midnight
He could scarce repress a smile of triumph as he thought of their rage on discovering that their guard had been killed and their prisoners taken away . Tarzan had wished that he might have taken some of the great store of ivory the village contained , solely for the purpose of still further augmenting the wrath of his enemies ; but he knew that that was not necessary for its salvation , since he already had a plan mapped out which would effectually prevent the Arabs leaving the country with a single tusk . And it would have been cruel to have needlessly burdened these poor , overwrought women with the extra weight of the heavy ivory . It was after midnight when Tarzan , with his slow-moving caravan , approached the spot where the elephants lay . Long before they reached it they had been guided by the huge fire the natives had built in the center of a hastily improvised BOMA , partially for warmth and partially to keep off chance lions . When they had come close to the encampment Tarzan called aloud to let them know that friends were coming . It was a joyous reception the little party received when the blacks within the BOMA saw the long file of fettered friends and relatives enter the firelight .