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He shook the inanimate clay venomously. He growled and
roared hideously at the dead, insensate thing, and then
he dropped it and raised his head to look about in
search of some living victim upon which to wreak his
ill temper. His yellow eyes fastened themselves
balefully upon the figure of the girl, the bristling
lips raised, disclosing the grinning fangs. A terrific
roar broke from the savage throat, and the great beast
crouched to spring upon this new and helpless victim.
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r r
Quiet had fallen early upon the camp where Tarzan and
Werper lay securely bound. Two nervous sentries paced
their beats, their eyes rolling often toward the
impenetrable shadows of the gloomy jungle. The others
slept or tried to sleep--all but the ape-man. Silently
and powerfully he strained at the bonds which fettered
his wrists.
The muscles knotted beneath the smooth, brown skin of
his arms and shoulders, the veins stood out upon his
temples from the force of his exertions--a strand
parted, another and another, and one hand was free.
Then from the jungle came a low guttural, and the
ape-man became suddenly a silent, rigid statue, with ears
and nostrils straining to span the black void where his
eyesight could not reach.
Again came the uncanny sound from the thick verdure
beyond the camp. A sentry halted abruptly, straining
his eyes into the gloom. The kinky wool upon his head
stiffened and raised. He called to his comrade in a
hoarse whisper.
"Did you hear it?" he asked.
The other came closer, trembling.
"Hear what?"
Again was the weird sound repeated, followed almost
immediately by a similar and answering sound from the
camp. The sentries drew close together, watching the
black spot from which the voice seemed to come.
Trees overhung the boma at this point which was upon
the opposite side of the camp from them. They dared
not approach. Their terror even prevented them from
arousing their fellows--they could only stand in frozen
fear and watch for the fearsome apparition they
momentarily expected to see leap from the jungle.
Nor had they long to wait. A dim, bulky form dropped
lightly from the branches of a tree into the camp. At
sight of it one of the sentries recovered command of
his muscles and his voice. Screaming loudly to awaken
the sleeping camp, he leaped toward the flickering
watch fire and threw a mass of brush upon it.
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r r
The white officer and the black soldiers sprang from
their blankets. The flames leaped high upon the
rejuvenated fire, lighting the entire camp, and the
awakened men shrank back in superstitious terror from
the sight that met their frightened and astonished
vision.
A dozen huge and hairy forms loomed large beneath the
trees at the far side of the enclosure. The white
giant, one hand freed, had struggled to his knees and
was calling to the frightful, nocturnal visitors in a
hideous medley of bestial gutturals, barkings and
growlings.
Werper had managed to sit up. He, too, saw the savage
faces of the approaching anthropoids and scarcely knew
whether to be relieved or terror-stricken.
Growling, the great apes leaped forward toward Tarzan
and Werper. Chulk led them. The Belgian officer
called to his men to fire upon the intruders; but the
Negroes held back, filled as they were with
superstitious terror of the hairy treemen, and with the
conviction that the white giant who could thus summon
the beasts of the jungle to his aid was more than human.
Drawing his own weapon, the officer fired, and Tarzan
fearing the effect of the noise upon his really timid
friends called to them to hasten and fulfill his commands.
A couple of the apes turned and fled at the sound of
the firearm; but Chulk and a half dozen others waddled
rapidly forward, and, following the ape-man's
directions, seized both him and Werper and bore them
off toward the jungle.
By dint of threats, reproaches and profanity the
Belgian officer succeeded in persuading his trembling
command to fire a volley after the retreating apes. A
ragged, straggling volley it was, but at least one of
its bullets found a mark, for as the jungle closed
about the hairy rescuers, Chulk, who bore Werper across
one broad shoulder, staggered and fell.
In an instant he was up again; but the Belgian guessed
from his unsteady gait that he was hard hit. He lagged
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far behind the others, and it was several minutes after
they had halted at Tarzan's command before he came
slowly up to them, reeling from side to side, and at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]