Again adjusting his sights he took a long-range shot at a distant machine-gun crew to his right. With calm deliberation he wiped them out to a man. Two guns were silenced. He saw men running through the trenches and he picked off several of them. By this time the Germans were aware that something was amiss -- that an uncanny sniper had discovered a point of vantage from which this sector of the trenches was plainly visible to him. At first they sought to discover his location in No Man's Land; but when an officer looking over the parapet through a periscope was struck full in the back of the head with a rifle bullet which passed through his skull and fell to the bottom of the trench they realized that it was beyond the parados rather than the parapet that they should search.
One of the soldiers picked up the bullet that had killed his officer, and then it was that real excitement prevailed in that particular bay, for the bullet was obviously of German make.
Hugging the parados, messengers carried the word in both directions and presently periscopes were leveled above the parados and keen eyes were searching out the traitor. It did not take them long to locate the position of the hidden sniper and then Tarzan saw a machine gun being trained upon him.
Before it had gotten into action its crew lay dead about it; but there were other men to take their places, reluctantly perhaps;but driven on by their officers they were forced to it and at the same time two other machine guns were swung around to-ward the ape-man and put into operation.
Realizing that the game was about up Tarzan with a fare-well shot laid aside the rifle and melted into the hills behind him. For many minutes he could hear the sputter of machine-gun fire concentrated upon the spot he had just quit and smiled as he contemplated the waste of German ammunition.
"They have paid heavily for Wasimbu, the Waziri, whom they crucified, and for his slain fellows," he mused; "but for Jane they can never pay -- no, not if I killed them all."After dark that night he circled the flanks of both armies and passed through the British out-guards and into the British lines. No man saw him come. No man knew that he was there.
Headquarters of the Second Rhodesians occupied a shel-tered position far enough back of the lines to be compara-tively safe from enemy observation. Even lights were per-mitted, and Colonel Capell sat before a field table, on which was spread a military map, talking with several of his officers.
A large tree spread above them, a lantern sputtered dimly upon the table, while a small fire burned upon the ground close at hand. The enemy had no planes and no other ob-servers could have seen the lights from the German lines.
The officers were discussing the advantage in numbers pos-sessed by the enemy and the inability of the British to more than hold their present position. They could not advance. Al-ready they had sustained severe losses in every attack and had always been driven back by overwhelming numbers. There were hidden machine guns, too, that bothered the colonel con-siderably. It was evidenced by the fact that he often reverted to them during the conversation.
"Something silenced them for a while this afternoon," said one of the younger officers. "I was observing at the time and I couldn't make out what the fuss was about; but they seemed to be having a devil of a time in a section of trench on their left. At one time I could have sworn they were attacked in the rear -- I reported it to you at the time, sir, you'll recall --for the blighters were pepperin' away at the side of that bluff behind them. I could see the dirt fly. I don't know what it could have been."There was a slight rustling among the branches of the tree above them and simultaneously a lithe, brown body dropped in their midst. Hands moved quickly to the butts of pistols;but otherwise there was no movement among the officers.
First they looked wonderingly at the almost naked white man standing there with the firelight playing upon rounded muscles, took in the primitive attire and the equally primitive arma-ment and then all eyes turned toward the colonel.
