The Fight in the Desert As the three squatted upon the roof above the quarters of the Ouled-Nails they heard the angry cursing of the Arabs in the room beneath.Abdul translated from time to time to Tarzan.
"They are berating those in the street below now," said Abdul, "for permitting us to escape so easily.Those in the street say that we did not come that way--that we are still within the building, and that those above, being too cowardly to attack us, are attempting to deceive them into believing that we have escaped.In a moment they will have fighting of their own to attend to if they continue their brawling."Presently those in the building gave up the search, and returned to the cafe.A few remained in the street below, smoking and talking.
Tarzan spoke to the girl, thanking her for the sacrifice she had made for him, a total stranger.
"I liked you," she said simply."You were unlike the others who 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 return to the cafe.Can you even remain with safety in Sidi Aissa?""Tomorrow it will be forgotten," she replied."But I should be glad if it might be that I need never return to this or another 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 stolen in 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 mine own people.They are very far to the south.They never come to Sidi Aissa.""You would like to return to your people?" asked Tarzan.
"Then I shall promise to see you safely so far as Bou Saada at least.There we can doubtless arrange with the commandant to send you the rest of the way.""Oh, m'sieur," she cried, "how can I ever repay you! You cannot really mean that you will do so much for a poor Ouled-Nail.But my father can reward you, and he will, for is he not a great sheik? He is Kadour ben Saden.""Kadour ben Saden!" ejaculated Tarzan."Why, Kadour ben Saden is in Sidi Aissa this very night.He dined with 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 distinguishable upon the still night air.Tarzan could not understand the words, 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 offered money for your slaying lay in the house of Akmed din Soulef with a broken wrist, but that he had offered a still greater reward if some would lay in wait for you upon the road 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--him and another; and the two went out into the inner court after talking with this girl here.It was they who attacked and fired upon us, as we came out of the cafe.Why do they wish to 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 had come to his mind, while it seemed the only reasonable solution of the mystery, appeared at the same time quite improbable.
Presently the men in the street went away.The courtyard and the cafe were deserted.Cautiously Tarzan lowered himself to the sill of the girl's window.The room was empty.
He returned to the roof and let Abdul down, then he lowered the girl to the arms of the waiting Arab.
From the window Abdul dropped the short distance to the street below, while Tarzan took the girl in his arms and leaped down as he had done on so many other occasions in his own forest with a burden in his arms.A little cry of alarm was startled from the girl's lips, but Tarzan landed in the street with but an imperceptible jar, and lowered her in safety to 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 see him," said the girl."He lives in a spur of the mountains north of us, and comes down from his lair at night to rob my father's DOUAR.With a single blow of his mighty paw he crushes the skull of a bull, and woe betide the belated wayfarer who meets EL ADREA abroad at night."Without further mishap they reached the hotel.The sleepy landlord objected strenuously to instituting a search for Kadour ben Saden until the following morning, but a piece of gold put a different aspect on the matter, so that a few moments later a servant had started to make the rounds of the lesser native hostelries where it might be expected that a desert sheik would find congenial associations.Tarzan had felt it necessary to find the girl's father that night, for fear he might start on his homeward journey too early in the morning to be intercepted.
They had waited perhaps half an hour when the messenger returned with Kadour ben Saden.The old sheik entered the room with a questioning expression upon his proud face.
"Monsieur has done me the honor to--" he commenced, and then his eyes fell upon the girl.With outstretched arms he crossed the room to meet her."My daughter!" he cried.
"Allah is merciful!" and tears dimmed the martial eyes of the old warrior.
When the story of her abduction and her final rescue had been told to Kadour ben Saden he extended his hand to Tarzan.
"All that is Kadour ben Saden's is thine, my friend, even to his life," he said very simply, but Tarzan knew that those were no idle words.