"BEFORE I EAT YOU!"
As the thing that called itself God departed from the other chamber,
closing the door after it, Tarzan turned toward the girl sitting on the
straw of their prison cell.
"I have seen many strange things in my life," he said, "but this is by
far the strangest. Sometimes I think that I must be dreaming."
"That is what I thought at first," replied the girl; "but this is no
dream--it is a terrible, a frightful reality."
"Including God?" he asked.
"Yes; even God is a reality. That thing is the god of these gorillas.
They all fear him and most of them worship him. They say that he
created them. I do not understand it--it is all like a hideous chimera."
"What do you suppose he intends to do with us?"
"Oh, I don't know; but it is something horrible," she replied. "Down in
the city they venture hideous guesses, but even they do not know. He
brings young gorillas here, and they are never seen again."
"How long have you been here?"
"I have been in God's castle since yesterday, but I was in the palace
of Henry the Eighth for more than a week. Don't those names sound
incongruous when applied to beasts?"
"I thought that nothing more could ever sound strange to me after I met
_Buckingham_ this morning and heard him speak English--a bull gorilla!"
"You met Buckingham? It was he who captured me and brought me to this
city. Did he capture you too?"