Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
by
Edgar Rice Burroughs

Part 1 out of 4














Created by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska





Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

By Edgar Rice Burroughs





Contents




CHAPTER PAGE
1 Belgian and Arab
2 On the Road to Opar
3 The Call of the Jungle
4 Prophecy and Fulfillment
5 The Altar of the Flaming God
6 The Arab Raid
7 The Jewel-Room of Opar
8 The Escape from Opar
9 The Theft of the Jewels
10 Achmet Zek Sees the Jewels
11 Tarzan Becomes a Beast Again
12 La Seeks Vengeance
13 Condemned to Torture and Death
14 A Priestess But Yet a Woman
15 The Flight of Werper
16 Tarzan Again Leads the Mangani
17 The Deadly Peril of Jane Clayton
18 The Fight For the Treasure
19 Jane Clayton and The Beasts of the Jungle
20 Jane Clayton Again a Prisoner
21 The Flight to the Jungle
22 Tarzan Recovers His Reason
23 A Night of Terror
24 Home





1

Belgian and Arab




Lieutenant Albert Werper had only the prestige of the name he had
dishonored to thank for his narrow escape from being cashiered.
At first he had been humbly thankful, too, that they had sent him
to this Godforsaken Congo post instead of court-martialing him,
as he had so justly deserved; but now six months of the monotony,
the frightful isolation and the loneliness had wrought a change. The
young man brooded continually over his fate. His days were filled
with morbid self-pity, which eventually engendered in his weak and
vacillating mind a hatred for those who had sent him here--for the
very men he had at first inwardly thanked for saving him from the
ignominy of degradation.

He regretted the gay life of Brussels as he never had regretted the
sins which had snatched him from that gayest of capitals, and as the
days passed he came to center his resentment upon the representative
in Congo land of the authority which had exiled him--his captain
and immediate superior.

This officer was a cold, taciturn man, inspiring little love in
those directly beneath him, yet respected and feared by the black
soldiers of his little command.

Werper was accustomed to sit for hours glaring at his superior
as the two sat upon the veranda of their common quarters, smoking
their evening cigarets in a silence which neither seemed desirous
of breaking. The senseless hatred of the lieutenant grew at
last into a form of mania. The captain's natural taciturnity he
distorted into a studied attempt to insult him because of his past
shortcomings. He imagined that his superior held him in contempt,
and so he chafed and fumed inwardly until one evening his madness
became suddenly homicidal. He fingered the butt of the revolver
at his hip, his eyes narrowed and his brows contracted. At last
he spoke.

"You have insulted me for the last time!" he cried, springing to
his feet. "I am an officer and a gentleman, and I shall put up
with it no longer without an accounting from you, you pig."

The captain, an expression of surprise upon his features, turned
toward his junior. He had seen men before with the jungle madness
upon them--the madness of solitude and unrestrained brooding, and
perhaps a touch of fever.

He rose and extended his hand to lay it upon the other's shoulder.
Quiet words of counsel were upon his lips; but they were never
spoken. Werper construed his superior's action into an attempt
to close with him. His revolver was on a level with the captain's
heart, and the latter had taken but a step when Werper pulled the
trigger. Without a moan the man sank to the rough planking of the
veranda, and as he fell the mists that had clouded Werper's brain
lifted, so that he saw himself and the deed that he had done in
the same light that those who must judge him would see them.

He heard excited exclamations from the quarters of the soldiers
and he heard men running in his direction. They would seize him,
and if they didn't kill him they would take him down the Congo to
a point where a properly ordered military tribunal would do so just
as effectively, though in a more regular manner.

Werper had no desire to die. Never before had he so yearned for
life as in this moment that he had so effectively forfeited his
right to live. The men were nearing him. What was he to do? He
glanced about as though searching for the tangible form of a
legitimate excuse for his crime; but he could find only the body
of the man he had so causelessly shot down.

In despair, he turned and fled from the oncoming soldiery. Across
the compound he ran, his revolver still clutched tightly in his
hand. At the gates a sentry halted him. Werper did not pause to
parley or to exert the influence of his commission--he merely raised
his weapon and shot down the innocent black. A moment later the
fugitive had torn open the gates and vanished into the blackness
of the jungle, but not before he had transferred the rifle and
ammunition belts of the dead sentry to his own person.

All that night Werper fled farther and farther into the heart of
the wilderness. Now and again the voice of a lion brought him to
a listening halt; but with cocked and ready rifle he pushed ahead
again, more fearful of the human huntsmen in his rear than of the
wild carnivora ahead.

Dawn came at last, but still the man plodded on. All sense of hunger
and fatigue were lost in the terrors of contemplated capture. He
could think only of escape. He dared not pause to rest or eat until
there was no further danger from pursuit, and so he staggered on
until at last he fell and could rise no more. How long he had fled
he did not know, or try to know. When he could flee no longer the
knowledge that he had reached his limit was hidden from him in the
unconsciousness of utter exhaustion.

And thus it was that Achmet Zek, the Arab, found him. Achmet's
followers were for running a spear through the body of their
hereditary enemy; but Achmet would have it otherwise. First he
would question the Belgian. It were easier to question a man first
and kill him afterward, than kill him first and then question him.

So he had Lieutenant Albert Werper carried to his own tent, and
there slaves administered wine and food in small quantities until
at last the prisoner regained consciousness. As he opened his eyes
he saw the faces of strange black men about him, and just outside
the tent the figure of an Arab. Nowhere was the uniform of his
soldiers to be seen.

The Arab turned and seeing the open eyes of the prisoner upon him,
entered the tent.

"I am Achmet Zek," he announced. "Who are you, and what were you
doing in my country? Where are your soldiers?"

Achmet Zek! Werper's eyes went wide, and his heart sank. He was
in the clutches of the most notorious of cut-throats--a hater of
all Europeans, especially those who wore the uniform of Belgium.
For years the military forces of Belgian Congo had waged a fruitless
war upon this man and his followers--a war in which quarter had
never been asked nor expected by either side.

But presently in the very hatred of the man for Belgians, Werper
saw a faint ray of hope for himself. He, too, was an outcast and
an outlaw. So far, at least, they possessed a common interest,
and Werper decided to play upon it for all that it might yield.

"I have heard of you," he replied, "and was searching for you.
My people have turned against me. I hate them. Even now their
soldiers are searching for me, to kill me. I knew that you would
protect me from them, for you, too, hate them. In return I will
take service with you. I am a trained soldier. I can fight, and
your enemies are my enemies."

Achmet Zek eyed the European in silence. In his mind he revolved
many thoughts, chief among which was that the unbeliever lied. Of
course there was the chance that he did not lie, and if he told the
truth then his proposition was one well worthy of consideration,
since fighting men were never over plentiful--especially white men
with the training and knowledge of military matters that a European
officer must possess.

Achmet Zek scowled and Werper's heart sank; but Werper did not know
Achmet Zek, who was quite apt to scowl where another would smile,
and smile where another would scowl.

"And if you have lied to me," said Achmet Zek, "I will kill you
at any time. What return, other than your life, do you expect for
your services?"

"My keep only, at first," replied Werper. "Later, if I am worth
more, we can easily reach an understanding." Werper's only desire
at the moment was to preserve his life. And so the agreement was
reached and Lieutenant Albert Werper became a member of the ivory
and slave raiding band of the notorious Achmet Zek.

For months the renegade Belgian rode with the savage raider. He
fought with a savage abandon, and a vicious cruelty fully equal
to that of his fellow desperadoes. Achmet Zek watched his recruit
with eagle eye, and with a growing satisfaction which finally found
expression in a greater confidence in the man, and resulted in an
increased independence of action for Werper.

Achmet Zek took the Belgian into his confidence to a great extent,
and at last unfolded to him a pet scheme which the Arab had long
fostered, but which he never had found an opportunity to effect.
With the aid of a European, however, the thing might be easily
accomplished. He sounded Werper.

"You have heard of the man men call Tarzan?" he asked.

Werper nodded. "I have heard of him; but I do not know him."

"But for him we might carry on our 'trading' in safety and with
great profit," continued the Arab. "For years he has fought us,
driving us from the richest part of the country, harassing us, and
arming the natives that they may repel us when we come to 'trade.'
He is very rich. If we could find some way to make him pay us many
pieces of gold we should not only be avenged upon him; but repaid
for much that he has prevented us from winning from the natives
under his protection."

Werper withdrew a cigaret from a jeweled case and lighted it.

"And you have a plan to make him pay?" he asked.

"He has a wife," replied Achmet Zek, "whom men say is very beautiful.
She would bring a great price farther north, if we found it too
difficult to collect ransom money from this Tarzan."

Werper bent his head in thought. Achmet Zek stood awaiting his
reply. What good remained in Albert Werper revolted at the thought
of selling a white woman into the slavery and degradation of a
Moslem harem. He looked up at Achmet Zek. He saw the Arab's eyes
narrow, and he guessed that the other had sensed his antagonism to
the plan. What would it mean to Werper to refuse? His life lay
in the hands of this semi-barbarian, who esteemed the life of
an unbeliever less highly than that of a dog. Werper loved life.
What was this woman to him, anyway? She was a European, doubtless,
a member of organized society. He was an outcast. The hand of
every white man was against him. She was his natural enemy, and
if he refused to lend himself to her undoing, Achmet Zek would have
him killed.

"You hesitate," murmured the Arab.

"I was but weighing the chances of success," lied Werper, "and
my reward. As a European I can gain admittance to their home and
table. You have no other with you who could do so much. The risk
will be great. I should be well paid, Achmet Zek."

A smile of relief passed over the raider's face.

"Well said, Werper," and Achmet Zek slapped his lieutenant upon the
shoulder. "You should be well paid and you shall. Now let us sit
together and plan how best the thing may be done," and the two men
squatted upon a soft rug beneath the faded silks of Achmet's once
gorgeous tent, and talked together in low voices well into the
night. Both were tall and bearded, and the exposure to sun and
wind had given an almost Arab hue to the European's complexion. In
every detail of dress, too, he copied the fashions of his chief,
so that outwardly he was as much an Arab as the other. It was late
when he arose and retired to his own tent.

The following day Werper spent in overhauling his Belgian uniform,
removing from it every vestige of evidence that might indicate
its military purposes. From a heterogeneous collection of loot,
Achmet Zek procured a pith helmet and a European saddle, and from
his black slaves and followers a party of porters, askaris and tent
boys to make up a modest safari for a big game hunter. At the head
of this party Werper set out from camp.





2

On the Road To Opar




It was two weeks later that John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, riding
in from a tour of inspection of his vast African estate, glimpsed
the head of a column of men crossing the plain that lay between
his bungalow and the forest to the north and west.

He reined in his horse and watched the little party as it emerged
from a concealing swale. His keen eyes caught the reflection of the
sun upon the white helmet of a mounted man, and with the conviction
that a wandering European hunter was seeking his hospitality, he
wheeled his mount and rode slowly forward to meet the newcomer.

A half hour later he was mounting the steps leading to the veranda
of his bungalow, and introducing M. Jules Frecoult to Lady Greystoke.

"I was completely lost," M. Frecoult was explaining. "My head man
had never before been in this part of the country and the guides
who were to have accompanied me from the last village we passed
knew even less of the country than we. They finally deserted us
two days since. I am very fortunate indeed to have stumbled so
providentially upon succor. I do not know what I should have done,
had I not found you."

It was decided that Frecoult and his party should remain several
days, or until they were thoroughly rested, when Lord Greystoke
would furnish guides to lead them safely back into country with
which Frecoult's head man was supposedly familiar.

In his guise of a French gentleman of leisure, Werper found little
difficulty in deceiving his host and in ingratiating himself with
both Tarzan and Jane Clayton; but the longer he remained the less
hopeful he became of an easy accomplishment of his designs.

Lady Greystoke never rode alone at any great distance from the
bungalow, and the savage loyalty of the ferocious Waziri warriors
who formed a great part of Tarzan's followers seemed to preclude
the possibility of a successful attempt at forcible abduction, or
of the bribery of the Waziri themselves.

A week passed, and Werper was no nearer the fulfillment of his plan,
in so far as he could judge, than upon the day of his arrival, but
at that very moment something occurred which gave him renewed hope
and set his mind upon an even greater reward than a woman's ransom.

A runner had arrived at the bungalow with the weekly mail, and
Lord Greystoke had spent the afternoon in his study reading and
answering letters. At dinner he seemed distraught, and early in the
evening he excused himself and retired, Lady Greystoke following
him very soon after. Werper, sitting upon the veranda, could
hear their voices in earnest discussion, and having realized that
something of unusual moment was afoot, he quietly rose from his
chair, and keeping well in the shadow of the shrubbery growing
profusely about the bungalow, made his silent way to a point beneath
the window of the room in which his host and hostess slept.

Here he listened, and not without result, for almost the first
words he overheard filled him with excitement. Lady Greystoke was
speaking as Werper came within hearing.

"I always feared for the stability of the company," she was
saying; "but it seems incredible that they should have failed for
so enormous a sum--unless there has been some dishonest manipulation."

"That is what I suspect," replied Tarzan; "but whatever the cause,
the fact remains that I have lost everything, and there is nothing
for it but to return to Opar and get more."

"Oh, John," cried Lady Greystoke, and Werper could feel the shudder
through her voice, "is there no other way? I cannot bear to think
of you returning to that frightful city. I would rather live in
poverty always than to have you risk the hideous dangers of Opar."

"You need have no fear," replied Tarzan, laughing. "I am pretty
well able to take care of myself, and were I not, the Waziri who
will accompany me will see that no harm befalls me."

"They ran away from Opar once, and left you to your fate," she
reminded him.

"They will not do it again," he answered. "They were very much
ashamed of themselves, and were coming back when I met them."

"But there must be some other way," insisted the woman.

"There is no other way half so easy to obtain another fortune, as to
go to the treasure vaults of Opar and bring it away," he replied.
"I shall be very careful, Jane, and the chances are that the
inhabitants of Opar will never know that I have been there again
and despoiled them of another portion of the treasure, the very
existence of which they are as ignorant of as they would be of its
value."

The finality in his tone seemed to assure Lady Greystoke that
further argument was futile, and so she abandoned the subject.

Werper remained, listening, for a short time, and then, confident
that he had overheard all that was necessary and fearing discovery,
returned to the veranda, where he smoked numerous cigarets in rapid
succession before retiring.

The following morning at breakfast, Werper announced his intention
of making an early departure, and asked Tarzan's permission to hunt
big game in the Waziri country on his way out--permission which
Lord Greystoke readily granted.

The Belgian consumed two days in completing his preparations, but
finally got away with his safari, accompanied by a single Waziri
guide whom Lord Greystoke had loaned him. The party made but
a single short march when Werper simulated illness, and announced
his intention of remaining where he was until he had fully recovered.
As they had gone but a short distance from the Greystoke bungalow,
Werper dismissed the Waziri guide, telling the warrior that he
would send for him when he was able to proceed. The Waziri gone,
the Belgian summoned one of Achmet Zek's trusted blacks to his tent,
and dispatched him to watch for the departure of Tarzan, returning
immediately to advise Werper of the event and the direction taken
by the Englishman.

The Belgian did not have long to wait, for the following day his
emissary returned with word that Tarzan and a party of fifty Waziri
warriors had set out toward the southeast early in the morning.

Werper called his head man to him, after writing a long letter to
Achmet Zek. This letter he handed to the head man.

"Send a runner at once to Achmet Zek with this," he instructed the
head man. "Remain here in camp awaiting further instructions from
him or from me. If any come from the bungalow of the Englishman,
tell them that I am very ill within my tent and can see no one.
Now, give me six porters and six askaris--the strongest and bravest
of the safari--and I will march after the Englishman and discover
where his gold is hidden."

And so it was that as Tarzan, stripped to the loin cloth and armed
after the primitive fashion he best loved, led his loyal Waziri
toward the dead city of Opar, Werper, the renegade, haunted his
trail through the long, hot days, and camped close behind him by
night.

And as they marched, Achmet Zek rode with his entire following
southward toward the Greystoke farm.

To Tarzan of the Apes the expedition was in the nature of a holiday
outing. His civilization was at best but an outward veneer which
he gladly peeled off with his uncomfortable European clothes whenever
any reasonable pretext presented itself. It was a woman's love
which kept Tarzan even to the semblance of civilization--a condition
for which familiarity had bred contempt. He hated the shams and
the hypocrisies of it and with the clear vision of an unspoiled mind
he had penetrated to the rotten core of the heart of the thing--the
cowardly greed for peace and ease and the safe-guarding of property
rights. That the fine things of life--art, music and literature--had
thriven upon such enervating ideals he strenuously denied, insisting,
rather, that they had endured in spite of civilization.

"Show me the fat, opulent coward," he was wont to say, "who ever
originated a beautiful ideal. In the clash of arms, in the battle
for survival, amid hunger and death and danger, in the face of God
as manifested in the display of Nature's most terrific forces, is
born all that is finest and best in the human heart and mind."

And so Tarzan always came back to Nature in the spirit of a lover
keeping a long deferred tryst after a period behind prison walls.
His Waziri, at marrow, were more civilized than he. They cooked
their meat before they ate it and they shunned many articles of food
as unclean that Tarzan had eaten with gusto all his life and so
insidious is the virus of hypocrisy that even the stalwart ape-man
hesitated to give rein to his natural longings before them. He
ate burnt flesh when he would have preferred it raw and unspoiled,
and he brought down game with arrow or spear when he would far
rather have leaped upon it from ambush and sunk his strong teeth in
its jugular; but at last the call of the milk of the savage mother
that had suckled him in infancy rose to an insistent demand--he
craved the hot blood of a fresh kill and his muscles yearned to pit
themselves against the savage jungle in the battle for existence
that had been his sole birthright for the first twenty years of
his life.





3

The Call of the Jungle




Moved by these vague yet all-powerful urgings the ape-man lay awake
one night in the little thorn boma that protected, in a way, his
party from the depredations of the great carnivora of the jungle.
A single warrior stood sleepy guard beside the fire that yellow
eyes out of the darkness beyond the camp made imperative. The moans
and the coughing of the big cats mingled with the myriad noises of
the lesser denizens of the jungle to fan the savage flame in the
breast of this savage English lord. He tossed upon his bed of
grasses, sleepless, for an hour and then he rose, noiseless as a
wraith, and while the Waziri's back was turned, vaulted the boma
wall in the face of the flaming eyes, swung silently into a great
tree and was gone.

For a time in sheer exuberance of animal spirit he raced swiftly
through the middle terrace, swinging perilously across wide spans
from one jungle giant to the next, and then he clambered upward
to the swaying, lesser boughs of the upper terrace where the moon
shone full upon him and the air was stirred by little breezes and
death lurked ready in each frail branch. Here he paused and raised
his face to Goro, the moon. With uplifted arm he stood, the cry of
the bull ape quivering upon his lips, yet he remained silent lest
he arouse his faithful Waziri who were all too familiar with the
hideous challenge of their master.

And then he went on more slowly and with greater stealth and caution,
for now Tarzan of the Apes was seeking a kill. Down to the ground
he came in the utter blackness of the close-set boles and the
overhanging verdure of the jungle. He stooped from time to time
and put his nose close to earth. He sought and found a wide game
trail and at last his nostrils were rewarded with the scent of
the fresh spoor of Bara, the deer. Tarzan's mouth watered and a
low growl escaped his patrician lips. Sloughed from him was the
last vestige of artificial caste--once again he was the primeval
hunter--the first man--the highest caste type of the human race.
Up wind he followed the elusive spoor with a sense of perception
so transcending that of ordinary man as to be inconceivable to
us. Through counter currents of the heavy stench of meat eaters
he traced the trail of Bara; the sweet and cloying stink of Horta,
the boar, could not drown his quarry's scent--the permeating, mellow
musk of the deer's foot.

Presently the body scent of the deer told Tarzan that his prey was
close at hand. It sent him into the trees again--into the lower
terrace where he could watch the ground below and catch with ears
and nose the first intimation of actual contact with his quarry.
Nor was it long before the ape-man came upon Bara standing alert
at the edge of a moon-bathed clearing. Noiselessly Tarzan crept
through the trees until he was directly over the deer. In the
ape-man's right hand was the long hunting knife of his father and
in his heart the blood lust of the carnivore. Just for an instant
he poised above the unsuspecting Bara and then he launched himself
downward upon the sleek back. The impact of his weight carried
the deer to its knees and before the animal could regain its feet
the knife had found its heart. As Tarzan rose upon the body of
his kill to scream forth his hideous victory cry into the face of
the moon the wind carried to his nostrils something which froze
him to statuesque immobility and silence. His savage eyes blazed
into the direction from which the wind had borne down the warning
to him and a moment later the grasses at one side of the clearing
parted and Numa, the lion, strode majestically into view. His
yellow-green eyes were fastened upon Tarzan as he halted just
within the clearing and glared enviously at the successful hunter,
for Numa had had no luck this night.

From the lips of the ape-man broke a rumbling growl of warning.
Numa answered but he did not advance. Instead he stood waving
his tail gently to and fro, and presently Tarzan squatted upon his
kill and cut a generous portion from a hind quarter. Numa eyed him
with growing resentment and rage as, between mouthfuls, the ape-man
growled out his savage warnings. Now this particular lion had
never before come in contact with Tarzan of the Apes and he was much
mystified. Here was the appearance and the scent of a man-thing
and Numa had tasted of human flesh and learned that though not the
most palatable it was certainly by far the easiest to secure, yet
there was that in the bestial growls of the strange creature which
reminded him of formidable antagonists and gave him pause, while
his hunger and the odor of the hot flesh of Bara goaded him almost
to madness. Always Tarzan watched him, guessing what was passing
in the little brain of the carnivore and well it was that he did
watch him, for at last Numa could stand it no longer. His tail shot
suddenly erect and at the same instant the wary ape-man, knowing
all too well what the signal portended, grasped the remainder of
the deer's hind quarter between his teeth and leaped into a nearby
tree as Numa charged him with all the speed and a sufficient
semblance of the weight of an express train.

Tarzan's retreat was no indication that he felt fear. Jungle life
is ordered along different lines than ours and different standards
prevail. Had Tarzan been famished he would, doubtless, have stood
his ground and met the lion's charge. He had done the thing before
upon more than one occasion, just as in the past he had charged
lions himself; but tonight he was far from famished and in the
hind quarter he had carried off with him was more raw flesh than he
could eat; yet it was with no equanimity that he looked down upon
Numa rending the flesh of Tarzan's kill. The presumption of this
strange Numa must be punished! And forthwith Tarzan set out to make
life miserable for the big cat. Close by were many trees bearing
large, hard fruits and to one of these the ape-man swung with the
agility of a squirrel. Then commenced a bombardment which brought
forth earthshaking roars from Numa. One after another as rapidly
as he could gather and hurl them, Tarzan pelted the hard fruit down
upon the lion. It was impossible for the tawny cat to eat under
that hail of missiles--he could but roar and growl and dodge and
eventually he was driven away entirely from the carcass of Bara,
the deer. He went roaring and resentful; but in the very center
of the clearing his voice was suddenly hushed and Tarzan saw the
great head lower and flatten out, the body crouch and the long
tail quiver, as the beast slunk cautiously toward the trees upon
the opposite side.

Immediately Tarzan was alert. He lifted his head and sniffed the
slow, jungle breeze. What was it that had attracted Numa's attention
and taken him soft-footed and silent away from the scene of his
discomfiture? Just as the lion disappeared among the trees beyond
the clearing Tarzan caught upon the down-coming wind the explanation
of his new interest--the scent spoor of man was wafted strongly to
the sensitive nostrils. Caching the remainder of the deer's hind
quarter in the crotch of a tree the ape-man wiped his greasy palms
upon his naked thighs and swung off in pursuit of Numa. A broad,
well-beaten elephant path led into the forest from the clearing.
Parallel to this slunk Numa, while above him Tarzan moved through
the trees, the shadow of a wraith. The savage cat and the savage
man saw Numa's quarry almost simultaneously, though both had known
before it came within the vision of their eyes that it was a black
man. Their sensitive nostrils had told them this much and Tarzan's
had told him that the scent spoor was that of a stranger--old and
a male, for race and sex and age each has its own distinctive scent.
It was an old man that made his way alone through the gloomy jungle,
a wrinkled, dried up, little old man hideously scarred and tattooed
and strangely garbed, with the skin of a hyena about his shoulders
and the dried head mounted upon his grey pate. Tarzan recognized
the ear-marks of the witch-doctor and awaited Numa's charge with
a feeling of pleasurable anticipation, for the ape-man had no love
for witch-doctors; but in the instant that Numa did charge, the
white man suddenly recalled that the lion had stolen his kill a
few minutes before and that revenge is sweet.

The first intimation the black man had that he was in danger was
the crash of twigs as Numa charged through the bushes into the game
trail not twenty yards behind him. Then he turned to see a huge,
black-maned lion racing toward him and even as he turned, Numa seized
him. At the same instant the ape-man dropped from an overhanging
limb full upon the lion's back and as he alighted he plunged his
knife into the tawny side behind the left shoulder, tangled the
fingers of his right hand in the long mane, buried his teeth in
Numa's neck and wound his powerful legs about the beast's torso.
With a roar of pain and rage, Numa reared up and fell backward upon
the ape-man; but still the mighty man-thing clung to his hold and
repeatedly the long knife plunged rapidly into his side. Over and
over rolled Numa, the lion, clawing and biting at the air, roaring
and growling horribly in savage attempt to reach the thing upon
its back. More than once was Tarzan almost brushed from his hold.
He was battered and bruised and covered with blood from Numa and dirt
from the trail, yet not for an instant did he lessen the ferocity
of his mad attack nor his grim hold upon the back of his antagonist.
To have loosened for an instant his grip there, would have been to
bring him within reach of those tearing talons or rending fangs,
and have ended forever the grim career of this jungle-bred English
lord. Where he had fallen beneath the spring of the lion the
witch-doctor lay, torn and bleeding, unable to drag himself away
and watched the terrific battle between these two lords of the
jungle. His sunken eyes glittered and his wrinkled lips moved over
toothless gums as he mumbled weird incantations to the demons of
his cult.

For a time he felt no doubt as to the outcome--the strange white
man must certainly succumb to terrible Simba--whoever heard of a
lone man armed only with a knife slaying so mighty a beast! Yet
presently the old black man's eyes went wider and he commenced to
have his doubts and misgivings. What wonderful sort of creature was
this that battled with Simba and held his own despite the mighty
muscles of the king of beasts and slowly there dawned in those
sunken eyes, gleaming so brightly from the scarred and wrinkled
face, the light of a dawning recollection. Gropingly backward into
the past reached the fingers of memory, until at last they seized
upon a faint picture, faded and yellow with the passing years. It
was the picture of a lithe, white-skinned youth swinging through
the trees in company with a band of huge apes, and the old eyes
blinked and a great fear came into them--the superstitious fear of
one who believes in ghosts and spirits and demons.

And came the time once more when the witch-doctor no longer doubted
the outcome of the duel, yet his first judgment was reversed, for
now he knew that the jungle god would slay Simba and the old black
was even more terrified of his own impending fate at the hands
of the victor than he had been by the sure and sudden death which
the triumphant lion would have meted out to him. He saw the lion
weaken from loss of blood. He saw the mighty limbs tremble and
stagger and at last he saw the beast sink down to rise no more.
He saw the forest god or demon rise from the vanquished foe, and
placing a foot upon the still quivering carcass, raise his face to
the moon and bay out a hideous cry that froze the ebbing blood in
the veins of the witch-doctor.





4

Prophecy and Fulfillment




Then Tarzan turned his attention to the man. He had not slain
Numa to save the Negro--he had merely done it in revenge upon the
lion; but now that he saw the old man lying helpless and dying
before him something akin to pity touched his savage heart. In his
youth he would have slain the witch-doctor without the slightest
compunction; but civilization had had its softening effect upon
him even as it does upon the nations and races which it touches,
though it had not yet gone far enough with Tarzan to render him
either cowardly or effeminate. He saw an old man suffering and
dying, and he stooped and felt of his wounds and stanched the flow
of blood.

"Who are you?" asked the old man in a trembling voice.

"I am Tarzan--Tarzan of the Apes," replied the ape-man and not
without a greater touch of pride than he would have said, "I am
John Clayton, Lord Greystoke."

The witch-doctor shook convulsively and closed his eyes. When
he opened them again there was in them a resignation to whatever
horrible fate awaited him at the hands of this feared demon of the
woods. "Why do you not kill me?" he asked.

"Why should I kill you?" inquired Tarzan. "You have not harmed
me, and anyway you are already dying. Numa, the lion, has killed
you."

"You would not kill me?" Surprise and incredulity were in the tones
of the quavering old voice.

"I would save you if I could," replied Tarzan, "but that cannot be
done. Why did you think I would kill you?"

For a moment the old man was silent. When he spoke it was evidently
after some little effort to muster his courage. "I knew you of
old," he said, "when you ranged the jungle in the country of Mbonga,
the chief. I was already a witch-doctor when you slew Kulonga and
the others, and when you robbed our huts and our poison pot. At
first I did not remember you; but at last I did--the white-skinned
ape that lived with the hairy apes and made life miserable in the
village of Mbonga, the chief--the forest god--the Munango-Keewati
for whom we set food outside our gates and who came and ate it.
Tell me before I die--are you man or devil?"

Tarzan laughed. "I am a man," he said.

The old fellow sighed and shook his head. "You have tried to save
me from Simba," he said. "For that I shall reward you. I am a great
witch-doctor. Listen to me, white man! I see bad days ahead of
you. It is writ in my own blood which I have smeared upon my palm.
A god greater even than you will rise up and strike you down. Turn
back, Munango-Keewati! Turn back before it is too late. Danger
lies ahead of you and danger lurks behind; but greater is the danger
before. I see--" He paused and drew a long, gasping breath. Then
he crumpled into a little, wrinkled heap and died. Tarzan wondered
what else he had seen.

It was very late when the ape-man re-entered the boma and lay down
among his black warriors. None had seen him go and none saw him
return. He thought about the warning of the old witch-doctor before
he fell asleep and he thought of it again after he awoke; but he
did not turn back for he was unafraid, though had he known what
lay in store for one he loved most in all the world he would have
flown through the trees to her side and allowed the gold of Opar
to remain forever hidden in its forgotten storehouse.

Behind him that morning another white man pondered something he had
heard during the night and very nearly did he give up his project
and turn back upon his trail. It was Werper, the murderer, who in
the still of the night had heard far away upon the trail ahead of
him a sound that had filled his cowardly soul with terror--a sound
such as he never before had heard in all his life, nor dreamed that
such a frightful thing could emanate from the lungs of a God-created
creature. He had heard the victory cry of the bull ape as Tarzan
had screamed it forth into the face of Goro, the moon, and he had
trembled then and hidden his face; and now in the broad light of a
new day he trembled again as he recalled it, and would have turned
back from the nameless danger the echo of that frightful sound
seemed to portend, had he not stood in even greater fear of Achmet
Zek, his master.

And so Tarzan of the Apes forged steadily ahead toward Opar's
ruined ramparts and behind him slunk Werper, jackal-like, and only
God knew what lay in store for each.

At the edge of the desolate valley, overlooking the golden domes
and minarets of Opar, Tarzan halted. By night he would go alone
to the treasure vault, reconnoitering, for he had determined that
caution should mark his every move upon this expedition.

With the coming of night he set forth, and Werper, who had scaled
the cliffs alone behind the ape-man's party, and hidden through the
day among the rough boulders of the mountain top, slunk stealthily
after him. The boulder-strewn plain between the valley's edge and
the mighty granite kopje, outside the city's walls, where lay the
entrance to the passage-way leading to the treasure vault, gave
the Belgian ample cover as he followed Tarzan toward Opar.

He saw the giant ape-man swing himself nimbly up the face of the
great rock. Werper, clawing fearfully during the perilous ascent,
sweating in terror, almost palsied by fear, but spurred on by
avarice, following upward, until at last he stood upon the summit
of the rocky hill.

Tarzan was nowhere in sight. For a time Werper hid behind one of
the lesser boulders that were scattered over the top of the hill,
but, seeing or hearing nothing of the Englishman, he crept from
his place of concealment to undertake a systematic search of his
surroundings, in the hope that he might discover the location of the
treasure in ample time to make his escape before Tarzan returned,
for it was the Belgian's desire merely to locate the gold, that,
after Tarzan had departed, he might come in safety with his followers
and carry away as much as he could transport.

He found the narrow cleft leading downward into the heart of the
kopje along well-worn, granite steps. He advanced quite to the
dark mouth of the tunnel into which the runway disappeared; but
here he halted, fearing to enter, lest he meet Tarzan returning.

The ape-man, far ahead of him, groped his way along the rocky
passage, until he came to the ancient wooden door. A moment later
he stood within the treasure chamber, where, ages since, long-dead
hands had ranged the lofty rows of precious ingots for the rulers
of that great continent which now lies submerged beneath the waters
of the Atlantic.

No sound broke the stillness of the subterranean vault. There was
no evidence that another had discovered the forgotten wealth since
last the ape-man had visited its hiding place.

Satisfied, Tarzan turned and retraced his steps toward the summit
of the kopje. Werper, from the concealment of a jutting, granite
shoulder, watched him pass up from the shadows of the stairway
and advance toward the edge of the hill which faced the rim of the
valley where the Waziri awaited the signal of their master. Then
Werper, slipping stealthily from his hiding place, dropped into
the somber darkness of the entrance and disappeared.

Tarzan, halting upon the kopje's edge, raised his voice in the
thunderous roar of a lion. Twice, at regular intervals, he repeated
the call, standing in attentive silence for several minutes after
the echoes of the third call had died away. And then, from far
across the valley, faintly, came an answering roar--once, twice,
thrice. Basuli, the Waziri chieftain, had heard and replied.

Tarzan again made his way toward the treasure vault, knowing that
in a few hours his blacks would be with him, ready to bear away
another fortune in the strangely shaped, golden ingots of Opar. In
the meantime he would carry as much of the precious metal to the
summit of the kopje as he could.

Six trips he made in the five hours before Basuli reached the kopje,
and at the end of that time he had transported forty-eight ingots
to the edge of the great boulder, carrying upon each trip a load
which might well have staggered two ordinary men, yet his giant
frame showed no evidence of fatigue, as he helped to raise his
ebon warriors to the hill top with the rope that had been brought
for the purpose.

Six times he had returned to the treasure chamber, and six times
Werper, the Belgian, had cowered in the black shadows at the far
end of the long vault. Once again came the ape-man, and this time
there came with him fifty fighting men, turning porters for love
of the only creature in the world who might command of their fierce
and haughty natures such menial service. Fifty-two more ingots
passed out of the vaults, making the total of one hundred which
Tarzan intended taking away with him.

As the last of the Waziri filed from the chamber, Tarzan turned
back for a last glimpse of the fabulous wealth upon which his two
inroads had made no appreciable impression. Before he extinguished
the single candle he had brought with him for the purpose, and the
flickering light of which had cast the first alleviating rays into
the impenetrable darkness of the buried chamber, that it had known
for the countless ages since it had lain forgotten of man, Tarzan's
mind reverted to that first occasion upon which he had entered
the treasure vault, coming upon it by chance as he fled from the
pits beneath the temple, where he had been hidden by La, the High
Priestess of the Sun Worshipers.

He recalled the scene within the temple when he had lain stretched
upon the sacrificial altar, while La, with high-raised dagger,
stood above him, and the rows of priests and priestesses awaited,
in the ecstatic hysteria of fanaticism, the first gush of their
victim's warm blood, that they might fill their golden goblets and
drink to the glory of their Flaming God.

The brutal and bloody interruption by Tha, the mad priest, passed
vividly before the ape-man's recollective eyes, the flight of the
votaries before the insane blood lust of the hideous creature, the
brutal attack upon La, and his own part of the grim tragedy when
he had battled with the infuriated Oparian and left him dead at
the feet of the priestess he would have profaned.

This and much more passed through Tarzan's memory as he stood
gazing at the long tiers of dull-yellow metal. He wondered if La
still ruled the temples of the ruined city whose crumbling walls
rose upon the very foundations about him. Had she finally been
forced into a union with one of her grotesque priests? It seemed
a hideous fate, indeed, for one so beautiful. With a shake of his
head, Tarzan stepped to the flickering candle, extinguished its
feeble rays and turned toward the exit.

Behind him the spy waited for him to be gone. He had learned
the secret for which he had come, and now he could return at his
leisure to his waiting followers, bring them to the treasure vault
and carry away all the gold that they could stagger under.

The Waziri had reached the outer end of the tunnel, and were
winding upward toward the fresh air and the welcome starlight of
the kopje's summit, before Tarzan shook off the detaining hand of
reverie and started slowly after them.

Once again, and, he thought, for the last time, he closed the massive
door of the treasure room. In the darkness behind him Werper rose
and stretched his cramped muscles. He stretched forth a hand and
lovingly caressed a golden ingot on the nearest tier. He raised
it from its immemorial resting place and weighed it in his hands.
He clutched it to his bosom in an ecstasy of avarice.

Tarzan dreamed of the happy homecoming which lay before him,
of dear arms about his neck, and a soft cheek pressed to his; but
there rose to dispel that dream the memory of the old witch-doctor
and his warning.

And then, in the span of a few brief seconds, the hopes of both
these men were shattered. The one forgot even his greed in the
panic of terror--the other was plunged into total forgetfulness of
the past by a jagged fragment of rock which gashed a deep cut upon
his head.





5

The Altar of the Flaming God




It was at the moment that Tarzan turned from the closed door to
pursue his way to the outer world. The thing came without warning.
One instant all was quiet and stability--the next, and the world
rocked, the tortured sides of the narrow passageway split and
crumbled, great blocks of granite, dislodged from the ceiling,
tumbled into the narrow way, choking it, and the walls bent inward
upon the wreckage. Beneath the blow of a fragment of the roof,
Tarzan staggered back against the door to the treasure room, his
weight pushed it open and his body rolled inward upon the floor.

In the great apartment where the treasure lay less damage was wrought
by the earthquake. A few ingots toppled from the higher tiers, a
single piece of the rocky ceiling splintered off and crashed downward
to the floor, and the walls cracked, though they did not collapse.

There was but the single shock, no other followed to complete the
damage undertaken by the first. Werper, thrown to his length by
the suddenness and violence of the disturbance, staggered to his
feet when he found himself unhurt. Groping his way toward the
far end of the chamber, he sought the candle which Tarzan had left
stuck in its own wax upon the protruding end of an ingot.

By striking numerous matches the Belgian at last found what
he sought, and when, a moment later, the sickly rays relieved the
Stygian darkness about him, he breathed a nervous sigh of relief,
for the impenetrable gloom had accentuated the terrors of his
situation.

As they became accustomed to the light the man turned his eyes toward
the door--his one thought now was of escape from this frightful
tomb--and as he did so he saw the body of the naked giant lying
stretched upon the floor just within the doorway. Werper drew
back in sudden fear of detection; but a second glance convinced
him that the Englishman was dead. From a great gash in the man's
head a pool of blood had collected upon the concrete floor.

Quickly, the Belgian leaped over the prostrate form of his erstwhile
host, and without a thought of succor for the man in whom, for
aught he knew, life still remained, he bolted for the passageway
and safety.

But his renewed hopes were soon dashed. Just beyond the doorway
he found the passage completely clogged and choked by impenetrable
masses of shattered rock. Once more he turned and re-entered the
treasure vault. Taking the candle from its place he commenced a
systematic search of the apartment, nor had he gone far before he
discovered another door in the opposite end of the room, a door
which gave upon creaking hinges to the weight of his body. Beyond
the door lay another narrow passageway. Along this Werper made his
way, ascending a flight of stone steps to another corridor twenty
feet above the level of the first. The flickering candle lighted
the way before him, and a moment later he was thankful for the
possession of this crude and antiquated luminant, which, a few hours
before he might have looked upon with contempt, for it showed him,
just in time, a yawning pit, apparently terminating the tunnel he
was traversing.

Before him was a circular shaft. He held the candle above it
and peered downward. Below him, at a great distance, he saw the
light reflected back from the surface of a pool of water. He had
come upon a well. He raised the candle above his head and peered
across the black void, and there upon the opposite side he saw the
continuation of the tunnel; but how was he to span the gulf?

As he stood there measuring the distance to the opposite side and
wondering if he dared venture so great a leap, there broke suddenly
upon his startled ears a piercing scream which diminished gradually
until it ended in a series of dismal moans. The voice seemed
partly human, yet so hideous that it might well have emanated from
the tortured throat of a lost soul, writhing in the fires of hell.

The Belgian shuddered and looked fearfully upward, for the scream
had seemed to come from above him. As he looked he saw an opening
far overhead, and a patch of sky pinked with brilliant stars.

His half-formed intention to call for help was expunged by the
terrifying cry--where such a voice lived, no human creatures could
dwell. He dared not reveal himself to whatever inhabitants dwelt
in the place above him. He cursed himself for a fool that he had
ever embarked upon such a mission. He wished himself safely back in
the camp of Achmet Zek, and would almost have embraced an opportunity
to give himself up to the military authorities of the Congo if
by so doing he might be rescued from the frightful predicament in
which he now was.

He listened fearfully, but the cry was not repeated, and at last
spurred to desperate means, he gathered himself for the leap across
the chasm. Going back twenty paces, he took a running start, and
at the edge of the well, leaped upward and outward in an attempt
to gain the opposite side.

In his hand he clutched the sputtering candle, and as he took the
leap the rush of air extinguished it. In utter darkness he flew
through space, clutching outward for a hold should his feet miss
the invisible ledge.

He struck the edge of the door of the opposite terminus of the rocky
tunnel with his knees, slipped backward, clutched desperately for
a moment, and at last hung half within and half without the opening;
but he was safe. For several minutes he dared not move; but clung,
weak and sweating, where he lay. At last, cautiously, he drew
himself well within the tunnel, and again he lay at full length
upon the floor, fighting to regain control of his shattered nerves.

When his knees struck the edge of the tunnel he had dropped the
candle. Presently, hoping against hope that it had fallen upon
the floor of the passageway, rather than back into the depths of
the well, he rose upon all fours and commenced a diligent search
for the little tallow cylinder, which now seemed infinitely more
precious to him than all the fabulous wealth of the hoarded ingots
of Opar.

And when, at last, he found it, he clasped it to him and sank back
sobbing and exhausted. For many minutes he lay trembling and broken;
but finally he drew himself to a sitting posture, and taking a match
from his pocket, lighted the stump of the candle which remained to
him. With the light he found it easier to regain control of his
nerves, and presently he was again making his way along the tunnel
in search of an avenue of escape. The horrid cry that had come
down to him from above through the ancient well-shaft still haunted
him, so that he trembled in terror at even the sounds of his own
cautious advance.

He had gone forward but a short distance, when, to his chagrin,
a wall of masonry barred his farther progress, closing the tunnel
completely from top to bottom and from side to side. What could
it mean? Werper was an educated and intelligent man. His military
training had taught him to use his mind for the purpose for which
it was intended. A blind tunnel such as this was senseless. It
must continue beyond the wall. Someone, at some time in the past,
had had it blocked for an unknown purpose of his own. The man
fell to examining the masonry by the light of his candle. To his
delight he discovered that the thin blocks of hewn stone of which
it was constructed were fitted in loosely without mortar or cement.
He tugged upon one of them, and to his joy found that it was easily
removable. One after another he pulled out the blocks until he had
opened an aperture large enough to admit his body, then he crawled
through into a large, low chamber. Across this another door barred
his way; but this, too, gave before his efforts, for it was not
barred. A long, dark corridor showed before him, but before he
had followed it far, his candle burned down until it scorched his
fingers. With an oath he dropped it to the floor, where it sputtered
for a moment and went out.

Now he was in total darkness, and again terror rode heavily astride
his neck. What further pitfalls and dangers lay ahead he could
not guess; but that he was as far as ever from liberty he was quite
willing to believe, so depressing is utter absence of light to one
in unfamiliar surroundings.

Slowly he groped his way along, feeling with his hands upon the
tunnel's walls, and cautiously with his feet ahead of him upon the
floor before he could take a single forward step. How long he crept
on thus he could not guess; but at last, feeling that the tunnel's
length was interminable, and exhausted by his efforts, by terror,
and loss of sleep, he determined to lie down and rest before
proceeding farther.

When he awoke there was no change in the surrounding blackness.
He might have slept a second or a day--he could not know; but that
he had slept for some time was attested by the fact that he felt
refreshed and hungry.

Again he commenced his groping advance; but this time he had gone
but a short distance when he emerged into a room, which was lighted
through an opening in the ceiling, from which a flight of concrete
steps led downward to the floor of the chamber.

Above him, through the aperture, Werper could see sunlight glancing
from massive columns, which were twined about by clinging vines.
He listened; but he heard no sound other than the soughing of the
wind through leafy branches, the hoarse cries of birds, and the
chattering of monkeys.

Boldly he ascended the stairway, to find himself in a circular
court. Just before him stood a stone altar, stained with rusty-brown
discolorations. At the time Werper gave no thought to an explanation
of these stains--later their origin became all too hideously apparent
to him.

Beside the opening in the floor, just behind the altar, through
which he had entered the court from the subterranean chamber below,
the Belgian discovered several doors leading from the enclosure
upon the level of the floor. Above, and circling the courtyard, was
a series of open balconies. Monkeys scampered about the deserted
ruins, and gaily plumaged birds flitted in and out among the
columns and the galleries far above; but no sign of human presence
was discernible. Werper felt relieved. He sighed, as though a
great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He took a step
toward one of the exits, and then he halted, wide-eyed in astonishment
and terror, for almost at the same instant a dozen doors opened in
the courtyard wall and a horde of frightful men rushed in upon him.

They were the priests of the Flaming God of Opar--the same, shaggy,
knotted, hideous little men who had dragged Jane Clayton to the
sacrificial altar at this very spot years before. Their long arms,
their short and crooked legs, their close-set, evil eyes, and their
low, receding foreheads gave them a bestial appearance that sent a
qualm of paralyzing fright through the shaken nerves of the Belgian.

With a scream he turned to flee back into the lesser terrors of
the gloomy corridors and apartments from which he had just emerged,
but the frightful men anticipated his intentions. They blocked
the way; they seized him, and though he fell, groveling upon his
knees before them, begging for his life, they bound him and hurled
him to the floor of the inner temple.

The rest was but a repetition of what Tarzan and Jane Clayton had
passed through. The priestesses came, and with them La, the High
Priestess. Werper was raised and laid across the altar. Cold
sweat exuded from his every pore as La raised the cruel, sacrificial
knife above him. The death chant fell upon his tortured ears. His
staring eyes wandered to the golden goblets from which the hideous
votaries would soon quench their inhuman thirst in his own, warm
life-blood.

He wished that he might be granted the brief respite of unconsciousness
before the final plunge of the keen blade--and then there was a
frightful roar that sounded almost in his ears. The High Priestess
lowered her dagger. Her eyes went wide in horror. The priestesses,
her votaresses, screamed and fled madly toward the exits. The
priests roared out their rage and terror according to the temper
of their courage. Werper strained his neck about to catch a sight
of the cause of their panic, and when, at last he saw it, he too
went cold in dread, for what his eyes beheld was the figure of a
huge lion standing in the center of the temple, and already a single
victim lay mangled beneath his cruel paws.

Again the lord of the wilderness roared, turning his baleful gaze
upon the altar. La staggered forward, reeled, and fell across
Werper in a swoon.





6

The Arab Raid




After their first terror had subsided subsequent to the shock
of the earthquake, Basuli and his warriors hastened back into the
passageway in search of Tarzan and two of their own number who were
also missing.

They found the way blocked by jammed and distorted rock. For two
days they labored to tear a way through to their imprisoned friends;
but when, after Herculean efforts, they had unearthed but a few
yards of the choked passage, and discovered the mangled remains of
one of their fellows they were forced to the conclusion that Tarzan
and the second Waziri also lay dead beneath the rock mass farther
in, beyond human aid, and no longer susceptible of it.

Again and again as they labored they called aloud the names
of their master and their comrade; but no answering call rewarded
their listening ears. At last they gave up the search. Tearfully
they cast a last look at the shattered tomb of their master,
shouldered the heavy burden of gold that would at least furnish
comfort, if not happiness, to their bereaved and beloved mistress,
and made their mournful way back across the desolate valley of Opar,
and downward through the forests beyond toward the distant bungalow.

And as they marched what sorry fate was already drawing down upon
that peaceful, happy home!

From the north came Achmet Zek, riding to the summons of his
lieutenant's letter. With him came his horde of renegade Arabs,
outlawed marauders, these, and equally degraded blacks, garnered
from the more debased and ignorant tribes of savage cannibals
through whose countries the raider passed to and fro with perfect
impunity.

Mugambi, the ebon Hercules, who had shared the dangers and vicissitudes
of his beloved Bwana, from Jungle Island, almost to the headwaters
of the Ugambi, was the first to note the bold approach of the
sinister caravan.

He it was whom Tarzan had left in charge of the warriors who remained
to guard Lady Greystoke, nor could a braver or more loyal guardian
have been found in any clime or upon any soil. A giant in stature,
a savage, fearless warrior, the huge black possessed also soul and
judgment in proportion to his bulk and his ferocity.

Not once since his master had departed had he been beyond sight or
sound of the bungalow, except when Lady Greystoke chose to canter
across the broad plain, or relieve the monotony of her loneliness
by a brief hunting excursion. On such occasions Mugambi, mounted
upon a wiry Arab, had ridden close at her horse's heels.

The raiders were still a long way off when the warrior's keen eyes
discovered them. For a time he stood scrutinizing the advancing
party in silence, then he turned and ran rapidly in the direction
of the native huts which lay a few hundred yards below the bungalow.

Here he called out to the lolling warriors. He issued orders
rapidly. In compliance with them the men seized upon their weapons
and their shields. Some ran to call in the workers from the fields
and to warn the tenders of the flocks and herds. The majority
followed Mugambi back toward the bungalow.

The dust of the raiders was still a long distance away. Mugambi
could not know positively that it hid an enemy; but he had spent a
lifetime of savage life in savage Africa, and he had seen parties
before come thus unheralded. Sometimes they had come in peace and
sometimes they had come in war--one could never tell. It was well
to be prepared. Mugambi did not like the haste with which the
strangers advanced.

The Greystoke bungalow was not well adapted for defense. No
palisade surrounded it, for, situated as it was, in the heart of
loyal Waziri, its master had anticipated no possibility of an attack
in force by any enemy. Heavy, wooden shutters there were to close
the window apertures against hostile arrows, and these Mugambi was
engaged in lowering when Lady Greystoke appeared upon the veranda.

"Why, Mugambi!" she exclaimed. "What has happened? Why are you
lowering the shutters?"

Mugambi pointed out across the plain to where a white-robed force
of mounted men was now distinctly visible.

"Arabs," he explained. "They come for no good purpose in the
absence of the Great Bwana."

Beyond the neat lawn and the flowering shrubs, Jane Clayton saw
the glistening bodies of her Waziri. The sun glanced from the tips
of their metal-shod spears, picked out the gorgeous colors in the
feathers of their war bonnets, and reflected the high-lights from
the glossy skins of their broad shoulders and high cheek bones.

Jane Clayton surveyed them with unmixed feelings of pride and
affection. What harm could befall her with such as these to protect
her?

The raiders had halted now, a hundred yards out upon the plain.
Mugambi had hastened down to join his warriors. He advanced a
few yards before them and raising his voice hailed the strangers.
Achmet Zek sat straight in his saddle before his henchmen.

"Arab!" cried Mugambi. "What do you here?"

"We come in peace," Achmet Zek called back.

"Then turn and go in peace," replied Mugambi. "We do not want you
here. There can be no peace between Arab and Waziri."

Mugambi, although not born in Waziri, had been adopted into the
tribe, which now contained no member more jealous of its traditions
and its prowess than he.

Achmet Zek drew to one side of his horde, speaking to his men in
a low voice. A moment later, without warning, a ragged volley was
poured into the ranks of the Waziri. A couple of warriors fell,
the others were for charging the attackers; but Mugambi was a
cautious as well as a brave leader. He knew the futility of charging
mounted men armed with muskets. He withdrew his force behind the
shrubbery of the garden. Some he dispatched to various other parts
of the grounds surrounding the bungalow. Half a dozen he sent to
the bungalow itself with instructions to keep their mistress within
doors, and to protect her with their lives.

Adopting the tactics of the desert fighters from which he had
sprung, Achmet Zek led his followers at a gallop in a long, thin
line, describing a great circle which drew closer and closer in
toward the defenders.

At that part of the circle closest to the Waziri, a constant fusillade
of shots was poured into the bushes behind which the black warriors
had concealed themselves. The latter, on their part, loosed their
slim shafts at the nearest of the enemy.

The Waziri, justly famed for their archery, found no cause to
blush for their performance that day. Time and again some swarthy
horseman threw hands above his head and toppled from his saddle,
pierced by a deadly arrow; but the contest was uneven. The Arabs
outnumbered the Waziri; their bullets penetrated the shrubbery
and found marks that the Arab riflemen had not even seen; and then
Achmet Zek circled inward a half mile above the bungalow, tore down
a section of the fence, and led his marauders within the grounds.

Across the fields they charged at a mad run. Not again did they
pause to lower fences, instead, they drove their wild mounts straight
for them, clearing the obstacles as lightly as winged gulls.

Mugambi saw them coming, and, calling those of his warriors who
remained, ran for the bungalow and the last stand. Upon the veranda
Lady Greystoke stood, rifle in hand. More than a single raider
had accounted to her steady nerves and cool aim for his outlawry;
more than a single pony raced, riderless, in the wake of the charging
horde.

Mugambi pushed his mistress back into the greater security of the
interior, and with his depleted force prepared to make a last stand
against the foe.

On came the Arabs, shouting and waving their long guns above their
heads. Past the veranda they raced, pouring a deadly fire into the
kneeling Waziri who discharged their volley of arrows from behind
their long, oval shields--shields well adapted, perhaps, to stop
a hostile arrow, or deflect a spear; but futile, quite, before the
leaden missiles of the riflemen.

From beneath the half-raised shutters of the bungalow other bowmen
did effective service in greater security, and after the first
assault, Mugambi withdrew his entire force within the building.

Again and again the Arabs charged, at last forming a stationary
circle about the little fortress, and outside the effective range
of the defenders' arrows. From their new position they fired at
will at the windows. One by one the Waziri fell. Fewer and fewer
were the arrows that replied to the guns of the raiders, and at
last Achmet Zek felt safe in ordering an assault.

Firing as they ran, the bloodthirsty horde raced for the veranda.
A dozen of them fell to the arrows of the defenders; but the majority
reached the door. Heavy gun butts fell upon it. The crash of
splintered wood mingled with the report of a rifle as Jane Clayton
fired through the panels upon the relentless foe.

Upon both sides of the door men fell; but at last the frail barrier
gave to the vicious assaults of the maddened attackers; it crumpled
inward and a dozen swarthy murderers leaped into the living-room.
At the far end stood Jane Clayton surrounded by the remnant of her
devoted guardians. The floor was covered by the bodies of those who
already had given up their lives in her defense. In the forefront
of her protectors stood the giant Mugambi. The Arabs raised their
rifles to pour in the last volley that would effectually end all
resistance; but Achmet Zek roared out a warning order that stayed
their trigger fingers.

"Fire not upon the woman!" he cried. "Who harms her, dies. Take
the woman alive!"

The Arabs rushed across the room; the Waziri met them with their
heavy spears. Swords flashed, long-barreled pistols roared out their
sullen death dooms. Mugambi launched his spear at the nearest of
the enemy with a force that drove the heavy shaft completely through
the Arab's body, then he seized a pistol from another, and grasping
it by the barrel brained all who forced their way too near his
mistress.

Emulating his example the few warriors who remained to him fought
like demons; but one by one they fell, until only Mugambi remained
to defend the life and honor of the ape-man's mate.

From across the room Achmet Zek watched the unequal struggle and
urged on his minions. In his hands was a jeweled musket. Slowly
he raised it to his shoulder, waiting until another move should
place Mugambi at his mercy without endangering the lives of the
woman or any of his own followers.

At last the moment came, and Achmet Zek pulled the trigger. Without
a sound the brave Mugambi sank to the floor at the feet of Jane
Clayton.

An instant later she was surrounded and disarmed. Without a word
they dragged her from the bungalow. A giant Negro lifted her to the
pommel of his saddle, and while the raiders searched the bungalow
and outhouses for plunder he rode with her beyond the gates and
waited the coming of his master.

Jane Clayton saw the raiders lead the horses from the corral, and
drive the herds in from the fields. She saw her home plundered
of all that represented intrinsic worth in the eyes of the Arabs,
and then she saw the torch applied, and the flames lick up what
remained.

And at last, when the raiders assembled after glutting their fury
and their avarice, and rode away with her toward the north, she
saw the smoke and the flames rising far into the heavens until the
winding of the trail into the thick forests hid the sad view from
her eyes.

As the flames ate their way into the living-room, reaching out forked
tongues to lick up the bodies of the dead, one of that gruesome
company whose bloody welterings had long since been stilled, moved
again. It was a huge black who rolled over upon his side and opened
blood-shot, suffering eyes. Mugambi, whom the Arabs had left for
dead, still lived. The hot flames were almost upon him as he raised
himself painfully upon his hands and knees and crawled slowly toward
the doorway.

Again and again he sank weakly to the floor; but each time he rose
again and continued his pitiful way toward safety. After what
seemed to him an interminable time, during which the flames had
become a veritable fiery furnace at the far side of the room, the
great black managed to reach the veranda, roll down the steps, and
crawl off into the cool safety of some nearby shrubbery.

All night he lay there, alternately unconscious and painfully
sentient; and in the latter state watching with savage hatred the
lurid flames which still rose from burning crib and hay cock. A
prowling lion roared close at hand; but the giant black was
unafraid. There was place for but a single thought in his savage
mind--revenge! revenge! revenge!





7

The Jewel-Room of Opar




For some time Tarzan lay where he had fallen upon the floor of the
treasure chamber beneath the ruined walls of Opar. He lay as one
dead; but he was not dead. At length he stirred. His eyes opened
upon the utter darkness of the room. He raised his hand to his
head and brought it away sticky with clotted blood. He sniffed at
his fingers, as a wild beast might sniff at the life-blood upon a
wounded paw.

Slowly he rose to a sitting posture--listening. No sound reached
to the buried depths of his sepulcher. He staggered to his feet,
and groped his way about among the tiers of ingots. What was he?
Where was he? His head ached; but otherwise he felt no ill effects
from the blow that had felled him. The accident he did not recall,
nor did he recall aught of what had led up to it.

He let his hands grope unfamiliarly over his limbs, his torso, and
his head. He felt of the quiver at his back, the knife in his loin
cloth. Something struggled for recognition within his brain. Ah!
he had it. There was something missing. He crawled about upon the
floor, feeling with his hands for the thing that instinct warned
him was gone. At last he found it--the heavy war spear that in past
years had formed so important a feature of his daily life, almost
of his very existence, so inseparably had it been connected with
his every action since the long-gone day that he had wrested his
first spear from the body of a black victim of his savage training.

Tarzan was sure that there was another and more lovely world than
that which was confined to the darkness of the four stone walls
surrounding him. He continued his search and at last found the
doorway leading inward beneath the city and the temple. This he
followed, most incautiously. He came to the stone steps leading
upward to the higher level. He ascended them and continued onward
toward the well.

Nothing spurred his hurt memory to a recollection of past familiarity
with his surroundings. He blundered on through the darkness as
though he were traversing an open plain under the brilliance of a
noonday sun, and suddenly there happened that which had to happen
under the circumstances of his rash advance.

He reached the brink of the well, stepped outward into space, lunged
forward, and shot downward into the inky depths below. Still
clutching his spear, he struck the water, and sank beneath its
surface, plumbing the depths.

The fall had not injured him, and when he rose to the surface, he
shook the water from his eyes, and found that he could see. Daylight
was filtering into the well from the orifice far above his head.
It illumined the inner walls faintly. Tarzan gazed about him. On
the level with the surface of the water he saw a large opening in
the dark and slimy wall. He swam to it, and drew himself out upon
the wet floor of a tunnel.

Along this he passed; but now he went warily, for Tarzan of the
Apes was learning. The unexpected pit had taught him care in the
traversing of dark passageways--he needed no second lesson.

For a long distance the passage went straight as an arrow. The
floor was slippery, as though at times the rising waters of the
well overflowed and flooded it. This, in itself, retarded Tarzan's
pace, for it was with difficulty that he kept his footing.

The foot of a stairway ended the passage. Up this he made his
way. It turned back and forth many times, leading, at last, into
a small, circular chamber, the gloom of which was relieved by
a faint light which found ingress through a tubular shaft several
feet in diameter which rose from the center of the room's ceiling,
upward to a distance of a hundred feet or more, where it terminated
in a stone grating through which Tarzan could see a blue and sun-lit
sky.

Curiosity prompted the ape-man to investigate his surroundings.
Several metal-bound, copper-studded chests constituted the sole
furniture of the round room. Tarzan let his hands run over these.
He felt of the copper studs, he pulled upon the hinges, and at
last, by chance, he raised the cover of one.

An exclamation of delight broke from his lips at sight of the
pretty contents. Gleaming and glistening in the subdued light of
the chamber, lay a great tray full of brilliant stones. Tarzan,
reverted to the primitive by his accident, had no conception of the
fabulous value of his find. To him they were but pretty pebbles.
He plunged his hands into them and let the priceless gems filter
through his fingers. He went to others of the chests, only to find
still further stores of precious stones. Nearly all were cut, and
from these he gathered a handful and filled the pouch which dangled
at his side--the uncut stones he tossed back into the chests.

Unwittingly, the ape-man had stumbled upon the forgotten jewel-room
of Opar. For ages it had lain buried beneath the temple of the
Flaming God, midway of one of the many inky passages which the
superstitious descendants of the ancient Sun Worshipers had either
dared not or cared not to explore.

Tiring at last of this diversion, Tarzan took up his way along the
corridor which led upward from the jewel-room by a steep incline.
Winding and twisting, but always tending upward, the tunnel led him
nearer and nearer to the surface, ending finally in a low-ceiled
room, lighter than any that he had as yet discovered.

Above him an opening in the ceiling at the upper end of a flight
of concrete steps revealed a brilliant sunlit scene. Tarzan viewed
the vine-covered columns in mild wonderment. He puckered his brows
in an attempt to recall some recollection of similar things. He
was not sure of himself. There was a tantalizing suggestion always
present in his mind that something was eluding him--that he should
know many things which he did not know.

His earnest cogitation was rudely interrupted by a thunderous roar
from the opening above him. Following the roar came the cries and
screams of men and women. Tarzan grasped his spear more firmly
and ascended the steps. A strange sight met his eyes as he emerged
from the semi-darkness of the cellar to the brilliant light of the
temple.

The creatures he saw before him he recognized for what they were--men
and women, and a huge lion. The men and women were scuttling for
the safety of the exits. The lion stood upon the body of one who
had been less fortunate than the others. He was in the center of
the temple. Directly before Tarzan, a woman stood beside a block
of stone. Upon the top of the stone lay stretched a man, and as
the ape-man watched the scene, he saw the lion glare terribly at
the two who remained within the temple. Another thunderous roar
broke from the savage throat, the woman screamed and swooned across
the body of the man stretched prostrate upon the stone altar before
her.

The lion advanced a few steps and crouched. The tip of his sinuous
tail twitched nervously. He was upon the point of charging when
his eyes were attracted toward the ape-man.

Werper, helpless upon the altar, saw the great carnivore preparing
to leap upon him. He saw the sudden change in the beast's expression
as his eyes wandered to something beyond the altar and out of the
Belgian's view. He saw the formidable creature rise to a standing
position. A figure darted past Werper. He saw a mighty arm
upraised, and a stout spear shoot forward toward the lion, to bury
itself in the broad chest.

He saw the lion snapping and tearing at the weapon's shaft, and he
saw, wonder of wonders, the naked giant who had hurled the missile
charging upon the great beast, only a long knife ready to meet
those ferocious fangs and talons.

The lion reared up to meet this new enemy. The beast was growling
frightfully, and then upon the startled ears of the Belgian, broke
a similar savage growl from the lips of the man rushing upon the
beast.

By a quick side step, Tarzan eluded the first swinging clutch of
the lion's paws. Darting to the beast's side, he leaped upon the
tawny back. His arms encircled the maned neck, his teeth sank deep
into the brute's flesh. Roaring, leaping, rolling and struggling,
the giant cat attempted to dislodge this savage enemy, and all the
while one great, brown fist was driving a long keen blade repeatedly
into the beast's side.

During the battle, La regained consciousness. Spellbound, she stood
above her victim watching the spectacle. It seemed incredible that
a human being could best the king of beasts in personal encounter
and yet before her very eyes there was taking place just such an
improbability.

At last Tarzan's knife found the great heart, and with a final,
spasmodic struggle the lion rolled over upon the marble floor, dead.
Leaping to his feet the conqueror placed a foot upon the carcass
of his kill, raised his face toward the heavens, and gave voice to
so hideous a cry that both La and Werper trembled as it reverberated
through the temple.

Then the ape-man turned, and Werper recognized him as the man he
had left for dead in the treasure room.





8

The Escape from Opar




Werper was astounded. Could this creature be the same dignified
Englishman who had entertained him so graciously in his luxurious
African home? Could this wild beast, with blazing eyes, and bloody
countenance, be at the same time a man? Could the horrid, victory
cry he had but just heard have been formed in human throat?

Tarzan was eyeing the man and the woman, a puzzled expression in
his eyes, but there was no faintest tinge of recognition. It was
as though he had discovered some new species of living creature
and was marveling at his find.

La was studying the ape-man's features. Slowly her large eyes
opened very wide.

"Tarzan!" she exclaimed, and then, in the vernacular of the great
apes which constant association with the anthropoids had rendered
the common language of the Oparians: "You have come back to me! La
has ignored the mandates of her religion, waiting, always waiting
for Tarzan--for her Tarzan. She has taken no mate, for in all the
world there was but one with whom La would mate. And now you have
come back! Tell me, O Tarzan, that it is for me you have returned."

Werper listened to the unintelligible jargon. He looked from La
to Tarzan. Would the latter understand this strange tongue? To
the Belgian's surprise, the Englishman answered in a language
evidently identical to hers.

"Tarzan," he repeated, musingly. "Tarzan. The name sounds familiar."

"It is your name--you are Tarzan," cried La.

"I am Tarzan?" The ape-man shrugged. "Well, it is a good name--I
know no other, so I will keep it; but I do not know you. I did not
come hither for you. Why I came, I do not know at all; neither do
I know from whence I came. Can you tell me?"

La shook her head. "I never knew," she replied.

Tarzan turned toward Werper and put the same question to him; but
in the language of the great apes. The Belgian shook his head.

"I do not understand that language," he said in French.

Without effort, and apparently without realizing that he made the
change, Tarzan repeated his question in French. Werper suddenly
came to a full realization of the magnitude of the injury of
which Tarzan was a victim. The man had lost his memory--no longer
could he recollect past events. The Belgian was upon the point of
enlightening him, when it suddenly occurred to him that by keeping
Tarzan in ignorance, for a time at least, of his true identity,
it might be possible to turn the ape-man's misfortune to his own
advantage.

"I cannot tell you from whence you came," he said; "but this I can
tell you--if we do not get out of this horrible place we shall both
be slain upon this bloody altar. The woman was about to plunge her
knife into my heart when the lion interrupted the fiendish ritual.
Come! Before they recover from their fright and reassemble, let
us find a way out of their damnable temple."

Tarzan turned again toward La.

"Why," he asked, "would you have killed this man? Are you hungry?"

The High Priestess cried out in disgust.

"Did he attempt to kill you?" continued Tarzan.

The woman shook her head.

"Then why should you have wished to kill him?" Tarzan was determined
to get to the bottom of the thing.

La raised her slender arm and pointed toward the sun.

"We were offering up his soul as a gift to the Flaming God," she
said.

Tarzan looked puzzled. He was again an ape, and apes do not
understand such matters as souls and Flaming Gods.

"Do you wish to die?" he asked Werper.

The Belgian assured him, with tears in his eyes, that he did not
wish to die.

"Very well then, you shall not," said Tarzan. "Come! We will go.
This SHE would kill you and keep me for herself. It is no place
anyway for a Mangani. I should soon die, shut up behind these
stone walls."

He turned toward La. "We are going now," he said.

The woman rushed forward and seized the ape-man's hands in hers.

"Do not leave me!" she cried. "Stay, and you shall be High Priest.
La loves you. All Opar shall be yours. Slaves shall wait upon
you. Stay, Tarzan of the Apes, and let love reward you."

The ape-man pushed the kneeling woman aside. "Tarzan does not
desire you," he said, simply, and stepping to Werper's side he cut
the Belgian's bonds and motioned him to follow.

Panting--her face convulsed with rage, La sprang to her feet.

"Stay, you shall!" she screamed. "La will have you--if she cannot
have you alive, she will have you dead," and raising her face to
the sun she gave voice to the same hideous shriek that Werper had
heard once before and Tarzan many times.

In answer to her cry a babel of voices broke from the surrounding
chambers and corridors.

"Come, Guardian Priests!" she cried. "The infidels have profaned
the holiest of the holies. Come! Strike terror to their hearts;
defend La and her altar; wash clean the temple with the blood of
the polluters."

Tarzan understood, though Werper did not. The former glanced
at the Belgian and saw that he was unarmed. Stepping quickly to
La's side the ape-man seized her in his strong arms and though she
fought with all the mad savagery of a demon, he soon disarmed her,
handing her long, sacrificial knife to Werper.

"You will need this," he said, and then from each doorway a horde
of the monstrous, little men of Opar streamed into the temple.

They were armed with bludgeons and knives, and fortified in their
courage by fanatical hate and frenzy. Werper was terrified.
Tarzan stood eyeing the foe in proud disdain. Slowly he advanced
toward the exit he had chosen to utilize in making his way from
the temple. A burly priest barred his way. Behind the first was
a score of others. Tarzan swung his heavy spear, clublike, down upon
the skull of the priest. The fellow collapsed, his head crushed.

Again and again the weapon fell as Tarzan made his way slowly
toward the doorway. Werper pressed close behind, casting backward
glances toward the shrieking, dancing mob menacing their rear.
He held the sacrificial knife ready to strike whoever might come
within its reach; but none came. For a time he wondered that they
should so bravely battle with the giant ape-man, yet hesitate to
rush upon him, who was relatively so weak. Had they done so he knew
that he must have fallen at the first charge. Tarzan had reached
the doorway over the corpses of all that had stood to dispute his
way, before Werper guessed at the reason for his immunity. The
priests feared the sacrificial knife! Willingly would they face
death and welcome it if it came while they defended their High
Priestess and her altar; but evidently there were deaths, and deaths.
Some strange superstition must surround that polished blade, that
no Oparian cared to chance a death thrust from it, yet gladly rushed
to the slaughter of the ape-man's flaying spear.

Once outside the temple court, Werper communicated his discovery
to Tarzan. The ape-man grinned, and let Werper go before him,
brandishing the jeweled and holy weapon. Like leaves before a
gale, the Oparians scattered in all directions and Tarzan and the
Belgian found a clear passage through the corridors and chambers
of the ancient temple.

The Belgian's eyes went wide as they passed through the room of the
seven pillars of solid gold. With ill-concealed avarice he looked
upon the age-old, golden tablets set in the walls of nearly every
room and down the sides of many of the corridors. To the ape-man
all this wealth appeared to mean nothing.

On the two went, chance leading them toward the broad avenue which
lay between the stately piles of the half-ruined edifices and the
inner wall of the city. Great apes jabbered at them and menaced
them; but Tarzan answered them after their own kind, giving back
taunt for taunt, insult for insult, challenge for challenge.

Werper saw a hairy bull swing down from a broken column and advance,
stiff-legged and bristling, toward the naked giant. The yellow
fangs were bared, angry snarls and barkings rumbled threateningly
through the thick and hanging lips.

The Belgian watched his companion. To his horror, he saw the
man stoop until his closed knuckles rested upon the ground as did
those of the anthropoid. He saw him circle, stiff-legged about
the circling ape. He heard the same bestial barkings and growlings
issue from the human throat that were coming from the mouth of the
brute. Had his eyes been closed he could not have known but that
two giant apes were bridling for combat.

But there was no battle. It ended as the majority of such jungle
encounters end--one of the boasters loses his nerve, and becomes
suddenly interested in a blowing leaf, a beetle, or the lice upon
his hairy stomach.

In this instance it was the anthropoid that retired in stiff dignity
to inspect an unhappy caterpillar, which he presently devoured.
For a moment Tarzan seemed inclined to pursue the argument. He
swaggered truculently, stuck out his chest, roared and advanced
closer to the bull. It was with difficulty that Werper finally
persuaded him to leave well enough alone and continue his way from
the ancient city of the Sun Worshipers.

The two searched for nearly an hour before they found the narrow
exit through the inner wall. From there the well-worn trail led
them beyond the outer fortification to the desolate valley of Opar.

Tarzan had no idea, in so far as Werper could discover, as to where
he was or whence he came. He wandered aimlessly about, searching
for food, which he discovered beneath small rocks, or hiding in
the shade of the scant brush which dotted the ground.

The Belgian was horrified by the hideous menu of his companion.
Beetles, rodents and caterpillars were devoured with seeming relish.
Tarzan was indeed an ape again.

At last Werper succeeded in leading his companion toward the
distant hills which mark the northwestern boundary of the valley,
and together the two set out in the direction of the Greystoke
bungalow.

What purpose prompted the Belgian in leading the victim of his
treachery and greed back toward his former home it is difficult to
guess, unless it was that without Tarzan there could be no ransom
for Tarzan's wife.

That night they camped in the valley beyond the hills, and as they
sat before a little fire where cooked a wild pig that had fallen
to one of Tarzan's arrows, the latter sat lost in speculation. He
seemed continually to be trying to grasp some mental image which
as constantly eluded him.

At last he opened the leathern pouch which hung at his side. From
it he poured into the palm of his hand a quantity of glittering
gems. The firelight playing upon them conjured a multitude of
scintillating rays, and as the wide eyes of the Belgian looked on
in rapt fascination, the man's expression at last acknowledged a
tangible purpose in courting the society of the ape-man.





9

The Theft of the Jewels




For two days Werper sought for the party that had accompanied him
from the camp to the barrier cliffs; but not until late in the
afternoon of the second day did he find clew to its whereabouts,
and then in such gruesome form that he was totally unnerved by the
sight.

In an open glade he came upon the bodies of three of the blacks,
terribly mutilated, nor did it require considerable deductive power
to explain their murder. Of the little party only these three had
not been slaves. The others, evidently tempted to hope for freedom
from their cruel Arab master, had taken advantage of their separation
from the main camp, to slay the three representatives of the hated
power which held them in slavery, and vanish into the jungle.

Cold sweat exuded from Werper's forehead as he contemplated the fate
which chance had permitted him to escape, for had he been present
when the conspiracy bore fruit, he, too, must have been of the
garnered.

Tarzan showed not the slightest surprise or interest in the discovery.
Inherent in him was a calloused familiarity with violent death.
The refinements of his recent civilization expunged by the force
of the sad calamity which had befallen him, left only the primitive
sensibilities which his childhood's training had imprinted indelibly
upon the fabric of his mind.

The training of Kala, the examples and precepts of Kerchak, of
Tublat, and of Terkoz now formed the basis of his every thought and
action. He retained a mechanical knowledge of French and English
speech. Werper had spoken to him in French, and Tarzan had replied
in the same tongue without conscious realization that he had departed
from the anthropoidal speech in which he had addressed La. Had
Werper used English, the result would have been the same.

Again, that night, as the two sat before their camp fire, Tarzan
played with his shining baubles. Werper asked him what they were
and where he had found them. The ape-man replied that they were
gay-colored stones, with which he purposed fashioning a necklace,
and that he had found them far beneath the sacrificial court of
the temple of the Flaming God.

Werper was relieved to find that Tarzan had no conception of the
value of the gems. This would make it easier for the Belgian to
obtain possession of them. Possibly the man would give them to
him for the asking. Werper reached out his hand toward the little
pile that Tarzan had arranged upon a piece of flat wood before him.

"Let me see them," said the Belgian.

Tarzan placed a large palm over his treasure. He bared his fighting
fangs, and growled. Werper withdrew his hand more quickly than
he had advanced it. Tarzan resumed his playing with the gems, and
his conversation with Werper as though nothing unusual had occurred.
He had but exhibited the beast's jealous protective instinct for
a possession. When he killed he shared the meat with Werper; but
had Werper ever, by accident, laid a hand upon Tarzan's share, he
would have aroused the same savage, and resentful warning.

From that occurrence dated the beginning of a great fear in the breast
of the Belgian for his savage companion. He had never understood
the transformation that had been wrought in Tarzan by the blow upon
his head, other than to attribute it to a form of amnesia. That
Tarzan had once been, in truth, a savage, jungle beast, Werper had
not known, and so, of course, he could not guess that the man had
reverted to the state in which his childhood and young manhood had
been spent.

Now Werper saw in the Englishman a dangerous maniac, whom the
slightest untoward accident might turn upon him with rending fangs.
Not for a moment did Werper attempt to delude himself into the
belief that he could defend himself successfully against an attack
by the ape-man. His one hope lay in eluding him, and making for
the far distant camp of Achmet Zek as rapidly as he could; but
armed only with the sacrificial knife, Werper shrank from attempting
the journey through the jungle. Tarzan constituted a protection
that was by no means despicable, even in the face of the larger
carnivora, as Werper had reason to acknowledge from the evidence
he had witnessed in the Oparian temple.

Too, Werper had his covetous soul set upon the pouch of gems, and
so he was torn between the various emotions of avarice and fear.
But avarice it was that burned most strongly in his breast, to the
end that he dared the dangers and suffered the terrors of constant
association with him he thought a mad man, rather than give up the
hope of obtaining possession of the fortune which the contents of
the little pouch represented.

Achmet Zek should know nothing of these--these would be for Werper
alone, and so soon as he could encompass his design he would reach
the coast and take passage for America, where he could conceal
himself beneath the veil of a new identity and enjoy to some measure
the fruits of his theft. He had it all planned out, did Lieutenant
Albert Werper, living in anticipation the luxurious life of the
idle rich. He even found himself regretting that America was so
provincial, and that nowhere in the new world was a city that might
compare with his beloved Brussels.

It was upon the third day of their progress from Opar that the keen
ears of Tarzan caught the sound of men behind them. Werper heard
nothing above the humming of the jungle insects, and the chattering
life of the lesser monkeys and the birds.

For a time Tarzan stood in statuesque silence, listening, his
sensitive nostrils dilating as he assayed each passing breeze.
Then he withdrew Werper into the concealment of thick brush, and
waited. Presently, along the game trail that Werper and Tarzan had
been following, there came in sight a sleek, black warrior, alert
and watchful.

In single file behind him, there followed, one after another, near
fifty others, each burdened with two dull-yellow ingots lashed upon
his back. Werper recognized the party immediately as that which
had accompanied Tarzan on his journey to Opar. He glanced at the
ape-man; but in the savage, watchful eyes he saw no recognition of
Basuli and those other loyal Waziri.

When all had passed, Tarzan rose and emerged from concealment. He
looked down the trail in the direction the party had gone. Then
he turned to Werper.

"We will follow and slay them," he said.

"Why?" asked the Belgian.


 


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