Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-12-10

I village and the dance Of death COM
msnced to circle around the doomed
officer.
Half fainting from pain and ex-
haustion, D'Arnot watched what
seemed but a vagary Of delirium or
some horrid 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 Off
Ger and a gentleman died.
Tarzan of the apes needed no in
terpreter to translate the story of
those distant shots. With Jane Por-
ter's kisses still warm upon his lips
he was swinging with incredible
rapidity through the forest trees
straight toward the village Of Mbon-
ga.
He was not interested in the loca-
ton of the encounter, for he judged
that that would soon be over. Those
who were killed he could not aid;
those who escaped would not need
his assistance.
It was to those who had neither
been killed nor escaped that he
hastened. 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
always were the same scenes enacted
about that grim stake, beneath the
faring light Of many fires.
Tarzan had looked with COM
placency upon their former orgies
only occasionally interfering for the
pleasure Of batting the blacks. But
heretofore their victims had been men
Of their own color. Tonight it was
different. White men, men Of Tar
zan's own race, might be even 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 not been struck. He
could tell almost to 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
writhing 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
fendish cries of the dancing demons
the awful challenge Of the ape man.
The dance halted as though turn
ed to stone. The rope sped with
singing whir high above the heads OF
the blacks. It was quite invisible In
the fiaring lights Of the campfires.
D'Arnot opened his eyes.
A huge black, standing directly be-
fore him, lunged backward as though
feiled by an invisible hand.
Struggling and shrieking, his body,
rolling from side to side, moved
quickly toward the shadows beneath
the trees. The blacks, their eyes pro-
truding in horror, watched SPELL
bound.
Once beneath the trees the body
rose straight into the air, and as 1t
disappeared into the foliage above
the terrified 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 up
on the air.
AS he watched the spot where the
body had entered the tree he 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 light and came 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 waver
beneath his fixed gaze.
DArnot was reassured, 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 sad and dis
heartened group.
AS soon as it was light enough to
see their surroundings Lieutenan;
Charpentier sent men in groups of
three in several directions to locate
the trail, and in ten minutes it was
found, and the expedition was hurry
ing back toward the beach.
1t was slow work, for they bore the
bodies of six dead men, two more
having succunbed during the night,
and several of those who were woun1-
ed required support to move even
very slowly.
Charpentier had decided to return
to camp for re-enforcements and then
make an attempt to track down tho