Smith-Oldwick
followed him, and together the two crept through the darkness toward
the door in the back wall of the niche in which the Englishman
had been hidden by the girl. They found the door ajar and opening
it Tarzan saw a streak of light showing through the hangings that
separated it from the alcove.
Placing his eye close to the aperture he saw the girl and the young
man of which the Englishman had spoken seated on opposite sides of
a low table upon which food was spread. Serving them was a giant
Negro and it was he whom the ape-man watched most closely. Familiar
with the tribal idiosyncrasies of a great number of African tribes
over a considerable proportion of the Dark Continent, the Tarmangani
at last felt reasonably assured that he knew from what part of
Africa this slave had come, and the dialect of his people. There
was, however, the chance that the fellow had been captured in
childhood and that through long years of non-use his native language
had become lost to him, but then there always had been an element
of chance connected with nearly every event of Tarzan's life, so he
waited patiently until in the performance of his duties the black
man approached a little table which stood near the niche in which
Tarzan and the Englishman hid.
As the slave bent over some dish which stood upon the table his
ear was not far from the aperture through which Tarzan looked.
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