the sound of stealthy movement came to him from the black recesses at
the rear of the cell. He wheeled quickly, drawing his hunting knife
from its sheath. He did not have to ask himself what the author of
this sound might be, for he knew that the only other living creature
that might have occupied this cell with its former inmate was another
lion. Why it had not joined in the attack upon him, he could not guess,
but that it would eventually seize him was a foregone conclusion.
Perhaps even now it was preparing to sneak upon him. He wished that
his eyes might penetrate the darkness, for if he could see the lion as
it charged he might be better prepared to meet it. In the past he had
met the charges of other lions, but always before he had been able to
see their swift spring and to elude the sweep of their mighty talons
as they reared upon their hind legs to seize him. Now it would be
different, and for once in his life, Tarzan of the Apes felt death was
inescapable. He knew that his time had come.
He was not afraid. He simply knew that he did not wish to die and that
the price at which he would sell his life would cost his antagonist
dearly. In silence he waited. Again he heard that faint, yet ominous
sound. The foul air of the cell reeked with the stench of the
carnivores. From somewhere in a distant corridor he heard the growling
of a lion at its kill; and then a voice broke the silence.
"Who are you?" it asked. It was the voice of a woman, and it came from
the back of the cell in which the ape-man was imprisoned.
"Where are you?" demanded Tarzan.
"I am here at the back of the cell," replied the woman.
"Where is the lion?"
"He went out when you opened the door," she replied.
"Yes, I know," said Tarzan, "but the other one. Where is he?"
"There is no other one. There was but one lion here and it is gone. Ah,
now I know you!" she exclaimed. "I know the voice. It is Tarzan of the
Apes."
"La!" exclaimed the ape-man, advancing quickly across the cell. "How
could you be here with the lion and still live?"
"I am in an adjoining cell that is separated from this one by a door
made of iron bars," replied La. Tarzan heard metal hinges creak. "It is
not locked," she said. "It was not necessary to lock it, for it opens
into this other cell where the lion was."
Groping forward through the dark, the two advanced until their hands
touched one another.
La pressed close to the man. She was trembling. "I have been afraid,"
she said, "but I shall not be afraid now."
"I shall not be of much help to you," said Tarzan. "I also am a
prisoner.
"I know it," replied La, "but I always feel safe when you are near."
"Tell me what has happened," demanded Tarzan. "How is it that Oah is
posing as high priestess and you a prisoner in your own dungeons?"
"I forgave Oah her former treason when she conspired with Cadj to wrest
my power from me," explained La, "but she could not exist without
intrigue and duplicity. To further her ambitions, she made love to
Dooth, who has been high priest since Jad-bal-ja killed Cadj. They
spread stories about me through the city; and as my people have never
forgiven me for my friendship for you, they succeeded in winning enough
to their cause to overthrow and imprison me. All the ideas were Oah's,
for Dooth and the other priests, as you well know, are stupid beasts.
It was Oah's idea to imprison me thus with a lion for company, merely
to make my suffering more terrible, until the time should come when she
might prevail upon the priests to offer me in sacrifice to the Flaming
God. In that she has had some difficulty, I know, as those who had
brought my food have told me."
"How could they bring food to you here?" asked Tarzan. "No one could
pass through the outer cell while the lion was there."
"There is another opening in the lion's cell, that leads into a low,
narrow corridor into which they can drop meat from above. Thus they
would entice the lion from this outer cell, after which they would
lower a gate of iron bars across the opening of the small corridor into
which he went, and while he was thus imprisoned they brought my food
to me. But they did not feed him much. He was always hungry and often
growling and pawing at the bars of my cell. Perhaps Oah hoped that some
day he would batter them down."
"Where does this other corridor, in which they fed the lion, lead?"
asked Tarzan.
"I do not know," replied La, "but I imagine that it is only a blind
tunnel built in ancient times for this very purpose."
"We must have a look at it," said Tarzan. "It may offer a means of
escape."
"Why not escape through the door by which you entered?" asked La; and
when the ape-man had explained why this was impossible, she pointed out
the location of the entrance to the small tunnel.
"We must get out of here as quickly as possible, if it is possible at
all," said Tarzan, "for if they are able to capture the lion, they will
certainly return him to this cell."
"They will capture him," said La. "There is no question as to that."
"Then I had better hurry and make my investigation of the tunnel, for
it might prove embarrassing were they to return him to the cell while I
was in the tunnel, if it proved to be a blind one."
"I will listen at the outer door while you investigate," offered La.
"Make haste."
Groping his way toward the section of the wall that La had indicated,
Tarzan found a heavy grating of iron closing an aperture leading into a
low and narrow corridor. Lifting the barrier, Tarzan entered and with
his hands extended before him moved forward in a crouching position,
since the low ceiling would not permit him to stand erect. He had
progressed but a short distance when he discovered that the corridor
made an abrupt right-angle turn to the left, and beyond the turn he
saw at a short distance a faint luminosity. Moving quickly forward, he
came to the end of the corridor, at the bottom of a vertical shaft, the
interior of which was illuminated by subdued daylight. The shaft was
constructed of the usual rough-hewn granite of the foundation walls of
the city, but here set with no great nicety or precision, giving the
interior of the shaft a rough and uneven surface.
As Tarzan was examining it, he heard La's voice coming along the tunnel
from the cell in which he had left her. Her tone was one of excitement,
and her message one that presaged a situation wrought with extreme
danger to them both.
"Make haste, Tarzan. They are returning with the lion!"
The ape-man hurried quickly back to the mouth of the tunnel.
"Quick!" he cried to La, as he raised the gate that had fallen behind
him after he had passed through.
"In there?" she demanded in an affrighted voice.
"It is our only chance of escape," replied the ape-man.
Without another word La crowded into the corridor beside him. Tarzan
lowered the grating and, with La following closely behind him, returned
to the opening leading into the shaft. Without a word, he lifted La
in his arms and raised her as high as he could, nor did she need to
be told what to do. With little difficulty she found both hand and
footholds upon the rough surface of the interior of the shaft, and with
Tarzan just below her, assisting and steadying her, she made her way
slowly aloft.
The shaft led directly upward into a room in the tower, which
overlooked the entire city of Opar; and here, concealed by the
crumbling walls, they paused to formulate their plans.
They both knew that their greatest danger lay in discovery by one
of the numerous monkeys infesting the ruins of Opar, with which the
inhabitants of the city are able to converse. Tarzan was anxious to be
away from Opar that he might thwart the plans of the white men who had
invaded his domain. But first he wished to bring about the downfall of
La's enemies and reinstate her upon the throne of Opar, or if that
should prove impossible, to insure the safety of her flight.
As he viewed her now in the light of day he was struck again by the
matchlessness of her deathless beauty that neither time, nor care,
nor danger seemed capable of dimming, and he wondered what he should
do with her; where he could take her; where this savage priestess of
the Flaming God could find a place in all the world, outside the walls
of Opar, with the environments of which she would harmonize. And as
he pondered, he was forced to admit to himself that no such place
existed. La was of Opar, a savage queen born to rule a race of savage
half-men. As well introduce a tigress to the salons of civilization as
La of Opar. Two or three thousand years earlier she might have been a
Cleopatra or a Sheba, but today she could be only La of Opar.
For some time they had sat in silence, the beautiful eyes of the high
priestess resting upon the profile of the forest god. "Tarzan!" she
said.
The man looked up. "What is it, La?" he asked.
"I still love you, Tarzan," she said in a low voice.
A troubled expression came into the eyes of the ape-man. "Let us not
speak of that."
"I like to speak of it," she murmured. "It gives me sorrow, but it is a
sweet sorrow--the only sweetness that has ever come into my life."
Tarzan extended a bronzed hand and laid it upon her slender, tapering
fingers. "You have always possessed my heart, La," he said, "up to the
point of love. If my affection goes no further than this, it is through
no fault of mine nor yours."
La laughed. "It is certainly through no fault of mine, Tarzan," she
said, "but I know that such things are not ordered by ourselves.
Love is a gift of the gods. Sometimes it is awarded as a recompense;
sometimes as a punishment. For me it has been a punishment, perhaps,
but I would not have it otherwise. I had nurtured it in my breast since
first I met you; and without that love, however hopeless it may be, I
should not care to live."
Tarzan made no reply, and the two relapsed into silence, waiting
for night to fall that they might descend into the city unobserved.
Tarzan's alert mind was occupied with plans for reinstating La upon her
throne, and presently they fell to discussing these.
"Just before the Flaming God goes to his rest at night," said La, "the
priests and the priestesses all gather in the throne room. There they
will be tonight before the throne upon which Oah will be seated. Then
may we descend to the city."
"And then what?" asked Tarzan.
"If we can kill Oah in the throne room," said La, "and Dooth at the
same time, they would have no leaders; and without leaders they are
lost."
"I cannot kill a woman," said Tarzan.
"I can," returned La, "and you can attend to Dooth. You certainly would
not object to killing him?"
"If he attacked, I would kill him," said Tarzan, "but not otherwise.
Tarzan of the Apes kills only in self-defense and for food, or when
there is no other way to thwart an enemy."
In the floor of the ancient room in which they were waiting were
two openings; one was the mouth of the shaft through which they had
ascended from the dungeons, the other opened into a similar but larger
shaft, to the bottom of which ran a long wooden ladder set in the
masonry of its sides. It was this shaft which offered them a means of
escape from the tower, and as Tarzan sat with his eyes resting idly
upon the opening, an unpleasant thought suddenly obtruded itself upon
his consciousness.
He turned toward La. "We had forgotten," he said, "that whoever casts
the meat down the shaft to the lion must ascend by this other shaft. We
may not be as safe from detection here as we had hoped."
"They do not feed the lion very often," said La; "not every day."
"When did they feed him last?" asked Tarzan.
"I do not recall," said La. "Time drags so heavily in the darkness of
the cell that I lost count of days."
"S-st!" cautioned Tarzan. "Someone is ascending now."
Silently the ape-man arose and crossed the floor to the opening, where
he crouched upon the side opposite the ladder. La moved stealthily
to his side, so that the ascending man, whose back would be toward
them, as he emerged from the shaft, would not see them. Slowly the man
ascended. They could hear his shuffling progress coming nearer and
nearer to the top. He did not climb as the ape-like priests of Opar are
wont to climb. Tarzan thought perhaps he was carrying a load either
of such weight or cumbersomeness as to retard his progress, but when
finally his head came into view the ape-man saw that he was an old man,
which accounted for his lack of agility; and then powerful fingers
closed about the throat of the unsuspecting Oparian, and he was lifted
bodily out of the shaft.
"Silence!" said the ape-man. "Do as you are told and you will not be
harmed."
La had snatched a knife from the girdle of their victim, and now Tarzan
forced him to the floor of the room and slightly released his hold upon
the fellow's throat, turning him around so that he faced them.
An expression of incredulity and surprise crossed the face of the old
priest as his eyes fell upon La.
"Darus!" exclaimed La.
"All honor to the Flaming God who has ordered your escape!" exclaimed
the priest.
La turned to Tarzan. "You need not fear Darus," she said; "he will not
betray us. Of all the priests of Opar, there never lived one more loyal
to his queen."
"That is right," said the old man, shaking his head.
"Are there many more loyal to the high priestess, La?" demanded Tarzan.
"Yes, very many," replied Darus, "but they are afraid. Oah is a
she-devil and Dooth is a fool. Between the two of them there is no
longer either safety or happiness in Opar."
"How many are there whom you absolutely know may be depended upon?"
demanded La.
"Oh, very many," replied Darus.
"Gather them in the throne room tonight then, Darus; and as the Flaming
God goes to his couch, be ready to strike at the enemies of La, your
priestess."
"You will be there?" asked Darus.
"I shall be there," replied La. "This, your dagger, shall be the
signal. When you see La of Opar plunge it into the breast of Oah, the
false priestess, fall upon those who are the enemies of La."
"It shall be done, just as you say," Darus assured her, "and now I must
throw this meat to the lion and be gone."
Slowly the old priest descended the ladder, gibbering and muttering
to himself, after he had cast a few bones and scraps of meat into the
other shaft to the lion.
"You are quite sure you can trust him, La?" demanded Tarzan.
"Absolutely," replied the girl. "Darus would die for me, and I know
that he hates Oah and Dooth."
The slow remaining hours of the afternoon dragged on, the sun was low
in the west, and now the two must take their greatest risk, that of
descending into the city while it was still light and making their way
to the throne room, although the risk was greatly minimized by the fact
that the inhabitants of the city were all supposed to be congregated in
the throne room at this time, performing the age-old rite with which
they speeded the Flaming God to his night of rest. Without interruption
they descended to the base of the tower, crossed the courtyard and
entered the temple. Here, through devious and round-about passages,
La led the way to a small doorway that opened into the throne room at
the back of the dais upon which the throne stood. Here she paused,
listening to the services being conducted within the great chamber,
waiting for the cue that would bring them to a point when all within
the room, except the high priestess, were prostrated with their faces
pressed against the floor.
When that instant arrived, La swung open the door and leaped silently
upon the dais behind the throne in which her victim sat. Close behind
her came Tarzan, and in that first instant both realized that they had
been betrayed, for the dais was swarming with priests ready to seize
them.
Already one had caught La by an arm, but before he could drag her away
Tarzan sprang upon him, seized him by the neck and jerked his head
backward so suddenly and with such force that the sound of his snapping
vertebra could be heard across the room. Then he raised the body high
above his head and cast it into the faces of the priests charging
upon him. As they staggered back, he seized La and swung her into the
corridor along which they had approached the throne room.
It was useless to stand and fight, for he knew that even though he
might hold his own for awhile, they must eventually overcome him and
that once they laid their hands upon La they would tear her limb from
limb.
Down the corridor behind them came the yelling horde of priests, and in
their wake, screaming for the blood of her victim, was Oah.
"Make for the outer walls by the shortest route, La," directed Tarzan,
and the girl sped on winged feet, leading him through the labyrinthine
corridors of the ruins, until they broke suddenly into the chamber of
the seven pillars of gold, and then Tarzan knew the way.
No longer needing his guide, and realizing that the priests were
overtaking them, being fleeter of foot than La, he swept the girl into
his arms and sped through the echoing chambers of the temple toward the
inner wall. Through that, across the courtyard and through the outer
wall they passed, and still the priests pursued, urged on by screaming
Oah. Out across the deserted valley they fled; and now the priests were
losing ground, for their short, crooked legs could not compete with the
speed of Tarzan's clean limbed stride, even though he was burdened by
the weight of La.
The sudden darkness of the near tropics that follows the setting of the
sun soon obliterated the pursuers from their sight; and a short time
thereafter the sounds of pursuit ceased, and Tarzan knew that the chase
had been abandoned, for the men of Opar have no love for the darkness
of the outer world.
Then Tarzan paused and lowered La to the ground; but as he did so her
soft arms encircled his neck and she pressed close to him, her cheek
against his breast, and burst into tears.
"Do not cry, La," he said. "We shall come again to Opar, and when we do
you shall be seated upon your throne again.
"I am not crying for that," she replied.
"Then why do you cry?" he asked.
"I am crying for joy," she said, "joy that perhaps I shall be alone
with you now for a long time."
In pity, Tarzan pressed her to him for a moment, and then they set off
once more toward the barrier cliff.
That night they slept in a great tree in the forest at the foot of the
cliff, after Tarzan had constructed a rude couch for La between two
branches, while he settled himself in a crotch of the tree a few feet
below her.
It was dawn when Tarzan awoke. The sky was overcast, and he sensed an
approaching storm. No food had passed his lips for many hours, and he
knew that La had not eaten since the morning of the previous day. Food,
therefore, was a prime essential and he must find it and return to La
before the storm broke. Since it was meat that he craved, he knew that
he must be able to make fire and cook it before La could eat it, though
he himself still preferred it raw. He looked into La's cot and saw
that she was still asleep. Knowing that she must be exhausted from all
that she had passed through the previous day, he let her sleep on; and
swinging to a nearby tree, he set out upon his search for food.
As he moved up wind through the middle terrace, every faculty of his
delicately attuned senses was alert. Like the lion, Tarzan particularly
relished the flesh of Pacco, the zebra, but either Bara, the antelope,
or Horta, the boar, would have proven an acceptable substitute; but
the forest seemed to be deserted by every member of the herds he
sought. Only the scent spoor of the great cats assailed his nostrils,
mingled with the lesser and more human odor of Manu, the monkey. Time
means little to a hunting beast. It meant little to Tarzan, who, having
set out in search of meat, would return only when he had found meat.
When La awakened, it was some time before she could place her
surroundings; but when she did, a slow smile of happiness and
contentment parted her lovely lips, revealing an even row of perfect
teeth. She sighed, and then she whispered the name of the man she
loved. "Tarzan!" she called.
There was no reply. Again she spoke his name, but this time louder, and
again the only answer was silence. Slightly troubled, she arose upon an
elbow and leaned over the side of her sleeping couch. The tree beneath
her was empty.
She thought, correctly, that perhaps he had gone to hunt, but still
she was troubled by his absence, and the longer she waited the more
troubled she became. She knew that he did not love her and that she
must be a burden to him. She knew, too, that he was as much a wild
beast as the lions of the forest and that the same desire for freedom,
which animated them, must animate him. Perhaps he had been unable to
withstand the temptation longer and while she slept, he had left her.
There was not a great deal in the training or ethics of La of Opar that
could have found exception to such conduct, for the life of her people
was a life of ruthless selfishness and cruelty. They entertained few
of the finer sensibilities of civilized man, or the great nobility of
character that marked so many of the wild beasts. Her love for Tarzan
had been the only soft spot in La's savage life, and realizing that she
would think nothing of deserting a creature she did not love, she was
fair enough to cast no reproaches upon Tarzan for having done the thing
that she might have done, nor to her mind did it accord illy with her
conception of his nobility of character.
As she descended to the ground, she sought to determine some plan
of action for the future, and in this moment of her loneliness and
depression she saw no alternative but to return to Opar, and so it
was toward the city of her birth that she turned her steps; but she
had not gone far before she realized the danger and futility of this
plan, which could but lead to certain death while Oah and Dooth ruled
in Opar. She felt bitterly toward Darus, who she believed had betrayed
her; and accepting his treason as an index of what she might expect
from others whom she had believed to be friendly to her, she realized
the utter hopelessness of regaining the throne of Opar without outside
help. La had no happy life to which she might look forward; but the
will to live was yet strong within her, the result more, perhaps, of
the courageousness of her spirit than of any fear of death, which, to
her, was but another word for defeat.
She paused in the trail that she had reached a short distance from
the tree in which she had spent the night; and there, with almost
nothing to guide her, she sought to determine in what direction she
should break a new trail into the future, for wherever she went, other
than back to Opar, it would be a new trail, leading among peoples and
experiences as foreign to her as though she had suddenly stepped from
another planet, or from the long-lost continent of her progenitors.
It occurred to her that perhaps there might be other people in this
strange world as generous and chivalrous as Tarzan. At least in this
direction there lay hope. In Opar there was none, and so she turned
back away from Opar; and above her black clouds rolled and billowed as
the storm king marshalled his forces, and behind her a tawny beast with
gleaming eyes slunk through the underbrush beside the trail that she
followed.
VII
IN FUTILE SEARCH
Tarzan of the Apes, ranging far in search of food, caught at length
the welcome scent of Horta, the boar. The man paused and, with a deep
and silent inhalation, filled his lungs with air until his great
bronzed chest expanded to the full. Already he was tasting the fruits
of victory. The red blood coursed through his veins, as every fiber of
his being reacted to the exhilaration of the moment--the keen delight
of the hunting beast that has scented its quarry. And then swiftly and
silently he sped in the direction of his prey.
Presently he came upon it, a young tusker, powerful and agile, his
wicked tusks gleaming as he tore bark from a young tree. The ape-man
was poised just above him, concealed by the foliage of a great tree.
A vivid flash of lightning broke from the billowing black clouds above.
Thunder crashed and boomed. The storm broke, and at the same instant
the man launched himself downward upon the back of the unsuspecting
boar, in one hand the hunting knife of his long-dead sire.
The weight of the man's body crushed the boar to the earth, and before
it could struggle to its feet again, the keen blade had severed its
jugular. Its life blood gushing from the wound, the boar sought to rise
and turn to fight; but the steel thews of the ape-man dragged it down,
and an instant later, with a last convulsive shudder, Horta died.
Leaping to his feet, Tarzan placed a foot upon the carcass of his kill
and, raising his face to the heavens, gave voice to the victory cry of
the bull-ape.
Faintly to the ears of marching men came the hideous scream. The blacks
in the party halted, wide-eyed.
"What the devil was that?" demanded Zveri.
"It sounded like a panther," said Colt.
"That was no panther," said Kitembo. "It was the cry of a bull-ape who
has made a kill, or--"