For a few moments there came no sound from out of the surrounding
blackness. Tarzan could not tell whether the Arabs, satisfied with
their losses, had given up the fight, or were waiting farther along the
road to waylay them as they proceeded on toward Bou Saada. But he was
not left long in doubt, for now all from one direction came the sound
of a new charge. But scarcely had the first gun spoken ere a dozen
shots rang out behind the Arabs. There came the wild shouts of a new
party to the controversy, and the pounding of the feet of many horses
from down the road to Bou Saada.

The Arabs did not wait to learn the identity of the oncomers. With a
parting volley as they dashed by the position which Tarzan and Abdul
were holding, they plunged off along the road toward Sidi Aissa. A
moment later Kadour ben Saden and his men dashed up.

The old sheik was much relieved to find that neither Tarzan nor Abdul
had received a scratch. Not even had their horses been wounded. They
sought out the two men who had fallen before Tarzan's shots, and,
finding that both were dead, left them where they lay.

"Why did you not tell me that you contemplated ambushing those
fellows?" asked the sheik in a hurt tone. "We might have had them all
if the seven of us had stopped to meet them."

"Then it would have been useless to stop at all," replied Tarzan, "for
had we simply ridden on toward Bou Saada they would have been upon us
presently, and all could have been engaged. It was to prevent the
transfer of my own quarrel to another's shoulders that Abdul and I
stopped off to question them. Then there is your daughter--I could not
be the cause of exposing her needlessly to the marksmanship of six men."

Kadour ben Saden shrugged his shoulders. He did not relish having been
cheated out of a fight.

The little battle so close to Bou Saada had drawn out a company of
soldiers. Tarzan and his party met them just outside the town. The
officer in charge halted them to learn the significance of the shots.

"A handful of marauders," replied Kadour ben Saden. "They attacked two
of our number who had dropped behind, but when we returned to them the
fellows soon dispersed. They left two dead. None of my party was
injured."

This seemed to satisfy the officer, and after taking the names of the
party he marched his men on toward the scene of the skirmish to bring
back the dead men for purposes of identification, if possible.

Two d