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long row of priests and priestesses, awaiting with their golden cups the spilling of the warm blood of their
victim. La's hand was descending slowly toward the bosom of the frail, quiet figure that lay stretched
upon the hard stone. Tarzan gave a gasp that was almost a sob as he recognized the features of the girl
he loved. And then the scar upon his forehead turned to a flaming band of scarlet, a red mist floated
before his eyes, and, with the awful roar of the bull ape gone mad, he sprang like a huge lion into the
midst of the votaries.
Seizing a cudgel from the nearest priest, he laid about him like a veritable demon as he forged his rapid
way toward the altar. The hand of La had paused at the first noise of interruption. When she saw who the
author of it was she went white. She had never been able to fathom the secret of the strange white man's
escape from the dungeon 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.
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In her clever mind she had concocted a story of wonderful revelation from the lips of the flaming god
himself, in which she had been ordered to receive this white stranger as a messenger 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 him he had disappeared, though the door had been tightly
locked as she had left it. And now he had returned--materialized from thin air--and was killing her priests
as though they had been sheep. For the moment she forgot her victim, and before she could gather her
wits together again the huge white man was standing before 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 mine," said Tarzan of the Apes.
For a moment the girl 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 swarm of frightful
men dashed past her to leap upon the ape-man.
But Tarzan of the Apes was not there when they reached out to seize him. With a light bound he had
disappeared into the passage leading to the pits below, and when his pursuers came more cautiously after
they found the chamber empty, they but laughed and jabbered to one another, for they knew that there
was no exit from the pits other than the one through which he had entered. If he came out at all he must
come this way, and they would wait and watch for him above.
And so Tarzan of the Apes, carrying the unconscious Jane Porter, came through the pits of Opar
beneath the temple of The Flaming God without pursuit. But when the men of Opar had talked further
about the matter, they recalled to mind that this very man had escaped once before into the pits, and,
though they had watched the entrance he had not come forth; and yet today he had come upon them
from the outside. They would again 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 inmates should
discover this forgotten passage, and through it come upon the treasure chamber. It was in his mind to
return again to Opar and bear away a still greater fortune than he had already buried in the amphitheater
of the apes.
On through the passageways 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. Coming 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
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face determined him. He could not keep her here and permit her enemies to get between them and
liberty. For aught he knew they might have been followed through the tunnels, and to have foes before
and behind would result in almost certain capture, since he could not fight his way through the enemy
burdened as he was with the unconscious girl.
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 been made upon the side away from the city, the searching
party saw nothing of it, nor did they dream that their prey was so close before them.
By keeping the KOPJE between them and their pursuers, Tarzan of the Apes managed to cover nearly a
mile before the men of Opar rounded the granite sentinel and saw the fugitive before them. With loud
cries of savage delight, they broke into a mad run, thinking doubtless that they would soon overhaul the
burdened runner; but they both underestimated the powers of the ape-man and overestimated the
possibilities of their own short, crooked legs.
By maintaining an easy trot, Tarzan kept the distance between them always the same. Occasionally he
would glance 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 drawn was the poor,
tired face.
And thus they came to the flat-topped mountain and the barrier cliffs. During the last mile Tarzan had let
himself out, running like a deer that he might 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 mountainside ere the fierce little men came panting to the edge.
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