be a sore blow to the little company, but they thought first of Tarzan's safety rather than then: own. He had inspired within the breasts of all not only respect and admiration, but real affection as well. That was because, as Shrimp had once confided to Bubonovitch, 'De guy's regular.'
'How many Japs were there, Rosetti?' asked Jerry.
'About twenty. They's nine of us, Cap'n, which is more than enough.'
'You can say that again,' said Bubonovitch. 'Let's go get him.'
'We can't attack them from the rear on this narrow trail without endangering Tarzan. We'll have to trail them until we find a better place to attack,' said Jerry.
The trail broke from the forest at the rim of a narrow canyon. Below him, Tarzan saw what was evidently a temporary camp. Half a dozen Jap soldiers guarded some equipment and a few pack animals. The equipment was scattered about in a disorderly manner. Some of it, probably perishable provisions, was covered with tarpaulin. There were no shelters. From the appearance of the camp, Tarzan concluded that the officer was inefficient. The less efficient, the easier he would be to escape from.
2nd Lieut. Kenzo Kaneko snapped instructions at a sergeant, and the sergeant bound the prisoner's wrists behind his back. Though the lieutenant may have been inefficient, the sergeant was not. He bound Tarzan's wrists so securely and with so many strands that not even the muscles of the Lord of the Jungle could have freed him.
The sergeant similarly bound the captive's ankles. This done, he pushed and tripped him; so that Tarzan fell to the ground heavily. A horse was brought and the packsaddle adjusted. A line was made fast to the saddle, the other end was then attached to Tarzan's feet. Lieut. Kaneko came and stood over him. He smiled benignly.
'I should hate to have the horse whipped into a run,' he said. 'It would hurt me, but it would hurt you more.'
The horse had been bridled, and a soldier carrying a whip had mounted it. The other soldiers stood about, grinning. They were about to witness an exhibition that would appeal to their sadistic natures.
'If you will answer my questions,' continued Kaneko, 'the horse will not be whipped, the line will be detached. How many are in your party and where are they?'
Tarzan remained silent. Kaneko no longer smiled. His features became convulsed with rage, or maybe he was only simulating rage in order to frighten his victim. He stepped closer and kicked Tarzan in the side.
'You refuse to answer?' he demanded.
Tarzan returned the Jap's stare. His face registered no emotion, not even the contempt he felt for this grotesque caricature of man. Kaneko's eyes fell beneath those of his prisoner. Something in those eyes frightened him, and that really filled him with genuine rage.
He snapped a command at the man on the horse. The fellow leaned forward and raised his whip. A rifle cracked. The horse reared and toppled backward. Another shot. 2nd Lieut. Kenzo Kaneko screamed and sprawled upon his face. Then came a fusillade of shots. Soldiers fell in rapid succession. Those who could, fled down the valley in utter demoralization as nine riflemen leaped down the steep trail into the camp.
A wounded Jap rose on an elbow and fired at them. Cor-rie shot him. Then Rosetti and Sarina were among them with bayonet and parang, and there were no more wounded Japs.
Jerry cut Tarzan's bonds. 'You arrived just about on time,' said Tarzan.
'Just like the cavalry in a horse opera,' said Bubonovitch.
'What do you think we'd better do now?' Jerry asked Tarzan.
'We must try to finish off the rest of them. This is evidently just a detachment from a larger force. If any of these fellows get back to that force, we'll be hunted down.'
'Have you any idea how many there were?'
'About twenty-five or twenty-six. How many have we killed?'
'Sixteen,' said Rosetti. 'I just counted 'em.'
Tarzan picked up a rifle and took a belt of ammunition from one of the dead Japs. 'We'll go back up to the rim of the valley. I'll go ahead through the trees and try to head them off. The rest of you work down along the rim until you can fire down on them.'
A half mile below the camp Tarzan overhauled the survivors. There were ten of them. A sergeant had gathered them together, and was evidently exhorting them to return to the fight. As they turned back, none too enthusiastically, Tarzan fired and brought down the sergeant. A private started to run down the valley. Tarzan fired again, and the man dropped. Now, the others realized that the shots had come from farther down the valley. They sought cover from that direction. Tarzan held his fire so as not to reveal his position.
The Foreign Legion, hearing the two shots, knew that Tarzan had contacted the enemy. They pushed forward through the trees at the rim of the valley. Jerry was in the lead. Presently he saw a Jap who had taken cover behind a fallen tree. Then he saw another and another. He pointed them out, and the firing commenced. Tarzan also started firing again.
The Japs, cut off in both directions in the narrow valley, without a leader, lacking sufficient intelligence or initiative to act otherwise, blew themselves up with their own grenades.
'They're damned accommodating,' said Douglas .
'Nice little guys,' said Davis ; 'trying to save us ammunition.'
'I'm goin' down to help 'em out,' said Rosetti, 'if any of 'em are left alive.' He slid and rolled down the steep cliff-side, and Sarina was right behind him.
'There,' said Bubonovitch, 'is the ideal helpmeet.'
Chapter 29
Six weeks later the Foreign Legion came down to the coast below Moekemoeko. It had been a strenuous six weeks beset by many hazards. Jap positions in increasing numbers had necessitated many long detours. Only the keen sensibility of the Lord of the Jungle, ranging well ahead of the little company, had saved them from disaster on numerous occasions.
There was a Jap anti-aircraft battery about a kilometer up the coast from where they lay concealed. Between them and the battery was a native village. It was in this village that Sarina expected to find friends who could furnish them a boat and provisions.
'If I had a sarong,' she said, 'I could walk right into the village in daytime, even if Japs were there; but this outfit might arouse suspicion. I'll have to take a chance, and sneak in after dark.'
'Perhaps I can get you a sarong,' said Tarzan.
'You will go into the village?' asked Sarina.
'Tonight,' replied Tarzan.
'You will probably find sarongs that were washed today and hung out to dry.'
After dark Tarzan left them. He moved silently through the stagnant air of the humid, equatorial night. In the camp that he had left that was not a camp but a hiding place, the others spoke in whispers. They were oppressed by the heat and the humidity and the constant sense of lurking danger. When they had been in the mountains they had thought their lot rather miserable. Now they recalled with regret the relative coolness of the higher altitudes.
'I have been in the hills for so long,' said Corrie, 'that I had almost forgotten how frightful the coast climate can be.'
'It is rather rotten,' agreed van der Bos.
'Dutchmen must be gluttons for punishment,' said Bu-bonovitch, 'to colonize a Turkish bath.'
'No,' said van der Bos; 'we are gluttons for profit. This is a very rich part of the world.'
'You can have it,' said Rosetti. 'I don't want no part of it.'
'We wish that the rest of the world felt the same way,' said van der Bos.
Tarzan swung into a tree that overlooked the village. A full moon lighted the open spaces. The ornate, native houses cast dense shadows. Natives squatted in the moonlight, smoking and gossiping. Three sarongs hung limp in the dead air from a pole across which they had been thrown to dry. Tarzan settled himself to wait until the people had gone into their houses for the night.
