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daughter. Our husbands are chosen for us from the noblest in the land. The most perfect man, mentally
and physically, is selected to be the husband of the high priestess."
"From what I saw of the gentlemen above," said Tarzan, with a grin, "there should be little trouble in
choosing from among them."
The girl looked at him quizzically for a moment.
"Do not be sacrilegious," she said. "They are very holy men--they are priests."
"Then there are others who are better to look upon?" he asked.
"The others are all more ugly than the priests," she replied.
Tarzan shuddered at her fate, for even in the dim light of the vault he was impressed by her beauty.
"But how about myself?" he asked suddenly. "Are you going to lead me to liberty?"
"You have been chosen by The Flaming God as his own," she answered solemnly. "Not even I have the
power to save you--should they find you again. But I do not intend that they shall find you. You risked
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your life to save mine. I may do no less for you. It will be no easy matter--it may require days; but in the
end I think that I can lead you beyond the walls. Come, they will look here for me presently, and if they
find us together we shall both be lost--they would kill me did they think that I had proved false to my
god."
"You must not take the risk, then," he said quickly. "I will return to the temple, and if I can fight my way
to freedom there will be no suspicion thrown upon you."
But she would not have it so, and finally persuaded him to follow her, saying that they had already
remained in the vault too long to prevent suspicion from falling upon her even if they returned to the
temple.
"I will hide you, and then return alone," she said, "telling them that I was long unconscious after you killed
Tha, and that I do not know whither you escaped."
And so she led him through winding corridors of gloom, until finally they came to a small chamber into
which a little light filtered through a stone grating in the ceiling.
"This is the Chamber of the Dead," she said. "None will think of searching here for you--they would not
dare. I will return after it is dark. By that time I may have found a plan to effect your escape."
She was gone, and Tarzan of the Apes was left alone in the Chamber of the Dead, beneath the
long-dead city of Opar.
Chapter 21
The Castaways
Clayton dreamed that he was drinking his fill of water, pure, delightful drafts of fresh water. With a start
he gained consciousness to find himself wet through by torrents of rain that were falling upon his body
and his upturned face. A heavy tropical shower was beating down upon them. He opened his mouth and
drank. Presently he was so revived and strengthened that he was enabled to raise himself upon his hands.
Across his legs lay Monsieur Thuran. A few feet aft Jane Porter was huddled in a pitiful little heap in the
bottom of the boat--she was quite still. Clayton knew that she was dead.
After infinite labor he released himself from Thuran's pinioning body, and with renewed strength crawled
toward the girl. He raised her head from the rough boards of the boat's bottom. There might be life in that
poor, starved frame even yet. He could not quite abandon all hope, and so he seized a water-soaked rag
and squeezed the precious drops between the swollen lips of the hideous thing that had but a few short
days before glowed with the resplendent life of happy youth and glorious beauty.
For some time there was no sign of returning animation, but at last his efforts were rewarded by a slight
tremor of the half-closed lids. He chafed the thin hands, and forced a few more drops of water into the
parched throat. The girl opened her eyes, looking up at him for a long time before she could recall her
surroundings.
"Water?" she whispered. "Are we saved?"
"It is raining," he explained. "We may at least drink. Already it has revived us both."
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"Monsieur Thuran?" she asked. "He did not kill you. Is he dead?"
"I do not know," replied Clayton. "If he lives and this rain revives him--" But he stopped there,
remembering too late that he must not add further to the horrors which the girl already had endured.
But she guessed what he would have said.
"Where is he?" she asked.
Clayton nodded his head toward the prostrate form of the Russian. For a time neither spoke.
"I will see if I can revive him," said Clayton at length.
"No," she whispered, extending a detaining hand toward him. "Do not do that--he will kill you when the
water has given him strength. If he is dying, let him die. Do not leave me alone in this boat with that
beast."
Clayton hesitated. His honor demanded that he attempt to revive Thuran, and there was the possibility,
too, that the Russian was beyond human aid. It was not dishonorable to hope so. As he sat fighting out
his battle he presently raised his eyes from the body of the man, and as they passed above the gunwale of
the boat he staggered weakly to his feet with a little cry of joy.
"Land, Jane!" he almost shouted through his cracked lips. "Thank God, land!"
The girl looked, too, and there, not a hundred yards away, she saw a yellow beach, and, beyond, the
luxurious foliage of a tropical jungle.
"Now you may revive him," said Jane Porter, for she, too, had been haunted with the pangs of
conscience which had resulted from her decision to prevent Clayton from offering succor to their
companion.
It required the better part of half an hour before the Russian evinced sufficient symptoms of returning
consciousness to open his eyes, and it was some time later before they could bring him to a realization of
their good fortune. By this time the boat was scraping gently upon the sandy bottom.
Between the refreshing water that he had drunk and the stimulus of renewed hope, Clayton found
strength to stagger through the shallow water to the shore with a line made fast to the boat's bow. This he
fastened to a small tree which grew at the top of a low bank, for the tide was at flood, and he feared that
the boat might carry them all out to sea again with the ebb, since it was quite likely that it would be
beyond his strength to get Jane Porter to the shore for several hours. Next he managed to stagger and
crawl toward the near- by jungle, where he had seen evidences of profusion of tropical fruit. His former
experience in the jungle of Tarzan of the Apes had taught him which of the many growing things were [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]