Part 14 (1/2)
”Prove it, blasphemer! How can you prove it?”
”You have called me a blasphemer,” replied Tarzan, ”you have proved to your own satisfaction that I am an impostor, that I, an ordinary mortal, have posed as the son of God Demand then that Jad-ben-Otho uphold his Godshi+p and the dignity of his priesthood by directing his consuain there ensued a brief silence while the onlookers waited for Lu-don to thus consummate the destruction of this presumptuous impostor
”You dare not,” taunted Tarzan, ”for you know that I would be struck dead no quicker than were you”
”You lie,” cried Lu-don, ”and I would do it had I not but just received athat your fate be different”
A chorus of ad and reverential ”Ahs” arose from the priesthood Ko-tan and his warriors were in a state of mental confusion Secretly they hated and feared Lu-don, but so ingrained was their sense of reverence for the office of the high priest that none dared raise a voice against him
None? Well, there was Ja-don, fearless old Lion-man of the north ”The proposition was a fair one,” he cried ”Invoke the lightnings of Jad-ben-Otho upon this h of this,” snapped Lu-don ”Since as Ja-don created high priest? Seize the prisoner,” he cried to the priests and warriors, ”and on the morrow he shall die in the manner that Jad-ben-Otho has willed”
There was no immediate h priest's command, but the lesser priests on the other hand, ierly forward like a flock of hideous harpies to seize upon their prey
The ga and diplomacy usurp the functions of the weapons of defense he best loved And so the first hideous priest who leaped to the platform was confronted by no suave arim and ferocious beast whose temper savored more of hell
The altar stood close to the western wall of the enclosure There was just roo the performance of the sacrificial ceremonies and only Lu-don stood there now behind Tarzan, while before him were perhaps two hundred warriors and priests
The presu arresting hands upon the blasphemous impersonator rushed forith outstretched hand to seize the ape-ers that snapped hirasped hiiant arh above the altar Close at his heels were others ready to seize the ape- him down, and beyond the altar was Lu-don with drawn knife advancing toward him
There was no instant to waste, nor was it the way of the ape-man to fritter away precious moments in the uncertainty of belated decision Before Lu-don or any other could guess as in the reat h priest, and, as though the two actions were one, so quickly did he move, he had leaped to the top of the altar and from there to a handhold upon the su there he turned and looked down upon those beneath For a moment he stood in silence and then he spoke
”Who dare believe,” he cried, ”that Jad-ben-Otho would forsake his son?” and then he dropped froht upon the other side
There were two at least left within the enclosure whose hearts leaped with involuntary elation at the success of the ape-man's maneuver, and one of them smiled openly This was Ja-don, and the other, Pan-at-lee
The brains of the priest that Tarzan had thrown at the head of Lu-don had been dashed out against the teh priest himself had escaped with only a few bruises, sustained in his fall to the hard pave to his feet he looked around in fear, in terror and finally in bewilderment, for he had not been a witness to the ape-man's escape ”Seize him,” he cried; ”seize the blasphemer,” and he continued to look around in search of his victim with such a ridiculous expression of bewilderle warrior was compelled to hide his s around wildly, exhorting the warriors to pursue the fugitive but these awaited now stolidly the coh priest Ko-tan, more or less secretly pleased by the discoive the necessary directions which he presently did when one of his acolytes excitedly explained to him the manner of Tarzan's escape
Instantly the necessary orders were issued and priests and warriors sought the te words, hurled at them from the su the majority that his claims had not been disproven by Lu-don, but in the hearts of the warriors was adratification that had risen in that of their ruler at the discorounds revealed no trace of the quarry The secret recesses of the subterranean chambers, familiar only to the priesthood, were exah the palace and the palace grounds without the temple Swift runners were dispatched to the city to arouse the people there that all ht be upon the lookout for Tarzan the Terrible The story of his imposture and of his escape, and the tales that the Waz-don slaves had brought into the city concerning hiht in the spreading, so that before an hour had passed the wo behind barred doorhile the warriors crept apprehensively through the streets expecting momentarily to be pounced upon by a ferocious deryfs and whose lightest pasti er
And while the warriors and the priests of A-lur searched the temple and the palace and the city for the vanished ape-man there entered the head of Kor-ul-JA down the precipitous trail fro an Enfield upon his back Silently he e and there where the ancient trail unfoldedwith easy strides, though alith the utentle breeze came down from the mountains behind him so that only his ears and his eyes were of value in detecting the presence of danger ahead Generally the trail followed along the banks of the winding brooklet at the bottoe, but in soe the trail ain it wound in and out as, and presently where it rounded sharply the projecting shoulder of a cliff the stranger cae
Separated by a hundred paces the two halted sier saw a tall white warrior, naked but for a loin cloth, cross belts, and a girdle The man was armed with a heavy, knotted club and a short knife, the latter hanging in its sheath at his left hip from the end of one of his cross belts, the opposite belt supporting a leathern pouch at his right side It was Ta-den hunting alone in the gorge of his friend, the chief of Kor-ul-JA He conteer with surprise but no wonder, since he recognized in him a member of the race hich his experience of Tarzan the Terrible had made him familiar and also, thanks to his friendshi+p for the ape-man, he looked upon the newcomer without hostility