touch with the villagers; but he knew that if they would but follow
his advice there would be but few casualties other than on the side
of the marauders.

Toward dusk the firing ceased entirely, and Tarzan knew that the
Arabs had all returned to the village. He could scarce repress a
smile of triumph as he thought of their rage on discovering that
their guard had been killed and their prisoners taken away. Tarzan
had wished that he might have taken some of the great store of
ivory the village contained, solely for the purpose of still further
augmenting the wrath of his enemies; but he knew that that was not
necessary for its salvation, since he already had a plan mapped
out which would effectually prevent the Arabs leaving the country
with a single tusk. And it would have been cruel to have needlessly
burdened these poor, overwrought women with the extra weight of
the heavy ivory.

It was after midnight when Tarzan, with his slow-moving caravan,
approached the spot where the elephants lay. Long before they
reached it they had been guided by the huge fire the natives had
built in the center of a hastily improvised BOMA, partially for
warmth and partially to keep off chance lions.

When they had come close to the encampment Tarzan called aloud to
let them know that friends were coming. It was a joyous reception
the little party received when the blacks within the BOMA saw the
long file of fettered friends and relatives enter the firelight.
These had all been given up as lost forever, as had Tarzan as well,
so that the happy blacks would have remained awake all night to
feast on elephant meat and celebrate the return of their fellows,