13

Tarzan, the Jewels of Opar

by Edgar R. Burroughs

13, TARZAN, THE JEWELS OF OPAR by Edgar R. Burroughs
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Condemned To Torture and Death


La had followed her company and when she saw them
clawing and biting at Tarzan, she raised her voice and
cautioned them not to kill him. She saw that he was
weakening and that soon the greater numbers would
prevail over him, nor had she long to wait before the
mighty jungle creature lay helpless and bound at her
feet.

"Bring him to the place at which we stopped," she
commanded and they carried Tarzan back to the little
clearing and threw him down beneath a tree.

"Build me a shelter!" ordered La. "We shall stop here
tonight and tomorrow in the face of the Flaming God, La
will offer up the heart of this defiler of the temple.
Where is the sacred knife? Who took it from him?"

But no one had seen it and each was positive in his
assurance that the sacrificial weapon had not been upon
Tarzan's person when they captured him. The ape-man
looked upon the menacing creatures which surrounded him
and snarled his defiance. He looked upon La and
smiled. In the face of death he was unafraid.

"Where is the knife?" La asked him.

"I do not know," replied Tarzan. "The man took it with
him when he slipped away during the night. Since you
are so desirous for its return I would look for him and
get it back for you, did you not hold me prisoner; but
now that I am to die I cannot get it back. Of what
good was your knife, anyway? You can make another.
Did you follow us all this way for nothing more than a
knife? Let me go and find him and I will bring it back
to you."

La laughed a bitter laugh, for in her heart she knew
that Tarzan's sin was greater than the purloining of
the sacrificial knife of Opar; yet as she looked at him
lying bound and helpless before her, tears rose to her
eyes so that she had to turn away to hide them; but she
remained inflexible in her determination to make him
pay in frightful suffering and in eventual death for
daring to spurn the love of La.

When the shelter was completed La had Tarzan
transferred to it. "All night I shall torture him,"
she muttered to her priests, "and at the first streak
of dawn you may prepare the flaming altar upon which
his heart shall be offered up to the Flaming God.
Gather wood well filled with pitch, lay it in the form
and size of the altar at Opar in the center of the
clearing that the Flaming God may look down upon our
handiwork and be pleased."

During the balance of the day the priests of Opar were
busy erecting an altar in the center of the clearing,
and while they worked they chanted weird hymns in the
ancient tongue of that lost continent that lies at the
bottom of the Atlantic. They knew not the meanings of
the words they mouthed; they but repeated the ritual
that had been handed down from preceptor to neophyte
since that long-gone day when the ancestors of the
Piltdown man still swung by their tails in the humid
jungles that are England now.

And in the shelter of the hut, La paced to and fro
beside the stoic ape-man. Resigned to his fate was
Tarzan. No hope of succor gleamed through the dead
black of the death sentence hanging over him. He knew
that his giant muscles could not part the many strands
that bound his wrists and ankles, for he had strained
often, but ineffectually for release. He had no hope
of outside help and only enemies surrounded him within
the camp, and yet he smiled at La as she paced
nervously back and forth the length of the shelter.

And La? She fingered her knife and looked down upon her
captive. She glared and muttered but she did not
strike. "Tonight!" she thought. "Tonight, when it is
dark I will torture him." She looked upon his perfect,
godlike figure and upon his handsome, smiling face and
then she steeled her heart again by thoughts of her
love spurned; by religious thoughts that damned the
infidel who had desecrated the holy of holies; who had
taken from the blood-stained altar of Opar the offering
to the Flaming God--and not once but thrice.
Three times had Tarzan cheated the god of her fathers.
At the thought La paused and knelt at his side. In her
hand was a sharp knife. She placed its point against
the ape-man's side and pressed upon the hilt; but
Tarzan only smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

How beautiful he was! La bent low over him, looking
into his eyes. How perfect was his figure. She
compared it with those of the knurled and knotted men
from whom she must choose a mate, and La shuddered at
the thought. Dusk came and after dusk came night.
A great fire blazed within the little thorn boma about
the camp. The flames played upon the new altar erected
in the center of the clearing, arousing in the mind of
the High Priestess of the Flaming God a picture of the
event of the coming dawn. She saw this giant and
perfect form writhing amid the flames of the burning
pyre. She saw those smiling lips, burned and
blackened, falling away from the strong, white teeth.
She saw the shock of black hair tousled upon Tarzan's
well-shaped head disappear in a spurt of flame. She
saw these and many other frightful pictures as she
stood with closed eyes and clenched fists above the
object of her hate--ah! was it hate that La of Opar
felt?

The darkness of the jungle night had settled down upon
the camp, relieved only by the fitful flarings of the
fire that was kept up to warn off the man-eaters.
Tarzan lay quietly in his bonds. He suffered from
thirst and from the cutting of the tight strands about
his wrists and ankles; but he made no complaint.
A jungle beast was Tarzan with the stoicism of the beast
and the intelligence of man. He knew that his doom was
sealed--that no supplications would avail to temper the
severity of his end and so he wasted no breath in
pleadings; but waited patiently in the firm conviction
that his sufferings could not endure forever.

In the darkness La stooped above him. In her hand was
a sharp knife and in her mind the determination to
initiate his torture without further delay. The knife
was pressed against his side and La's face was close to
his when a sudden burst of flame from new branches
thrown upon the fire without, lighted up the interior
of the shelter. Close beneath her lips La saw the
perfect features of the forest god and into her woman's
heart welled all the great love she had felt for Tarzan
since first she had seen him, and all the accumulated
passion of the years that she had dreamed of him.

Dagger in hand, La, the High Priestess, towered above
the helpless creature that had dared to violate the
sanctuary of her deity. There should be no torture--
there should be instant death. No longer should the
defiler of the temple pollute the sight of the lord god
almighty. A single stroke of the heavy blade and then
the corpse to the flaming pyre without. The knife arm
stiffened ready for the downward plunge, and then La,
the woman, collapsed weakly upon the body of the man
she loved.

She ran her hands in mute caress over his naked flesh;
she covered his forehead, his eyes, his lips with hot
kisses; she covered him with her body as though to
protect him from the hideous fate she had ordained for
him, and in trembling, piteous tones she begged him for
his love. For hours the frenzy of her passion
possessed the burning hand-maiden of the Flaming God,
until at last sleep overpowered her and she lapsed into
unconsciousness beside the man she had sworn to torture
and to slay. And Tarzan, untroubled by thoughts of the
future, slept peacefully in La's embrace.

At the first hint of dawn the chanting of the priests
of Opar brought Tarzan to wakefulness. Initiated in
low and subdued tones, the sound soon rose in volume to
the open diapason of barbaric blood lust. La stirred.
Her perfect arm pressed Tarzan closer to her--a smile
parted her lips and then she awoke, and slowly the
smile faded and her eyes went wide in horror as the
significance of the death chant impinged upon her
understanding.

"Love me, Tarzan!" she cried. "Love me, and you shall
be saved."

Tarzan's bonds hurt him. He was suffering the tortures
of long-restricted circulation. With an angry growl he
rolled over with his back toward La. That was her
answer! The High Priestess leaped to her feet. A hot
flush of shame mantled her cheek and then she went dead
white and stepped to the shelter's entrance.

"Come, Priests of the Flaming God!" she cried,
"and make ready the sacrifice."

The warped things advanced and entered the shelter.
They laid hands upon Tarzan and bore him forth, and as
they chanted they kept time with their crooked bodies,
swaying to and fro to the rhythm of their song of blood
and death. Behind them came La, swaying too; but not
in unison with the chanted cadence. White and drawn
was the face of the High Priestess--white and drawn
with unrequited love and hideous terror of the moments
to come. Yet stern in her resolve was La. The infidel
should die! The scorner of her love should pay the
price upon the fiery altar. She saw them lay the
perfect body there upon the rough branches. She saw
the High Priest, he to whom custom would unite her--
bent, crooked, gnarled, stunted, hideous--advance with
the flaming torch and stand awaiting her command to
apply it to the faggots surrounding the sacrificial
pyre. His hairy, bestial face was distorted in a
yellow-fanged grin of anticipatory enjoyment. His
hands were cupped to receive the life blood of the
victim--the red nectar that at Opar would have filled
the golden sacrificial goblets.

La approached with upraised knife, her face turned
toward the rising sun and upon her lips a prayer to the
burning deity of her people. The High Priest looked
questioningly toward her--the brand was burning close
to his hand and the faggots lay temptingly near.
Tarzan closed his eyes and awaited the end. He knew
that he would suffer, for he recalled the faint
memories of past burns. He knew that he would suffer
and die; but he did not flinch. Death is no great
adventure to the jungle bred who walk hand-in-hand with
the grim specter by day and lie down at his side by
night through all the years of their lives. It is
doubtful that the ape-man even speculated upon what
came after death. As a matter of fact as his end
approached, his mind was occupied by thoughts of the
pretty pebbles he had lost, yet his every faculty still
was open to what passed around him.

He felt La lean over him and he opened his eyes.
He saw her white, drawn face and he saw tears blinding
her eyes. "Tarzan, my Tarzan!" she moaned, "tell me that
you love me--that you will return to Opar with me--and
you shall live. Even in the face of the anger of my
people I will save you. This last chance I give you.
What is your answer?"

At the last moment the woman in La had triumphed over
the High Priestess of a cruel cult. She saw upon the
altar the only creature that ever had aroused the fires
of love within her virgin breast; she saw the beast-faced
fanatic who would one day be her mate, unless she
found another less repulsive, standing with the burning
torch ready to ignite the pyre; yet with all her mad
passion for the ape-man she would give the word to
apply the flame if Tarzan's final answer was
unsatisfactory. With heaving bosom she leaned close
above him. "Yes or no?" she whispered.

Through the jungle, out of the distance, came faintly a
sound that brought a sudden light of hope to Tarzan's
eyes. He raised his voice in a weird scream that sent
La back from him a step or two. The impatient priest
grumbled and switched the torch from one hand to the
other at the same time holding it closer to the tinder
at the base of the pyre.

"Your answer!" insisted La. "What is your answer to
the love of La of Opar?"

Closer came the sound that had attracted Tarzan's
attention and now the others heard it--the shrill
trumpeting of an elephant. As La looked wide-eyed into
Tarzan's face, there to read her fate for happiness or
heartbreak, she saw an expression of concern shadow his
features. Now, for the first time, she guessed the
meaning of Tarzan's shrill scream--he had summoned
Tantor, the elephant, to his rescue! La's brows
contracted in a savage scowl. "You refuse La!"
she cried. "Then die! The torch!" she commanded,
turning toward the priest.

Tarzan looked up into her face. "Tantor is coming,"
he said. "I thought that he would rescue me; but I know
now from his voice that he will slay me and you and all
that fall in his path, searching out with the cunning
of Sheeta, the panther, those who would hide from him,
for Tantor is mad with the madness of love."

La knew only too well the insane ferocity of a bull
elephant in MUST. She knew that Tarzan had not
exaggerated. She knew that the devil in the cunning,
cruel brain of the great beast might send it hither and
thither hunting through the forest for those who
escaped its first charge, or the beast might pass on
without returning--no one might guess which.

"I cannot love you, La," said Tarzan in a low voice.
"I do not know why, for you are very beautiful.
I could not go back and live in Opar--I who have the
whole broad jungle for my range. No, I cannot love you
but I cannot see you die beneath the goring tusks of
mad Tantor. Cut my bonds before it is too late.
Already he is almost upon us. Cut them and I may yet
save you."

A little spiral of curling smoke rose from one corner
of the pyre--the flames licked upward, crackling.
La stood there like a beautiful statue of despair gazing
at Tarzan and at the spreading flames. In a moment
they would reach out and grasp him. From the tangled
forest came the sound of cracking limbs and crashing
trunks--Tantor was coming down upon them, a huge
Juggernaut of the jungle. The priests were becoming
uneasy. They cast apprehensive glances in the direction
of the approaching elephant and then back at La.

"Fly!" she commanded them and then she stooped and cut
the bonds securing her prisoner's feet and hands.
In an instant Tarzan was upon the ground. The priests
screamed out their rage and disappointment. He with
the torch took a menacing step toward La and the ape-man.
"Traitor!" He shrieked at the woman. "For this
you too shall die!" Raising his bludgeon he rushed upon
the High Priestess; but Tarzan was there before her.
Leaping in to close quarters the ape-man seized the
upraised weapon and wrenched it from the hands of the
frenzied fanatic and then the priest closed upon him
with tooth and nail. Seizing the stocky, stunted body
in his mighty hands Tarzan raised the creature high
above his head, hurling him at his fellows who were now
gathered ready to bear down upon their erstwhile
captive. La stood proudly with ready knife behind the
ape-man. No faint sign of fear marked her perfect
brow--only haughty disdain for her priests and
admiration for the man she loved so hopelessly filled
her thoughts.

Suddenly upon this scene burst the mad bull--a huge
tusker, his little eyes inflamed with insane rage.
The priests stood for an instant paralyzed with terror;
but Tarzan turned and gathering La in his arms raced for
the nearest tree. Tantor bore down upon him trumpeting shrilly.
La clung with both white arms about the ape-man's neck.
She felt him leap into the air and
marveled at his strength and his ability as, burdened
with her weight, he swung nimbly into the lower
branches of a large tree and quickly bore her upward
beyond reach of the sinuous trunk of the pachyderm.

Momentarily baffled here, the huge elephant wheeled and
bore down upon the hapless priests who had now
scattered, terror-stricken, in every direction.
The nearest he gored and threw high among the branches
of a tree. One he seized in the coils of his trunk and
broke upon a huge bole, dropping the mangled pulp to
charge, trumpeting, after another. Two he trampled
beneath his huge feet and by then the others had
disappeared into the jungle. Now Tantor turned his
attention once more to Tarzan for one of the symptoms
of madness is a revulsion of affection--objects of sane
love become the objects of insane hatred. Peculiar in
the unwritten annals of the jungle was the proverbial
love that had existed between the ape-man and the tribe
of Tantor. No elephant in all the jungle would harm
the Tarmangani--the white-ape; but with the madness of
MUST upon him the great bull sought to destroy his
long-time play-fellow.

Back to the tree where La and Tarzan perched came
Tantor, the elephant. He reared up with his forefeet
against the bole and reached high toward them with his
long trunk; but Tarzan had foreseen this and clambered
beyond the bull's longest reach. Failure but tended to
further enrage the mad creature. He bellowed and
trumpeted and screamed until the earth shook to the
mighty volume of his noise. He put his head against
the tree and pushed and the tree bent before his mighty
strength; yet still it held.

The actions of Tarzan were peculiar in the extreme.
Had Numa, or Sabor, or Sheeta, or any other beast of
the jungle been seeking to destroy him, the ape-man
would have danced about hurling missiles and invectives
at his assailant. He would have insulted and taunted
them, reviling in the jungle Billingsgate he knew so
well; but now he sat silent out of Tantor's reach and
upon his handsome face was an expression of deep sorrow
and pity, for of all the jungle folk Tarzan loved
Tantor the best. Could he have slain him he would not
have thought of doing so. His one idea was to escape,
for he knew that with the passing of the MUST
Tantor would be sane again and that once more he might
stretch at full length upon that mighty back and make
foolish speech into those great, flapping ears.

Finding that the tree would not fall to his pushing,
Tantor was but enraged the more. He looked up at the
two perched high above him, his red-rimmed eyes blazing
with insane hatred, and then he wound his trunk about
the bole of the tree, spread his giant feet wide apart
and tugged to uproot the jungle giant. A huge creature
was Tantor, an enormous bull in the full prime of all
his stupendous strength. Mightily he strove until
presently, to Tarzan's consternation, the great tree
gave slowly at the roots. The ground rose in little
mounds and ridges about the base of the bole, the tree
tilted--in another moment it would be uprooted and fall.

The ape-man whirled La to his back and just as the tree
inclined slowly in its first movement out of the
perpendicular, before the sudden rush of its final
collapse, he swung to the branches of a lesser
neighbor. It was a long and perilous leap. La closed
her eyes and shuddered; but when she opened them again
she found herself safe and Tarzan whirling onward
through the forest. Behind them the uprooted tree
crashed heavily to the ground, carrying with it the
lesser trees in its path and then Tantor, realizing
that his prey had escaped him, set up once more his
hideous trumpeting and followed at a rapid charge upon
their trail.