“Billah! It wast thou, Nasrany, who made the fearful cries.”
“Beduwy, thou comest to kill the Nasrany, eh?” demanded Tarzan.
From the jungle came the roar of a lion and the trumpeting of a bull elephant, but the boma was high and sharp with thorns and there were guards and beast fire, so Tollog gave no thought to these familiar noises of the night. He did not answer Tarzan’s question but laid aside his musket and drew his khusa, which after all was answer enough.
In the dim light of the paper lantern Tarzan watched these preparations. He saw the cruel expression upon the malevolent face. He saw the man approaching slowly, the knife ready in his hand.
The man was almost upon him now, his eyes glittering in the faint light. To the ears of the ape-man came the sound of a commotion at the far edge of the menzil, followed by an Arab oath. Then Tollog launched a blow at Tarzan’s breast. The prisoner swung his bound wrists upward and struck the Beduin’s knife arm away, and simultaneously he struggled to his knees.
With an oath, Tollog struck again, and again Tarzan fended the blow, and this time he followed swiftly with a mighty sweep of his arms that struck the Beduin upon the side of the head and sent him sprawling across the hejra; but Tollog was instantly up and at him again, this time with the ferocity of a maddened bull, yet at the same time with far greater cunning, for instead of attempting a direct frontal attack Tollog leaped quickly around Tarzan to strike him from behind.
In his effort to turn upon his knees that he might face his antagonist the ape-man lost his balance, his feet being bound together, and fell prone at Tollog’s mercy. A vicious smile bared the yellow teeth of the Beduin.
“Die, Nasrany!” he cried, and then: “Billah! What was that?” as, of a sudden, the entire tent was snatched from above his head and hurled off into the night. He turned quickly and a shriek of terror burst from his lips as he saw, red-eyed and angry, the giant form of el-fil towering above him; and in that very instant a supple trunk encircled his body and Tollog, the sheik’s brother, was raised high aloft and hurled off into the darkness as the tent had been.
For an instant Tantor stood looking about, angrily, defiantly, then he reached down and lifted Tarzan from the ground, raised him high above his head, wheeled about and trotted rapidly across the menzil toward the jungle. A frightened sentry fired once and fled. The other sentry lay crushed and dead where Tantor had hurled him when he entered the camp. An instant later Tarzan and Tantor were swallowed by the jungle and the darkness.
The menzil of Sheik Ibn Jad was in an uproar. Armed men hastened hither and thither seeking the cause of the disturbance, looking for an attacking enemy. Some came to the spot where had stood the hejra where the Nasrany had been confined, but hejra and Nasrany both had disappeared. Nearby, the beyt of one of Ibn Jad’s cronies lay flattened. Beneath it were screaming women and a cursing man. On top of it was Tollog, the sheik’s brother, his mouth filled with vile Beduin invective, whereas it should have contained only praises of Allah and thanksgiving, for Tollog was indeed a most fortunate man. Had he alighted elsewhere than upon the top of a sturdily pegged beyt he had doubtless been killed or badly injured when Tantor hurled him thus rudely aside.
Ibn Jad, searching for information, arrived just as Tollog was extricating himself from the folds of the tent.
“Billah!” cried the sheik. “What has come to pass? What, O brother, art thou doing upon the beyt of Abd el-Aziz?”
A slave came running to the sheik. “The Nasrany is gone and he hath taken the hejra with him,” he cried.
Ibn Jad turned to Tollog. “Canst thou not explain, brother?” he demanded. “Is the Nasrany truly departed?”
“The Nasrany is indeed gone,” replied Tollog. “He is in league with Sheytan, who came in the guise of el-fil and carried the Nasrany into the jungle, after throwing me upon the top of the beyt of Abd el-Aziz whom I still hear squealing and cursing beneath as though it had been he who was attacked rather than I.”
Ibn Jad shook his head. Of course he knew that Tollog was a liar—that he always had known—yet he could not understand how his brother had come to be upon the top of the beyt of Abed el-Aziz.
“What did the sentries see?” demanded the sheik. “Where were they?”
“They were at their post,” spoke up Motlog. “I was just there. One of them is dead, the other fired upon the intruder as it escaped.”
“And what said he of it?” demanded Ibn Jad.
“Wellah, he said that el-fil came and entered the menzil, killing Yemeny and rushing to the hejra where the Nasrany lay bound, ripping it aside, throwing Tollog high into the air. Then he seized the prisoner and bore him off into the jungle, and as he passed him Hasan fired.”
“And missed,” guessed Ibn Jad.
For several moments the sheik stood in thought, then he turned slowly toward his own beyt. “Tomorrow, early, is the rahla,” he said; and the word spread quickly that early upon the morrow they would break camp.
Far into the forest Tantor bore Tarzan until they had come to a small clearing well carpeted with grass, and here the elephant deposited his burden gently upon the ground and stood guard above.
“In the morning,” said Tarzan, “when Kudu the Sun hunts again through the heavens and there is light by which to see, we shall discover what may be done about removing these bonds, Tantor; but for now let
