As the three squatted upon the roof above the quarters ofthe Ouled-Nails they heard the angry cursing of theArabs in the room beneath. Abdul translated from timeto time to Tarzan.

"They are berating those in the street below now," saidAbdul, "for permitting us to escape so easily. Those in thestreet say that we did not come that way--that we are stillwithin the building, and that those above, being too cowardlyto attack us, are attempting to deceive them into believingthat we have escaped. In a moment they will have fightingof their own to attend to if they continue their brawling."

Presently those in the building gave up the search, andreturned to the cafe. A few remained in the street below,smoking and talking.

Tarzan spoke to the girl, thanking her for the sacrifice shehad made for him, a total stranger.

"I liked you," she said simply. "You were unlike the otherswho come to the cafe. You did not speak coarsely to me--the manner in which you gave me money was not an insult."

"What shall you do after tonight?" he asked. "You cannot returnto the cafe. Can you even remain with safety in Sidi Aissa?"

"Tomorrow it will be forgotten," she replied. "But I shouldbe glad if it might be that I need never return to this oranother cafe. I have not remained because I wished to;I have been a prisoner."

"A prisoner!" ejaculated Tarzan incredulously.

"A slave would be the better word," she answered. "I was stolenin the night from my father's DOUAR by a band of marauders.They brought me here and sold me to the Arab who keeps this cafe.It has been nearly two years now since I saw the last of mineown people. They are very far to the south. They never cometo Sidi Aissa."

"You would like to return to your people?" asked Tarzan."Then I shall promise to see you safely so far as Bou Saadaat least. There we can doubtless arrange with the commandantto send you the rest of the way."

"Oh, m'sieur," she cried, "how can I ever repay you! Youcannot really mean that you will do so much for a poorOuled-Nail. But my father can reward you, and he will, foris he not a great sheik? He is Kadour ben Saden."

"Kadour ben Saden!" ejaculated Tarzan. "Why, Kadourben Saden is in Sidi Aissa this very night. He dinedwith me but a few hours since."

"My father in Sidi Aissa?" cried the amazed girl."Allah be praised then, for I am indeed saved."

"Hssh!" cautioned Abdul. "Listen."

From below came the sound of voices, quite distinguishableupon the still night air. Tarzan could not understand thewords, but Abdul and the girl translated.

"They have gone now," said the latter. "It is you they want, m'sieur.One of them said that the stranger who had offeredmoney for your slaying lay in the house of Akmed dinSoulef with a broken wrist, but that he had offered a stillgreater reward if some would lay in wait for you upon theroad to Bou Saada and kill you."

"It is he who followed m'sieur about the market today,"exclaimed Abdul. "I saw him again within the cafe--himand another; and the two went out into the inner court aftertalking with this girl here. It was they who attacked andfired upon us, as we came out of the cafe. Why do they wishto kill you, m'sieur?"

"I do not know," replied Tarzan, and then, after a pause:"Unless--" But he did not finish, for the thought that hadcome to his mind, while it seemed the only reasonable solutionof the mystery, appeared at the same time quite improbable.Presently the men in the street went away. The courtyardand the cafe were deserted. Cautiously Tarzan loweredhimself to the sill of the girl's window. The room was empty.He returned to the roof and let Abdul down, then helowered the girl to the arms of the waiting Arab.

From the window Abdul dropped the short distance to thestreet below, while Tarzan took the girl in his arms and leapeddown as he had done on so many other occasions in hisown forest with a burden in his arms. A little cry of alarmwas startled from the girl's lips, but Tarzan landed in thestreet with but an imperceptible jar, and lowered her in safetyto her feet.

She clung to him for a moment.

"How strong m'sieur is, and how active," she cried."EL ADREA, the black lion, himself is not more so."

"I should like to meet this EL ADREA of yours," he said."I have heard much about him."

"And you come to the DOUAR of my father you shall seehim," said the girl. "He lives in a spur of the mountainsnorth of us, and comes down from his lair at night to rob myfather's DOUAR. With a single blow of his mighty paw hecrushes the skull of a bull, and woe betide the belatedwayfarer who meets EL ADREA abroad at night."

Without further mishap they reached the hotel. The sleepylandlord objected strenuously to instituting a search forKadour ben Saden until the following morning, but a pieceof gold put a different aspect on the matter, so that a fewmoments later a servant had started to make the rounds ofthe lesser native hostelries where it might be expected that adesert sheik would find congenial associations. Tarzan hadfelt it necessary to find the girl's father that night, forfear he might start on his homeward journey too early in themorning to be intercepted.

They had waited perhaps half an hour when the messengerreturned with Kadour ben Saden. The old sheik enteredthe room with a questioning expression upon his proud face.

"Monsieur has done me the honor to--" he commenced, andthen his eyes fell upon the girl. With outstretched armshe crossed the room to meet her. "My daughter!" he cried."Allah is merciful!" and tears dimmed the martial eyes ofthe old warrior.

When the story of her abduction and her final rescue hadbeen told to Kadour ben Saden he extended his hand to Tarzan.

"All that is Kadour ben Saden's is thine, my friend, evento his life," he said very simply, but Tarzan knew thatthose were no idle words.

It was decided that although three of them would have toride after practically no sleep, it would be best to make anearly start in the morning, and attempt to ride all theway to Bou Saada in one day. It would have beencomparatively easy for the men, but for the girl itwas sure to be a fatiguing journey.

She, however, was the most anxious to undertake it, forit seemed to her that she could not quickly enough reach thefamily and friends from whom she had been separated fortwo years.

It seemed to Tarzan that he had not closed his eyes beforehe was awakened, and in another hour the party was on itsway south toward Bou Saada. For a few miles the road wasgood, and they made rapid progress, but suddenly it becameonly a waste of sand, into which the horses sank fetlockdeep at nearly every step. In addition to Tarzan, Abdul,the sheik, and his daughter were four of the wild plainsmenof the sheik's tribe who had accompanied him upon the tripto Sidi Aissa. Thus, seven guns strong, they entertained littlefear of attack by day, and if all went well they should reachBou Saada before nightfall.

A brisk wind enveloped them in the blowing sand of thedesert, until Tarzan's lips were parched and cracked. Whatlittle he could see of the surrounding country was far fromalluring--a vast expanse of rough country, rolling in little,barren hillocks, and tufted here and there with clumps ofdreary shrub. Far to the south rose the dim lines of theSaharan Atlas range. How different, thought Tarzan, fromthe gorgeous Africa of his boyhood!

Abdul, always on the alert, looked backward quite as oftenas he did ahead. At the top of each hillock that they mountedhe would draw in his horse and, turning, scan the country tothe rear with utmost care. At last his scrutiny was rewarded.

"Look!" he cried. "There are six horsemen behind us."

"Your friends of last evening, no doubt, monsieur," remarkedKadour ben Saden dryly to Tarzan.

"No doubt," replied the ape-man. "I am sorry that mysociety should endanger the safety of your journey. At thenext village I shall remain and question these gentlemen,while you ride on. There is no necessity for my being at BouSaada tonight, and less still why you should not ride in peace."

"If you stop we shall stop," said Kadour ben Saden. "Untilyou are safe with your friends, or the enemy has left yourtrail, we shall remain with you. There is nothing more to say."

Tarzan nodded his head. He was a man of few words,and possibly it was for this reason as much as any thatKadour ben Saden had taken to him, for if there be onething that an Arab despises it is a talkative man.

All the balance of the day Abdul caught glimpses of thehorsemen in their rear. They remained always at about thesame distance. During the occasional halts for rest, andat the longer halt at noon, they approached no closer.

"They are waiting for darkness," said Kadour ben Saden.

And darkness came before they reached Bou Saada. Thelast glimpse that Abdul had of the grim, white-robed figuresthat trailed them, just before dusk made it impossible todistinguish them, had made it apparent that they were rapidlyclosing up the distance that intervened between them andtheir intended quarry. He whispered this fact to Tarzan, forhe did not wish to alarm the girl. The ape-man drew backbeside him.

"You will ride ahead with the others, Abdul," said Tarzan."This is my quarrel. I shall wait at the next convenientspot, and interview these fellows."

"Then Abdul shall wait at thy side," replied the youngArab, nor would any threats or commands move him fromhis decision.

"Very well, then," replied Tarzan. "Here is as good a placeas we could wish. Here are rocks at the top of this hillock.We shall remain hidden here and give an account of ourselvesto these gentlemen when they appear."

They drew in their horses and dismounted. The othersriding ahead were already out of sight in the darkness.Beyond them shone the lights of Bou Saada. Tarzan removedhis rifle from its boot and loosened his revolver in its holster.He ordered Abdul to withdraw behind the rocks with thehorses, so that they should be shielded from the enemies'bullets should they fire. The young Arab pretended to do ashe was bid, but when he had fastened the two animals securelyto a low shrub he crept back to lie on his belly a fewpaces behind Tarzan.

The ape-man stood erect in the middle of the road, waiting.Nor did he have long to wait. The sound of gallopinghorses came suddenly out of the darkness below him, and amoment later he discerned the moving blotches of lightercolor against the solid background of the night.

"Halt," he cried, "or we fire!"

The white figures came to a sudden stop, and for a momentthere was silence. Then came the sound of a whispered council,and like ghosts the phantom riders dispersed in all directions.Again the desert lay still about him, yet it was an ominousstillness that foreboded evil.

Abdul raised himself to one knee. Tarzan cocked hisjungle-trained ears, and presently there came to him thesound of horses walking quietly through the sand to theeast of him, to the west, to the north, and to the south.They had been surrounded. Then a shot came from the directionin which he was looking, a bullet whirred through the airabove his head, and he fired at the flash of the enemy's gun.

Instantly the soundless waste was torn with the quickstaccato of guns upon every hand. Abdul and Tarzan firedonly at the flashes--they could not yet see their foemen.Presently it became evident that the attackers were circlingtheir position, drawing closer and closer in as they began torealize the paltry numbers of the party which opposed them.

But one came too close, for Tarzan was accustomed to usinghis eyes in the darkness of the jungle night, than whichthere is no more utter darkness this side the grave, andwith a cry of pain a saddle was emptied.

"The odds are evening, Abdul," said Tarzan, with a low laugh.

But they were still far too one-sided, and when the fiveremaining horsemen whirled at a signal and charged fullupon them it looked as if there would be a sudden endingof the battle. Both Tarzan and Abdul sprang to the shelter ofthe rocks, that they might keep the enemy in front of them.There was a mad clatter of galloping hoofs, a volley of shotsfrom both sides, and the Arabs withdrew to repeat themaneuver; but there were now only four against the two.

For a few moments there came no sound from out ofthe surrounding blackness. Tarzan could not tell whether theArabs, satisfied with their losses, had given up the fight, orwere waiting farther along the road to waylay them as theyproceeded on toward Bou Saada. But he was not left long indoubt, for now all from one direction came the sound of anew charge. But scarcely had the first gun spoken ere adozen shots rang out behind the Arabs. There came the wildshouts of a new party to the controversy, and the poundingof the feet of many horses from down the road to Bou Saada.

The Arabs did not wait to learn the identity of the oncomers.With a parting volley as they dashed by the position whichTarzan and Abdul were holding, they plunged off along theroad toward Sidi Aissa. A moment later Kadour ben Sadenand his men dashed up.

The old sheik was much relieved to find that neitherTarzan nor Abdul had received a scratch. Not even had theirhorses been wounded. They sought out the two men who hadfallen before Tarzan's shots, and, finding that both weredead, left them where they lay.

"Why did you not tell me that you contemplated ambushingthose fellows?" asked the sheik in a hurt tone. "We mighthave had them all if the seven of us had stopped to meet them."

"Then it would have been useless to stop at all," repliedTarzan, "for had we simply ridden on toward Bou Saada theywould have been upon us presently, and all could have beenengaged. It was to prevent the transfer of my own quarrelto another's shoulders that Abdul and I stopped off toquestion them. Then there is your daughter--I could not be thecause of exposing her needlessly to the marksmanship of six men."

Kadour ben Saden shrugged his shoulders. He did notrelish having been cheated out of a fight.

The little battle so close to Bou Saada had drawn out acompany of soldiers. Tarzan and his party met them justoutside the town. The officer in charge halted them to learnthe significance of the shots.

"A handful of marauders," replied Kadour ben Saden."They attacked two of our number who had dropped behind,but when we returned to them the fellows soon dispersed.They left two dead. None of my party was injured."

This seemed to satisfy the officer, and after taking thenames of the party he marched his men on toward the sceneof the skirmish to bring back the dead men for purposes ofidentification, if possible.

Two days later, Kadour ben Saden, with his daughter andfollowers, rode south through the pass below Bou Saada,bound for their home in the far wilderness. The sheik hadurged Tarzan to accompany him, and the girl had added herentreaties to those of her father; but, though he could notexplain it to them, Tarzan's duties loomed particularly largeafter the happenings of the past few days, so that he could notthink of leaving his post for an instant. But he promised tocome later if it lay within his power to do so, and they hadto content themselves with that assurance.

During these two days Tarzan had spent practically all histime with Kadour ben Saden and his daughter. He was keenlyinterested in this race of stern and dignified warriors, andembraced the opportunity which their friendship offered tolearn what he could of their lives and customs. He evencommenced to acquire the rudiments of their language under thepleasant tutorage of the brown-eyed girl. It was with realregret that he saw them depart, and he sat his horse at theopening to the pass, as far as which he had accompaniedthem, gazing after the little party as long as he could catch aglimpse of them.

Here were people after his own heart! Their wild, roughlives, filled with danger and hardship, appealed to this half-savage man as nothing had appealed to him in the midst of theeffeminate civilization of the great cities he had visited. Herewas a life that excelled even that of the jungle, for here hemight have the society of men--real men whom he could honor andrespect, and yet be near to the wild nature that he loved.In his head revolved an idea that when he had completed hismission he would resign and return to live for the remainderof his life with the tribe of Kadour ben Saden.

Then he turned his horse's head and rode slowly back to Bou Saada.

The front of the Hotel du Petit Sahara, where Tarzanstopped in Bou Saada, is taken up with the bar, two dining-rooms, and the kitchens. Both of the dining-rooms opendirectly off the bar, and one of them is reserved for the useof the officers of the garrison. As you stand in the barroomyou may look into either of the dining-rooms if you wish.

It was to the bar that Tarzan repaired after speedingKadour ben Saden and his party on their way. It was yetearly in the morning, for Kadour ben Saden had elected toride far that day, so that it happened that when Tarzanreturned there were guests still at breakfast.

As his casual glance wandered into the officers' dining-room, Tarzan saw something which brought a look of interestto his eyes. Lieutenant Gernois was sitting there, and asTarzan looked a white-robed Arab approached and, bending,whispered a few words into the lieutenant's ear. Then hepassed on out of the building through another door.

In itself the thing was nothing, but as the man had stoopedto speak to the officer, Tarzan had caught sight of somethingwhich the accidental parting of the man's burnoose hadrevealed--he carried his left arm in a sling.