There was no hesitation, there was no diminution in his speed as he
launched himself like a living projectile straight for the ugly back
of the Horib. With such force he struck the creature that it was half
stunned as he bore it to the ground. A sinewy arm encircled its neck
as Tarzan arose dragging the creature up with him. Turning quickly
and bending forward, Tarzan swung the body over his head and hurled
it violently to the ground, still retaining his hold about its neck.
Again and again he whipped the mighty body over his head and dashed it
to the gray earth, while the girl, wide-eyed with astonishment at this
exhibition of Herculean strength, looked on.
At last, satisfied that the creature was dead or stunned, Tarzan
released it. Quickly he appropriated its stone knife and picked up its
fallen lance, then he turned to Jana. "Come," he said, "there is but
one safe place for us," and lifting her to his shoulder he leaped to
the low hanging branch of a nearby tree. "Here, at least," he said,
"you will be safe from Horibs, for I doubt if any Gorobor can follow us
here."
"I always thought that there were no warriors like the warriors of
Zoram," said Jana, "but that was before I had known you and Jason;" nor
could she, as Tarzan well knew, have voiced a more sincere appreciation
of what he had done for her, for to the primitive woman there are no
men like her own men. "I wish," she continued sadly after a pause,
"that Jason had lived. He was a great man and a mighty warrior, but
above all he was a kind man. The men of Zoram are never cruel to their
women, but they are not always thoughtful and considerate. Jason seemed
always to think of my comfort before everything except my safety."
"You were very fond of him, were you not?" asked Tarzan.
The Red Flower of Zoram did not answer. There were tears in her eyes
and in her throat so that she could only nod her head.
Once in the trees, Tarzan had lowered Jana to her feet, presently
discovering that she could travel quite without assistance, as might
have been expected of one who could leap lightly from crag to crag upon
the dizzy slopes of Thipdars' heights. They moved without haste back
to the point where they had last seen Muviro, and his Waziri warriors,
but as the way took them down wind Tarzan could not hope to pick up
the scent spoor of his henchmen and so his ears were constantly upon
the alert for any slightest sound that might reveal their whereabouts.
Presently they were rewarded by the sound of footsteps hurrying through
the forest toward them.
The ape-man drew the girl behind the bole of a large tree and waited,
silent, motionless, for all footfalls are not the footfalls of friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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