Tarzan was already near the palisade as Ntale charged. He raised the struggling black above his head and hurled him upon the advancing chief, and as the two went down he wheeled and ran for the palisade.
Like Manu the monkey he scaled the high barrier. A few scattered shots followed him, but he dropped to the ground outside unscathed and disappeared in the growing gloom of the advancing night.
The long night of their captivity dragged on and still the "Gunner" and Jezebel lay as they had been left, without food or drink, while the silent corpse of Capietro stared at the ceiling.
"I wouldn't treat nobody like this," said the "Gunner," "not even a rat."
Jezebel raised herself to one elbow. "Why not try it?" she whispered.
"What?" demanded Danny. "I'd try anything once."
"What you said about a rat made me think of it," said Jezebel. "We have lots of rats in the land of Midian. Sometimes we catch them—they are very good to eat. We make traps, but if we do not kill the rats soon after they are caught they gnaw their way to freedom—they gnaw the cords which bind the traps together."
"Well, what of it?" demanded Danny. "We ain' got no rats, and if we had—well, I won't say I wouldn't eat 'em, kid; but I don't see what it's got to do with the mess we're in."
"We're like the rats, Danny," she said. "Don't you see? We're like the rats and—we can gnaw our way to freedom!"
"Well, kid," said Danny, "if you want to gnaw your way through the side of this hut, hop to it; but if I gets a chance to duck I'm goin' through the door."