Waziri's warriors marched at a rapid trot through thejungle in the direction of the village. For a few minutes,the sharp cracking of guns ahead warned them to haste,but finally the reports dwindled to an occasional shot,presently ceasing altogether. Nor was this less ominousthan the rattle of musketry, for it suggested but a singlesolution to the little band of rescuers--that the illygarrisoned village had already succumbed to the onslaughtof a superior force.

The returning hunters had covered a little more thanthree miles of the five that had separated them from thevillage when they met the first of the fugitives who hadescaped the bullets and clutches of the foe. There were adozen women, youths, and girls in the party, and so excitedwere they that they could scarce make themselves understoodas they tried to relate to Waziri the calamity that hadbefallen his people.

"They are as many as the leaves of the forest," cried oneof the women, in attempting to explain the enemy's force."There are many Arabs and countless Manyuema, and theyall have guns. They crept close to the village before weknew that they were about, and then, with many shouts,they rushed in upon us, shooting down men, and women,and children. Those of us who could fled in all directionsinto the jungle, but more were killed. I do not know whetherthey took any prisoners or not--they seemed only bentupon killing us all. The Manyuema called us many names,saying that they would eat us all before they left ourcountry--that this was our punishment for killing theirfriends last year. I did not hear much, for I ran away quickly."

The march toward the village was now resumed, moreslowly and with greater stealth, for Waziri knew that it wastoo late to rescue--their only mission could be one of revenge.Inside the next mile a hundred more fugitives were met.There were many men among these, and so the fightingstrength of the party was augmented.

Now a dozen warriors were sent creeping ahead to reconnoiter.Waziri remained with the main body, which advanced in a thinline that spread in a great crescent through the forest.By the chief's side walked Tarzan.

Presently one of the scouts returned. He had come withinsight of the village.

"They are all within the palisade," he whispered.

"Good!" said Waziri. "We shall rush in upon them andslay them all," and he made ready to send word along theline that they were to halt at the edge of the clearing untilthey saw him rush toward the village--then all were to follow.

"Wait!" cautioned Tarzan. "If there are even fifty gunswithin the palisade we shall be repulsed and slaughtered.Let me go alone through the trees, so that I may look downupon them from above, and see just how many there be, andwhat chance we might have were we to charge. It were foolishto lose a single man needlessly if there be no hope of success.I have an idea that we can accomplish more by cunning thanby force. Will you wait, Waziri?"

"Yes," said the old chief. "Go!"

So Tarzan sprang into the trees and disappeared in thedirection of the village. He moved more cautiously than washis wont, for he knew that men with guns could reach himquite as easily in the treetops as on the ground. And whenTarzan of the Apes elected to adopt stealth, no creature inall the jungle could move so silently or so completely effacehimself from the sight of an enemy.

In five minutes he had wormed his way to the great treethat overhung the palisade at one end of the village, andfrom his point of vantage looked down upon the savagehorde beneath. He counted fifty Arabs and estimated thatthere were five times as many Manyuema. The latter weregorging themselves upon food and, under the very noses oftheir white masters, preparing the gruesome feast which is thePIECE DE RESISTANCE that follows a victory in which thebodies of their slain enemies fall into their horrid hands.

The ape-man saw that to charge that wild horde, armedas they were with guns, and barricaded behind the lockedgates of the village, would be a futile task, and so hereturned to Waziri and advised him to wait; that he, Tarzan,had a better plan.

But a moment before one of the fugitives had related toWaziri the story of the atrocious murder of the old chief'swife, and so crazed with rage was the old man that he castdiscretion to the winds. Calling his warriors about him, hecommanded them to charge, and, with brandishing spearsand savage yells, the little force of scarcely more than ahundred dashed madly toward the village gates. Before theclearing had been half crossed the Arabs opened up awithering fire from behind the palisade.

With the first volley Waziri fell. The speed of thechargers slackened. Another volley brought down a halfdozen more. A few reached the barred gates, only to be shotin their tracks, without the ghost of a chance to gain theinside of the palisade, and then the whole attack crumpled,and the remaining warriors scampered back into the forest.As they ran the raiders opened the gates, rushing after them,to complete the day's work with the utter extermination ofthe tribe. Tarzan had been among the last to turn back towardthe forest, and now, as he ran slowly, he turned from time totime to speed a well-aimed arrow into the body of a pursuer.

Once within the jungle, he found a little knot of determinedblacks waiting to give battle to the oncoming horde,but Tarzan cried to them to scatter, keeping out ofharm's way until they could gather in force after dark.

"Do as I tell you," he urged, "and I will lead you tovictory over these enemies of yours. Scatter through theforest, picking up as many stragglers as you can find, and atnight, if you think that you have been followed, come byroundabout ways to the spot where we killed the elephants today.Then I will explain my plan, and you will find that it is good.You cannot hope to pit your puny strength and simple weaponsagainst the numbers and the guns of the Arabs and the Manyuema."

They finally assented. "When you scatter," explained Tarzan,in conclusion, "your foes will have to scatter to follow you,and so it may happen that if you are watchful you can dropmany a Manyuema with your arrows from behind some great trees."

They had barely time to hasten away farther into the forestbefore the first of the raiders had crossed the clearing andentered it in pursuit of them.

Tarzan ran a short distance along the ground before hetook to the trees. Then he raced quickly to the upper terrace,there doubling on his tracks and making his way rapidlyback toward the village. Here he found that every Arab andManyuema had joined in the pursuit, leaving the villagedeserted except for the chained prisoners and a single guard.

The sentry stood at the open gate, looking in the directionof the forest, so that he did not see the agile giant thatdropped to the ground at the far end of the village street.With drawn bow the ape-man crept stealthily toward hisunsuspecting victim. The prisoners had already discoveredhim, and with wide eyes filled with wonder and with hopethey watched their would-be rescuer. Now he halted not tenpaces from the unconscious Manyuema. The shaft wasdrawn back its full length at the height of the keen grayeye that sighted along its polished surface. There was asudden twang as the brown fingers released their hold, andwithout a sound the raider sank forward upon his face, awooden shaft transfixing his heart and protruding a footfrom his black chest.

Then Tarzan turned his attention to the fifty women andyouths chained neck to neck on the long slave chain.There was no releasing of the ancient padlocks in the time thatwas left him, so the ape-man called to them to follow him asthey were, and, snatching the gun and cartridge belt from thedead sentry, he led the now happy band out through the villagegate and into the forest upon the far side of the clearing.

It was a slow and arduous march, for the slave chain was newto these people, and there were many delays as one of theirnumber would stumble and fall, dragging others down with her.Then, too, Tarzan had been forced to make a wide detour toavoid any possibility of meeting with returning raiders.He was partially guided by occasional shots whichindicated that the Arab horde was still in touch with thevillagers; but he knew that if they would but follow hisadvice there would be but few casualties other than on theside of the marauders.

Toward dusk the firing ceased entirely, and Tarzan knewthat the Arabs had all returned to the village. He couldscarce repress a smile of triumph as he thought of their rageon discovering that their guard had been killed and theirprisoners taken away. Tarzan had wished that he might havetaken some of the great store of ivory the village contained,solely for the purpose of still further augmenting the wrathof his enemies; but he knew that that was not necessary forits salvation, since he already had a plan mapped out whichwould effectually prevent the Arabs leaving the country witha single tusk. And it would have been cruel to have needlesslyburdened these poor, overwrought women with the extraweight of the heavy ivory.

It was after midnight when Tarzan, with his slow-movingcaravan, approached the spot where the elephants lay.Long before they reached it they had been guided by thehuge fire the natives had built in the center of a hastilyimprovised BOMA, partially for warmth and partially tokeep off chance lions.

When they had come close to the encampment Tarzancalled aloud to let them know that friends were coming.It was a joyous reception the little party received when theblacks within the BOMA saw the long file of fettered friendsand relatives enter the firelight. These had all been given upas lost forever, as had Tarzan as well, so that the happy blackswould have remained awake all night to feast on elephantmeat and celebrate the return of their fellows, had notTarzan insisted that they take what sleep they could, againstthe work of the coming day.

At that, sleep was no easy matter, for the women whohad lost their men or their children in the day's massacreand battle made night hideous with their continued wailingand howling. Finally, however, Tarzan succeeded in silencingthem, on the plea that their noise would attract the Arabs totheir hiding-place, when all would be slaughtered.

When dawn came Tarzan explained his plan of battle tothe warriors, and without demur one and all agreed that itwas the safest and surest way in which to rid themselves oftheir unwelcome visitors and be revenged for the murder oftheir fellows.

First the women and children, with a guard of sometwenty old warriors and youths, were started southward, tobe entirely out of the zone of danger. They had instructionsto erect temporary shelter and construct a protecting BOMAof thorn bush; for the plan of campaign which Tarzan hadchosen was one which might stretch out over many days,or even weeks, during which time the warriors would notreturn to the new camp.

Two hours after daylight a thin circle of black warriorssurrounded the village. At intervals one was perched highin the branches of a tree which could overlook the palisade.Presently a Manyuema within the village fell, pierced by asingle arrow. There had been no sound of attack--none ofthe hideous war-cries or vainglorious waving of menacingspears that ordinarily marks the attack of savages--just asilent messenger of death from out of the silent forest.

The Arabs and their followers were thrown into a finerage at this unprecedented occurrence. They ran for thegates, to wreak dire vengeance upon the foolhardy perpetratorof the outrage; but they suddenly realized that they didnot know which way to turn to find the foe. As they stooddebating with many angry shouts and much gesticulating,one of the Arabs sank silently to the ground in their verymidst--a thin arrow protruding from his heart.

Tarzan had placed the finest marksmen of the tribe in thesurrounding trees, with directions never to reveal themselveswhile the enemy was faced in their direction. As a blackreleased his messenger of death he would slink behindthe sheltering stem of the tree he had selected, nor wouldhe again aim until a watchful eye told him that none waslooking toward his tree.

Three times the Arabs started across the clearing in thedirection from which they thought the arrows came, buteach time another arrow would come from behind to takeits toll from among their number. Then they would turn andcharge in a new direction. Finally they set out upon adetermined search of the forest, but the blacks meltedbefore them, so that they saw no sign of an enemy.

But above them lurked a grim figure in the dense foliageof the mighty trees--it was Tarzan of the Apes, hovering overthem as if he had been the shadow of death. Presently aManyuema forged ahead of his companions; there was noneto see from what direction death came, and so it camequickly, and a moment later those behind stumbled overthe dead body of their comrade--the inevitable arrow piercingthe still heart.

It does not take a great deal of this manner of warfare toget upon the nerves of white men, and so it is little to bewondered at that the Manyuema were soon panic-stricken.Did one forge ahead an arrow found his heart; did one lagbehind he never again was seen alive; did one stumble toone side, even for a bare moment from the sight of his fellows,he did not return--and always when they came uponthe bodies of their dead they found those terrible arrowsdriven with the accuracy of superhuman power straightthrough the victim's heart. But worse than all else was thehideous fact that not once during the morning had they seenor heard the slightest sign of an enemy other than thepitiless arrows.

When finally they returned to the village it was no better.Every now and then, at varying intervals that were maddeningin the terrible suspense they caused, a man would plungeforward dead. The blacks besought their masters to leavethis terrible place, but the Arabs feared to take up the marchthrough the grim and hostile forest beset by this new andterrible enemy while laden with the great store of ivory theyhad found within the village; but, worse yet, they hated toleave the ivory behind.

Finally the entire expedition took refuge within the thatchedhuts--here, at least, they would be free from the arrows.Tarzan, from the tree above the village, had marked the hutinto which the chief Arabs had gone, and, balancing himselfupon an overhanging limb, he drove his heavy spear withall the force of his giant muscles through the thatched roof.A howl of pain told him that it had found a mark.With this parting salute to convince them that there was nosafety for them anywhere within the country, Tarzan returnedto the forest, collected his warriors, and withdrew a mileto the south to rest and eat. He kept sentries in severaltrees that commanded a view of the trail toward thevillage, but there was no pursuit.

An inspection of his force showed not a single casualty--noteven a minor wound; while rough estimates of the enemies'loss convinced the blacks that no fewer than twentyhad fallen before their arrows. They were wild with elation,and were for finishing the day in one glorious rush upon thevillage, during which they would slaughter the last oftheir foemen. They were even picturing the various torturesthey would inflict, and gloating over the suffering of theManyuema, for whom they entertained a peculiar hatred,when Tarzan put his foot down flatly upon the plan.

"You are crazy!" he cried. "I have shown you the onlyway to fight these people. Already you have killed twentyof them without the loss of a single warrior, whereas,yesterday, following your own tactics, which you would nowrenew, you lost at least a dozen, and killed not a singleArab or Manyuema. You will fight just as I tell you to fight,or I shall leave you and go back to my own country."

They were frightened when he threatened this, andpromised to obey him scrupulously if he would but promisenot to desert them.

"Very well," he said. "We shall return to the elephantBOMA for the night. I have a plan to give the Arabs a littletaste of what they may expect if they remain in our country,but I shall need no help. Come! If they suffer no more forthe balance of the day they will feel reassured, and therelapse into fear will be even more nerve-racking than asthough we continued to frighten them all afternoon."

So they marched back to their camp of the previous night, and,lighting great fires, ate and recounted the adventures of theday until long after dark. Tarzan slept until midnight, thenhe arose and crept into the Cimmerian blackness of the forest.An hour later he came to the edge of the clearing beforethe village. There was a camp-fire burning within the palisade.The ape-man crept across the clearing until he stood beforethe barred gates. Through the interstices he saw a lone sentrysitting before the fire.

Quietly Tarzan went to the tree at the end of the village street.He climbed softly to his place, and fitted an arrow to his bow.For several minutes he tried to sight fairly upon the sentry,but the waving branches and flickering firelight convincedhim that the danger of a miss was too great--he must touchthe heart full in the center to bring the quiet and suddendeath his plan required.

He had brought, besides, his bow, arrows, and rope, thegun he had taken the previous day from the other sentry hehad killed. Caching all these in a convenient crotch of thetree, he dropped lightly to the ground within the palisade,armed only with his long knife. The sentry's back was toward him.Like a cat Tarzan crept upon the dozing man. He was withintwo paces of him now--another instant and the knife wouldslide silently into the fellow's heart.

Tarzan crouched for a spring, for that is ever the quickestand surest attack of the jungle beast--when the man,warned, by some subtle sense, sprang to his feet and facedthe ape-man.