Aarab and his followers.
'Dog of a Nasrany!' ejaculated the sheykh. 'He called us cowards, we Bedauwy, and he left us here like old men and boys to guard the camp and the woman.'
'He is but an instrument of Allah,' said one of the Aarabs, 'in the great cause that will rid Africa of all Nasrany.'
'Wellah-billah!' ejaculated Abu Batn. 'What proof have we that these people will do as they promise? I would rather have my freedom on the desert and what wealth I can gather by myself than to lie longer in the same camp with these Nasrany pigs.'
'There is no good in them,' muttered another.
'I have looked upon their woman,' said the sheykh, 'and I find her good. I know a city where she would bring many pieces of gold.'
'In the trunk of the chief Nasrany there are many pieces of gold and silver,' said one of the men. 'His boy told that to a Galla, who repeated it to me.'
'The plunder of the camp is rich besides,' suggested a swarthy warrior.
'If we do this thing, perhaps the great cause will be lost,' suggested he who had first answered the sheykh.
'It is the cause of the Nasrany,' said Abu Batn, 'and it is only for profit. Is not the huge pig always reminding us of the money, and the women, and the power that we shall have when we have thrown out the English? Man is moved only by his greed. Let us take our profits in advance and be gone.'
Wamala was preparing the evening meal for his mistress. 'Before, you were left with the brown bwana,' he said, 'and he was no good; nor do I like any better the sheykh Abu Batn. He is no good. I wish that Bwana Colt were here.'
'So do I,' said Zora. 'It seems to me that the Aarabs have been sullen and surly ever since the expedition returned from Opar.'
'They have sat all day in the tent of their chief talking together,' said Wamala, 'and often Abu Batn looked at you.'
'That is your imagination, Wamala,' replied the girl. 'He would not dare to harm me.'
'Who would have thought that the brown bwana would have dared to?' Wamala reminded her.
'Hush, Wamala, the first thing you know you will have me frightened,' said Zora, and then suddenly, 'Look, Wamala! Who is that?'
The black boy turned his eyes in the direction toward which his mistress was looking. At the edge of the camp stood a figure that might have wrung an exclamation of surprise from a Stoic. A beautiful woman stood there regarding them intently. She had halted just at the edge of camp-an almost naked woman whose gorgeous beauty was her first and most striking characteristic. Two golden discs covered her firm breasts, and a narrow stomacher of gold and precious stones encircled her hips, supporting in front and behind a broad strip of soft leather, studded with gold and jewels, which formed the pattern of a pedestal on the summit of which was seated a grotesque bird. Her feet were shod in sandals that were covered with mud, as were her shapely legs upward to above her knees. A mass of wavy hair, shot with golden bronze lights by the rays of the setting sun, half surrounded an oval face, and from beneath narrow penciled brows fearless gray eyes regarded them.
Some of the Aarabs had caught sight of her, too, and they were coming forward now toward her. She looked quickly from Zora and Wamala toward the others. Then the European girl arose quickly and approached her that she might reach her before the Arabs did; and as she came near the stranger with outstretched hands, Zora smiled. La of Opar came quickly to meet her as though sensing in the smile of the other an index to the friendly intent of this stranger.
'Who are you,' asked Zora, 'and what are you doing here alone in the jungle?'
La shook her head and replied in a language that Zora did not understand.
Zora Drinov was an accomplished linguist but she exhausted every language in her repertoire, including a few phrases from various Bantu dialects, and still found no means of communicating with the stranger, whose beautiful face and figure but added to the interest of the tantalizing enigma she presented to pique the curiosity of the Russian girl.
The Aarabs addressed her in their own tongue and Wamala in the dialect of his tribe, but all to no avail. Then Zora put an arm about her and led her toward her tent; and there, by means of signs, La of Opar indicated that she would bathe. Wamala was directed to prepare a tub in Zora's tent, and by the time supper was prepared the stranger reappeared, washed and refreshed.
As Zora Drinov seated herself opposite her strange guest, she was impressed with the belief that never before had she looked upon so beautiful a woman, and she marvelled that one who must have felt so utterly out of place in her surroundings should still retain a poise that suggested the majestic bearing of a queen rather than of a stranger ill at ease.
By signs and gestures, Zora sought to converse with her guest until even the regal La found herself laughing; and then La tried it too until Zora knew that her guest had been threatened with clubs and knives and driven from her home, that she had walked a long way, that either a lion or a leopard had attacked her and that she was very tired.
When supper was over, Wamala prepared another cot for La in the tent with Zora, for something in the faces of the Aarabs had made the European girl fear for the safety of her beautiful guest.
'You must sleep outside the tent door tonight, Wamala,' she said. 'Here is an extra pistol.'
In his goat hair beyt Abu Batn, the sheykh, talked long into the night with the principal men of his tribe. 'The new one,' he said, 'will bring a price such as has never been paid before.'
Tarzan awoke and glanced upward through the foliage at the stars. He saw that the night was half gone, and he arose and stretched himself. He ate again sparingly of the flesh of Bara and slipped silently into the shadows of the night.
The camp at the foot of the barrier cliff slept. A single askari kept guard and tended the beast fire. From a tree at the edge of the camp two eyes watched him, and when he was looking away a figure dropped silently into the shadows. Behind the huts of the porters it crept, pausing occasionally to test the air with dilated nostrils. It came at last, among the shadows, to the tents of the Europeans, and one by one it ripped a hole in each rear wall and entered. It was Tarzan searching for La, but he did not find her and, disappointed, he turned to another matter.
Making a half circuit of the camp, moving sometimes only inch by inch as he wormed himself along on his belly, lest the askari upon guard might see him, he made his way to the shelters of the other askaris, and there he selected a bow and arrows, and a stout spear, but even yet he was not done.
For a long time he crouched waiting-waiting until the askari by the fire should turn in a certain direction.
Presently the sentry arose and threw some dry wood upon the fire, after which he walked toward the shelter of his fellows to awaken the man who was to relieve him. It was this moment for which Tarzan had been waiting. The path of the askari brought him close to where Tarzan lay in hiding. The man approached and passed, and in the same instant Tarzan leaped to his feet and sprang upon the unsuspecting black. A strong arm encircled the fellow from behind and swung him to a broad, bronzed shoulder. As Tarzan had anticipated, a scream of terror burst from the man's lips, awakening his fellows; and then he was borne swiftly through the shadows of the camp away from the beast fire as, with his prey struggling futilely in his grasp, the ape-man leaped the thorn boma and disappeared into the black jungle beyond.
So sudden and violent was the attack, so complete the man's surprise, that he had loosened his grasp upon his rifle in an effort to clutch his antagonist as he was thrown lightly to the shoulder of his captor.
His screams, echoing through the forest, brought his terrified companions from their shelters in time to see an indistinct form leap the boma and vanish into the darkness. They stood temporarily paralyzed by fright, listening to the diminishing cries of their comrade. Presently these ceased as suddenly as they had commenced. Then the headman found his voice.
'Simba!' he said.
'It was not Simba,' declared another. 'It ran high upon two legs, like a man. I saw it.'
Presently from the dark jungle came a hideous, long-drawn cry. 'That is the voice of neither man nor lion,' said the headman.
'It is a demon,' whispered another, and then they huddled about the fire, throwing dry wood upon it until its
