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Abdul Mourak nodded, and the Belgian returned to his
guards. The following day the Abyssinian soldiers were
surprised to receive an order which turned their faces
from the northeast to the south. And so it happened
that upon the very night that Tarzan and the two apes
entered the village of the raiders, the Abyssinians
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camped but a few miles to the east of the same spot.
While Werper dreamed of freedom and the unmolested
enjoyment of the fortune in his stolen pouch, and Abdul
Mourak lay awake in greedy contemplation of the fifty
loads of gold which lay but a few days farther to the
south of him, Achmet Zek gave orders to his lieutenants
that they should prepare a force of fighting men and
carriers to proceed to the ruins of the Englishman's
DOUAR on the morrow and bring back the fabulous
fortune which his renegade lieutenant had told him was
buried there.
And as he delivered his instructions to those within, a
silent listener crouched without his tent, waiting for
the time when he might enter in safety and prosecute
his search for the missing pouch and the pretty pebbles
that had caught his fancy.
At last the swarthy companions of Achmet Zek quitted
his tent, and the leader went with them to smoke a pipe
with one of their number, leaving his own silken
habitation unguarded. Scarcely had they left the
interior when a knife blade was thrust through the
fabric of the rear wall, some six feet above the
ground, and a swift downward stroke opened an entrance
to those who waited beyond.
Through the opening stepped the ape-man, and close
behind him came the huge Chulk; but Taglat did not
follow them. Instead he turned and slunk through the
darkness toward the hut where the she who had arrested
his brutish interest lay securely bound. Before the
doorway the sentries sat upon their haunches,
conversing in monotones. Within, the young woman lay
upon a filthy sleeping mat, resigned, through utter
hopelessness to whatever fate lay in store for her
until the opportunity arrived which would permit her to
free herself by the only means which now seemed even
remotely possible--the hitherto detested act of
self-destruction.
Creeping silently toward the sentries, a white-burnoosed
figure approached the shadows at one end of the hut.
The meager intellect of the creature denied
it the advantage it might have taken of its disguise.
Where it could have walked boldly to the very sides of
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the sentries, it chose rather to sneak upon them,
unseen, from the rear.
It came to the corner of the hut and peered around.
The sentries were but a few paces away; but the ape did
not dare expose himself, even for an instant, to those
feared and hated thunder-sticks which the Tarmangani
knew so well how to use, if there were another and
safer method of attack.
Taglat wished that there was a tree nearby from the
over-hanging branches of which he might spring upon his
unsuspecting prey; but, though there was no tree, the
idea gave birth to a plan. The eaves of the hut were
just above the heads of the sentries--from them he
could leap upon the Tarmangani, unseen. A quick snap
of those mighty jaws would dispose of one of them
before the other realized that they were attacked,
and the second would fall an easy prey to the strength,
agility and ferocity of a second quick charge.
Taglat withdrew a few paces to the rear of the hut,
gathered himself for the effort, ran quickly forward
and leaped high into the air. He struck the roof
directly above the rear wall of the hut, and the
structure, reinforced by the wall beneath, held his
enormous weight for an instant, then he moved forward a
step, the roof sagged, the thatching parted and the
great anthropoid shot through into the interior.
The sentries, hearing the crashing of the roof poles,
leaped to their feet and rushed into the hut. Jane
Clayton tried to roll aside as the great form lit upon
the floor so close to her that one foot pinned her
clothing to the ground.
The ape, feeling the movement beside him, reached down
and gathered the girl in the hollow of one mighty arm.
The burnoose covered the hairy body so that Jane
Clayton believed that a human arm supported her, and
from the extremity of hopelessness a great hope sprang
into her breast that at last she was in the keeping of
a rescuer.
The two sentries were now within the hut, but
hesitating because of doubt as to the nature of the
cause of the disturbance. Their eyes, not yet
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