The Abyssinians were formed in a circle which included Tarzan's
position, and around and into them galloped the yelling raiders,
now darting away, now charging in to deliver thrusts and cuts with
their curved swords.

Numerically the men of Achmet Zek were superior, and slowly but
surely the soldiers of Menelek were being exterminated. To Tarzan
the result was immaterial. He watched with but a single purpose--to
escape the ring of blood-mad fighters and be away after the Belgian
and his pouch.

When he had first discovered Werper upon the trail where he had
slain Bara, he had thought that his eyes must be playing him false,
so certain had he been that the thief had been slain and devoured
by Numa; but after following the detachment for two days, with his
keen eyes always upon the Belgian, he no longer doubted the identity
of the man, though he was put to it to explain the identity of the
mutilated corpse he had supposed was the man he sought.

As he crouched in hiding among the unkempt shrubbery which so
short a while since had been the delight and pride of the wife he
no longer recalled, an Arab and an Abyssinian wheeled their mounts
close to his position as they slashed at each other with their
swords.

Step by step the Arab beat back his adversary until the latter's
horse all but trod upon the ape-man, and then a vicious cut clove
the black warrior's skull, and the corpse toppled backward almost
upon Tarzan.