“Are you game to explore a bit on foot?” Tom asked Bud.
“Sure! Looks like swell hiking country.”
FIERCE TRIBESMEN 137
The two boys slid back the canopy and climbed out of the atomicar. They walked to the lake and began skirting the shore.
Bang! … Bang! … Bang!
To Tom and Bud’s horror, a band of the same fierce-looking horsemen, this time armed with rifles, came charging out of a thick grove of poplars and mountain willows. Riding at a gallop, they gave the boys no chance to spring back to the car. Realizing they were trapped, both youths tried to keep a bold front.
“We’re friends!” Tom cried, raising his voice. “Why attack-when we come in peace?”
His words were drowned by the furious shouts of the horsemen. Reining up sharply, they leaped from their saddles and swarmed about the two young Americans. In a few moments Tom’s and Bud’s hands were bound.
Then the bearded leader drew a curved, scimi-tarlike blade from his gaudy cummerbund. He brandished it menacingly at the boys.
Tom and Bud paled. “Looks as though he means business!” Bud gasped.
CHAPTER XV
NIGHT RAID
TOM and Bud silently uttered prayers as the Kabulistan chieftain, ranting at them loudly, flicked his scimitar closer to their faces.
Tom felt utterly helpless. Were he and Bud really about to be killed? Would he never see his mother and dad, or Sandy and Phyl again?
Suddenly a distant shout broke in on the chieftain’s tirade. Tom and Bud stared. A horseman, wearing a sun helmet and khaki riding breeches, came galloping down the slope. Two other riders followed close behind. The boys’
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