Through the Forest PrimevalFor a brief, sickening moment Tarzan felt the slipping of the rope to which he clung, and heard the scraping of the block of stone against the masonry above.
Then of a sudden the rope was still--the stone had caught at the very edge.Gingerly the ape-man clambered up the frail rope.
In a moment his head was above the edge of the shaft.
The court was empty.The inhabitants of Opar were viewing the sacrifice.Tarzan could hear the voice of La from the nearby sacrificial court.The dance had ceased.It must be almost time for the knife to fall; but even as he thought these things he was running rapidly toward the sound of the high priestess' voice.
Fate guided him to the very doorway of the great roofless chamber.
Between him and the altar was the long row of priests and priestesses, awaiting with their golden cups the spilling of the warm blood of their victim.La's hand was descending slowly toward the bosom of the frail, quiet figure that lay stretched upon the hard stone.Tarzan gave a gasp that was almost a sob as he recognized the features of the girl he loved.
And then the scar upon his forehead turned to a flaming band of scarlet, a red mist floated before his eyes, and, with the awful roar of the bull ape gone mad, he sprang like a huge lion into the midst of the votaries.
Seizing a cudgel from the nearest priest, he laid about him like a veritable demon as he forged his rapid way toward the altar.
The hand of La had paused at the first noise of interruption.
When she saw who the author of it was she went white.
She had never been able to fathom the secret of the strange white man's escape from the dungeon in which she had locked him.She had not intended that he should ever leave Opar, for she had looked upon his giant frame and handsome face with the eyes of a woman and not those of a priestess.
In her clever mind she had concocted a story of wonderful revelation from the lips of the flaming god himself, in which she had been ordered to receive this white stranger as a messenger from him to his people on earth.
That would satisfy the people of Opar, she knew.The man would be satisfied, she felt quite sure, to remain and be her husband rather than to return to the sacrificial altar.
But when she had gone to explain her plan to him he had disappeared, though the door had been tightly locked as she had left it.And now he had returned--materialized from thin air--and was killing her priests as though they had been sheep.For the moment she forgot her victim, and before she could gather her wits together again the huge white man was standing before her, the woman who had lain upon the altar in his arms.
"One side, La," he cried."You saved me once, and so Iwould not harm you; but do not interfere or attempt to follow, or I shall have to kill you also."As he spoke he stepped past her toward the entrance to the subterranean vaults.
"Who is she?" asked the high priestess, pointing at the unconscious woman.
"She is mine," said Tarzan of the Apes.
For a moment the girl of Opar stood wide-eyed and staring.
Then a look of hopeless misery suffused her eyes--tears welled into them, and with a little cry she sank to the cold floor, just as a swarm of frightful men dashed past her to leap upon the ape-man.
But Tarzan of the Apes was not there when they reached out to seize him.With a light bound he had disappeared into the passage leading to the pits below, and when his pursuers came more cautiously after they found the chamber empty, they but laughed and jabbered to one another, for they knew that there was no exit from the pits other than the one through which he had entered.If he came out at all he must come this way, and they would wait and watch for him above.
And so Tarzan of the Apes, carrying the unconscious Jane Porter, came through the pits of Opar beneath the temple of The Flaming God without pursuit.But when the men of Opar had talked further about the matter, they recalled to mind that this very man had escaped once before into the pits, and, though they had watched the entrance he had not come forth; and yet today he had come upon them from the outside.They would again send fifty men out into the valley to find and capture this desecrater of their temple.
After Tarzan reached the shaft beyond the broken wall, he felt so positive of the successful issue of his flight that he stopped to replace the tumbled stones, for he was not anxious that any of the inmates should discover this forgotten passage, and through it come upon the treasure chamber.
It was in his mind to return again to Opar and bear away a still greater fortune than he had already buried in the amphitheater of the apes.
On through the passageways he trotted, past the first door and through the treasure vault; past the second door and into the long, straight tunnel that led to the lofty hidden exit beyond the city.Jane Porter was still unconscious.
At the crest of the great bowlder he halted to cast a backward glance toward the city.Coming across the plain he saw a band of the hideous men of Opar.For a moment he hesitated.Should he descend and make a race for the distant cliffs, or should he hide here until night? And then a glance at the girl's white face determined him.He could not keep her here and permit her enemies to get between them and liberty.
For aught he knew they might have been followed through the tunnels, and to have foes before and behind would result in almost certain capture, since he could not fight his way through the enemy burdened as he was with the unconscious girl.
To descend the steep face of the bowlder with Jane Porter was no easy task, but by binding her across his shoulders with the grass rope he succeeded in reaching the ground in safety before the Oparians arrived at the great rock.
As the descent had been made upon the side away from the city, the searching party saw nothing of it, nor did they dream that their prey was so close before them.