Condemned To Torture and Death
La had followed her company and when she saw them clawing and biting at
Tarzan, she raised her voice and cautioned them not to kill him. She
saw that he was weakening and that soon the greater numbers would
prevail over him, nor had she long to wait before the mighty jungle
creature lay helpless and bound at her feet.
“Bring him to the place at which we stopped,” she commanded and they
carried Tarzan back to the little clearing and threw him down beneath a
tree.
“Build me a shelter!” ordered La. “We shall stop here tonight and
tomorrow in the face of the Flaming God, La will offer up the heart of
this defiler of the temple. Where is the sacred knife? Who took it from
him?”
But no one had seen it and each was positive in his assurance that the
sacrificial weapon had not been upon Tarzan’s person when they captured
him. The ape-man looked upon the menacing creatures which surrounded
him and snarled his defiance. He looked upon La and smiled. In the face
of death he was unafraid.
“Where is the knife?” La asked him.
“I do not know,” replied Tarzan. “The man took it with him when he
slipped away during the night. Since you are so desirous for its return
I would look for him and get it back for you, did you not hold me
prisoner; but now that I am to die I cannot get it back. Of what good
was your knife, anyway? You can make another. Did you follow us all
this way for nothing more than a knife? Let me go and find him and I
will bring it back to you.”
La laughed a bitter laugh, for in her heart she knew that Tarzan’s sin
was greater than the purloining of the sacrificial knife of Opar; yet
as she looked at him lying bound and helpless before her, tears rose to
her eyes so that she had to turn away to hide them; but she remained
inflexible in her determination to make him pay in frightful suffering
and in eventual death for daring to spurn the love of La.
When the shelter was completed La had Tarzan transferred to it. “All
night I shall torture him,” she muttered to her priests, “and at the
first streak of dawn you may prepare the flaming altar upon which his
heart shall be offered up to the Flaming God. Gather wood well filled
with pitch, lay it in the form and size of the altar at Opar in the
center of the clearing that the Flaming God may look down upon our
handiwork and be pleased.”
During the balance of the day the priests of Opar were busy erecting an
altar in the center of the clearing, and while they worked they chanted
weird hymns in the ancient tongue of that lost continent that lies at
the bottom of the Atlantic. They knew not the meanings of the words
they mouthed; they but repeated the ritual that had been handed down
from preceptor to neophyte since that long-gone day when the ancestors
of the Piltdown man still swung by their tails in the humid jungles
that are England now.
And in the shelter of the hut, La paced to and fro beside the stoic
ape-man. Resigned to his fate was Tarzan. No hope of succor gleamed
through the dead black of the death sentence hanging over him. He knew
that his giant muscles could not part the many strands that bound his
wrists and ankles, for he had strained often, but ineffectually for
release. He had no hope of outside help and only enemies surrounded him
within the camp, and yet he smiled at La as she paced nervously back
and forth the length of the shelter.
And La? She fingered her knife and looked down upon her captive. She
glared and muttered but she did not strike. “Tonight!” she thought.
“Tonight, when it is dark I will torture him.” She looked upon his
perfect, godlike figure and upon his handsome, smiling face and then
she steeled her heart again by thoughts of her love spurned; by
religious thoughts that damned the infidel who had desecrated the holy
of holies; who had taken from the blood-stained altar of Opar the
offering to the Flaming God—and not once but thrice. Three times had
Tarzan cheated the god of her fathers. At the thought La paused and
knelt at his side. In her hand was a sharp knife. She placed its point
against the ape-man’s side and pressed upon the hilt; but Tarzan only
smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
How beautiful he was! La bent low over him, looking into his eyes. How
perfect was his figure. She compared it with those of the knurled and
knotted men from whom she must choose a mate, and La shuddered at the
thought. Dusk came and after dusk came night. A great fire blazed
within the little thorn boma about the camp. The flames played upon the
new altar erected in the center of the clearing, arousing in the mind
of the High Priestess of the Flaming God a picture of the event of the
coming dawn. She saw this giant and perfect form writhing amid the
flames of the burning pyre. She saw those smiling lips, burned and
blackened, falling away from the strong, white teeth. She saw the shock
of black hair tousled upon Tarzan’s well-shaped head disappear in a
spurt of flame. She saw these and many other frightful pictures as she
stood with closed eyes and clenched fists above the object of her
hate—ah! was it hate that La of Opar felt?
The darkness of the jungle night had settled down upon the camp,
relieved only by the fitful flarings of the fire that was kept up to
warn off the man-eaters. Tarzan lay quietly in his bonds. He suffered
from thirst and from the cutting of the tight strands about his wrists
and ankles; but he made no complaint. A jungle beast was Tarzan with
the stoicism of the beast and the intelligence of man. He knew that his
doom was sealed—that no supplications would avail to temper the
severity of his end and so he wasted no breath in pleadings; but waited
patiently in the firm conviction that his sufferings could not endure
forever.
In the darkness La stooped above him. In her hand was a sharp knife and
in her mind the determination to initiate his torture without further
delay. The knife was pressed against his side and La’s face was close
to his when a sudden burst of flame from new branches thrown upon the
fire without, lighted up the interior of the shelter. Close beneath her
lips La saw the perfect features of the forest god and into her woman’s
heart welled all the great love she had felt for Tarzan since first she
had seen him, and all the accumulated passion of the years that she had
dreamed of him.
Dagger in hand, La, the High Priestess, towered above the helpless
creature that had dared to violate the sanctuary of her deity. There
should be no torture—there should be instant death. No longer should
the defiler of the temple pollute the sight of the lord god almighty. A
single stroke of the heavy blade and then the corpse to the flaming
pyre without. The knife arm stiffened ready for the downward plunge,
and then La, the woman, collapsed weakly upon the body of the man she
loved.
She ran her hands in mute caress over his naked flesh; she covered his
forehead, his eyes, his lips with hot kisses; she covered him with her
body as though to protect him from the hideous fate she had ordained
for him, and in trembling, piteous tones she begged him for his love.
For hours the frenzy of her passion possessed the burning hand-maiden
of the Flaming God, until at last sleep overpowered her and she lapsed
into unconsciousness beside the man she had sworn to torture and to
slay. And Tarzan, untroubled by thoughts of the future, slept
peacefully in La’s embrace.
At the first hint of dawn the chanting of the priests of Opar brought
Tarzan to wakefulness. Initiated in low and subdued tones, the sound
soon rose in volume to the open diapason of barbaric blood lust. La
stirred. Her perfect arm pressed Tarzan closer to her—a smile parted
her lips and then she awoke, and slowly the smile faded and her eyes
went wide in horror as the significance of the death chant impinged
upon her understanding.
“Love me, Tarzan!” she cried. “Love me, and you shall be saved.”
Tarzan’s bonds hurt him. He was suffering the tortures of
long-restricted circulation. With an angry growl he rolled over with
his back toward La. That was her answer! The High Priestess leaped to
her feet. A hot flush of shame mantled her cheek and then she went dead
white and stepped to the shelter’s entrance.
“Come, Priests of the Flaming God!” she cried, “and make ready the
sacrifice.”
The warped things advanced and entered the shelter. They laid hands
upon Tarzan and bore him forth, and as they chanted they kept time with
their crooked bodies, swaying to and fro to the rhythm of their song of
blood and death. Behind them came La, swaying too; but not in unison
with the chanted cadence. White and drawn was the face of the High
Priestess—white and drawn with unrequited love and hideous terror of
the moments to come. Yet stern in her resolve was La. The infidel
should die! The scorner of her love should pay the price upon the fiery
altar. She saw them lay the perfect body there upon the rough branches.
She saw the High Priest, he to whom custom would unite her—bent,
crooked, gnarled, stunted, hideous—advance with the flaming torch and
stand awaiting her command to apply it to the faggots surrounding the
sacrificial pyre. His hairy, bestial face was distorted in a
yellow-fanged grin of anticipatory enjoyment. His hands were cupped to
receive the life blood of the victim—the red nectar that at Opar would
have filled the golden sacrificial goblets.
La approached with upraised knife, her face turned toward the rising
sun and upon her lips a prayer to the burning deity of her people. The
High Priest looked questioningly toward her—the brand was burning close
to his hand and the faggots lay temptingly near. Tarzan closed his eyes
and awaited the end. He knew that he would suffer, for he recalled the
faint memories of past burns. He knew that he would suffer and die; but
he did not flinch. Death is no great adventure to the jungle bred who
walk hand-in-hand with the grim specter by day and lie down at his side
by night through all the years of their lives. It is doubtful that the
ape-man even speculated upon what came after death. As a matter of fact
as his end approached, his mind was occupied by thoughts of the pretty
pebbles he had lost, yet his every faculty still was open to what
passed around him.
He felt La lean over him and he opened his eyes. He saw her white,
drawn face and he saw tears blinding her eyes. “Tarzan, my Tarzan!” she
moaned, “tell me that you love me—that you will return to Opar with
me—and you shall live. Even in the face of the anger of my people I
will save you. This last chance I give you. What is your answer?”
At the last moment the woman in La had triumphed over the High
Priestess of a cruel cult. She saw upon the altar the only creature
that ever had aroused the fires of love within her virgin breast; she
saw the beast-faced fanatic who would one day be her mate, unless she
found another less repulsive, standing with the burning torch ready to
ignite the pyre; yet with all her mad passion for the ape-man she would
give the word to apply the flame if Tarzan’s final answer was
unsatisfactory. With heaving bosom she leaned close above him. “Yes or
no?” she whispered.
Through the jungle, out of the distance, came faintly a sound that
brought a sudden light of hope to Tarzan’s eyes. He raised his voice in
a weird scream that sent La back from him a step or two. The impatient
priest grumbled and switched the torch from one hand to the other at
the same time holding it closer to the tinder at the base of the pyre.
“Your answer!” insisted La. “What is your answer to the love of La of
Opar?”
Closer came the sound that had attracted Tarzan’s attention and now the
others heard it—the shrill trumpeting of an elephant. As La looked
wide-eyed into Tarzan’s face, there to read her fate for happiness or
heartbreak, she saw an expression of concern shadow his features. Now,
for the first time, she guessed the meaning of Tarzan’s shrill
scream—he had summoned Tantor, the elephant, to his rescue! La’s brows
contracted in a savage scowl. “You refuse La!” she cried. “Then die!
The torch!” she commanded, turning toward the priest.
Tarzan looked up into her face. “Tantor is coming,” he said. “I thought
that he would rescue me; but I know now from his voice that he will
slay me and you and all that fall in his path, searching out with the
cunning of Sheeta, the panther, those who would hide from him, for
Tantor is mad with the madness of love.”
La knew only too well the insane ferocity of a bull elephant in _must_.
She knew that Tarzan had not exaggerated. She knew that the devil in
the cunning, cruel brain of the great beast might send it hither and
thither hunting through the forest for those who escaped its first
charge, or the beast might pass on without returning—no one might guess
which.
“I cannot love you, La,” said Tarzan in a low voice. “I do not know
why, for you are very beautiful. I could not go back and live in Opar—I
who have the whole broad jungle for my range. No, I cannot love you but
I cannot see you die beneath the goring tusks of mad Tantor. Cut my
bonds before it is too late. Already he is almost upon us. Cut them and
I may yet save you.”
A little spiral of curling smoke rose from one corner of the pyre—the
flames licked upward, crackling. La stood there like a beautiful statue
of despair gazing at Tarzan and at the spreading flames. In a moment
they would reach out and grasp him. From the tangled forest came the
sound of cracking limbs and crashing trunks—Tantor was coming down upon
them, a huge Juggernaut of the jungle. The priests were becoming
uneasy. They cast apprehensive glances in the direction of the
approaching elephant and then back at La.
“Fly!” she commanded them and then she stooped and cut the bonds
securing her prisoner’s feet and hands. In an instant Tarzan was upon
the ground. The priests screamed out their rage and disappointment. He
with the torch took a menacing step toward La and the ape-man.
“Traitor!” He shrieked at the woman. “For this you too shall die!”
Raising his bludgeon he rushed upon the High Priestess; but Tarzan was
there before her. Leaping in to close quarters the ape-man seized the
upraised weapon and wrenched it from the hands of the frenzied fanatic
and then the priest closed upon him with tooth and nail. Seizing the
stocky, stunted body in his mighty hands Tarzan raised the creature
high above his head, hurling him at his fellows who were now gathered
ready to bear down upon their erstwhile captive. La stood proudly with
ready knife behind the ape-man. No faint sign of fear marked her
perfect brow—only haughty disdain for her priests and admiration for
the man she loved so hopelessly filled her thoughts.
Suddenly upon this scene burst the mad bull—a huge tusker, his little
eyes inflamed with insane rage. The priests stood for an instant
paralyzed with terror; but Tarzan turned and gathering La in his arms
raced for the nearest tree. Tantor bore down upon him trumpeting
shrilly. La clung with both white arms about the ape-man’s neck. She
felt him leap into the air and marveled at his strength and his ability
as, burdened with her weight, he swung nimbly into the lower branches
of a large tree and quickly bore her upward beyond reach of the sinuous
trunk of the pachyderm.
Momentarily baffled here, the huge elephant wheeled and bore down upon
the hapless priests who had now scattered, terror-stricken, in every
direction. The nearest he gored and threw high among the branches of a
tree. One he seized in the coils of his trunk and broke upon a huge
bole, dropping the mangled pulp to charge, trumpeting, after another.
Two he trampled beneath his huge feet and by then the others had
disappeared into the jungle. Now Tantor turned his attention once more
to Tarzan for one of the symptoms of madness is a revulsion of
affection—objects of sane love become the objects of insane hatred.
Peculiar in the unwritten annals of the jungle was the proverbial love
that had existed between the ape-man and the tribe of Tantor. No
elephant in all the jungle would harm the Tarmangani—the white-ape; but
with the madness of _must_ upon him the great bull sought to destroy
his long-time play-fellow.
Back to the tree where La and Tarzan perched came Tantor, the elephant.
He reared up with his forefeet against the bole and reached high toward
them with his long trunk; but Tarzan had foreseen this and clambered
beyond the bull’s longest reach. Failure but tended to further enrage
the mad creature. He bellowed and trumpeted and screamed until the
earth shook to the mighty volume of his noise. He put his head against
the tree and pushed and the tree bent before his mighty strength; yet
still it held.
The actions of Tarzan were peculiar in the extreme. Had Numa, or Sabor,
or Sheeta, or any other beast of the jungle been seeking to destroy
him, the ape-man would have danced about hurling missiles and
invectives at his assailant. He would have insulted and taunted them,
reviling in the jungle Billingsgate he knew so well; but now he sat
silent out of Tantor’s reach and upon his handsome face was an
expression of deep sorrow and pity, for of all the jungle folk Tarzan
loved Tantor the best. Could he have slain him he would not have
thought of doing so. His one idea was to escape, for he knew that with
the passing of the _must_ Tantor would be sane again and that once more
he might stretch at full length upon that mighty back and make foolish
speech into those great, flapping ears.
Finding that the tree would not fall to his pushing, Tantor was but
enraged the more. He looked up at the two perched high above him, his
red-rimmed eyes blazing with insane hatred, and then he wound his trunk
about the bole of the tree, spread his giant feet wide apart and tugged
to uproot the jungle giant. A huge creature was Tantor, an enormous
bull in the full prime of all his stupendous strength. Mightily he
strove until presently, to Tarzan’s consternation, the great tree gave
slowly at the roots. The ground rose in little mounds and ridges about
the base of the bole, the tree tilted—in another moment it would be
uprooted and fall.
The ape-man whirled La to his back and just as the tree inclined slowly
in its first movement out of the perpendicular, before the sudden rush
of its final collapse, he swung to the branches of a lesser neighbor.
It was a long and perilous leap. La closed her eyes and shuddered; but
when she opened them again she found herself safe and Tarzan whirling
onward through the forest. Behind them the uprooted tree crashed
heavily to the ground, carrying with it the lesser trees in its path
and then Tantor, realizing that his prey had escaped him, set up once
more his hideous trumpeting and followed at a rapid charge upon their
trail.