were to relieve another company
already stationed there. Fortunately one of the officers, Captain
Gerard, had become an excellent friend of Tarzan's, and so when the
ape-man suggested that he should embrace the opportunity of
accompanying him to Bou Saada, where he expected to find hunting, it
caused not the slightest suspicion.

At Bouira the detachment detrained, and the balance of the journey was
made in the saddle. As Tarzan was dickering at Bouira for a mount he
caught a brief glimpse of a man in European clothes eying him from the
doorway of a native coffeehouse, but as Tarzan looked the man turned
and entered the little, low-ceilinged mud hut, and but for a haunting
impression that there had been something familiar about the face or
figure of the fellow, Tarzan gave the matter no further thought.

The march to Aumale was fatiguing to Tarzan, whose equestrian
experiences hitherto had been confined to a course of riding lessons in
a Parisian academy, and so it was that he quickly sought the comforts
of a bed in the Hotel Grossat, while the officers and troops took up
their quarters at the military post.

Although Tarzan was called early the following morning, the company of
SPAHIS was on the march before he had finished his breakfast. He was
hurrying through his meal that the soldiers might not get too far in
advance of him when he glanced through the door connecting the dining
room with the bar.

To his surprise, he saw Gernois standing there in conversation with the
very stranger he had seen in the coffee-house at Bouira the day
previous. He could not be mistaken, for there was the same strangely
familiar attitude and figure, though the man's back was toward him.

As his eyes lingered on the two, Gernois looked up and caught the
intent expression on Tarzan's face. The stranger was talking in a low
whisper at the time, but the French officer immediately interrupted
him, and the two at once turned away and passed out of the range of
Tarzan's vision.

This was the first suspicious occurrence that Tarzan had ever witnessed
in connection with Gernois' actions, but he was positive that the men
had left the barroom solely because Gernois had caught Tarzan's eyes
upon them; then there was the persistent impression of familiarity
about the stranger to further augment the ape-man's belief that here at
length was something which would bear watching.

A moment later Tarzan entered the barroom, but the men had l