After the first involuntary cries of surprise and rage an ominous
silence fell upon the barbaric scene. Now all eyes were centered upon
the Queen, whose ordinarily beautiful countenance was almost hideous
from rage, a rage which, after her single angry cry, choked further
utterance for the moment. But at length she found her voice and turned
furiously upon Tomos.
"What means this?" she demanded, her voice now controlled and as cold
as the steel in the sheath at her side.
Tomos, who was as much astounded as she, stammered as he trembled in
his sandals of elephant hide. "There are traitors even in the temple of
Thoos!" he cried. "I chose Erot to prepare the girl for the embraces of
Xarator because I knew that his loyalty to his Queen would insure the
work being well done. I did not know, O gracious Nemone, that this vile
crime had been committed or that the body of Erot had been substituted
for that of the daughter of Thudos until this very instant."
With an expression of disgust the Queen commanded the priests to hurl
the body of Erot into the crater, and as it was swallowed by the fiery
pit she ordered an immediate return to Cathne.
In morose and gloomy silence she rode down the winding mountain trail
and out onto the Field of the Lions, and often her eyes were upon the
bronzed giant striding beside her chariot.
At last she broke her silence. "Two of your enemies are gone now," she
said. "I destroyed one; whom do you think destroyed the other?"
"Perhaps I did," suggested Tarzan with a smile.
"I had been thinking of that possibility," replied Nemone, but she did
not smile.
"Whoever did it performed a service for Cathne."
"Perhaps," she half agreed, "but it is not the killing of Erot that
annoys me; it is the effrontery that dared interfere with the plans of
Nemone. Whoever did it has spoiled for me what would otherwise have
been a happy day; nor have they accomplished anything in the interest
of Thudos or his daughter or Gemnon. I shall find the girl, and her
passing will be far more bitter than that from which she was saved
today; she cannot escape me. Thudos and Gemnon will also pay more
heavily because some one dared flout the Queen."
Tarzan shrugged his broad shoulders, but remained silent.
"Why do you not speak?" demanded the Queen.
"There is nothing to say," he replied; "I can only disagree with you
without convincing you; I should only make you more angry than you are.
I find no pleasure in making people angry or unhappy unless it is for
some good purpose."
"You mean that I do?" she demanded.
"Obviously."
She shook her head angrily. "Why do I abide you!" she exclaimed.
"Possibly as a counterirritant to relieve other irritations," he
suggested.
"Some day I shall lose my patience and have you thrown to the lions,"
she ejaculated sharply. "What will you do then?"
"Kill the lion," replied the ape-man.
"Not the lion that I shall throw you to," Nemone assured him.
The tedious journey back to Cathne ended at last, and with flaring
torches lighting the way the Queen's _cortège_ crossed the Bridge of
Gold and entered the city. Here she immediately ordered a thorough
search to be made for Doria.
Thudos and Gemnon, happy but mystified, were returned to their cell to
await the new doom that Nemone would fix for them when the mood again
seized her to be entertained. Tarzan was commanded to accompany Nemone
into the palace and dine with her. Tomos had been dismissed with a
curt injunction to find Doria or prepare for the worst.
Tarzan and the Queen ate alone in a small dining room attended only by
slaves, and when the meal was over Nemone conducted him to the now all
too familiar ivory room, where he was greeted by the angry growls of
Belthar.
"Erot and M'duze are dead," said the Queen, "and I have sent Tomos
away; there will be none to disturb us tonight." Again her voice was
soft, her manner gentle.
The ape-man sat with his eyes fixed upon her, studying her. It seemed
incredible that this sweet and lovely woman could be the cruel tyrant
that was Nemone, the Queen. Every soft line and curving contour spoke
of femininity and gentleness and love; and in those glorious eyes
smoldered a dreamy light that exercised a strange hypnotic influence
upon him, gently pushing the memories of her ruthlessness into the
oblivion of forgetfulness.
She leaned closer to him. "Touch me, Tarzan," she whispered softly.
Drawn by a power that is greater than the will of man he placed a hand
upon hers. She breathed a deep sigh of contentment and leaned her
cheek against his breast; her warm breath caressed his naked skin; the
perfume of her hair was in his nostrils. She spoke, but so low that he
could not catch her words.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"Take me in your arms," she breathed faintly.
He passed a palm across his eyes as though to wipe away a mist, and
in the moment of his hesitation she threw her arms about his neck and
covered his face and lips with hot kisses.
"Love me, Tarzan!" she cried passionately. "Love me! Love me! Love me!"
She slipped to the floor until she knelt at his feet. "Oh, Thoos, god
of gods!" she murmured, "how I love you!"
The lord of the jungle looked down at her, at a queen grovelling at his
feet, and the spell that had held him vanished; beneath the beautiful
exterior he saw the crazed mind of a mad woman; he saw the creature
that cast defenseless men to wild beasts, that disfigured or destroyed
women who might be more beautiful than she; and all that was fine in
him revolted.
With a half growl he arose to his feet, and as he did so Nemone slipped
to the floor and lay there silent and rigid. He started toward the
door, and then turned and coming back lifted her to the couch. As he
did so, Belthar strained at his chains and the chamber shook to his
roars.
Nemone opened her eyes and for a moment gazed questioningly at the man
above her; then she seemed to realize what had happened, and the mad,
cruel light of rage blazed in her eyes. Leaping to her feet she stood
trembling before him.
"You refuse my love!" she screamed. "You spurn me? You dare spurn the
love of a Queen! Thoos! and I knelt at your feet!" She sprang to one
side of the room where a metal gong depended from the ceiling and
seizing the striker smote it three times. The brazen notes rang through
the chamber mingling with the roars of the infuriated lion.
Tarzan stood watching her; she seemed wholly irresponsible, quite mad.
It would be useless to attempt to reason with her. He moved slowly
toward the door; but before he reached it it swung open, and a score of
warriors accompanied by two nobles rushed in.
"Take this man!" ordered Nemone. "Throw him into the cell with the
other enemies of the Queen!"
Tarzan was unarmed. He had worn only a sword when he entered the ivory
room and that he had unbuckled and laid upon a stand near the doorway.
There were twenty spears levelled at him, twenty spears that entirely
encircled him. With a shrug he surrendered. It was that or death. In
prison he might find the means to escape; at least he would see Gemnon
again, and there was something that he very much wished to tell Gemnon
and Thudos.
As the soldiers conducted him from the room and the door closed behind
them, Nemone threw herself among the cushions of her couch, her body
wracked by choking sobs. The great lion grumbled in the dusky corner
of the room. Suddenly Nemone sat erect and her eyes blazed into the
blazing eyes of the lion. For a moment she sat there thus, and then
she arose and a peal of maniacal laughter broke from her lips. Still
laughing, she crossed the room and passed through the doorway that led
to her bedchamber.
Thudos and Gemnon sitting in their cell heard the tramp of marching men
approaching the prison in which they were confined. "Evidently Nemone
cannot wait until tomorrow," said Thudos.
"You think she is sending for us now?" asked Gemnon.
"What else?" demanded the older man. "The lion pit can be illuminated."
As they waited and listened the steps stopped outside their cell, the
door was pushed open, and a man entered. The warriors had carried no
torches and neither Thudos nor Gemnon could discern the features of
the newcomer, though in the diffused light that filtered in through
the small window and the aperture in the door they noted that he was a
large man.
None of them spoke until the guard had departed out of earshot.
"Greetings, Thudos and Gemnon!" exclaimed the new prisoner cheerily.
"Tarzan!" exclaimed Gemnon.
"None other," admitted the ape-man.
"What brings you here?" demanded Thudos.
"Twenty warriors and the whim of a woman, an insane woman," replied
Tarzan.
"So you have fallen from favor!" exclaimed Gemnon. "I am sorry."
"It was inevitable," said Tarzan.
"And what will your punishment be?"
"I do not know, but I suspect that it will be quite sufficient.
However, that is something that need not concern any of us until it
happens; maybe it won't happen."
"There is no room in the dungeon of Nemone for optimism," remarked
Thudos with a grim laugh.
"Perhaps not," agreed the ape-man, "but I shall continue to indulge
myself. Doubtless Doria felt hopeless in her prison in the temple last
night, yet she escaped Xarator."
"That is a miracle that I cannot fathom," said Gemnon.
"It was quite simple," Tarzan assured him. "A loyal friend, whose
identity you may guess, came and told me that she was a prisoner in the
temple. I went at once to find her. Fortunately the trees of Cathne
are old and large and numerous; one of them grows close to the rear
of the temple, its branches almost brushing the window of the room in
which Doria was confined. When I arrived there, I found Erot annoying
Doria; I also found the sack in which he had purposed tying her for the
journey to Xarator. What was simpler? I let Erot take the ride that had
been planned for Doria."
"You saved her! Where is she?" cried Thudos, his voice breaking in the
first emotion he had displayed since he had learned of his daughter's
plight.
"Come close," cautioned Tarzan, "lest the walls themselves be enemies."
The two men pressed close to the speaker who continued in a low
whisper, "Do you recall, Gemnon, that when we were at the gold mine I
spoke aside to one of the slaves there?"
"I believe that I did notice it," replied Gemnon; "I thought you were
asking questions about the operation of the mine."
"No; I was delivering a message from his brother, and so grateful was
he that he begged that he be permitted to serve me if the opportunity
arose. It was to arise much sooner than either of us could have
expected; and so, when it was necessary to find a hiding place for
Doria, I thought immediately of the isolated hut of Niaka, the headman
of the black slaves at the gold mine.
"She is there now, and the man will protect her as long as is
necessary. He has promised me that if he hears nothing from me for half
a moon he is to understand that none of us three can come to her aid,
and that then he will get word to the faithful slaves of the house of
Thudos. He says that that will be difficult but not impossible."
"Doria safe!" whispered Gemnon. "Thudos and I may now die happy."
Thudos extended his hand through the darkness and laid it on the
ape-man's shoulder. "There is no way in which I can express my
gratitude," he said, "for there are no words in which to couch it."
For some time the three men sat in silence that was broken at last by
Gemnon. "How did it happen that you knew the brother of a slave well
enough to carry a message from one to the other?" he asked, a note of
puzzlement in his voice.
"Do you recall Xerstle's grand hunt?" asked Tarzan with a laugh.
"Of course, but what has that to do with it?" demanded Gemnon.
"Do you remember the quarry, the man we saw on the slave block in the
market place?"
"Yes."
"He is the brother of Niaka," explained Tarzan.
"But you never had an opportunity to speak to him," objected the young
noble.
"Oh, but I did. It was I who helped him escape. That was why his
brother was so grateful to me."
"I still do not understand," said Gemnon.
"There is probably much connected with Xerstle's grand hunt that you do
not understand," suggested Tarzan. "In the first place, the purpose of
the hunt was, primarily, to destroy me rather than the nominal quarry;
the scheme was probably hatched between Xerstle and Erot. In the second
place, I didn't approve of the ethics of the hunters; the poor devil
they were chasing had no chance. I went ahead, therefore, through the
trees until I overtook the black; then I carried him for a mile to
throw the lions off the scent. You know how well the plan succeeded.
"When I came back and we laid the wager, that gave Xerstle and Pindes
the opening they wished but which they would have found by some other
means before the day was over; so Pindes took me with him; and after we
were far enough away from you he suggested that we separate, whereupon
he loosed his lion upon me."
"And it was you who killed the lion?"
"I should have much preferred to have killed Pindes and Xerstle, but I
felt that the time was not yet ripe. Now, perhaps, I shall never have
the opportunity to kill them," he added regretfully.
"Now I am doubly sorry that I must die," said Gemnon.
"Why more so than before?" asked Thudos.
"I shall never have the opportunity to tell the story of Xerstle's
grand hunt," he explained. "What a story that would make!"
The morning dawned bright and beautiful, just as though there was
no misery or sorrow or cruelty in the world; but it did not change
matters at all, other than to make the cell in which the three men were
confined uncomfortably warm as the day progressed.
Shortly after noon a guard came and took Tarzan away. All three of the
prisoners were acquainted with the officer who commanded it, a decent
fellow who spoke sympathetically to them.
"Is he coming back?" asked Thudos, nodding toward Tarzan.