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That night Tarzan lay up under an overhanging shelf of rock. The next morning
he resumed his journey, stopping only long enough to make a kill and satisfy his
hunger. The other beasts of the wild eat and lie up; but Tarzan never let his belly
interfere with his plans. In this lay one of the greatest differences between the
ape-man and his fellows of the jungles and forests. The firing ahead rose and fell
during the day. He had noticed that it was highest at dawn and immediately after
dusk and that during the night it almost ceased. In the middle of the afternoon of
the second day he came upon troops moving up toward the front. They appeared
to be raiding parties, for they drove goats and cows along with them and there
were native porters laden with grain and other foodstuffs. He saw that these
natives were all secured by neck chains and he also saw that the troops were
composed of native soldiers in German uniforms. The officers were white men. No
one saw Tarzan, yet he was here and there about and among them for two hours.
He inspected the insignia upon their uniforms and saw that they were not the
same as that which he had taken from one of the dead soldiers at the bungalow
and then he passed on ahead of them, unseen in the dense bush. He had come
upon Germans and had not killed them; but it was because the killing of
Germans at large was not yet the prime motive of his existence--now it was to
discover the individual who slew his mate.
After he had accounted for him he would take up the little matter of slaying ALL
Germans who crossed his path, and he meant that many should cross it, for he
would hunt them precisely as professional hunters hunt the man-eaters.
As he neared the front lines the troops became more numerous. There were motor
trucks and ox teams and all the impedimenta of a small army and always there
were wounded men walking or being carried toward the rear. He had crossed the
railroad some distance back and judged that the wounded were being taken to it
for transportation to a base hospital and possibly as far away as Tanga on the
coast.
It was dusk when he reached a large camp hidden in the foothills of the Pare
Mountains. As he was approaching from the rear he found it but lightly guarded
and what sentinels there were, were not upon the alert, and so it was an easy
thing for him to enter after darkness had fallen and prowl about listening at the
backs of tents, searching for some clew to the slayer of his mate.
As he paused at the side of a tent before which sat a number of native soldiers he
caught a few words spoken in native dialect that riveted his attention instantly:
"
The Waziri fought like devils; but we are greater fighters and we killed them all.
When we were through the captain came and killed the woman. He stayed
outside and yelled in a very loud voice until all the men were killed.
Underlieutenant von Goss is braver--he came in and stood beside the door
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