Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-09
Tarxan and the Jewels of Opar
By EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

! ton of his hopes as had the rising
sum-.
II was a dispirited company which
went into camp, waterless and hungry
in the dense jungle. Attracted by the
horses, lions roared about the boma'
and to their hideous din was added the
shrill neighs of h terror-str1cken
casts they hunted.
There was little sleep for man or
beast, and the sentries were doubled
that there might be enough ON duty to
both guard against the sudden charge
of an overbold or overhungry lion,
and to keep the fire blazing, which
was NJ even more effectual barrier
against them than the thorny bona.
1t was well past midnight. and az
yet Jane Clayton. notwithstanding
that she had passed a sleepless night
the night before. had scarce more than
dozed. \ sense of impending danger
seemed TO hang like "a black pail over
the camp. The veteran troopers OF
the black emperor were and
i'll at ease. Abdul Mourak left his
blankets "a dozen times to pace rest.
lessly back and forth between the
tethered horses and the cracking fire.
The girl could see his great frame
silhouetted against the lurid glare OF
the flames, and she guessed from the
quick, nervous movements of the man
that he was afraid.
The roaring Of the lions rose in
sudden fury until The earth trembled
to the hideous chorus. The horses
shrilled their neiglhs Of terror as they
lay back upon their halter ropes in
their mad endeavors to break loose.
A trooper. Drawer than his fellows.
leaped among the kicking. plunginG,
fear.maddened beasts in a futile al.
tempt to quiet them.
A lion, large and fierce and courage
Gus, leaped limos to the bona. full
in the bright light from the fire. A
sentry raised his piece and fired. AMI
the little leaden pellet un%stoppered the
vitals OF hell upon the terror.stricken
camp.
The shot plowed a deep and painful
furrow in the lions side, arousing all
the bestial fury Of the little brain,
but abating not a whit of power and
vigor of the great body.
.Cnwounded, the bona and the flame
might have turned him back; but
now the pain and the rage wiped
caution from his mind, and with "a
loud and angry roar he topped the
barrier with an easy leap n vas
among the horses.
What had been p~andemonium be.
fore became now an indescribable
tumult OF hideous sound. The strick-
en- horse upon which the Hon leaped
shrieked out its terror and its agony.
Several about it broke their tethers
and plunged madly about the camp.
Men leaped from their blankets and
with guns ready ran toward the
picket-line. and then from the jungle
beyond the bona a dozen lions. en-.
boldered by the example Of their fel.
low, char ed fearlessly upon the camp.
'iingly nd in twOs n threes they
leaped the bona, until the little in
closure was filled with cursing men
and screaming horses battling for
their lives with the green-eyed devils
of the, jungle.
With the charge OF the first lion
ane Clayton had scrambled to her
feet. and row she stood horror-struck
at the scene of savag slaughter that
swirled and eddied about her. Once a
boiling horse knocked her down. and
a moment later u lion, leaping in pur.
suit of another terror-stricken am
nal, brushed her so closely that she
was apain thrown from her feet.
Amid the cracking of the rifles AMI
the growls of h carnivora rose the
death screams of stricken men and
horses as they were dragged down by
the bloodmad cats. The leaping car.
nivora. the %plunging horses. prevented
any concerted action by the AbyS-
sinians-it was every man for himself
and in the melee the defenseless
woman Mas either forgotten Cor ignor.
ed by her black captors.
CONTINUED TOMORROW