utenant Gernois, who was at present stationed
at Sidibel-Abbes, had recently been attached to the general staff,
where certain information of great military value had come into his
possession in the ordinary routine of his duties. It was this
information which the government suspected the great power was
bartering for with the officer.

It was at most but a vague hint dropped by a certain notorious
Parisienne in a jealous mood that had caused suspicion to rest upon the
lieutenant. But general staffs are jealous of their secrets, and
treason so serious a thing that even a hint of it may not be safely
neglected. And so it was that Tarzan had come to Algeria in the guise
of an American hunter and traveler to keep a close eye upon Lieutenant
Gernois.

He had looked forward with keen delight to again seeing his beloved
Africa, but this northern aspect of it was so different from his
tropical jungle home that he might as well have been back in Paris for
all the heart thrills of homecoming that he experienced. At Oran he
spent a day wandering through the narrow, crooked alleys of the Arab
quarter enjoying the strange, new sights. The next day found him at
Sidi-bel-Abbes, where he presented his letters of introduction to both
civil and military authorities--letters which gave no clew to the real
significance of his mission.

Tarzan possessed a sufficient command of English to enable him to pass
among Arabs and Frenchmen as an American, and that was all that was
required of it. When he met an Englishman he spoke French in order
that he might not betray himself, but occasionally talked in English to
foreigners who understood that tongue, but could not note the slight
imperfections of accent and pronunciation that were his.

Here he became acquainted with many of the French officers, and soon
became a favorite among them. He met Gernois, whom he found to be a
taciturn, dyspeptic-looking man of about forty, having little or no
social intercourse with his fellows.

For a month nothing of moment occurred. Gernois apparently had no
visitors, nor did he on his occasional visits to the town hold
communication with any who might even by the wildest flight of
imagination be construed into secret agents of a foreign power. Tarzan
was beginning to hope that, after all, the rumor might have been false,
when suddenly Gernois was ordered to Bou Saada in the Petit Sahara far
to the south.

A company of SPAHIS and three officers