ng her out of the way paramount. He hoped to
overtake her before she reached Wilhelmstal and so he set out at
the swinging trot that he could hold for hours at a stretch without
apparent fatigue.
That the girl could hope to reach the town on foot in less than two
days seemed improbable, for it was a good thirty miles and part
of it hilly. Even as the thought crossed his mind he heard the
whistle of a locomotive to the east and knew that the railway was
in operation again after a shutdown of several days. If the train
was going south the girl would signal it if she had reached the
right of way. His keen ears caught the whining of brake shoes on
wheels and a few minutes later the signal blast for brakes off.
The train had stopped and started again and, as it gained headway
and greater distance, Tarzan could tell from the direction of the
sound that it was moving south.
The ape-man followed the trail to the railway where it ended
abruptly on the west side of the track, showing that the girl had
boarded the train, just as he thought. There was nothing now but
to follow on to Wilhelmstal, where he hoped to find Captain Fritz
Schneider, as well as the girl, and to recover his diamond-studded
locket.
It was dark when Tarzan reached the little hill town of Wilhelmstal.
He loitered on the outskirts, getting his bearings and trying to
determine how an almost naked white man might explore the village
without arousing suspicion. There were many soldiers about and
the town was under guard, for he could see a lone sentinel walking
his post scarce a hundred yards from him. To elude this one would
not be difficult; but to enter the village and search it would be
practically impossible, garbed, or un-garbed, as he was.
Creeping forward, taking advantage of every cover, lying flat and
motionless when the sentry's face was toward him, the ape-man at
last reached the sheltering shadows of an outhouse just inside the
lines. From there he moved stealthily from building to building
until at last he was discovered by a large dog in the rear of one of
the bungalows. The brute came slowly toward him, growling. Tarzan
stood motionless beside a tree. He could see a light in the bungalow
and uniformed men moving about and he hoped that the dog would not
bark. He did not; but he growled more savagely and, just at the
moment that the rear door of the bungalow opened and a man stepped
out, the animal charged.
He was a large dog, as large
|