Part 22 (1/2)
23
A Night of Terror
To Jane Clayton, waiting in the tree where Werper had placed her, it seeht would never end, yet end it did at last, and within an hour of the coht of a solitary horse burnoose, with its loose hood, hid both the face and the figure of the rider; but that it was M Frecoult the girl well knew, since he had been garbed as an Arab, and he aloneplace
That which she saw relieved the strain of the long night vigil; but there was much that she did not see She did not see the black face beneath the white hood, nor the file of ebon horse slowly in the wake of their leader These things she did not see at first, and so she leaned doard toward the approaching rider, a cry of welco in her throat
At the first word thein in surprise, and as she saw the black face of Abdul Mourak, the Abyssinian, she shrank back in terror a the branches; but it was too late The man had seen her, and now he called to her to descend At first she refused; but when a dozen black cavalrymen drew up behind their leader, and at Abdul Mourak's command one of them started to climb the tree after her she realized that resistance was futile, and caround before this new captor and plead her cause in the naered by recent defeat, and by the loss of the gold, the jewels, and his prisoners, Abdul Mourak was in no mood to be influenced by any appeal to those softer sentier even under the radation and possible death in punishment for his failures and his misfortunes when he should have returned to his native land and ht temper the wrath of the emperor, and surely this fair flower of another race should be gratefully received by the black ruler!
When Jane Clayton had concluded her appeal, Abdul Mourak replied briefly that he would promise her protection; but that he irl did not need ask hinedly she permitted herself to be lifted to a seat behind one of the troopers, and again, under new an to believe was her inevitable fate
Abdul Mourak, bereft of his guides by the battle he had waged against the raiders, and himself unfamiliar with the country, had wandered far from the trail he should have followed, and as a result hadof his flight Today he was beating toward the west in the hope of coht found him still as far fro sun
It was a dispirited cory, in the dense jungle Attracted by the horses, lions roared about the bohs of the terror-stricken beasts they hunted There was little sleep for ht be enough on duty both to guard against the sudden charge of an overbold, or overhungry lion, and to keep the fire blazing which was an even ainst theht, and as yet Jane Clayton, notwithstanding that she had passed a sleepless night the night before, had scarcelylike a black pall over the camp The veteran troopers of the black emperor were nervous and ill at ease Abdul Mourak left his blankets a dozen times to pace restlessly back and forth between the tethered horses and the crackling fire The girl could see his great fralare of the flauessed from the quick, nervousof the lions rose in sudden fury until the earth trehs of terror as they lay back upon their halter ropes in their mad endeavors to break loose A trooper, braver than his fellows, leaped a, fear-maddened beasts in a futile atteeous, leaped alht from the fire A sentry raised his piece and fired, and the little leaden pellet unstoppered the vials of hell upon the terror-stricken cahed a deep and painful furrow in the lion's side, arousing all the bestial fury of the little brain; but abating not a whit the power and vigor of the great body
Unwounded, the boht have turned hie wiped caution frory roar he topped the barrier with an easy leap and was a the horses
What had been pandemonium before became now an indescribable tumult of hideous sound The stricken horse upon which the lion leaped shrieked out its terror and its agony Several about it broke their tethers and plunged madly about the cauns ready ran toward the picket line, and then frole beyond the boma a dozen lions, eed fearlessly upon the caly and in twos and threes they leaped the bo reen-eyed devils of the jungle
With the charge of the first lion, Jane Clayton had scrambled to her feet, and now she stood horror-struck at the scene of savage slaughter that swirled and eddied about her Once a bolting horse knocked her down, and ain pursuit of another terror-stricken aniain thrown frorowls of the carnivora rose the death screaed down by the blood- horses, prevented any concerted action by the Abyssinians-it was every man for hiotten or ignored by her black captors A score of ti horses, or by the wildly fired bullets of the frightened troopers, yet there was no chance of escape, for noith the fiendish cunning of their kind, the tawny hunters co of ain an individual lion would dash suddenly ahtened oaded to frenzy by pain or terror, succeeded in racing safely through the circling lions, leaping the bole; but for the men and the woman no such escape was possible
A horse, struck by a stray bullet, fell beside Jane Clayton, a lion leaped across the expiring beast full upon the breast of a black trooper just beyond The man clubbed his rifle and struck futilely at the broad head, and then he was down and the carnivore was standing above hi out his terror, the soldier claith puny fingers at the shaggy breast in vain endeavor to push away the grinning jaws The lion lowered his head, the gaping fangs closed with a single sickening crunch upon the fear-distorted face, and turning strode back across the body of the dead horse dragging his liirl stood watching She saw the carnivore step upon the corpse, stu between its forepaws, and her eyes remained fixed in fascination while the beast passed within a few paces of her
The interference of the body seee the lion He shook the inanirowled and roared hideously at the dead, insensate thing, and then he dropped it and raised his head to look about in search of so victim upon which to wreak his ill temper His yellow eyes fastened the lips raised, disclosing the grinning fangs A terrific roar broke fro upon this new and helpless victim
Quiet had fallen early upon the camp where Tarzan and Werper lay securely bound Two nervous sentries paced their beats, their eyes rolling often toward the ile The others slept or tried to sleep-all but the ape-man Silently and powerfully he strained at the bonds which fettered his wrists
The muscles knotted beneath the smooth, brown skin of his arms and shoulders, the veins stood out upon his temples from the force of his exertions-a strand parted, another and another, and one hand was free Then frouttural, and the ape-id statue, with ears and nostrils straining to span the black void where his eyesight could not reach
Again came the uncanny sound from the thick verdure beyond the caloom The kinky wool upon his head stiffened and raised He called to his comrade in a hoarse whisper
”Did you hear it?” he asked