then, holding him before them as a shield, he backed slowly beside
Abdul toward the little door which led into the inner courtyard. At
the threshold he paused for an instant, and, lifting the struggling
Arab above his head, hurled him, as though from a catapult, full
in the faces of his on-pressing fellows.

Then Tarzan and Abdul stepped into the semidarkness of the court.
The frightened Ouled-Nails were crouching at the tops of the
stairs which led to their respective rooms, the only light in the
courtyard coming from the sickly candles which each girl had stuck
with its own grease to the woodwork of her door-frame, the better
to display her charms to those who might happen to traverse the
dark inclosure.

Scarcely had Tarzan and Abdul emerged from the room ere a revolver
spoke close at their backs from the shadows beneath one of the
stairways, and as they turned to meet this new antagonist, two
muffled figures sprang toward them, firing as they came. Tarzan
leaped to meet these two new assailants. The foremost lay, a second
later, in the trampled dirt of the court, disarmed and groaning
from a broken wrist. Abdul's knife found the vitals of the second
in the instant that the fellow's revolver missed fire as he held
it to the faithful Arab's forehead.

The maddened horde within the cafe were now rushing out in pursuit
of their quarry. The Ouled-Nails had extinguished their candles
at a cry from one of their number, and the only light within the
yard came feebly from the open and half-blocked door of the cafe.
Tarzan had seized a sword from the man who had fallen before Abdul's
knife, and now he stood waiting for the rush of men that was coming