Part 36 (1/2)

Through the Forest Pri , and heard the scraping of the block of stone against the masonry above

Then of a sudden the rope was still--the stone had caught at the very edge Gingerly the ape-man clambered up the frail rope In a e of the shaft The court was e the sacrifice Tarzan could hear the voice of La from the nearby sacrificial court The dance had ceased

It must be alht these things he was running rapidly toward the sound of the high priestess' voice

Fate guided hireat roofless cha row of priests and priestesses, awaiting with their golden cups the spilling of the war slowly toward the bosoure that lay stretched upon the hard stone Tarzan gave a gasp that was alirl he loved And then the scar upon his forehead turned to a fla band of scarlet, a red mist floated before his eyes, and, with the awful roar of the bull ape gone e lion into the el from the nearest priest, he laid about hied his rapid way toward the altar The hand of La had paused at the first noise of interruption When she saho the author of it was she hite She had never been able to fathoeon in which she had locked him She had not intended that he should ever leave Opar, for she had looked upon his giant frame and handsome face with the eyes of a woman and not those of a priestess

In her clever mind she had concocted a story of wonderful revelation fro God himself, in which she had been ordered to receive this white stranger as a er from him to his people on earth That would satisfy the people of Opar, she knew The man would be satisfied, she felt quite sure, to remain and be her husband rather than to return to the sacrificial altar

But when she had gone to explain her plan to hihtly locked as she had left it And now he had returned-- her priests as though they had been sheep For the ather her wits together again the huge whitebefore her, the woman who had lain upon the altar in his arms

”One side, La,” he cried ”You saved me once, and so I would not harm you; but do not interfere or attempt to follow, or I shall have to kill you also”

As he spoke he stepped past her toward the entrance to the subterranean vaults

”Who is she?” asked the high priestess, pointing at the unconscious woman

”She is irl of Opar stood wide-eyed and staring Then a look of hopeless misery suffused her eyes--tears welled into them, and with a little cry she sank to the cold floor, just as a swarhtful men dashed past her to leap upon the ape-man

But Tarzan of the Apes was not there when they reached out to seize hie leading to the pits below, and when his pursuers came more cautiously after they found the chahed and jabbered to one another, for they knew that there was no exit froh which he had entered If he came out at all he must come this way, and they would wait and watch for hi the unconscious Jane Porter, ca God without pursuit But when the men of Opar had talked further about the matter, they recalled to mind that this very h they had watched the entrance he had not come forth; and yet today he had coain send fifty men out into the valley to find and capture this desecrater of their temple

After Tarzan reached the shaft beyond the broken wall, he felt so positive of the successful issue of his flight that he stopped to replace the tumbled stones, for he was not anxious that any of the inh it coain to Opar and bear away a still greater fortune than he had already buried in the aeways he trotted, past the first door and through the treasure vault; past the second door and into the long, straight tunnel that led to the lofty hidden exit beyond the city Jane Porter was still unconscious

At the crest of the great bowlder he halted to cast a backward glance toward the city Co across the plain he saw a band of the hideous men of Opar For a moment he hesitated Should he descend and make a race for the distant cliffs, or should he hide here until night? And then a glance at the girl's white face determined hiet between theht have been followed through the tunnels, and to have foes before and behind would result in alh the eneirl

To descend the steep face of the bowlder with Jane Porter was no easy task, but by binding her across his shoulders with the grass rope he succeeded in reaching the ground in safety before the Oparians arrived at the great rock As the descent had beenparty saw nothing of it, nor did they drea the KOPJE between theed to cover nearly a ranite sentinel and saw the fugitive before theht, they broke into adoubtless that they would soon overhaul the burdened runner; but they both underestimated the powers of the ape-man and overestis

Byan easy trot, Tarzan kept the distance between thelance at the face so near his own Had it not been for the faint beating of the heart pressed so close against his own, he would not have known that she was alive, so white and draas the poor, tired face

And thus they came to the flat-toppedthe lastlike a deer that he ht have ample time to descend the face of the cliffs before the Oparians could reach the summit and hurl rocks down upon them And so it was that he was half a mile down the e

With cries of rage and disappointels, and dancing up and down in a perfect passion of anger But this time they did not pursue beyond the boundary of their own country Whether it was because they recalled the futility of their for the ease hich the ape- before them, and the last burst of speed, they realized the utter hopelessness of further pursuit, it is difficult to say; but as Tarzan reached the woods that began at the base of the foothills which skirted the barrier cliffs they turned their faces once e, where he could yet watch the cliff tops, Tarzan laid his burden upon the grass, and going to the near-by rivulet brought water hich he bathed her face and hands; but even this did not revive her, and, greatly worried, he gathered the girl into his strong arms once more and hurried on toward the west

Late in the afternoon Jane Porter regained consciousness She did not open her eyes at once--she was trying to recall the scenes that she had last witnessed Ah, she reme knife She gave a little shudder, for she thought that either this was death or that the knife had buried itself in her heart and she was experiencing the brief deliriue to open her eyes, the sight thatborne through a leafy paradise in the arms of her dead love ”If this be death,” she murmured, ”thank God that I aaining consciousness!”

”Yes, Tarzan of the Apes,” she replied, and for the first tihted her face