Captain Gerard, had become an excellent friend of Tarzan's, and so
when the ape-man suggested that he should embrace the opportunity
of accompanying him to Bou Saada, where he expected to find hunting,
it caused not the slightest suspicion.

At Bouira the detachment detrained, and the balance of the journey
was made in the saddle. As Tarzan was dickering at Bouira for a
mount he caught a brief glimpse of a man in European clothes eying
him from the doorway of a native coffeehouse, but as Tarzan looked
the man turned and entered the little, low-ceilinged mud hut, and
but for a haunting impression that there had been something familiar
about the face or figure of the fellow, Tarzan gave the matter no
further thought.

The march to Aumale was fatiguing to Tarzan, whose equestrian
experiences hitherto had been confined to a course of riding lessons
in a Parisian academy, and so it was that he quickly sought the
comforts of a bed in the Hotel Grossat, while the officers and
troops took up their quarters at the military post.

Although Tarzan was called early the following morning, the company
of SPAHIS was on the march before he had finished his breakfast. He
was hurrying through his meal that the soldiers might not get too
far in advance of him when he glanced through the door connecting
the dining room with the bar.

To his surprise, he saw Gernois standing there in conversation
with the very stranger he had seen in the coffee-house at Bouira
the day previous. He could not be mistaken, for there was the same
strangely familiar attitude and figure, though the man's back was