Part 28 (2/2)

Then Tarzan wheeled and passed on into the depths of the temple From room to room he went, until he came to one at which a rude, barred door still stood, and as he put his shoulder against it to push it in, again the shriek of warning rang out al warned to refrain fro this particular room

Or could it be that within lay the secret to the treasure stores?

At any rate, the very fact that the strange, invisible guardians of this weird place had so him not to enter this particular chamber was sufficient to treble Tarzan's desire to do so, and though the shrieking was repeated continuously, he kept his shoulder to the door until it gave before his giant strength to swing open upon creaking wooden hinges

Within all was black as the toht, and as the corridor upon which it opened was itself in se rays within Feeling before him upon the floor with the butt of his spear, Tarzan entered the Stygian gloom Suddenly the door behind him closed, and at the same time hands clutched him froht with all the savage fury of self-preservation backed by the herculean strength that was his But though he felt his blows land, and his teeth sink into soft flesh, there seemed always t hands to take the place of those that he fought off At last they dragged him down, and slowly, very slowly, they overcaht of their numbers And then they bound him--his hands behind his back and his feet trussed up toof his antagonists, and the noise of the battle He knew not what manner of creatures had captured him, but that they were human seemed evident from the fact that they had bound him

Presently they lifted hi hih another doorway into an inner courtyard of the temple Here he saw his captors There reat beards that covered their faces and fell upon their hairy breasts

The thick,brows, and hung about their shoulders and their backs Their crooked legs were short and heavy, their ar and muscular About their loins they wore the skins of leopards and lions, and great necklaces of the claws of these same animals depended upon their breasts Massive circlets of virgin gold adorned their areons, and in the belts that confined their single gar knife

But the feature of the impression upon their prisoner was their white skins--neither in color nor feature was there a trace of the negroid about the foreheads, wicked little close-set eyes, and yellow fangs, they were far froht within the dark cha Tarzan to the inner court, no word had been spoken, but now several of thee unfa upon the concrete floor while they trooped off on their short legs into another part of the temple beyond the court

As Tarzan lay there upon his back he saw that the temple entirely surrounded the little inclosure, and that on all sides its lofty walls rose high above him At the top a little patch of blue sky was visible, and, in one direction, through an ee, but whether it was beyond or within the teround to the top of the tealleries, and now and then the captive caught gli fro down upon hith of the bonds that held him, and while he could not be sure it seeth to withstand the strain of his hty muscles when the time came to make a break for freedom; but he did not dare to put them to the crucial test until darkness had fallen, or he felt that no spying eyes were upon him

He had lain within the court for several hours before the first rays of sunlight penetrated the vertical shaft; al of bare feet in the corridors about hialleries above fill with crafty faces as a score or more entered the courtyard

For a moment every eye was bent upon the noonday sun, and then in unison the people in the galleries and those in the court below took up the refrain of a loeird chant Presently those about Tarzan began to dance to the cadence of their sole in theirbears; but as yet they did not look at hi their little eyes fixed upon the sun

For ten minutes or more they kept up their monotonous chant and steps, and then suddenly, and in perfect unison, they turned toward their victi fearful howls, the while they contorted their features into the most diabolical expressions, they rushed upon hiure dashed into the eon siold, beat back the advancing men

Chapter 20

La

For a e freak of fate a miracle had saved hile-handed, beaten off twenty gorilla-like ain take up their dance about hi monotone, which bore every evidence of rote, he came to the conclusion that it was all but a part of the cereure

After a irdle, and, leaning over Tarzan, cut the bonds fros Then, as the men stopped their dance, and approached, shethe rope that had been about his legs around his neck, she led hi in twos

Through winding corridors she led, farther and farther into the rereat chamber in the center of which stood an altar Then it was that Tarzan translated the strange ceremony that had preceded his introduction into this holy of holies

He had fallen into the hands of descendants of the ancient sun worshi+ppers His seeh priestess of the sun had been but a part of thedown upon hi at the top of the court had claimed him as his own, and the priestess had co hands of worldlings--to save hi deity

And had he needed further assurance as to the correctness of his theory he had only to cast his eyes upon the brownish-red stains that caked the stone altar and covered the floor in its irinned fro walls

The priestess led the victialleries above filled atchers, while from an arched doorway at the east end of the chamber a procession of females filed slowly into the room