Show X X X X X al ira TARZAN AL A L E IF qc AV AN by BURROUGHS EDGAR RICE RIC AND THE author of tarzan of the apes JEWELS OF OPAR son of tarzan W hit 1912 ky ity A C mcharg ca C CHAPTER IX continued aj for several hours tarzan lolled upon his swaying leafy couch coach until once again hunger and thirst suggested an excursion stretching citing lazily he dropped to the ground nud and moved slowly toward the river tarzan had almost reached the po point lot where the trail debouched debauched debou ched upon the open river bottom when he be saw a family of lions approaching along the path from the direction of the river the ape man counted seven a male and two lionesses full grown and four young lions as large and quite as formidable as their parents tarzan halted growling and the lions paused the great male in the lead baring his fanges and rumbling forth a warning roar in ills his hand the ape man held his heavy spear but ho he had no intention of pitting his puny weapon against seven lions yet he stood there growling and roaring and the lions did likewise wise it was purely an exhibition of 0 jungle bluff each was trying to frighten off the other neither wished to turn back and give way nor lid did either at first desire to precipitate an encounter the lions were fed up sufficiently so as not to be goaded by pangs of hunger and as for tarzan he seldom ate the meat of the carniv ores but a point of ethics was vas at stake and neither side wished to back dovi down n so they stood there facing one nn another other making nil all sorts of hideous noises the while they hurled jungle invective back and forth there came an interruption which put an end to the deadlock and it came from Tar rear ue he and the lions had been making so much noise that neither could hear anything above their concerted bedlam and so it was that tarzan did not hear bear the great bulk bearing donn down n from behind until an instant before it was upon him and then he turned to see buto the rhinoceros his bis little pig eyes blazing charging mildly madly toward him and already so close that escape seemed impossible yet so go perfectly were mind and aad muscles coordinated co in this unspoiled primitive man that almost simultaneously with the sense tion of the threatened danger he wheeled and hurled his spear at butos chest it was a heavy spear shod with iron and behind it were the giant muscles of the ape man while coming to t meet it was nas the enormous weight of buto and the momentum of his rapid rush AU all that happened in the instant that tarzan turned to meet the charge of the irascible rhinoceros might take long to tell find and yet would liae taxed the swiftest lens to record As his spear left his hand the ape man was looking down upon the mighty horn lowered 0 toss him im go 30 close was buto to him the spear entered the rhinoceros neck at its junction with the left shoulder and passed almost entirely through the beasts body and at the instant that he be launched it tarzan leaped straight into the lie air alighting upon butos back but escaping the mighty horn then buto boto espied the lions and bore madly down upon them thein while tarzan of the apes leaped nimbly into the tangled creepers at one sloe side of the troll trail the first lion met butos charge and was tossed high over the back of the maddened brute torn and dying find then the six als remaining lions w ere upon the rhinoceros rending and tearing the while they were being gored or trampled from the safety of his perch tarzan watched the battle royal with the lie keenest interest for a time it seemed that buto the rhinoceros would prove victor in the gory fory battle already had lie he accounted for tour four of the seven lions and badly wounded the three remaining when in a temporary lull in the encounter coun lr ile he sank limply to his knees ond and rolled over upon his side tar jans ians spear had pierced pierce the great lungs aud and buto with victory almost to in sight succumbed to internal tornal lu hemorrhage then dawnn barzar caal down from his sanctuary durt ns as the wo wounded lions liona growling drag draggoo geel themselves away the ape pe man mall cut ills his spear from the body of buto backed ot off a steak aud and vanished into the jungle the episode was over it had been fill all in the days vork something which you and I 1 might talk about for a lifetime tarzan dismissed from his mind the moment that the scene passed from his sight swinging back through the jungle in a wide circle the ape man came to the river at another point drank an and d took to the trees again and while he hunted all oblivious of his past and careless of his future there came through the dark jungles and the open places and across the wide meadows where grazed the countless of the mysterious continent a weird and terrible caravan in search of him there were fifty frightful men with hairy bodies and gnarled and crooked legs they were armed with knives and great bludgeons and at their head bead marched an almost naked woman beautiful beyond compare it was la of opar high priestess of the flaming god and fifty of her horrid priests searching for the purloiner of the sacred sacrificial knife never before had bad la passed beyond the crumbling outer walls walla of opar but never before had need been jojn so insistent si the sacred knife was gone handed down through countless ages age 9 it had come to her as it a heritage and an insignia or of tier her religious office and regal authority from some long dead progenitor of lost and forgotten atan ts when that continent with all it ilg A mighty cities and its cultivated fields and great commerce and culture and riches sank into the sea ous ages ff tarzan leaped straight into ano tn nir il since it took with it all but a handful of colonists working the vast gold mines of central africa broin these and their degraded slaves and a later intermixture of the blood of the an sprung the gnarled men of opar but by some queer freak of fate aided by natural selection the old strain had remained pure and in the females descended from a single prince princess of the royal house of atlantis Atlant ls who had been in opar at the time of the great catastrophe tr such stich vas lo ln burning with white hot anger was the high priestess tier her heart a seething molten mass of hatred for tarzan of the apes the zeal of the religious fanatic whose altar has been desecrated was triply enhanced by the rage of a woman ionian scorned twice had she thrown her heart at the feet of the godlike ape man inan and twice had she been repulsed before came that first time to opar la it had lid never seen a human male other oilier than the grotesque and knotted men of tier her clan with one of these she must male sooner or later that flint the direct line of high priestesses might not be broken unless fate should bring other men to opar among the legends of opar were nere tales of godlike men of the olden time and of black men who had come more recently but these latter had been enemies who killed and robbed aud and too these legends always held forth the hope that some day that nameless continent from which their race had sprung would rise once more out of the sea and with slaves at the long sweeps would send her carven gold packed galleys forth to succor the long exiled colonists th coming of 0 tarin had aroused within las breast the wild hope that at last the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy was at hand but more strongly still had it aroused the hot fires of 0 love in a heart that never otherwise would have known the meaning of that IIII all consuming passion for such a wondrous creature as la could never have felt love for any of the repulsive priests of opar custom duty and religious zeal might have commanded the union but there could have been no love on las part she had grown to young womanhood a cold and heartless creature daughter of a thousand other cold heartless ss beautiful women who had never known love and so when lovo love came to her it liberated all the pent passions of a thousand generations erat crati ions t transforming raus formIng la into a pulsing throbbing volcano of desire and with desire thwarted this great force of love and gentleness and sacrifice was transmuted by its own fires into one of hatred and revenge it was in a state of mind deuced by thise th ise se conditions that la led forth her jabbering company to retrieve the sacred emblem of tier her high office and wreak vengeance upon the author of her wrongs lie ile should be tortured ills his should be a slow and f frightful lightf III death dealt ills punishment should be adequate to the immensity of his crime ile he had bad wrested the sacred knife from la he had lain sacrilegious hands bonds upon the high priestess of tile flaming god he had desecrated the altar and the temple for these things he should die but lie he had scorned the love of la the woman and for this lie should die horribly with great anguish the march or oc la and her priests was not without its adventures unused were these to the ways of the jungle since seldom did any venture forth from behind epars crumbling walls yet their very numbers protected them and so they came without fatalities tali ties far along the trail of tarzan and three great apes accompanied them and to these was wag delegated the bus business ineis of tracking the quarry rv a feat beyond the senses of the Opar lans la commanded she was a hard taskmaster too for she looked down with loathing and contempt upon the misshapen creatures amongst which cruet cruel fate had thrown her and to some extent vented upon them her dissatisfaction and her thwarted love she made them build her a strong protection and shelter each night and keep a great fire burning before it from dusk to dawn when she tired of wall walling walking ing they were forced to carry her upon an improvised litter nor did one dare to question her authority or her right to such services for many days they marched the apes following the trail easily and going a little distance ahead of the body of the caravan that they might warn the others of impending danger it was nas during a noonday halt while all were nere lying resting titter after a tiresome march that one athe of alie apes rose suddenly and sniffed the breeze in a low guttural he cautioned the others to silence and a moment later was swin swinging 9 quietly up wind into the jungle la and the priests gathered silently together the hideous little men fingering their knives and bludgeons and awaited the return of the shaggy anthropoid oid nor had they loir to wait before they saw him blin emerge from a leafy thicket and approach them straight to la he came and to in the language of the great apes which was also the language of decadent opar lie addressed her the great Tar mangani lies iles asleep there he said pointing in the direction from which he had just come C come and we can kill hina him do not kill him commanded la in cold tones bring the great tar man gaill to me alive and unhurt the vengeance is las go but make no sound ou n d and she waved tier her hands to include all tier her followers cautiously the weird party crept through the jungle in ili the wake of the great ape until at last he halted them with a raised hand and pointed upward a little ahead there they saw the allf form of the ape man stretched along a low bough boug gh and even in fit kep one hand grasped a stout limb and one strong brown leg reached out and overlapped another at easo lay tarzan of the apes sleeping heavily upon a full stomach and dreaming of guinn the lion arid horta the boor boar and other creatures of the jungle no intimation of danger anger assailed the dormant faculties of the ape ruan 11 lie saw no crouching halry figures upon the ground beneath him nor the three apes that swung quietly into the tree beside beltle jilin him the first intimation of danger that canie en me to tarzan was the impact of three bodies 18 a the three apes lea leaped ped upon jilin him and hurled him t to 0 the ground where lie he alighted halt half stunned beneath their combined weight wel glit and wits was immediately set upon by the futy hairy men me u or as many of them hla his peio pei on in III as could swarm upon scantly the ape man became the center striking biting mael amne of a whirling strom of horror he ought fought nobly ba bul the odds against him were too great slowly they overcome overcame him though hough there was scarce one of thein dl di i rot feel the weight of his mighty fiat or the rending of 0 his bis fangs CHAPTER X condemned to torture and death la had followed her company and when site she saw them clawing and biting at tarzan she raised tier her voke and cautioned them not to kill him hi site she saw that he was vins weakening and that ali n soon the greater numbers would pro pre vall vail over him nor had she long to wait before the mighty jungle creature lay helpless and bound at her f feet bring him to the place at which we stopped she commanded and they carried tarzan back to the little clearing and threw him down beneath a tree build me a shelter shel terl ordered la we shall stop here tonight and to morrow in the face of the flaming god la will offer oder up tip the heart of this defiler of the temple where Is the sacred knife e who took it from him cut but no one had seen it aud and each was pa positive in ills his assurance that the sacrificial rifi cial I 1 weapon had not been upon Tar person when they captured jilin him the arie ape ninn man looked upon the menacing c creatures rea tures which surrounded him and swirled snarled his defiance lie he looked upon la and smiled in the face of death he be was unafraid where Is the knife la asked him 1 I do not know replied tarzan the man took it away with him when lie he slipped away durin during g the night of what good was your knife anyway you can make another did you follow us all this way for nothing more than a knife let me boand go and find him and I 1 will bring brine it back to you la laughead a bitter laugh for in her heart sho she knew that Tar sin was greater tha than n the purloining of the sacred sacrificial knife of opar yet as she looked at jilin him lying bound and helpless before her tears rose to her eyes so that she had to turn away to tilde hide th them em but she remained inflexible e in her determination to make him pay in frightful suffering ald in eventual death for daring to spurn the love of la when the shelter was completed la had tarzan transferred to it all night I 1 shall torture him she muttered to tier her priests and at the first streak of lawn dawn you may prepare the naming flaming attar upon which his rt shall be offered up to the flaming god during the balance of the day the priests of opar nvere busy erecting all an altar in the center of the clearing and while they worked they chanted weird hymns in the ancient tongue of that lost continent that lies at the bottom of the atlantic in the shelter of the hut la paced to and fro beside the stole stoic ape man resigned to his fate was tarzan N no 0 hope of succor gleamed through the dead black of the death sentence hanging over him he knew that ht hla 8 giant muscles could not part the many man y strands that bound hla his wrists and ankles for fer he had strained often but ineffectually for release he had no hope of outside help and only enemies surrounded him within the camp and yet he smiled at LB la as she paced nervously back and forth the length of the shelter and la she fingered her knife and looked down upon her captive she glared and muttered but she did not dot strike tonight she thought tonight when it Is dark I 1 will torture him she looked upon his perfect godlike figure and upon its his handsome smiling face and then she steeled tier her heart again by thoughts of her love spurned by religious thoughts that damned the infidel who had desecrated the holy of holies who |