Chapter 7

The Dancing Girl of Sidi Aissa




Tarzan's first mission did not bid fair to be either exciting or
vastly important. There was a certain lieutenant of SPAHIS whom
the government had reason to suspect of improper relations with a
great European power. This Lieutenant Gernois, who was at present
stationed at Sidibel-Abbes, had recently been attached to the general
staff, where certain information of great military value had come
into his possession in the ordinary routine of his duties. It was
this information which the government suspected the great power
was bartering for with the officer.

It was at most but a vague hint dropped by a certain notorious
Parisienne in a jealous mood that had caused suspicion to rest upon
the lieutenant. But general staffs are jealous of their secrets,
and treason so serious a thing that even a hint of it may not be
safely neglected. And so it was that Tarzan had come to Algeria
in the guise of an American hunter and traveler to keep a close
eye upon Lieutenant Gernois.

He had looked forward with keen delight to again seeing his beloved
Africa, but this northern aspect of it was so different from his
tropical jungle home that he might as well have been back in Paris