Part 23 (1/2)
But still the remnant of a doubt stirred within the cowardly breast of Mo-sar, urging hier
”He is yours then,” he replied, ”to do with as you will I have no quarrel with him What you h priest, and further than that I shall have nothing to do in the uided the destinies of the teh indeed will he stand in the counsels of Lu-don and in the eyes of Jad-ben-Otho who finds the means to capture this impostor alive”
”There is the lion pit,” whispered the high priest ”It is now vacant and ill hold JA and JATO will hold this stranger if he is not the Dor-ul-Otho”
”It will hold him,” said Mo-sar; ”doubtless too it would hold a GRYF, but first you would have to get the GRYF into it”
The priests pondered this bit of wisdohtfully and then one of those from A-lur spoke ”It should not be difficult,” he said, ”if we use the wits that Jad-ben-Otho gave us instead of the worldly muscles which were handed down to us from our fathers and our mothers and which have not even the power possessed by those of the beasts that run about on four feet”
”Lu-don ested Mo-sar ”But this is your own affair Carry it out as you see best”
”At A-lur, Ko-tan made h the temple It would arouse in his h priest of Tu-lur invite hireat show of belief in his kinshi+p to Jad-ben-Otho And what h priest should wish to show hih the temple as did Lu-don at A-lur when Ko-tan coh the lion pit it would be a siuish theer are of what had happened, the stone gates could be dropped, thus safely securing hiht,” interposed the high priest, ”and even though the torches were extinguished he could still see and ht escape before the stone door could be lowered”
”Send one ill cover the s tightly with hides,” said the priest fro an opportunity for entirely eli himself from any suspicion of complicity, ”for it will require the presence of no warriors, and thus with only priests about him his mind will entertain no suspicion of harer froht word that the Dor-ul-Otho was becoht to hiet them Mo-sar shook his head He could not conceive of such brazen courage in lad he was that the plan evolved for Tarzan's undoing did not necessitate his active participation
And so, while Mo-sar left for a secret corner of the palace by a roundabout way, three priests were dispatched to Tarzan and hining words that did not entirely deceive hied hih priest to honor the teht to him and would answer any questions that he put to them
Confident that a continuation of his bravado would best serve his purpose, and also that if suspicion against him should crystallize into conviction on the part of Mo-sar and his followers that he would be no worse off in the tehtily accepted the invitation of the high priest
And so he ca his high claims He questioned the two priests of A-lur from whom he obtained only a repetition of the story that Mo-sar had told hih priest invited him to inspect the temple
They took him first to the altar court, of which there was only one in Tu-lur It was almost identical in every respect with those at A-lur There was a bloody altar at the east end and the drowning basin at the west, and the grizzly fringes upon the headdresses of the priests attested the fact that the eastern altar was an active force in the rites of the teh the chambers and corridors beneath they led hiht their steps, into a dae chamber, the air of which was still heavy with the odor of lions, the crafty priests of Tu-lur encon
The torches were suddenly extinguished There was a hurried confusion of bare feetrapidly across the stone floor There was a loud crash as of a heavy weight of stone falling upon stone, and then surrounding the ape-ht but the darkness and the silence of the tole
Jane had made her first kill and she was very proud of it It was not a very formidable animal-only a hare; but it marked an epoch in her existence Just as in the dim past the first hunter had shaped the destinies of ht shape hers in soer was she dependent upon the wild fruits and vegetables for sustenance Now she th and endurance she would require successfully to cope with the necessities of her priht learn to eat raw flesh as had her lord and ht even was repulsive She had, however, a plan for fire She had given the ht, but had been too busy to put it into execution so long as fire could be of no i to cook and her rill it above glowing e the treasures she had gathered in the bed of the strealass, clear as crystal She sought until she had found the one in athered a little pile of powdered bark that was very dry, and so in the hot sun Near at hand she arranged a supply of dead twigs and branches-se
Vibrant with suppressed excite it slowly until she had focused the sun's rays upon a tiny spot She waited breathlessly Hoas! Were her high hopes to be dashed in spite of all her clever planning? No! A thin thread of sracefully into the quiet air Presently the tinder glowed and broke suddenly into flaling exclaht She had achieved fire!
She piled on twigs and then larger branches and at last dragged a s to the fla merrily It was the sweetest sound that she had heard for many a month But she could not wait for the mass of embers that would be required to cook her hare As quickly asthe hide and entrails That she had learned from Tarzan It served two purposes One was the necessity for keeping a sanitary camp and the other the obliteration of the scent that most quickly attracts the h the carcass and held it above the fla and at the sahly all the way through When it was done she scah into the safety of her tree to enjoy her ht Lady Greystoke, had aught more delicious passed her lips She patted her spear affectionately It had brought her this toothsoreater confidence and safety than she had enjoyed since that frightful day that she and Obergatz had spent their last cartridge She would never forget that day-it had seehtful beast They had not been long in this strange country, yet they thought that they were hardened to dangers, for daily they had had encounters with ferocious creatures; but this day-she shuddered when she thought of it And with her last cartridge she had killed a black and yellow striped lion-thing with great saber teeth just as it was about to spring upon Obergatz who had futilely ee For another day they had carried the now useless rifles; but at last they had discarded them and throay the cued to survive during the ensuing week she could never quite understand, and then the Ho-don had coatz had escaped-she was living it all over again Doubtless he was dead unless he had been able to reach this side of the valley which was quite evidently less overrun with savage beasts
Jane's days were very full ones now, and the daylight hours sees she had determined upon, since she had concluded that this spot presented as ideal a place as she could find to live until she could fashi+on the weapons she considered necessary for the obtaining of meat and for self-defense