| 201 | 202 | 203 | 204 | 205 |
| 1 | 61 | 121 | 182 | 242 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
probable discovery. The roofs of the buildings varied in height but as the ceilings
were all low he found that he could easily travel along the roof tops and this he
did for some little distance, until he suddenly discovered just ahead of him
several figures reclining upon the roof of a near-by building.
He had noticed openings in each roof, evidently giving ingress to the apartments
below, and now, his advance cut off by those ahead of him, he decided to risk the
chance of reaching the street through the interior of one of the buildings.
Approaching one of the openings he leaned over the black hole and, listened for
sounds of life in the apartment below. Neither his ears nor his nose registered
evidence of the presence of any living creature in the immediate vicinity, and 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
203
Page
Quick Jump
|