DEATH STEALS BEHIND
DURING the afternoon of the day that Tarzan discovered the camp of the
conspirators, a watcher upon the crumbling outer wall of the ruined city
of Opar descried a party of men moving downward into the valley from the
summit of the encircling cliff. Tarzan, Jane Clayton, and their black
Waziri were the only strangers that the denizens of Opar had ever seen
within their valley during the lifetime of the oldest among them, and
only in half-forgotten legends of a by-gone past was there any
suggestion that strangers other than these had ever visited Opar. Yet
from time immemorial a guard had always remained upon the summit of the
outer wall. Now a single knurled and crippled man-like creature was all
that recalled the numerous, lithe warriors of lost Atlantis. For down
through the long ages the race had deteriorated and finally, through
occasional mating with the great apes, the men had become the beast-like
things of modern Opar. Strange and inexplicable had been the providence
of nature that had confined this deterioration almost solely to the
males, leaving the females straight, well-formed, often of comely and
even beautiful features, a condition that might be largely attributable
to the fact that female infants possessing ape-like characteristics were
immediately destroyed, while, on the other hand, boy babies who
possessed purely human attributes were also done away with.
Typical indeed of the male inhabitants of Opar was the lone watcher upon
the outer city wall, a short, stocky man with matted hair and beard, his
tangled locks growing low upon a low, receding forehead; small,
close-set eyes and fang-like teeth bore evidence of his simian ancestry,
as did his short, crooked legs and long, muscular ape-like arms, all
scantily hair-covered as was his torso.
As his wicked, blood-rimmed eyes watched the progress of the party
across the valley toward Opar, evidences of his growing excitement were
manifested in the increased rapidity of his breathing, and low, almost
inaudible growls that issued from his throat. The strangers were too far
distant to be recognizable only as human beings, and their number to be
roughly approximated as between two and three score. Having assured
himself of these two facts the watcher descended from the outer wall,
crossed the space between it and the inner wall, through which he
passed, and at a rapid trot crossed the broad avenue beyond and
disappeared within the crumbling but still magnificent temple beyond.
Cadj, the High Priest of Opar, squatted beneath the shade of the giant
trees which now overgrew what had once been one of the gardens of the
ancient temple. With him were a dozen members of the lesser priesthood,
the intimate cronies of the High Priest, who were startled by the sudden
advent of one of the inferior members of the clan of Opar. The fellow
hurried breathlessly to Cadj.
“Cadj,” he cried, “strange men descend upon Opar! From the northwest
they have come into the valley from beyond the barrier cliffs—fifty of
them at least, perhaps half again that number. I saw them as I watched
from the summit of the outer wall, but further than they are men I
cannot say, for they are still a great distance away. Not since the
great Tarmangani came among us last have there been strangers within
Opar.”
“It has been many moons since the great Tarmangani who called himself
Tarzan of the Apes was among us,” said Cadj. “He promised us to return
before the rain to see that no harm had befallen La, but he did not come
back and La has always insisted that he is dead. Have you told any other
of what you have seen?” he demanded, turning suddenly upon the
messenger.
“No,” replied the latter.
“Good!” exclaimed Cadj. “Come, we will all go to the outer wall and see
who it is who dares enter forbidden Opar, and let no one breathe a word
of what Blagh has told us until I give permission.”
“The word of Cadj is law until La speaks,” murmured one of the priests.
Cadj turned a scowling face upon the speaker. “I am High Priest of
Opar,” he growled. “Who dares disobey me?”
“But La is High Priestess,” said one, “and the High Priestess is the
queen of Opar.”
“But the High Priest can offer whom he will as sacrifice in the Chamber
of the Dead or to the Flaming God,” Cadj reminded the other meaningly.
“We shall keep silence, Cadj,” replied the priest, cringing.
“Good!” growled the High Priest and led the way from the garden through
the corridors of the temple back toward the outer wall of Opar. From
here they watched the approaching party that was in plain view of them,
far out across the valley. The watchers conversed in low gutturals in
the language of the great apes, interspersed with which were occasional
words and phrases of a strange tongue that were doubtless corrupted
forms of the ancient language of Atlantis handed down through countless
generations from their human progenitors—that now extinct race whose
cities and civilization lie buried deep beneath the tossing waves of the
Atlantic, and whose adventurous spirit had, in remote ages, caused them
to penetrate into the heart of Africa in search of gold and to build
there, in duplication of their far home cities, the magnificent city of
Opar.
As Cadj and his followers watched from beneath shaggy brows the
strangers plodding laboriously beneath the now declining equatorial sun
across the rocky, barren valley, a gray little monkey eyed them from
amidst the foliage of one of the giant trees that had forced its way
through the pavement of the ancient avenue behind them. A solemn,
sad-faced little monkey it was, but like all his kind overcome by
curiosity, and finally to such an extent that his fear of the fierce
males of Opar was so considerably overcome that he at last swung lightly
from the tree to the pavement, made his way through the inner wall and
up the inside of the outer wall to a position in their rear where he
could hide behind one of the massive granite blocks of the crumbling
wall in comparative safety from detection, the while he might overhear
the conversation of the Oparians, all of which that was carried on in
the language of the great apes he could understand perfectly.
The afternoon was drawing to a close before the slowly moving company
approaching Opar was close enough for individuals to be recognizable in
any way, and then presently one of the younger priests exclaimed
excitedly:
“It is he, Cadj. It is the great Tarmangani who calls himself Tarzan of
the Apes. I can see him plainly; the others are all black men. He is
urging them on, prodding them with his spear. They act as though they
were afraid and very tired, but he is forcing them forward.”
“You are sure,” demanded Cadj, “you are sure that it is Tarzan of the
Apes?”
“I am positive,” replied the speaker, and then another of the priests
joined his assurances to that of his fellow. At last they were close
enough so that Cadj himself, whose eyesight was not as good as that of
the younger members of the company, realized that it was indeed Tarzan
of the Apes who was returning to Opar. The High Priest scowled angrily
in thought. Suddenly he turned upon the others.
“He must not come,” he cried; “he must not enter Opar. Hasten and fetch
a hundred fighting men. We will meet them as they come through the outer
wall and slay them one by one.”
“But La,” cried he who had aroused Cadj’s anger in the garden, “I
distinctly recall that La offered the friendship of Opar to Tarzan of
the Apes upon that time, many moons ago, that he saved her from the
tusks of infuriated Tantor.”
“Silence,” growled Cadj, “he shall not enter; we shall slay them all,
though we need not know their identity until it is too late. Do you
understand? And know, too, that whosoever attempts to thwart my purpose
shall die—and he die not as a sacrifice, he shall die at my hands, but
die he shall. You hear me?” And he pointed an unclean finger at the
trembling priest.
Manu, the monkey, hearing all this, was almost bursting with excitement.
He knew Tarzan of the Apes—as all the migratory monkeys the length and
breadth of Africa knew him—he knew him for a friend and protector. To
Manu the males of Opar were neither beast, nor man, nor friend. He knew
them as cruel and surly creatures who ate the flesh of his kind, and he
hated them accordingly. He was therefore greatly exercised at the plot
that he had heard discussed which was aimed at the life of the great
Tarmangani. He scratched his little gray head, and the root of his tail,
and his belly, as he attempted to mentally digest what he had heard, and
bring forth from the dim recesses of his little brain a plan to foil the
priests and save Tarzan of the Apes. He made grotesque grimaces that
were aimed at the unsuspecting Cadj and his followers, but which failed
to perturb them, possibly because a huge granite block hid the little
monkey from them. This was quite the most momentous thing that had
occurred in the life of Manu. He wanted to jump up and down and dance
and screech and jabber—to scold and threaten the hated Oparians, but
something told him that nothing would be gained by this, other than,
perhaps, to launch in his direction a shower of granite missiles, which
the priests knew only too well how to throw with accuracy. Now Manu is
not a deep thinker, but upon this occasion he quite outdid himself, and
managed to concentrate his mind upon the thing at hand rather than
permit its being distracted by each falling leaf or buzzing insect. He
even permitted a succulent caterpillar to crawl within his reach and out
again with impunity.
Just before darkness fell, Cadj saw a little gray monkey disappear over
the summit of the outer wall fifty paces from where he crouched with his
fellows, waiting for the coming of the fighting men. But so numerous
were the monkeys about the ruins of Opar that the occurrence left Cadj’s
mind almost as quickly as the monkey disappeared from his view, and in
the gathering gloom he did not see the little gray figure scampering off
across the valley toward the band of intruders who now appeared to have
stopped to rest at the foot of a large kopje that stood alone out in the
valley, about a mile from the city.
Little Manu was very much afraid out there alone in the growing dusk,
and he scampered very fast with his tail bowed up and out behind him.
All the time he cast affrighted glances to the right and left. The
moment he reached the kopje he scampered up its face as fast as he
could. It was really a huge, precipitous granite rock with almost
perpendicular sides, but sufficiently weather-worn to make its ascent
easy to little Manu. He paused a moment at the summit to get his breath
and still the beatings of his frightened little heart, and then he made
his way around to a point where he could look down upon the party
beneath.
There, indeed, was the great Tarmangani Tarzan, and with him were some
fifty Gomangani. The latter were splicing together a number of long,
straight poles, which they had laid upon the ground in two parallel
lines. Across these two, at intervals of a foot or more, they were
lashing smaller straight branches about eighteen inches in length, the
whole forming a crude but substantial ladder. The purpose of all this
Manu, of course, did not understand, nor did he know that it had been
evolved from the fertile brain of Flora Hawkes as a means of scaling the
precipitous kopje, at the summit of which lay the outer entrance to the
treasure vaults of Opar. Nor did Manu know that the party had no
intention of entering the city of Opar and were therefore in no danger
of becoming victims of Cadj’s hidden assassins. To him, the danger to
Tarzan of the Apes was very real, and so, having regained his breath, he
lost no time in delivering his warning to the friend of his people.
“Tarzan,” he cried, in the language that was common to both.
The white man and the blacks looked up at the sound of his chattering
voice.
“It is Manu, Tarzan,” continued the little monkey, “who has come to tell
you not to go to Opar. Cadj and his people await within the outer wall
to slay you.”
The blacks, having discovered that the author of the disturbance was
nothing but a little gray monkey, returned immediately to their work,
while the white man similarly ignored his words of warning. Manu was not
surprised at the lack of interest displayed by the blacks, for he knew
that they did not understand his language, but he could not comprehend
why Tarzan failed to pay any attention whatsoever to him. Again and
again he called Tarzan by name. Again and again he shrieked his warning
to the ape-man, but without eliciting any reply or any information that
the great Tarmangani had either heard or understood him. Manu was
mystified. What had occurred to render Tarzan of the Apes so indifferent
to the warnings of his old friend?
At last the little monkey gave it up and looked longingly back in the
direction of the trees within the walled city of Opar. It was now very
dark and he trembled at the thought of recrossing the valley, where he
knew enemies might prowl by night. He scratched his head and he hugged
his knees, then sat there whimpering, a very forlorn and unhappy little
ball of a monkey. But however uncomfortable he was upon the high kopje,
he was comparatively safe, and so he decided to remain there during the
night rather than venture the terrifying return trip through the
darkness. Thus it was that he saw the ladder completed and erected
against the side of the kopje; and when the moon rose at last and
lighted the scene, he saw Tarzan of the Apes urging his men to mount the
ladder. He had never seen Tarzan thus rough and cruel with the blacks
who accompanied him. Manu knew how ferocious the great Tarmangani could
be with an enemy, whether man or beast, but he had never seen him accord
such treatment to the blacks who were his friends.
One by one and with evident reluctance the blacks ascended the ladder,
continually urged forward to greater speed by the sharp spear of the
white man; when they had all ascended Tarzan followed, and Manu saw them
disappear apparently into the heart of the great rock.
It was only a short time later that they commenced to reappear, and now
each was burdened by two heavy objects which appeared to Manu to be very
similar to some of the smaller stone blocks that had been used in the
construction of the buildings in Opar. He saw them take the blocks to
the edge of the kopje and cast them over to the ground beneath, and when
the last of the blacks had emerged with his load and cast it to the
valley below, one by one the party descended the ladder to the foot of
the kopje. But this time Tarzan of the Apes went first. Then they
lowered the ladder and took it apart and laid its pieces close to the
foot of the cliff, after which they took up the blocks which they had
brought from the heart of the kopje, and following Tarzan, who set out
in the lead, they commenced to retrace their steps toward the rim of the
valley.
Manu would have been very much mystified had he been a man, but being
only a monkey he saw only what he saw without attempting to reason very
much about it. He knew that the ways of men were peculiar, and
oftentimes unaccountable. For example, the Gomangani who could not
travel through the jungle and the forest with the ease of any other of
the animals which frequented them, added to their difficulties by
loading themselves down with additional weights in the form of metal
anklets and armlets, with necklaces and girdles, and with skins of
animals, which did nothing more than impede their progress and render
life much more complicated than that which the untrammeled beasts
enjoyed. Manu, whenever he gave the matter a thought, congratulated
himself that he was not a man—he pitied the foolish, unreasonable
creatures.
Manu must have slept. He thought that he had only closed his eyes a
moment, but when he opened them the rosy light of dawn had overspread
the desolate valley. Just disappearing over the cliffs to the northeast
he could see the last of Tarzan’s party commencing the descent of the
barrier, then Manu turned his face toward Opar and prepared to descend
from the kopje, and scamper back to the safety of his trees within the
walls of Opar. But first he would reconnoiter—Sheeta, the panther,
might be still abroad, and so he scampered around the edge of the kopje
to a point where he could see the entire valley floor between himself
and Opar. And there it was that he saw again that which filled him with
greatest excitement. For, debouching from the ruined outer wall of Opar
was a large company of Opar’s frightful men—fully a hundred of them
Manu could have counted had Manu been able to count.
They seemed to be coming toward the kopje, and he sat and watched them
as they approached, deciding to defer his return to the city until after
the path was cleared of hated Oparians. It occurred to him that they
were coming after him, for the egotism of the lower animals is
inordinate. Because he was a monkey, the idea did not seem at all
ridiculous and so he hid behind a jutting rock, with only one little,
bright eye exposed to the enemy. He saw them come closer and he grew
very much excited, though he was not at all afraid, for he knew that if
they ascended one side of the kopje he could descend the other and be
half-way to Opar before they could possibly locate him again.
On and on they came, but they did not stop at the kopje—as a matter of
fact they did not come very close to it, but continued on beyond it.
Then it was that the truth of the matter flashed into the little brain
of the monkey—Cadj and his people were pursuing Tarzan of the Apes to
slay him. If Manu had been offended by Tarzan’s indifference to him upon
the night before, he had evidently forgotten it, for now he was quite as
excited about the danger which he saw menace the ape-man as he had been
upon the afternoon previous. At first he thought of running ahead, and
again warning Tarzan, but he feared to venture so far from the trees of
Opar, even if the thought of having to pass the hated Oparians had not
been sufficient to deter him from carrying out this plan. For a few
minutes he sat watching them, until they had all passed the kopje, and
then it became quite clear to him that they were heading directly for
the spot at which the last of Tarzan’s party had disappeared from the
valley—there could be no doubt that they were in pursuit of the
ape-man.
Manu scanned the valley once more toward Opar. There was nothing in
sight to deter him from an attempted return, and so, with the agility of
his kind, he scampered down the vertical face of the kopje and was off
at great speed toward the city’s wall. Just when he formulated the plan
that he eventually followed it is difficult to say. Perhaps he thought
it all out as he sat upon the kopje, watching Cadj and his people upon
the trail of the ape-man, or perhaps it occurred to him while he was
scampering across the barren waste toward Opar. It may just have popped
into his mind from a clear sky after he had regained the leafy sanctuary
of his own trees. Be that, however as it may, the fact remains, that as
La, High Priestess and princess of Opar, in company with several of her
priestesses, was bathing in a pool in one of the temple gardens, she was
startled by the screaming of a monkey, swinging frantically by his tail
from the branch of a great tree which overspread the pool—it was a
little gray monkey with a face so wise and serious that one might easily
have imagined that the fate of nations lay constantly upon the shoulders
of its owner.
“La, La,” it screamed, “they have gone to kill Tarzan. They have gone to
kill Tarzan.”
At the sound of that name La was instantly all attention. Standing waist
deep in the pool she looked up at the little monkey questioningly. “What
do you mean, Manu?” she asked. “It has been many moons since Tarzan was
at Opar. He is not here now. What are you talking about?”
“I saw him,” screamed Manu, “I saw him last night with many Gomangani.
He came to the great rock that lies in the valley before Opar; with all
his men he climbed to the top of it, went into the heart of it, and came
out with stones which they threw down into the valley. Afterward they
descended from the rock, and picked up the stones again and left the
valley—there,” and Manu pointed toward the northeast with one of his
hairy little fingers.
“How do you know it was Tarzan of the Apes?” asked La.
“Does Manu not know his cousin and his friend?” demanded the monkey.
“With my eyes I saw him—it was Tarzan of the Apes.”
La of Opar puckered her brows in thought. Deep in her heart smoldered
the fires of her great love for Tarzan. Fires that had been quenched by
the necessity that had compelled her marriage with Cadj since last she
had seen the ape-man. For it is written among the laws of Opar that the
High Priestess of the Flaming God must take a mate within a certain
number of years after her consecration. For many moons had La longed to
make Tarzan that mate. The ape-man had not loved her, and finally she
had come to a realization that he could never love her. Afterward she
had bowed to the frightful fate that had placed her in the arms of Cadj.
As month after month had passed and Tarzan had not returned to Opar, as
he had promised he would do, to see that no harm befell La, she had come
to accept the opinion of Cadj that the ape-man was dead, and though she
hated the repulsive Cadj none the less, her love for Tarzan had
gradually become little more than a sorrowful memory. Now to learn that
he was alive and had been so near was like re-opening an old wound. At
first she comprehended little else than that Tarzan had been close to
Opar, but presently the cries of Manu aroused her to a realization that
the ape-man was in danger—just what the danger was, she did not know.
“Who has gone to kill Tarzan of the Apes?” she demanded suddenly.
“Cadj, Cadj!” shrieked Manu. “He has gone with many, many men, and is
following upon the spoor of Tarzan.”
La sprang quickly from the pool, seized her girdle and ornaments from
her attendant and adjusting them hurriedly, sped through the garden and
into the temple.