TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
branches of the tree. The soldiers rushed forward, their eyes strained upward, but the quarry had vanished.
Sublatus was close upon their heels, “Quick!” he cried. “After him! A thousand denarii to the man who brings down the barbarian.”
“There he goes!” cried one, pointing.
“No,” cried another. “I saw him there among the foliage. I saw the branches move,” and he pointed in the opposite direction.
And in the meantime the ape-man moved swiftly through the trees along one side of the avenue, dropped to a low roof, crossed it and sprang into a tree that rose from an inner court, pausing there to listen for signs of pursuit. After the manner of a wild beast hunted through his native jungle, he moved as silently as the shadow of a shadow, so that now, although he crouched scarce twenty feet above them, the two people in the courtyard below him were unaware of his presence.
But Tarzan was not unaware of theirs and as he listened to the noise of the growing pursuit, that was spreading now in all directions through the city, he took note of the girl and the man in the garden beneath him. It was apparent that the man was wooing the maid, and Tarzan needed no knowledge of their spoken language to interpret the gestures, the glances, and the facial expressions of passionate pleading upon the part of the man or the cold aloofness of the girl.
Sometimes a tilt of her head presented a partial view of her profileto the ape-man and he guessed that she was very beautiful, but the face of the young man with her reminded him of the face of Pamba the rat.
It was evident that his courtship was not progressing to the liking of the youth and now there were evidences of anger in his tone. The girl rose haughtily and with a cold word tumed away, and then the man leaped to his feet from the bench upon which they had been sitting and seized her roughly by the arm. She turned surprised and angry eyes upon him and had half voiced a cry for help when the rat-faced man clapped a hand across her mouth and with his free arm dragged her into his embrace.
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