The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-06-11

w ChkdSt III the SklTIulSi
with the white men. so that 1t was
quite late when all were in the village
and the dance Of death commenced to
circle around the doomed officer.
Half fainting from pain and exhaus-
ton. D'Arnot watched what seemed
but a vagary of delirium or some hor-
rid nightmare from which he must
soon awake. He closed his eyes and
held his teeth firm set. He would not
cry out.
He was a soldier Of France. and he
would teach these beasts how an otii-
Ger and a gentleman died
TarZan of the apes needed no inter
prefer TO translate the story of those
distant shots. With Jane Porter's
kisses still warm upon his lips he was
swinging with incredible rapidity
through the forest trees straight to-
ward the village OF Mbonga.
He was not interested in the loca-
ton of the encounter. for he Judged
that that would oon be over. Those
who were killed he could not aid: those
who escaped would not need his as
~sistance.
1t was to those who had neither been
killed nor escaped that he FASTENED.
And he knew that he could find them
by the great post in the center of
Mbonga'S village.
Many times had TarZan seen Mbon-
gas black raiding parties return from
the northward with prisoners, and al
ways were the same scenes enacted
about that grim stake. beneath the
flaring light Of many fires.
Tarzan had looked with complacency
upon their former orgies. only occa-
sionally interfering for the pleasure OF
batting the blacks. But heretofore
their victims had been men of their
own color. Tonight it was different.
| White e men of Tarzan'S own
race. might be wen now suffering the
agonieS of torture.
On he sped. In a few minutes he
swung into the trees above MbOnga's
village. All, he was not quite too late.
The figure at the stake was very still.
Tarzan knew their customs. The
deathblow had been struck. He COULD
tell almost to a minute how far the
dance had gone.
In another instant Mbonga's knife
would sever one of the victims ears.
That would mark the beginning of the
end, for very shortly after only a
writing mass of mutilated flesh would
remain.
The stake stood forty feet from the
nearest tree. Tarzan coiled his rope.
Then there rose suddenly above the
fiendish cries of the dancing demons
the awful challenge Of the ape man.
The dancers halted as though turned
to stone. The rope sped with a sing
ing whir high above the heads Of the
blacks. It was quite invisible in the
flaring lights Of the campfires.
D'Arnot opened his eyes.
A huge black, standing directly be-
fore him, lunged backward as though
felled by an invisible hand.
Struggling and shrieking, his body,
rolling from side to side. moved quick
ly toward the shadows beneath the
trees. The blacks, their eyes protrud-
ing in horror, watched s~pellbound.
Once beneath the trees the body rose
straight into the air, and as 1t disap-
peared into the foliage above the ter
rified negroes, screaming with fright,
broke into a mad race for the village
gate.
D'Arnot was left alone. He was a
brave man, but he had felt the short
hairs bristle upon the nape OF his
neck when that uncanny cry rose upon
the air.
As he watched the spot where the
body had entered the tree 10 heard
the sounds Of movement there. The
branches swayed as though under the
weight of a mans body. There was a
crash, and the black came sprawling to
earth again, to lie very quietly where
he had fallen.
Immediately after him came a white
body. but this one alighted erect.
D'Arnot saw a clean limbed young
giant emerge from the shadows into
the freight and come quickly toward
him.
What could it mean? Who could 1t
be? Some new creature Of torture and
destruction doubtless.
D'Arnot waited. His eyes never
left the face of the advancing man.
The frank. clear eyes did not wa0er
beneath his fixed gaze.
D'Arnot was treasured, but still
without much hope, though he felt
that that face could not mask a cruel
heart.
Without a word Tarzan Of the apes
cut the bonds which held the French
man. Weak from suffering and loss Of
blood, he would have fallen but for
the strong arm that caught him.
He felt himself lifted from the
ground.
There was a sensation as Of flying,
and then he lost consciousness.
When dawn broke upon the little
camp Of Frenchmen In the heart Of
the jungle it found a sad and disheart-
ened group.
AS soon as it was light enough to see
their surroundings Lieutenant Char
pentier sent men in groups OF three in
several directions to locate the trail.
and I'm ten minutes il was found. and