With
ferocious growls Numa wheeled to the right, and with raking talons
struck right and left among a little handful of terrified guardsmen
who were endeavoring to elude him, and then Tarzan and Smith-Oldwick
closed with the others.
For a moment their most formidable antagonist was the officer in
command. He wielded his curved saber as only an adept might as he
faced Tarzan, to whom the similar weapon in his own hand was most
unfamiliar. Smith-Oldwick could not fire for fear of hitting the
ape-man when suddenly to his dismay he saw Tarzan's weapon fly from
his grasp as the Xujan warrior neatly disarmed his opponent. With
a scream the fellow raised his saber for the final cut that would
terminate the earthly career of Tarzan of the Apes when, to the
astonishment of both the ape-man and Smith-Oldwick, the fellow
stiffened rigidly, his weapon dropped from the nerveless fingers
of his upraised hand, his mad eyes rolled upward and foam flecked
his bared lip. Gasping as though in the throes of strangulation
the fellow pitched forward at Tarzan's feet.
Tarzan stooped and picked up the dead man's weapon, a smile upon
his face as he turned and glanced toward the young Englishman.
"The fellow is an epileptic," said Smith-Oldwick. "I suppose
many of them are. Their nervous condition is not without its good
points--a normal man would have gotten you.
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