Part 28 (1/2)

So one glorious tropicalWaziri, chief of the Waziri, set out at the head of fifty clean-limbed ebon warriors in quest of adventure and of riches They followed the course which old Waziri had described to Tarzan For days they marched--up one river, across a low divide; down another river; up a third, until at the end of the twenty-fifth day they camped upon a mountainside, from the summit of which they hoped to catch their first view of thethey were clis which forreatest, natural barrier between them and their destination It was nearly noon before Tarzan, who headed the thin line of cli warriors, scrambled over the top of the last cliff and stood upon the little flat table-land of the hty peaks thousands of feet higher than the pass through which they were entering the forbidden valley Behind him stretched the wooded valley across which they had e which marked the boundary of their own country

But before him was the view that centered his attention Here lay a desolate valley--a shallow, narrow valley dotted with stunted trees and covered with reat bowlders And on the far side of the valley lay what appeared to be a reat walls, its lofty spires, its turrets, ht Tarzan was yet too far away to note the nificent beauty, and in ie te of happy, active people

For an hour the little expedition rested upon the mountain-top, and then Tarzan led them down into the valley below There was no trail, but the as less arduous than the ascent of the opposite face of the ress was rapid, so that it was still light when they halted before the towering walls of the ancient city

The outer as fifty feet in height where it had not fallen into ruin, but nowhere as far as they could see had more than ten or twenty feet of the upper courses fallen away It was still a forht that he discerned thingsbehind the ruined portions of the wall near to the them from behind the bulwarks of the ancient pile And often he felt the sensation of unseen eyes upon hiination

That night they caht, they were awakened by a shrill screah at first, descending gradually until it ended in a series of dise effect upon the blacks, al them with terror while it lasted, and it was an hour before the ca the effects of it were still visible in the fearful, sidelong glances that the Waziri continually cast at thestructure which looe on Tarzan's part to prevent the blacks fro back across the valley toward the cliffs they had scaled the day before But at length, by dint of comreed to acco the face of the wall before they discovered a ress Then they caht of concrete steps, worn hollow by centuries of use, rose before thee a few yards ahead

Into this narrow alley Tarzan iant shoulders sideways that they ht enter at all Behind him trailed his black warriors At the turn in the cleft the stairs ended, and the path was level; but it wound and twisted in a serpentine fashi+on, until suddenly at a sharp angle it debouched upon a narrow court, across which looh as the outer This inner as set with little round towers alternating along its entire summit with pointed monoliths In places these had fallen, and the as ruined, but it was in a much better state of preservation than the outer wall

Another narrow passage led through this wall, and at its end Tarzan and his warriors found themselves in a broad avenue, on the opposite side of which cru

Upon the crurown, and vines wound in and out of the hollow, staring s; but the building directly opposite therown than the others, and in a much better state of preservation It was a massive pile, surreat entrance stood rows of tall pillars, each capped by a huge, grotesque bird carved from the solid rock of the azing in varying degrees of wondere Africa, several of them became aware ofDi about in the seible that the eye could grasp--only an uncanny suggestion of life where it sees see-dead past

Tarzan recalled so that he had read in the library at Paris of a lost race of whitein the heart of Africa He wondered if he were not looking upon the ruins of the civilization that this strange people had wrought ae home Could it be possible that even now a rerandeur that had once been their progenitor? Again he becareat temple before him ”Come!” he said, to his Waziri ”Let us have a look at what lies behind those ruined walls”

His men were loath to follow hi portal they trailed a few paces behind in a huddled group that seele shriek such as they had heard the night before would have been sufficient to have sent thereat walls to the outer world

As Tarzan entered the building he was distinctly aware ofin the shadows of a near-by corridor, and he could have sworn that he saw a human hand withdrawn from an embrasure that opened above him into the domelike rotunda in which he found himself

The floor of the charanite, upon which strange figures of men and beasts were carved In places tablets of yellow metal had been set in the solid masonry of the walls

When he approached closer to one of these tablets he saw that it was of gold, and bore lyphics Beyond this first cha branched out into enorh several of these cha inal builders In one rooold, and in another the floor itself was of the precious metal And all the while that he explored, his blacks huddled close together at his back, and strange shapes hovered upon either hand and before theht say that they were not alone

The strain, however, was telling upon the nerves of the Waziri They begged Tarzan to return to the sunlight They said that no good could come of such an expedition, for the ruins were haunted by the spirits of the dead who had once inhabited the,” whispered Busuli ”They are waiting until they have led us into the innerhold, and then they will fall upon us and tear us to pieces with their teeth

That is the ith spirits My reat witch doctor, has told hed ”Run back into the sunlight, my children,” he said

”I will join you when I have searched this old ruin froold, or found that there is none At least we h the pillars are too heavy for us to handle; but there should be great storerooold that we can carry away upon our backs with ease Run on now, out into the fresh air where you may breathe easier”

Some of the warriors started to obey their chief with alacrity, but Busuli and several others hesitated to leave hi, and superstitious fear of the unknown

And then, quite unexpectedly, that occurred which decided the question without the necessity for further discussion Out of the silence of the ruined te, close to their ears, the saht, and with horrified cries the black warriors turned and fled through the ee-old edifice

Behind theri for the eneain silence reigned, except for the faint suggestion of the sound of naked feetstealthily in near-by places