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That was all brief but explicit. Tarzan arranged to leave Bou Saada early the next morning. Then he started for the garrison to see Captain Gerard, whom the hotel man had told him had returned with his detachment the previous day. He found the officer in his quarters. He was filled with surprise and pleasure at seeing Tarzan alive and well.
And in a little while she would be married to one of these swarthy warriors, and there would be an end to their friendship. So he decided against the sheik's proposal, though he remained a week as his guest. When he left, Kadour ben Saden and fifty white-robed warriors rode with him to Bou Saada.
In addition to Tarzan, Abdul, the sheik, and his daughter were four of the wild plainsmen of the sheik's tribe who had accompanied him upon the trip to Sidi Aissa. Thus, seven guns strong, they entertained little fear of attack by day, and if all went well they should reach Bou Saada before nightfall.
The effect of his remark upon him, however, might tend to prove his connection with, or knowledge of, certain recent happenings. Tarzan saw a dull red creep up from beneath Gernois' collar. He was satisfied, and quickly changed the subject. When the column rode south from Bou Saada the next morning there were half a dozen Arabs bringing up the rear.
"We might have had them all if the seven of us had stopped to meet them." "Then it would have been useless to stop at all," replied Tarzan, "for had we simply ridden on toward Bou Saada they would have been upon us presently, and all could have been engaged. It was to prevent the transfer of my own quarrel to another's shoulders that Abdul and I stopped off to question them.
We shall remain hidden here and give an account of ourselves to these gentlemen when they appear." They drew in their horses and dismounted. The others riding ahead were already out of sight in the darkness. Beyond them shone the lights of Bou Saada. Tarzan removed his rifle from its boot and loosened his revolver in its holster.
In his head revolved an idea that when he had completed his mission he would resign and return to live for the remainder of 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 Tarzan stopped in Bou Saada, is taken up with the bar, two dining-rooms, and the kitchens.
No, he had seen no party of six horsemen riding from the direction of Djelfa. There were other oases scattered about possibly they had been journeying to one of these. Then there were the marauders in the mountains above they often rode north to Bou Saada in small parties, and even as far as Aumale and Bouira.
There came the wild shouts of a new party to the controversy, and the pounding of 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 which Tarzan and Abdul were holding, they plunged off along the road toward Sidi Aissa. A moment later Kadour ben Saden and his men dashed up.
Mechanically Gernois returned the salute, but those terrible, wide eyes followed the horseman, expressionless except for horror. It was as though a dead man looked upon a ghost. At Sidi Aissa Tarzan met a French officer with whom he had become acquainted on the occasion of his recent sojourn in the town. "You left Bou Saada early?" questioned the officer.
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