In the darkness La stooped above him.In her hand was a sharp knife and in her mind the determination to initiate his torture without further delay.The knife was pressed against his side and La's face was close to his when a sudden burst of flame from new branches thrown upon the fire without, lighted up the interior of the shelter.Close beneath her lips La saw the perfect features of the forest god and into her woman's heart welled all the great love she had felt for Tarzan since first she had seen him, and all the accumulated passion of the years that she had dreamed of him.
Dagger in hand, La, the High Priestess, towered above the helpless creature that had dared to violate the sanctuary of her deity.There should be no torture--
there should be instant death.No longer should the defiler of the temple pollute the sight of the lord god almighty.A single stroke of the heavy blade and then the corpse to the flaming pyre without.The knife arm stiffened ready for the downward plunge, and then La, the woman, collapsed weakly upon the body of the man she loved.
She ran her hands in mute caress over his naked flesh;
she covered his forehead, his eyes, his lips with hot kisses; she covered him with her body as though to protect him from the hideous fate she had ordained for him, and in trembling, piteous tones she begged him for his love.For hours the frenzy of her passion possessed the burning hand-maiden of the Flaming God, until at last sleep overpowered her and she lapsed into unconsciousness beside the man she had sworn to torture and to slay.And Tarzan, untroubled by thoughts of the future, slept peacefully in La's embrace.
At the first hint of dawn the chanting of the priests of Opar brought Tarzan to wakefulness.Initiated in low and subdued tones, the sound soon rose in volume to the open diapason of barbaric blood lust.La stirred.
Her perfect arm pressed Tarzan closer to her--a smile parted her lips and then she awoke, and slowly the smile faded and her eyes went wide in horror as the significance of the death chant impinged upon her understanding.
"Love me, Tarzan!" she cried."Love me, and you shall be saved."
Tarzan's bonds hurt him.He was suffering the tortures of long-restricted circulation.With an angry growl he rolled over with his back toward La.That was her answer! The High Priestess leaped to her feet.A hot flush of shame mantled her cheek and then she went dead white and stepped to the shelter's entrance.
"Come, Priests of the Flaming God!" she cried, "and make ready the sacrifice."
The warped things advanced and entered the shelter.
They laid hands upon Tarzan and bore him forth, and as they chanted they kept time with their crooked bodies, swaying to and fro to the rhythm of their song of blood and death.Behind them came La, swaying too; but not in unison with the chanted cadence.White and drawn was the face of the High Priestess--white and drawn with unrequited love and hideous terror of the moments to come.Yet stern in her resolve was La.The infidel should die! The scorner of her love should pay the price upon the fiery altar.She saw them lay the perfect body there upon the rough branches.She saw the High Priest, he to whom custom would unite her--
bent, crooked, gnarled, stunted, hideous--advance with the flaming torch and stand awaiting her command to apply it to the faggots surrounding the sacrificial pyre.His hairy, bestial face was distorted in a yellow-fanged grin of anticipatory enjoyment.His hands were cupped to receive the life blood of the victim--the red nectar that at Opar would have filled the golden sacrificial goblets.
La approached with upraised knife, her face turned toward the rising sun and upon her lips a prayer to the burning deity of her people.The High Priest looked questioningly toward her--the brand was burning close to his hand and the faggots lay temptingly near.
Tarzan closed his eyes and awaited the end.He knew that he would suffer, for he recalled the faint memories of past burns.He knew that he would suffer and die; but he did not flinch.Death is no great adventure to the jungle bred who walk hand-in-hand with the grim specter by day and lie down at his side by night through all the years of their lives.It is doubtful that the ape-man even speculated upon what came after death.As a matter of fact as his end approached, his mind was occupied by thoughts of the pretty pebbles he had lost, yet his every faculty still was open to what passed around him.
He felt La lean over him and he opened his eyes.
He saw her white, drawn face and he saw tears blinding her eyes."Tarzan, my Tarzan!" she moaned, "tell me that you love me--that you will return to Opar with me--and you shall live.Even in the face of the anger of my people I will save you.This last chance I give you.
What is your answer?"
At the last moment the woman in La had triumphed over the High Priestess of a cruel cult.She saw upon the altar the only creature that ever had aroused the fires of love within her virgin breast; she saw the beast-faced fanatic who would one day be her mate, unless she found another less repulsive, standing with the burning torch ready to ignite the pyre; yet with all her mad passion for the ape-man she would give the word to apply the flame if Tarzan's final answer was unsatisfactory.With heaving bosom she leaned close above him."Yes or no?" she whispered.
Through the jungle, out of the distance, came faintly a sound that brought a sudden light of hope to Tarzan's eyes.He raised his voice in a weird scream that sent La back from him a step or two.The impatient priest grumbled and switched the torch from one hand to the other at the same time holding it closer to the tinder at the base of the pyre.
"Your answer!" insisted La."What is your answer to the love of La of Opar?"