第10章 The Lion$$$$$s Cave.(5)

Cautiously and after infinite patience Tarzan passed the final outpost. Forcing his captive to walk before him he pushed on toward the west until, late into the night, he recrossed the railway where he felt reasonably safe from discovery. The German had cursed and grumbled and threatened and asked questions; but his only reply was another prod from Tarzan's sharp war spear. The ape-man herded him along as he would have driven a hog with the difference that he would have had more respect and therefore more consideration for a hog.

Until now Tarzan had given little thought to the details of revenge. Now he pondered what form the punishment should take. Of only one thing was he certain -- it must end in death.

Like all brave men and courageous beasts Tarzan had little natural inclination to torture -- none, in fact; but this case was unique in his experience. An inherent sense of justice called for an eye for an eye and his recent oath demanded even more. Yes, the creature must suffer even as he had caused Jane Clayton to suffer. Tarzan could not hope to make the man suffer as he had suffered, since physical pain may never approach the exquisiteness of mental torture.

All through the long night the ape-man goaded on the exhausted and now terrified Hun. The awful silence of his captor wrought upon the German's nerves. If he would only speak! Again and again Schneider tried to force or coax a word from him; but always the result was the same -- con-tinued silence and a vicious and painful prod from the spear point. Schneider was bleeding and sore. He was so ex-hausted that he staggered at every step, and often he fell only to be prodded to his feet again by that terrifying and re-morseless spear.

It was not until morning that Tarzan reached a decision and it came to him then like an inspiration from above. Aslow smile touched his lips and he immediately sought a place to lie up and rest -- he wished his prisoner to be fit now for what lay in store for him. Ahead was a stream which Tarzan had crossed the day before. He knew the ford for a drinking place and a likely spot to make an easy kill. Cau-tioning the German to utter silence with a gesture the two approached the stream quietly. Down the game trail Tarzan saw some deer about to leave the water. He shoved Schneider into the brush at one side and, squatting next him, waited.

The German watched the silent giant with puzzled, frightened eyes. In the new dawn he, for the first time, was able to ob-tain a good look at his captor, and, if he had been puzzled and frightened before, those sensations were nothing to what he experienced now.

Who and what could this almost naked, white savage be?

He had heard him speak but once -- when he had cautioned him to silence -- and then in excellent German and the well-modulated tones of culture. He watched him now as the fascinated toad watches the snake that is about to devour it.

He saw the graceful limbs and symmetrical body motionless as a marble statue as the creature crouched in the conceal-ment of the leafy foliage. Not a muscle, not a nerve moved.