第104章 Out of the Niche.(2)

"The lions didn't seem to pay much attention to me and Iclimbed out of the place by way of a tree and through a win-dow into a room on the second floor. Had a little scrimmage there with a fellow and was hidden by one of their women in a hole in the wall. The loony thing then betrayed me to another bounder who happened in, but I found a way out and up onto the roof where I have been for quite some time now waiting for a chance to get down into the street without being seen. That's all I know, but I haven't the slightest idea in the world where to look for Miss Kircher.""Where were you going now?" asked Tarzan.

Smith-Oldwick hesitated. "I -- well, I couldn't do anything here alone and I was going to try to get out of the city and in some way reach the British forces east and bring help.""You couldn't do it," said Tarzan. "Even if you got through the forest alive you could never cross the desert country with-out food or water."

"What shall we do, then?" asked the Englishman.

"We will see if we can find the girl," replied the ape-man, and then, as though he had forgotten the presence of the Eng-lishman and was arguing to convince himself, "She may be a German and a spy, but she is a woman -- a white woman -- Ican't leave her here."

"But how are we going to find her?" asked the Englishman.

"I have followed her this far," replied Tarzan, "and unless I am greatly mistaken I can follow her still farther.""But I cannot accompany you in these clothes without ex-posing us both to detection and arrest," argued Smith-Oldwick.

"We will get you other clothes, then," said Tarzan.

"How?" asked the Englishman.

"Go back to the roof beside the city wall where I entered,"replied the ape-man with a grim smile, "and ask the naked dead man there how I got my disguise."Smith-Oldwick looked quickly up at his companion. "I have it," he exclaimed. "I know where there is a fellow who doesn't need his clothes anymore, and if we can get back on this roof I think we can find him and get his apparel without much resistance. Only a girl and a young fellow whom we could easily surprise and overcome.""What do you mean?" asked Tarzan. "How do you know that the man doesn't need his clothes any more.""I know he doesn't need them," replied the Englishman, "because I killed him.""Oh!" exclaimed the ape-man, "I see. I guess it might be easier that way than to tackle one of these fellows in the street where there is more chance of our being interrupted.""But how are we going to reach the roof again, after all?"queried Smith-Oldwick.

"The same way you came down," replied Tarzan. "This roof is low and there is a little ledge formed by the capital of each column; I noticed that when you descended. Some of the buildings wouldn't have been so easy to negotiate."Smith-Oldwick looked up toward the eaves of the low roof.

"It's not very high," he said, "but I am afraid I can't make it.

I'll try -- I've been pretty weak since a lion mauled me and the guards beat me up, and too, I haven't eaten since yester-day."

Tarzan thought a moment. "You've got to go with me," he said at last. "I can't leave you here. The only chance you have of escape is through me and I can't go with you now until we have found the girl.""I want to go with you," replied Smith-Oldwick. "I'm not much good now but at that two of us may be better than one.""All right," said Tarzan, "come on," and before the Eng-lishman realized what the other contemplated Tarzan had picked him up and thrown him across his shoulder. "Now, hang on," whispered the ape-man, and with a short run he clambered apelike up the front of the low arcade. So quickly and easily was it done that the Englishman scarcely had time to realize what was happening before he was deposited safely upon the roof.

"There," remarked Tarzan. "Now, lead me to the place you speak of."Smith-Oldwick had no difficulty in locating the trap in the roof through which he had escaped. Removing the cover the ape-man bent low, listening and sniffing. "Come," he said after a moment's investigation and lowered himself to the floor beneath. Smith-Oldwick followed him, and together the two crept through the darkness toward the door in the back wall of the niche in which the Englishman had been hidden by the girl. They found the door ajar and opening it Tarzan saw a streak of light showing through the hangings that sep-arated it from the alcove.

Placing his eye close to the aperture he saw the girl and the young man of which the Englishman had spoken seated on opposite sides of a low table upon which food was spread.

Serving them was a giant Negro and it was he whom the ape-man watched most closely. Familiar with the tribal idiosyn-crasies of a great number of African tribes over a considerable proportion of the Dark Continent, the Tarmangani at last felt reasonably assured that he knew from what part of Africa this slave had come, and the dialect of his people. There was, how-ever, the chance that the fellow had been captured in child-hood and that through long years of non-use his native lan-guage had become lost to him, but then there always had been an element of chance connected with nearly every event of Tarzan's life, so he waited patiently until in the performance of his duties the black man approached a little table which stood near the niche in which Tarzan and the Englishman hid.

As the slave bent over some dish which stood upon the table his ear was not far from the aperture through which Tarzan looked. Apparently from a solid wall, for the Negro had no knowledge of the existence of the niche, came to him in the tongue of his own people, the whispered words: "If you would return to the land of the Wamabo say nothing, but do as Ibid you."