The cartridges in his
weapon were exhausted and the warrior with his razor-edged, gleaming
saber was upon him.
Tarzan raised his own weapon but once and that to divert a vicious
cut for his head. Then he was upon one of his assailants and
before the fellow could regain his equilibrium and leap back after
delivering his cut, the ape-man had seized him by the neck and
crotch. Tarzan's other antagonist was edging around to one side
where he might use his weapon, and as he raised the blade to strike
at the back of the Tarmangani's neck, the latter swung the body of
his comrade upward so that it received the full force of the blow.
The blade sank deep into the body of the warrior, eliciting a single
frightful scream, and then Tarzan hurled the dying man in the face
of his final adversary.
Smith-Oldwick, hard pressed and now utterly defenseless, had given
up all hope in the instant that he realized his weapon was empty,
when, from his left, a living bolt of black-maned ferocity shot
past him to the breast of his opponent. Down went the Xujan, his
face bitten away by one snap of the powerful jaws of Numa of the
pit.
In the few seconds that had been required for the consummation
of these rapidly ensuing events, Otobu had dragged Bertha Kircher
to the gate which he had unbarred and thrown open, and with the
vanquishing of the last of the active guardsmen, the party passed
out of the maniac city of Xuja into the outer darkness beyond.
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