"Halt," he cried, "or we fire!"

The white figures came to a sudden stop, and for a moment there
was silence. Then came the sound of a whispered council, and like
ghosts the phantom riders dispersed in all directions. Again the
desert lay still about him, yet it was an ominous stillness that
foreboded evil.

Abdul raised himself to one knee. Tarzan cocked his jungle-trained
ears, and presently there came to him the sound of horses walking
quietly through the sand to the east of him, to the west, to the
north, and to the south. They had been surrounded. Then a shot
came from the direction in which he was looking, a bullet whirred
through the air above his head, and he fired at the flash of the
enemy's gun.

Instantly the soundless waste was torn with the quick staccato of
guns upon every hand. Abdul and Tarzan fired only at the flashes--they
could not yet see their foemen. Presently it became evident that
the attackers were circling their position, drawing closer and
closer in as they began to realize the paltry numbers of the party
which opposed them.

But one came too close, for Tarzan was accustomed to using his eyes
in the darkness of the jungle night, than which there is no more
utter darkness this side the grave, and with a cry of pain a saddle
was emptied.

"The odds are evening, Abdul," said Tarzan, with a low laugh.