so without further hesitation the ape-man
lowered his body through the aperture and was about to drop
when his foot came in contact with the rung of a ladder, which he
immediately took advantage of to descend to the floor of the room
below.

Here, all was almost total darkness until his eyes became accustomed
to the interior, the darkness of which was slightly alleviated
by the reflected light from a distant street flare which shone
intermittently through the narrow windows fronting the thoroughfare.
Finally, assured that the apartment was unoccupied, Tarzan sought
for a stairway to the ground floor. This he found in a dark hallway
upon which the room opened--a flight of narrow stone steps leading
downward toward the street. Chance favored him so that he reached
the shadows of the arcade without encountering any of the inmates
of the house.

Once on the street he was not at a loss as to the direction in which
he wished to go, for he had tracked the two Europeans practically
to the gate, which he felt assured must have given them entry to
the city. His keen sense of direction and location made it possible
for him to judge with considerable accuracy the point within the
city where he might hope to pick up the spoor of those whom he
sought.

The first need, however, was to discover a street paralleling the
northern wall along which he could make his way in the direction of
the gate he had seen from the forest. Realizing that his greatest
hope of success lay in the boldness of his operations he moved off
in the direction of the nearest street flare without making any
other attempt at concealment than keeping in the shadows of the
arcade, which he judged would draw no particular attention to him
in that he saw other pedestrians doing likewise. The few he passed
gave him no heed, and he had almost reached the nearest intersection
when he saw several men wearing yellow tunics identical to that
which he had taken from his prisoner.

They were coming directly toward him and the ape-man saw that should
he continue on he would meet them directly at the intersection
of the two streets in the full light of the flare. His first
inclination was to go steadily on, for personally he had no objection
to chancing a scrimmage with them; but a sudden recollection of the
girl, possibly a helpless prisoner in the hands of these people,
caused him to seek some other and less hazardous plan of action.

He had almost emerged from the sh