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Chapter I. Little Nkima
Chapter II. The Hindu
Chapter III. Out of the Grave
Chapter IV. Into the Lion's Den
Chapter V. Before the Walls of Opar
Chapter VI. Betrayed
Chapter VII. In Futile Search
Chapter VIII. The Treachery of Abu Batn
Chapter IX. In the Death Cell of Opar
Chapter X. The Love of a Priestess
Chapter XI. Lost in the Jungle
Chapter XII. Down Trails of Terror
Chapter XIII. The Lion-Man
Chapter XIV. Shot Down
Chapter XV. "Kill, Tantor, Kill!"
Chapter XVI. "Turn Back!"
Chapter XVII. A Gulf that Was Bridged
Gallery. Covers ofThe Blue Book Magazine
Gallery. Paperback Covers

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration 1. Frontispiece. "Put down the she," said Tarzan.
Illustration 2. Tarzan touched her shoulder in a half caress. "La, the immutable!" he murmured.
Illustration 3. Covers ofThe Blue Book Magazine with "Tarzan Guard of the Jungle".
Illustration 4. Gallery of Paperback Covera

"Put down the she," said Tarzan.
Frontispiece by ERB's nephew Studley Oldham Burroughs (1892-1949).

I AM no historian, no chronicler of facts, and,furthermore, I hold a very definite conviction that there arecertain subjects which fiction writers should leave alone, foremostamong which are politics and religion. However, it seems to me notunethical to pirate an idea occasionally from one or the other,provided that the subject be handled in such a way as to impart adefinite impression of fictionizing.

Had the story that I am about to tell you broken in thenewspapers of two certain European powers, it might haveprecipitated another and a more terrible world war. But with that Iam not particularly concerned. What interests me is that it is agood story that is particularly well adapted to my requirementsthrough the fact that Tarzan of the Apes was intimately connectedwith many of its most thrilling episodes.

I am not going to bore you with dry political history, so do nottax your intellect needlessly by attempting to decode suchfictitious names as I may use in describing certain people andplaces, which, it seems to me, to the best interest of peace anddisarmament, should remain incognito.

Take the story simply as another Tarzan story, in which, it ishoped, you will find entertainment and relaxation. If you find foodfor thought in it, so much the better.

Doubtless, very few of you saw, and still fewer will rememberhaving seen, a news dispatch that appeared inconspicuously in thepapers some time since, reporting a rumor that French ColonialTroops stationed in Somaliland, on the northeast coast of Africa,had invaded an Italian African colony. Back of that news item is astory of conspiracy, intrigue, adventure and love—a story ofscoundrels and of fools, of brave men, of beautiful women, a storyof the beasts of the forest and the jungle.

If there were few who saw the newspaper account of the invasionof Italian Somaliland upon the northeast coast of Africa, it isequally a fact that none of you saw a harrowing incident thatoccurred in the interior some time previous to this affair. That itcould possibly have any connection whatsoever with Europeaninternational intrigue, or with the fate of nations, seems not evenremotely possible, for it was only a very little monkey fleeingthrough the tree tops and screaming in terror. It was little Nkima,and pursuing him was a large, rude monkey—a much largermonkey than little Nkima.

Fortunately for the peace of Europe and the world, the speed ofthe pursuer was in no sense proportionate to his unpleasantdisposition, and so Nkima escaped him; but for long after thelarger monkey had given up the chase, the smaller one continued toflee through the tree tops, screeching at the top of his shrilllittle voice, for terror and flight were the two major activitiesof little Nkima.

Perhaps it was fatigue, but more likely it was a caterpillar ora bird's nest that eventually terminated Nkima's flight and lefthim scolding and chattering upon a swaying bough, far above thefloor of the jungle.

The world into which little Nkima had been born seemed a veryterrible world, indeed, and he spent most of his waking hoursscolding about it, in which respect he was quite as human as he wassimian. It seemed to little Nkima that the world was populated withlarge, fierce creatures that liked monkey meat. There were Numa,the lion, and Sheeta, the panther, and Histah, the snake—atriumvirate that rendered unsafe his entire world from the loftiesttree top to the ground. And then there were the great apes, and thelesser apes, and the baboons, and countless species of monkeys, allof which God had made larger than He had made little Nkima, and allof which seemed to harbor a grudge against him.

Take, for example, the rude creature which had just beenpursuing him. Little Nkima had done nothing more than throw a stickat him while he was asleep in the crotch of a tree, and just forthat he had pursued little Nkima with unquestionable homicidalintent—I use the word without purposing any reflection uponNkima. It had never occurred to Nkima, as it never seems to occurto some people, that, like beauty, a sense of humor may sometimesbe fatal.

Brooding upon the injustices of life, little Nkima was very sad.But there was another and more poignant cause of sadness thatdepressed his little heart. Many, many moons ago his master hadgone away and left him. True, he had left him in a nice,comfortable home with kind people who fed him, but little Nkimamissed the great Tarmangani, whose naked shoulder was the oneharbor of refuge from which he could with perfect impunity hurlinsults at the world. For a long time now little Nkima had bravedthe dangers of the forest and the jungle in search of his belovedTarzan.

Because hearts are measured by content of love and loyalty,rather than by diameters in inches, the heart of little Nkima wasvery large—so large that the average human being could hide his ownheart and himself, as well, behind it—and for a long time it hadbeen just one great ache in his diminutive breast. But fortunatelyfor the little Manu his mind was so ordered that it might easily bedistracted even from a great sorrow. A butterfly or a luscious grubmight suddenly claim his attention from the depths of brooding,which was well, since otherwise he might have grieved himself todeath.

And now, therefore, as his melancholy thoughts returned tocontemplation of his loss, their trend was suddenly altered by theshifting of a jungle breeze that brought to his keen ears a soundthat was not primarily of the jungle sounds that were a part of hishereditary instincts. It was a discord. And what is it that bringsdiscord into the jungle as well as into every elsewhere that itenters? Man. It was the voices of men that Nkima heard.

Silently the little monkey glided through the trees into thedirection from which the sounds had come; and presently, as thesounds grew louder, there came also that which was the definite,final proof of the identity of the noise makers, as far as Nkima,or, for that matter, any other of the jungle folk, might beconcerned—the scent spoor.

You have seen a dog, perhaps your own dog, half recognize you bysight; but was he ever entirely satisfied until the evidence of hiseyes had been tested and approved by his sensitive nostrils?

And so it was with Nkima. His ears had suggested the presence ofmen, and now his nostrils definitely assured him that men werenear. He did not think of them as men, but as great apes. Therewere Gomangani, Great Black Apes, negroes, among them. This hisnose told him. And there were Tarmangani, also. These, which toNkima would be Great White Apes, were white men.

Eagerly his nostrils sought for the familiar scent spoor of hisbeloved Tarzan, but it was not there—that he knew even beforehe came within sight of the strangers.

The camp upon which Nkima presently looked down from a nearbytree was well established. It had evidently been there for a matterof days and might be expected to remain still longer. It was noovernight affair. There were the tents of the white men and thebyût of Aarabs[*] neatly arranged with almost military precision andbehind these the shelters of the negroes, lightly constructed ofsuch materials as Nature had provided upon the spot.

[* The more usual spelling "Arab" was usedonly 5 times in the first print edition of this book. The variantspelling "Aarab" occurs 43 times. For the sake of consistency thelatter form has been used in this e-book edition. —R.G.]

Within the open front of an Aarab beyt sat several whitebournoosed Beduins drinking their inevitable coffee; in the shadeof a great tree before another tent four white men were engrossedin a game of cards; among the native shelters a group of stalwartGalla warriors were playing at minkala. There were blacks of othertribes too—men of East Africa and of Central Africa, with asprinkling of West Coast negroes.

It might have puzzled an experienced African traveller or hunterto catalog this motley aggregation of races and colors. There werefar too many blacks to justify a belief that all were porters, forwith all the impedimenta of the camp ready for transportation therewould have been but a small fraction of a load for each of them,even after more than enough had been included among the askari, whodo not carry any loads beside their rifles and ammunition.

Then, too, there were more rifles than would have been needed toprotect even a larger party. There seemed, indeed, to be a riflefor every man. But these were minor details which made noimpression upon Nkima. All that impressed him was the fact thathere were many strange Tarmangani and Gomangani in the country ofhis master; and as all strangers were, to Nkima, enemies, he wasperturbed. Now, more than ever he wished that he might findTarzan.

A swarthy, turbaned East Indian sat cross-legged upon the groundbefore a tent, apparently sunk in meditation; but could one haveseen his dark, sensuous eyes, he would have discovered that theirgaze was far from introspective—they were bent constantlyupon another tent that stood a little apart from itsfellows—and when a girl emerged from this tent, RaghunathJafar arose and approached her. He smiled an oily smile as he spoketo her, but the girl did not smile as she replied. She spokecivilly, but she did not pause, continuing her way toward the fourmen at cards.

As she approached their table they looked up; and upon the faceof each was reflected some pleasurable emotion, but whether it wasthe same in each, the masks that we call faces, and which aretrained to conceal our true thoughts, did not divulge. Evident itwas, however, that the girl was popular.

"Yes, Comrade," replied the girl; "but I am tired of napping.This inactivity is getting on my nerves."

"How much longer will you wait for the American, Comrade Zveri?"asked Raghunath Jafar.

The big man shrugged. "I need him," he replied. "We might easilycarry on without him, but for the moral effect upon the world ofhaving a rich and high-born American identified actively with theaffair it is worth waiting."

"Are you quite sure of this gringo, Zveri?" asked a swarthyyoung Mexican sitting next to the big, smooth-faced man, who wasevidently the leader of the expedition.

"I met him in New York and again in San Francisco," repliedZveri. "He has been very carefully checked and favorablyrecommended."

"I am always suspicious of these fellows who owe everything theyhave to capitalism," declared Romero. "It is in theirblood—at heart they hate the proletariat, just as we hatethem."

"This fellow is different, Miguel," insisted Zveri. "He has beenwon over so completely that he would betray his own father for thegood of the cause—and already he is betraying his country."

A slight, involuntary sneer, that passed unnoticed by theothers, curled the lip of Zora Drinov as she heard this descriptionof the remaining member of the party, who had not yet reached therendezvous.

Miguel Romero, the Mexican, was still unconvinced. "I have nouse for gringos of any sort," he said.

Zveri shrugged his heavy shoulders. "Our personal animositiesare of no importance," he said, "as against the interests of theworkers of the world. When Colt arrives we must accept him as oneof us; nor must we forget that however much we may detest Americaand Americans nothing of any moment may be accomplished in theworld of today without them and their filthy wealth."

"Exactly," agreed Raghunath Jafar, "but how appropriate thatthis same wealth should be used to undermine and overthrowcapitalistic America and bring the workers eventually into theirown."

"That is precisely the way I feel about it," said Zveri. "Iwould rather use American gold in furthering the cause than anyother—and after that British."

"But what do the puny resources of this single American mean tous?" demanded Zora. "A mere nothing compared to what America isalready pouring into Soviet Russia. What is his treason comparedwith the treason of those others who are already doing more tohasten the day of world communism than the Third Internationaleitself—it is nothing, not a drop in the bucket."

"I mean the bankers, and manufacturers, and engineers ofAmerica, who are selling their own country and the world to us inthe hope of adding more gold to their already bursting coffers. Oneof their most pious and lauded citizens is building great factoriesfor us in Russia, where we may turn out tractors and tanks; theirmanufacturers are vying with one another to furnish us with enginesfor countless thousands of airplanes; their engineers are sellingus their brains and their skill to build a great modernmanufacturing city, in which ammunitions and engines of war may beproduced. These are the traitors, these are the men who arehastening the day when Moscow shall dictate the policies of aworld."

The girl turned quickly. "Oh, it is you, Sheik Abu Batn?" shesaid, as she recognized the swart Aarab who had strolled over fromhis coffee. "Our own good fortune does not blind me to theperfidiousness of the enemy, nor cause me to admire treason inanyone, even though I profit by it."

Zora laughed. "You know better than that, Miguel," she said."You are of the working class—you are loyal to the workers ofyour own country—but these others are of the capitalisticclass; their government is a capitalistic government that is soopposed to our beliefs that it has never recognized our government;yet, in their greed, these swine are selling out their own kind andtheir own country for a few more rotten dollars. I loathethem."

Zveri laughed. "You are a good Red, Zora," he cried; "you hatethe enemy as much when he helps us as when he hinders."

"But hating and talking accomplish so little," said the girl. "Iwish we might do something. Sitting here in idleness seems sofutile."

"We might at least make a try for the gold of Opar," she said."If Kitembo is right, there should be enough there to finance adozen expeditions such as you are planning, and we do not need thisAmerican—what do they call them, cake eaters?—to assistus in that venture."

Zveri scowled. "Perhaps some of the rest of you would like torun this expedition," he said, crustily. "I know what I am doingand I don't have to discuss all my plans with anyone. When I haveorders to give, I'll give them. Kitembo has already received his,and preparations have been under way for several days for theexpedition to Opar."

"The rest of us are as much interested and are risking as muchas you, Zveri," snapped Romero. "We were to work together—notas master and slaves."

"Yes," sneered Romero, "the czar was master, too, and Obregon.You know what happened to them?"

Zveri leaped to his feet and whipped out a revolver, but as helevelled it at Romero the girl struck his arm up and steppedbetween them. "Are you mad, Zveri?" she cried.

"Do not interfere, Zora; this is my affair and it might as wellbe settled now as later. I am chief here and I am not going to haveany traitors in my camp. Stand aside."

"No!" said the girl with finality. "Miguel was wrong and so wereyou, but to shed blood—our own blood—now would utterlyruin any chance we have of success. It would sow the seed of fearand suspicion and cost us the respect of the blacks, for they wouldknow that there was dissension among us. Furthermore, Miguel is notarmed; to shoot him would be cowardly murder that would lose youthe respect of every decent man in the expedition." She had spokenrapidly in Russian, a language that was understood by only Zveriand herself, of those who were present; then she turned again toMiguel and addressed him in English. "You were wrong, Miguel," shesaid gently. "There must be one responsible head, and Comrade Zveriwas chosen for the responsibility. He regrets that he actedhastily. Tell him that you are sorry for what you said, and thenthe two of you shake hands and let us all forget the matter."

For an instant Romero hesitated; then he extended his handtoward Zveri. "I am sorry," he said.

The Russian took the proffered hand in his and bowed stiffly."Let us forget it, Comrade," he said; but the scowl was still uponhis face, though no darker than that which clouded theMexican's.

Little Nkima yawned and swung by his tail from a branch faroverhead. His curiosity concerning these enemies was sated. They nolonger afforded him entertainment, but he knew that his mastershould know about their presence; and that thought, entering hislittle head, recalled his sorrow and his great yearning for Tarzan,to the end that he was again imbued with a grim determination tocontinue his search for the ape-man. Perhaps in half an hour sometrivial occurrence might again distract his attention, but for themoment it was his life work. Swinging through the forest, littleNkima held the fate of Europe in his pink palm, but he did not knowit.

The afternoon was waning. In the distance a lion roared. Aninstinctive shiver ran up Nkima's spine. In reality, however, hewas not much afraid, knowing, as he did, that no lion could reachhim in the tree tops.

A young man marching near the head of a safari cocked his headand listened. "Not so very far away, Tony," he said.

"You'll have to learn to cut out that 'sir' stuff, Tony, beforewe join the others," admonished the young man.

The Filipino grinned. "All right, Comrade," he assented. "I gotso used calling everybody 'sir' it hard for me to change."

"Oh, yes I am," insisted the Filipino emphatically. "Why else amI here? You think I like come this God forsaken country full oflion, ant, snake, fly, mosquito just for the walk? No, I come laydown my life for Philippine independence."

"That's noble of you all right, Tony," said the other gravely;"but just how is it going to make the Philippines free?"

Antonio Mori scratched his head. "I don't know," he admitted;"but it make trouble for America."

High among the tree tops a little monkey crossed their path. Fora moment he paused and watched them; then he resumed his journey inthe opposite direction.

A half hour later the lion roared again, and so disconcertinglyclose and unexpected rose the voice of thunder from the junglebeneath him that little Nkima nearly fell out of the tree throughwhich he was passing. With a scream of terror he scampered as highaloft as he could go and there he sat, scolding angrily.

The lion, a magnificent full-maned male, stepped into the openbeneath the tree in which the trembling Nkima clung. Once again heraised his mighty voice until the ground itself trembled to thegreat, rolling volume of his challenge. Nkima looked down upon himand suddenly ceased to scold. Instead he leaped about excitedly,chattering and grimacing. Numa, the lion, looked up; and then astrange thing occurred. The monkey ceased its chattering and voiceda low, peculiar sound. The eyes of the lion, that had been glaringbalefully upward, took on a new and almost gentle expression. Hearched his back and rubbed his side luxuriously against the bole ofthe tree, and from those savage jaws came a soft, purring sound.Then little Nkima dropped quickly downward through the foliage ofthe tree, gave a final nimble leap, and alighted uponthe thick mane of the king of beasts.

II. — THE HINDU

WITH the coming of a new day came a newactivity to the camp of the conspirators. Now were theBedaùwy drinking no coffee in the múk'aad; the cardsof the whites were put away and the Galla warriors played nolonger at minkala.

Zveri sat behind his folding camp table directing his aides andwith the assistance of Zora and Raghunath Jafar issued ammunitionto the file of armed men marching past them. Miguel Romero and thetwo remaining whites were supervising the distribution of loadsamong the porters. Savage black Kitembo moved constantly among hismen, hastening laggards from belated breakfast fires and formingthose who had received their ammunition into companies. Abu Batn,the sheykh, squatted aloof with his sun-bitten warriors. They,always ready, watched with contempt the disorderly preparations oftheir companions.

"You and Comrade Jafar will remain in charge here," repliedZveri. "Your boys and ten askaris also will remain as campguard."

"No," agreed Zveri, "not now, but if that Tarzan were here itwould be different. I took pains to assure myself as to that beforeI chose this region for our base camp, and I have learned that hehas been absent for a great while—went on some fool dirigibleexpedition that has never been heard from. It is almost certainthat he is dead."

When the last of the blacks had received his issue ofammunition, Kitembo assembled his tribesmen at a little distancefrom the rest of the expedition and harangued them in a low voice.They were Basembos, and Kitembo, their chief, spoke to them in thedialect of their people.

Kitembo hated all whites. The British had occupied the land thathad been the home of his people since before the memory of man; andbecause Kitembo, hereditary chief, had been irreconcilable to thedomination of the invaders they had deposed him, elevating a puppetto the chieftaincy.

To Kitembo, the chief—savage, cruel andtreacherous—all whites were anathema, but he saw in hisconnection with Zveri an opportunity to be avenged upon theBritish; and so he had gathered about him many of his tribesmen andenlisted in the expedition that Zveri promised him would rid theland forever of the British and restore Kitembo to even greaterpower and glory than had formerly been the lot of Basembo chiefs.

It was not, however, always easy for Kitembo to hold the interestof his people in this undertaking. The British had greatlyundermined his power and influence, so that warriors, who formerlymight have been as subservient to his will as slaves, now daredopenly to question his authority. There had been no demur so longas the expedition entailed no greater hardships than short marches,pleasant camps, and plenty of food, with West Coast blacks, andmembers of other tribes less warlike than the Basembos, to act asporters, carry the loads, and do all of the heavy work; but now,with fighting looming ahead, some of his people had desired to knowjust what they were going to get out of it, having, apparently,little stomach for risking their hides for the gratification of theambitions or hatreds of either the white Zveri or the blackKitembo.

It was for the purpose of mollifying these malcontents thatKitembo was now haranguing his warriors, promising them loot on theone hand and ruthless punishment on the other as a choice betweenobedience and mutiny. Some of the rewards he dangled before theirimaginations might have caused Zveri and the other white members ofthe expedition considerable perturbation could they have understoodthe Basembo dialect; but perhaps a greater argument for obedienceto his commands was the genuine fear that most of his followersstill entertained for their pitiless chieftain.

Among the other blacks of the expedition were outlaw members ofseveral tribes and a considerable number of porters hired in theordinary manner to accompany what was officially described as ascientific expedition.

Abu Batn and his warriors were animated to temporary loyalty toZveri by two motives—a lust for loot and hatred for allNasrâny as represented by the British influence in Egypt and outinto the desert, which they considered their hereditary domain.

The members of other races accompanying Zveri were assumed to bemotivated by noble, humanitarian aspirations; but it was,nevertheless, true that their leader spoke to them more often ofthe acquisition of personal riches and power than of theadvancement of the brotherhood of man or the rights of theproletariat.

It was, then, such a loosely knit, but none the less formidableexpedition, that set forth this lovely morning upon the sack of thetreasure vaults of mysterious Opar.

As Zora Drinov watched them depart, her beautiful, inscrutableeyes remained fixed steadfastly upon the person of Peter Zveriuntil he had disappeared from view along the river trail that ledinto the dark forest.

Was it a maid watching in trepidation the departure of her loverupon a mission fraught with danger, or——

The girl turned her head to look into the half-closed eyes ofRaghunath Jafar. "He will return, Comrade," she said. "Peter Zverialways returns to me."

"You," he replied. "What do you see in that uncouth swine, Zora?What does he know of love or beauty? I can appreciate you,beautiful flower of the morning. With me you may attain thetranscendent bliss of perfect love, for I am an adept in the cultof love. A beast like Zevri would only degrade you."

The sickening disgust that the girl felt she hid from the eyesof the man, for she realized that the expedition might be gone fordays and that during that time she and Jafar would be practicallyalone together, except for a handful of savage black warriors whoseattitude toward a matter of this nature between an alien woman andan alien man she could not anticipate; but she was none the lessdetermined to put a definite end to his advances.

"You are playing with death, Jafar," she said quietly. "I amhere upon no mission of love, and if Zveri should learn of what youhave said to me he would kill you. Do not speak to me again on thissubject."

"It will not be necessary," replied the Hindu, enigmatically.His half-closed eyes were fixed steadily upon those of the girl.For perhaps less than half a minute the two stood thus, while therecrept through Zora Drinov a sense of growing weakness, arealization of approaching capitulation. She fought against it,pitting her will against that of the man. Suddenly she tore hereyes from his. She had won, but victory left her weak and tremblingas might be one who had but just experienced a stubbornly contestedphysical encounter. Turning quickly away, she moved swiftly towardher tent, not daring to look back for fear that she might againencounter those twin pools of vicious and malignant power that werethe eyes of Raghunath Jafar; and so she did not see the oily smileof satisfaction that twisted the sensuous lips of the Hindu, nordid she hear his whispered repetition—"It will not benecessary."

* * * * * * *

As the expedition wound along the trail that leads to the footof the barrier cliffs that hem the lower frontier of the aridplateau beyond which stand the ancient ruins that are Opar, WayneColt, far to the west, pushed on toward the base camp of theconspirators. To the south, a little monkey rode upon the back of agreat lion, shrilling insults now with perfect impunity at everyjungle creature that crossed their path; while, with equal contemptfor all lesser creatures, the mighty carnivore strode haughtilydown wind, secure in the knowledge of his unquestioned might. Aherd of antelope, grazing in his path, caught the acrid scent ofthe cat and moved nervously about; but when he came within sight ofthem they trotted only a short distance to one side, making a pathfor him; and, while he was still in sight, they resumed theirfeeding, for Numa, the lion had fed well and the herbivores knew,as creatures of the wild know many things that are beyond the dullsensibilities of man, and felt no fear of Numa with a fullbelly.

To others, yet far off, came the scent of the lion; and they,too, moved nervously, though their fear was less than had been thefirst fear of the antelopes. These others were the great apes ofthe tribe of To-yat, whose mighty bulls had little cause to feareven Numa himself, though their shes and their balus might welltremble.

As the cat approached, the Mangani became more restless and moreirritable. To-yat, the king ape, beat his breast and bared hisgreat fighting fangs. Ga-yat, his powerful shoulders hunched, movedto the edge of the herd nearest the approaching danger. Zu-thothumped a warning menace with his calloused feet. The shes calledtheir balus to them, and many took to the lower branches of thelarger trees or sought positions close to an arboreal avenue ofescape.

It was at this moment that an almost naked white man droppedfrom the dense foliage of a tree and alighted in their midst. Tautnerves and short tempers snapped. Roaring and snarling, the herdrushed upon the rash and hated man-thing. The king ape was in thelead.

For an instant the ape paused, surprised perhaps to hear thelanguage of his kind issuing from the lips of a man-thing. "I amTo-yat!" he growled. "I kill."

"I am Tarzan," replied the man, "mighty hunter, mighty fighter.I come in peace."

"Kill! Kill!" roared To-yat, and the other great bulls advanced,bare-fanged, menacingly.

"Zu-tho! Ga-yat!" snapped the man, "it is I, Tarzan of theApes;" but the bulls were nervous and frightened now, for the scentof Numa was strong in their nostrils, and the shock of Tarzan'ssudden appearance had plunged them into a panic.

"Kill! Kill!" they bellowed, though as yet they did not charge,but advanced slowly, working themselves into the necessary frenzyof rage that would terminate in a sudden, blood-mad rush that noliving creature might withstand and which would leave naught buttorn and bloody fragments of the object of their wrath.

And then a shrill scream broke from the lips of a great, hairymother with a tiny balu on her back. "Numa!" she shrieked, and,turning, fled into the safety of the foliage of a nearby tree.

Instantly the shes and balus remaining upon the ground took tothe trees. The bulls turned their attention for a moment from theman to the new menace. What they saw upset what little equanimityremained to them. Advancing straight toward them, his round,yellow-green eyes blazing in ferocity, was a mighty, yellow lion;and upon his back perched a little monkey, screaming insults atthem. The sight was too much for the apes of To-yat, and the kingwas the first to break before it. With a roar, the ferocity ofwhich may have salved his self esteem, he leaped for the nearesttree; and instantly the others broke and fled, leaving the whitegiant to face the angry lion alone.

With blazing eyes the king of beasts advanced upon the man, hishead lowered and flattened, his tail extended, the brush flicking.The man spoke a single word in a low tone that might have carriedbut a few yards. Instantly the head of the lion came up, the horridglare died in his eyes; and at the same instant the little monkey,voicing a shrill scream of recognition and delight, leaped overNuma's head and in three prodigious bounds was upon the shoulder ofthe man, his little arms encircling the bronzed neck.

"Little Nkima!" whispered Tarzan, the soft cheek of the monkeypressed against his own.

The lion strode majestically forward. He sniffed the bare legsof the man, rubbed his head against his side and lay down at hisfeet.

The great apes of the tribe of To-yat watched from the safety ofthe trees. Their panic and their anger had subsided. "It isTarzan," said Zu-tho.

To-yat grumbled. He did not like Tarzan, but he feared him; andnow, with this new evidence of the power of the great Tarmangani,he feared him even more.

For a time Tarzan listened to the glib chattering of littleNkima. He learned of the strange Tarmangani and the many Gomanganiwarriors who had invaded the domain of the Lord of the Jungle.

The great apes moved restlessly in the trees, wishing todescend; but they feared Numa, and the great bulls were too heavyto travel in safety upon the high flung leafy trails along whichthe lesser apes might pass with safety, and so could not departuntil Numa had gone.

"We are going," replied the ape-man, "but you need not feareither Tarzan or the Golden Lion. We are your friends. I have toldJad-bal-ja that he is never to harm you. You may descend."

"You are afraid," said Tarzan contemptuously. "Zu-tho or Ga-yatwould not be afraid."

Without a word Ga-yat climbed ponderously from the tree in whichhe had taken refuge and, if not with marked enthusiasm, at leastwith slight hesitation, advanced toward Tarzan and Jad-bal-ja, theGolden Lion. His fellows eyed him intently, momentarily expectingto see him charged and mauled by the yellow-eyed destroyer that layat Tarzan's feet watching every move of the shaggy bull. The Lordof the Jungle also watched great Numa, for none knew better thanhe, that a lion, however accustomed to obey his master, is still alion. The years of their companionship, since Jad-bal-ja had been alittle, spotted, fluffy ball, had never given him reason to doubtthe loyalty of the carnivore, though there had been times when hehad found it both difficult and dangerous to thwart some of thebeast's more ferocious hereditary instincts.

Ga-yat approached, while little Nkima scolded and chattered fromthe safety of his master's shoulder; and the lion, blinking lazily,finally looked away. The danger, if there had been any, wasover—it is the fixed, intent gaze of the lion that bodesill.

Tarzan advanced and laid a friendly hand upon the shoulder ofthe ape. "This is Ga-yat," he said, addressing Jad-bal-ja, "friendof Tarzan; do not harm him." He did not speak in any language ofman. Perhaps the medium of communication that he used might notproperly be called a language at all, but the lion and the greatape and the little Manu understood him.

"Tell the Mangani that Tarzan is the friend of little Nkima,"shrilled the monkey. "He must not harm little Nkima."

"It is well," said Tarzan, "and now I go. Tell To-yat and theothers what we have said and tell them also that there are strangemen in this country which is Tarzan's. Let them watch them, but donot let the men see them, for these are bad men, perhaps, who carrythe thunder sticks that hurl death with smoke and fire and a greatnoise. Tarzan goes now to see why these men are in hiscountry."

* * * * * * *

Zora Drinov had avoided Jafar since the departure of theexpedition to Opar. Scarcely had she left her tent, feigning aheadache as an excuse, nor had the Hindu made any attempt to invadeher privacy. Thus passed the first day. Upon the morning of thesecond Jafar summoned the head man of the askaris that had beenleft to guard them and to procure meat.

"Today," said Raghunath Jafar, "would be a good day to hunt. Thesigns are propitious. Go, therefore, into the forest, taking allyour men, and do not return until the sun is low in the west. Ifyou do this there will be presents for you, besides all the meatyou can eat from the carcasses of your kills. Do youunderstand?"

"Take with you the boy of the woman. He will not be needed here.My boy will remain to cook for us."

"You are many, he is only one; but do not let the woman knowthat you are taking him."

The head man gathered his askaris and bade them prepare for thehunt, saying that the brown bwana had so ordered, but he saidnothing about any presents. When they were ready, he dispatched oneto summon the white woman's servant.

Kahiya leaped upon him and clapped a rough palm across his mouthas two of his men seized Wamala upon either side. "You take yourorders from Kahiya," he said. Hunting spears were pressed againstthe boy's trembling body. "Will you go upon the hunt with us?"demanded Kahiya.

As Zveri led his expedition toward Opar, Wayne Colt, impatientto join the main body of the conspirators, urged his men to greaterspeed in their search for the camp. The principal conspirators hadentered Africa at different points that they might not arouse toomuch attention by their numbers. Pursuant to this plan Colt hadlanded on the west coast and had travelled inland a short distanceby train to railhead, from which point he had had a long andarduous journey on foot; so that now, with his destination almostin sight, he was anxious to put a period to this part of hisadventure. Then, too, he was curious to meet the other principalsin this hazardous undertaking, Peter Zveri being the only one withwhom he was acquainted.

The young American was not unmindful of the great risks he wasinviting in affiliating himself with an expedition which aimed atthe peace of Europe and at the ultimate control of a large sectionof Northeastern Africa through the disaffection by propaganda oflarge and warlike native tribes, especially in view of the factthat much of their operation must be carried on within Britishterritory, where British power was considerably more than a meregesture. But, being young and enthusiastic, however misguided,these contingencies did not weigh heavily upon his spirits, which,far from being depressed, were upon the contrary eager and restlessfor action.

The tedium of the journey from the coast had been unrelieved bypleasurable or adequate companionship, since the childish mentalityof Tony could not rise above a muddy conception of Philippineindependence and a consideration of the fine clothes he was goingto buy when, by some vaguely visualized economic process, he was toobtain his share of the Ford and Rockefeller fortunes.

However, notwithstanding Tony's mental shortcomings, Colt wasgenuinely fond of the youth and as between the companionship of theFilipino or Zveri, he would have chosen the former, his briefacquaintance with the Russian in New York and San Francisco havingconvinced him that as a playfellow he left everything to bedesired; nor had he any reason to anticipate that he would find anymore congenial associates among the conspirators.

Plodding doggedly onward, Colt was only vaguely aware of the nowfamiliar sights and sounds of the jungle, both of which by thistime, it must be admitted, had considerably palled upon him. Evenhad he taken particular note of the latter, it is to be doubtedthat his untrained ear would have caught the persistent chatter ofa little monkey that followed in the trees behind him; nor wouldthis have particularly impressed him, unless he had been able toknow that this particular little monkey rode upon the shoulder of abronzed Apollo of the forest, who moved silently in his wake alonga leafy highway of the lower terraces.

Tarzan had guessed that perhaps this white man, upon whose trailhe had come unexpectedly, was making his way toward the main campof the party of strangers for which the Lord of the Jungle wassearching; and so, with the persistence and patience of the savagestalker of the jungle, he followed Wayne Colt; while little Nkima,riding upon his shoulder, berated his master for not immediatelydestroying the Tarmangani and all his party, for little Nkima was abloodthirsty soul when the spilling of blood was to be accomplishedby someone else.

And while Colt impatiently urged his men to greater speed andTarzan followed and Nkima scolded, Raghunath Jafar approached thetent of Zora Drinov. As his figure darkened the entrance, casting ashadow across the book she was reading, the girl looked up from thecot upon which she was lying.

The Hindu smiled his oily, ingratiating smile. "I came to see ifyour headache was better," he said.

"Thank you, no," said the girl coldly; "but perhaps withundisturbed rest I may be better soon."

Ignoring the suggestion, Jafar entered the tent and seatedhimself in a camp chair. "I find it lonely," he said, "since theothers have gone. Do you not also?"

"Your headache developed very suddenly," said Jafar. "A shorttime ago you seemed quite well and animated."

The girl made no reply. She was wondering what had become of herboy, Wamala, and why he had disregarded her explicit instructionsto permit no one to disturb her. Perhaps Raghunath Jafar read herthoughts, for to East Indiansare often attributed uncanny powers, however little warranted sucha belief may be. However that may be, his next words suggested thepossibility.

"You had no right," said the girl angrily, sitting up upon theedge of her cot. "You have presumed altogether too far, ComradeJafar."

"Wait a moment, my dear," said the Hindu soothingly. "Let us notquarrel. As you know, I love you and love does not findconfirmation in crowds. Perhaps I have presumed, but it was onlyfor the purpose of giving me an opportunity to plead my causewithout interruption; and then, too, as you know, all is fair inlove and war."

"Then we may consider this as war," said the girl, "for itcertainly is not love, either upon your side or upon mine. There isanother word to describe what animates you, Comrade Jafar, and thatwhich animates me now is loathing. I could not abide you if youwere the last man on earth, and when Zveri returns, I promise youthat there shall be an accounting."

"Long before Zveri returns I shall have taught you to love me,"said the Hindu, passionately. He arose and came toward her. Thegirl leaped to her feet, looking about quickly for a weapon ofdefense. Her cartridge belt and revolver hung over the chair inwhich Jafar had been sitting, and her rifle was upon the oppositeside of the tent.

"You are quite unarmed," said the Hindu; "I took particular noteof that when I entered the tent. Nor will it do you any good tocall for help; for there is no one in camp but you, and me, and myboy and he knows that, if he values his life, he is not to comehere unless I call him."

"Why not be reasonable, Zora?" demanded Jafar. "It would notharm you any to be kind to me, and it will make it very much easierfor you. Zveri need know nothing of it, and once we are back incivilization again, if you still feel that you do not wish toremain with me I shall not try to hold you; but I am sure that Ican teach you to love me and that we shall be very happytogether."

"Get out!" ordered the girl. There was neither fear nor hysteriain her voice. It was very calm and level and controlled.To a man not entirely blinded by passion, that might have meantsomething—it might have meant a grim determination to carryself-defense to the very length of death—but Raghunath Jafarsaw only the woman of his desire, and stepping quickly forward heseized her.

Zora Drinov was young and lithe and strong, yet she was no matchfor the burly Hindu, whose layers of greasy fat belied the greatphysical strength beneath them. She tried to wrench herself freeand escape from the tent, but he held her and dragged her back.Then she turned upon him in a fury and struck him repeatedly in theface, but he only enveloped her more closely in his embrace andbore her backward upon the cot.

III. — OUT OF THE GRAVE

WAYNE COLT'S guide, who had been slightly inadvance of the American, stopped suddenly and looked back with abroad smile. Then he pointed ahead. "The camp, Bwana!" he exclaimedtriumphantly.

"It does look that way, doesn't it?" agreed Colt. "Let's have alook around," and, followed by his men, he moved in among thetents. His tired porters threw down their loads and, with theaskaris, sprawled at full length beneath the shade of the trees,while Colt, followed by Tony, commenced an investigation of thecamp.

Almost immediately the young American's attention was attractedby the violent shaking of one of the tents. "There is someone orsomething in there," he said to Tony, as he walked briskly towardthe entrance.

The sight within that met his eyes brought a sharp ejaculationto his lips—a man and woman struggling upon the ground, theformer choking the bare throat of his victim while the girl struckfeebly at his face with clenched fists.

So engrossed was Jafar in his unsuccessful attempt to subdue thegirl that he was unaware of Colt's presence until a heavy hand fellupon his shoulder and he was jerked violently aside.

Consumed by maniacal fury, he leaped to his feet and struck atthe American only to be met with a blow that sent him reelingbackward. Again he charged and again he was struck heavily upon theface. This time he went to the ground, and as he staggered to hisfeet, Colt seized him, wheeled him around and hurtled him throughthe entrance of the tent, accelerating his departure with awell-timed kick. "If he tries to come back, Tony, shoot him," hesnapped at the Filipino, and then turned to assist the girl to herfeet. Half carrying her, he laid her on the cot and then, findingwater in a bucket, bathed her forehead, her throat and herwrists.

Outside the tent Raghunath Jafar saw the porters and the askarislying in the shade of a tree. He also saw Antonio Mori with adetermined scowl upon his face and a revolver in his hand, and withan angry imprecation he turned and made his way toward his owntent, his face livid with anger and murder in his heart.

Presently Zora Drinov opened her eyes and looked up into thesolicitous face of Wayne Colt, bending over her.

From the leafy seclusion of a tree above the camp, Tarzan of theApes overlooked the scene below. A single, whispered syllable hadsilenced Nkima's scolding. Tarzan had noted the violent shaking ofthe tent that had attracted Colt's attention, and he had seen theprecipitate ejection of the Hindu from its interior and themenacing attitude of the Filipino preventing Jafar's return to theconflict. These matters were of little interest to the ape-man. Thequarrelings and defections of these people did not even arouse hiscuriosity. What he wished to learn was the reason for theirpresence here, and for the purpose of obtaining this information hehad two plans. One was to keep them under constant surveillanceuntil their acts divulged that which he wished to know. The otherwas to determine definitely the head of the expedition and then toenter the camp and demand the information he desired. But this hewould not do until he had obtained sufficient information to givehim an advantage. What was going on within the tent he did notknow, nor did he care.

For several seconds after she opened her eyes Zora Drinov gazedintently into those of the man bent upon her. "You must be theAmerican," she said finally.

"I am Wayne Colt," he replied, "and I take it from the fact thatyou guessed my identity that this is Comrade Zveri's camp."

Zora Drinov smiled. "That is true," she said, "but it is ourbusiness to break a great many bad habits not only for ourselves,but for the entire world."

Since he had laid her upon the cot, Colt had been quietlyappraising the girl. He had not known that there was a white womanin Zveri's camp, but had he it is certain that he would not haveanticipated one at all like this girl. He would rather havevisualized a female agitator capable of accompanying a band of mento the heart of Africa as a coarse and unkempt peasant woman ofmiddle age; but this girl, from her head of glorious, wavy hair toher small well-shaped foot, suggested the antithesis of a peasantorigin and, far from being unkempt, was as trig and smart as itwere possible for a woman to be under such circumstances and, inaddition, she was young and beautiful.

"I had not anticipated such a pleasant surprise," said Colt. "Iexpected to find nothing but uninteresting men like myself. And whowas the fellow I interrupted?"

Colt shrugged. "It is what he deserves," he said. "Perhaps Ishould have done it."

"No. Peter left my boy and ten askaris, but in some way Jafargot them all out of camp."

"You will be safe now," he said. "I shall see to that untilComrade Zveri returns. I am going now to make my camp, and I shallsend two of my askaris to stand guard before your tent."

"That is good of you," she said, "but I think now that you arehere it will not be necessary."

"And when you have made camp, will you come and have supper withme?" she asked, and then, "Oh, I forgot, Jafar has sent my boyaway, too. There is no one to cook for me."

As the American left the tent, Zora Drinov lay back upon the cotwith half-closed eyes. How different the man had been from what shehad expected. Recalling his features, and especially his eyes, shefound it difficult to believe that such a man could be a traitor tohis father or to his country, but then, she realized, many a manhas turned against his own for a principle. With her own people itwas different. They had never had a chance. They had always beenground beneath the heel of one tyrant or another. What they weredoing they believed implicitly to be for their own and for theircountry's good. Among those of them who were motivated by honestconviction there could not fairly be brought any charge of treason,and yet, Russian though she was to the core, she could not help butlook with contempt upon the citizens of other countries who turnedagainst their governments to aid the ambitions of a foreign power.We may be willing to profit by the act of foreign mercenaries andtraitors, but we cannot admire them.

As Colt crossed from Zora's tent to where his men lay to givethe necessary instruction for the making of his camp, RaghunathJafar watched him from the interior of his own tent. A malignantscowl clouded the countenance of the Hindu, and hatred smoldered inhis eyes.

Tarzan, watching from above, saw the young American issuinginstructions to his men. The personality of this young stranger hadimpressed Tarzan favorably. He liked him as well as he could likeany stranger, for deeply ingrained in the fiber of the ape-man wasthe wild beast suspicion of all strangers and especially of allwhite strangers. As he watched him now nothing else within therange of his vision escaped him. It was thus that he saw RaghunathJafar emerge from his tent, carrying a rifle. Only Tarzan andlittle Nkima saw this, and only Tarzan placed any sinisterinterpretation upon it.

Raghunath Jafar walked directly away from camp and entered thejungle. Swinging silently through the trees, Tarzan of the Apesfollowed him. Jafar made a half circle of the camp just within theconcealing verdure of the jungle, and then he halted. From where hestood the entire camp was visible to him, but his own position wasconcealed by foliage.

Colt was watching the disposition of his loads and the pitchingof his tent. His men were busy with the various duties assigned tothem by their headman. They were tired and there was littletalking. For the most part they worked in silence, and an unusualquiet pervaded the scene—a quiet that was suddenly andunexpectedly shattered by an anguished scream and the report of arifle, blending so closely that it was impossible to say which hadpreceded the other. A bullet whizzed by Colt's head and nipped thelobe off the ear of one of his men standing behind him. Instantlythe peaceful activities of the camp were supplanted by pandemonium.For a moment there was a difference of opinion as to the directionfrom which the shot and the scream had come, and then Colt saw awisp of smoke rising from the jungle just beyond the edge ofcamp.

The headman of the askaris stopped him. "Do not go, Bwana," hesaid. "Perhaps it is an enemy. Let us fire into the junglefirst."

"No," said Colt, "we will investigate first. Take some of yourmen in from the right, and I'll take the rest in from the left.We'll work around slowly through the jungle until we meet."

"Yes, Bwana," said the headman, and calling his men he gave thenecessary instructions.

No sound of flight or any suggestion of a living presencegreeted the two parties as they entered the jungle; nor had theydiscovered any signs of a marauder when, a few moments later, theymade contact with one another. They were now formed in a halfcircle that bent back into the jungle and, at a word from Colt,they advanced toward the camp.

It was Colt who found Raghunath Jafar lying dead just at theedge of camp. His right hand grasped his rifle. Protruding from hisheart was the shaft of a sturdy arrow.

The negroes gathering around the corpse looked at one anotherquestioningly and then back into the jungle and up into the trees.One of them examined the arrow. "It is not like any arrow I haveever seen," he said. "It was not made by the hand of man."

Immediately the blacks were filled with superstitious fears."The shot was meant for the bwana," said one; "therefore thedemon who shot the arrow is a friend of our bwana. We need not beafraid."

This explanation satisfied the blacks, but it did not satisfyWayne Colt. He was puzzling over it as he walked back into camp,after giving orders that the Hindu be buried.

Zora Drinov was standing in the entrance to her tent, and as shesaw him she came to meet him. "What was it?" she asked. "Whathappened?"

"Who could have shot the arrow?" she asked, after he had toldher of the manner of the Hindu's death.

"I haven't the remotest idea," he admitted. "It is an absolutemystery, but it means that the camp is being watched and that wemust be very careful not to go into the jungle alone. The menbelieve that the arrow was fired to save me from an assassin'sbullet; and while it is entirely possible that Jafar may have beenintending to kill me, I believe that if I had gone into the junglealone instead of him it would have been I that would be lying outthere dead now. Have you been bothered at all by natives since youmade camp here, or have you had any unpleasant experiences withthem at all?"

"We have not seen a native since we entered this camp. We haveoften commented upon the fact that the country seems to be entirelydeserted and uninhabited, notwithstanding the fact that it isfilled with game."

"This thing may help to account for the fact that it isuninhabited," suggested Colt, "or rather apparently uninhabited. Wemay have unintentionally invaded the country of some unusuallyferocious tribe that takes this means of acquainting newcomers withthe fact that they are persona non grata."

"Perhaps," said Colt, "but he did not succeed. He did not evenkill my appetite; and if I can succeed in calming the excitement ofmy boy, we shall have supper presently."

From a distance Tarzan and Nkima watched the burial of RaghunathJafar and a little later saw the return of Kahiya and his askariswith Zora's boy Wamala, who had been sent out of camp by Jafar.

"Where," said Tarzan to Nkima, "are all the many Tarmangani andGomangani that you told me were in this camp?"

"They have taken their thundersticks and gone away," replied thelittle Manu. "They are hunting for Nkima."

Tarzan of the Apes smiled one of his rare smiles. "We shall haveto hunt them down and find out what they are about, Nkima," hesaid.

"But it grows dark in the jungle soon," pleaded Nkima, "and thenwill Sabor, and Sheeta, and Numa, and Histah be abroad, and they,too, search for little Nkima."

Darkness had fallen before Colt's boy announced supper, and inthe meantime Tarzan, changing his plans, had returned to the treesabove the camp. He was convinced that there was something irregularin the aims of the expedition whose base he had discovered. He knewfrom the size of the camp that it had contained many men. Wherethey had gone and for what purpose were matters that he mustascertain. Feeling that this expedition, whatever its purpose,might naturally be a principal topic of conversation in the camp,he sought a point of vantage wherefrom he might overhear theconversations that passed between the two white members of theparty beneath him; and so it was that as Zora Drinov and Wayne Coltseated themselves at the supper table, Tarzan of the Apes crouchedamid the foliage of a great tree just above them.

"You have passed through a rather trying ordeal today," saidColt, "but you do not appear to be any the worse for it. I shouldthink that your nerves would be shaken."

"I have passed through too much already in my life, ComradeColt, to have any nerves left at all," replied the girl.

"I suppose so," said Colt. "You must have passed through therevolution in Russia."

"I was only a little girl at the time," she explained, "but Iremember it quite distinctly."

Colt was gazing at her intently. "From your appearance," heventured, "I imagine that you were not by birth of theproletariat."

"My father was a laborer. He died in exile under the Tzaristregime. That was how I learned to hate everything monarchistic andcapitalistic. And when I was offered this opportunity to joinComrade Zveri, I saw another field in which to encompass myrevenge, while at the same time advancing the interests of my classthroughout the world."

"When I last saw Zveri in the United States," said Colt, "heevidently had not formulated the plans he is now carrying out, ashe never mentioned any expedition of this sort. When I receivedorders to join him here, none of the details was imparted to me;and so I am rather in the dark as to what his purpose is."

"Yes, I know that," agreed Colt, "but at the same time even apoor soldier may act more intelligently sometimes if he knows theobjective."

"The general plan, of course, is no secret to any of us here,"said Zora, "and I shall betray no confidence in explaining it toyou. It is a part of a larger plan to embroil the capitalisticpowers in wars and revolutions to such an extent that they will behelpless to unite against us.

"Our emissaries have been laboring for a long time toward theculmination of the revolution in India that will distract theattention and the armed forces of Great Britain. We are notsucceeding so well in Mexico as we had planned, but there is stillhope, while our prospects in the Philippines are very bright. Theconditions in China you well know. She is absolutely helpless, andwe have hope that with our assistance she will eventuallyconstitute a real menace to Japan. Italy is a very dangerous enemy,and it is largely for the purpose of embroiling her in war withFrance that we are here."

"Comrade Zveri believes that it will be simple," said the girl."The suspicion and jealousy that exist between France and Italy arewell known; their race for naval supremacy amounts almost to ascandal. At the first overt act of either against the other, warmight easily result, and a war between Italy and France wouldembroil all of Europe."

"But just how can Zveri, operating in the wilds of Africa,embroil Italy and France in war?" demanded the American.

"There is now in Rome a delegation of French and Italian Redsengaged in this very business. The poor men know only a part of theplan and, unfortunately for them, it will be necessary to martyrthem in the cause for the advancement of our world plan. They havebeen furnished with papers outlining a plan for the invasion ofItalian Somaliland by French troops. At the proper time one ofComrade Zveri's secret agents in Rome will reveal the plot to theFascist Government; and almost simultaneously a considerable numberof our own blacks, disguised in the uniforms of French nativetroops, led by the white men of our expedition, uniformed as Frenchofficers, will invade Italian Somaliland.

"In the meantime our agents are carrying on in Egypt andAbyssinia and among the native tribes of North Africa, and alreadywe have definite assurance that with the attention of France andItaly distracted by war and Great Britain embarrassed by arevolution in India the natives of North Africa will arise in whatwill amount almost to a holy war for the purpose of throwing offthe yoke of foreign domination and the establishment of autonomoussoviet states throughout the entire area."

"A daring and stupendous undertaking," exclaimed Colt, "but onethat will require enormous resources in money as well as men."

"It is Comrade Zveri's pet scheme," said the girl. "I do notknow, of course, all the details of his organization and backing;but I do know that while he is already well financed for theinitial operations, he is depending to a considerable extent uponthis district for furnishing most of the necessary gold to carry onthe tremendous operations that will be necessary to insure finalsuccess."

"Then I am afraid he is foredoomed to failure," said Colt, "forhe surely cannot find enough wealth in this savage country to carryon any such stupendous program."

"Comrade Zveri believes to the contrary," said Zora; "in fact,the expedition that he is now engaged upon is for the purpose ofobtaining the treasure he seeks."

Above them, in the darkness, the silent figure of the ape-man laystretched at ease upon a great branch, his keen ears absorbing allthat passed between them, while curled in sleep upon his bronzedback lay little Nkima, entirely oblivious of the fact that he mighthave listened to words well calculated to shake the foundations oforganized government throughout the world.

"And where," demanded Colt, "if it is no secret, does ComradeZveri expect to find such a great store of gold?"

"In the famous treasure vaults of Opar," replied the girl. "Youcertainly must have heard of them."

"Yes," answered Colt, "but I never considered them other thanpurely legendary. The folk lore of the entire world is filled withthese mythical treasure vaults."

If the startling information divulged to him affected Tarzan, itinduced no outward manifestation. Listening in silenceimperturbable, trained to the utmost refinement of self control, hemight have been part and parcel of the great branch upon which helay, or of the shadowy foliage which hid him from view.

For a time Colt sat in silence, contemplating the stupendouspossibilities of the plan that he had just heard unfolded. Itseemed to him little short of the dream of a mad man, and he didnot believe that it had the slightest chance for success. What hedid realize was the jeopardy in which it placed the members of theexpedition, for he believed that there would be no escape for anyof them once Great Britain, France, and Italy were apprised oftheir activities; and, without conscious volition, his fears seemedcentered upon the safety of the girl. He knew the type of peoplewith whom he was working and so he knew that it would be dangerousto voice a doubt as to the practicability of the plan, for scarcelywithout exception the agitators whom he had met had fallennaturally into two separate categories, the impractical visionary,who believed everything that he wanted to believe, and the shrewdknave, actuated by motives of avarice, who hoped to profit eitherin power or riches by any change that he might be instrumental inbringing about in the established order of things. It seemedhorrible that a young and beautiful girl should have been enticedinto such a desperate situation. She seemed far too intelligent tobe merely a brainless tool, and even his brief association with hermade it most difficult for him to believe that she was a knave.

"The undertaking is certainly fraught with grave dangers," hesaid, "and as it is primarily a job for men I cannot understand whyyou were permitted to face the dangers and hardships that must ofnecessity be entailed by the carrying out of such a perilouscampaign."

"The life of a woman is of no more value than that of a man,"she declared, "and I was needed. There is always a great deal ofimportant and confidential clerical work to be done which ComradeZveri can entrust only to one in whom he has implicit confidence.He reposes such trust in me and, in addition, I am a trained typistand stenographer. Those reasons in themselves are sufficient toexplain why I am here, but another very important one is that Idesire to be with Comrade Zveri."

In the girl's words Colt saw the admission of a romance; but tohis American mind this was all the greater reason why the girlshould not have been brought along, for he could not conceive of aman exposing the girl he loved to such dangers.

Above them Tarzan of the Apes moved silently. First he reachedover his shoulder and lifted little Nkima from his back. Nkimawould have objected, but the veriest shadow of a whisper silencedhim. The ape-man had various methods of dealing withenemies—methods that he had learned and practiced long beforehe had been cognizant of the fact that he was not an ape. Longbefore he had ever seen another white man he had terrorized theGomangani, the black men of the forest and the jungle, and hadlearned that a long step toward defeating an enemy may be taken byfirst demoralizing its morale. He knew now that these people werenot only the invaders of his own domain and, therefore, his ownpersonal enemies, but that they threatened the peace of GreatBritain, which was dear to him, and of the rest of the civilizedworld, with which, at least, Tarzan had no quarrels. It is truethat he held civilization in general in considerable contempt, butin even greater contempt he held those who interfered with therights of others or with the established order of jungle orcity.

As Tarzan left the tree in which he had been hiding, the twobelow him were no more aware of his departure than they had been ofhis presence. Colt found himself attempting to fathom the mysteryof love. He knew Zveri, and it appeared inconceivable to him that agirl of Zora Drinov's type could be attracted by a man of Zveri'sstamp. Of course, it was none of his affair, but it bothered himnevertheless because it seemed to constitute a reflection upon thegirl and to lower her in his estimation. He was disappointed inher, and Colt did not like to be disappointed in people to whom hehad been attracted.

"I found him a very forceful character," replied Colt. "Ibelieve him to be a man who would carry on to a conclusion anythingthat he attempted. No better man could have been chosen for thismission."

If the girl had hoped to surprise Colt into an expression ofpersonal regard or dislike for Zveri, she had failed, but if suchwas the fact she was too wise to pursue the subject further. Sherealized that she was dealing with a man from whom she would getlittle information that he did not wish her to have; but on theother hand a man who might easily wrest information from others,for he was that type which seemed to invite confidences, suggestingas he did, in his attitude, his speech and his manner a sterlinguprightness of character that could not conceivably abuse a trust.She rather liked this upstanding young American, and the more shesaw of him the more difficult she found it to believe that he hadturned traitor to his family, his friends and his country. However,she knew that many honorable men had sacrificed everything to aconviction and, perhaps, he was one of these. She hoped that thiswas the explanation.

Their conversation drifted to various subjects—to theirlives and experiences in their native lands—to the happeningsthat had befallen them since they had entered Africa, and, finally,to the experiences of the day. And while they talked, Tarzan of theApes returned to the tree above them, but this time he did not comealone.

"It is a mystery that is not lessened by the fact that none ofthe askaris could recognize the type of arrow with which he wasslain, though that, of course, might be accounted for by the factthat none of them are of this district."

"It has considerably shaken the nerves of the men," said Zora,"and I sincerely hope that nothing similar occurs again. I havefound that it does not take much to upset these natives, and whilemost of them are brave in the face of known dangers, they are aptto be entirely demoralized by anything bordering on thesupernatural."

"I think they felt better when they got the Hindu planted underground," said Colt, "though some of them were not at all sure thathe might not return anyway."

She had scarcely ceased speaking when the branches above themrustled, and a heavy body plunged downward to the table top betweenthem, crushing the flimsy piece of furniture to earth.

The two sprang to their feet, Colt whipping out his revolver andthe girl stifling a cry as she stepped back. Colt felt the hairsrise upon his head and goose flesh form upon his arms and back, forthere between them lay the dead body of Raghunath Jafar upon itsback, the dead eyes rolled backward staring up into the night.

IV. — INTO THE LION'S DEN

NKIMA was angry. He had been awakened from thedepth of a sound sleep, which was bad enough, but now his masterhad set out upon such foolish errands through the darkness of thenight that, mingled with Nkima's scoldings were the whimperings offear, for in every shadow he saw Sheeta, the panther, lurking andin each gnarled limb of the forest the likeness of Histah, thesnake. While Tarzan had remained in the vicinity of the camp, Nkimahad not been particularly perturbed, and when he had returned tothe tree with his burden the little Manu was sure that he was goingto remain there for the rest of the night; but instead he haddeparted immediately and now was swinging through the black forestwith an evident fixity of purpose that boded ill for either rest orsafety for little Nkima during the remainder of the night.

Whereas Zveri and his party had started slowly along windingjungle trails, Tarzan moved almost in an air line through thejungle toward his destination, which was the same as that of Zveri.The result was that before Zveri reached the almost perpendicularcrag which formed the last and greatest natural barrier to theforbidden valley of Opar, Tarzan and Nkima had disappeared beyondthe summit and were crossing the desolate valley, upon the far sideof which loomed the great walls and lofty spires and turrets ofancient Opar. In the bright light of the African sun, domes andminarets shone red and gold above the city; and once again theape-man experienced the same feeling that had impressed him uponthe occasion, now years gone, when his eyes had first alighted uponthe splendid panorama of mystery that had unfolded before them.

No evidence of ruin was apparent at this great distance. Onceagain, in imagination, he beheld a city of magnificent beauty, itsstreets and temples thronged with people; and once again his mindtoyed with the mystery of the city's origin, when back somewhere inthe dim vista of antiquity a race of rich and powerful people hadconceived and built this enduring monument to a vanishedcivilization. It was possible to conceive that Opar might haveexisted when a glorious civilization flourished upon the greatcontinent of Atlantis, which, sinking beneath the waves of theocean, left this lost colony to death and decay.

That its few inhabitants were direct descendants of its oncepowerful builders seemed not unlikely in view of the rites andceremonies of the ancient religion which they practiced, as well asby the fact that by scarcely any other hypothesis could thepresence of a white-skinned people be accounted for in this remoteand inaccessible African fastness.

The peculiar laws of heredity, which seemed operative in Opar asin no other portion of the world, suggested an origin differingmaterially from that of other men; for it is a peculiar fact thatthe men of Opar bear little or no resemblance to the females oftheir kind. The former are short, heavy set, hairy, almost ape-likein their conformation and appearance, while the women are slender,smooth skinned and often beautiful. There were certain physical andmental attributes of the men that had suggested to Tarzan thepossibility that at some time in the past the colonists had, eitherby choice or necessity, interbred with the great apes of thedistrict; and he also was aware that owing to the scarcity ofvictims for the human sacrifice which their rigid worship demandedthat it was common practice among them to use for this purpose eithermales or females who deviated considerably from the standardtime had established for each sex, with the result that through thelaws of natural selection an overwhelming majority of the maleswould be grotesque and the females normal and beautiful.

It was with such reveries that the mind of the ape-man wasoccupied as he crossed the desolate valley of Opar, which layshimmering in the bright sunlight that was relieved only by theshade of an occasional gnarled and stunted tree. Ahead of him andto his right was the small rocky hillock, upon the summit of whichwas located the outer entrance to the treasure vaults of Opar. Butwith this he was not now interested, his sole object being toforewarn La of the approach of the invaders that she might prepareher defense.

It had been long since Tarzan had visited Opar; but upon thatlast occasion, when he had restored La to her loyal people andre-established her supremacy following the defeat of the forces ofCadj, the high priest, and the death of the latter beneath thefangs and talons of Jad-bal-ja, he had carried away with him forthe first time a conviction of the friendliness of all of thepeople of Opar. He had for years known that La was secretly hisfriend, but her savage, grotesque retainers always heretofore hadfeared and hated him; and so it was now that he approached Opar asone might approach any citadel of one's friends, without stealthand without any doubt but that he would be received infriendship.

Nkima, however, was not so sure. The gloomy ruins terrified him.He scolded and pleaded, but all to no avail; and at last terrorovercame his love and loyalty so that, as they were approaching theouter wall, which loomed high above them, he leaped from hismaster's shoulder and scampered away from the ruins that confrontedhim, for deep in his little heart was an abiding fear of strangeand unfamiliar places, that not even his confidence in Tarzan couldovercome.

Nkima's keen eyes had noted the rocky hillock which they hadpassed a short time before, and to the summit of this he scamperedas a comparatively safe haven from which to await the return of hismaster from Opar.

As Tarzan approached the narrow fissure which alone gaveentrance through the massive outer walls of Opar, he was conscious,as he had been years before on the occasion of his first approachto the city, of unseen eyes upon him, and at any moment he expectedto hear a greeting when the watchers recognized him.

Without hesitation, however, and with no apprehensiveness,Tarzan entered the narrow cleft and descended a flight of concretesteps that led to the winding passage through the thick outer wall.The narrow court, beyond which loomed the inner wall, was silentand deserted; nor was the silence broken as he crossed it toanother narrow passage which led through it; at the end of this hecame to a broad avenue, upon the opposite side of which stood thecrumbling ruins of the great temple of Opar.

In silence and solitude he entered the frowning portal, flankedby its rows of stately pillars, from the capitals of whichgrotesque birds glared down upon him as they had stared through allthe countless ages since forgotten hands had carved them from thesolid rock of the monoliths. On through the temple toward the innercourtyard, where he knew the activities of the city were carriedon, Tarzan made his way in silence. Perhaps another man would havegiven notice of his coming, voicing a greeting to apprise them ofhis approach; but Tarzan of the Apes in many respects is less manthan beast. He goes the silent way of most beasts, wasting nobreath in useless mouthing. He had not sought to approach Oparstealthily, and he knew that he had not arrived unseen. Why agreeting was delayed he did not know, unless it was that, aftercarrying word of his coming to La, they were waiting for herinstructions.

Through the main corridor Tarzan made his way, noting again thetablets of gold with their ancient and long undecipheredhieroglyphics. Through the chamber of the seven golden pillars hepassed and across the golden floor of an adjoining room, and stillonly silence and emptiness, yet with vague suggestions of figuresmoving in the galleries that overlooked the apartment through whichhe was passing; and then at last he came to a heavy door beyondwhich he was sure he would find either priests or priestesses ofthis great temple of the Flaming God. Fearlessly he pushed it openand stepped across the threshold, and in the same instant a knottedclub descended heavily upon his head, felling him senseless to thefloor.

Instantly he was surrounded by a score of gnarled and knottedmen; their matted beards fell low upon their hairy chests as theyrolled forward upon their short, crooked legs. They chattered inlow, growling gutturals as they bound their victim's wrists andankles with stout thongs, and then they lifted him and carried himalong other corridors and through the crumbling glories ofmagnificent apartments to a great tiled room, at one end of which ayoung woman sat upon a massive throne, resting upon a dais a fewfeet above the level of the floor.

Standing beside the girl upon the throne was another of thegnarled and knotted men. Upon his arms and legs were bands of goldand about his throat many necklaces. Upon the floor beneath thesetwo was a gathering of men and women—the priests andpriestesses of the Flaming God of Opar.

Tarzan's captors carried their victim to the foot of the throneand tossed his body upon the tile floor. Almost simultaneously theape-man regained consciousness and, opening his eyes, looked abouthim.

One of Tarzan's captors saw that he had regained consciousnessand with the help of others dragged him roughly to his feet.

An expression of venomous hatred convulsed the face of thewoman. "God has been good to His high priestess," she said. "I haveprayed for this day to come as I prayed for the other, and as theother came so has this."

Tarzan looked quickly from the woman to the man at her side."What is the meaning of this, Dooth?" he demanded. "Where is La?Where is your high priestess?"

The girl rose angrily from her throne. "Know, man of the outerworld, that I am high priestess. I, Oah, am high priestess of theFlaming God."

Oah flew into a frenzy of rage. "She is dead!" she screamed,advancing to the edge of the dais as though to leap upon Tarzan,the jeweled handle of her sacrificial knife gleaming in thesunlight, which poured through a great aperture where a portion ofthe ancient roof of the throne room had fallen in. "She is dead!"she repeated. "Dead as you will be when next we honor the FlamingGod with the life blood of a man. La was weak. She loved you, andthus she betrayed her God, who had chosen you for sacrifice. ButOah is strong—strong with the hate she has nursed in herbreast since Tarzan and La stole the throne of Opar from her. Takehim away!" she screamed to his captors, "and let me not see himagain until I behold him bound to the altar in the court ofsacrifice."

They cut the bonds now that secured Tarzan's ankles so that hemight walk; but even though his wrists were tied behind him it wasevident that they still held him in great fear, for they put ropesabout his neck and his arms and led him as man might lead a lion.Down into the familiar darkness of the pits of Opar they led him,lighting the way with torches; and when finally they had broughthim to the dungeon in which he was to be confined it was some timebefore they could muster sufficient courage to cut the bonds thatheld his wrists, and even then they did not do so until they hadagain bound his ankles securely so that they might escape from thechamber and bolt the door before he could release his feet andpursue them. Thus greatly had the prowess of Tarzan impresseditself upon the brains of the crooked priests of Opar.

Tarzan had been in the dungeons of Opar before and, before, hehad escaped; and so he set to work immediately seeking for a meansof escape from his present predicament, for he knew that thechances were that Oah would not long delay the moment for which shehad prayed—the instant when she should plunge the gleamingsacrificial knife into his breast. Quickly removing the thongs fromhis ankles, Tarzan groped his way carefully along the walls of hiscell until he had made a complete circuit of it; then, similarly,he examined the floor. He discovered that he was in a rectangularchamber about ten feet long and eight wide and that by standingupon his tiptoes he could just reach the ceiling. The only openingwas the door through which he had entered, in which an aperture,protected by iron bars, gave the cell its only ventilation but, asit opened upon a dark corridor, admitted no light. Tarzan examinedthe bolts and the hinges of the door, but they were, as he hadconjectured, too substantial to be forced; and then, for the firsttime, he saw that a priest sat on guard in the corridor without,thus putting a definite end to any thoughts of surreptitiousescape.

For three days and nights priests relieved each other atintervals; but upon the morning of the fourth day Tarzan discoveredthat the corridor was empty, and once again he turned his attentionactively to thoughts of escape.

It had so happened that at the time of Tarzan's capture hishunting knife had been hidden by the tail of the leopard skin thatformed his loin cloth; and, in their excitement, the ignorant,half-human priests of Opar had overlooked it when they took hisother weapons away from him. Doubly thankful was Tarzan for thisgood fortune, since, for sentimental reasons, he cherished thehunting knife of his long dead sire—the knife that had started himupon the upward path to ascendancy over the beasts of the junglethat day, long gone, when, more by accident than intent, he hadplunged it into the heart of Bolgani, the gorilla. But for morepractical reasons it was, indeed, a gift from the gods, since itafforded him not only a weapon of defense, but an instrumentwherewith he might seek to make good his escape.

Years before had Tarzan of the Apes escaped from the pits ofOpar, and so he well knew the construction of their massive walls.Granite blocks of various sizes, hand hewn to fit with perfection,were laid in courses without mortar, the one wall that he hadpassed through having been fifteen feet in thickness. Fortune hadfavored him upon that occasion in that he had been placed in a cellwhich, unknown to the present inhabitants of Opar, had a secretentrance, the opening of which was closed by a single layer ofloosely laid courses that the ape-man had been able to removewithout great effort.

Naturally he sought for a similar condition in the cell in whichhe now found himself, but his search was not crowned with success.No single stone could be budged from its place, anchored as eachwas by the tremendous weight of the temple walls they supported;and so, perforce, he turned his attention toward the door.

He knew that there were few locks in Opar since the presentdegraded inhabitants of the city had not developed sufficientingenuity either to repair old ones or construct new. Those locksthat he had seen were ponderous affairs opened by huge keys andwere, he guessed, of an antiquity that reached back to the days ofAtlantis; but, for the most part, heavy bolts and bars secured suchdoors as might be fastened at all, and he guessed that it was sucha crude contrivance that barred his way to freedom.

Groping his way to the door, he examined the small opening thatlet in air. It was about shoulder high and perhaps ten inchessquare and was equipped with four vertical iron bars half an inchsquare, set an inch and a half apart—too close to permit himto insert his hands between them, but this fact did not entirelydiscourage the ape-man. Perhaps there was another way.

His steel thewed fingers closed upon the center of one of thebars. With his left hand he clung to another, and bracing one kneehigh against the door he slowly flexed his right elbow. Rollinglike plastic steel, the muscles of his forearm and his bicepsswelled, until gradually the bar bent inward toward him. Theape-man smiled as he took a new grip upon the iron bar. Then hesurged backward with all his weight and all the strength of thatmighty arm, and the bar bent to a wide U as he wrenched it from itssockets. He tried to insert his arm through the new opening, but itstill was too small. A moment later another bar was torn away, andnow, his arm through the aperture to its full length, he groped forthe bar or bolts that held him prisoner.

At the fullest extent to which he could reach his fingertipsdownward against the door, he just touched the top of the bar,which was a timber about three inches in thickness. Its otherdimensions, however, he was unable to ascertain, or whether itwould release by raising one end or must be drawn back throughkeepers. It was most tantalizing! To have freedom almost withinone's grasp and yet to be denied it was maddening.

Withdrawing his arm from the aperture, he removed his huntingknife from his scabbard and, again reaching outward, pressed thepoint of the blade into the wood of the bar. At first he triedlifting the bar by this means, but his knife point only pulled outof the wood. Next, he attempted to move the bar backward in ahorizontal plane, and in this he was successful. Though thedistance that he moved it in one effort was small, he wassatisfied, for he knew that patience would win its reward. Nevermore than a quarter of an inch, sometimes only a sixteenth of aninch at a time, Tarzan slowly worked the bar backward. He workedmethodically and carefully, never hurrying, never affected bynervous anxiety, although he never knew at what moment a savagewarrior priest of Opar might make his rounds; and at last hisefforts were rewarded, and the door swung upon its hinges.

Stepping quickly out, Tarzan shot the bar behind him and,knowing no other avenue of escape, turned back up the corridoralong which his captors had conducted him to his prison cell.Faintly in the distance he discerned a lessening darkness, andtoward this he moved upon silent feet. As the light increasedslightly, he saw that the corridor was about ten feet wide and thatat irregular intervals it was pierced by doors, all of which wereclosed and secured by bolts or bars.

A hundred yards from the cell in which he had been incarceratedhe crossed a transversed corridor, and here he paused an instant toinvestigate with palpitating nostrils and keen eyes and ears. Inneither direction could he discern any light, but faint sounds cameto his ears indicating that life existed somewhere behind the doorsalong this corridor, and his nostrils were assailed by a medley ofscents—the sweet aroma of incense, the odor of human bodiesand the acrid scent of carnivores; but there was nothing there toattract his further investigation, so he continued on his way alongthe corridor toward the rapidly increasing light ahead.

He had advanced but a short distance when his keen ears detectedthe sound of approaching footsteps. Here was no place to riskdiscovery. Slowly he fell back toward the transverse corridor,seeking to take concealment there until the danger had passed; butit was already closer than he had imagined, and an instant laterhalf a dozen priests of Opar turned into the corridor from one justahead of him. They saw him instantly and halted, peering throughthe gloom.

"It is the ape-man," said one. "He has escaped," and with theirknotted cudgels and their wicked knives they advanced upon him.

That they came slowly evidenced the respect in which they heldhis prowess, but still they came; and Tarzan fell back, for evenhe, armed only with a knife, was no match for six of these savagehalf-men with their heavy cudgels. As he retreated, a plan formedquickly in his alert mind, and when he reached the transversecorridor he backed slowly into it. Knowing that now that he washidden from them they would come very slowly, fearing that he mightbe lying in wait for them, he turned and ran swiftly along thecorridor. He passed several doors, not because he was looking forany door in particular, but because he knew that the more difficultit was for them to find him the greater his chances of eludingthem; but at last he paused before one secured by a huge woodenbar. Quickly he raised it, opened the door and stepped within justas the leader of the priests came into view at the intersection ofthe corridor.

The instant that Tarzan stepped into the dark and gloomy chamberbeyond he knew that he had made a fatal blunder. Strong in hisnostrils was the acrid scent of Numa, the lion; the silence of thepit was shattered by a savage roar; in the dark background he sawtwo yellow-green eyes flaming with hate, and then the lioncharged.

V. — BEFORE THE WALLS OFOPAR

PETER ZVERI established his camp on the edge ofthe forest at the foot of the barrier cliff that guards thedesolate valley of Opar. Here he left his porters and a few askarisas guards and then, with his fighting men, guided by Kitembo,commenced the arduous climb to the summit.

None of them had ever come this way before, not even Kitembo,though he had known the exact location of Opar from one who hadseen it; and so when the first view of the distant city broke uponthem they were filled with awe, and vague questionings arose in theprimitive minds of the black men.

It was a silent party that filed across the dusty plain towardOpar; nor were the blacks the only members of the expedition to beassailed with doubt, for in their black tents on distant desertsthe Aarabs had imbibed with the milk of their mothers the fear ofjân and ghrôl and had heard, too, of the fabled city of Nimmr,which it was not well for men to approach. With such thoughts andforebodings were the minds of the men filled as they approached thetowering ruins of the ancient Atlantian city.

From the top of the great boulder that guards the outer entranceto the treasure vaults of Opar a little monkey watched the progressof the expedition across the valley. He was a very much distraughtlittle monkey, for in his heart he knew that his master should bewarned of the coming of these many Gomangani and Tarmangani withtheir thundersticks; but fear of the forbidding ruins gave himpause, and so he danced about upon the top of the rock, chatteringand scolding. The warriors of Peter Zveri marched right past andnever paid any attention to him; and as they marched, other eyeswere upon them, peering from out of the foliage of the trees thatgrew rank among the ruins.

If any member of the party saw a little monkey scamperingquickly past upon their right, or saw him clamber up the ruinedouter wall of Opar, he doubtless gave the matter no thought; forhis mind, like the minds of all his fellows, was occupied byspeculation as to what lay within that gloomy pile.

Kitembo did not know the location of the treasure vaults ofOpar. He had but agreed to guide Zveri to the city, but, likeZveri, he entertained no doubt but that it would be easy todiscover the vaults if they were unable to wring its location fromany of the inhabitants of the city. Surprised, indeed, would theyhave been had they known that no living Oparian knew either of thelocation of the treasure vaults or of their existence and that,among all living men, only Tarzan and some of his Waziri warriorsknew their location or how to reach them.

"The place is nothing but a deserted ruin," said Zveri to one ofhis white companions.

"It is an ominous looking place though," replied the other, "andit has already had its affect upon the men."

Zveri shrugged. "This might frighten them at night, but not inbroad daylight; they are certainly not that yellow."

They were close to the ruined outer wall now, which frowned downupon them menacingly, and here they halted while several searchedfor an opening. Abu Batn was the first to find it—the narrowcrevice with the flight of concrete steps leading upward. "Here isa way through, Comrade," he called to Zveri.

Abu Batn summoned a half dozen of his black men, who advancedwith evident reluctance.

Gathering the skirt of his thôb about him, the sheykh enteredthe crevice, and at the same instant a piercing screech broke fromthe interior of the ruined city—a long drawn, high pitchedshriek that ended in a series of low moans. The Bedaùwy halted. Theblacks froze in terrified rigidity.

"Get out of there, then!" cried Zveri angrily. "If you damnedcowards are afraid to go, I'll go in myself."

There was no argument. The Aarabs stepped aside. And then alittle monkey, screaming with terror, appeared upon the top of thewall from the inside of the city. His sudden and noisy appearancebrought every eye to bear upon him. They saw him turn an affrightedglance backward over his shoulder and then, with a loud scream,leap far out to the ground below. It scarcely seemed that he couldsurvive the jump, yet it barely sufficed to interrupt his flight,for he was on his way again in an instant as, with prodigious leapsand bounds, he fled screaming out across the barren plains.

It was the last straw. The shaken nerves of the superstitiousblacks gave way to the sudden strain; and almost with one accordthey turned and fled the dismal city, while close upon their heelswere Abu Batn and his desert warriors in swift and undignifiedretreat.

Peter Zveri and his three white companions, finding themselvessuddenly deserted, looked at one another questioningly. "The dirtycowards!" exclaimed Zveri angrily. "You go back, Mike, and see ifyou can rally them. We are going on in, now that we are here."

Michael Dorsky, only too glad of any assignment that took himfarther away from Opar, started at a brisk run after the fleeingwarriors, while Zveri turned once more into the fissure with MiguelRomero and Paul Ivitch at his heels.

The three men passed through the outer wall and entered thecourt yard, across which they saw the lofty inner wall risingbefore them. Romero was the first to find the opening that led tothe city proper and, calling to his fellows, he stepped boldly intothe narrow passage. Then once again the hideous scream shatteredthe brooding silence of the ancient temple.

The three men halted. Zveri wiped the perspiration from hisbrow. "I think we have gone as far as we can alone," he said."Perhaps we had all better go back and rally the men. There is nosense in doing anything foolhardy." Miguel Romero threw him acontemptuous sneer, but Ivitch assured Zveri that the suggestionmet with his entire approval.

The two men crossed the court quickly without waiting to seewhether the Mexican followed them or not and were soon once againoutside the city.

Zveri looked around. "Romero!" he shouted in a loud voice, butthere was no reply.

But whatever the thing was that Ivitch feared, it had not, asyet, gotten the young Mexican, who, after watching his companions'precipitate flight, had continued on through the opening in theinner wall determined to have at least one look at the interior ofthe ancient city of Opar that he had travelled so far to see and ofthe fabulous wealth of which he had been dreaming for weeks.

Before his eyes spread a magnificent panorama of stately ruins,before which the young and impressionable Latin-American stoodspellbound; and then once again the eerie wail rose from theinterior of a great building before him, but if he was frightenedRomero gave no evidence of it. Perhaps he grasped his rifle alittle more tightly; perhaps he loosened his revolver in hisholster, but he did not retreat. He was awed by the statelygrandeur of the scene before him, where age and ruin seemed only toenhance its pristine magnificence.

A movement within the temple caught his attention. He saw afigure emerge from somewhere, the figure of a gnarled and knottedman that rolled on short crooked legs; and then another and anothercame until there were fully a hundred of the savage creaturesapproaching slowly toward him. He saw their knotted bludgeons andtheir knives, and he realized that here was a menace more effectivethan an unearthly scream.

With a shrug he backed into the passageway. "I cannot fight anarmy single-handed," he muttered. Slowly he crossed the outercourt, passed through the first great wall and stood again upon theplain outside the city. In the distance he saw the dust of thefleeing expedition and, with a grin, he started in pursuit,swinging along at an easy walk as he puffed upon a cigarette. Fromthe top of the rocky hill at his left a little monkey saw himpass—a little monkey, which still trembled from fright, butwhose terrified screams had become only low, pitiful moans. It hadbeen a hard day for little Nkima.

So rapid had been the retreat of the expedition that Zveri, withDorsky and Ivitch, did not overtake the main party until thegreater part of it was already descending the barrier cliffs; norcould any threats or promises stay the retreat, which ended onlywhen camp was reached.

Immediately Zveri called Abu Batn, together with Dorsky andIvitch, into council. The affair had been Zveri's first reverse,and it was a serious one inasmuch as he had relied heavily upon theinexhaustible store of gold to be found in the treasure vaults ofOpar. First, he berated Abu Batn, Kitembo, their ancestors and alltheir followers for cowardice; but all that he accomplished was toarouse the anger and resentment of these two.

"We came with you to fight the white men, not demons andghosts," said Kitembo. "I am not afraid. I would go into the city,but my men will not accompany me and I cannot fight the enemyalone."

"Nor I," said Abu Batn, a sullen scowl still further darkeninghis swart countenance.

"I know," sneered Zveri, "you are both brave men, but you aremuch better runners than you are fighters. Look at us. We were notafraid. We went in and we were not harmed."

"Well, perhaps, he is lost," admitted Zveri. "What do youexpect? To win a battle without losing a man?"

"There was no battle," said Kitembo, "and the man who wentfarthest into the accursed city did not return."

Dorsky looked up suddenly. "There he is now!" he exclaimed, andas all eyes turned up the trail toward Opar, they saw Miguel Romerostrolling jauntily into camp.

"Greeting, my brave comrades!" he cried to them. "I am glad tofind you alive. I feared that you might all succumb to heartfailure."

Sullen silence greeted his raillery, and no one spoke until hehad approached and seated himself near them.

"I saw magnificent buildings in splendid ruin," replied Romero;"a dead and moldering city of the dead past."

"I saw a company of strange warriors, short heavy men on crookedlegs, with long powerful arms and hairy bodies. They came out of agreat building that might have been a temple. There were too manyof them for me. I could not fight them alone, so I came away."

"You see," exclaimed Zveri, "just a band of savages armed withclubs. We could take the city without the loss of a man."

"What did they look like?" demanded Kitembo. "Describe them tome," and when Romero had done so, with careful attention todetails, Kitembo shook his head. "It is as I thought," he said."They are not men; they are demons."

"Men or demons, we are going back there and take their city,"said Zveri angrily. "We must have the gold of Opar."

"You may go, white man," returned Kitembo, "but you will goalone. I know my men, and I tell you that they will not follow youthere. Lead us against white men, or brown men, or black men, andwe will follow you. But we will not follow you against demons andghosts."

"I have talked with my men on the return from the city, and theytell me that they will not go back there. They will not fight thejân and ghrôl. They heard the voice of the jin warningthem away, and they are afraid."

Zveri stormed and threatened and cajoled, but all to no effect.Neither the Aarab sheykh nor the African chief could be moved.

"When the gringo comes and the Philippine, there will be six ofus who are neither Aarabs nor Africans. We six can take Opar." PaulIvitch made a wry face, and Zveri cleared his throat.

"If we are killed," said the latter, "our whole plan is wrecked.There will be no one left to carry on."

Romero shrugged. "It was only a suggestion," he said, "but, ofcourse, if you are afraid——"

An ill-concealed sneer curved Romero's lips. "I am going toeat," he said, and, rising, he left them.

* * * * * * *

The day following his advent into the camp of his fellowconspirators, Wayne Colt wrote a long message in cipher anddispatched it to the Coast by one of his boys. From her tent ZoraDrinov had seen the message given to the boy. She had seen himplace it in the end of a forked stick and start off upon his longjourney. Shortly after, Colt joined her in the shade of a greattree beside her tent.

"Perhaps you should know that only Comrade Zveri is permitted tosend messages from the expedition," she told him.

"I did not know," he said. "It was merely in relation to somefunds that were to have been awaiting me when I reached the Coast.They were not there. I sent the boy back after them."

That afternoon he took his rifle and went out to look for gameand Zora went with him, and that evening they had supper togetheragain, but this time she was the hostess. And so the days passeduntil an excited native aroused the camp one day with anannouncement that the expedition was returning. No words werenecessary to apprise those who had been left behind that victoryhad not perched upon the banner of their little army. Failure wasclearly written upon the faces of the leaders. Zveri greeted Zoraand Colt, introducing the latter to his companions, and when Tonyhad been similarly presented the returning warriors threwthemselves down upon cots or upon the ground to rest.

That night, as they gathered around the supper table, each partynarrated the adventures that had befallen them since the expeditionhad left camp. Colt and Zora were thrilled by the stories of weirdOpar, but no less mysterious was their tale of the death ofRaghunath Jafar and his burial and uncanny resurrection.

"Not one of the boys would touch the body after that," saidZora. "Tony and Comrade Colt had to bury him themselves."

"None of the boys certainly," said Zora. "They were all too muchfrightened by the peculiar circumstances surrounding hisdeath."

"It must have been the same creature that killed him," suggestedColt, "and whoever or whatever it was must have been possessed ofalmost superhuman strength to carry that heavy corpse into a treeand drop it upon us."

"The most uncanny feature of it to me," said Zora, "is the factthat it was accomplished in absolute silence. I'll swear that noteven a leaf rustled until just before the body hurtled down uponour table."

As the company broke up later, repairing to their various tents,Zveri detained Zora with a gesture. "I want to talk to you aminute, Zora," he said, and the girl sank back into the chair shehad just quitted. "What do you think of this American? You have hada good opportunity to size him up."

"He said or did nothing, then, that might arouse yoursuspicion?" demanded Zveri.

"You two have been alone here together for a number of days,"continued Zveri. "Did he treat you with perfect respect?"

"Don't mention that dog to me," said Zveri. "I wish that I hadbeen here to kill him myself."

They were silent for several moments. It was evident that Zveriwas trying to frame into words something that was upon his mind. Atlast he spoke. "Colt is a very prepossessing young man. See thatyou don't fall in love with him, Zora."

"And why not?" she demanded. "I have given my mind and mystrength and my talent to the cause and, perhaps, most of my heart.But there is a corner of it that is mine to do with as I wish."

"Certainly not. Nothing of the kind. Such an idea had notentered my head. I just want you to know, Peter, that in matters ofthis kind you may not dictate to me."

"Listen, Zora. You know perfectly well that I love you, and whatis more, I am going to have you. I get what I go after."

"Don't bore me, Peter. I have no time for anything so foolish aslove now. When we are well through with this undertaking, perhaps Ishall take the time to give it a little thought."

"I want you to give it a lot of thought right now, Zora," heinsisted. "There are some details in relation to this expeditionthat I have not told you. I have not divulged them to anyone, but Iam going to tell you now because I love you and you are going tobecome my wife. There is more at stake in this for us than youdream. After all the thought and all the risks and all thehardships, I do not intend to surrender all of the power and thewealth that I shall have gained to anyone."

"I intend to make myself Emperor of Africa," he declared, "and Iintend to make you my empress."

"You can never do it, Peter. You know how far-reaching are thetentacles of the power we serve. If you fail it, if you turntraitor, those tentacles will reach you and drag you down todestruction."

"When I win my goal, my power will be as great as theirs, andthen I may defy them."

"But how about these others with us, who are serving loyally thecause which they think you represent? They will tear you to pieces,Peter."

The man laughed. "You do not know them, Zora. They are allalike. All men and women are alike. If I offered to make them GrandDukes and give them each a palace and a harem, they would slittheir own mothers' throats to obtain such a prize."

The girl arose. "I am astounded, Peter. I thought that you, atleast, were sincere."

He arose quickly and grasped her by the arm. "Listen, Zora," hehissed in her ear, "I love you, and because I love you I have putmy life in your hands. But understand this, if you betray me, nomatter how well I love you, I shall kill you. Do not forgetthat."

The next morning Zveri was engaged in working out the details ofa second expedition to Opar based upon Romero's suggestions. It wasdecided that this time they would call for volunteers; and as theEuropeans, the two Americans and the Filipino had already indicatedtheir willingness to take part in the adventure, it remained nowonly to seek to enlist the services of some of the blacks andAarabs, and for this purpose Zveri summoned the entire company to apalaver. Here he explained just what they purposed doing. Hestressed the fact that Comrade Romero had seen the inhabitants ofthe city and that they were only members of a race of stuntedsavages, armed only with sticks. Eloquently he explained how easilythey might be overcome with rifles.

Practically the entire party was willing to go as far as thewalls of Opar; but there were only ten warriors who would agree toenter the city with the white men, and all of these were from theaskaris who had been left behind to guard camp and from those whohad accompanied Colt from the Coast, none of whom had beensubjected to the terrors of Opar. Not one of those who had heardthe weird screams issuing from the ruins would agree to enter thecity, and it was admitted among the whites that it was not at allunlikely that their ten volunteers might suddenly develop a changeof heart when at last they stood before the frowning portals ofOpar and heard the weird warning cry from its defenders.

Several days were spent in making careful preparations for thenew expedition, but at last the final detail was completed; andearly one morning Zveri and his followers set out once more uponthe trail to Opar.

Zora Drinov had wished to accompany them, but as Zveri wasexpecting messages from a number of his various agents throughoutNorthern Africa, it had been necessary to leave her behind. AbuBatn and his warriors were left to guard the camp, and these, witha few black servants, were all who did not accompany theexpedition.

Since the failure of the first expedition and the fiasco at thegates of Opar, the relations of Abu Batn and Zveri had beenstrained. The sheykh and his warriors, smarting under the chargesof cowardice, had kept more to themselves than formerly; and thoughthey would not volunteer to enter the city of Opar, they stillresented the affront of their selection to remain behind as campguards; and so it was that as the others departed, the Aarabs sat inthe múk'aad of their sheykh's beyt es-sh'ar, whispering over theirthick coffee, their swart scowling faces half hidden by theirthorrîbs.

They did not deign even to glance at their departing comrades,but the eyes of Abu Batn were fixed upon the slender figure of ZoraDrinov as the sheykh sat in silent meditation.

VI. — BETRAYED

THE heart of little Nkima had been torn byconflicting emotions, as from the vantage point of the summit ofthe rocky hillock he had watched the departure of Miguel Romerofrom the city of Opar. Seeing these brave Tarmangani, armed withdeath-dealing thundersticks, driven away from the ruins, he wasconvinced that something terrible must have befallen his masterwithin the grim recesses of that crumbling pile. His loyal heartprompted him to return and investigate, but Nkima was only a verylittle Manu—a little Manu who was very much afraid; andthough he started twice again toward Opar, he could not muster hiscourage to the sticking point; and at last, whimpering pitifully,he turned back across the plains toward the grim forest, where, atleast, the dangers were familiar ones.

* * * * * * *

The door of the gloomy chamber which Tarzan had entered swunginward, and his hands were still upon it as the menacing roar ofthe lion apprised him of the danger of his situation. Agile andquick is Numa, the lion, but with even greater celerity functionedthe mind and muscles of Tarzan of the Apes. In the instant that thelion sprang toward him a picture of the whole scene flashed to themind of the ape-man. He saw the gnarled priests of Opar advancingalong the corridor in pursuit of him. He saw the heavy door thatswung inward. He saw the charging lion, and he pieced these variousfactors together to create a situation far more to his advantagethan they normally presented. Drawing the door quickly inward, hestepped behind it as the lion charged, with the result that thebeast, either carried forward by his own momentum or sensingescape, sprang into the corridor full in the faces of the advancingpriests, and at the same instant Tarzan closed the door behindhim.

Just what happened in the corridor without he could not see, butfrom the growls and screams that receded quickly into the distancehe was able to draw a picture that brought a quiet smile to hislips; and an instant later a piercing shriek of agony and terrorannounced the fate of at least one of the fleeing Oparians.

Realizing that he would gain nothing by remaining where he was,Tarzan decided to leave the cell and seek a way out of thelabyrinthine mazes of the pits beneath Opar. He knew that the lionupon its prey would doubtless bar his passage along the route hehad been following when his escape had been interrupted by thepriests and though, as a last resort, he might face Numa, he was ofno mind to invite such an unnecessary risk; but when he sought toopen the heavy door he found that he could not budge it, and in aninstant he realized what had happened and that he was now in prisononce again in the dungeons of Opar.

The bar that secured this particular door was not of the slidingtype but, working upon a pin at the inner end, dropped into heavywrought iron keepers bolted to the door itself and to its frame.When he had entered, he had raised the bar, which had dropped intoplace of its own weight when the door slammed to, imprisoning himas effectually as though the work had been done by the hand ofman.

The darkness of the corridor without was less intense than thatof the passage upon which his former cell had been located; andthough not enough light entered the cell to illuminate itsinterior, there was sufficient to show him the nature of theventilating opening in the door, which he found to consist of anumber of small round holes, none of which was of sufficientdiameter to permit him to pass his hand through in an attempt toraise the bar.

As Tarzan stood in momentary contemplation of his newpredicament, the sound of stealthy movement came to him from theblack recesses at the rear of the cell. He wheeled quickly, drawinghis hunting knife from its sheath. He did not have to ask himselfwhat the author of this sound might be, for he knew that the onlyother living creature that might have occupied this cell with itsformer inmate was another lion. Why it had not joined in the attackupon him, he could not guess, but that it would eventually seizehim was a foregone conclusion. Perhaps even now it was preparing tosneak upon him. He wished that his eyes might penetrate thedarkness, for if he could see the lion as it charged he might bebetter prepared to meet it. In the past he had met the charges ofother lions, but always before he had been able to see their swiftspring and to elude the sweep of their mighty talons as they rearedupon their hind legs to seize him. Now it would be different, andfor once in his life, Tarzan of the Apes felt death wasinescapable. He knew that his time had come.

He was not afraid. He simply knew that he did not wish to dieand that the price at which he would sell his life would cost hisantagonist dearly. In silence he waited. Again he heard that faint,yet ominous sound. The foul air of the cell reeked with the stenchof the carnivores. From somewhere in a distant corridor he heardthe growling of a lion at its kill; and then a voice broke thesilence.

"Who are you?" it asked. It was the voice of a woman, and itcame from the back of the cell in which the ape-man wasimprisoned.

"There is no other one. There was but one lion here and it isgone. Ah, now I know you!" she exclaimed. "I know the voice. It isTarzan of the Apes."

"La!" exclaimed the ape-man, advancing quickly across the cell."How could you be here with the lion and still live?"

"I am in an adjoining cell that is separated from this one by adoor made of iron bars," replied La. Tarzan heard metal hingescreak. "It is not locked," she said. "It was not necessary to lockit, for it opens into this other cell where the lion was."

Groping forward through the dark, the two advanced until theirhands touched one another.

La pressed close to the man. She was trembling. "I have beenafraid," she said, "but I shall not be afraid now."

"Tell me what has happened," demanded Tarzan. "How is it thatOah is posing as high priestess and you a prisoner in your owndungeons?"

"I forgave Oah her former treason when she conspired with Cadjto wrest my power from me," explained La, "but she could not existwithout intrigue and duplicity. To further her ambitions, she madelove to Dooth, who has been high priest since Jad-bal-ja killedCadj. They spread stories about me through the city; and as mypeople have never forgiven me for my friendship for you, theysucceeded in winning enough to their cause to overthrow andimprison me. All the ideas were Oah's, for Dooth and the otherpriests, as you well know, are stupid beasts. It was Oah's idea toimprison me thus with a lion for company, merely to make mysuffering more terrible, until the time should come when she mightprevail upon the priests to offer me in sacrifice to the FlamingGod. In that she has had some difficulty, I know, as those who havebrought my food have told me."

"How could they bring food to you here?" asked Tarzan. "No onecould pass through the outer cell while the lion was there."

"There is another opening in the lion's cell, that leads into alow, narrow corridor into which they can drop meat from above. Thusthey would entice the lion from this outer cell, after which theywould lower a gate of iron bars across the opening of the smallcorridor into which he went, and while he was thus imprisoned theybrought my food to me. But they did not feed him much. He wasalways hungry and often growling and pawing at the bars of my cell.Perhaps Oah hoped that some day he would batter them down."

"Where does this other corridor, in which they fed the lion,lead?" asked Tarzan.

"I do not know," replied La, "but I imagine that it is only ablind tunnel built in ancient times for this very purpose."

"Why not escape through the door by which you entered?" askedLa; and when the ape-man had explained why this was impossible, shepointed out the location of the entrance to the small tunnel.

"We must get out of here as quickly as possible, if it ispossible at all," said Tarzan, "for if they are able to capture thelion, they will certainly return him to this cell."

"Then I had better hurry and make my investigation of thetunnel, for it might prove embarrassing were they to return him tothe cell while I was in the tunnel, if it proved to be a blindone."

"I will listen at the outer door while you investigate," offeredLa. "Make haste."

Groping his way toward the section of the wall that La hadindicated, Tarzan found a heavy grating of iron closing an apertureleading into a low and narrow corridor. Lifting the barrier, Tarzanentered and with his hands extended before him moved forward in acrouching position, since the low ceiling would not permit him tostand erect. He had progressed but a short distance when hediscovered that the corridor made an abrupt right-angle turn to theleft, and beyond the turn he saw at a short distance a faintluminosity. Moving quickly forward, he came to the end of thecorridor, at the bottom of a vertical shaft, the interior of whichwas illuminated by subdued daylight. The shaft was constructed ofthe usual rough-hewn granite of the foundation walls of the city,but here set with no great nicety or precision, giving the interiorof the shaft a rough and uneven surface.

As Tarzan was examining it, he heard La's voice coming along thetunnel from the cell in which he had left her. Her tone was one ofexcitement, and her message one that presaged a situation wroughtwith extreme danger to them both.

"Quick!" he cried to La, as he raised the gate that had fallenbehind him after he had passed through.

Without another word La crowded into the corridor beside him.Tarzan lowered the grating and, with La following closely behindhim, returned to the opening leading into the shaft. Without aword, he lifted La in his arms and raised her as high as he could,nor did she need to be told what to do. With little difficulty shefound both hand and footholds upon the rough surface of theinterior of the shaft, and with Tarzan just below her, assistingand steadying her, she made her way slowly aloft.

The shaft led directly upward into a room in the tower, whichoverlooked the entire city of Opar; and here, concealed by thecrumbling walls, they paused to formulate their plans.

They both knew that their greatest danger lay in discovery byone of the numerous monkeys infesting the ruins of Opar, with whichthe inhabitants of the city are able to converse. Tarzan wasanxious to be away from Opar that he might thwart the plans of thewhite men who had invaded his domain. But first he wished to bringabout the downfall of La's enemies and reinstate her upon thethrone of Opar, or if that should prove impossible, to insure thesafety of her flight.

As he viewed her now in the light of day he was struck again bythe matchlessness of her deathless beauty that neither time, norcare, nor danger seemed capable of dimming, and he wondered what heshould do with her; where he could take her; where this savagepriestess of the Flaming God could find a place in all the world,outside the walls of Opar, with the environments of which she wouldharmonize. And as he pondered, he was forced to admit to himselfthat no such place existed. La was of Opar, a savage queen born torule a race of savage half-men. As well introduce a tigress to thesalons of civilization as La of Opar. Two or three thousand yearsearlier she might have been a Cleopatra or a Sheba, but today shecould be only La of Opar.

For some time they had sat in silence, the beautiful eyes of thehigh priestess resting upon the profile of the forest god."Tarzan!" she said.

A troubled expression came into the eyes of the ape-man."Let us not speak of that."

"I like to speak of it," she murmured. "It gives me sorrow, butit is a sweet sorrow—the only sweetness that has ever comeinto my life."

Tarzan extended a bronzed hand and laid it upon her slender,tapering fingers. "You have always possessed my heart, La," hesaid, "up to the point of love. If my affection goes no furtherthan this, it is through no fault of mine nor yours."

La laughed. "It is certainly through no fault of mine, Tarzan,"she said, "but I know that such things are not ordered byourselves. Love is a gift of the gods. Sometimes it is awarded as arecompense; sometimes as a punishment. For me it has been apunishment, perhaps, but I would not have it otherwise. I hadnurtured it in my breast since first I met you; and without thatlove, however hopeless it may be, I should not care to live."

Tarzan made no reply, and the two relapsed into silence, waitingfor night to fall that they might descend into the city unobserved.Tarzan's alert mind was occupied with plans for reinstating La uponher throne, and presently they fell to discussing these.

"Just before the Flaming God goes to his rest at night," saidLa, "the priests and the priestesses all gather in the throne room.There they will be tonight before the throne upon which Oah will beseated. Then may we descend to the city."

"If we can kill Oah in the throne room," said La, "and Dooth atthe same time, they would have no leaders; and without leaders theyare lost."

"I can," returned La, "and you can attend to Dooth. Youcertainly would not object to killing him?"

"If he attacked, I would kill him," said Tarzan, "but nototherwise. Tarzan of the Apes kills only in self-defense and forfood, or when there is no other way to thwart an enemy."

In the floor of the ancient room in which they were waiting weretwo openings; one was the mouth of the shaft through which they hadascended from the dungeons, the other opened into a similar butlarger shaft, to the bottom of which ran a long wooden ladder setin the masonry of its sides. It was this shaft which offered them ameans of escape from the tower, and as Tarzan sat with his eyesresting idly upon the opening, an unpleasant thought suddenlyobtruded itself upon his consciousness.

He turned toward La. "We had forgotten," he said, "that whoevercasts the meat down the shaft to the lion must ascend by this othershaft. We may not be as safe from detection here as we hadhoped."

"I do not recall," said La. "Time drags so heavily in thedarkness of the cell that I lost count of days."

Silently the ape-man arose and crossed the floor to the opening,where he crouched upon the side opposite the ladder. La movedstealthily to his side, so that the ascending man, whose back wouldbe toward them, as he emerged from the shaft, would not see them.Slowly the man ascended. They could hear his shuffling progresscoming nearer and nearer to the top. He did not climb as theape-like priests of Opar are wont to climb. Tarzan thought perhapshe was carrying a load either of such weight or cumbersomeness asto retard his progress, but when finally his head came into viewthe ape-man saw that he was an old man, which accounted for his lackof agility; and then powerful fingers closed about the throat ofthe unsuspecting Oparian, and he was lifted bodily out of theshaft.

La had snatched a knife from the girdle of their victim, and nowTarzan forced him to the floor of the room and slightly releasedhis hold upon the fellow's throat, turning him around so that hefaced them.

An expression of incredulity and surprise crossed the face ofthe old priest as his eyes fell upon La.

"All honor to the Flaming God who has ordered your escape!"exclaimed the priest.

La turned to Tarzan. "You need not fear Darus," she said; "hewill not betray us. Of all the priests of Opar, there never livedone more loyal to his queen."

"Yes, very many," replied Darus, "but they are afraid. Oahis a she-devil and Dooth is a fool. Between the two of them thereis no longer either safety or happiness in Opar."

"Gather them in the throne room tonight then, Darus; and as theFlaming God goes to his couch, be ready to strike at the enemies ofLa, your priestess."

"I shall be there," replied La. "This, your dagger, shall be thesignal. When you see La of Opar plunge it into the breast of Oah,the false priestess, fall upon those who are the enemies ofLa."

"It shall be done, just as you say," Darus assured her, "and nowI must throw this meat to the lion and be gone."

Slowly the old priest descended the ladder, gibbering andmuttering to himself, after he had cast a few bones and scraps ofmeat into the other shaft to the lion.

"Absolutely," replied the girl. "Darus would die for me, and Iknow that he hates Oah and Dooth."

The slow remaining hours of the afternoon dragged on, the sunwas low in the west, and now the two must take their greatest risk,that of descending into the city while it was still light andmaking their way to the throne room, although the risk was greatlyminimized by the fact that the inhabitants of the city were allsupposed to be congregated in the throne room at this time,performing the age-old rite with which they speeded the Flaming Godto his night of rest. Without interruption they descended to thebase of the tower, crossed the courtyard and entered the temple.Here, through devious and round-about passages, La led the way to asmall doorway that opened into the throne room at the back of thedais upon which the throne stood. Here she paused, listening to theservices being conducted within the great chamber, waiting for thecue that would bring them to a point when all within the room,except the high priestess, were prostrated with their faces pressedagainst the floor.

When that instant arrived, La swung open the door and leapedsilently upon the dais behind the throne in which her victim sat.Close behind her came Tarzan, and in that first instant bothrealized that they had been betrayed, for the dais was swarmingwith priests ready to seize them.

Already one had caught La by an arm, but before he could dragher away Tarzan sprang upon him, seized him by the neck and jerkedhis head backward so suddenly and with such force that the sound ofhis snapping vertebra could be heard across the room. Then heraised the body high above his head and cast it into the faces ofthe priests charging upon him. As they staggered back, he seized Laand swung her into the corridor along which they had approached thethrone room.

It was useless to stand and fight, for he knew that even thoughhe might hold his own for a while, they must eventually overcomehim and that once they laid their hands upon La they would tear herlimb from limb.

Down the corridor behind them came the yelling horde of priests,and in their wake, screaming for the blood of her victim, wasOah.

"Make for the outer walls by the shortest route, La," directedTarzan, and the girl sped on winged feet, leading him through thelabyrinthine corridors of the ruins, until they broke suddenly intothe chamber of the seven pillars of gold, and then Tarzan knew theway.

No longer needing his guide, and realizing that the priests wereovertaking them, being fleeter of foot than La, he swept the girlinto his arms and sped through the echoing chambers of the templetoward the inner wall. Through that, across the courtyard andthrough the outer wall they passed, and still the priests pursued,urged on by screaming Oah. Out across the deserted valley theyfled; and now the priests were losing ground, for their short,crooked legs could not compete with the speed of Tarzan's cleanlimbed stride, even though he was burdened by the weight of La.

The sudden darkness of the near tropics that follows the settingof the sun soon obliterated the pursuers from their sight; and ashort time thereafter the sounds of pursuit ceased, and Tarzan knewthat the chase had been abandoned, for the men of Opar have no lovefor the darkness of the outer world.

Then Tarzan paused and lowered La to the ground; but as he didso her soft arms encircled his neck and she pressed close to him,her cheek against his breast, and burst into tears.

"Do not cry, La," he said. "We shall come again to Opar, andwhen we do you shall be seated upon your throne again."

"I am crying for joy," she said, "joy that perhaps I shall bealone with you now for a long time."

In pity, Tarzan pressed her to him for a moment, and then theyset off once more toward the barrier cliff.

That night they slept in a great tree in the forest at the footof the cliff, after Tarzan had constructed a rude couch for Labetween two branches, while he settled himself in a crotch of thetree a few feet below her.

It was dawn when Tarzan awoke. The sky was overcast, and hesensed an approaching storm. No food had passed his lips for manyhours, and he knew that La had not eaten since the morning of theprevious day. Food, therefore, was a prime essential and he mustfind it and return to La before the storm broke. Since it was meatthat he craved, he knew that he must be able to make fire and cookit before La could eat it, though he himself still preferred itraw. He looked into La's cot and saw that she was still asleep.Knowing that she must be exhausted from all that she had passedthrough the previous day, he let her sleep on; and swinging to anearby tree, he set out upon his search for food.

As he moved up wind through the middle terrace, every faculty ofhis delicately attuned senses was alert. Like the lion, Tarzanparticularly relished the flesh of Pacco, the zebra, but eitherBara, the antelope, or Horta, the boar, would have proven anacceptable substitute; but the forest seemed to be deserted byevery member of the herds he sought. Only the scent spoor of thegreat cats assailed his nostrils, mingled with the lesser and morehuman odor of Manu, the monkey. Time means little to a huntingbeast. It meant little to Tarzan, who, having set out in search ofmeat, would return only when he had found meat.

When La awakened, it was some time before she could place hersurroundings; but when she did, a slow smile of happiness andcontentment parted her lovely lips, revealing an even row ofperfect teeth. She sighed, and then she whispered the name of theman she loved. "Tarzan!" she called.

There was no reply. Again she spoke his name, but this timelouder, and again the only answer was silence. Slightly troubled,she arose upon an elbow and leaned over the side of her sleepingcouch. The tree beneath her was empty.

She thought, correctly, that perhaps he had gone to hunt, butstill she was troubled by his absence, and the longer she waitedthe more troubled she became. She knew that he did not love her andthat she must be a burden to him. She knew, too, that he was asmuch a wild beast as the lions of the forest and that the samedesire for freedom, which animated them, must animate him. Perhapshe had been unable to withstand the temptation longer and while sheslept, he had left her.

There was not a great deal in the training or ethics of La ofOpar that could have found exception to such conduct, for the lifeof her people was a life of ruthless selfishness and cruelty. Theyentertained few of the finer sensibilities of civilized man, or thegreat nobility of character that marked so many of the wild beasts.Her love for Tarzan had been the only soft spot in La's savagelife, and realizing that she would think nothing of deserting acreature she did not love, she was fair enough to cast noreproaches upon Tarzan for having done the thing that she mighthave done, nor to her mind did it accord illy with her conceptionof his nobility of character.

As she descended to the ground, she sought to determine someplan of action for the future, and in this moment of her lonelinessand depression she saw no alternative but to return to Opar, and soit was toward the city of her birth that she turned her steps; butshe had not gone far before she realized the danger and futility ofthis plan, which could but lead to certain death while Oah andDooth ruled in Opar. She felt bitterly toward Darus, who shebelieved had betrayed her; and accepting his treason as an index ofwhat she might expect from others whom she had believed to befriendly to her, she realized the utter hopelessness of regainingthe throne of Opar without outside help. La had no happy life towhich she might look forward; but the will to live was yet strongwithin her, the result more, perhaps, of the courageousness of herspirit than of any fear of death, which, to her, was but anotherword for defeat.

She paused in the trail that she had reached a short distancefrom the tree in which she had spent the night; and there, withalmost nothing to guide her, she sought to determine in whatdirection she should break a new trail into the future, forwherever she went, other than back to Opar, it would be a newtrail, leading among peoples and experiences as foreign to her asthough she had suddenly stepped from another planet, or from thelong-lost continent of her progenitors.

It occurred to her that perhaps there might be other people inthis strange world as generous and chivalrous as Tarzan. At leastin this direction there lay hope. In Opar there was none, and soshe turned back away from Opar; and above her black clouds rolledand billowed as the storm king marshalled his forces, and behindher a tawny beast with gleaming eyes slunk through the underbrushbeside the trail that she followed.

VII. — IN FUTILE SEARCH

TARZAN OF THE APES, ranging far in search of food,caught at length the welcome scent of Horta, the boar. The manpaused and, with a deep and silent inhalation, filled his lungswith air until his great bronzed chest expanded to the full.Already he was tasting the fruits of victory. The red blood coursedthrough his veins, as every fiber of his being reacted to theexhilaration of the moment—the keen delight of the huntingbeast that has scented its quarry. And then swiftly and silently hesped in the direction of his prey.

Presently he came upon it, a young tusker, powerful and agile,his wicked tusks gleaming as he tore bark from a young tree. Theape-man was poised just above him, concealed by the foliage of agreat tree.

A vivid flash of lightning broke from the billowing black cloudsabove. Thunder crashed and boomed. The storm broke, and at the sameinstant the man launched himself downward upon the back of theunsuspecting boar, in one hand the hunting knife of his long-deadsire.

The weight of the man's body crushed the boar to the earth, andbefore it could struggle to its feet again, the keen blade hadsevered its jugular. Its life blood gushing from the wound, theboar sought to rise and turn to fight; but the steel thews of theape-man dragged it down, and an instant later, with a lastconvulsive shudder, Horta died.

Leaping to his feet, Tarzan placed a foot upon the carcass ofhis kill and, raising his face to the heavens, gave voice to thevictory cry of the bull-ape.

Faintly to the ears of marching men came the hideous scream. Theblacks in the party halted, wide-eyed.

"That was no panther," said Kitembo. "It was the cry of abull-ape who has made a kill, or——"

Kitembo looked fearfully in the direction from which the soundhad come. "Let us get away from here," he said.

Again the lightning flashed and the thunder crashed, and as thetorrential rain deluged them, the party staggered on in thedirection of the barrier cliffs of Opar.

* * * * * * *

Cold and wet, La of Oparcrouched beneath a great tree that only partially protected heralmost naked body from the fury of the storm, and in the denseunderbrush a few yards from her a tawny carnivore lay withunblinking eyes fixed steadily upon her.

The storm, titanic in its brief fury, passed on, leaving thedeep worn trail a tiny torrent of muddy water; and La, thoroughlychilled, hastened onward in an effort to woo new warmth to herchilled body.

She knew that trails must lead somewhere, and in her heart shehoped that this one would lead to the country of Tarzan. If shecould live there, seeing him occasionally, she would be content.Even knowing that he was near her would be better than nothing. Ofcourse she had no conception of the immensity of the world shetrod. A knowledge of even the extent of the forest that surroundedher would have appalled her. In her imagination she visualized asmall world, dotted with the remains of ruined cities like Opar, inwhich dwelt creatures like those she had known; gnarled and knottedmen like the priests of Opar, white men like Tarzan, black men suchas she had seen, and great shaggy gorillas like Bolgani, who hadruled in the Valley of the Palace of Diamonds.

And thinking these thoughts, she came at last to a clearing intowhich the unbroken rays of the warm sun poured withoutinterruption. Near the center of the clearing was a small boulder;and toward this she made her way with the intention of basking inthe warm rays of the sun until she should be thoroughly dried andwarmed, for the dripping foliage of the forest had kept her wet andcold even after the rain had ceased.

As she seated herself she saw a movement at the edge of theclearing ahead of her, and an instant later a great leopard boundedinto view. The beast paused at sight of the woman, evidently asmuch surprised as she; and then, apparently realizing thedefenselessness of this unexpected prey, the creature crouched andwith twitching tail slowly wormed itself forward.

La rose and drew from her girdle the knife that she had takenfrom Darus. She knew that flight was futile. In a few bounds thegreat beast could overtake her, and even had there been a tree thatshe could have reached before she was overtaken, it would haveproven no sanctuary from a leopard. Defense, too, she knew to befutile, but surrender without battle was not within the fiber of Laof Opar.

The metal discs, elaborately wrought by the hands of somelong-dead goldsmith of ancient Opar, rose and fell above her firmbreasts as her heart beat, perhaps a bit more rapidly, beneaththem. On came the leopard. She knew that in an instant he wouldcharge; and then of a sudden he rose to his feet, his back arched,his mouth grinning in a fearful snarl; and simultaneously a tawnystreak whizzed by her from behind, and she saw a great lion leapupon her would-be destroyer.

At the last instant, but too late, the leopard had turned toflee; and the lion seized him by the back of the neck, and with hisjaws and one great paw he twisted the head back until the spinesnapped. Then, almost contemptuously, he cast the body from him andturned toward the girl.

In an instant La realized what had happened. The lion had beenstalking her, and seeing another about to seize his prey, he hadleaped to battle in its defense. She had been saved, but only tofall victim immediately to another and more terrible beast.

The lion stood looking at her. She wondered why he did notcharge and claim his prey. She did not know that within that littlebrain the scent of the woman had aroused the memory of another day,when Tarzan had lain bound upon the sacrificial altar of Opar withJad-bal-ja, the golden lion, standing guard above him. A woman hadcome—this same woman—and Tarzan, his master, had toldhim not to harm her, and she had approached and cut the bonds thatsecured him.

This Jad-bal-ja remembered, and he remembered, too, that he wasnot to harm this woman; and if he was not to harm her, then nothingmust harm her. For this reason he had killed Sheeta, theleopard.

But all this, La of Opar did not know, for she had notrecognized Jad-bal-ja. She merely wondered how much longer it wouldbe; and when the lion came closer she steeled herself, for stillshe meant to fight; yet there was something in his attitude thatshe could not understand. He was not charging; he was merelywalking toward her, and when he was a couple of yards from her hehalf turned away and lay down and yawned.

For what seemed an eternity to the girl she stood there watchinghim. He paid no attention to her. Could it be that, sure of hisprey and not yet hungry, he merely waited until he was quite readyto make his kill? The idea was horrible, and even La's iron nervescommenced to weaken beneath the strain.

She knew that she could not escape, and so better instant deaththan this suspense. She determined, therefore, to end the matterquickly and to discover once and for all whether the lionconsidered her already his prey or would permit her to depart.Gathering all the forces of self-control that she possessed, sheplaced the point of her dagger to her heart and walked boldly pastthe lion. Should he attack her, she would end the agony instantlyby plunging the blade into her heart.

Jad-bal-ja did not move, but with lazy, half-closed eyes hewatched the woman cross the clearing and disappear beyond the turnof the trail that wound its way back into the jungle.

All that day La moved on with grim determination, looking alwaysfor a ruined city like Opar, astonished by the immensity of theforest, appalled by its loneliness. Surely, she thought, she mustsoon come to the country of Tarzan. She found fruits and tubers toallay her hunger, and as the trail descended a valley in which ariver ran, she did not want for water. But night came again, andstill no sight of man or city. Once again she crept into a tree tosleep, but this time there was no Tarzan of the Apes to fashion acouch for her or to watch over her safety.

* * * * * * *

After Tarzan had slainthe boar, he cut off the hind quarters and started back to the treein which he had left La. The storm made his progress much slowerthan it otherwise wouldhave been, but notwithstanding this he realized long before hereached his destination that his hunting had taken him much fartherafield than he had imagined.

When at last he reached the tree and found that La was notthere, he was slightly disconcerted, but thinking that perhaps shehad descended to stretch her limbs after the storm, he called hername aloud several times. Receiving no answer, he became genuinelyapprehensive for her safety and, dropping to the ground, soughtsome sign of her spoor. It so happened that beneath the tree herfootprints were still visible, not having been entirely obliteratedby the rain. He saw that they led back in the direction of Opar, sothat, although he lost them when they reached the trail, in whichwater still was running, he was none the less confident that heknew her intended destination; and so he set off in the directionof the barrier cliff.

It was not difficult for him to account for her absence and forthe fact that she was returning to Opar, and he reproached himselffor his thoughtlessness in having left her for so long a timewithout first telling her of his purpose. He guessed, rightly, thatshe had imagined herself deserted and had turned back to the onlyhome she knew, to the only place in the world where La of Oparmight hope to find friends; but that she would find them even thereTarzan doubted, and he was determined that she must not go backuntil she could do so with a force of warriors sufficiently greatto insure the overthrow of her enemies.

It had been Tarzan's plan first to thwart the scheme of theparty whose camp he had discovered in his dominion and then toreturn with La to the country of his Waziri, where he would gathera sufficient body of those redoubtable warriors to insure thesafety and success of La's return to Opar. Never communicative, hehad neglected to explain his purposes to La; and this he nowregretted, since he was quite certain that had he done so she wouldnot have felt it necessary to have attempted to return alone toOpar.

But he was not much concerned with the outcome since he wasconfident that he could overtake her long before she reached thecity; and, enured as he was to the dangers of the forest and thejungle, he minimized their importance, as we do those whichconfront us daily in the ordinary course of our seemingly humdrumexistence, where death threatens us quite as constantly as it doesthe denizens of the jungle.

At any moment expecting to catch sight of her whom he sought,Tarzan traversed the back trail to the foot of the rocky escarpmentthat guards the plain of Opar; and now he commenced to have hisdoubts, for it did not seem possible that La could have covered sogreat a distance in so short a time. He scaled the cliff and cameout upon the summit of the flat mountain that overlooked distantOpar. Here only a light rain had fallen, the storm having followedthe course of the valley below, and plain in the trail were thefootprints of himself and La where they had passed down from Oparthe night before; but nowhere was there any sign of spoor toindicate that the girl had returned, nor, as he looked out acrossthe valley, was there any moving thing in sight.

What had become of her? Where could she have gone? In the greatforest that spread below him there were countless trails. Somewherebelow, her spoor must be plain in the freshly-wet earth, but herealized that even for him it might prove a long and difficult taskto pick it up again.

As he turned back rather sorrowfully to descend the barriercliff, his attention was attracted by a movement at the edge of theforest below. Dropping to his belly behind a low bush, Tarzanwatched the spot to which his attention had been attracted; and ashe did so the head of a column of men debouched from the forest andmoved toward the foot of the cliff.

Tarzan had known nothing of what had transpired upon theoccasion of Zveri's first expedition to Opar, which had occurredwhile he had been incarcerated in the cell beneath the city. Theapparent mysterious disappearance of the party that he had known tohave been marching on Opar had mystified him; but here it wasagain, and where it had been in the meantime was of no moment.

Tarzan wished that he had his bow and arrow, which the Oparianshad taken from him and which he had not had an opportunity toreplace since he had escaped. But if he did not have them, therewere other ways of annoying the invaders. From his position hewatched them approach the cliff and commence the ascent.

Tarzan selected a large boulder, many of which were strewn aboutthe flat top of the mountain, and when the leaders of the partywere about half way to the summit and the others were strung outbelow them, the ape-man pushed the rock over the edge of the cliffjust above them. In its descent it just grazed Zveri, struck aprotuberance beyond him, bounded over Colt's head, and carried twoof Kitembo's warriors to death at the base of the escarpment.

The ascent stopped instantly. Several of the blacks who hadaccompanied the first expedition started a hasty retreat; and utterdisorganization and rout faced the expedition, whose nerves hadbecome more and more sensitive the nearer that they approachedOpar.

"Stop the damn cowards!" shouted Zveri to Dorsky and Ivitch, whowere bringing up the rear. "Who will volunteer to go over the topand investigate?"

"Who else?" demanded Zveri; but no one else volunteered, andalready the Mexican and the American were climbing upward.

"Cover our advance with a few rifles," Colt shouted back toZveri. "That ought to keep them away from the edge."

Zveri issued instructions to several of the askaris who had notjoined in the retreat; and when their rifles commenced popping, itput new heart into those who had started to flee, and presentlyDorsky and Ivitch had rallied the men and the ascent wasresumed.

Perfectly well aware that he might not stop the advancesingle-handed, Tarzan had withdrawn quickly along the edge of thecliff to a spot where tumbled masses of granite offered concealmentand where he knew that there existed a precipitous trail to thebottom of the cliff. Here he could remain and watch, or, ifnecessary, make a hasty retreat. He saw Romero and Colt reach thesummit and immediately recognized the latter as the man he had seenin the base camp of the invaders. He had previously been impressedby the appearance of the young American, and now he acknowledgedhis unquestioned bravery and that of his companion in leading aparty over the summit of the cliff in the face of an unknowndanger.

Romero and Colt looked quickly about them, but there was noenemy in sight, and this word they passed back to the ascendingcompany.

From his point of vantage Tarzan watched the expedition surmountthe summit of the cliff and start on its march toward Opar. Hebelieved that they could never find the treasure vaults; and nowthat La was not in the city, he was not concerned with the fate ofthose who had turned against her. Upon the bare and inhospitableOparian plain, or in the city itself, they could accomplish littlein furthering the objects of the expedition he had overheard ZoraDrinov explaining to Colt. He knew that eventually they must returnto their base camp, and in the meantime he would prosecute hissearch for La; and so as Zveri led his expedition once again towardOpar, Tarzan of the Apes slipped over the edge of the barrier cliffand descended swiftly to the forest below.

Just inside the forest and upon the bank of the river was anadmirable camp site; and having noticed that the expedition wasaccompanied by no porters, Tarzan naturally assumed that they hadestablished a temporary camp within striking distance of the city,and it occurred to him that in this camp he might find La aprisoner.

As he had expected, he found the camp located upon the spotwhere, upon other occasions, he had camped with his Waziriwarriors. An old thorn boma that had encircled it for years hadbeen repaired by the newcomers, and within it a number of rudeshelters had been erected, while in the center stood the tents ofthe white men. Porters were dozing in the shade of the trees; asingle askari made a pretense of standing guard, while his fellowslolled at their ease, their rifles at their sides; but nowherecould he see La of Opar.

He moved down wind from the camp, hoping to catch her scentspoor if she was a prisoner there, but so strong was the smell ofsmoke and the body odors of the blacks that he could not be surebut that these drowned La's scent. He decided, therefore, to waituntil darkness had fallen when he might make a more carefulinvestigation, and he was further prompted to this decision by thesight of weapons, which he sorely needed. All of the warriors werearmed with rifles, but some, clinging through force of ancienthabit to the weapons of their ancestors, carried also bows andarrows, and in addition there were many spears.

As a few mouthfuls of the raw flesh of Horta had constituted theonly food that had passed Tarzan's lips for almost two days, he wasravenously hungry. With the discovery that La had disappeared, hehad cached the hind quarter of the boar in the tree in which theyhad spent the night and set out upon his fruitless search for her;so now, while he waited for darkness, he hunted again, and thistime Bara, the antelope, fell a victim to his prowess, nor did heleave the carcass of his kill until he had satisfied his hunger.Then he lay up in a nearby tree and slept.

* * * * * * *

The anger of Abu Batn against Zveri was rooted deeply in hisinherent racial antipathy for Europeans and their religion, and itsgrowth was stimulated by the aspersions which the Russian had castupon the courage of the Aarab and his followers.

"Dog of a Nasrâny!" ejaculated the sheykh. "He called uscowards, we Bedaùwy, and he left us here like old men and boys toguard the camp and the woman."

"He is but an instrument of Allah," said one of the Aarabs, "inthe great cause that will rid Africa of all Nasrâny."

"Wellah-billah!" ejaculated Abu Batn. "What proof have we thatthese people will do as they promise? I would rather have myfreedom on the desert and what wealth I can gather by myself thanto lie longer in the same camp with these Nasrâny pigs."

"I have looked upon their woman," said the sheykh, "and I findher good. I know a city where she would bring many pieces ofgold."

"In the trunk of the chief Nasrâny there are many pieces of goldand silver," said one of the men. "His boy told that to a Galla,who repeated it to me."

"If we do this thing, perhaps the great cause will be lost,"suggested he who had first answered the sheykh.

"It is the cause of the Nasrâny," said Abu Batn, "and it is onlyfor profit. Is not the huge pig always reminding us of the money,and the women, and the power that we shall have when we have thrownout the English? Man is moved only by his greed. Let us take ourprofits in advance and be gone."

Wamala was preparing the evening meal for his mistress. "Before,you were left with the brown bwana," he said, "and he was no good;nor do I like any better the sheykh Abu Batn. He is no good. I wishthat Bwana Colt were here."

"So do I," said Zora. "It seems to me that the Aarabs have beensullen and surly ever since the expedition returned from Opar."

"They have sat all day in the tent of their chief talkingtogether," said Wamala, "and often Abu Batn looked at you."

"That is your imagination, Wamala," replied the girl. "He wouldnot dare to harm me."

"Who would have thought that the brown bwana would have daredto?" Wamala reminded her.

"Hush, Wamala, the first thing you know you will have mefrightened," said Zora, and then suddenly, "Look, Wamala! Who isthat?"

The black boy turned his eyes in the direction toward which hismistress was looking. At the edge of the camp stood a figure thatmight have wrung an exclamation of surprise from a Stoic. Abeautiful woman stood there regarding them intently. She had haltedjust at the edge of camp—an almost naked woman whose gorgeousbeauty was her first and most striking characteristic. Two goldendiscs covered her firm breasts, and a narrow stomacher of gold andprecious stones encircled her hips, supporting in front and behinda broad strip of soft leather, studded with gold and jewels, whichformed the pattern of a pedestal on the summit of which was seateda grotesque bird. Her feet were shod in sandals that were coveredwith mud, as were her shapely legs upward to above her knees. Amass of wavy hair, shot with golden bronze lights by the rays ofthe setting sun, half surrounded an oval face, and from beneathnarrow penciled brows fearless gray eyes regarded them.

Some of the Aarabs had caught sight of her, too, and they werecoming forward now toward her. She looked quickly from Zora andWamala toward the others. Then the European girl arose quickly andapproached her that she might reach her before the Aarabs did; andas she came near the stranger with outstretched hands, Zora smiled.La of Opar came quickly to meet her as though sensing in the smileof the other an index to the friendly intent of this stranger.

Zora Drinov was an accomplished linguist but she exhausted everylanguage in her repertoire, including a few phrases from variousBantu dialects, and still found no means of communicating with thestranger, whose beautiful face and figure but added to the interestof the tantalizing enigma she presented to pique the curiosity ofthe Russian girl.

The Aarabs addressed her in their own tongue and Wamala in thedialect of his tribe, but all to no avail. Then Zora put an armabout her and led her toward her tent; and there, by means ofsigns, La of Opar indicated that she would bathe. Wamala wasdirected to prepare a tub in Zora's tent, and by the time supperwas prepared the stranger reappeared, washed and refreshed.

As Zora Drinov seated herself opposite her strange guest, shewas impressed with the belief that never before had she looked uponso beautiful a woman, and she marvelled that one who must have feltso utterly out of place in her surroundings should still retain apoise that suggested the majestic bearing of a queen rather than ofa stranger ill at ease.

By signs and gestures, Zora sought to converse with her guestuntil even the regal La found herself laughing; and then La triedit too until Zora knew that her guest had been threatened withclubs and knives and driven from her home, that she had walked along way, that either a lion or a leopard had attacked her and thatshe was very tired.

When supper was over, Wamala prepared another cot for La in thetent with Zora, for something in the faces of the Aarabs had madethe European girl fear for the safety of her beautiful guest.

"You must sleep outside the tent door tonight, Wamala," shesaid. "Here is an extra pistol."

In his goat hair beyt Abu Batn, the sheykh, talked long into thenight with the principal men of his tribe. "The new one," he said,"will bring a price such as has never been paid before."

* * * * * * *

Tarzan awoke and glanced upward through the foliage at thestars. He saw that the night was half gone, and he arose andstretched himself. He ate again sparingly of the flesh of Bara andslipped silently into the shadows of the night.

The camp at the foot of the barrier cliff slept. A single askarikept guard and tended the beast fire. From a tree at the edge ofthe camp two eyes watched him, and when he was looking away afigure dropped silently into the shadows. Behind the huts of theporters it crept, pausing occasionally to test the air with dilatednostrils. It came at last, among the shadows, to the tents of theEuropeans, and one by one it ripped a hole in each rear wall andentered. It was Tarzan searching for La, but he did not find herand, disappointed, he turned to another matter.

Making a half circuit of the camp, moving sometimes only inch byinch as he wormed himself along on his belly, lest the askari uponguard might see him, he made his way to the shelters of the otheraskaris, and there he selected a bow and arrows, and a stout spear,but even yet he was not done.

For a long time he crouched waiting—waiting until theaskari by the fire should turn in a certain direction.

Presently the sentry arose and threw some dry wood upon thefire, after which he walked toward the shelter of his fellows toawaken the man who was to relieve him. It was this moment for whichTarzan had been waiting. The path of the askari brought him closeto where Tarzan lay in hiding. The man approached and passed, andin the same instant Tarzan leaped to his feet and sprang upon theunsuspecting black. A strong arm encircled the fellow from behindand swung him to a broad, bronzed shoulder. As Tarzan hadanticipated, a scream of terror burst from the man's lips,awakening his fellows; and then he was borne swiftly through theshadows of the camp away from the beast fire as, with his preystruggling futilely in his grasp, the ape-man leaped the thorn bomaand disappeared into the black jungle beyond.

So sudden and violent was the attack, so complete the man'ssurprise, that he had loosened his grasp upon his rifle in aneffort to clutch his antagonist as he was thrown lightly to theshoulder of his captor.

His screams, echoing through the forest, brought his terrifiedcompanions from their shelters in time to see an indistinct formleap the boma and vanish into the darkness. They stood temporarilyparalyzed by fright, listening to the diminishing cries of theircomrade. Presently these ceased as suddenly as they had commenced.Then the headman found his voice.

"It was not Simba," declared another. "It ran high upon twolegs, like a man. I saw it."

Presently from the dark jungle came a hideous, long-drawn cry."That is the voice of neither man nor lion," said the headman.

"It is a demon," whispered another, and then they huddled aboutthe fire, throwing dry wood upon it until its blaze had crackledhigh into the air.

In the darkness of the jungle Tarzan paused and laid aside hisspear and bow, possession of which had permitted him to use but onehand in his abduction of the sentry. Now the fingers of his freehand closed upon the throat of his victim, putting a sudden periodto his screams. Only for an instant did Tarzan choke the man; andwhen he relaxed his grasp upon the fellow's throat, the black madeno further outcry, fearing to invite again the ungentle grip ofthose steel fingers. Quickly Tarzan jerked the fellow to his feet,relieved him of his knife and, grasping him by his thick wool,pushed him ahead of him into the jungle, after stooping to retrievehis spear and bow. It was then that he voiced the victory cry ofthe bull-ape, for the value of the effect that it would have notonly upon his victim, but upon his fellows in the camp behindthem.

Tarzan had no intention of harming the fellow. His quarrel wasnot with the innocent black tools of the white men; and, while hewould not have hesitated to take the life of the black had it beennecessary, he knew them well enough to know that he might effecthis purpose with them as well without bloodshed as with it.

The whites could not accomplish anything without their blackallies, and if Tarzan could successfully undermine the morale ofthe latter, the schemes of their masters would be as effectuallythwarted as though he had destroyed them, since he was confidentthat they would not remain in a district where they were constantlyreminded of the presence of a malign, supernatural enemy.Furthermore, this policy accorded better with Tarzan's grim senseof humor and, therefore, amused him, which the taking of life neverdid.

For an hour he marched his victim ahead of him in an uttersilence, which he knew would have its effect upon the nerves of theblack man. Finally he halted him, stripped his remaining clothingfrom him, and taking the fellow's loin cloth bound his wrists andankles together loosely. Then, appropriating his cartridge belt andother belongings, Tarzan left him, knowing that the black wouldsoon free himself from his bonds; yet, believing that he had madehis escape, would remain for life convinced that he had narrowlyeluded a terrible fate.

Satisfied with his night's work, Tarzan returned to the tree inwhich he had cached the carcass of Bara, ate once more and lay upin sleep until morning, when he again took up his search for La,seeking trace of her up the valley beyond the barrier cliff ofOpar, in the general direction that her spoor had indicated she hadgone, though, as a matter of fact, she had gone in precisely theopposite direction, down the valley.

VIII. — THE TREACHERY OF ABUBATN

NIGHT was falling when a frightened little monkeytook refuge in a tree top. For days he had been wandering throughthe jungle, seeking in his little mind a solution for his problemduring those occasional intervals that he could concentrate hismental forces upon it. But in an instant he might forget it to goswinging and scampering through the trees, or again a sudden terrorwould drive it from his consciousness, as one or another of thehereditary menaces to his existence appeared within the range ofhis perceptive faculties.

While his grief lasted, it was real and poignant, and tearswelled in the eyes of little Nkima as he thought of his absentmaster. Lurking always within him upon the borderland of convictionwas the thought that he must obtain succor for Tarzan. In some wayhe must fetch aid to his master. The great black Gomanganiwarriors, who were also the servants of Tarzan, were manydarknesses away, but yet it was in the general direction of thecountry of the Waziri that he drifted. Time was in no sense theessence of the solution of this or any other problem in the mind ofNkima. He had seen Tarzan enter Opar alive. He had not seen himdestroyed, nor had he seen him come out of the city; and, therefore,by the standards of his logic Tarzan must still be alive and inthe city, but because the city was filled with enemies Tarzan mustbe in danger. As conditions were they would remain. He could notreadily visualize any change that he did not actually witness, andso, whether he found and fetched the Waziri today or tomorrow wouldhave little effect upon the result. They would go to Opar and killTarzan's enemies, and then little Nkima would have his master oncemore, and he would not have to be afraid of Sheeta, or Sabor, orHistah.

Night fell, and in the forest Nkima heard a gentle tapping. Hearoused himself and listened intently. The tapping grew in volumeuntil it rolled and moved through the jungle. Its source was at nogreat distance, and as Nkima became aware of this, his excitementgrew.

The moon was well up in the heavens, but the shadows of thejungle were dense. Nkima was upon the horns of a dilemma, betweenhis desire to go to the place from which the drumming emanated andhis fear of the dangers that might lie along the way; but at lengththe urge prevailed over his terror, and keeping well up in therelatively greater safety of the tree tops, he swung quickly in thedirection from which the sound was coming to halt at last, above alittle natural clearing that was roughly circular in shape.

Below him, in the moonlight, he witnessed a scene that he hadspied upon before, for here the great apes of To-yat were engagedin the death dance of the Dum-Dum. In the center of theamphitheater was one of those remarkable earthen drums, which fromtime immemorial primitive man has heard, but which few have seen.Before the drum were seated two old shes, who beat upon itsresounding surface with short sticks. There was a rough rhythmiccadence to their beating, and to it, in a savage circle, danced thebulls; while encircling them in a thin outer line, the females andthe young squatted upon their haunches, enthralled spectators ofthe savage scene. Close beside the drum lay the dead body ofSheeta, the leopard, to celebrate whose killing the Dum-Dum hadbeen organized.

Presently the dancing bulls would rush in upon the body and beatit with heavy sticks and, leaping out again, resume their dance.When the hunt, and the attack, and the death had been depicted atlength, they would cast away their bludgeons and with bared fangsleap upon the carcass, tearing and rending it as they fought amongthemselves for large pieces or choice morsels.

Now Nkima and his kind are noted neither for their tact norjudgment. One wiser than little Nkima would have remained silentuntil the dance and the feast were over and until a new day hadcome and the great bulls of the tribe of To-yat had recovered fromthe hysterical frenzy that the drum and the dancing always inducedwithin them. But little Nkima was only a monkey. What he wanted, hewanted immediately, not being endowed with that mental poise whichresults in patience, and so he swung by his tail from anoverhanging branch and scolded at the top of his voice in an effortto attract the attention of the great apes below.

"To-yat! Ga-yat! Zu-tho!" he cried. "Tarzan is in danger! Comewith Nkima and save Tarzan!"

A great bull stopped in the midst of the dancing and looked up."Go away, Manu," he growled. "Go away or we kill!" But little Nkimathought that they could not catch him, and so he continued to swingfrom the branch and yell and scream at them until finally To-yatsent a young ape, who was not too heavy to clamber into the upperbranches of the tree, to catch little Nkima and kill him.

Here was an emergency which Nkima had not foreseen. Like manypeople, he had believed that everyone would be as interested inwhat interested him as he; and when he had first heard the boomingof the drums of the Dum-Dum, he thought that the moment the apeslearned of Tarzan's peril they would set out upon the trail toOpar.

Now, however, he knew differently, and as the real menace of hismistake became painfully apparent with the leaping of a young apeinto the tree below him, little Nkima emitted a loud shriek ofterror and fled through the night; nor did he pause until, pantingand exhausted, he had put a good mile between himself and the tribeof To-yat.

When La of Opar awoke in the tent of Zora Drinov she lookedabout her, taking in the unfamiliar objects that surrounded her,and presently her gaze rested upon the face of her sleepinghostess. These, indeed, she thought, must be the people of Tarzan,for had they not treated her with kindness and courtesy? They hadoffered her no harm and had fed her and given her shelter. A newthought crossed her mind now and her brows contracted, as did thepupils of her eyes into which there came a sudden, savage light.Perhaps this woman was Tarzan's mate. La of Opar grasped the hiltof Darus' knife where it lay ready beside her. But then, assuddenly as it had come, the mood passed, for in her heart she knewthat she could not return evil for good, nor could she harm whomTarzan loved, and when Zora opened her eyes La greeted her with asmile.

If the European girl was a cause for astonishment to La, sheherself filled the other with profoundest wonder and mystification.Her scant, yet rich and gorgeous apparel harked back to an ancientage, and the gleaming whiteness of her skin seemed as much out ofplace in the heart of an African jungle as did her trappings in thetwentieth century. Here was a mystery that nothing in the pastexperience of Zora Drinov could assist in solving. How she wishedthat she could converse with her, but all that she could do was tosmile back at the beautiful creature regarding her so intently.

La, accustomed as she had been to being waited upon all her lifeby the lesser priestesses of Opar, was surprised by the facilitywith which Zora Drinov attended to her own needs as she rose tobathe and dress, the only service she received being in the form ofa pail of hot water that Wamala fetched and poured into her foldingtub; yet though La had never before been expected to lift a hand inthe making of her toilet, she was far from helpless, and perhapsshe found pleasure in the new experience of doing for herself.

Unlike the customs of the men of Opar, those of its womenrequired scrupulous bodily cleanliness, so that in the past much ofLa's time had been devoted to her toilet, to the care of her nails,and her teeth, and her hair, and to the massaging of her body witharomatic unguents—customs, handed down from a culturedcivilization of antiquity, to take on in ruined Opar thesignificance of religious rites.

By the time the two girls were ready for breakfast, Wamala wasprepared to serve it; and as they sat outside the tent beneath theshade of a tree, eating the coarse fare of the camp, Zora notedunwonted activity about the byût of the Aarabs, but she gave thematter little thought, as they had upon other occasions moved theirtents from one part of the camp to another.

Breakfast over, Zora took down her rifle, wiped out the bore andoiled the breech mechanism, for today she was going out after freshmeat, the Aarabs having refused to hunt. La watched her with evidentinterest and later saw her depart with Wamala and two of the blackporters; but she did not attempt to accompany her since, althoughshe had looked for it, she had received no sign to do so.

Ibn Dammuk was the son of a sheykh of the same tribe as AbuBatn, and upon this expedition he was the latter's right-hand man.With the fold of his thob drawn across the lower part of hisface, leaving only his eyes exposed, he had been watching the twogirls from a distance. He saw Zora Drinov quit the camp with agun-bearer and two porters and knew that she had gone to hunt.

For some time after she had departed he sat in silence with twocompanions. Then he arose and sauntered across the camp toward Laof Opar, where she sat buried in reverie in a camp chair beforeZora's tent. As the three men approached, La eyed them with levelgaze, her natural suspicion of strangers aroused in her breast. Asthey came closer and their features became distinct, she felt asudden distrust of them. They were crafty, malign looking men, notat all like Tarzan, and instinctively she distrusted them.

They halted before her and Ibn Dammuk, the son of a sheykh,addressed her. His voice was soft and oily, but it did not deceiveher.

La eyed him haughtily. She did not understand him and she didnot wish to, for the message that she read in his eyes disgustedher. She shook her head to signify that she did not understand andturned away to indicate that the interview was terminated, but IbnDammuk stepped closer and laid a hand familiarly upon her nakedshoulder.

Her eyes flaming with anger, La leaped to her feet, one handmoving swiftly to the hilt of her dagger. Ibn Dammuk stepped back,but one of his men leaped forward to seize her.

Misguided fool! Like a tigress she was upon him; and before hisfriends could intervene, the sharp blade of the knife of Darus, thepriest of the Flaming God, had sunk thrice into his breast, andwith a gasping scream he had slumped to the ground dead.

With flaming eyes and bloody knife, the high priestess of Oparstood above her kill, while Abu Batn and the other Aarabs, attractedby the death cry of the stricken man, ran hurriedly toward thelittle group.

"Stand back!" cried La. "Lay no profaning hand upon the personof the high priestess of the Flaming God."

They did not understand her words, but they understood herflashing eyes and her dripping blade. Jabbering volubly, theygathered around her, but at a safe distance. "What means this, IbnDammuk?" demanded Abu Batn.

"Dogman did but touch her, and she flew at him like el adrea,lord of the broad head."

"Her taming we may leave to him who will pay many pieces of goldfor her," replied the sheykh. "It is necessary only for us to cageher. Surround her, my children, and take the knife from her. Makeher wrists secure behind her back, and by the time the otherreturns we shall have struck camp and be ready to depart."

A dozen brawny men leaped upon La simultaneously. "Do not harmher! Do not harm her!" screamed Abu Batn, as, fighting like alioness indeed, La sought to defend herself. Slashing right andleft with her dagger, she drew blood more than once before theyoverpowered her; nor did they accomplish it before another Aarabfell with a pierced heart, but at length they succeeded inwrenching the blade from her and securing her wrists.

Leaving two warriors to guard her, Abu Batn turned his attentionto gathering up the few black servants that remained in camp. Thesehe forced to prepare loads of such of the camp equipment andprovisions as he required. While this work was going on under IbnDammuk's supervision, the sheykh ransacked the tents of theEuropeans, giving special attention to those of Zora Drinov andZveri, where he expected to find the gold that the leader of theexpedition was reputed to have in large quantities; nor was heentirely disappointed since he found in Zora's tent a boxcontaining a considerable amount of money, though by no means thegreat quantity that he had expected, a fact which was due to theforesight of Zveri, who had personally buried the bulk of his fundsbeneath the floor of his tent.

Zora met with unexpected success in her hunting, for within alittle more than an hour of her departure from camp she had comeupon antelope, and two quick shots had dropped as many members ofthe herd. She waited while the porters skinned and dressed them andthen returned leisurely toward camp. Her mind was occupied to someextent with the disquieting attitude of the Aarabs, but she was notat all prepared for the reception that she met when she approachedcamp about noon.

She was walking in advance, immediately followed by Wamala, whowas carrying both of her rifles, while behind them were theporters, staggering under their heavy loads. Just as she was aboutto enter the clearing, Aarabs leaped from the underbrush on eitherside of the trail. Two of them seized Wamala and wrenched therifles from his grasp, while others laid heavy hands upon Zora. Shetried to free herself from them and draw her revolver, but theattack had taken her so by surprise that before she couldaccomplish anything in defense, she was overpowered and her handsbound at her back.

The men laughed at her. "You shall see him presently," said one."He has another guest whom he is entertaining, so he could not cometo meet you," at which they all laughed again.

As she stepped into the clearing where she could obtain anunobstructed view of the camp, she was astounded by what she saw.Every tent had been struck. The Aarabs were leaning on their riflesready to march, each of them burdened with a small pack, while thefew black men, who had been left in camp, were lined up beforeheavy loads. All the rest of the paraphernalia of the camp, whichAbu Batn had not men enough to transport, was heaped in a pile inthe center of the clearing, and even as she looked she saw mensetting torches to it.

As she was led across the clearing toward the waiting Aarabs, shesaw her erstwhile guest between two warriors, her wrists confinedby thongs even as her own. Near her, scowling malevolently, was AbuBatn.

"Allah was wroth that we should betray our land to the Nasrâny,"said the sheykh. "We have seen the light, and we are going back toour own people."

"We shall take you with us for a little way," replied Abu Batn."I know a kind man who is very rich, who will give you both a goodhome."

"You mean that you are going to sell us to some black sultan?"demanded the girl.

The sheykh shrugged. "I would not put it that way," he said."Rather let us say that I am making a present to a great and goodfriend and saving you and this other woman from certain death inthe jungle should we depart without you."

"Abu Batn, you are a hypocrite and a traitor," cried Zora, hervoice vibrant with contempt.

"The Nasrâny like to call names," said the sheykh with a sneer."Perhaps if the pig, Zveri, had not called us names, this would nothave happened."

"So this is your revenge," asked Zora, "because he reproachedyou for your cowardice at Opar?"

As the flames licked at the edges of the great pile ofprovisions and equipment that the Aarabs were forced to leavebehind, the deserters started upon their march toward the West.

The girls marched near the head of the column, the feet of theAarabs and the carriers behind them totally obliterating their spoorfrom the motley record of the trail. They might have found somecomfort in their straits had they been able to converse with oneanother; but La could understand no one and Zora found no pleasurein speaking to the Aarabs, while Wamala and the other blacks were sofar toward the rear of the column that she could not havecommunicated with them had she cared to.

To pass the time away, Zora conceived the idea of teaching hercompanion in misery some European language, and because in theoriginal party there had been more who were familiar with Englishthan any other tongue, she selected that language for herexperiment.

She began by pointing to herself and saying "woman" and then toLa and repeating the same word, after which she pointed to severalof the Aarabs in succession and said "man" in each instance. It wasevident that La understood her purpose immediately, for she enteredinto the spirit of it with eagerness and alacrity, repeating thetwo words again and again, each time indicating either a man or awoman.

Next the European girl again pointed to herself and said "Zora."For a moment La was perplexed, and then she smiled and nodded.

"Zora," she said, pointing to her companion, and then, swiftly,she touched her own breast with a slender forefinger and said,"La."

And this was the beginning. Each hour La learned new words, allnouns at first, that described each familiar object that appearedoftenest to their view. She learned with remarkable celerity,evidencing an alert and intelligent mind and a retentive memory,for once she learned a word she never forgot it. Her pronunciationwas not always perfect, for she had a decidedly foreign accent thatwas like nothing Zora Drinov ever had heard before, and soaltogether captivating that the teacher never tired of hearing herpupil recite.

As the march progressed, Zora realized that there was littlelikelihood that they would be mistreated by their captors, it beingevident to her that the sheykh was impressed with the belief thatthe better the condition in which they could be presented to theirprospective purchaser the more handsome the return that Abu Batnmight hope to receive.

Their route lay to the northwest through a section of the Gallacountry of Abyssinia, and from scraps of conversation Zoraoverheardshe learned that Abu Batn and his followers were apprehensive ofdanger during this portion of the journey. And well they may havebeen, since for ages the Aarabs have conducted raids in Gallaterritory for the purpose of capturing slaves, and among thenegroes with them was a Galla slave that Abu Batn had brought withhim from his desert home.

After the first day the prisoners had been allowed the freedomof their hands, but always Aarab guards surrounded them, thoughthere seemed little likelihood that an unarmed girl would take therisk of escaping into the jungle, where she would be surrounded bythe dangers of wild beasts or almost certain starvation. However,could Abu Batn have read their thoughts, he might have beenastonished to learn that in the mind of each was a determination toescape to any fate rather than to march docilely on to an end thatthe European girl was fully conscious of and which La of Oparunquestionably surmised in part.

La's education was progressing nicely by the time the partyapproached the border of the Galla country, but in the meantimeboth girls had become aware of a new menace threatening La of Opar.Ibn Dammuk marched often beside her, and in his eyes, when helooked at her, was a message that needed no words to convey. Butwhen Abu Batn was near, Ibn Dammuk ignored the fair prisoner, andthis caused Zora the most apprehension, for it convinced her thatthe wily Ibn was but biding his time until he might find conditionsfavorable to the carrying out of some scheme that he already haddecided upon, nor did Zora harbor any doubts as to the generalpurpose of his plan.

At the edge of the Galla country they were halted by a river inflood. They could not go north into Abyssinia proper, and theydared not go south, where they might naturally have expectedpursuit to follow. So perforce they were compelled to wait wherethey were.

IX. — IN THE DEATH CELL OFOPAR

ONCE again Peter Zveri stood before the walls ofOpar, and once again the courage of his black soldiers wasdissipated by the weird cries of the inmates of the city ofmystery. The ten warriors, who had not been to Opar before and whohad volunteered to enter the city, halted trembling as the first ofthe blood-curdling screams rose, shrill and piercing, from theforbidding ruins.

Miguel Romero once more led the invaders, and directly behindhim was Wayne Colt. According to the plan the blacks were to havefollowed closely behind these two, with the rest of the whitesbringing up the rear, where they might rally and encourage thenegroes, or if necessary, force them on at the points of theirpistols. But the blacks would not even enter the opening of theouter wall, so demoralized were they by the uncanny warning screamswhich their superstitious minds attributed to malignant demons,against which there could be no defense and whose animosity meantalmost certain death for those who disregarded their wishes.

"In with you, you dirty cowards!" cried Zveri, menacing theblacks with his revolver in an effort to force them into theopening.

One of the warriors raised his rifle threateningly. "Put awayyour weapon, white man," he said. "We will fight men, but we willnot fight the spirits of the dead."

"Lay off, Peter," said Dorsky. "You will have the whole bunch onus in a minute and we shall all be killed. Every nigger in theoutfit is in sympathy with these men."

Zveri lowered his pistol and commenced to plead with thewarriors, promising them rewards that amounted to riches to them ifthey would accompany the whites into the city; but the volunteerswere obdurate—nothing could induce them to venture intoOpar.

Seeing failure once again imminent and with a mind alreadyobsessed by the belief that the treasures of Opar would make himfabulously wealthy and insure the success of his secret scheme ofempire, Zveri determined to follow Romero and Colt with theremainder of his aides, which consisted only of Dorsky, Ivitch andthe Filipino boy. "Come on," he said, "we will have to make a tryat it alone, if these yellow dogs won't help us."

By the time the four men had passed through the outer wall,Romero and Colt were already out of sight beyond the inner wall.Once again the warning scream broke menacingly upon the broodingsilence of the ruined city.

"Shut up," exclaimed Zveri irritably. "Stop thinking about it,or you'll go yellow like those damn niggers."

Slowly they crossed the court toward the inner wall, nor wasthere much enthusiasm manifest among them other than for an evidentdesire in the breast of each to permit one of the others the gloryof leading the advance. Tony had reached the opening when a bedlamof noise from the opposite side of the wall burst upon theirears—a hideous chorus of war cries, mingled with the sound ofrushing feet. There was a shot, and then another and another.

Tony turned to see if his companions were following him. Theyhad halted and were standing with blanched faces, listening.

Then Ivitch turned. "To hell with the gold!" he said, andstarted back toward the outer wall at a run.

"Come back, you lousy cur," cried Zveri, and took after him withDorsky at his heels. Tony hesitated for a moment and then scurriedin pursuit, nor did any of them halt until they were beyond theouter wall. There Zveri overtook Ivitch and seized him by theshoulder. "I ought to kill you," he cried in a trembling voice.

"You were as glad to get out of there as I was," growled Ivitch."What was the sense of going in there? We should only have beenkilled like Colt and Romero. There were too many of them. Didn'tyou hear them?"

"I think Ivitch is right," said Dorsky. "It's all right to bebrave, but we have got to remember the cause—if we are killedeverything is lost."

"To hell with the Mexican," said Zveri, "and as for the AmericanI think his funds will still be available as long as we can keepthe news of his death from getting back to the Coast."

"Little good two of us can accomplish," mumbled Zveri, and thenin one of his sudden rages, he advanced menacingly upon theFilipino, his great figure towering above that of the other.

"Who do you think you are anyway?" he demanded. "I am in commandhere. When I want your advice I'll ask for it."

When Romero and Colt passed through the inner wall, that part ofthe interior of the temple which they could see appeared deserted,and yet they were conscious of movement in the darker recesses andthe apertures of the ruined galleries that looked down into thecourtway.

Romero shrugged. "I think we are going to have this glory all toourselves, comrade," he said with a grin.

Colt smiled back at him. "Then let's get on with the business,"he said. "I don't see anything very terrifying yet."

With their rifles ready, they advanced boldly into the temple;but they had not gone far when, from shadowy archways and fromnumerous gloomy doorways there rushed a horde of horrid men, andthe silence of the ancient city was shattered by hideous warcries.

Colt was in advance and now he kept on moving forward, firing ashot above the heads of the grotesque warrior priests of Opar.Romero saw a number of the enemy running along the side of thegreat room which they had entered, with the evident intention ofcutting off their retreat. He swung about and fired, but not overtheir heads. Realizing the gravity of their position, he shot tokill, and now Colt did the same, with the result that the screamsof a couple of wounded men mingled now with the war cries of theirfellows.

Romero was forced to drop back a few steps to prevent theOparians from surrounding him. He shot rapidly now and succeeded inchecking the advance around their flank. A quick glance at Coltshowed him standing his ground, and at the same instant he saw ahurled club strike the American on the head. The man dropped like alog, and instantly his body was covered by the terrible little menof Opar.

Miguel Romero realized that his companion was lost, and even ifnot now already dead, he, single-handed, could accomplish nothingtoward his rescue. If he escaped with his own life he would befortunate, and so, keeping up a steady fire, he fell back towardthe aperture in the inner wall.

Having captured one of the invaders, seeing the other fallingback, and fearing to risk further the devastating fire of theterrifying weapon in the hand of their single antagonist, theOparians hesitated.

Romero passed through the inner wall, turned and ran swiftly tothe outer and a moment later had joined his companions upon theplain.

"They knocked him out with a club and captured him," saidRomero. "He is probably dead by this time."

The Mexican turned upon his chief in fury. "You ask me that?" hedemanded. "You turned pale and ran even before you saw the enemy.If you fellows had backed us up Colt might not have been lost, butto let us go in there alone the two of us didn't have a Chinaman'schance with that bunch of wild men. And you accuse me ofcowardice?"

"I didn't do anything of the kind," said Zveri sullenly. "Inever said you were a coward."

"You meant to imply it though," snapped Romero, "but let me tellyou, Zveri, that you can't get away with that with me or anyoneelse who has been to Opar with you."

From behind the walls rose a savage cry of victory; and while itstill rumbled through the tarnished halls of Opar, Zveri turneddejectedly away from the city. "It's no use," he said. "I can'tcapture Opar alone. We are returning to camp."

The little priests, swarming over Colt, stripped him of hisweapons and secured his hands behind his back. He was stillunconscious, and so they lifted him to the shoulder of one of theirfellows and bore him away into the interior of the temple.

When Colt regained consciousness he found himself lying on thefloor of a large chamber. It was the throne room of the temple ofOpar, where he had been fetched that Oah, the high priestess, mightsee the prisoner.

Perceiving that their captive had regained consciousness, hisguards jerked him roughly to his feet and pushed him forward towardthe foot of the dais upon which stood Oah's throne.

The effect of the picture bursting suddenly upon him imparted toColt the definite impression that he was the victim of anhallucination or a dream. The outer chamber of the ruin, in whichhe had fallen, had given no suggestion of the size andsemi-barbaric magnificence of this great chamber, the grandeur ofwhich was scarcely dimmed by the ruin of ages.

He saw before him, upon an ornate throne, a young woman ofexceptional physical beauty, surrounded by the semi-barbaricgrandeur of an ancient civilization. Grotesque and hairy men andbeautiful maidens formed her entourage. Her eyes, resting upon him,were cold and cruel; her mien haughty and contemptuous. A squatwarrior, more ape-like in his conformation than human, wasaddressing her in a language unfamiliar to the American.

When he had finished, the girl rose from the throne and, drawinga long knife from her girdle, raised it high above her head as shespoke rapidly and almost fiercely, her eyes fixed upon theprisoner.

From among a group of priestesses at the right of Oah's throne,a girl, just come into womanhood, regarded the prisoner throughhalf-closed eyes, and beneath the golden plates that confined hersmooth, white breasts, the heart of Nao palpitated to the thoughtsthat contemplation of this strange warrior engendered withinher.

When Oah had finished speaking, Colt was led away, quiteignorant of the fact that he had been listening to the sentence ofdeath imposed upon him by the high priestess of the Flaming God.His guards conducted him to a cell just within the entrance of atunnel leading from the sacrificial court to the pits beneath thecity, and because it was not entirely below ground, fresh air andlight had access to it through a window and the grated bars of itsdoorway. Here the escort left him, after removing the bonds fromhis wrists.

Through the small window in his cell Wayne Colt looked out uponthe inner court of the Temple of the Sun at Opar. He saw thesurrounding galleries rising tier upon tier to thesummit of a lofty wall. He saw the stone altar standing in thecenter of the court, and the brown stains upon it and upon thepavement at its foot told him what the unintelligible words of Oahhad been unable to convey. For an instant he felt his heart sinkwithin his breast, and a shudder passed through his frame as hecontemplated his inability to escape the fate which confronted him.There could be no mistaking the purpose of that altar when viewedin connection with the grinning skulls of former human sacrificeswhich stared through eyeless sockets upon him from their niches inthe surrounding walls.

Fascinated by the horror of his situation, he stood staring atthe altar and skulls, but presently he gained control of himselfand shook the terror from him, yet the hopelessness of hissituation continued to depress him. His thoughts turned to hiscompanion. He wondered what Romero's fate had been. There, indeed,had been a brave and gallant comrade, in fact, the only member ofthe party who had impressed Colt favorably, or in whose society hehad found pleasure. The others had seemed either ignorant fanaticsor avaricious opportunists, while the manner and speech of theMexican had stamped him as a light-hearted soldier of fortune, whomight gayly offer his life in any cause which momentarily seizedhis fancy with an eye more singly for excitement and adventure thanfor any serious purpose. He did not know, of course, that Zveri andthe others had deserted him; but he was confident that Romero hadnot before his cause had become utterly hopeless, or until theMexican himself had been killed or captured.

In lonely contemplation of his predicament, Colt spent the restof the long afternoon. Darkness fell, and still there came no signfrom his captors. He wondered if they intended leaving him therewithout food or water, or if, perchance, the ceremony that was tosee him offered in sacrifice upon that grim, brown-stained altarwas scheduled to commence so soon that they felt it unnecessary tominister to his physical needs.

He had lain down upon the hard cement-like surface of the cellfloor and was trying to find momentary relief in sleep, when hisattention was attracted by the shadow of a sound coming from thecourtyard where the altar stood. As he listened he was positivethat someone was approaching, and rising quietly he went to thewindow and looked out. In the shadowy darkness of the night,relieved only by the faint light of distant stars, he saw somethingmoving across the courtyard toward his cell, but whether man orbeast he could not distinguish; and then, from somewhere high upamong the lofty ruins, there pealed out upon the silent night thelong drawn scream, which seemed now to the American as much a partof the mysterious city of Opar as the crumbling ruins themselves.

* * * * * * *

It was a sullen and discouraged party that made its way back to thecamp at the edge of the forest below the barrier cliffs of Opar,and when they arrived it was to find only further disorganizationand discouragement.

No time was lost in narrating to the members of the returningexpedition the story of the sentry who had been carried off intothe jungle at night by a demon, from whom the man had managed toescape before being devoured. Still fresh in their minds was theuncanny affair of the death of Raghunath Jafar, nor were the nervesof those who had been before the walls of Opar inclined to be atall steadied by that experience, so that it was a nervous companythat bivouacked that night beneath the dark trees at the edge ofthe gloomy forest and, with sighs of relief, witnessed the comingof dawn.

Later, after they had taken up the march toward the base camp,the spirit of the blacks gradually returned to normal and presentlythe tension under which they had been laboring for days wasrelieved by song and laughter, but the whites were gloomy andsullen. Zveri and Romero did not speak to one another, whileIvitch, like all weak characters, nursed a grievance againsteveryone because of his own display of cowardice during the fiascoat Opar.

From the interior of a hollow tree in which he had been hiding,little Nkima saw the column pass; and after it was safely by heemerged from his retreat and, dancing up and down upon a limb ofthe tree, shouted dire threats after them and called them manynames.

* * * * * * *

Tarzan of the Apes lay stretched upon his belly upon theback of Tantor, the elephant, his elbows upon the broad head, hischin resting in his cupped hands. Futile had been his search forthe spoor of La of Opar. Had the Earth opened and swallowed her shecould not more effectually have disappeared.

Today Tarzan had come upon Tantor and, as had been his customfrom childhood, he had tarried for that silent communion with thesagacious old patriarch of the forest, which seemed always toimpart to the man something of the beast's great strength ofcharacter and poise. There was an atmosphere of restful stabilityabout Tantor that filled the ape-man with a peace and tranquillitythat he found restful; and Tantor, upon his part, welcomed thecompanionship of the Lord of the Jungle, whom, alone, of all twolegged creatures, he viewed with friendship and affection.

The beasts of the jungle acknowledge no master, least of all thecruel tyrant that drives civilized man throughout his headlong racefrom the cradle to the grave—Time, the master of countlessmillions of slaves. Time, the measurable aspect of duration, wasmeasureless to Tarzan and Tantor. Of all the vast resources thatNature had placed at their disposal, she had been most profligatewith Time, since she had awarded to each all that he could useduring his lifetime, no matter how extravagant of it he might be.So great was the supply of it that it could not be wasted, sincethere was always more, even up to the moment of death, after whichit ceased, with all things, to be essential to the individual.Tantor and Tarzan, therefore, were wasting no time as they communedtogether in silent meditation; but though Time and space go onforever, whether in curves or straight lines, all other things mustend; and so the quiet and the peace that the two friends wereenjoying were suddenly shattered by the excited screams of adiminutive monkey in the foliage of a great tree above them.

It was Nkima. He had found his Tarzan, and his relief and joyaroused the jungle to the limit of his small, shrill voice. LazilyTarzan rolled over and looked up at the jabbering simian above him;and then Nkima, satisfied now beyond peradventure of a doubt thatthis was, indeed, his master, launched himself downward to alightupon the bronzed body of the ape-man. Slender, hairy little armswent around Tarzan's neck as Nkima hugged close to this haven ofrefuge which imparted to him those brief moments in his life whenhe might enjoy the raptures of a temporary superiority complex.Upon Tarzan's shoulder he felt almost fearless and could, withimpunity, insult the entire world.

"What have you seen since I left you at the walls of Opar?"demanded the ape-man.

"I have seen many things. I have seen the great Mangani dancingin the moonlight around the dead body of Sheeta. I have seen theenemies of Tarzan marching through the forest. I have seen Histah,gorging himself on the carcass of Bara."

"No," replied Nkima. "There were no shes among the Gomangani andTarmangani enemies of Tarzan. Only bulls, and they marched backtoward the place where Nkima first saw them."

"Kudu had climbed into the heavens but a short distance out ofthe darkness when Nkima saw the enemies of Tarzan marching back tothe place where he first saw them."

"Perhaps we had better see what they are up to," said theape-man. He slapped Tantor affectionately with his open palm infarewell, leaped to his feet and swung nimbly into the overhangingbranches of a tree; while far away Zveri and his party ploddedthrough the jungle toward their base camp.

Tarzan of the Apes follows no earth-bound trails where thedensity of the forest offers him the freedom of leafy highways, andthus he moves from point to point with a speed that has often beendisconcerting to his enemies.

Now he moved in an almost direct line so that he overtook theexpedition as it made camp for the night. As he watched them frombehind a leafy screen of high-flung foliage, he noticed, thoughwith no surprise, that they were not burdened with any treasurefrom Opar.

As the success and happiness of jungle dwellers, nay, even lifeitself, is largely dependent upon their powers of observation,Tarzan had developed his to a high degree of perfection. At hisfirst encounter with this party he had made himself familiar withthe faces, physiques and carriages of all of its principals and ofmany of its humble warriors and porters, with the result that hewas immediately aware that Colt was no longer with the expedition.Experience permitted Tarzan to draw a rather accurate picture ofwhat had happened at Opar and of the probable fate of the missingman.

Years ago he had seen his own courageous Waziri turn and fleeupon the occasion of their first experience of the weird warningscreams from the ruined city, and he could easily guess that Colt,attempting to lead the invaders into the city, had been desertedand found either death or capture within the gloomy interior. This,however, did not greatly concern Tarzan. While he had been ratherdrawn toward Colt by that tenuous and invisible power known aspersonality, he still considered him as one of his enemies, and ifhe were either dead or captured Tarzan's cause was advanced by thatmuch.

From Tarzan's shoulder Nkima looked down upon the camp, but hekept silent as Tarzan had instructed him to do. Nkima saw manythings that he would have liked to have possessed, and particularlyhe coveted a red calico shirt worn by one of the askaris. This, hethought, was very grand, indeed, being set off as it was by theunrelieved nakedness of the majority of the blacks. Nkima wishedthat his master would descend and slay them all, but particularlythe man with the red shirt; for, at heart, Nkima was bloodthirsty,which made it fortunate for the peace of the jungle that he had notbeen born a gorilla. But Tarzan's mind was not set upon carnage. Hehad other means for thwarting the activities of these strangers.During the day he had made a kill, and now he withdrew to a safedistance from the camp and satisfied his hunger, while Nkimasearched for birds' eggs, fruit, and insects.

And so night fell and when it had enveloped the jungle inimpenetrable darkness, relieved only by the beast fires of thecamp, Tarzan returned to a tree where he could overlook theactivities of the bivouacked expedition. He watched them in silencefor a long time, and then suddenly he raised his voice in a longscream that perfectly mimicked the hideous warning cry of Opar'sdefenders.

The effect upon the camp was instantaneous. Conversation,singing, and laughter ceased. For a moment the men sat as in aparalysis of terror. Then, seizing their weapons, they came closerto the fire.

X. — THE LOVE OF APRIESTESS

IBN DAMMUK had bided his time and now, in the campby the swollen river at the edge of the Galla country, he at lastfound the opportunity he had so long awaited. The surveillance overthe two prisoners had somewhat relaxed, due largely to the beliefentertained by Abu Batn that the women would not dare to invite theperils of the jungle by attempting to escape from captors who were,at the same time, their protectors from even greater dangers. Hehad, however, reckoned without a just estimation of the courage andresourcefulness of his two captives, who, had he but known it, wereconstantly awaiting the first opportunity for escape. It was thisfact, as well, that played into the hands of Ibn Dammuk.

With great cunning he enlisted the services of one of the blackswho had been forced to accompany them from the base camp and whowas virtually a prisoner. By promising him his liberty Ibn Dammukhad easily gained the man's acquiescence in the plan that he hadevolved.

A separate tent had been pitched for the two women, and beforeit sat a single sentry, whose presence Abu Batn considered morethan sufficient for this purpose, which was, perhaps, even more toprotect the women from his own followers than to prevent a veryremotely possible attempt at escape.

This night, which Ibn Dammuk had chosen for his villainy, wasone for which he had been waiting, since it found upon duty beforethe tent of the captives one of his own men, a member of his owntribe, who was bound by laws of hereditary loyalty to serve andobey him. In the forest, just beyond the camp, waited Ibn Dammuk,with two more of his own tribesmen, four slaves that they hadbrought from the desert and the black porter who was to win hisliberty by this night's work.

The interior of the tent that had been pitched for Zora and Lawas illuminated by a paper lantern, in which a candle burned dimly;and in this subdued light the two sat talking in La's newlyacquired English, which was at best most fragmentary and broken.However, it was far better than no means of communication and gavethe two girls the only pleasure that they enjoyed. Perhaps it wasnot a remarkable coincidence that this night they were speaking ofescape and planning to cut a hole in the back of their tent throughwhich they might sneak away into the jungle after the camp hadsettled down for the night and their sentry should be dozing at hispost. And while they conversed, the sentry before their tent roseand strolled away, and a moment later they heard a scratching uponthe back of the tent. Their conversation ceased, and they sat witheyes riveted upon the point where the fabric of the tent moved tothe pressure of the scratching without.

"I am Bukula," and Zora at once recognized the name as that ofone of the blacks that Abu Batn had forced to accompany him fromthe base camp.

"Put out your lantern," whispered Bukula. "The sentry has goneaway. I will come in and tell you my plans."

Zora arose and blew out the candle, and a moment later the twocaptives saw Bukula crawling into the interior of the tent."Listen, Memsahib," he said, "the boys that Abu Batn stole fromBwana Zveri are running away tonight. We are going back to thesafari. We will take you two with us, if you want to come."

"Good!" said Bukula. "Now listen well to what I tell you. Thesentry will not come back, but we cannot all go out at once. FirstI will take this other Memsahib with me out into the jungle wherethe boys are waiting; then I will return for you. You can make talkto her. Tell her to follow me and to make no noise."

Zora turned to La. "Follow Bukula," she said. "We are goingtonight. I will come after you."

Bukula stepped to the entrance to the tent and looked quicklyabout the camp. "Come!" he said, and, followed by La, disappearedquickly from Zora's view.

The European girl fully realized the risk that they ran in goinginto the jungle alone with these half-savage blacks, yet shetrusted them far more implicitly than she did the Aarabs and, too,she felt that she and La together might circumvent any treacheryupon the part of any of the negroes, the majority of whom she knewwould be loyal and faithful. Waiting in the silence and lonelinessof the darkened tent, it seemed to Zora that it took Bukula anunnecessarily long time to return for her; but when minute afterminute dragged slowly past until she felt that she had waited forhours and there was no sign either of the black or the sentry, herfears were aroused in earnest. Presently she determined not to waitany longer for Bukula, but to go out into the jungle in search ofthe escaping party. She thought that perhaps Bukula had been unableto return without risking detection and that they were all waitingjust beyond the camp for a favorable opportunity to return to her.As she arose to put her decision into action, she heard footstepsapproaching the tent, and thinking that they were Bukula's, shewaited; but instead she saw the flapping robe and the long-barreledmusket of an Aarab silhouetted against the lesser darkness of theexterior as the man stuck his head inside the tent. "Where isHajellan?" he demanded, giving the name of the departed sentry.

"How should we know?" retorted Zora in a sleepy voice. "Why doyou awaken us thus in the middle of the night? Are we the keepersof your fellows?"

The fellow grumbled something in reply and then, turning, calledaloud across the camp, announcing to all who might hear thatHajellan was missing and inquiring if any had seen him. Otherwarriors strolled over then, and there was a great deal ofspeculation as to what had become of Hajellan. The name of themissing man was called aloud many times, but there was no response,and finally the sheykh came and questioned everyone. "The women arein the tent yet?" he demanded of the new sentry.

"It is strange," said Abu Batn, and then, "Ibn Dammuk!" hecried. "Where art thou, Ibn? Hajellan was one of thy men." Therewas no answer. "Where is Ibn Dammuk?"

"Search the camp and see who is missing," commanded Abu Batn;and when the search had been made they found that Ibn Dammuk,Hajellan, Fodil, and Dareyem were missing with five of theblacks.

"Ibn Dammuk has deserted us," said Abu Batn. "Well, let it go.There will be fewer with whom to share the reward we shall reapwhen we are paid for the two women," and thus reconciling himselfto the loss of four good fighting men, Abu Batn repaired to histent and resumed his interrupted slumber.

Weighted down by apprehension as to the fate of La anddisappointment occasioned by her own failure to escape, Zora spentan almost sleepless night, yet fortunate for her peace of mind wasit that she did not know the truth.

Bukula moved silently into the jungle, followed by La; and whenthey had gone a short distance from the camp, the girl saw the darkforms of men standing in a little group ahead of them. The Aarabs,in their tell-tale thobs, were hidden in the underbrush, but theirslaves had removed their own white robes and, with Bukula, werestanding naked but for G strings, thus carrying conviction to themind of the girl that only black prisoners of Abu Batn awaited her.When she came among them, however, she learned her mistake; but toolate to save herself, for she was quickly seized by many hands andeffectually gagged before she could give the alarm. Then Ibn Dammukand his Aarab companions appeared, and silently the party moved ondown the river through the dark forest, though not before they hadsubdued the enraged high priestess of The Flaming God, secured herwrists behind her back, and placed a rope about her neck.

All night they fled, for Ibn Dammuk well guessed what the wrathof Abu Batn would be when, in the morning, he discovered the trickthat had been played upon him; and when morning dawned they werefar away from camp, but still Ibn Dammuk pushed on, after a briefhalt for a hurried breakfast.

Long since had the gag been removed from La's mouth, and now IbnDammuk walked beside her, gloating upon his prize. He spoke to her,but La could not understand him and only strode on in haughtydisdain, biding her time against the moment when she might berevenged and inwardly sorrowing over her separation from Zora, forwhom a strange affection had been aroused in her savage breast.

Toward noon the party withdrew from the game trail which theyhad been following and made camp near the river. It was here thatIbn Dammuk made a fatal blunder. Goaded to passion by closeproximity to the beautiful woman for whom he had conceived a madinfatuation, the Aarab gave way to his desire to be alone with her;and leading her along a little trail that paralleled the river, hetook her away out of sight of his companions; and when they hadgone perhaps a hundred yards from camp, he seized her in his armsand sought to kiss her lips.

With equal safety might Ibn Dammuk have embraced a lion. In theheat of his passion he forgot many things, among them the daggerthat hung always at his side. But La of Opar did not forget. Withthe coming of daylight she had noticed that dagger, and ever sinceshe had coveted it; and now as the man pressed her close, her handsought and found its hilt. For an instant she seemed to surrender.She let her body go limp in his arms, while her own, firm andbeautifully rounded, crept about him, one to his right shoulder,the other beneath his left arm. But as yet she did not give him herlips, and then as he struggled to possess them the hand upon hisshoulder seized him suddenly by the throat. The long, taperedfingers that seemed so soft and white were suddenly claws of steelthat closed upon his windpipe; and simultaneously the hand that hadcrept so softly beneath his left arm drove his own long dagger intohis heart from beneath his shoulder blade.

The single cry that he might have given was choked in histhroat. For an instant the tall form of Ibn Dammuk stood rigidlyerect; then it slumped forward, and the girl let it slip to theearth. She spurned it once with her foot, then removed from it thegirdle and sheath for the dagger, wiped the bloody blade upon theman's thob and hurried on up the little river trail until she foundan opening in the underbrush that led away from the stream. On andon she went until exhaustion overtook her; and then, with herremaining strength, she climbed into a tree in search of muchneeded rest.

* * * * * * *

Wayne Colt watched the shadowy figure approach the mouth of thecorridor where his cell lay. He wondered if this was a messenger ofdeath, coming to lead him to sacrifice. Nearer and nearer it cameuntil presently it stopped before the bars of his cell door; andthen a soft voice spoke to him in a low whisper and in a tonguewhich he could not understand, and he knew that his visitor was awoman.

Prompted by curiosity, he came close to the bars. A soft handreached in and touched him, almost caressingly. A full moon risingabove the high walls that ring the sacrificial court suddenlyflooded the mouth of the corridor and the entrance to Colt's cellin silvery light, and in it the American saw the figure of a younggirl pressed against the cold iron of the grating. She handed himfood, and when he took it she caressed his hand and drawing it tothe bars pressed her lips against it.

Wayne Colt was nonplussed. He could not know that Nao, thelittle priestess, had been the victim of love at first sight, thatto her mind and eyes, accustomed to the sight of males only in theform of the hairy, grotesque priests of Opar, this strangerappeared a god indeed.

A slight noise attracted Nao's attention toward the court and,as she turned, the moonlight flooded her face, and the American sawthat she was very lovely. Then she turned back toward him, her darkeyes wells of adoration, her full, sensitive lips trembling withemotion as, still clinging to his hand, she spoke rapidly in lowliquid tones.

She was trying to tell Colt that at noon of the second day hewas to be offered in sacrifice to the Flaming God, that she did notwish him to die and if it were possible she would help him, butthat she did not know how that would be possible.

Colt shook his head. "I cannot understand you, little one," hesaid, and Nao, though she could not interpret his words, sensed thefutility of her own. Then, raising one of her hands from his, shemade a great circle in a vertical plane from east to west with aslender index finger, indicating the path of the sun across theheavens; and then she started a second circle, which she stopped atzenith, indicating high noon of the second day. For an instant herraised hand poised dramatically aloft; and then, the fingersclosing as though around the hilt of an imaginary sacrificialknife, she plunged the invisible point deep into her bosom.

"Thus will Oah destroy you," she said, reaching through the barsand touching Colt over the heart.

The American thought that he understood the meaning of herpantomime, which he then repeated, plunging the imaginary bladeinto his own breast and looking questioningly at Nao.

As plainly as though he had understood her words, Colt realizedthat here was a friend who would help him if she could, andreaching through the bars, he drew the girl gently toward him andpressed his lips against her forehead. With a low sob Nao encircledhis neck with her arms and pressed her face to his. Then, assuddenly, she released him and, turning, hurried away on silentfeet, to disappear in the gloomy shadows of an archway at one sideof the court of sacrifice.

Colt ate the food that she had brought him and for a long timelay pondering the inexplicable forces which govern the acts of men.What train of circumstances leading down out of a mysterious pasthad produced this single human being in a city of enemies in whom,all unsuspecting, there must always have existed a germ ofpotential friendship for him, an utter stranger and alien, of whose veryexistence she could not possibly have dreamed before this day. Hetried to convince himself that the girl had been prompted to heract by pity for his plight, but he knew in his heart that a morepowerful motive impelled her.

Colt had been attracted to many women, but he had never loved;and he wondered if that was the way that love came and if some dayit would seize him as it had seized this girl; and he wondered alsoif, had conditions been different, he might have been as stronglyattracted to her. If not, then there seemed to be something wrongin the scheme of things; and still puzzling over this riddle of theages, he fell asleep upon the hard floor of his cell.

With morning a hairy priest came and gave him food and water,and during the day others came and watched him, as though he were awild beast in a menagerie. And so the long day dragged on, and onceagain night came—his last night.

He tried to picture what the final ceremony would be like. Itseemed almost incredible that in the twentieth century he was to beoffered as a human sacrifice to some heathen deity, but yet thepantomime of the girl and the concrete evidence of the bloody altarand the grinning skulls assured him that such must be the very fateawaiting him upon the morrow. He thought of his family and hisfriends at home; they would never know what had become of him. Heweighed his sacrifice against the mission that he had undertakenand he had no regret, for he knew that it had not been in vain. Faraway, already near the Coast, was the message he had dispatched bythe runner. That would insure that he had not failed in his partfor the sake of a great principle for which, if necessary, he wasglad to lay down his life. He was glad that he had acted promptlyand sent the message when he had, for now, upon the morrow, hecould go to his death without vain regrets.

He did not want to die, and he made many plans during the day toseize upon the slightest opportunity that might be presented to himto escape.

He wondered what had become of the girl and if she would comeagain now that it was dark. He wished that she would, for he cravedthe companionship of a friend during his last hours; but as thenight wore on, he gave up the hope and sought to forget the morrowin sleep.

As Wayne Colt moved restlessly upon his hard couch, Firg, alesser priest of Opar, snored upon his pallet of straw in thesmall, dark recess that was his bed chamber. Firg was the keeper ofthe keys, and so impressed was he with the importance of his dutiesthat he never would permit anyone even to touch the sacred emblemsof his trust, and probably because it was well known that Firgwould die in defense of them they were entrusted to him. Not withjustice could Firg have laid any claim to intellectuality, if hehad known that such a thing existed. He was only an abysmal bruteof a man and, like many men, far beneath the so-called brutes inmany of the activities of mind. When he slept, all his facultieswere asleep, which is not true of wild beasts when they sleep.

Firg's cell was in one of the upper stories of the ruins thatstill remained intact. It was upon a corridor that encircled themain temple court—a corridor that was now in dense shadow,since the moon, touching it early in the night, had now passed on;so that the figure creeping stealthily toward the entrance toFirg's chamber would have been noticeable only to one who happenedto be quite close. It moved silently, but without hesitation, untilit came to the entrance beyond which Firg lay. There it paused,listening, and when it heard Firg's noisy snoring, it enteredquickly. Straight to the side of the sleeping man it moved, andthere it knelt, searching with one hand lightly over his body,while the other grasped a long, sharp knife that hovered constantlyabove the hairy chest of the priest.

Presently it found what it wanted—a great ring, upon whichwere strung several enormous keys. A leather thong fastened thering to Firg's girdle, and with the keen blade of the dagger thenocturnal visitor sought to sever the thong. Firg stirred, andinstantly the creature at his side froze to immobility. Then thepriest moved restlessly and commenced to snore again, and once morethe dagger sawed at the leather thong. It passed through the strandunexpectedly and touched the metal of the ring lightly, but justenough to make the keys jangle ever so slightly.

Silently, swiftly, before the stupid creature could realize hisdanger, the keen blade of the dagger had pierced his heart.

Soundlessly, Firg collapsed. His slayer hesitated a moment withpoised dagger as though to make certain that the work had been welldone. Then, wiping the tell-tale stains from the dagger's bladewith the victim's loin cloth, the figure arose and hurried from thechamber, in one hand the great keys upon their golden ring.

Colt stirred uneasily in his sleep and then awakened with astart. In the waning moonlight he saw a figure beyond the gratingof his cell. He heard a key turn in the massive lock. Could it bethat they were coming for him? He rose to his feet, the urge of hislast conscious thought strong upon him—escape. And then asthe door swung open, a soft voice spoke, and he knew that the girlhad returned.

She entered the cell and threw her arms about Colt's neck,drawing his lips down to hers. For a moment she clung to him, andthen she released him and, taking one of his hands in hers, urgedhim to follow her; nor was the American loath to leave thedepressing interior of the death cell.

On silent feet Nao led the way across the corner of thesacrificial court, through a dark archway into a gloomy corridor.Winding and twisting, keeping always in dark shadows, she led himalong a circuitous route through the ruins, until, after whatseemed an eternity to Colt, the girl opened a low, strong, woodendoor and led him into the great entrance hall of the temple,through the mighty portal of which he could see the inner wall ofthe city.

Here Nao halted, and coming close to the man looked up into hiseyes. Again her arms stole about his neck, and again she pressedher lips to his. Her cheeks were wet with tears, and her voicebroke with little sobs that she tried to stifle as she poured herlove into the ears of the man who could not understand.

She had brought him here to offer him his freedom, but she couldnot let him go yet. She clung to him, caressing him and crooning tohim.

For a quarter of an hour she held him there, and Colt had notthe heart to tear himself away, but at last she released him andpointed toward the opening in the inner wall.

"Go!" she said, "taking the heart of Nao with you. I shall neversee you again, but at least I shall always have the memory of thishour to carry through life with me."

Wayne stooped and kissed her hand, the slender, savage littlehand that had but just killed that her lover might live. Though ofthat, Wayne knew nothing.

She pressed her dagger with its sheath upon him that he mightnot go out into the savage world unarmed, and then he turned awayfrom her and moved slowly toward the inner wall. At the entrance ofthe opening he paused and turned about. Dimly, in the moonlight, hesaw the figure of the little priestess standing very erect in theshadows of the ancient ruins. He raised his hand and waved a final,silent farewell.

A great sadness depressed Colt as he passed through the innerwall and crossed the court to freedom, for he knew that he had leftbehind him a sad and hopeless heart, in the bosom of one who musthave risked death, perhaps, to save him—a perfect friend ofwhom he could but carry a vague memory of a half-seen lovely face,a friend whose name he did not know, the only tokens of whom he hadcarried away with him were the memory of hot kisses and a slenderdagger.

And thus, as Wayne Colt walked across the moonlit plain of Opar,the joy of his escape was tempered by sadness as he recalled thefigure of the forlorn little priestess standing in the shadows ofthe ruins.

XI. — LOST IN THE JUNGLE

IT was some time after the uncanny scream haddisturbed the camp of the conspirators before the men could settledown to rest again.

Zveri believed that they had been followed by a band of Oparianwarriors, who might be contemplating a night attack, and so heplaced a heavy guard about the camp; but his blacks were confidentthat that unearthly cry had broken from no human throat.

Depressed and dispirited, the men resumed their march thefollowing morning. They made an early start and by dint of muchdriving arrived at the base camp just before dark. The sight thatmet their eyes there filled them with consternation. The camp haddisappeared, and in the center of the clearing where it had beenpitched a pile of ashes suggested that disaster had overtaken theparty that had been left behind.

This new misfortune threw Zveri into a maniacal rage, but therewas no one present upon whom he might lay the blame, and so he wasreduced to the expedient of tramping back and forth while hecursed his luck in loud tones and several languages.

From a tree Tarzan watched him. He, too, was at a loss tounderstand the nature of the disaster that seemed to have overtakenthe camp during the absence of the main party, but as he saw thatit caused the leader intense anguish, the ape-man was pleased.

The blacks were confident that this was another manifestation ofthe anger of the malign spirit that had been haunting them, andthey were all for deserting the ill-starred white man, whose everymove ended in failure or disaster.

Zveri's powers of leadershipdeserve full credit, since from the verge of almost certain mutinyhe forced his men by means of both cajolery and threat to remainwith him. He set them to building shelters for the entire party,and immediately he dispatched messengers to his various agents,urging them to forward necessary supplies at once. He knew thatcertain things he needed already were on the way from theCoast—uniforms, rifles, ammunition. But now he particularlyneeded provisions and trade goods. To insure discipline, he keptthe men working constantly, either in adding to the comforts of thecamp, enlarging the clearing, or hunting fresh meats.

And so the days passed and became weeks, and meanwhile Tarzanwatched in waiting. He was in no hurry, for hurry is not acharacteristic of the beasts. He roamed the jungle often at aconsiderable distance from Zveri's camp, but occasionally he wouldreturn, though not to molest them, preferring to let them lullthemselves into a stupor of tranquil security, the shattering ofwhich in his own good time would have dire effect upon theirmorale. He understood the psychology of terror, and it was withterror that he would defeat them.

* * * * * * *

To the camp of Abu Batn, upon the border of the Galla country,word had come from spies that he had sent out that the Gallawarriors were gathering to prevent his passage through theirterritory. Being weakened by the desertion of so many men, thesheykh dared not defy the bravery and numbers of the Gallawarriors, but he knew that he must make some move, since it seemedinevitable that pursuit must overtake him from the rear, if heremained where he was much longer.

At last scouts that he had sent far up the river on the oppositeside returned to report that a way to the west seemed clear along amore northerly route, and so breaking camp, Abu Batn moved northwith his lone prisoner.

Great had been his rage when he discovered that Ibn Dammuk hadstolen La, and now he redoubled his precaution to prevent theescape of Zora Drinov. So closely was she guarded that anypossibility of escape seemed almost hopeless. She had learned thefate for which Abu Batn was reserving her, and now, depressed andmelancholy, her mind was occupied with plans for self-destruction.For a time she had harbored the hope that Zveri would overtake theAarabs and rescue her, but this she had long since discarded, as dayafter day passed without bringing the hoped for succor.

She could not know, of course, the straits in which Zveri hadfound himself. He had not dared to detach a party of his men tosearch for her, fearing that, in their mutinous state of mind, theymight murder any of his lieutenants that he placed in charge ofthem and return to their own tribe, where, through the medium ofgossip, word of his expedition and its activities might reach hisenemies; nor could he lead all of his force upon such an expeditionin person, since he must remain at the base camp to receive thesupplies that he knew would presently be arriving.

Perhaps, had he known definitely the danger that confrontedZora, he would have cast aside every other consideration and goneto her rescue; but being naturally suspicious of the loyalty of allmen, he had persuaded himself that Zora had deliberately desertedhim—a half-hearted conviction that had at least the effect ofrendering his naturally unpleasant disposition infinitely moreunbearable, so that those who should have been his companions andhis support in his hour of need contrived as much as possible tokeep out of his way.

And while these things were transpiring, little Nkima spedthrough the jungle upon a mission. In the service of his belovedmaster, little Nkima could hold to a single thought and a line ofaction for considerable periods of time at a stretch; buteventually his attention was certain to be attracted by someextraneous matter and then, for hours perhaps, he would forget allabout whatever duty had been imposed upon him; but when it againoccurred to him, he would carry on entirely without anyappreciation of the fact that there had been a break in thecontinuity of his endeavor.

Tarzan, of course, was entirely aware of this inherent weaknessin his little friend; but he knew, too, from experience that,however many lapses might occur, Nkima would never entirely abandonany design upon which his mind had been fixed; and having himselfnone of civilized man's slavish subservience to time, he was proneto overlook Nkima's erratic performance of a duty as a fault ofalmost negligible consequence. Some day Nkima would arrive at hisdestination. Perhaps it would be too late. If such a thoughtoccurred at all to the ape-man, doubtless he passed it off with ashrug.

But time is of the essence of many things to civilized man. Hefumes, and frets, and reduces his mental and physical efficiency ifhe is not accomplishing something concrete during the passage ofevery minute of that medium which seems to him like a flowingriver, the waters of which are utterly wasted if they are notutilized as they pass by.

Imbued by some such insane conception of time, Wayne Coltsweated and stumbled through the jungle, seeking his companions asthough the very fate of the universe hung upon the slender chancethat he should reach them without the loss of a second.

The futility of his purpose would have been entirely apparent tohim could he have known that he was seeking his companions in thewrong direction. Wayne Colt was lost. Fortunately for him he didnot know it; at least not yet. That stupefying conviction was tocome later.

Days passed and still his wanderings revealed no camp. He washard put to it to find food, and his fare was meager and oftenrevolting, consisting of such fruits as he had already learned toknow and of rodents, which he managed to bag only with the greatestdifficulty and an appalling waste of that precious time which hestill prized above all things. He had cut himself a stout stick andwould lie in wait along some tiny runway where observation hadtaught him he might expect to find his prey, until some unwarylittle creature came within striking distance. He had learned thatdawn and dusk were the best hunting hours for the only animals thathe could hope to bag, and he learned other things as he movedthrough the grim jungle, all of which pertained to his struggle forexistence. He had learned, for instance, that it was wiser for himto take to the trees whenever he heard a strange noise. Usually theanimals got out of his way as he approached; but once a rhinoceroscharged him, and again he almost stumbled upon a lion at his kill.Providence intervened in each instance and he escaped unkilled, butthus he learned caution.

About noon one day he came to a river that effectually blockedhis further progress in the direction that he had been travelling.By this time the conviction was strong upon him that he was utterlylost, and not knowing which direction he should take, he decided tofollow the line of least resistance and travel down hill with theriver, upon the shore of which he was positive that sooner or laterhe must discover a native village.

He had proceeded no great distance in the new direction,following a hard-packed trail, worn deep by the countless feet ofmany beasts, when his attention was arrested by a sound thatreached his ears dimly from a distance. It came from somewhereahead of him, and his hearing, now far more acute than it ever hadbeen before, told him that something was approaching. Following thepractice that he had found most conducive to longevity since he hadbeen wandering alone and ill-armed against the dangers of thejungle, he flung himself quickly into a tree and sought a point ofvantage from where he could see the trail below him. He could notsee it for any distance ahead, so tortuously did it wind throughthe jungle. Whatever was coming would not be visible until it wasalmost directly beneath him, but that now was of no importance.This experience of the jungle had taught him patience, andperchance he was learning, too, a little of the valuelessness oftime, for he settled himself comfortably to wait at his ease.

The noise that he heard was little more than an imperceptiblerustling, but presently it assumed a new volume and a newsignificance, so that now he was sure that it was someone runningrapidly along the trail, and not one but two—he distinctlyheard the footfalls of the heavier creature mingling with those hehad first heard.

And then he heard a man's voice cry "Stop!" and now the soundswere very close to him, just around the first bend ahead. The soundof running feet stopped, to be followed by that of a scuffle andstrange oaths in a man's voice.

And then a woman's voice spoke, "Let me go! You will never getme where you are taking me alive."

Colt had heard enough. There had been something familiar in thetones of the woman's voice. Silently he dropped to the trail,drawing his dagger, and stepped quickly toward the sounds of thealtercation. As he rounded the bend in the trail, he saw justbefore him only a man's back—by thôb and thorrîb anAarab—but beyond the man and in his clutches Colt knew thewoman was hidden by the flowing robes of her assailant.

Leaping forward, he seized the fellow by the shoulder and jerkedhim suddenly about; and as the man faced him Colt saw that it wasAbu Batn, and now, too, he saw why the voice of the woman hadseemed familiar—she was Zora Drinov.

Abu Batn purpled with rage at the interruption, but great as washis anger so, too, was his surprise as he recognized the American.Just for an instant he thought that possibly this was the advanceguard of a party of searchers and avengers from Zveri's camp, butwhen he had time to observe the unkempt, disheveled, unarmedcondition of Colt he realized that the man was alone and doubtlesslost.

"Dog of a Nasrâny!" he cried, jerking away from Colt's grasp."Lay not your filthy hand upon a true believer." At the same timehe moved to draw his pistol, but in that instant Colt was upon himagain, and the two men went down in the narrow trail, the Americanon top.

What happened then, happened very quickly. As Abu Batn drew hispistol, he caught the hammer in the folds of his thôb, so that theweapon was discharged. The bullet went harmlessly into the ground,but the report warned Colt of his imminent danger, and in selfdefense he ran his blade through the sheykh's throat.

As he rose slowly from the body of the sheykh, Zora Drinovgrasped him by the arm. "Quick!" she said. "That shot will bringthe others. They must not find us."

He did not wait to question her, but, stooping, quickly salvagedAbu Batn's weapons and ammunition, including a long musket that layin the trail beside him; and then with Zora in the lead they ranswiftly up the trail down which he had just come.

"We are going to take to the trees," he said. "We can go intothe jungle a short distance and throw them off the trail."

"Good!" she said, and with his assistance clambered into thebranches of a tree beneath which they stood.

Fortunately for them, several large trees grew close together sothat they were able to make their way with comparative ease a fullhundred feet from the trail, where, climbing high into the branchesof a great tree, they were effectually hidden from sight in alldirections.

When at last they were seated side by side in a great crotch,Zora turned toward Colt. "Comrade Colt!" she said. "What hashappened? What are you doing here alone? Were you looking forme?"

The man grinned. "I was looking for the whole party," he said."I have seen no one since we entered Opar. Where is the camp, andwhy was Abu Batn pursuing you?"

"We are a long way from the camp," replied Zora. "I do not knowhow far, though I could return to it, if it were not for theAarabs." And then briefly she told the story of Abu Batn's treacheryand of her captivity. "The sheykh made a temporary camp shortlyafter noon today. The men were very tired, and for the first timein days they relaxed their vigilance over me. I realized that atlast the moment I had been awaiting so anxiously had arrived, andwhile they slept I escaped into the jungle. My absence must havebeen discovered shortly after I left, and Abu Batn overtook me. Therest you witnessed."

"Fate functioned deviously and altogether wonderfully," he said."To think that your only chance of rescue hinged upon thecontingency of my capture at Opar!"

She smiled. "Fate reaches back further than that," she said."Suppose you had not been born?"

"Then Abu Batn would have carried you off to the harem of someblack sultan, or perhaps another man would have been captured atOpar."

While listening for signs of pursuit, they conversed in lowtones, Colt narrating in detail the events leading up to hiscapture, though some of the details of his escape he omittedthrough a sense of loyalty to the nameless girl who had aided him.Neither did he stress Zveri's lack of control over his men, or whatColt considered his inexcusable cowardice in leaving himself andRomero to their fate within the walls of Opar without attempting tosuccor them, for he believed that the girl was Zveri's sweetheartand he did not wish to offend her.

"I do not know," he said. "The last I saw of him he was standinghis ground, fighting off those crooked little demons."

"I do not mean that," she replied. "Of course, I know you werethere with Romero, but who else?"

Colt hesitated. "You see," he said, "the blacks refused to enterthe city, so the rest of us had to go in or abandon the attempt toget the treasures."

"I passed out so soon, you see," he said with a laugh, "thatreally I do not know exactly what did happen."

As they talked, Colt's eyes were often upon the girl's face. Howlovely she was, even beneath the rags and the dirt that were theoutward symbols of her captivity among the Aarabs. She was a littlethinner than when he had last seen her, and her eyes were tired andher face drawn from privation and worry. But, perhaps, by verycontrast her beauty was the more startling. It seemed incrediblethat she could love the coarse, loud-mouthed Zveri, who was herantithesis in every respect.

Presently she broke a short silence. "We must try to get back tothe base camp," she said. "It is vital that I be there. So muchmust be done, so much that no one else can do."

"Yes," she said in a low voice. "I am loyal to the thing I havesworn to accomplish."

"I am afraid," he said, "that for the past few days I have beenthinking more of my own welfare than of that of theproletariat."

"I am afraid that at heart you are still bourgeois," she said,"and that you cannot yet help looking upon the proletariat withcontempt."

"What makes you say that?" he asked. "I am sure that I saidnothing to warrant it."

"Often a slight unconscious inflection in the use of a wordalters the significance of a whole statement, revealing a speaker'ssecret thoughts."

Colt laughed good naturedly. "You are a dangerous person to talkto," he said. "Am I to be shot at sunrise?"

She looked at him seriously. "You are different from theothers," she said. "I think you could never imagine how suspiciousthey are. What I have said is only in the way of warning you towatch your every word when you are talking with them. Some of themare narrow and ignorant, and they are already suspicious of youbecause of your antecedents. They are sensitively jealous of a newimportance which they believe their class has attained."

"Their class?" he asked. "I thought you told me once that youwere of the proletariat?"

If he had thought that he had surprised her and that she wouldshow embarrassment, he was mistaken. She met his eyes squarely andwithout wavering. "I am," she said, "but I can still see theweaknesses of my class."

He looked at her steadily for a long moment, the shadow of asmile touching his lips. "I do not believe——"

"Be careful, Comrade Colt," she warned him. "Thinking aloud issometimes fatal;" but she tempered her words with a smile.

Further conversation was interrupted by the sound of the voicesof men in the distance. "They are coming," said the girl.

Colt nodded, and the two remained silent, listening to thesounds of approaching voices and footsteps. The men came abreast ofthem and halted: and Zora, who understood the Aarab tongue, heardone of them say, "The trail stops here. They have gone into thejungle."

"They would go toward the river," said a third. "That is the waythat I should go if I were trying to escape."

"Wullah! You speak words of wisdom," said the first speaker. "Wewill spread out here and search toward the river; but look out forthe Nasrâny. He has the pistol and the musket of the sheykh."

The two fugitives heard the sound of pursuit diminishing in thedistance as the Aarabs forced their way into the jungle toward theriver. "I think we had better get out of this," said Colt; "andwhile it may be pretty hard going, I believe that we had betterstick to the brush for awhile and keep on away from the river."

"Yes," replied Zora, "for that is the general direction in whichthe camp lies." And so they commenced their long and weary march insearch of their comrades.

They were still pushing through dense jungle when night overtookthem. Their clothes were in rags and their bodies scratched andtorn, mute and painful reminders of the thorny way that they hadtraversed.

Hungry and thirsty they made a dry camp among the branches of atree, where Colt built a rude platform for the girl, while heprepared to sleep upon the ground at the foot of the great bole.But to this, Zora would not listen.

"That will not do at all," she said. "We are in no position topermit ourselves to be the victims of every silly convention thatwould ordinarily order our lives in civilized surroundings. Iappreciate your thoughtful consideration, but I would rather haveyou up here in the tree with me than down there where the firsthunting lion that passed might get you." And so with the girl'shelp Colt built another platform close to the one that he had builtfor her; and as darkness fell, they stretched their tired bodies ontheir rude couches and sought to sleep.

Presently Colt dozed, and in his dream he saw the slender figureof a star-eyed goddess, whose cheeks were wet with tears, but whenhe took her in his arms and kissed her he saw that she was ZoraDrinov; and then a hideous sound from the jungle below awakened himwith a start, so that he sat up, seizing the musket of the sheykhin readiness.

"Phew!" exclaimed Colt. "I must have been asleep, for thatcertainly gave me a start."

"Yes, you were asleep," said the girl. "I heard you talking,"and he felt that he detected laughter in her voice.

"I wonder," said Colt, recalling that in his dream the figure ofone girl had merged into that of another.

The lion, hearing their voices, moved away growling. He was nothunting the hated man-things.

XII. — DOWN TRAILS OFTERROR

SLOW days dragged by for the man and womansearching for their comrades—days filled with fatiguingeffort, most of which was directed toward the procuring of food andwater for their sustenance. Increasingly was Colt impressed by thecharacter and personality of his companion. With apprehension henoticed that she was gradually weakening beneath the strain offatigue and the scant and inadequate food that he had been able toprocure for her. But yet she kept a brave front and tried to hideher condition from him. Never once had she complained. Never byword or look had she reproached him for his inability to procuresufficient food, a failure which he looked upon as indicative ofinefficiency. She did not know that he himself often went hungrythat she might eat, telling her when he returned with food that hehad eaten his share where he had found it, a deception that wasmade possible by the fact that when he hunted he often left Zora torest in some place of comparative security, that she might not besubjected to needless exertion.

He had left her thus today, safe in a great tree beside awinding stream. She was very tired. It seemed to her that now shewas always tired. The thought of continuing the march appalled her,and yet she knew that it must be undertaken. She wondered how muchlonger she could go on before she sank exhausted for the last time.It was not, however, for herself that she was most concerned, butfor this man—this scion of wealth, and capitalism, and power,whose constant consideration and cheerfulness and tenderness hadbeen a revelation to her. She knew that when she could go nofurther, he would not leave her and that thus his chances of escapefrom the grim jungle would be jeopardized and perhaps lost foreverbecause of her. She hoped, for his sake, that death would comequickly to her that, thus relieved of responsibility, he might moveon more rapidly in search of that elusive camp that seemed to hernow little more than a meaningless myth. But from the thought ofdeath she shrank, not because of the fear of death, as well mighthave been the case, but for an entirely new reason, the suddenrealization of which gave her a distinct shock. The tragedy of thissudden self-awakening left her numb with terror. It was a thoughtthat must be put from her, one that she must not entertain even foran instant; and yet it persisted—persisted with a dullinsistency that brought tears to her eyes.

Colt had gone farther afield than usual this morning in hissearch for food, for he had sighted an antelope; and, hisimagination inflamed by the contemplation of so much meat in asingle kill and what it would mean for Zora, he clung doggedly tothe trail, lured further on by an occasional glimpse of his quarryin the distance.

The antelope was only vaguely aware of an enemy, for he wasupwind from Colt and had not caught his scent, while the occasionalglimpses he had had of the man had served mostly to arouse hiscuriosity; so that though he moved away he stopped often and turnedback in an effort to satisfy his wonderment. But presently hewaited a moment too long. In his desperation, Colt chanced a longshot; and as the animal dropped, the man could not stifle a loudcry of exultation.

As time, that she had no means of measuring, dragged on, Zoragrew increasingly apprehensive on Colt's account. Never before hadhe left her for so long a time, so that she began to construct allsorts of imaginary calamities that might have overtaken him. Shewished now that she had gone with him. If she had thought itpossible to track him, she would have followed him; but she knewthat that was impossible. However, her forced inactivity made herrestless. Her cramped position in the tree became unendurable; andthen, suddenly assailed by thirst, she lowered herself to theground and walked toward the river.

When she had drunk and was about to return to the tree, sheheard the sound of something approaching from the direction inwhich Colt had gone. Instantly her heart leaped with gladness, herdepression and even much of her fatigue seemed to vanish, and sherealized suddenly how very lonely she had been without him. Howdependent we are upon the society of our fellow-men, we seldomrealize until we become the victims of enforced solitude. Therewere tears of happiness in Zora Drinov's eyes as she advanced tomeet Colt. Then the bushes before her parted, and there steppedinto view, before her horrified gaze, a monstrous, hairy ape.

To-yat, the king, was as much surprised as the girl, but hisreactions were almost opposite. It was with no horror that heviewed this soft, white she-Mangani. To the girl there was naughtbut ferocity in his mien, though in his breast was an entirelydifferent emotion. He lumbered toward her; and then, as thoughreleased from a momentary paralysis, Zora turned to flee. But howfutilely, she realized an instant later as a hairy paw gripped herroughly by the shoulder. For an instant she had forgotten thesheykh's pistol that Colt always left with her for self-protection.Jerking it from its holster, she turned upon the beast; but To-yat,seeing in the weapon a club with which she intended to attack him,wrenched it from her grasp and hurled it aside; and then, thoughshe struggled and fought to regain her freedom, he lifted herlightly to his hip and lumbered off into the jungle in thedirection that he had been going.

Colt tarried at his kill only long enough to remove the feet,the head and the viscera, that he might by that much reduce theweight of the burden that he must carry back to camp, for he wasquite well aware that his privation had greatly reduced hisstrength.

Lifting the carcass to his shoulder, he started back towardcamp, exulting in the thought that for once he was returning withan ample quantity of strength-giving flesh. As he staggered alongbeneath the weight of the small antelope, he made plans thatimparted a rosy hue to the future. They would rest now until theirstrength returned; and while they were resting they would smoke allof the meat of his kill that they did not eat at once, and thusthey would have a reserve supply of food that he felt would carrythem a great distance. Two days' rest with plenty of food would, hewas positive, fill them with renewed hope and vitality.

As he started laboriously along the back trail, he commenced torealize that he had come much farther than he had thought, but ithad been well worth while. Even though he reached Zora in a stateof utter exhaustion, he did not fear for a minute but that he wouldreach her, so confident was he of his own powers of endurance andthe strength of his will.

As he staggered at last to his goal, he looked up into the treeand called her by name. There was no reply. In that first briefinstant of silence, a dull and sickening premonition of disastercrept over him. He dropped the carcass of the deer and lookedhurriedly about.

"Zora! Zora!" he cried; but only the silence of the jungle washis answer. Then his searching eyes found the pistol of Abu Batnwhere To-yat had dropped it; and his worst fears weresubstantiated, for he knew that if Zora had gone away of her ownvolition she would have taken the weapon with her. She had beenattacked by something and carried off, of that he was positive; andpresently as he examined the ground closely he discovered theimprints of a great man-like foot.

A sudden madness seized Wayne Colt. The cruelty of the jungle,the injustice of Nature aroused within his breast a red rage. Hewanted to kill the thing that had stolen Zora Drinov. He wanted totear it with his hands and rend it with his teeth. All the savageinstincts of primitive man were reborn within him as, forgettingthe meat that the moment before had meant so much to him, heplunged headlong into the jungle upon the faint spoor of To-yat,the king ape.

* * * * * * *

La of Opar made her way slowly through the jungle after she hadescaped from Ibn Dammuk and his companions. Her native city calledto her, though she knew that she might not enter it in safety; butwhat place was there in all the world that she might go to?Something of a conception of the immensity of the great world hadbeen impressed upon her during her wandering since she had leftOpar, and the futility of searching further for Tarzan had beenindelibly impressed upon her mind. So she would go back to thevicinity of Opar, and perhaps some day again Tarzan would comethere. That great dangers beset her way she did not care, for La ofOpar was indifferent to life that had never brought her much ofhappiness. She lived because she lived; and it is true that shewould strive to prolong life because such is the law of Nature,which imbues the most miserable unfortunates with as powerful anurge to prolong their misery as it gives to the fortunate few whoare happy and contented a similar desire to live.

Presently she became aware of pursuit, and so she increased herspeed and kept ahead of those who were following her. Finding atrail, she followed it, knowing that if it permitted her toincrease her speed it would permit her pursuers also to increasetheirs, nor would she be able to hear them now as plainly as shehad before, when they were forcing their way through the jungle.Still she was confident that they could not overtake her; but asshe was moving swiftly on, a turn in the trail brought her to asudden stop, for there, blocking her retreat, stood a great, manedlion. This time La remembered the animal, not as Jad-bal-ja, thehunting mate of Tarzan, but as the lion that had rescued her fromthe leopard, after Tarzan had deserted her.

Lions were familiar creatures to La of Opar, where they wereoften captured by the priests while cubs, and where it was notunusual to raise some of them occasionally as pets until theirgrowing ferocity made them unsafe. Therefore, La knew that lionscould associate with people without devouring them; and, having hadexperience of this lion's disposition and having as little sense offear as Tarzan himself, she quickly made her choice between thelion and the Aarabs pursuing her and advanced directly toward thegreat beast, in whose attitude she saw there was no immediatemenace. She was sufficiently a child of nature to know that deathcame quickly and painlessly in the embrace of a lion, and so shehad no fear, but only a great curiosity.

Jad-bal-ja had long had the scent spoor of La in his nostrils,as she had moved with the wind along the jungle trails; and so hehad awaited her, his curiosity aroused by the fainter scent spoorof the men who trailed her. Now as she came toward him along thetrail, he stepped to one side that she might pass and, like a greatcat, rubbed his maned neck against her legs.

La paused and laid a hand upon his head and spoke to him in lowtones in the language of the first man—the language of thegreat apes that was the common language of her people, as it wasTarzan's language.

Hajellan, leading his men in pursuit of La, rounded a bend inthe trail and stopped aghast. He saw a great lion facing him, a lionthat bared its fangs now in an angry snarl; and beside the lion,one hand tangled in its thick black mane, stood the whitewoman.

The woman spoke a single word to the lion in a language thatHajellan did not understand. "Kill!" said La in the language of thegreat apes.

So accustomed was the high priestess of the Flaming God tocommand that it did not occur to her that Numa might do other thanobey; and so, although she did not know that it was thus thatTarzan had been accustomed to command Jad-bal-ja, she was notsurprised when the lion crouched and charged.

Fodil and Dareyem had pushed close behind their companion as hehalted, and great was their horror when they saw the lion leapforward. They turned and fled, colliding with the blacks behindthem; but Hajellan only stood paralyzed with fright as Jad-bal-jareared upon his hind feet and seized him, his great jaws crunchingthrough the man's head and shoulders, cracking his skull like anegg shell. He gave the body a vicious shake and dropped it. Then heturned and looked inquiringly at La.

In the woman's heart was no more sympathy for her enemies thanin the heart of Jad-bal-ja; she only wished to be rid of them. Shedid not care whether they lived or died, and so she did not urgeJad-bal-ja after those who had escaped. She wondered what the lionwould do now that he had made his kill; and knowing that thevicinity of a feeding lion was no safe place, she turned and movedon along the trail. But Jad-bal-ja was no eater of man, not becausehe had any moral scruples, but because he was young and active andhad no difficulty in killing prey that he relished far more than hedid the salty flesh of man. Therefore, he left Hajellan lying wherehe had fallen and followed La along the shadowy jungle trails.

A black man, naked but for a G string, bearing a message fromthe Coast for Zveri, paused where two trails crossed. From his leftthe wind was blowing, and to his sensitive nostrils it bore thefaint stench that announced the presence of a lion. Without amoment's hesitation, the man vanished into the foliage of a treethat overhung the trail. Perhaps Simba was not hungry, perhapsSimba was not hunting; but the black messenger was taking nochances. He was sure that the lion was approaching, and he wouldwait here where he could see both trails until he discovered whichone Simba took.

Watching with more or less indifference because of the safety ofhis sanctuary, the negro was ill-prepared for the shock which thesight that presently broke upon his vision induced. Never in thelowest steps of his superstition had he conceived such a scene ashe now witnessed, and he blinked his eyes repeatedly to make surethat he was awake; but, no, there could be no mistake. It wasindeed a white woman almost naked but for golden ornaments and asoft strip of leopard skin beneath her narrow stomacher—awhite woman who walked with the fingers of one hand tangled in theblack mane of a great golden lion.

Along the trail they came, and at the crossing they turned tothe left into the trail that he had been following. As theydisappeared from his view, the black man fingered the fetich thatwas suspended from a cord about his neck and prayed to Mulungo, thegod of his people; and when he again set out toward his destinationhe took another and more circuitous route.

Often, after darkness had fallen, Tarzan had come to the camp ofthe conspirators and, perched in a tree above them, listened toZveri outlining his plans to his companions; so that the ape-manwas familiar with what they intended, down to the minutestdetail.

Now, knowing that they would not be prepared to strike for sometime, he was roaming the jungle far away from the sight and stenchof man, enjoying to the full the peace and freedom that were hislife. He knew that Nkima should have reached his destination bythis time and delivered the message that Tarzan had dispatched byhim. He was still puzzled by the strange disappearance of La andpiqued by his inability to pick up her trail. He was genuinelygrieved by her disappearance, for already he had his plans wellformulated to restore her to her throne and punish her enemies; buthe gave himself over to no futile regrets as he swung through thetrees in sheer joy of living, or when hunger overtook him, stalkedhis prey in the grim and terrible silence of the hunting beast.

Sometimes he thought of the good-looking young American, to whomhe had taken a fancy in spite of the fact that he considered him anenemy. Had he known of Colt's now almost hopeless plight, it ispossible that he would have gone to his rescue, but he knew nothingof it.

So, alone and friendless, sunk to the uttermost depths ofdespair, Wayne Colt stumbled through the jungle in search of ZoraDrinov and her abductor. But already he had lost the faint trail;and To-yat, far to his right, lumbered along with his captive safefrom pursuit.

Weak from exhaustion and shock, thoroughly terrified now by thehopelessness of her hideous position, Zora had lost consciousness.To-yat feared that she was dead; but he carried her on,nevertheless, that he might at least have the satisfaction ofexhibiting her to his tribe as evidence of his prowess and,perhaps, to furnish an excuse for another Dum-Dum. Secure in hismight, conscious of few enemies that might with safety tothemselves molest him, To-yat did not take the precaution ofsilence, but wandered on through the jungle heedless of alldangers.

Many were the keen ears and sensitive nostrils that carried themessage of his passing to their owners, but to only one did thestrange mingling of the scent spoor of the bull ape with that of ashe-Mangani suggest a condition worthy of investigation. So asTo-yat pursued his careless way, another creature of the jungle,moving silently on swift feet, bore down upon him; and when, from apoint of vantage, keen eyes beheld the shaggy bull and the slender,delicate girl, a lip curled in a silent snarl. A moment laterTo-yat, the king ape, was brought to a snarling, bristling halt asthe giant figure of a bronzed Tarmangani dropped lightly into thetrail before him, a living threat to his possession of hisprize.

The wicked eyes of the bull shot fire and hate. "Go away," hesaid. "I am To-yat. Go away or I kill."

"Put down the she," repeated Tarzan, "and go your way; or Ikill. I am Tarzan of the Apes, Lord of the Jungle!"

Tarzan drew the hunting knife of his father and crouched as headvanced toward the bull. To-yat snarled; and seeing that the othermeant to give battle, he cast the body of the girl aside that hemight not be handicapped. As they circled, each looking for anadvantage, there came a sudden, terrific crashing sound in thejungle down wind from them.

Tantor, the elephant, asleep in the security of the depth of theforest, had been suddenly awakened by the growling of the twobeasts. Instantly his nostrils caught a familiar scentspoor—the scent spoor of his beloved Tarzan—and hisears told him that he was facing in battle the great Mangani, whosescent was also strong in the nostrils of Tantor.

To the snapping and bending of trees, the great bull rushedthrough the forest; and as he emerged suddenly, towering above them,To-yat, the king ape, seeing death in those angry eyes and gleamingtusks, turned and fled into the jungle.

XIII. — THE LION-MAN

PETER ZVERI was, in a measure, regaining some ofthe confidence that he had lost in the ultimate success of hisplan, for his agents were succeeding at last in getting to him someof his much needed supplies, together with contingents ofdisaffected blacks wherewith to recruit his forces to sufficientnumbers to insure the success of his contemplated invasion ofItalian Somaliland. It was his plan to make a swift and suddenincursion, destroying native villages and capturing an outpost ortwo, then retreating quickly across the border, pack away theFrench uniforms for possible future use and undertake the overthrowof Ras Tafari in Abyssinia, where his agents had assured himconditions were ripe for a revolution. With Abyssinia under hiscontrol to serve as a rallying point, his agents assured him thatthe native tribes of all Northern Africa would flock to hisstandards.

In distant Bokhara a fleet of two hundred planes—bombers,scouts, and fighting planes—made available through the greedof American capitalists, were being mobilized for a sudden dashacross Persia and Aarabia to his base in Abyssinia. With these tosupport his great native army, he felt that his position would besecure, the malcontents of Egypt would join forces with him and,with Europe embroiled in a war that would prevent any concertedaction against him, his dream of empire might be assured and hisposition made impregnable for all time.

Perhaps it was a mad dream; perhaps Peter Zveri wasmad—but, then, what great world conqueror has not been alittle mad?

He saw his frontiers pushed toward the south as, little bylittle, he extended his dominion, until one day he should rule agreat continent—Peter I, Emperor of Africa.

"Why should I not be, Tony?" demanded the dreamer. "I seesuccess just before us. We should all be happy, but we are going tobe very much happier later on."

"Yes," said Tony, "when the Philippines are free, I shall bevery happy. Do you not think that I should be a very big man backthere, then, Comrade Zveri?"

"Yes," said the Russian, "but you can be a bigger man if youstay here and work for me. How would you like to be a Grand Duke,Tony?"

"A Grand Duke!" exclaimed the Filipino. "I thought there were nomore Grand Dukes."

"To be a Grand Duke who grinds down the rich and takes moneyfrom them might not be so bad," said Peter. "Grand Dukes are veryrich and powerful. Would you not like to be rich and powerful,Tony?"

"Then always do as I tell you, Tony; and some day I shall makeyou a Grand Duke," said Zveri.

The camp was filled with activity now at all times, for Zverihad conceived the plan of whipping his native recruits into somesemblance of military order and discipline. Romero, Dorsky, andIvitch having had military experience, the camp was filled withmarching men, deploying, charging and assembling, practicing theManual of Arms, and being instructed in the rudiments of firediscipline.

The day following his conversation with Zveri, Tony wasassisting the Mexican, who was sweating over a company of blackrecruits.

During a period of rest, as the Mexican and Filipino wereenjoying a smoke, Tony turned to his companion. "You have travelledmuch, Comrade," said the Filipino. "Perhaps you can tell me whatsort of uniform a Grand Duke wears."

"I have heard," said Romero, "that in Hollywood and New Yorkmany of them wear aprons."

The blacks in the camp, held sufficiently interested and busy indrills to keep them out of mischief, with plenty of food and withthe prospects of fighting and marching still in the future, were acontented and happy lot. Those who had undergone the harrowingexperiences of Opar and those other untoward incidents that hadupset their equanimity had entirely regained their self confidence,a condition for which Zveri took all the credit to himself,assuming that it was due to his remarkable gift for leadership. Andthen a runner arrived in camp with a message for him and with aweird story of having seen a white woman hunting in the jungle witha black-maned golden lion. This was sufficient to recall to theblacks the other weird occurrences and to remind them that therewere supernatural agencies at work in this territory, that it waspeopled by ghosts and demons, and that at any moment some direcalamity might befall them.

But if this story upset the equanimity of the blacks, themessage that the runner brought to Zveri precipitated an emotionaloutbreak in the Russian that bordered closely upon the frenzy ofinsanity. Blaspheming in a loud voice, he strode back and forthbefore his tent; nor would he explain to any of his lieutenants thecause of his anger.

And while Zveri fumed, other forces were gathering against him.Through the jungle moved a hundred ebon warriors, their smooth,sleek skin, their rolling muscles and elastic step bespeaking theirphysical fitness. They were naked but for narrow loin cloths ofleopard or lion skin and a few of those ornaments that are dear tothe hearts of savages—anklets and arm bands of copper andnecklaces of the claws of lions or leopards—while above thehead of each floated a white plume. But here the primitiveness oftheir equipment ceased, for their weapons were the weapons ofmodern fighting men; high-powered service rifles, revolvers, andbandoleers of cartridges. It was, indeed, a formidable appearingcompany that swung steadily and silently through the jungle, andupon the shoulder of the black chief who led them rode a littlemonkey.

* * * * * * *

Tarzan was relieved when Tantor's sudden and unexpected chargedrove To-yat into the jungle; for Tarzan of the Apes found nopleasure in quarreling with the Mangani, which he considered aboveall other creatures his brothers. He never forgot that he had beennursed at the breast of Kala, the she-ape, nor that he had grown tomanhood in the tribe of Kerchak, the king. From infancy to manhoodhe had thought of himself only as an ape, and even now it was ofteneasier for him to understand and appreciate the motives of thegreat Mangani than those of man.

At a signal from Tarzan, Tantor stopped; and assuming again hiscustomary composure, though still alert to any danger that mightthreaten his friend, he watched while the ape-man turned and kneltbeside the prostrate girl. Tarzan had at first thought her dead,but he soon discovered that she was only in a swoon. Lifting her inhis arms, he spoke a half dozen words to the great pachyderm, whoturned about and, putting down his head, started off straight intothe dense jungle, making a pathway along which Tarzan bore theunconscious girl.

Straight as an arrow moved Tantor, the elephant, to halt at lastupon the bank of a considerable river. Beyond this was a spot thatTarzan had in mind to which he wished to convey To-yat'sunfortunate captive, whom he had recognized immediately as theyoung woman he had seen in the base camp of the conspirators and acursory examination of whom convinced him was upon the verge ofdeath from starvation, shock, and exposure.

Once again he spoke to Tantor; and the great pachyderm, twininghis trunk around their bodies, lifted the two gently to his broadback. Then he waded into the river and set out for the oppositeshore. The channel in the center was deep and swift, and Tantor wasswept off his feet and carried down stream for a considerabledistance before he found footing again, but eventually he won tothe opposite bank. Here again he went ahead, making trail, until atlast he broke into a broad, well marked game trail.

Now Tarzan took the lead, and Tantor followed. While they movedthus silently toward their destination, Zora Drinov opened hereyes. Instantly recollection of her plight filled herconsciousness; and then almost simultaneously she realized that hercheek, resting upon the shoulder of her captor, was not pressingagainst a shaggy coat, but against the smooth skin of a human body,and then she turned her head and looked at the profile of thecreature that was carrying her.

She thought at first that she was the victim of some strangehallucination of terror; for, of course, she could not measure thetime that she had been unconscious, nor recall any of the incidentsthat had occurred during that period. The last thing that sheremembered was that she had been in the arms of a great ape, whowas carrying her off to the jungle. She had closed her eyes; andwhen she opened them again, the ape had been transformed into ahandsome demigod of the forest.

She closed her eyes and turned her head so that she faced backover the man's shoulder. She thought that she would keep her eyestightly closed for a moment, then open them and turn themstealthily once more toward the face of the creature that wascarrying her so lightly along the jungle trail. Perhaps this timehe would be an ape again, and then she would know that she wasindeed mad, or dreaming.

And when she did open her eyes, the sight that met themconvinced her that she was experiencing a nightmare; for ploddingalong the trail directly behind her, was a giant bull elephant.

Tarzan, apprised of her returning consciousness by the movementof her head upon his shoulder, turned his own to look at her andsaw her gazing at Tantor in wide-eyed astonishment. Then she turnedtoward him, and their eyes met.

"Who are you?" she asked in a whisper. "Am I dreaming?" But theape-man only turned his eyes to the front and made no reply.

Zora thought of struggling to free herself; but realizing thatshe was very weak and helpless, she at last resigned herself to herfate and let her cheek fall again to the bronzed shoulder of theape-man.

When Tarzan finally stopped and laid his burden upon the ground,it was in a little clearing through which ran a tiny stream ofclear water. Immense trees arched overhead, and through theirfoliage the great sun dappled the grass beneath them.

As Zora Drinov lay stretched upon the soft turf, she realizedfor the first time how weak she was; for when she attempted torise, she found that she could not. As her eyes took in the sceneabout her, it seemed more than ever like a dream—the greatbull elephant standing almost above her and the bronzed figure ofan almost naked giant squatting upon his haunches beside the littlestream. She saw him fold a great leaf into the shape of acornucopia and, after filling it with water, rise and come towardher. Without a word he stooped, and putting an arm beneath hershoulders and raising her to a sitting position, he offered her thewater from his improvised cup.

She drank deeply, for she was very thirsty. Then, looking upinto the handsome face above her, she voiced her thanks; but whenthe man did not reply, she thought, naturally, that he did notunderstand her. When she had satisfied her thirst and he hadlowered her gently to the ground again, he swung lightly into atree and disappeared into the forest. But above her the greatelephant stood, as though on guard, his huge body swaying gently toand fro.

The quiet and peace of her surroundings tended to soothe hernerves, but deeply rooted in her mind was the conviction that hersituation was most precarious. The man was a mystery to her; andwhile she knew, of course, that the ape that had stolen her had notbeen transformed miraculously into a handsome forest god, yet shecould not account in any way for his presence or for thedisappearance of the ape, except upon the rather extravaganthypothesis that the two had worked together, the ape having stolenher for this man, who was its master. There had been nothing in theman's attitude to suggest that he intended to harm her, and yet soaccustomed was she to gauge all men by the standards of civilizedsociety that she could not conceive that he had other than ulteriordesigns.

To her analytical mind the man presented a paradox thatintrigued her imagination, seeming, as he did, so utterly out ofplace in this savage African jungle; while at the same time heharmonized perfectly with his surroundings, in which he seemedabsolutely at home and assured of himself, a fact that was stillfurther impressed upon her by the presence of the wild bullelephant, to which the man paid no more attention than one would toa lap dog. Had he been unkempt, filthy, and degraded in appearance,she would have catalogued him immediately as one of those socialoutcasts, usually half demented, who are occasionally found farfrom the haunts of men, living the life of wild beasts, whose highstandards of decency and cleanliness they uniformly fail toobserve. But this creature had suggested more the trained athletein whom cleanliness was a fetich, nor did his well shaped head andintelligent eyes even remotely suggest mental or moraldegradation.

And as she pondered him, the man returned, bearing a great loadof straight branches, from which the twigs and leaves had beenremoved. With a celerity and adeptness that bespoke long years ofpractice, he constructed a shelter upon the bank of the rivulet. Hegathered broad leaves to thatch its roof, and leafy branches toenclose it upon three sides, so that it formed a protection againstthe prevailing winds. He floored it with leaves and small twigs anddry grasses. Then he came and, lifting the girl in his arms, boreher to the rustic bower he had fabricated.

Once again he left her; and when he returned he brought a littlefruit, which he fed to her sparingly, for he guessed that she hadbeen long without food and knew that he must not overtax herstomach.

Always he worked in silence; and though no word had passedbetween them, Zora Drinov felt growing within her consciousness aconviction of his trustworthiness.

The next time that he left her he was gone a considerable time,but still the elephant stood in the clearing, like some titanicsentinel upon guard.

When next the man returned, he brought the carcass of a deer;and then Zora saw him make fire, after the manner of primitive men.As the meat roasted above it, the fragrant aroma came to hernostrils, bringing consciousness of a ravening hunger. When themeat was cooked, the man came and squatted beside her, cuttingsmall pieces with his keen hunting knife and feeding her as thoughshe had been a helpless baby. He gave her only a little at a time,making her rest often; and while she ate he spoke for the firsttime, but not to her, nor in any language that she had ever heard.He spoke to the great elephant, and the huge pachyderm wheeledslowly about and entered the jungle, where she could hear thediminishing noise of his passage until it was lost in the distance.Before the meal was over, it was quite dark; and she finished it inthe fitful light of the fire that shone redly on the bronzed skinof her companion and shot back from mysterious gray eyes that gavethe impression of seeing everything, even her inmost thoughts. Thenhe brought her a drink of water, after which he squatted downoutside her shelter and proceeded to satisfy his own hunger.

Gradually the girl had been lulled to a feeling of security bythe seeming solicitude of her strange protector. But now distinctmisgivings assailed her, and suddenly she felt a strange new fearof the silent giant in whose power she was; for when he ate she sawthat he ate his meat raw, tearing the flesh like a wild beast. Whenthere came the sound of something moving in the jungle just beyondthe fire light and he raised his head and looked and there came alow and savage growl of warning from his lips, the girl closed hereyes and buried her face in her arms in sudden terror andrevulsion. From the darkness of the jungle there came an answeringgrowl; but the sound moved on, and presently all was silentagain.

It seemed a long time before Zora dared open her eyes again, andwhen she did she saw that the man had finished his meal and wasstretched out on the grass between her and the fire. She was afraidof him, of that she was quite certain; yet, at the same time, shecould not deny that his presence there imparted to her a feeling ofsafety that she had never before felt in the jungle. As she triedto fathom this, she dozed and presently was asleep.

The young sun was already bringing renewed warmth to the junglewhen she awoke. The man had replenished the fire and was sittingbefore it, grilling small fragments of meat. Beside him were somefruits, which he must have gathered since he had awakened. As shewatched him, she was still further impressed by his great physicalbeauty, as well as by a certain marked nobility of bearing thatharmonized well with the dignity of his poise and the intelligenceof his keen gray eyes. She wished that she had not seen him devourhis meat like a—ah, that was it—like a lion. How much like alion he was, in his strength, and dignity, and majesty, and withall the quiet suggestion of ferocity that pervaded his every act.And so it was that she came to think of him as her lion-man and,while trying to trust him, always fearing him not a little.

Again he fed her and brought her water before he satisfied hisown hunger; but before he started to eat, he arose and voiced along, low call. Then once more he squatted upon his haunches anddevoured his food. Although he held it in his strong, brown handsand ate the flesh raw, she saw now that he ate slowly and with thesame quiet dignity that marked his every act, so that presently shefound him less revolting. Once again she tried to talk with him,addressing him in various languages and several African dialects,but as for any sign he gave that he understood her she might aswell have been addressing a dumb brute. Doubtless herdisappointment would have been replaced by anger could she haveknown that she was addressing an English lord, who understoodperfectly every word that she uttered, but who, for reasons whichhe himself best knew, preferred to remain the dumb brute to thiswoman whom he looked upon as an enemy.

However, it was well for Zora Drinov that he was what he was,for it was the prompting of the English lord and not that of thesavage carnivore that had moved him to succor her because she wasalone, and helpless, and a woman. The beast in Tarzan would nothave attacked her, but would merely have ignored her, letting thelaw of the jungle take its course as it must with all hercreatures.

Shortly after Tarzan had finished his meal, a crashing in thejungle announced the return of Tantor; and when he appeared in thelittle clearing, the girl realized that the great brute had come inresponse to the call of the man, and marvelled.

And so the days wore on; and slowly Zora Drinov regained herstrength, guarded by night by the silent forest god and by day bythe great bull elephant. Her only apprehension now was for thesafety of Wayne Colt, who was seldom from her thoughts. Nor was herapprehension groundless, for the young American had fallen upon baddays.

Almost frantic with concern for the safety of Zora, he hadexhausted his strength in futile search for her and her abductor,forgetful of himself until hunger and fatigue had taken their tollof his strength. He had awakened at last to the realization thathis condition was dangerous; and now when he needed food most, thegame that he had formerly found reasonably plentiful seemed to havedeserted the country. Even the smaller rodents that had oncesufficed to keep him alive were either too wary for him or notpresent at all. Occasionally he found fruits that he could eat, butthey seemed to impart little or no strength to him; and at last hewas forced to the conviction that he had reached the end of hisendurance and his strength and that nothing short of a miraclecould preserve him from death. He was so weak that he could staggeronly a few steps at a time and then, sinking to the ground, wasforced to lie there for a long time before he could arise again;and always there was the knowledge that eventually he would notarise.

Yet he would not give up. Something more than the urge to livedrove him on. He could not die, he must not die while Zora Drinovwas in danger. He had found a well beaten trail at last where hewas sure that sooner or later he must meet a native hunter, or,perhaps, find his way to the camp of his fellows. He could onlycrawl now, for he had not the strength to rise; and then suddenlythe moment came that he had striven so long to avert—themoment that marked the end, though it came in a form that he hadonly vaguely anticipated as one of several that might ring thecurtain upon his earthly existence.

As he lay in the trail resting before he dragged himself onagain, he was suddenly conscious that he was not alone. He hadheard no sounds, for doubtless his hearing had been dulled byexhaustion; but he was aware through the medium of that strangesense, the possession of which each of us has felt at some time inhis existence that told him eyes were upon him.

With an effort he raised his head and looked, and there, beforehim in the trail, stood a great lion, his lips drawn back in anangry snarl, his yellow-green eyes glaring balefully.

XIV. — SHOT DOWN

TARZAN went almost daily to watch the camp of hisenemy, moving swiftly through the jungle by trails unknown to man.He saw that preparations for the first bold stroke were almostcompleted, and finally he saw uniforms being issued to all membersof the party—uniforms which he recognized as those of FrenchColonial Troops—and he realized that the time had come whenhe must move. He hoped that little Nkima had carried his messagesafely, but if not, Tarzan would find some other way.

Zora Drinov's strength was slowly returning. Today she hadarisen and taken a few steps out into the sunlit clearing. Thegreat elephant regarded her. She had long since ceased to fear him,as she had ceased to fear the strange white man who had befriendedher. Slowly the girl approached the great bull, and Tantor regardedher out of his little eyes as he waved his trunk to and fro.

He had been so docile and harmless all the days that he hadguarded her that it had grown to be difficult for Zora to conceivehim capable of inflicting injury upon her. But as she looked intohis little eyes now, there was an expression there that brought herto a sudden halt; and as she realized that after all he was only awild bull elephant, she suddenly appreciated the rashness of heract. She was already so close to him that she could have reachedout and touched him, as had been her intention, having thought thatshe would thus make friends with him.

It was in her mind to fall back with dignity, when the wavingtrunk shot suddenly out and encircled her body. Zora Drinov did notscream. She only closed her eyes and waited. She felt herselflifted from the ground, and a moment later the elephant had crossedthe little clearing and deposited her in her shelter. Then hebacked off slowly and resumed his post of duty.

He had not hurt her. A mother could not have lifted her babymore gently, but he had impressed upon Zora Drinov that she was aprisoner and that he was her keeper. As a matter of fact, Tantorwas only carrying out Tarzan's instructions, which had nothing todo with the forcible restraint of the girl, but were only a measureof precaution to prevent her wandering into the jungle where otherdangers might overtake her.

Zora had not fully regained her strength, and the experienceleft her trembling. Though she now realized that her sudden fearsfor her safety had been groundless, she decided that she would takeno more liberties with her mighty warden.

It was not long after, that Tarzan returned, much earlier in theday than was his custom. He spoke only to Tantor; and the greatbeast, touching him almost caressingly with his trunk, turned andlumbered off into the forest. Then Tarzan advanced to where Zorasat in the opening of her shelter. Lightly he lifted her from theground and tossed her to his shoulder; and then, to her infinitesurprise at the strength and agility of the man, he swung into atree and was off through the jungle in the wake of thepachyderm.

At the edge of the river that they had crossed before, Tantorwas awaiting them, and once more he carried Zora and Tarzan safelyto the other bank.

Tarzan himself had crossed the river twice a day since he hadmade the camp for Zora; but when he went alone he needed no helpfrom Tantor or any other, for he swam the swift stream, his eyealert and his keen knife ready should Gimla, the crocodile, attackhim. But for the crossing of the woman, he had enlisted theservices of Tantor that she might not be subjected to the dangerand hardship of the only other means of crossing that waspossible.

As Tantor clambered up the muddy bank, Tarzan dismissed him witha word, as with the girl in his arms he leaped into a nearbytree.

That flight through the jungle was an experience that might longstand vividly in the memory of Zora Drinov. That a human beingcould possess the strength and agility of the creature that carriedher seemed unbelievable, and she might easily have attributed asupernatural origin to him had she not felt the life in the warmflesh that was pressed against hers. Leaping from branch to branch,swinging across breathless voids, she was borne swiftly through themiddle terrace of the forest. At first she had been terrified, butgradually fear left her, to be replaced by that utter confidencewhich Tarzan of the Apes has inspired in many a breast. At last hestopped and, lowering her to the branch upon which he stood,pointed through the surrounding foliage ahead of them. Zora lookedand to her astonishment saw the camp of her companions lying aheadand below her. Once more the ape-man took her in his arms anddropped lightly to the ground into a wide trail that swept past thebase of the tree in which he had halted. With a wave of his hand heindicated that she was free to go to the camp.

"Oh, how can I thank you!" exclaimed the girl. "How can I evermake you understand how splendid you have been and how I appreciateall that you have done for me?" But his only reply was to turn andswing lightly into the tree that spread its green foliage abovethem.

With a rueful shake of her head, Zora Drinov started along thetrail toward camp, while above her Tarzan followed through thetrees to make certain that she arrived in safety.

Paul Ivitch had been hunting, and he was just returning to campwhen he saw something move in a tree at the edge of the clearing.He saw the spots of a leopard, and raising his rifle, he fired; sothat at the moment that Zora entered the camp, the body of Tarzanof the Apes lunged from a tree almost at her side, blood tricklingfrom a bullet wound in his head as the sunshine played upon theleopard spots of his loin cloth.

* * * * * * *

The sight of the lion growling above him might have shaken thenerves of a man in better physical condition than was Wayne Colt,but the vision of a beautiful girl running quickly toward thesavage beast from the rear was the final stroke that almostoverwhelmed him.

Through his brain ran a medley of recollection and conjecture.In a brief instant he recalled that men had borne witness to thefact that they had felt no pain while being mauled by alion—neither pain nor fear—and he also recalled thatmen went mad from thirst and hunger. If he were to die, then, itwould not be painful, and of that he was glad; but if he were notto die, then surely he was mad, for the lion and the girl must bethe hallucination of a crazed mind.

Fascination held his eyes fixed upon the two. How real theywere! He heard the girl speak to the lion, and then he saw herbrush past the great savage beast and come and bend over him wherehe lay helpless in the trail. She touched him, and then he knewthat she was real.

"Who are you?" she asked, in limping English that was beautifulwith a strange accent. "What has happened to you?"

"I have been lost," he said, "and I am about done up. I have noteaten for a long while," and then he fainted.

Jad-bal-ja, the golden lion, had conceived a strange affectionfor La of Opar. Perhaps it was the call of one kindred savagespirit to another. Perhaps it was merely the recollection that shewas Tarzan's friend. But be that as it may, he seemed to find thesame pleasure in her company that a faithful dog finds in thecompany of his master. He had protected her with fierce loyalty,and when he made his kill he shared the flesh with her. She,however, after cutting off a portion that she wanted, had alwaysgone away a little distance to build her primitive fire and cookthe flesh; nor ever had she ventured back to the kill afterJad-bal-ja had commenced to feed, for a lion is yet a lion, and thegrim and ferocious growls that accompanied his feeding warned thegirl against presuming too far upon the new found generosity of thecarnivore.

They had been feeding, when the approach of Colt had attractedNuma's attention and brought him into the trail from his kill. Fora moment La had feared that she might not be able to keep the lionfrom the man, and she had wanted to do so; for something in thestranger's appearance reminded her of Tarzan, whom he more nearlyresembled than he did the grotesque priests of Opar. Because ofthis fact she thought that possibly the stranger might be fromTarzan's country. Perhaps he was one of Tarzan's friends and if so,she must protect him. To her relief, the lion had obeyed her whenshe had called upon him to halt, and now he evinced no furtherdesire to attack the man.

When Colt regained consciousness, La tried to raise him to hisfeet; and, with considerable difficulty and some slight assistancefrom the man, she succeeded in doing so. She put one of his armsacross her shoulders and, supporting him thus, guided him backalong the trail, while Jad-bal-ja followed at their heels. She haddifficulty in getting him through the brush to the hidden glenwhere Jad-bal-ja's kill lay and her little fire was burning a shortdistance away. But at last she succeeded and when they had comeclose to her fire, she lowered the man to the ground, whileJad-bal-ja turned once more to his feeding and his growling.

La fed the man tiny pieces of the meat that she had cooked, andhe ate ravenously all that she would give him. A short distanceaway ran the river, where La and the lion would have gone to drinkafter they had fed; but doubting whether she could get the man sogreat a distance through the jungle, she left him there with thelion and went down to the river; but first she told Jad-bal-ja toguard him, speaking in the language of the first men, the languageof the Mangani, that all creatures of the jungle understand to agreater or lesser extent. Near the river La found what she sought—a fruit with a hard rind. With her knife she cut an end fromone of these fruits and scooped out the pulpy interior, producing aprimitive but entirely practical cup, which she filled with waterfrom the river.

The water, as much as the food, refreshed and strengthened Colt;and though he lay but a few yards from a feeding lion, it seemed aneternity since he had experienced such a feeling of contentment andsecurity, clouded only by his anxiety concerning Zora.

"This is not my country," replied Colt. "I am an American. Myname is Wayne Colt."

Colt came to his elbow with a sudden start. "Zora Drinov?" hedemanded. "What do you know of her?"

"I was with her when she was taken prisoner by the men of thedesert. They took me also, but I escaped."

"The Flaming God has gone to rest many times since I saw Zora,"replied the girl.

"I do not know. She was with the Aarabs when I found her. Weescaped from them; and then, while I was hunting in the junglesomething came and carried her away. I do not know whether it was aman or a gorilla; for though I saw its footprints, I could not besure. I have been searching for her for a long time; but I couldnot find food, and it has been some time since I have had water; soI lost my strength, and you found me as I am."

"You shall not want for food nor water now," said La, "for Numa,the lion, will hunt for us; and if we can find the camp of Zora'sfriends, perhaps they will go out and search for her."

"I do not know where it is. I have been searching for it to leadher friends after the men of the desert."

Colt had been studying the girl as they talked. He had noted herstrange, barbaric apparel and the staggering beauty of her face andfigure. He knew almost intuitively that she was not of the worldthat he knew, and his mind was filled with curiosity concerningher.

Opar! Now indeed he knew that she was not of his world. Opar,the city of mystery, the city of fabulous treasures. Could it bethat the same city that housed the grotesque warriors with whom heand Romero had fought produced also such beautiful creatures as Naoand La, and only these? He wondered why he had not connected herwith Opar at once, for now he saw that her stomacher was similar tothat of Nao and of the priestess that he had seen upon the thronein the great chamber of the ruined temple. Recalling his attempt toenter Opar and loot it of its treasures, he deemed it expedient tomake no mention of any familiarity with the city of the girl'sbirth, for he guessed that Opar's women might be as primitivelyfierce in their vengeance as he had found Nao in her love.

The lion, and the girl, and the man lay up that night besideJad-bal-ja's kill, and in the morning Colt found that his strengthhad partially returned. During the night Numa had finished hiskill; and after the sun had risen, La found fruits which she andColt ate, while the lion strolled to the river to drink, pausingonce to roar, that the world might know the king was there.

"Numa will not kill again until tomorrow," she said, "so weshall have no meat until then, unless we are fortunate enough tokill something ourselves."

Colt had long since abandoned the heavy rifle of the Aarabs, tothe burden of which his growing weakness had left his musclesinadequate; so he had nothing but his bare hands and La only aknife with which they might make a kill.

"Then I guess we shall eat fruit until the lion kills again," hesaid. "In the meantime we might as well be trying to find thecamp."

She shook her head. "No," she said, "you must rest. You werevery weak when I found you, and it is not well that you shouldexert yourself until you are strong again. Numa will sleep all day.You and I will cut some sticks and lie beside a little trail, wherethe small things go. Perhaps we shall have luck; but if we do not,Numa will kill again tomorrow, and this time I shall take a wholehind quarter."

"At first I did not understand it myself," said La, "but after awhile I remembered. It is because I am Tarzan's friend that he doesnot harm me."

* * * * * * *

When Zora Drinov saw her lion-man lying lifeless on the ground,she ran quickly to him and knelt at his side. She had heard theshot, and now seeing the blood running from the wound upon hishead, she thought that someone had killed him intentionally andwhen Ivitch came running out, his rifle in his hand, she turnedupon him like a tigress.

"You have killed him," she cried. "You beast! He was worth morethan a dozen such as you."

The sound of the shot and the crashing of the body to the groundhad brought men running from all parts of the camp; so that Tarzanand the girl were soon surrounded by a curious and excited throngof blacks, among whom the remaining whites were pushing theirway.

Ivitch was stunned, not only by the sight of the giant white manlying apparently dead before him, but also by the presence of ZoraDrinov, whom all within the camp had given up as irretrievablylost. "I had no idea, Comrade Drinov," he explained, "that I wasshooting at a man. I see now what caused my mistake. I sawsomething moving in a tree and thought that it was a leopard, butinstead it was the leopard skin that he wears about his loins."

By this time Zveri had elbowed his way to the center of thegroup. "Zora!" he cried in astonishment as he saw the girl. "Wheredid you come from? What has happened? What is the meaning ofthis?"

"It means that this fool, Ivitch, has killed the man who savedmy life," cried Zora.

"I do not know," replied Zora. "He has never spoken to me. Hedoes not seem to understand any language with which I amfamiliar."

Romero knelt and examined the wound in Tarzan's head. "He isonly stunned," he said. "The bullet struck him a glancing blow.There are no indications of a fracture of the skull. I have seenmen hit thus before. He may be unconscious for a long time, or hemay not, but I am sure that he will not die."

Zora shook her head. "I have no idea," she said. "I only knowthat he is as splendid as he is mysterious."

"I know who he is," said a black, who had pushed forward towhere he could see the figure of the prostrate man, "and if he isnot already dead, you had better kill him, for he will be yourworst enemy."

"Yes, Bwana," replied the black. "I saw him once before, and onenever forgets Tarzan of the Apes."

"Yours was a lucky shot, Ivitch," said the leader, "and now youmay as well finish what you started."

"Our cause is lost and our lives with it, if he lives?" repliedZveri. "I thought that he was dead, or I should never have comehere; and now that Fate has thrown him into our hands we would befools to let him escape, for we could not have a worse enemy thanhe."

"You always were a weak minded fool," said Zveri, "but I am not.Stand aside, Zora," and as he spoke he drew his revolver andadvanced toward Tarzan.

The girl threw herself across the ape-man, shielding his bodywith hers. "You cannot kill him," she cried. "You must not."

"He saved my life and brought me back here to camp. Do you thinkI am going to let you murder him?" she demanded.

"I am afraid you can't help yourself, Zora," replied the man. "Ido not like to do it, but it is his life or the cause. If he lives,we fail."

The girl leaped to her feet and faced Zveri. "If you kill him,Peter, I shall kill you—I swear it by everything that I holdmost dear. Hold him prisoner if you will, but as you value yourlife, do not kill him."

Zveri went pale with anger. "Your words are treason," he said."Traitors to the cause have died for less than what you havesaid."

Zora Drinov realized that the situation was extremely dangerous.She had little reason to believe that Zveri would make good histhreat toward her, but she saw that if she would save Tarzan shemust act quickly. "Send the others away," she said to Zveri. "Ihave something to tell you before you kill this man."

For a moment the leader hesitated. Then he turned to Dorsky, whostood at his side. "Have the fellow securely bound and taken to oneof the tents," he commanded. "We shall give him a fair trial afterhe has regained consciousness and then place him before a firingsquad," and then to the girl, "Come with me, Zora, and I willlisten to what you have to say."

In silence the two walked to Zveri's tent. "Well?" inquiredZveri, as the girl halted before the entrance. "What have you tosay to me that you think will change my plans relative to yourlover?"

Zora looked at him for a long minute, a faint sneer of contemptcurling her lips. "You would think such a thing," she said, "butyou are wrong. However you may think, though, you shall not killhim."

"Because if you do I shall tell them all what your plans are;that you yourself are a traitor to the cause, and that you havebeen using them all to advance your own selfish ambition to makeyourself Emperor of Africa."

"You would not dare," cried Zveri; "nor would I let you; for asmuch as I love you, I shall kill you here on the spot, unless youpromise not to interfere in any way with my plans."

"You do not dare kill me," taunted the girl. "You haveantagonized every man in the camp, Peter, and they all like me.Some of them, perhaps, love me a little. Do you think that I shouldnot be avenged within five minutes after you had killed me? Youwill have to think of something else, my friend; and the best thingthat you can do is to take my advice. Keep Tarzan of the Apes aprisoner if you will, but on your life do not kill him or permitanyone else to do so."

Zveri sank into a camp chair. "Everyone is against me," he said."Even you, the woman I love, turn against me."

"Don't start that, Peter," she said. "He could not have treatedme differently if he had been my own brother; and certainly, allother considerations aside, you should know me well enough to knowthat I have no such weakness in the direction that your toneimplied."

"You have never loved me—that is the reason," he declared."But I would not trust you or any other woman with a man she lovesor with whom she was temporarily infatuated."

"That," she said, "has nothing to do with what we arediscussing. Are you going to kill Tarzan of the Apes, or are younot?"

"For your sake, I shall let him live," replied the man, "eventhough I do not trust you," he added. "I trust no one. How can I?Look at this," and he took a code message from his pocket andhanded it to her. "This came a few days ago—the damn traitor.I wish I could get my hands on him. I should like to have killedhim myself, but I suppose I shall have no such luck, as he isprobably already dead."

Zora took the paper. Below the message, in Zveri's scrawlinghand, it had been decoded in Russian script. As she read it, hereyes grew large with astonishment. "It is incredible," shecried.

"It is the truth, though," said Zveri. "I always suspected thedirty hound," and he added with an oath, "I think that damn Mexicanis just as bad."

"At least," said Zora, "his plan has been thwarted, for I takeit that his message did not get through."

"Fortunately, no; but it has made me suspicious of everyone, andI am going to push the expedition through at once before anythingfurther can occur to interfere with my plans."

"Everything is ready," he replied. "We march tomorrow morning.And now tell me what happened while I was at Opar. Why did theAarabs desert, and why did you go with them?"

"Abu Batn was angry and resentful because you left him to guardthe camp. The Aarabs felt that it was a reflection upon theircourage, and I think that they would have deserted you anyway,regardless of me. Then, the day after you left, a strange womanwandered into camp. She was a very beautiful white woman from Opar;and Abu Batn, conceiving the idea of profiting through the chancethat Fate had sent him, took us with him with the intention ofselling us into captivity on his return march to his owncountry."

"I am afraid not," replied the girl; but as he was staringmoodily at the ground, he did not see the contemptuous curl of herlip that accompanied her reply.

She described the luring of La from Abu Batn's camp and of thesheykh's anger at the treachery of Ibn Dammuk; and then she toldhim of her own escape, but she did not mention Wayne Colt'sconnection with it and led him to believe that she wandered alonein the jungle until the great ape had captured her. She dwelt atlength upon Tarzan's kindness and consideration and told of thegreat elephant who had guarded her by day.

"Sounds like a fairy story," said Zveri, "but I have heardenough about this ape-man to believe almost anything concerninghim, which is one reason why I believe we shall never be safe whilehe lives."

"He cannot harm us while he is our prisoner; and certainly, ifyou love me as you say you do, the man who saved my life deservesbetter from you than ignominious death."

"Speak no more of it," said Zveri. "I have already told you thatI would not kill him," but in his treacherous mind he wasformulating a plan whereby Tarzan might be destroyed while still headhered to the letter of his promise to Zora.

XV. — "KILL, TANTOR,KILL!"

EARLY the following morning the expedition filedout of camp, the savage black warriors arrayed in the uniforms ofFrench Colonial Troops; while Zveri, Romero, Ivitch, and Mori worethe uniforms of French officers. Zora Drinov accompanied themarching column; for though she had asked to be permitted to remainand nurse Tarzan, Zveri would not permit her to do so, saying thathe would not again let her out of his sight. Dorsky and a handfulof blacks were left behind to guard the prisoner and watch over thestore of provisions and equipment that were to be left in the basecamp.

As the column had been preparing to march, Zveri gave his finalinstructions to Dorsky. "I leave this matter entirely in yourhands," he said. "It must appear that he escaped, or, at worst,that he met an accidental death."

"You need give the matter no further thought, Comrade," repliedDorsky. "Long before you return, this stranger will have beenremoved."

A long and difficult march lay before the invaders, their routelying across southeastern Abyssinia into Italian Somaliland, alongfive hundred miles of rough and savage country. It was Zveri'sintention to make no more than a demonstration in the Italiancolony, merely sufficient to arouse the anger of the Italians stillfurther against the French and to give the fascist dictator theexcuse which Zveri believed was all that he awaited to carry hismad dream of Italian conquest across Europe.

Perhaps Zveri was a little mad, but then he was a disciple ofmad men whose greed for power wrought distorted images in theirminds, so that they could not differentiate between the rationaland the bizarre; and then, too, Zveri had for so long dreamed hisdream of empire that he saw now only his goal and none of theinsurmountable obstacles that beset his path. He saw a new Romanemperor ruling Europe, and himself as Emperor of Africa making analliance with this new European power against all the balance of theworld. He pictured two splendid golden thrones; upon one of themsat the Emperor Peter I, and upon the other the Empress Zora; andso he dreamed through the long, hard marches toward the east.

* * * * * * *

It was the morning of the day following that upon which he hadbeen shot before Tarzan regained consciousness. He felt weak andsick, and his head ached horribly. When he tried to move, hediscovered that his wrists and ankles were securely bound. He didnot know what had happened, and at first he could not imagine wherehe was; but, as recollection slowly returned and he recognizedabout him the canvas walls of a tent, he understood that in someway his enemies had captured him. He tried to wrench his wristsfree from the cords that held them, but they resisted his everyeffort.

He listened intently and sniffed the air, but he could detect noevidence of the teeming camp that he had seen when he had broughtthe girl back. He knew, however, that at least one night hadpassed; for the shadows that he could see through the tent openingindicated that the sun was high in the heavens, whereas it had beenlow in the west when last he saw it. Hearing voices, he realizedthat he was not alone, though he was confident that there must becomparatively few men in camp.

Deep in the jungle he heard an elephant trumpeting, and once,from far off, came faintly the roar of a lion. Tarzan strove againto snap the bonds that held him, but they would not yield. Then heturned his head so that he faced the opening in the tent, and fromhis lips burst a long, low cry;the cry of a beast indistress.

Dorsky, who was lolling in a chair before his own tent, leapedto his feet. The blacks, who had been talking animatedly, beforetheir own shelters, went quickly quiet and seized theirweapons.

The fellow, wide-eyed and trembling, shook his head. "I do notknow, Bwana," he said. "Perhaps the man in the tent has died, forsuch a noise may well have come from the throat of a ghost."

"Nonsense," said Dorsky. "Come, we'll have a look at him." Butthe black held back, and the white man went on alone.

The sound, which had come apparently from the tent in which thecaptive lay, had had a peculiar effect upon Dorsky, causing theflesh of his scalp to creep and a strange foreboding to fill him;so that as he neared the tent, he went more slowly and held hisrevolver ready in his hand.

When he entered the tent, he saw the man lying where he had beenleft; but now his eyes were open, and when they met those of theRussian, the latter had a sensation similar to that which one feelswhen he comes eye to eye with a wild beast that has been caught ina trap.

"Well," said Dorsky, "so you have come to, have you? What do youwant?" The captive made no reply, but his eyes never left theother's face. So steady was the unblinking gaze that Dorsky becameuneasy beneath it. "You had better learn to talk," he said gruffly,"if you know what is good for you." Then it occurred to him thatperhaps the man did not understand him so he turned in the entranceand called to some of the blacks, who had advanced, half incuriosity, half in fear, toward the tent of the prisoner. "One ofyou fellows come here," he said.

At first no one seemed inclined to obey, but presently astalwart warrior advanced. "See if this fellow can understand yourlanguage. Come in and tell him that I have a proposition to make tohim and that he had better listen to it."

"If this is indeed Tarzan of the Apes," said the black, "he canunderstand me," and he came warily to the entrance of the tent.

The black repeated the message in his own dialect, but by nosign did the ape-man indicate that he understood.

Dorsky lost his patience. "You damned ape," he said. "Youneedn't try to make a fool of me. I know perfectly well that youunderstand this fellow's gibberish, and I know, too, that you arean Englishman and that you understand English. I'll give you justfive minutes to think this thing over, and then I am coming back.If you have not made up your mind to talk by that time, you cantake the consequences." Then he turned on his heel and left thetent.

* * * * * * *

Little Nkima had travelled far. Around his neck was a stoutthong, supporting a little bag of leather, in which reposed amessage. This eventually he had brought to Muviro, war chief of theWaziri; and when the Waziri had started out upon their long march,Nkima had ridden proudly upon the shoulder of Muviro. For some timehe had remained with the black warriors; but then, at last, movedperhaps by some caprice of his erratic mind, or by a great urgethat he could not resist, he had left them and, facing alone allthe dangers that he feared most, had set out by himself uponbusiness of his own.

Many and narrow were the escapes of Nkima as he swung throughthe giants of the forest. Could he have resisted temptation, hemight have passed with reasonable safety, but that he could not do;and so he was forever getting himself into trouble by playingpranks upon strangers, who, if they possessed any sense of humorthemselves, most certainly failed to appreciate little Nkima's.Nkima could not forget that he was friend and confidant of Tarzan,Lord of the Jungle, though he seemed often to forget that Tarzanwas not there to protect him when he hurled taunts and insults atother monkeys less favored. That he came through alive speaks moreeloquently for his speed than for his intelligence or courage. Muchof the time he was fleeing in terror, emitting shrill screams ofmental anguish; yet he never seemed to learn from experience, andhaving barely eluded one pursuer intent upon murdering him he wouldbe quite prepared to insult or annoy the next creature he met,especially selecting, it would seem, those that were larger andstronger than himself.

Sometimes he fled in one direction, sometimes in another, sothat he occupied much more time than was necessary in making hisjourney. Otherwise he would have reached his master in time to beof service to him at a moment that Tarzan needed a friend as badly,perhaps, as ever he had needed one before in his life.

And now, while far away in the forest Nkima fled from an old dogbaboon, whom he had hit with a well-aimed stick, Michael Dorskyapproached the tent where Nkima's master lay bound and helpless.The five minutes were up, and Dorsky had come to demand Tarzan'sanswer. He came alone, and as he entered the tent his simple planof action was well formulated in his mind.

The expression upon the prisoner's face had changed. He seemedto be listening intently. Dorsky listened then, too, but could hearnothing; for by comparison with the hearing of Tarzan of the ApesMichael Dorsky was deaf. What Tarzan heard filled him with quietsatisfaction.

"Now," said Dorsky, "I have come to give you your last chance.Comrade Zveri has led two expeditions to Opar in search of the goldthat we know is stored there. Both expeditions failed. It is wellknown that you know the location of the treasure vaults of Opar andcan lead us to them. Agree that you will do this when Comrade Zverireturns, and not only will you not be harmed, but you will bereleased as quickly as Comrade Zveri feels that it would be safe tohave you at liberty. Refuse and you die." He drew a long, slenderstiletto from its sheath at his belt. "If you refuse to answer me,I shall accept that as evidence that you have not accepted myproposition." And as the ape-man maintained his stony silence, theRussian held the thin blade low before his eyes. "Think well, ape,"he said, "and remember that when I slip this between your ribsthere will be no sound. It will pierce your heart, and I shallleave it there until the blood has ceased to flow. Then I shallremove it and close the wound. Later in the day you will be founddead, and I shall tell the blacks that you died from the accidentalgunshot. Thus your friends will never learn the truth. You will notbe avenged, and you will have died uselessly." He paused for areply, his evil eyes glinting menacingly into the cold, grey eyesof the ape-man.

The dagger was very near Tarzan's face now; and ofa sudden, like a wild beast, he raised his body, and his jawsclosed like a steel trap upon the wrist of the Russian. With ascream of pain, Dorsky drew back. The dagger dropped from hisnerveless fingers. At the same instant Tarzan swung his legs aroundthe feet of the would-be assassin; and as Dorsky rolled over on hisback, he dragged Tarzan of the Apes on top of him.

The ape-man knew from the snapping of Dorsky's wrist bonesbetween his teeth that the man's right hand was useless, and so hereleased it. Then to the Russian's horror, the ape-man's jaws soughthis jugular as, from his throat, there rumbled the growl of asavage beast at bay.

Screaming for his men to come to his assistance, Dorsky tried toreach the revolver at his right hip with his left hand, but he soonsaw that unless he could rid himself of Tarzan's body he would beunable to do so.

Already he heard his men running toward the tent, shouting amongthemselves, and then he heard exclamations of surprise and screamsof terror. The next instant the tent vanished from above them, andDorsky saw a huge bull elephant towering above him and his savageantagonist.

Instantly Tarzan ceased his efforts to close his teeth onDorsky's throat and at the same time rolled quickly from the bodyof the Russian. As he did so, Dorsky'shand found his revolver.

The sinuous trunk of the pachyderm twined around the Russian.The little eyes of the elephant flamed red with hate, and hetrumpeted shrilly as he raised Dorsky high above his head and,wheeling about, hurled him out into the camp; while the terrifiedblacks, casting affrighted glances over their shoulders, fled intothe jungle. Then Tantor charged his victim. With his great tusks hegored him; and then, in a frenzy of rage, trumpeting and squealing,he trampled him until nothing remained of Michael Dorsky but abloody pulp.

From the moment that Tantor had seized the Russian, Tarzan hadsought ineffectually to stay the great brute's fury, but Tantor wasdeaf to commands until he had wreaked his vengeance upon thiscreature that had dared to attack his friend. But when his rage hadspent its force and nothing remained against which to vent it, hecame quietly to Tarzan's side and at a word from the ape-man liftedhis brown body gently in his powerful trunk and bore him away intothe forest.

Deep into the jungle to a hidden glade, Tantor carried hishelpless friend, and there he placed him gently on soft grassesbeneath the shade of a tree. Little more could the great bull doother than to stand guard. As a result of the excitement attendingthe killing of Dorsky and his concern for Tarzan, Tantor wasnervous and irritable. He stood with upraised ears, alert for anymenacing sound, waving his sensitive trunk to and fro, searchingeach vagrant air current for the scent of danger.

To little monkeys watching him from the trees he called, "Come,Manu, and untie the thongs that bind my wrists."

"I am Tarzan of the Apes," said the man reassuringly. "Tarzanhas been your friend always. He will not harm you."

"We are afraid," repeated the old monkey. "Tarzan deserted us.For many moons the jungle has not known Tarzan; but otherTarmangani and strange Gomangani came and with thundersticks theyhunted little Manu and killed him. If Tarzan had still been ourfriend, he would have driven these strange men away."

"If I had been here, the strange men-things would not haveharmed you," said Tarzan. "Still would Tarzan have protected you.Now I am back, but I cannot destroy the strangers or drive themaway until the thongs are taken from my wrists."

"Then they must be more powerful than Tarzan," said Manu, "sowhat good would it do to set you free? If the strange Tarmanganifound out that we had done it, they would be angry and come andkill us. Let Tarzan, who for many rains has been Lord of theJungle, free himself."

Seeing that it was futile to appeal to Manu, Tarzan, as aforlorn hope, voiced the long, plaintive, uncanny help call of thegreat apes. With slowly increasing crescendo it rose to a piercingshriek that drove far and wide through the silent jungle.

In all directions, beasts, great and small, paused as the weirdnote broke upon their sensitive eardrums. None was afraid, for thecall told them that a great bull was in trouble and, therefore,doubtless harmless; but the jackals interpreted the sound to meanthe possibility of flesh and trotted off through the jungle in thedirection from which it had come; and Dango, the hyaena, heard andslunk on soft pads, hoping that he would find a helpless animalthat would prove easy prey. And far away, and faintly, a littlemonkey heard the call, recognizing the voice of the caller.Swiftly, then, he flew through the jungle, impelled as he was uponrare occasions by a directness of thought and a tenacity of purposethat brooked no interruption.

Tarzan had sent Tantor to the river to fetch water in his trunk.From a distance he caught the scent of the jackals and the horridscent of Dango, and he hoped that Tantor would return before theycame creeping upon him. He felt no fear, only an instinctive urgetoward self-preservation. The jackals he held in contempt, knowingthat, though bound hand and foot, he still could keep the timidcreatures away; but Dango was different, for once the filthy bruterealized his helplessness, Tarzan knew that those powerful jawswould make quick work of him. He knew the merciless savagery of thebeast; knew that in all the jungle there was none more terriblethan Dango.

The jackals came first, standing at the edge of the little gladewatching him. Then they circled slowly, coming nearer; but when heraised himself to a sitting position they ran yelping away. Threetimes they crept closer, trying to force their courage to the pointof actual attack; and then a horrid, slinking form appeared uponthe edge of the glade, and the jackals withdrew to a safe distance.Dango, the hyaena, had come.

Tarzan was still sitting up, and the beast stood eyeing him,filled with curiosity and with fear. He growled, and the man-thingfacing him growled back; and then from above them came a greatchattering, and Tarzan, looking up, saw little Nkima dancing uponthe limb of a tree above him.

"If you come now," said Tarzan, "it will be safe; but if youwait too long, Dango will kill Tarzan; and then to whom may littleNkima go for protection?"

"Nkima comes," shouted the little monkey, and dropping quicklythrough the trees, he leaped to Tarzan's shoulder.

The hyaena bared his fangs and laughed his horrid laugh. Tarzanspoke. "Quick, the thongs, Nkima," urged Tarzan; and the littlemonkey, his fingers trembling with terror, went to work upon theleather thongs at Tarzan's wrists.

Dango, his ugly head lowered, made a sudden rush; and from thedeep lungs of the ape-man came a thunderous roar that might havedone credit to Numa himself. With a yelp of terror the cowardlyDango turned and fled to the extremity of the glade, where he stoodbristling and growling.

"Hurry, Nkima," said Tarzan. "Dango will come again. Maybe once,maybe twice, maybe many times before he closes on me; but in theend he will realize that I am helpless, and then he will not stopor turn back."

"Little Nkima's fingers are sick," said the Manu. "They are weakand they tremble. They will not untie the knot."

"Nkima has sharp teeth," Tarzan reminded him. "Why waste yourtime with sick fingers over knots that they cannot untie? Let yoursharp teeth do the work."

Instantly Nkima commenced to gnaw upon the strands. Silentperforce because his mouth was otherwise occupied, Nkima strovediligently and without interruption.

Dango, in the meantime, made two short rushes, each time cominga little closer, but each time turning back before the menace ofthe ape-man's roars and savage growls, which by now had aroused thejungle.

Above them, in the tree tops, the monkeys chattered, scolded andscreamed, and in the distance the voice of Numa rolled like farthunder, while from the river came the squealing and trumpeting ofTantor.

Little Nkima was gnawing frantically at the bonds, when Dangocharged again, evidently convinced by this time that the greatTarmangani was helpless, for now, with a growl, he rushed in andclosed upon the man.

With a sudden surge of the great muscles of his arms that sentlittle Nkima sprawling, Tarzan sought to tear his hands free thathe might defend himself against the savage death that menaced himin those slavering jaws; and the thongs, almost parted by Nkima'ssharp teeth, gave to the terrific strain of the ape-man'sefforts.

As Dango leaped for the bronzed throat, Tarzan's hand shotforward and seized the beast by the neck, but the impact of theheavy body carried him backward to the ground. Dango twisted,struggled and clawed in a vain effort to free himself from thedeath grip of the ape-man, but those steel fingers closedrelentlessly upon his throat, until, gasping for breath, the greatbrute sank helplessly upon the body of its intended victim.

Until death was assured, Tarzan did not relinquish his grasp;but when at last there could be no doubt, he hurled the carcassfrom him and, sitting up, fell quickly to the thongs that securedhis ankles.

During the brief battle, Nkima had taken refuge among thetopmost branches of a lofty tree, where he leaped about, screamingfrantically at the battling beasts beneath him. Not until he wasquite sure that Dango was dead did he descend. Warily he approachedthe body, lest, perchance, he had been mistaken; but againconvinced by closer scrutiny, he leaped upon it and struck itviciously, again and again, and then he stood upon it shrieking hisdefiance at the world with all the assurance and bravado of one whohas overcome a dangerous enemy.

Tantor, startled by the help cry of his friend, had turned backfrom the river without taking water. Trees bent beneath his madrush as, ignoring winding trails, he struck straight through thejungle toward the little glade in answer to the call of theape-man; and now, infuriated by the sounds of battle, he camecharging into view, a titanic engine of rage and vengeance.

Tantor's eyesight is none too good, and it seemed that in hismad charge he must trample the ape-man, who lay directly in hispath; but when Tarzan spoke to him the great beast came to a suddenstop at his side and, pivoting, wheeled about in his tracks, hisears forward, his trunk raised, trumpeting a savage warning as hesearched for the creature that had been menacing his friend.

"Quiet, Tantor; it was Dango. He is dead," said the ape-man. Asthe eyes of the elephant finally located the carcass of the hyaenahe charged and trampled it, as he had trampled Dorsky, to a bloodypulp; as Nkima fled, shrieking, to the trees.

His ankles freed of their bonds, Tarzan was upon his feet; and,when Tantor had vented his rage upon the body of Dango, he calledthe elephant to him. Tantor came then quietly to his side and stoodwith his trunk touching the ape-man's body, his rage quieted and hisnerves soothed by the reassuring calm of the ape-man.

And now Nkima came, making an agile leap from a swayingbough tothe back of Tantor and then to the shoulder of Tarzan, where, withhis little arms about the ape-man's neck, he pressed his cheekclose against the bronzed cheek of the great Tarmangani, who washis master and his god.

Thus the three friends stood in the silent communion that onlybeasts know, as the shadows lengthened and the sun set behind theforest.

XVI. — "TURN BACK!"

THE privations that Wayne Colt had endured hadweakened him far more than he had realized, so that before hisreturning strength could bring renewed powers of resistance, he wasstricken with fever.

The high priestess of the Flaming God, versed in the lore ofancient Opar, was conversant with the medicinal properties of manyroots and herbs and, as well, with the mystic powers of incantationthat drove demons from the bodies of the sick. By day she gatheredand brewed, and at night she sat at the feet of her patient,intoning weird prayers, the origin of which reached back throughcountless ages to vanished temples, above which now rolled thewaters of a mighty sea; and while she wrought with every artificeat her command to drive out the demon of sickness that possessedthis man of an alien world, Jad-bal-ja, the golden lion, hunted forall three, and though at times he made his kill at a distance henever failed to carry the carcass of his prey back to the hiddenlair where the woman nursed the man.

Days of burning fever, days of delirium, shot with periods ofrationality, dragged their slow length. Often Colt's mind wasconfused by a jumble of bizarre impressions, in which La might beZora Drinov one moment, a ministering angel from heaven the next,and then a Red Cross nurse; but in whatever guise he found her itseemed always a pleasant one, and when she was absent, as she wassometimes forced to be, he was depressed and unhappy.

When, upon her knees at his feet, she prayed to the rising sun,or to the sun at zenith, or to the setting sun, as was her wont, orwhen she chanted strange, weird songs in an unknown tongue,accompanying them with the mysterious gestures that were a part ofthe ritual, he was sure that the fever was worse and that he hadbecome delirious again.

And so the days dragged on, and while Colt lay helpless, Zverimarched toward Italian Somaliland; and Tarzan, recovered from theshock of his wound, followed the plain trail of the expedition, andfrom his shoulder little Nkima scolded and chattered through theday.

Behind him Tarzan had left a handful of terrified blacks in thecamp of the conspirators. They had been lolling in the shade,following their breakfast, a week after the killing of Dorsky andthe escape of his captive. Fear of the ape-man at liberty, that hadso terrified them at first, no longer concerned them greatly.Psychologically akin to the brutes of the forest, they happily soonforgot their terrors; nor did they harass their minds byanticipating those which might assail them in the future, as it isthe silly custom of civilized man to do.

And so it was this morning that a sight which burst suddenly upontheir astonished eyes found them entirely unprepared. Theyheard no noise, so silently go the beasts of the jungle, howeverlarge or heavy they may be; yet suddenly, in the clearing at theedge of the camp, appeared a great elephant, and upon his head satthe recent captive, whom they had been told was Tarzan of the Apes,and upon the man's shoulder perched a little monkey. Withexclamations of terror, the blacks leaped to their feet and dashedinto the jungle upon the opposite side of the camp.

Tarzan leaped lightly to the ground and entered Dorsky's tent.He had returned for a definite purpose; and his effort was crownedwith success, for in the tent of the Russian he found his rope andhis knife, which had been taken away from him at the time of hiscapture. For bow and arrows and a spear he had only to look to theshelters of the blacks; and, having found what he wanted, hedeparted as silently as he had come.

Now the time had arrived when Tarzan must set out rapidly uponthe trail of his enemy, leaving Tantor to the peaceful paths thathe loved best.

"I go, Tantor," he said. "Search out the forest where the youngtrees have the tenderest bark and watch well against themen-things, for they alone in all the world are the enemies of allliving creatures." He was off through the forest then, with littleNkima clinging tightly to his bronzed neck.

Plain lay the winding trail of Zveri's army before the eyes ofthe ape-man, but he had no need to follow any trail. Long weeksbefore, as he had kept vigil above their camp, he had heard theprincipals discussing their plans; and so he knew their objectives,and he knew, too, how rapidly they could march and, therefore,about where he might hope to overtake them. Unhampered by files ofporters sweating under heavy loads, earthbound to no windingtrails, Tarzan was able to travel many times faster than theexpedition. He saw their trail only when his own chanced to crossit as he laid a straight course for a point far in advance of thesweating column.

When he overtook the expedition night had fallen, and the tiredmen were in camp. They had eaten and were happy and many of the menwere singing. To one who did not know the truth it might haveappeared to be a military camp of French Colonial Troops; for therewas a military precision about the arrangement of the fires, thetemporary shelters, and the officer's tents that would not havebeen undertaken by a hunting or scientific expedition, and, inaddition, there were the uniformed sentries pacing their beats. Allthis was the work of Miguel Romero, to whose superior knowledge ofmilitary matters Zveri had been forced to defer in all matters ofthis nature, though with no diminution of the hatred which eachfelt for the other.

From his tree Tarzan watched the scene below, attempting toestimate as closely as possible the number of armed men that formedthe fighting force of the expedition, while Nkima, bent upon somemysterious mission, swung nimbly through the trees toward the east.The ape-man realized that Zveri had recruited a force that mightconstitute a definite menace to the peace of Africa, since amongits numbers were represented many large and warlike tribes, whomight easily be persuaded to follow this mad leader were success tocrown his initial engagement. It was, however, to prevent this verything that Tarzan of the Apes had interested himself in theactivities of Peter Zveri; and here, before him, was anotheropportunity to undermine the Russian's dream of empire while it wasstill only a dream and might be dissipated by trivial means; by thegrim and terrible jungle methods of which Tarzan of the Apes was apast-master.

Tarzan fitted an arrow to his bow. Slowly his right hand drewback the feathered end of the shaft until the point rested almostupon his left thumb. His manner was marked by easy, effortlessgrace. He did not appear to be taking conscious aim; and yet whenhe released the shaft, it buried itself in the fleshy part of asentry's leg precisely as Tarzan of the Apes had intended that itshould.

With a yell of surprise and pain the black collapsed upon theground, more frightened, however, than hurt; and as his fellowsgathered around him, Tarzan of the Apes melted away into theshadows of the jungle night.

Attracted by the cry of the wounded man, Zveri, Romero, and theother leaders of the expedition hastened from their tents andjoined the throng of excited blacks that surrounded the victim ofTarzan's campaign of terrorism.

"Who shot you?" demanded Zveri when he saw the arrow protrudingfrom the sentry's leg.

"Even if he had," said Romero, "he couldn't have shot him withan arrow because no bows or arrows were brought with theexpedition."

With difficulty and to the accompaniment of the screams of theirvictim, Ivitch and Romero cut the arrow from the sentry's leg,while Zveri and Kitembo discussed various conjectures as to theexact portent of the affair.

Kitembo shrugged non-committally. "Let me see the arrow," hesaid to Romero. "Perhaps that will tell us something."

As the Mexican handed the missile to the black chief, the lattercarried it close to a camp fire and examined it closely, while thewhite men gathered about him waiting for his findings.

At last Kitembo straightened up. The expression upon his facewas serious, and when he spoke his voice trembled slightly. "Thisis bad," he said, shaking his bullet head.

"This arrow bears the mark of a warrior who was left behind inour base camp," replied the chief.

"With an arrow out of the air the Hindu was slain," suggested ablack headman, standing near Kitembo.

"Shut up, you fool," snapped Romero, "or you'll have the wholecamp in a blue funk."

"That's right," said Zveri. "We must hush this thing up." Heturned to the headman. "You and Kitembo," he commanded, "must notrepeat this to your men. Let us keep it to ourselves."

Both Kitemboand the headman agreed to guard the secret, but within half an hourevery man in camp knew that the sentry had been shot with an arrowthat had been left behind in the base camp, and immediately theirminds were prepared for other things that lay ahead of them uponthe long trail.

The effect of the incident upon the minds of the black soldierswas apparent during the following day's march. They were quieterand more thoughtful, and there was much low voiced conversationamong them; but if they had given signs of nervousness during theday, it was nothing as compared with their state of mind afterdarkness fell upon their camp that night. The sentries evidencedtheir terror plainly by their listening attitudes and nervousattention to the sounds that came out of the blackness surroundingthe camp. Most of them were brave men who would have faced avisible enemy with courage, but to a man they were convinced thatthey were confronted by the supernatural, against which they knewthat neither rifle nor bravery might avail. They felt that ghostlyeyes were watching them, and the result was as demoralizing aswould an actual attack have been; in fact, far more so.

Yet they need not have concerned themselves so greatly, as thecause of all their superstitious apprehension was moving rapidlythrough the jungle, miles away from them, and every instant thedistance between him and them was increasing.

Another force, that might have caused them even greater anxietyhad they been aware of it, lay still further away upon the trailthat they must traverse to reach their destination.

Around tiny cooking fires squatted a hundred black warriors,whose white plumes nodded and trembled as they moved. Sentriesguarded them; sentries who were unafraid, since these men hadlittle fear of ghosts or demons. They wore their amulets in leatherpouches that swung from cords about their necks and they prayed tostrange gods, but deep in their hearts lay a growing contempt forboth. They had learned from experience and from the advice of awise leader to look for victory more to themselves and theirweapons than to their god.

They were a cheerful, happy company, veterans of many anexpedition and, like all veterans, took advantage of everyopportunity for rest and relaxation, the value of both of which isenhanced by the maintenance of a cheerful frame of mind; and sothere was much laughing and joking among them, and often both thecause and butt of this was a little monkey, now teasing, nowcaressing, and in return being himself teased or caressed. Thatthere was a bond of deep affection between him and theseclean-limbed black giants was constantly apparent. When they pulledhis tail they never pulled it very hard, and when he turned uponthem in apparent fury, his sharp teeth closing upon their fingersor arms, it was noticeable that he never drew blood. Their play wasrough, for they were all rough and primitive creatures; but it wasall playing, and it was based upon a foundation of mutualaffection.

These men had just finished their evening meal, when a figure,materializing as though out of thin air, dropped silently intotheir midst from the branches of a tree which overhung theircamp.

Instantly a hundred warriors sprang to arms, and then, asquickly, they relaxed, as with shouts of "Bwana! Bwana!" they rantoward the bronzed giant standing silently in their midst.

As to an emperor or a god they went upon their knees before him,and those that were nearest him touched his hands and his feet inreverence; for to the Waziri Tarzan of the Apes, who was theirking, was yet something more and of their own volition theyworshipped him as their living god.

But if the warriors were glad to see him, little Nkima wasfrantic with joy. He scrambled quickly over the bodies of thekneeling blacks and leaped to Tarzan's shoulder, where he clungabout his neck, jabbering excitedly.

"You have done well, my children," said the ape-man, "and littleNkima has done well. He bore my message to you, and I find youready where I had planned that you should be."

"We have kept always a day's march ahead of the strangers,Bwana," replied Muviro, "camping well off the trail that they mightnot discover our fresh camp sites and become suspicious."

"They do not suspect your presence," said Tarzan. "I listenedabove their camp last night, and they said nothing that wouldindicate that they dreamed that another party was preceding themalong the trail."

"Where the dirt of the trail was soft a warrior, who marched atthe rear of the column, brushed away the freshness of our spoorwith a leafy bough," explained Muviro.

"Tomorrow we shall wait here for them," said the ape-man, "andtonight you shall listen to Tarzan while he explains the plans thatyou will follow."

As Zveri's column took up the march upon the following morning,after a night of rest that had passed without incident, the spiritsof all had risen to an appreciable degree. The blacks had notforgotten the grim warning that had sped out of the nightsurrounding their previous camp, but they were of a race whosespirits soon rebound from depression.

The leaders of the expedition were encouraged by the knowledgethat over a third of the distance to their goal had been covered.For various reasons they were anxious to complete this part of theplan. Zveri believed that upon its successful conclusion hinged hiswhole dream of empire. Ivitch, a natural born trouble maker, washappy in the thought that the success of the expedition would causeuntold annoyance to millions of people and perhaps, also, by thedream of his return to Russia as a hero; perhaps a wealthyhero.

Romero and Mori wanted to have it over for entirely differentreasons. They were thoroughly disgusted with the Russian. They hadlost all confidence in the sincerity of Zveri, who, filled as hewas with his own importance and his delusions of future grandeur,talked too much, with the result that he had convinced Romero thathe and all his kind were frauds, bent upon accomplishing theirselfish ends with the assistance of their silly dupes and at theexpense of the peace and prosperity of the world. It had not beendifficult for Romero to convince Mori of the truth of hisdeductions, and now, thoroughly disillusioned, the two mencontinued on with the expedition because they believed that theycould not successfully accomplish their intended desertion untilthe party was once more settled in the base camp.

The march had continued uninterruptedly for about an hour aftercamp had been broken, when one of Kitembo's black scouts, leadingthe column, halted suddenly in his tracks.

The chief stepped to the warrior's side; and there, before himin the trail, sticking upright in the earth, was an arrow.

Gingerly, Kitembo plucked the arrow from the earth and examinedit. He would have been glad to have kept the knowledge of hisdiscovery to himself, although not a little shaken by what he hadseen; but the warrior at his side had seen, too. "It is the same,"he said. "It is another of the arrows that were left behind in thebase camp."

When Zveri came abreast of them, Kitembo handed him the arrow."It is the same," he said to the Russian, "and it is a warning forus to turn back."

"Pooh!" exclaimed Zveri contemptuously. "It is only an arrowsticking in the dirt and cannot stop a column of armed men. I didnot think that you were a coward, too, Kitembo."

The black scowled. "Nor do men with safety call me a coward," hesnapped; "but neither am I a fool, and better than you do I knowthe danger signals of the forest. We shall go on because we arebrave men, but many will never come back. Also, your plans willfail."

At this Zveri flew into one of his frequent rages; and thoughthe men continued the march, they were in a sullen mood, and manywere the ugly glances that were cast at Zveri and hislieutenants.

Shortly after noon the expedition halted for the noonday rest.They had been passing through a dense woods, gloomy and depressing;and there was neither song nor laughter, nor a great deal ofconversation as the men squatted together in little knots whilethey devoured the cold food that constituted their midday meal.

Suddenly, from somewhere far above, a voice floated down tothem. Weird and uncanny, it spoke to them in a Bantu dialect thatmost of them could understand. "Turn back, children of Mulungu," itcried. "Turn back before you die. Desert the white men before it istoo late."

That was all. The men crouched fearfully, looking up into thetrees. It was Zveri who broke the silence. "What the hell wasthat?" he demanded. "What did it say?"

For the moment Kitembo had forgotten the dazzling prize thatZveri had held before his eyes for months—to bethe king ofKenya. That was worth risking much for.

"You may have to use force," said Zveri, "but stop at nothing.We must go on, no matter what happens," and then he turned to hisother lieutenants. "Romero, you and Mori go to the rear of thecolumn and shoot every man who refuses to advance."

The men had not as yet refused to go on, and when the order tomarch was given, they sullenly took their places in the column. Foran hour they marched thus; and then, far ahead, came the weird crythat many of them had heard before at Opar, and a few minutes latera voice out of the distance called to them. "Desert the white men,"it said.

The blacks whispered among themselves, and it was evident thattrouble was brewing; but Kitembo managed to persuade them tocontinue the march, a thing that Zveri never could haveaccomplished.

"I wish we could get that trouble-maker," said Zveri to ZoraDrinov, as the two walked together near the head of the column. "Ifhe would only show himself once, so that we could get a shot athim; that's all I want."

"It is someone familiar with the workings of the native mind,"said the girl. "Probably a medicine man of some tribe through whoseterritory we are marching."

"I hope that it is nothing more than that," replied Zveri. "Ihave no doubt that the man is a native, but I am afraid that he isacting on instructions from either the British or the Italians, whohope thus to disorganize and delay us until they can mobilize aforce with which to attack us."

"It has certainly shaken the morale of the men," said Zora, "forI believe that they attribute all of the weird happenings, from themysterious death of Jafar to the present time, to the same agency,to which their superstitious minds naturally attribute asupernatural origin."

"So much the worse for them then," said Zveri, "for they aregoing on whether they wish to or not; and when they find thatattempted desertion means death, they will wake up to the fact thatit is not safe to trifle with Peter Zveri."

"They are many, Peter," the girl reminded him, "and we are few;in addition they are, thanks to you, well armed. It seems to methat you may have created a Frankenstein that will destroy us allin the end."

"You are as bad as the blacks," growled Zveri, "making amountain out of a mole hill. Why if I——"

Behind the rear of the column and again apparently from the airabove them sounded the warning voice. "Desert the whites." Silencefell again upon the marching column, but the men moved on, exhortedby Kitembo and threatened by the revolvers of their whiteofficers.

Presently the forest broke at the edge of a small plain, acrosswhich the trail led through buffalo grass that grew high above theheads of the marching men. They were well into this when, ahead ofthem, a rifle spoke, and then another and another, seemingly in along line across their front.

Zveri ordered one of the blacks to rush Zora to the rear of thecolumn into a position of safety, while he followed close behindher, ostensibly searching for Romero and shouting words ofencouragement to the men.

As yet no one had been hit; but the column had stopped, and themen were rapidly losing all semblance of formation.

"Quick, Romero," shouted Zveri, "take command up in front. Iwill cover the rear with Mori and prevent desertions."

The Mexican sprang past him and with the aid of Ivitch and someof the black chiefs he deployed one company in a long skirmishline, with which he advanced slowly; while Kitembo followed withhalf the rest of the expedition acting as a support, leavingIvitch, Mori, and Zveri to organize a reserve from theremainder.

After the first widely scattered shots, the firing had ceased,to be followed by a silence even more ominous to the overwroughtnerves of the black soldiers. The utter silence of the enemy, thelack of any sign of movement in the grasses ahead of them, coupledwith the mysterious warnings which still rang in their ears,convinced the blacks that they faced no mortal foe.

"Turn back!" came mournfully from the grasses ahead. "This isthe last warning. Death will follow disobedience."

The line wavered, and to steady it Romero gave the command tofire. In response came a rattle of musketry out of the grassesahead of them, and this time a dozen men went down, killed orwounded.

"Charge!" cried Romero, but instead the men wheeled about andbroke for the rear and safety.

At sight of the advance line bearing down upon them, throwingaway their rifles as they ran, the support turned and fled,carrying the reserve with it, and the whites were carried along inthe mad rout.

In disgust, Romero fell back alone. He saw no enemy, for nonepursued him, and this fact induced within him an uneasiness thatthe singing bullets had been unable to arouse. As he plodded onalone far in the rear of his companions, he began to share to someextent the feeling of unreasoning terror that had seized his blackcompanions, or at least, if not to share it, to sympathize withthem. It is one thing to face a foe that you can see, and quiteanother to be beset by an invisible enemy, of whose veryappearance, even, one is ignorant.

Shortly after Romero re-enteredthe forest, he saw someonewalking along the trail ahead of him; and presently, when he had anunobstructed view, he saw that it was Zora Drinov.

"I was born under a lucky star," he replied smiling. "Men wereshot down on either side of me and behind me. Where is Zveri?"

"Forgive me, Señorita," he said. "I know that. I merely chose anunfortunate way of trying to say that if the girl I loved were hereshe would not have been left alone in the forest, especially when Ibelieve, as Zveri must believe, that we are being pursued by anenemy."

"Even to you, Señorita," he replied, "I must admit, since youask me, that I do not."

"Why should I be excepted?" she asked. "How do you know that hehas not antagonized me also?"

"Not deeply, I am sure," he said, "or else you would not haveconsented to become his wife."

XVII. — A GULF THAT WASBRIDGED

THE general rout of Zveri's forces ended only whentheir last camp had been reached and even then only for part of thecommand, for as night fell it was discovered that fully twenty-fivepercent of the men were missing, and among the absentees were Zoraand Romero. As the stragglers came in, Zveri questioned each aboutthe girl, but no one had seen her. He tried to organize anexpedition to go back in search of her, but no one would accompanyhim. He threatened and pleaded, only to discover that he had lostall control of his men. Perhaps he would have gone back alone, ashe insisted that he intended doing; but he was relieved of thisnecessity when, well after dark, the two walked into camptogether.

At sight of them Zveri was both relieved and angry. "Why didn'tyou remain with me?" he snapped at Zora.

From the darkness of the trees above the camp came the nowfamiliar warning. "Desert the whites!" A long silence followedthis, broken only by the nervous whisperings of the blacks, andthen the voice spoke again. "The trails to your own countries arefree from danger, but death walks always with the white men. Throwaway your uniforms and leave the white men to the jungle and tome."

A black warrior leaped to his feet and stripped the Frenchuniform from his body, throwing it upon a cooking fire that burnednear him. Instantly others followed his example.

Instantly there was a rush toward the whites, who were gatherednear Zveri, and then from above them came a warning cry. "Thewhites are mine!" it cried. "Leave them to me."

For an instant the advancing warriors halted; and then he, whohad constituted himself their leader, maddened perhaps by hishatred and his blood lust, advanced again grasping his riflemenacingly.

From above a bow string twanged. The black, dropping his rifle,screamed as he tore at an arrow protruding from his chest; and, ashe fell forward upon his face, the other blacks fell back, and thewhites were left alone, while the negroes huddled by themselves ina far corner of the camp. Many of them would have deserted thatnight, but they feared the darkness of the jungle and the menace ofthe thing hovering above them.

Zveri strode angrily to and fro, cursing his luck, cursing theblacks, cursing every one. "If I had had any help, if I had had anycooperation," he grumbled, "this would not have happened, but Icannot do everything alone."

"I mean that you have made such an overbearing ass of yourselfthat you have antagonized everyone in the expedition, but even sothey might have carried on if they had had any confidence in yourcourage—no man likes to follow a coward."

"You call me that, you yellow greaser," shouted Zveri, reachingfor his revolver.

"Cut that," snapped Romero. "I have you covered. And let me tellyou now that if it weren't for Señorita Drinov I would kill you onthe spot and rid the world of at least one crazy mad dog that isthreatening the entire world with the hydrophobia of hate andsuspicion. Señorita Drinov saved my life once. I have not forgottenthat; and because, perhaps, she loves you, you are safe, unless Iam forced to kill you in self-defense."

"This is utter insanity," cried Zora. "There are five of us herealone with a band of unruly blacks who fear and hate us. Tomorrow,doubtless, we shall be deserted by them. If we hope ever to get outof Africa alive, we must stick together. Forget your quarrels, bothof you, and let us work together in harmony hereafter for ourmutual salvation."

Zveri dropped his hand from his gun and turned sulkily away; andfor the rest of the night peace, if not happiness, held sway in thedisorganized camp of the conspirators.

When morning came the whites saw that the blacks had alldiscarded their French uniforms, and from the concealing foliage ofa nearby tree other eyes had noted this same fact—gray eyesthat were touched by the shadow of a grim smile. There were noblack boys now to serve the whites, as even their personal servantshad deserted them to foregather with the men of their own blood,and so the five prepared their own breakfast, after Zveri's attemptto command the services of some of their boys had met with surlyrefusal.

While they were eating, Kitembo approached them, accompanied bythe headmen of the different tribes that were represented in thepersonnel of the expedition. "We are leaving with our people forour own countries," said the Basembo chief. "We leave food for yourjourney to your own camp. Many of our warriors wish to kill you,and that we cannot prevent if you attempt to accompany us, for theyfear the vengeance of the ghosts that have followed you for manymoons. Remain here until tomorrow. After that you are free to gowhere you will."

"But," expostulated Zveri, "you can't leave us like this withoutporters or askaris."

"No longer can you tell us what we can do, white man," saidKitembo, "for you are few and we are many, and your power over usis broken. In everything you have failed. We do not follow such aleader."

"Who will punish us?" demanded the black. "The English? TheFrench? The Italians? You do not dare go to them. They would punishyou, not us. Perhaps you will go to Ras Tafari. He would have yourheart cut out and your body thrown to the dogs, if he knew what youwere planning."

"But you can't leave this white woman alone here in the junglewithout servants, or porters, or adequate protection," insistedZveri, realizing that his first argument had made no impressionupon the black chief, who now held their fate in his hands.

"I do not intend to leave the white woman," said Kitembo. "Sheis going with me," and then it was that, for the first time, thewhites realized that the headmen had surrounded them and that theywere covered by many rifles.

As he had talked, Kitembo had come closer to Zveri, at whoseside stood Zora Drinov, and now the black chief reached out quicklyand grasped her by the wrist. "Come!" he said, and as he utteredthe word something hummed above their heads, and Kitembo, chief ofthe Basembos, clutched at an arrow in his chest.

"Do not look up," cried a voice from above. "Keep your eyes uponthe ground, for whosoever looks up dies. Listen well to what I haveto say, black men. Go your way to your own countries, leavingbehind you all of the white people. Do not harm them. They belongto me. I have spoken."

Wide-eyed and trembling, the black headmen fell back from thewhites, leaving Kitembo writhing upon the ground. They hastened tocross the camp to their fellows, all of whom were now thoroughlyterrified; and before the chief of the Basembos ceased his deathstruggle, the black tribesmen had seized the loads which they hadpreviously divided amongst them and were pushing and elbowing forprecedence along the game trail that led out of camp toward thewest.

Watching them depart, the whites sat in stupefied silence, whichwas not broken until after the last black had gone and they werealone.

"What do you suppose that thing meant by saying we belong tohim?" asked Ivitch in a slightly thickened voice.

"It has done about all the harm it can do now," said Zveri. "Itought to leave us alone for awhile."

"It is not such a malign spirit," said Zora. "It can't be, forit certainly saved me from Kitembo."

"Nonsense!" said Romero. "The purpose of that mysterious voicefrom the air is just as obvious as is the fact that it is the voiceof a man. It is the voice of someone who wanted to defeat thepurposes of this expedition, and I imagine Zveri guessed close tothe truth yesterday when he attributed it to English or Italiansources that were endeavoring to delay us until they could mobilizea sufficient force against us."

"Which proves," declared Zveri, "what I have suspected for along time; that there is more than one traitor among us," and helooked meaningly at Romero.

"What it means," said Romero, "is that crazy, hare-brainedtheories always fail when they are put to the test. You thoughtthat all the blacks in Africa would rush to your standard and driveall the foreigners into the ocean. In theory, perhaps, you wereright, but in practice one man, with a knowledge of nativepsychology which you did not have, burst your entire dream like abubble, and for every other hare-brained theory in the world thereis always a stumbling block of fact."

"And what are you going to do about it?" demanded the Mexican."I am fed up with all of you and your whole rotten, selfish plan.There isn't an honest hair in your head nor in Zveri's. I canaccord Tony and Señorita Drinov the benefit of a doubt, for Icannot conceive either of them as knaves. As I was deluded, so maythey have been deluded, as you and your kind have striven for yearsto delude countless millions of others."

"You are not the first traitor to the cause," cried Zveri, "norwill you be the first traitor to pay the penalty of histreason."

"That is not a good way to talk now," said Mori. "We are notalready too many. If we fight and kill one another, perhaps none ofus will come out of Africa alive. But if you kill Miguel, you willhave to kill me, too, and perhaps you will not be successful.Perhaps it is you who will be killed."

"Tony is right," said the girl. "Let us call a truce until wereach civilization." And so it was that under something of thenature of an armed truce, the five set forth the following morningon the back trail toward their base camp; while upon another trail,a full day ahead of them, Tarzan and his Waziri warriors took ashort cut for Opar.

"La may not be there," Tarzan explained to Muviro, "but I intendto punish Oah and Dooth for their treachery and thus make itpossible for the high priestess to return in safety, if she stilllives."

"They shall not escape us," said Tarzan. "They are weak andinexperienced to the jungle. They move slowly. We may alwaysovertake them when we will. It is La who concerns me most, for sheis a friend, while they are only enemies."

Many miles away, the object of his friendly solicitudeapproached a clearing in the jungle, a man-made clearing that wasevidently intended for a camp site for a large body of men, thoughnow only a few rude shelters were occupied by a handful ofblacks.

At the woman's side walked Wayne Colt, his strength now fullyregained, and at their heels paced Jad-bal-ja, the golden lion.

"It is well," said La, "and now I must leave you." There was anote of regret in her voice.

"I hate to say good-bye," said the man, "but I know where yourheart is and that all your kindness to me has only delayed yourreturn to Opar. It is futile for me to attempt to express mygratitude, but I think that you know what is in my heart."

"Yes," said the woman, "and it is enough for me to know that Ihave made a friend, I who have so few loyal friends."

"I wish that you would let me go with you to Opar," he said."You are going back to face enemies, and you may need whateverlittle help I should be able to give you."

She shook her head. "No, that cannot be," she replied. "All thesuspicion and hatred of me that was engendered in the hearts ofsome of my people was caused by my friendship for a man of anotherworld. Were you to return with me and assist me in regaining mythrone, it would but arouse their suspicions still further. IfJad-bal-ja and I cannot succeed alone, three of us could accomplishno more."

"Won't you at least be my guest for the rest of the day?" heasked. "I can't offer you much hospitality," he added with a ruefulsmile.

"No, my friend," she said. "I cannot take the chance of losingJad-bal-ja; nor could you take the chance of losing your blacks,and I fear that they would not remain together in the same camp.Good-bye, Wayne Colt. But do not say that I go alone, at whose sidewalks Jad-bal-ja."

From the base camp La knew the trail back to Opar; and as Coltwatched her depart, he felt a lump rise in his throat, for thebeautiful girl and the great lion seemed personifications ofloveliness, and strength, and loneliness.

With a sigh he turned into camp and crossed to where the blackslay sleeping through the midday heat. He awoke them, and at sightof him they were all very much excited, for they had been membersof his own safari from the Coast and recognized him immediately.Having long given him up for lost, they were at first inclined tobe a little bit frightened until they had convinced themselves thathe was, indeed, flesh and blood.

Since the killing of Dorsky they had had no master, and theyconfessed to him that they had been seriously considering desertingthe camp and returning to their own countries; for they had beenunable to rid their minds of the weird and terrifying occurrencesthat the expedition had witnessed in this strange country, in whichthey felt very much alone and helpless without the guidance andprotection of a white master.

* * * * * * *

Across the plain of Opar, toward theruined city, walked a girl and a lion; and behind them, at thesummit of the escarpment which she had just scaled, a man halted,looking out across the plain, and saw them in the distance.

Behind him a hundred warriors swarmed up the rocky cliff. Asthey gathered about the tall, bronzed, gray-eyed figure that hadpreceded them, the man pointed. "La!" he said.

"And Numa!" said Muviro. "He is stalking her. It is strange,Bwana, that he does not charge."

"He will not charge," said Tarzan. "Why, I do not know; but Iknow that he will not because it is Jad-bal-ja."

"The eyes of Tarzan are like the eyes of the eagle," saidMuviro. "Muviro sees only a woman and a lion, but Tarzan sees Laand Jad-bal-ja."

"I, too, have a nose," said Muviro, "but it is only a piece offlesh that sticks out from my face. It is good for nothing."

Tarzan smiled. "As a little child you did not have to dependupon your nose for your life and your food," he said, "as I havealways done, then and since. Come, my children, La and Jad-bal-jawill be glad to see us."

It was the keen ears of Jad-bal-ja that caught the first faintwarning noises from the rear. He halted and turned, his great headraised majestically, his ears forward, the skin of his nosewrinkling to stimulate his sense of smell. Then he voiced a lowgrowl, and La stopped and turned back to discover the cause of hisdispleasure.

As her eyes noted the approaching column, her heart sank. EvenJad-bal-ja could not protect her against so many. She thought thento attempt to outdistance them to the city; but when she glancedagain at the ruined walls at the far side of the valley she knewthat that plan was quite hopeless, as she would not have thestrength to maintain a fast pace for so great a distance, whileamong those black warriors there must be many trained runners whocould easily outdistance her. And so, resigned to her fate, shestood and waited; while Jad-bal-ja, with flattened head andtwitching tail, advanced slowly to meet the oncoming men; and as headvanced, his savage growls rose to the tumult of tremendous roarsthat shook the earth as he sought to frighten away this menace tohis loved mistress.

But the men came on; and then, of a sudden, La saw that one whocame in advance of the others was lighter in color, and her heartleaped in her breast; and then she recognized him, and tears cameto the eyes of the savage high priestess of Opar.

"It is Tarzan! Jad-bal-ja, it is Tarzan!" she cried, the lightof her great love illuminating her beautiful features.

Perhaps at the same instant the lion recognized his master, forthe roaring ceased, the eyes no longer glared, no longer was thegreat head flattened as he trotted forward to meet the ape-man.Like a great dog, he reared up before Tarzan. With a scream ofterror little Nkima leaped from the ape-man's shoulder andscampered, screaming, back to Muviro, since bred in the fiber ofNkima was the knowledge that Numa was always Numa. With his greatpaws on Tarzan's shoulder Jad-bal-ja licked the bronzed cheek, andthen Tarzan pushed him aside and walked rapidly toward La; whileNkima, his terror gone, jumped frantically up and down on Muviro'sshoulder calling the lion many jungle names for having frightenedhim.

"Yes, La," he replied. "I travelled far before I made a kill,but at last I found meat and brought it to you, and you were goneand the rain had obliterated your spoor and though I searched fordays I could not find you."

"Had I thought that you intended to return," she said, "I shouldhave remained there forever."

"Jad-bal-ja and I are on our way to Opar now," she said. "I waslost for a long time. Only recently did I find the trail to Opar,and then, too, there was the white man who was lost and sick withfever. I remained with him until the fever left him and hisstrength came back, because I thought that he might be a friend ofTarzan's."

He touched her shoulder in a half caress. "La, the immutable!"he murmured, and then, with a sudden toss of his head as though hewould clear his mind of sad thoughts, he turned once more towardOpar. "Come," he said, "the Queen is returning to her throne."

The unseen eyes of Opar watched the advancing column. Theyrecognized La, and Tarzan, and the Waziri, and some there were whoguessed the identity of Jad-bal-ja; and Oah was frightened, andDooth trembled, and little Nao, who hated Oah, was almost happy, ashappy as one may be who carries a broken heart in one's bosom.

Oah had ruled with a tyrant hand, and Dooth had been a weakfool, whom no one longer trusted; and there were whisperings nowamong the ruins, whisperings that would have frightened Oah andDooth had they heard them, and the whisperings spread among thepriestesses and the warrior priests, with the result that whenTarzan and Jad-bal-ja led the Waziri into the courtyard of theouter temple there was no one there to resist them; but insteadvoices called down to them from the dark arches of surroundingcorridors pleading for mercy and voicing earnest assurance of theirfuture loyalty to La.

As they made their way into the city, they heard far in theinterior of the temple a sudden burst of noise. High voices werepunctuated by loud screams, and then came silence; and when theycame to the throne room the cause of it was apparent to them, forlying in a welter of blood were the bodies of Oah and Dooth, withthose of a half dozen priests and priestesses who had remainedloyal to them; and, but for these, the great throne room wasempty.

Once again did La, the high priestess of the Flaming God, resumeher throne as Queen of Opar.

That night Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, ate again from the goldenplatters of Opar, while young girls, soon to become priestesses ofthe Flaming God, served meats and fruits, and wines so old that noliving man knew their vintage, nor in what forgotten vineyard grewthe grapes that went into their making.

But in such things Tarzan found little interest, and he was gladwhen the new day found him at the head of his Waziri crossing theplain of Opar toward the barrier cliffs. Upon his bronzed shouldersat Nkima, and at the ape-man's side paced the golden lion, whilein column behind him marched his hundred Waziri warriors.

* * * * * * *

It was a tired and disheartened company of whites thatapproached their base camp after a long, monotonous and uneventfuljourney. Zveri and Ivitch were in the lead, followed by ZoraDrinov, while a considerable distance to the rear Romero and Moriwalked side by side, and such had been the order in which they hadmarched all these long days.

Wayne Colt was sitting in the shade of one of the shelters, andthe blacks were lolling in front of another, a short distance away,as Zveri and Ivitch came into sight.

Colt rose and came forward, and it was then that Zveri spiedhim. "You damned traitor!" he cried. "I'll get you if it's the lastthing I do on earth," and as he spoke he drew his revolver andfired point blank at the unarmed American.

His first shot grazed Colt's side without breaking the skin, butZveri fired no second shot, for almost simultaneously with thereport of his own shot another rang out behind him, and PeterZveri, dropping his pistol and clutching at his back, staggereddrunkenly upon his feet.

"What I have been waiting to do for twelve years," replied thegirl. "What I have been waiting to do ever since I was little morethan a child."

Wayne Colt had run forward and seized Zveri's gun from theground where it had fallen, and Romero and Mori now came up at arun.

Zveri had sunk to the ground and was glaring savagely about him."Who shot me?" he screamed. "I know. It was that damnedgreaser."

Suddenly she turned to Wayne Colt as though only he mattered."You might as well know the truth," she said. "I am not a Red andnever have been. This man killed my father, and my mother, and anolder brother and sister. My father was—well, never mind whohe was. He is avenged now." She turned fiercely upon Zveri. "Icould have killed you a dozen times in the last few years," shesaid, "but I waited because I wanted more than your life. I wantedto help kill the hideous schemes with which you and your kind areseeking to wreck the happiness of the world."

Peter Zveri sat on the ground, staring at her, his wide eyesslowly glazing. Suddenly he coughed and a torrent of blood gushedfrom his mouth. Then he sank back dead.

Romero had moved close to Ivitch. Suddenly he poked the muzzleof a revolver into the Russian's ribs. "Drop your gun," he said."I'm taking no chances on you either."

Ivitch, paling, did as he was bid. He saw his little worldtottering, and he was afraid.

Across the clearing a figure stood at the edge of the jungle. Ithad not been there an instant before. It had appeared silently asthough out of thin air. Zora Drinov was the first to perceive it.She voiced a cry of surprised recognition; and as the others turnedto follow the direction of her eyes, they saw a bronzed white man,naked but for a loin cloth of leopard skin, coming toward them. Hemoved with the easy, majestic grace of a lion and there was muchabout him that suggested the king of beasts.

"I do not know who he is," replied Zora, "other than that he isthe man who saved my life when I was lost in the jungle."

"I am Tarzan of the Apes," replied the other. "I have seen andheard all that has occurred here. The plan that was fostered bythis man," he nodded at the body of Zveri, "has failed and he isdead. This girl has avowed herself. She is not one of you. Mypeople are camped a short distance away. I shall take her to themand see that she reaches civilization in safety. For the rest ofyou I have no sympathy. You may get out of the jungle as best youmay. I have spoken."

"Romero and Mori have learned their lesson. They avowedthemselves openly during a quarrel when our blacks desertedus."

"I have heard much that has gone on in many of your camps,"replied the ape-man, "but I do not know that I may believe all thatI hear."

"I think you may believe what you heard them say," Zora assuredhim. "I am confident that they are sincere."

"Very well," said Tarzan. "If they wish they may come with mealso, but these other two will have to shift for themselves."

"Because he is a special agent in the employ of the UnitedStates Government," replied the girl.

The entire party, including Colt, looked at her in astonishment."How did you learn that?" demanded Colt.

"The message that you sent when you first came to camp and wewere here alone was intercepted by one of Zveri's agents. Now doyou understand how I know?"

"And how about this other?" demanded Tarzan, indicating Ivitch."Is he, also, a sheep in wolf's clothing?"

"He is one of those paradoxes who are so numerous," repliedZora. "He is one of those Reds who is all yellow."

Tarzan turned to the blacks who had come forward and werestanding, listening questioningly to a conversation they could notunderstand. "I know your country," he said to them in their owndialect. "It lies near the end of the railroad that runs to theCoast."

"You will take this white man with you as far as the railroad.See that he has enough to eat and is not harmed, and then tell himto get out of the country. Start now." Then he turned back to thewhites. "The rest of you will follow me to my camp." And with thathe turned and swung away toward the trail by which he had enteredthe camp. Behind him followed the four who owed to his humanitymore than they could ever know, nor had they known nor could haveguessed that his great tolerance, courage, resourcefulness and theprotective instinct that had often safeguarded them sprang not fromhis human progenitors, but from his lifelong association with thenatural beasts of the forest and the jungle, who have theseinstinctive qualities far more strongly developed than do theunnatural beasts of civilization, in whom the greed and lust ofcompetition have dimmed the luster of these noble qualities wherethey have not eradicated them entirely.

"And worse than that," she continued, "I thought that, whetherdead or alive, I might never tell you what was in my heart."

"And I thought that a hideous gulf separated us that I couldnever span to ask you the question that I wanted to ask you," heanswered in a low tone.

She turned toward him, her eyes filled with tears, her lipstrembling. "And I thought that, alive or dead, I could never sayyes to that question, if you did ask me," she replied.

A curve in the trail hid them from the sight of the others as hetook her in his arms and drew her lips to his.