Part 3 (1/2)

Above hi fro vines He listened; but he heard no sound other than the soughing of the wind through leafy branches, the hoarse cries of birds, and the chattering of monkeys

Boldly he ascended the stairway, to find himself in a circular court Just before him stood a stone altar, stained with rusty-brown discolorations At the tiht to an explanation of these stains-later their origin beca in the floor, just behind the altar, through which he had entered the court froian discovered several doors leading from the enclosure upon the level of the floor Above, and circling the courtyard, was a series of open balconies Monkeys scaed birds flitted in and out an of huhed, as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders He took a step toward one of the exits, and then he halted, wide-eyed in astonishment and terror, for almost at the same instant a dozen doors opened in the courtyard wall and a horde of frightful men rushed in upon hi God of Opar-the saed Jane Clayton to the sacrificial altar at this very spot years before Their long ars, their close-set, evil eyes, and their low, receding foreheads gave the fright through the shaken nerves of the Belgian

With a screalooed, but the frightful men anticipated his intentions They blocked the way; they seized hi upon his knees before the for his life, they bound him and hurled him to the floor of the inner temple

The rest was but a repetition of what Tarzan and Jane Clayton had passed through The priestesses cah Priestess Werper was raised and laid across the altar Cold sweat exuded from his every pore as La raised the cruel, sacrificial knife above hi eyes wandered to the golden goblets from which the hideous votaries would soon quench their inhuman thirst in his oarranted the brief respite of unconsciousness before the final plunge of the keen blade-and then there was a frightful roar that sounded aler Her eyes ide in horror The priestesses, her votaresses, screamed and fled e and terror according to the tee Werper strained his neck about to catch a sight of the cause of their panic, and when, at last he saw it, he too went cold in dread, for what his eyes beheld was the figure of a huge lion standing in the center of the teled beneath his cruel paws

Again the lord of the wilderness roared, turning his baleful gaze upon the altar La staggered forward, reeled, and fell across Werper in a swoon

6

The Arab Raid

After their first terror had subsided subsequent to the shock of the earthquake, Basuli and his warriors hastened back into the passageway in search of Tarzan and two of their own nu

They found the way blocked by jammed and distorted rock For two days they labored to tear a way through to their imprisoned friends; but when, after Herculean efforts, they had unearthed but a few yards of the choked passage, and discovered the led remains of one of their fellows they were forced to the conclusion that Tarzan and the second Waziri also lay dead beneath the rock er susceptible of it

Again and again as they labored they called aloud the na call rewarded their listening ears At last they gave up the search Tearfully they cast a last look at the shattered toold that would at least furnish comfort, if not happiness, to their bereaved and beloved mistress, and made their mournful way back across the desolate valley of Opar, and doard through the forests beyond toward the distant bungalow

And as theydown upon that peaceful, happy ho to the summons of his lieutenant's letter With hiade Arabs, outlawed arnered froe cannibals through whose countries the raider passed to and fro with perfect iaers and vicissitudes of his beloved Bwana, froambi, was the first to note the bold approach of the sinister caravan

He it houard Lady Greystoke, nor could a braver or uardian have been found in any clie, fearless warrior, the huge black possessed also soul and judgment in proportion to his bulk and his ferocity

Not once since his ht or sound of the bungalow, except when Lady Greystoke chose to canter across the broad plain, or relieve theexcursion On such occasions Mugambi, mounted upon a wiry Arab, had ridden close at her horse's heels

The raiders were still a long way off when the warrior's keen eyes discovered the party in silence, then he turned and ran rapidly in the direction of the native huts which lay a few hundred yards below the bungalow

Here he called out to the lolling warriors He issued orders rapidly In compliance with them the men seized upon their weapons and their shi+elds Some ran to call in the workers from the fields and to warn the tenders of the flocks and herds The alow

The dust of the raiders was still a long distance away Mugambi could not know positively that it hid an enee Africa, and he had seen parties before come thus unheralded Sometimes they had come in peace and sometimes they had come in war-one could never tell It ell to be prepared Mugaers advanced

The Greystoke bungaloas not well adapted for defense No palisade surrounded it, for, situated as it was, in the heart of loyal Waziri, its master had anticipated no possibility of an attack in force by any enemy Heavy, wooden shutters there were to close theapertures against hostile arrows, and these Muga when Lady Greystoke appeared upon the veranda

”Why, Muga the shutters?”

Mugambi pointed out across the plain to where a white-robed force of mounted men was now distinctly visible