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ecture of the wall itself was of uncompromising simplicity.
It was of a cream shade and appeared to be plastered and painted.
At its base was a line of well-tended shrubs and at some distance
towards its eastern extremity it was vine covered to the top.
As he stood in the shadow of the trail, his keen eyes taking in every
detail of the picture before him, he became aware of the approach
of a party in his rear and there was borne to him the scent of the
man and the lions whom he had so readily escaped. Taking to the
trees Tarzan moved a short distance to the west and, finding a
comfortable crotch at the edge of the forest where he could watch
the trail leading through the gardens to the city gate, he awaited
the return of his would-be captors. And soon they came--the strange
man followed by the pack of great lions. Like dogs they moved along
behind him down the trail among the gardens to the gate.
Here the man struck upon the panels of the door with the butt of
his spear, and when it opened in response to his signal he passed
in with his lions. Beyond the open door Tarzan, from his distant
perch, caught but a fleeting glimpse of life within the city, just
enough to indicate that there were other human creatures who abode
there, and then the door closed.
Through that door he knew that the girl and the man whom he sought
to succor had been taken into the city. What fate lay in store
for them or whether already it had been meted out to them he could
not even guess, nor where, within that forbidding wall, they were
incarcerated he could not know. But of one thing he was assured:
that if he were to aid them he could not do it from outside the
wall. He must gain entrance to the city first, nor did he doubt,
that once within, his keen senses would eventually reveal the
whereabouts of those whom he sought.
The low sun was casting long shadows across the gardens when Tarzan
saw the workers returning from the eastern field. A man came first,
and as he came he lowered little gates along the large ditch of
running water, shutting off the streams that had run between the rows
of growing plants; and behind him came other men carrying burdens
of fresh vegetables in great woven baskets upon their shoulders.
Tarzan had not realized that there had been so many men working in
the field, but now as he sat there at the close of the day he saw
a procession filing in from the east, bearing the tools and the
produce back into the cit
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