As the terrified horde fought for safety and leaped to death from the
roof of the castle of God, the gorilla god himself scurried for a
secret stairway that led to the courtyard of the castle.
Cranmer and some of the priests knew also of this stairway; and they,
too, bolted for it. Several members of the gorilla guard, maddened by
terror, followed them; and when they saw the entrance to the stairway
fought to be the first to avail themselves of its offer of safety.
Through this fighting, screaming pack the gorilla god sought to force
his way. He was weaker than his creatures, and they elbowed him aside.
Screaming commands and curses which all ignored, he pawed and clawed in
vain endeavor to reach the entrance to the stairs; but always they beat
him back.
Suddenly terror and rage drove him mad. Foaming at the mouth, gibbering
like a maniac, he threw himself upon the back of a great bull whose
bulk barred his way. He beat the creature about the head and shoulders,
but the terrified brute paid no attention to him until he sank his
fangs deep in its neck; then with a frightful scream it turned upon
him. With its mighty paws it tore him from his hold; then, lifting him
above its head, the creature hurled him from it. The gorilla god fell
heavily to the roof and lay still, stunned.
The crazed beasts at the stairway fought and tore at one another,
jamming and wedging themselves into the entrance until they clogged it;
then those that remained outside ran toward other stairways, but now it
was too late. Smoke and flame roared from every turret and tower. They
were trapped!
By ones and twos, with awful shrieks, they hurled themselves over the
parapet, leaving the roof to the bodies of the gorilla god and his
erstwhile captive.
The flames roared up through the narrow shafts of the towers,
transforming them into giant torches, illuminating the face of the
cliff towering above, shedding weird lights and shadows on the city and
the valley. They ate through the roof at the north end of the castle,
and the liberated gases shot smoke and flame high into the night. They
gnawed through a great roof beam, and a section of the roof fell into
the fiery furnace below showering the city with sparks. Slowly they
crept toward the bodies of the ape-man and the gorilla god.
Before the castle, the Holy Stairway and the ledge were packed with the
horde that had come up from the city to watch the holocaust. They were
awed to silence. Somewhere in that grim pile was their god. They knew
nothing of immortality, for he had not taught them that. They thought
that their god was dead, and they were afraid. These were the lowly
ones. The creatures of the king rejoiced; for they envisaged the power
of the god descending upon the shoulders of their leader, conferring
more power upon themselves. They were gorillas contaminated by the
lusts and greed of men.
On the roof one of the bodies stirred. The eyes opened. It was a moment
before the light of consciousness quickened them; then the man sat up.
It was Tarzan. He leaped to his feet. All about him was the roaring and
crackling of the flames. The heat was intense, almost unbearable.
He saw the body of the gorilla god lying near him. He saw it move.
Then the creature sat up quickly and looked about. It saw Tarzan. It
saw the flames licking and leaping on all sides, dancing the dance of
death--its death.
Tarzan gave it but a single glance and walked away. That part of the
roof closest to the cliff was freest of flames, and toward the parapet
there he made his way.
The gorilla god followed him. "We are lost," he said. "Every avenue of
escape is cut off."
The ape-man shrugged and looked over the edge of the parapet down the
side of the castle wall. Twenty feet below was the roof of a section of
the building that rose only one story. It was too far to jump. Flames
were coming from the windows on that side, flames and smoke, but not in
the volumes that were pouring from the openings on the opposite side.
Tarzan tested the strength of one of the merlons of the battlemented
parapet. It was strong. The stones were set in good mortar. He uncoiled
his rope, and passed it about the merlon.
The gorilla god had followed him and was watching. "You are going to
escape!" he cried. "Oh, save me too."
"So that you can kill and eat me later?" asked the ape-man.
"No, no! I will not harm you. For God's sake save me!"
"I thought you were God. Save yourself."
"You can't desert me. I'm an Englishman. Blood is thicker than
water--you wouldn't see an Englishman die when you can save him!"
"I am an Englishman," replied the ape-man, "but you would have killed
me and eaten me into the bargain."
"Forgive me that. I was mad to regain my human form, and you offered
the only chance that I may ever have. Save me, and I will give you
wealth beyond man's wildest dreams of avarice."
"I have all I need," replied Tarzan.
"You don't know what you are talking about. I can lead you to diamonds.
Diamonds! Diamonds! You can scoop them up by the handful."
"I care nothing for your diamonds," replied the ape-man, "but I will
save you on one condition."
"What is that?"
"That you help me save the girl, if she still lives, and get her out of
this valley."
"I promise. But hurry--soon it will be too late."
Tarzan had looped the center of his rope about the merlon; the loose
ends dangled a few feet above the roof below. He saw that the rope hung
between windows where the flames could not reach it.
"I will go first," he said, "to be sure that you do not run away and
forget your promise."
"You do not trust me!" exclaimed the gorilla god.
"Of course not--you are a man."
He lowered his body over the parapet, hung by one hand, and seized both
strands of the rope in the other.
The gorilla god shuddered. "I could never do that," he cried. "I should
fall. It is awful!" He covered his eyes with his hands.
"Climb over the parapet and get on my back, then," directed the
ape-man. "Here, I will steady you." He reached up a powerful hand.
"Will the rope hold us both?"
"I don't know. Hurry, or I'll have to go without you. The heat is
getting worse."
Trembling, the gorilla god climbed over the parapet; and, steadied and
assisted by Tarzan, slid to the ape-man's back where he clung with a
deathlike grip about the bronzed neck.
Slowly and carefully Tarzan descended. He had no doubt as to the
strength of the rope on a straight pull, but feared that the rough
edges of the merlon might cut it.
The heat was terrific. Flames leaped out of the openings on each side
of them. Acrid, stifling smoke enveloped them. Where the descent at
this point had seemed reasonably safe a moment before, it was now
fraught with dangers that made the outcome of their venture appear more
than doubtful. It was as though the fire demon had discovered their
attempt to escape his clutches and had marshalled all his forces to
defeat it and add them to his list of victims.
With grim persistence Tarzan continued his slow descent. The creature
clinging to his back punctuated paroxysms of coughing and choking with
piercing screams of terror. The ape-man kept his eyes closed and tried
not to breathe in the thick smoke that enveloped them.
His lungs seemed upon the point of bursting when, to his relief, his
feet touched solid footing. Instantly he threw himself upon his face
and breathed. The rising smoke, ascending with the heat of flames, drew
fresh air along the roof on which the two lay; and they filled their
lungs with it.
Only for a moment did Tarzan lie thus; then he rolled over on his back
and pulled rapidly upon one end of the rope until the other passed
about the merlon above and fell to the roof beside him.
This lower roof on which they were was but ten feet above the level of
the ground; and, using the rope again, it was only a matter of seconds
before the two stood in comparative safety between the castle and the
towering cliff.
"Come now," said the ape-man; "we will go around to the front of the
castle and find out if the girl escaped."
"We shall have to be careful," cautioned the gorilla god. "This fire
will have attracted a crowd from the city. I have many enemies in the
palace of the king who would be glad to capture us both. Then we should
be killed and the girl lost--if she is not already dead."
"What do you suggest, then?" Tarzan was suspicious. He saw a trap, he
saw duplicity in everything conceived by the mind of man.
"The fire has not reached this low wing yet," explained the other.
"In it is the entrance to a shaft leading down to the quarters of a
faithful priest who dwells in a cave at the foot of the cliff on a
level with the city. If we can reach him we shall be safe. He will hide
us and do my bidding."
Tarzan scowled. He had the wild beast's aversion to entering an
unfamiliar enclosure, but he had overheard enough of the conversation
between the gorilla god and Cranmer to know that the former's statement
was at least partially true--his enemies in the palace might gladly
embrace an opportunity to imprison or destroy him.
"Very well," he assented; "but I am going to tie this rope around your
neck so that you may not escape me, and remind you that I still have
the knife with which I killed several of your gorillas. I and the knife
will be always near you."
The gorilla god made no reply; but he submitted to being secured, and
then led the way into the building and to a cleverly concealed trap
opening into the top of a shaft descending into darkness.
Here a ladder led downward, and Tarzan let his companion precede him
into the Stygian blackness of the shaft. They descended for a short
distance to a horizontal corridor which terminated at another vertical
shaft. These shafts and corridors alternated until the gorilla god
finally announced that they had reached the bottom of the cliff.
Here they proceeded along a corridor until a heavy wooden door blocked
their progress. The gorilla god listened intently for a moment, his
ear close to the planking of the door. Finally he raised the latch and
pushed the door silently ajar. Through the crack the ape-man saw a
rough cave lighted by a single smoky torch.
"He is not here," said the gorilla god as he pushed the door open and
entered. "He has probably gone with the others to see the fire."
Tarzan looked about the interior. He saw a smoke blackened cave, the
floor littered with dirty straw. Opposite the doorway through which
they had entered was another probably leading into the open. It was
closed with a massive wooden door. Near the door was a single small
window. Some sacks made of the skins of animals hung from pegs driven
into the walls. A large jar sitting on the floor held water.
"We shall have to await his return," said the gorilla god. "In the
meantime let us eat."
He crossed to the bags hanging on the wall and examined their contents,
finding celery, bamboo tips, fruit, and nuts. He selected what he
wished and sat down on the floor. "Help yourself," he invited with a
wave of a hand toward the sacks.
"I have eaten," said Tarzan and sat down near the gorilla god where he
could watch both him and the doorway.
His companion ate in silence for a few minutes; then he looked up at
the ape-man. "You said that you did not want diamonds." His tone was
skeptical. "Then why did you come here?"
"Not for diamonds."
The gorilla god chuckled. "My people killed some of your party as they
were about to enter the valley. On the body of one of them was a map of
this valley--the valley of diamonds. Are you surprised that I assume
that you came for the diamonds?"
"I knew nothing of the map. How could we have had a map of this valley
which, until we came, was absolutely unknown to white men?"
"You had a map."
"But who could have made it?"
"I made it."
"You! How could we have a map that you made? Have you returned to
England since you first came here?"
"No--but I made that map."
"You came here because you hated men and to escape them. It is not
reasonable that you should have made a map to invite men here, and if
you did make it how did it get to America or to England or wherever it
was that these--my people got it?" demanded Tarzan.
"I will tell you. I loved a girl. She was not interested in a poor
scientist with no financial future ahead of him. She wanted wealth and
luxuries. She wanted a rich husband.
"When I came to this valley and found the diamonds I thought of her.
I cannot say that I still loved her, but I wanted her. I should have
liked to be revenged upon her for the suffering that she had caused me.
I thought what a fine revenge it would be to get her here and keep her
here as long as she lived. I would give her wealth--more wealth than
any other creature in the world possessed; but she would be unable to
buy anything with it." He chuckled as he recalled his plan.
"So I made the map, and I wrote her a letter. I told her to tell no
one but to come here alone; so that no one else would know about our
treasure and steal it from us. I told her just what to do, where to
land, and how to form her safari. Then I waited. I have been waiting
for seventy-four years, but she has never come.
"I had gone to considerable effort to get the letter to her. It had
been necessary for me to go a long way from the valley to find a
friendly tribe of natives and employ one of them as a runner to take
my letter to the coast. I never knew whether or not the letter reached
the coast. The runner might have been killed. Many things might
have happened. I often wondered what became of the map. Now it has
come back to me--after seventy-four years." Again he chuckled. "And
brought another girl--a very much prettier girl. Mine would be--let's
see--ninety-four years old, a toothless old hag." He sighed. "But now
I suppose that I shall not have either of them."
There was a sound at the outer door. Tarzan sprang to his feet. The
door opened, and an old gorilla started to enter. At sight of the
ape-man he bared his fangs and paused.
"It is all right, Father Tobin," said the gorilla god. "Come in and
close the door."
"My Lord!" exclaimed the old gorilla as he closed the door behind him
and threw himself upon his knees. "We thought that you had perished in
the flames. Praises be to heaven that you have been spared to us."
"Blessing be upon you, my son," replied the gorilla god. "And now tell
me what has happened in the city."
"The castle is destroyed."
"Yes, I knew that; but what of the king? Does he think me dead?"
"All think so; and, may curses descend upon him, Henry is pleased. They
say that he will proclaim himself God."
"Do you know aught of the fate of the girl Wolsey rescued from Henry's
clutches and brought to my castle? Did she die in the fire?" asked the
gorilla god.
"She escaped, My Lord. I saw her."
"Where is she?" demanded Tarzan.
"The king's men recaptured her and took her to the palace."
"That will be the end of her," announced the gorilla god, "for if Henry
insists on marrying her, as he certainly will, Catherine of Aragon will
tear her to pieces."
"We must get her away from him at once," said Tarzan.