Komodoflorensal stood at Tarzan's side, his weapon ready to take issue
with any who might question their presence here; but presently the end
of his iron rod dropped to the floor and a broad smile overspread his
features.
Tarzan looked at him. "Who are they?" he demanded, "and why have they
been killed?"
"They are not dead, my friend," replied Komodoflorensal. "They are
the nobles whose duty it is to prevent the use of wine. They are not
dead--they are drunk."
"But the blood beneath the head of this one at my feet!" demanded the
ape-man.
"It is red wine, not blood," his companion assured him. Then Tarzan
smiled.
"They could not have chosen a better night for their orgy," he said.
"Had they remained sober the door through which we entered from the
storeroom would have been securely fastened, I imagine."
"Assuredly, and we would have had a sober guard of warriors to deal
with in this chamber, instead of ten drunken nobles. We are very
fortunate, Zuanthrol."
He had scarcely ceased speaking when a door in the opposite side of
the room swung open, revealing two warriors, who stepped immediately
into the chamber. They eyed the two who faced them and then glanced
about the room at the inert forms of its other occupants.
"What do you here, slaves?" demanded one of the newcomers.
"Sh-sh-sh!" cautioned Tarzan, placing a finger to his lips. "Enter and
close the door, lest others hear."
"There is no one near to hear," snapped one of them, but they entered
and he closed the door. "What is the meaning of this?"
"That you are our prisoners," cried the ape-man, leaping past them and
placing himself before the door, his iron rod in readiness.
A sneer twisted the mouth of each of the two Veltopismakusians as they
whipped out their rapiers and leaped toward the ape-man, ignoring for
the moment the Trohanadalmakusian, who, seizing upon the opportunity
thus afforded him, threw aside his iron rod and snatched a rapier from
the side of one of the drunken nobles--a substitution of weapons that
would render Komodoflorensal a dangerous opponent anywhere in Minuni,
for there was no better swordsman among all the warlike clans of
Trohanadalmakus, whose blades were famed throughout Minuni.
Facing, with only an iron rod, two skilled swordsmen placed Tarzan of
the Apes at a disadvantage that might have proved his undoing had
it not been for the presence of Komodoflorensal, who, no sooner than
he had appropriated a weapon, leaped forward and engaged one of the
warriors. The other pressed Tarzan fiercely.
"Your prisoner, eh, slave?" he sneered as he lunged for his opponent;
but though less skilled, perhaps, in sword play than his antagonist,
the Lord of the Jungle had not faced Bolgani and Numa for nothing.
His movements were as lightning, his strength as great as before
Zoanthrohago had reduced his stature. At the first onslaught of the
warriors he had leaped to one side to avoid the thrust of a blade, and
as much to his own astonishment as to theirs, what he had intended but
for a nimble sidestep had carried him the length of the room, and then
the man had been at him again, while the other was having his time well
occupied with the Zertolosto of Trohanadalmakus.
Twice Tarzan parried cuts with his cumbersome bar and then a thrust but
missed him by a hair's breadth, his side step coming but in the nick
of time. It was a close call, for the man had lunged at his abdomen--a
close call for Tarzan and death for his opponent, for as the point
slipped harmlessly by him the ape-man swung his rod upon the unguarded
head of the Veltopismakusian, and with a grunt the fellow slumped to
the floor, his skull crushed to the bridge of his nose.
Then Tarzan turned to aid Komodoflorensal, but the son of Adendrohahkis
needed no aid. He had his man against the wall and was running him
through the heart as Tarzan turned in their direction. As he fell,
Komodoflorensal swung toward the center of the room and as his eye fell
upon the ape-man a smile crossed his face.
"With an iron bar you bested a swordsman of Minuni!" he cried. "I would
not have believed it possible and so I hastened to dispatch my man that
I might come to your rescue before it was too late."
Tarzan laughed. "I had the same thought in mind concerning you," he
said.
"And you could have well held it had I not been able to secure this
rapier," Komodoflorensal assured him. "But what now? We have again come
much farther than it seems possible we can have. Naught will surprise
me hereafter."
"We are going to trade apparel with these two unfortunate gentlemen,"
said Tarzan, divesting himself of the green tunic as he spoke.
Komodoflorensal chuckled as he followed the example of his companion.
"There are other peoples as great as the Minunians," he declared,
"though until I met you, my friend, I should never have believed it."
A few moments later the two stood garbed in the habiliments of
Veltopismakusian warriors and Tarzan was slipping his green tunic upon
the corpse of him whom he had slain.
"But why are you doing that?" asked the prince.
"Do likewise with yours and you will see, presently," Tarzan replied.
Komodoflorensal did as the other bid him and when the change had been
completed the ape-man threw one of the corpses across his shoulder and
carried it into the storeroom, followed closely by Komodoflorensal with
the other. Walking through the window embrasure to the edge of the
shaft Tarzan hurled his burden out into space, and reaching back took
Komodoflorensal's from him and pitched it after the first.
"If they do not examine them too closely," he said, "the ruse may serve
to convince them that we died attempting to escape." As he spoke he
detached two of the hooks from the ladder down which they had clambered
from the window of their dungeon and dropped them after the corpses.
"These will lend color to the suggestion," he added, in explanation.
Together they returned to the room where the drunken nobles lay, where
Komodoflorensal began to rifle the fat money pouches of the unconscious
men.
"We shall need all of this that we can get if we are to pose as
Veltopismakusian warriors for any length of time," he said. "I know
these people by reputation and that gold will buy many of the things
that we may require--the blindness of guards and the complaisance of
officials, if they do not guess too close to the truth concerning us."
"That part of it you must attend to, Komodoflorensal," said Tarzan,
"for I am unfamiliar with the ways of your people; but we may not
remain here. These gentlemen have served us well, and themselves, too,
for their faithlessness and debauchery saved their lives, while the two
who followed in sobriety the path of duty were destroyed."
"Matters are strangely ordered," commented Komodoflorensal.
"In Minuni as elsewhere," agreed Tarzan, leading the way to the door
of the chamber which they found opened into a corridor instead of into
another chamber as they had rather expected would be the fact at a
point thus close to the central shaft.
In silence they proceeded along the passageway, which, at this hour of
the morning, was deserted. They passed lighted chambers, where men and
women were sleeping peacefully in the glare of many candles. They saw a
sentry asleep before the door of a noble's quarters. No one discovered
them and thus they passed down a series of inclined runways and along
interminable corridors until they were far from that portion of the
royal dome in which they had been incarcerated and where it would be
most natural for the search for them to commence in the event that the
bodies they had hurled into the shaft were not immediately discovered,
or were identified for what they really were, rather than for what the
two fugitives had tried to make them appear.
And now a white-tunicked slave was approaching them along the corridor.
He passed without paying them any heed, and presently another and
another appeared until the two realized that morning was approaching
and the corridors would soon be filled with the inhabitants of the dome.
"It will be best," said Komodoflorensal, "to find a hiding place until
there are more people abroad. We shall be safer in a crowd than among
just a few where we shall be the more noticeable."
Nearly all the chambers they passed now were occupied by families,
while those that were untenanted were without candles and therefore
unsafe as hiding places for any length of time; but presently
Komodoflorensal touched Tarzan's arm and pointed to a hieroglyphic
beside a door they were approaching.
"Just the place," he said.
"What is it?" asked Tarzan, and as they came opposite the open door;
"Why, it is filled with men! When they awake we shall be discovered."
"But not recognized," returned the Trohanadalmakusian; "or at least the
chances are slight that we shall be. This is a common chamber where
any man may purchase lodgings over night. Doubtless there are visitors
from other domes and strangers will not be particularly remarked on
this account."
He entered the room, followed by Tarzan. A white-tunicked slave
approached them. "Candles for two," demanded Komodoflorensal, handing
the slave one of the smaller golden coins he had filched from the
sleeping nobles.
The fellow led them to a far corner of the room where there was plenty
of space upon the floor, lit two candles and left them. A moment later
they were stretched at full length, their faces toward the wall as a
further protection against recognition, and were soon asleep.
When Tarzan awoke he saw that he and Komodoflorensal were the only
remaining occupants of the chamber, other than the slave who had
admitted them, and he awoke his companion, believing that they should
do nothing that might even in a slight degree call more than ordinary
attention to them. A bucket of water was brought them and they
performed their ablutions at a gutter which encircled the chamber,
passing along the foot of each wall, as was the custom throughout
Minuni, the waste water being carried away in pipes to the fields
beyond the cities, where it was used for irrigating the crops. As
all the water had to be carried into the domes and to the different
levels in buckets, the amount used for ablutions was reduced to the
minimum, the warrior and noble class getting the bulk of it, while the
white-tunicked slaves depended principally upon the rivers, near which
domes are always erected, for their baths. The green slaves fare the
worst, and suffer a real hardship through lack of bathing facilities,
for the Minunians are a cleanly people; but they manage to alleviate
their plight to some extent, where the quarry masters are more kindly
disposed, by the use of stagnant seepage water that accumulates in
every quarry at the lower levels and which, not being fit for drinking
purposes, may be used by the slaves for bathing when they are permitted
the time to obtain it.
Having washed, Tarzan and Komodoflorensal passed out into the
corridor, a broad thoroughfare of the dome city, where there were now
passing two solid lines of humanity moving in opposite directions,
the very numbers of the people proving their greatest safeguard
against detection. Candles at frequent intervals diffused a brilliant
light and purified the air. Open doorways revealed shops of various
descriptions within which men and women were bartering for goods, and
now Tarzan had his first real glimpse of Veltopismakusian life. The
shops were all conducted by white-tunicked slaves, but slaves and
warriors intermingled as customers, both sexes of each class being
represented. It was Tarzan's first opportunity, also, to see the women
of the warrior class outside their own homes. He had seen the Princess
Janzara in the palace quarters and, through the doorways in various
portions of the dome, he had seen other women of varying stations in
life; but these were the first that he had seen abroad at close hand.
Their faces were painted deep vermilion, their ears blue, and their
apparel so arranged that the left leg and left arm were bare, though
if even so much as the right ankle or wrist became uncovered they
hastily readjusted their garments to hide them, giving every evidence
of confusion and embarrassment. As the ape-man watched them he was
reminded of fat dowagers he had seen at home whose evening gowns left
them naked to their kidneys, yet who would rather have died than to
have exposed a knee.
The front of the shops were covered with brilliant paintings, usually
depicting the goods that were on sale, together with hieroglyphics
describing the wares and advertising the name of the proprietor. One
of these finally held the attention of the Trohanadalmakusian, and he
touched Tarzan's arm and pointed toward it.
"A place where food is served," he said. "Let us eat."
"Nothing would suit me better. I am famished," Tarzan assured him,
and so the two entered the little shop where several customers were
already sitting upon the floor with small benches pulled close to them,
upon which food was being served in wooden dishes. Komodoflorensal
found a space near the rear of the shop, not far from a doorway leading
into another chamber, which was also a shop of a different character,
not all the places of business being fortunately located upon a
corridor, but having their entrances, like this one, through another
place of business.
Having seated themselves and dragged a bench before them they looked
about while waiting to be served. It was evidently a poor shop,
Komodoflorensal told Tarzan, catering to the slave caste and the poorer
warriors, of which there were several sitting at benches in different
parts of the room. By their harness and apparel, which was worn and
shabby, one might easily guess at their poverty. In the adjoining shop
were several more of the same class of unfortunate warriors mending
their own clothes with materials purchased from the poor shopkeeper.
The meal was served by a slave in a white tunic of very cheap material,
who was much surprised when payment for the meal and the service was
offered in gold.
"It is seldom," he said, "that warriors rich enough to possess gold
come to our poor shop. Pieces of iron and bits of lead, with much
wooden money, pass into my coffers; but rarely do I see gold. Once I
did, and many of my customers were formerly of the richest of the city.
Yonder see that tall man with the heavily wrinkled face. Once he was
rich--the richest warrior in his dome. Look at him now! And see them
in the next room performing menial services, men who once owned slaves
so prosperous that they, in turn, hired other slaves to do the meaner
duties for them. Victims, all of them, of the tax that Elkomoelhago has
placed upon industry.
"To be poor," he continued, "assures one an easier life than being
rich, for the poor have no tax to pay, while those who work hard and
accumulate property have only their labor for their effort, since the
government takes all from them in taxes.
"Over there is a man who was very rich. He worked hard all his life and
accumulated a vast fortune. For several years after Elkomoelhago's new
tax law was enforced, he struggled to earn enough to insure that his
income would be at least equal to his taxes and the cost of his living;
but he found that it was impossible. He had one enemy, a man who had
wronged him grievously. This man was very poor, and to him he gave
all of what remained of his great fortune and his property. It was a
terrible revenge. From being a contented man, this victim of another's
spleen is now a haggard wreck, laboring unceasingly eighteen hours each
day in a futile attempt to insure himself an income that will defray
his taxes."
Having finished their meal the two fugitives returned to the corridor
and continued their way downward through the dome toward the first
level, keeping always to the more crowded corridors, where detection
seemed least likely. Now, mounted men were more frequently encountered
and so rapidly and recklessly did the warriors ride along the narrow
corridors that it was with difficulty that the pedestrians avoided
being ridden down and trampled, and it seemed to Tarzan but little
less than a miracle that any of them arrived at their destinations
uninjured. Having at last come to the lowest level, they were engaged
in searching for one of the four corridors that would lead them from
the dome, when their way was completely blocked by a great throng
that had congregated at the intersection of two corridors. Those in
the rear were stretching their necks to observe what was going on in
the center of the gathering. Everyone was asking questions of his
neighbor, but as yet no one upon the outskirts of the mob appeared to
know what had occurred, until at last fragments of rumors filtered back
to the farthermost. Tarzan and Komodoflorensal dared ask no questions,
but they kept their ears open and presently they were rewarded by
overhearing repeated what seemed to be an authoritative account of what
had transpired to cause this congestion. In answer to a question put
by one of the throng a fellow who was elbowing his way out from the
center of the jam explained that those in front had halted to view the
remains of two slaves who had been killed while trying to escape.
"They were locked in one of Zoanthrohago's slave cells at the very
highest level," he told his questioner, "and they tried to escape
by climbing down an improvised ladder into the central shaft. Their
ladder broke and they were precipitated to the roof of the throne
room, where their bodies, terribly mangled, were but just found. They
are being carried out to the beasts, now. One of them was a great
loss to Zoanthrohago as it was the slave Zuanthrol, upon whom he was
experimenting."
"Ah," exclaimed a listener, "I saw them but yesterday."
"You would not know them today," vouchsafed the informer, "so terribly
are their faces disfigured."
When the press of humanity had been relieved Tarzan and Komodoflorensal
continued their way, finding that the Slaves' Corridor lay just before
them, and that it was down this avenue that the bodies of their victims
of the previous night were being carried.
"What," asked the ape-man, "did he mean by saying that they were being
carried to the beasts?"
"It is the way in which we dispose of the bodies of slaves," replied
the Trohanadalmakusian. "They are carried to the edge of the jungle,
where they are devoured by wild beasts. There are old and toothless
lions near Trohanadalmakus that subsist entirely upon slave meat. They
are our scavengers and so accustomed are they to being fed that they
often come to meet the parties who bring out the corpses, pacing beside
them, roaring and growling, until the spot is reached where the bodies
are to be deposited."
"You dispose of all your dead in this manner?"
"Only the slave dead. The bodies of warriors and nobles are burned."
"In a short time, then," continued Tarzan, "there will be no danger
of there ever being a correct identification of those two," he jerked
his thumb along the corridor ahead, where the bodies of the two dead
warriors were being bounced and jolted along upon the backs of diadets.