"You liked him then, La?" he asked.
"I liked him very much," she said, "but not in the same way that I like
Tarzan."
He touched her shoulder in a half caress. "La, the immutable!" he
murmured, and then, with a sudden toss of his head as though he would
clear his mind of sad thoughts, he turned once more toward Opar.
"Come," he said, "the Queen is returning to her throne."
The unseen eyes of Opar watched the advancing column. They recognized
La, and Tarzan, and the Waziri, and some there were who guessed the
identity of Jad-bal-ja; and Oah was frightened, and Dooth trembled, and
little Nao, who hated Oah, was almost happy, as happy as one may be who
carries a broken heart in one's bosom.
Oah had ruled with a tyrant hand, and Dooth had been a weak fool, whom
no one longer trusted; and there were whisperings now among the ruins,
whisperings that would have frightened Oah and Dooth had they heard
them, and the whisperings spread among the priestesses and the warrior
priests, with the result that when Tarzan and Jad-bal-ja led the Waziri
into the courtyard of the outer temple there was no one there to resist
them; but instead voices called down to them from the dark arches of
surrounding corridors pleading for mercy and voicing earnest assurance
of their future loyalty to La.
As they made their way into the city, they heard far in the interior of
the temple a sudden burst of noise. High voices were punctuated by loud
screams, and then came silence; and when they came to the throne room
the cause of it was apparent to them, for lying in a welter of blood
were the bodies of Oah and Dooth, with those of a half dozen priests
and priestesses who had remained loyal to them; and, but for these, the
great throne room was empty.
Once again did La, the high priestess of the Flaming God, resume her
throne as Queen of Opar.
That night Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, ate again from the golden
platters of Opar, while young girls, soon to become priestesses of the
Flaming God, served meats and fruits, and wines so old that no living
man knew their vintage, nor in what forgotten vineyard grew the grapes
that went into their making.
But in such things Tarzan found little interest, and he was glad when
the new day found him at the head of his Waziri crossing the plain of
Opar toward the barrier cliffs. Upon his bronzed shoulder sat Nkima,
and at the ape-man's side paced the golden lion, while in column behind
him marched his hundred Waziri warriors.
It was a tired and disheartened company of whites that approached their
base camp after a long, monotonous and uneventful journey. Zveri and
Ivitch were in the lead, followed by Zora Drinov, while a considerable
distance to the rear Romero and Mori walked side by side, and such had
been the order in which they had marched all these long days.
Wayne Colt was sitting in the shade of one of the shelters, and the
blacks were lolling in front of another, a short distance away, as
Zveri and Ivitch came into sight.
Colt rose and came forward, and it was then that Zveri spied him. "You
damned traitor!" he cried. "I'll get you if it's the last thing I do on
earth," and as he spoke he drew his revolver and fired point blank at
the unarmed American.
His first shot grazed Colt's side without breaking the skin, but Zveri
fired no second shot, for almost simultaneously with the report of his
own shot another rang out behind him, and Peter Zveri, dropping his
pistol and clutching at his back, staggered drunkenly upon his feet.
Ivitch wheeled about. "My God, Zora, what have you done?" he cried.
"What I have been waiting to do for twelve years," replied the girl.
"What I have been waiting to do ever since I was little more than a
child."
Wayne Colt had run forward and seized Zveri's gun from the ground where
it had fallen, and Romero and Mori now came up at a run.
Zveri had sunk to the ground and was glaring savagely about him. "Who
shot me?" he screamed. "I know. It was that damned greaser."
"It was I," said Zora Drinov.
"You!" gasped Zveri.
Suddenly she turned to Wayne Colt as though only he mattered. "You
might as well know the truth," she said. "I am not a Red and never have
been. This man killed my father, and my mother, and an older brother
and sister. My father was--well, never mind who he was. He is avenged
now." She turned fiercely upon Zveri. "I could have killed you a
dozen times in the last few years," she said, "but I waited because I
wanted more than your life. I wanted to help kill the hideous schemes
with which you and your kind are seeking to wreck the happiness of the
world."
Peter Zveri sat on the ground, staring at her, his wide eyes slowly
glazing. Suddenly he coughed and a torrent of blood gushed from his
mouth. Then he sank back dead.
Romero had moved close to Ivitch. Suddenly he poked the muzzle of a
revolver into the Russian's ribs. "Drop your gun," he said. "I'm taking
no chances on you either."
Ivitch, paling, did as he was bid. He saw his little world tottering,
and he was afraid.
Across the clearing a figure stood at the edge of the jungle. It had
not been there an instant before. It had appeared silently as though
out of thin air. Zora Drinov was the first to perceive it. She voiced
a cry of surprised recognition; and as the others turned to follow the
direction of her eyes, they saw a bronzed white man, naked but for a
loin cloth of leopard skin, coming toward them. He moved with the easy,
majestic grace of a lion and there was much about him that suggested
the king of beasts.
"Who is that?" asked Colt.
"I do not know who he is," replied Zora, "other than that he is the man
who saved my life when I was lost in the jungle."
The man halted before them.
"Who are you?" demanded Wayne Colt.
"I am Tarzan of the Apes," replied the other. "I have seen and heard
all that has occurred here. The plan that was fostered by this man,"
he nodded at the body of Zveri, "has failed and he is dead. This girl
has avowed herself. She is not one of you. My people are camped a
short distance away. I shall take her to them and see that she reaches
civilization in safety. For the rest of you I have no sympathy. You may
get out of the jungle as best you may. I have spoken."
"They are not all what you think them, my friend," said Zora.
"What do you mean?" demanded Tarzan.
"Romero and Mori have learned their lesson. They avowed themselves
openly during a quarrel when our blacks deserted us."
"I heard them," said Tarzan.
She looked at him in surprise. "You heard them?" she asked.
"I have heard much that has gone on in many of your camps," replied the
ape-man, "but I do not know that I may believe all that I hear."
"I think you may believe what you heard them say," Zora assured him. "I
am confident that they are sincere."
"Very well," said Tarzan. "If they wish they may come with me also, but
these other two will have to shift for themselves."
"Not the American," said Zora.
"No? And why not?" demanded the ape-man.
"Because he is a special agent in the employ of the United States
Government," replied the girl.
The entire party, including Colt, looked at her in astonishment. "How
did you learn that?" demanded Colt.
"The message that you sent when you first came to camp and we were here
alone was intercepted by one of Zveri's agents. Now do you understand
how I know?"
"Yes," said Colt. "It is quite plain."
"That is why Zveri called you a traitor and tried to kill you."
"And how about this other?" demanded Tarzan, indicating Ivitch. "Is he,
also, a sheep in wolf's clothing?"
"He is one of those paradoxes who are so numerous," replied Zora. "He
is one of those Reds who is all yellow."
Tarzan turned to the blacks who had come forward and were standing,
listening questioningly to a conversation they could not understand. "I
know your country," he said to them in their own dialect. "It lies near
the end of the railroad that runs to the Coast."
"Yes, master," said one of the blacks.
"You will take this white man with you as far as the railroad. See
that he has enough to eat and is not harmed, and then tell him to get
out of the country. Start now." Then he turned back to the whites.
"The rest of you will follow me to my camp." And with that he turned
and swung away toward the trail by which he had entered the camp.
Behind him followed the four who owed to his humanity more than they
could ever know, nor had they known could have guessed that his great
tolerance, courage, resourcefulness and the protective instinct that
had often safeguarded them sprang not from his human progenitors, but
from his lifelong association with the natural beasts of the forest
and the jungle, who have these instinctive qualities far more strongly
developed than do the unnatural beasts of civilization, in whom the
greed and lust of competition have dimmed the luster of these noble
qualities where they have not eradicated them entirely.
Behind the others walked Zora Drinov and Wayne Colt, side by side.
"I thought you were dead," she said.
"And I thought that you were dead," he replied.
"And worse than that," she continued, "I thought that, whether dead or
alive, I might never tell you what was in my heart."
"And I thought that a hideous gulf separated us that I could never span
to ask you the question that I wanted to ask you," he answered in a low
tone.
She turned toward him, her eyes filled with tears, her lips trembling.
"And I thought that, alive or dead, I could never say yes to that
question, if you did ask me," she replied.
A curve in the trail hid them from the sight of the others as he took
her in his arms and drew her lips to his.
TARZAN THE INVINCIBLE
Africa, the hunting ground of savage beasts, primitive men, and the
hidden fragments of ancient civilizations, was the target of a clever
Red scheme to create chaos and take it over.
It was in the oldest ruins of all, the lost city of lost Atlantis,
Opar, that this newest of world conquerors chose to make the point of
attack.
There was only one defender of freedom who knew the location of Opar
and that was Tarzan of the Apes. And so the contest of wits and skill
and jungle cunning was met--to make TARZAN THE INVINCIBLE one of Edgar
Rice Burroughs' best.