"I am his friend," said Tarzan.
"Then why didst thou leap upon me thus, if thou beest a friend to Sir James?" demanded the man.
"I did not know how you had received him or how you would receive me."
"A friend of Sir James will be received well in Nimmr," said the man.
Tarzan took the man's sword from him and permitted him to rise—his pike he had dropped before being dragged among the bushes.
"Go before me and lead me to your master," commanded the ape-man, "and remember that your life will be the forfeit that you must pay for treachery."
"Do not make me leave the road unguarded against the Saracens," begged the man. "Soon my companion will return with others and then I shall beg them to take thee where thou wilt."
"Very well," agreed the ape-man. They had not waited long before he heard the sound of hastening footsteps and a strange jingling and clanking that might have been caused by the shaking of many chains and the striking against them of objects of metal.
Shortly afterward he was surprised to see a white man clothed in chain mail and carrying a sword and buckler descending the trail at a trot, a dozen pike-men at his back.
"Tell them to halt!" commanded Tarzan, placing the point of the man's sword in the small of his back. "Tell them I would talk with them before they approach too closely."