved for Jane Porter, and only saw the Russian when he took food or water to him, or performed the other kindly offices which coain able to descend in search of food, Clayton was stricken with fever For days he lay tossing in deliriu, but not once did the Russian colish for water amounted practically to torture Between the recurrent attacks of deliriued to reach the brook once a day and fill a tiny can that had been a the few appointments of the lifeboat

Thuran watched hinant pleasure--he see of the man who, despite the just contempt in which he held him, had ministered to hi the saer able to descend from the shelter For a day he suffered for water without appealing to the Russian, but finally, unable to endure it longer, he asked Thuran to fetch him a drink The Russian came to the entrance to Clayton's roorin contorted his features

”Here is water,” he said ”But first let irl--that you kept her to yourself, and would not share her with me--”