for all the heart thrills of homecoming that he experienced. At
Oran he spent a day wandering through the narrow, crooked alleys
of the Arab quarter enjoying the strange, new sights. The next
day found him at Sidi-bel-Abbes, where he presented his letters of
introduction to both civil and military authorities--letters which
gave no clew to the real significance of his mission.

Tarzan possessed a sufficient command of English to enable him to
pass among Arabs and Frenchmen as an American, and that was all that
was required of it. When he met an Englishman he spoke French in
order that he might not betray himself, but occasionally talked
in English to foreigners who understood that tongue, but could not
note the slight imperfections of accent and pronunciation that were
his.

Here he became acquainted with many of the French officers, and
soon became a favorite among them. He met Gernois, whom he found
to be a taciturn, dyspeptic-looking man of about forty, having
little or no social intercourse with his fellows.

For a month nothing of moment occurred. Gernois apparently had
no visitors, nor did he on his occasional visits to the town hold
communication with any who might even by the wildest flight of
imagination be construed into secret agents of a foreign power.
Tarzan was beginning to hope that, after all, the rumor might have
been false, when suddenly Gernois was ordered to Bou Saada in the
Petit Sahara far to the south.

A company of SPAHIS and three officers were to relieve another
company already stationed there. Fortunately one of the officers,