Part 30 (1/1)
”Once I gave Lu-don the opportunity to do these things but he ignored ain is the corridor of sacrifice filled with its victi offerings of such gifts as your people like and place them upon the altars of your God And there he will bless them and the priestesses of Jad-ben-Otho can distribute the ahad they been weary of the avarice and cruelty of the priests and now that authority had co the any change in the faith of the people they welcomed it
”And the priests,” cried one ”We shall put them to death upon their own altars if it pleases the Dor-ul-Otho to give the word”
”No,” cried Tarzan ”Let no ht to take up such occupations as they choose”
That night a great feast was spread in the pal-e-don-so and for the first time in the history of ancient Pal-ul-don black warriors sat in peace and friendshi+p hite And a pact was sealed between Ja-don and Om-at that would ever make his tribe and the Ho-don allies and friends
It was here that Tarzan learned the cause of Ta-den's failure to attack at the stipulated ti instructions to delay the attack until noon, nor had they discovered until aluised priest of Lu-don And they had put him to death and scaled the walls and come to the inner te day O-lo-a and Pan-at-lee and the women of Ja-don's fareat throneroom Ta-den and O-lo-a ed, and Om-at and Pan-at-lee
For a week Tarzan and Jane and Korak reuests of Ja-don, as did Om-at and his black warriors And then the ape-man announced that he would depart from Pal-ul-don Hazy in the minds of their hosts was the location of heaven and equally so the means by which the Gods traveled between their celestial hos arose when it was found that the Dor-ul-Otho with his mate and son would travel overland across the mountains and out of Pal-ul-don toward the north
They went by way of the Kor-ul-JA accoent of Ho-don warriors under Ta-den The king and many warriors and a multitude of people accompanied theood-bye and Tarzan had invoked the blessings of God upon them the three Europeans saw their simple, loyal friends prostrate in the dust behind them until the cavalcade had wound out of the city and disappeared a the trees of the nearby forest
They rested for a day aated the ancient caves of these strange people and then they ed shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved and winding down the opposite slope toward the great morass They moved in comfort and in safety, surrounded by their escort of Ho-don and Waz-don
In the minds of many there was doubtless a question as to how the three would cross the great morass but least of all was Tarzan worried by the problem In the course of his life he had been confronted by many obstacles only to learn that he ill may always pass In his e but it was one which depended wholly upon chance
It was thecamp to take up the rove The ape-ly then would the Dor-ul-Otho and his mate and their son depart from unmapped Pal-ul-don
He still carried the spear that Jane had hly because it was her handiwork that he had caused a search to be h the temple in A-lur after his release, and it had been found and brought to hily that it should have the place of honor above their hearth as the ancient flintlock of her Puritan grandsire had held a similar place of honor above the fireplace of Professor Porter, her father
At the sound of the bellowing the Ho-don warriors, some of whom had accompanied Tarzan froly at the ape-man while Om-at's Waz-don looked for trees, since the GRYF was the one creature of Pal-ul-don which reat nable to their knife thrusts while their thrown clubs rattled from it as futilely as if hurled at the rocky shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved
”Wait,” said the ape-man, and with his spear in hand he advanced toward the GRYF, voicing the weird cry of the Tor-o-don The bellowing ceased and turned to low rue beast appeared What folloas but a repetition of the ape-e and ferocious creatures
And so it was that Jane and Korak and Tarzan rode through the morass that hems Pal-ul-don, upon the back of a prehistoric triceratops while the lesser reptiles of the swa in terror Upon the opposite shore they turned and called back their farewells to Ta-den and Om-at and the brave warriors they had learned to aded their titanichim only when he was assured that the Waz-don and the Ho-don had had tiy ravines of the foothills
Turning the beast's head again toward Pal-ul-don the three dismounted and a sharp blow upon the thick hide sent the creature lu majestically back in the direction of its native haunts For a ti back upon the land they had just quit-the land of Tor-o-don and GRYF; of JA and JATO; of Waz-don and Ho-don; a primitive land of terror and sudden death and peace and beauty; a land that they all had learned to love
And then they turned once ht hearts and brave hearts took up their long journey toward the land that is best of all-home