Part 29 (1/2)
They wore, like the ht about their waists with rawhide belts or chains of gold; but the black ear coeniously held together to form astrings of oval pieces falling to the waist
The females were more symmetrically proportioned than the males, their features were e, soft, black eyes denoting far greater intelligence and humanity than was possessed by their lords and olden cups, and as they for one side of the altar theeach a cup froan once eway beyond the altar another feed froh priestess, thought Tarzan She was a young woent and shapely face Her ornaments were similar to those worn by her votaries, butset with dias were almost concealed by the massive, bejeweled ornale leopard skin was supported by a close-fitting girdle of golden rings set in strange designs with innu, jeweled knife, and in her hand a slender wand in lieu of a bludgeon
As she advanced to the opposite side of the altar she halted, and the chanting ceased The priests and priestesses knelt before her, while and extended above the and tiresome prayer
Her voice was soft and musical--Tarzan could scarce realize that its possessor in a moment ious zeal into a wild-eyed and bloodthirsty executioner, ith dripping knife, would be the first to drink her victiolden cup that stood upon the altar
As she finished her prayer she let her eyes rest for the first time upon Tarzan With every indication of considerable curiosity she examined him from head to foot Then she addressed hih she expected a reply
”I do not understand your language,” said Tarzan ”Possibly we ue?” But she could not understand hilish, Arab, Waziri, and, as a last resort, the ue of the West Coast
She shook her head, and it seemed that there was a note of weariness in her voice as she motioned to the priests to continue with the rites
These now circled in a repetition of their idiotic dance, which was terminated finally at a cohout, still looking intently upon Tarzan
At her signal the priests rushed upon the ape- him bodily, laid hi over one edge, his legs over the opposite Then they and the priestesses forolden cups in readiness to capture a share of the victim's lifeblood after the sacrificial knife had accomplished its work
In the line of priests an altercation arose as to who should have first place A burly brute with all the refined intelligence of a gorilla sta to push a smaller h priestess, who in a cold pereer to the extre and ru as he went slowly to the inferior station
Then the priestess, standing above hi what Tarzan took to be an invocation, the while she slowly raised her thin, sharp knife aloft It seeress and the knife halted high above his unprotected breast
Then it started doard, slowly at first, but as the incantation increased in rapidity, with greater speed At the end of the line Tarzan could still hear the gruruntled priest The man's voice rose louder and louder A priestess near him spoke in sharp tones of rebuke The knife was quite near to Tarzan's breast now, but it halted for an instant as the high priestess raised her eyes to shoot her swift displeasure at the instigator of this sacrilegious interruption
There was a sudden commotion in the direction of the disputants, and Tarzan rolled his head in their direction in time to see the burly brute of a priest leap upon the wole blow of his heavy cudgel Then that happened which Tarzan had witnessed a hundred tile He had seen the thing fall upon Kerchak, and Tublat, and Terkoz; upon a dozen of the other hty bull apes of his tribe; and upon Tantor, the elephant; there was scarce any of the males of the forest that did not at times fall prey to it The priest wenthis fellows
His screahtful as he dashed hither and thither, dealing terrific bloith his giant weapon, or sinking his yellow fangs into the flesh of so it the priestess stood with poised knife above Tarzan, her eyes fixed in horror upon theout death and destruction to her votaries
Presently the roo on the floor, the victih priestess, and theeyes of the latter fell upon the wohted with a new and sudden lust Slowly he crept toward her, and now he spoke; but this tie he could understand; the last one that he would ever have thought of es--the low guttural barking of the tribe of great anthropoids--his own uage
He was threatening--she atte to reason with him, for it was quite evident that she saw that he was past her authority The brute was quite close now--creeping with clawlike hands extended toward her around the end of the altar Tarzan strained at the bonds which held his arotten her prey in the horror of the danger that threatened herself As the brute leaped past Tarzan to clutch his victis that held hi from the altar to the stone floor on the opposite side fro to his feet the thongs dropped from his freed arms, and at the same tih priestess and the mad priest had disappeared
And then a muffled scream came from the cavernous h which the priestess had entered the teht for his own safety, or the possibility for escape which this rapid series of fortuitous circumstances had thrust upon hier With a little bound he was at the gaping entrance to the subterranean chae-old concrete steps that led he knew not where
The faint light that filtered in froe, low-ceiled vault from which several doorways led off into inky darkness, but there was no need to thread an unknoay, for there before hiirl upon the floor, and gorilla-like fingers were clutching frantically at her throat as she struggled to escape the fury of the awful thing upon her
As Tarzan's heavy hand fell upon his shoulder the priest dropped his victim, and turned upon her would-be rescuer With foas the mad sun-worshi+per battled with the tenfold power of the maniac In the blood lust of his fury the creature had undergone a sudden reversion to type, which left hier that projected fro only of nature's weapons hich his brute prototype had battled
But if he could use his teeth and hands to advantage, he found one even better versed in the school of savage warfare to which he had reverted, for Tarzan of the Apes closed with hi at one another like two bull apes; while the pri ide, fear-fascinated eyes the growling, snapping beasts at her feet
At last she saw the stranger close one onist, and as he forced the bruteman's head far back rain blow after blow upon the upturned face A , shook himself like a lion He placed a foot upon the carcass before hiive the victory cry of his kind, but as his eyes fell upon the opening above hiht better of his intended act