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and screaming madly at the top of his lungs, he dashed headlong up the winding

street.

Two women and several men had stood looking on at the cruel attack. They were

at too great a distance for the Europeans to know whether their facial expressions

portrayed pity or rage, but be that as it may, none offered to interfere.

A few yards farther on a hideous hag leaned from a second story window where

she laughed and jibbered and made horrid grimaces at all who passed her.

Others went their ways apparently attending to whatever duties called them, as

soberly as the inhabitants of any civilized community.

God," muttered Smith-Oldwick, "what an awful place!"

The girl turned suddenly toward him. "You still have your pistol?" she asked him.

Yes," he replied. "I tucked it inside my shirt. They did not search me and it was

too dark for them to see whether I carried any weapons or not. So I hid it in the

hope that I might get through with it."

She moved closer to him and took hold of his hand. "Save one cartridge for me,

please?" she begged.

Smith-Oldwick looked down at her and blinked his eyes very rapidly. An

unfamiliar and disconcerting moisture had come into them. He had realized, of

course, how bad a plight was theirs but somehow it had seemed to affect him

only: it did not seem possible that anyone could harm this sweet and beautiful

girl.

And that she should have to be destroyed--destroyed by him! It was too hideous:

it was unbelievable, unthinkable! If he had been filled with apprehension before,

he was doubly perturbed now.

"I don't believe I could do it, Bertha," he said.

Not even to save me from something worse?" she asked.

He shook his head dismally. "I could never do it," he replied.

The street that they were following suddenly opened upon a wide avenue, and

before them spread a broad and beautiful lagoon, the quiet surface of which

mirrored the clear cerulean of the sky. Here the aspect of all their surroundings

changed. The buildings were higher and much more pretentious in design and

ornamentation. The street itself was paved in mosaics of barbaric but stunningly

beautiful design. In the ornamentation of the buildings there was considerable

color and a great deal of what appeared to be gold leaf. In all the decorations

183

Tarzan the Untamed