TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
“If we can discern no hope of advantage through our own efforts,” replied Tarzan, “we must look elsewhere and await such favors of fortune as may come from without, either through the intervention of our friends beyond the palace grounds or from the carelessness of the enemy himself. I admit that just at present our case appears desperate, but even so I am not without hope; at least we may be cheered by the realization that whatever turn events may take it must be for the better, since nothing could be worse.”
“I do not agree with you,” said Metellus, pointing through the window. “See, they are setting up a small ballista in the garden. Presently our condition will be much worse than it is now.
“The walls appear substantial,” returned the ape-man. “Do you think they can batter them down, Praeclarus?”
“I doubt it,” feplied the Roman, “but every missile that comes through the window must take its toll, as we are so crowded here that all of us cannot get out of range.”
The legionaries that had been summoned to the throne-room had been held at the small doorway by a handful of gladiators and the defenders had been able to close and bar the stout oaken door. For a time there had been silence in the throne-room and no attempt was made to gain entrance to the room upon that side; while upon the garden side two or three attempts to rush the window had been thwarted, and now the legionaries held off while the small ballista was being dragged into place and trained upon the palace wall.
Dilecta having been placed in an angle of the room where she would be safest, Tarzan and his lieutenants watched the operations of the legionaries in the garden.
“They do not seem to be aiming directly at the window,” remarked Cassius Hasta.
“No,” said Praeclarus. “I rather think they intend making a breach in the wall through which a sufficient number of them can enter to overpower us.”
“If we could rush the ballista and take it,” mused Tarzan, “we could make it rather hot for them. Let us hold ourselves in readiness for that, if their missiles make it too hot for us
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