A company of SPAHIS and three officers were to relieve
another company already stationed there. Fortunately
one of the officers, Captain Gerard, had become an
excellent friend of Tarzan’s, and so when the
ape-man suggested that he should embrace the opportunity
of accompanying him to Bou Saada, where he expected
to find hunting, it caused not the slightest suspicion.
At Bouira the detachment detrained, and the balance
of the journey was made in the saddle. As Tarzan
was dickering at Bouira for a mount he caught a brief
glimpse of a man in European clothes eying him from
the doorway of a native coffeehouse, but as Tarzan
looked the man turned and entered the little, low-ceilinged
mud hut, and but for a haunting impression that there
had been something familiar about the face or figure
of the fellow, Tarzan gave the matter no further thought.
The march to Aumale was fatiguing to Tarzan, whose
equestrian experiences hitherto had been confined
to a course of riding lessons in a Parisian academy,
and so it was that he quickly sought the comforts
of a bed in the Hotel Grossat, while the officers and
troops took up their quarters at the military post.
Although Tarzan was called early the following morning,
the company of SPAHIS was on the march before he had
finished his breakfast. He was hurrying through
his meal that the soldiers might not get too far in
advance of him when he glanced through the door connecting
the dining room with the bar.
To his surprise, he saw Gernois standing there in
conversation with the very stranger he had seen in
the coffee-house at Bouira the day previous.
He could not be mistaken, for there was the same
strangely familiar attitude and figure, though the
man’s back was toward him.
As his eyes lingered on the two, Gernois looked up
and caught the intent expression on Tarzan’s
face. The stranger was talking in a low whisper
at the time, but the French officer immediately interrupted
him, and the two at once turned away and passed out
of the range of Tarzan’s vision.
This was the first suspicious occurrence that Tarzan
had ever witnessed in connection with Gernois’
actions, but he was positive that the men had left
the barroom solely because Gernois had caught Tarzan’s
eyes upon them; then there was the persistent impression
of familiarity about the stranger to further augment
the ape-man’s belief that here at length was
something which would bear watching.
A moment later Tarzan entered the barroom, but the
men had left, nor did he see aught of them in the
street beyond, though he found a pretext to ride to
various shops before he set out after the column which
had now considerable start of him. He did not
overtake them until he reached Sidi Aissa shortly
after noon, where the soldiers had halted for an hour’s
rest. Here he found Gernois with the column,
but there was no sign of the stranger.
