CHAPTER VI



DEATH STEALS BEHIND


During the afternoon of the day that Tarzan discovered the
camp of the conspirators, a watcher upon the crumbling outer
wall of the ruined city of Opar descried a party of men
moving downward into the valley from the summit of the
encircling cliff.  Tarzan, Jane Clayton, and their black
Waziri were the only strangers that the denizens of Opar had
ever seen within their valley during the lifetime of the
oldest among them, and only in half-forgotten legends of a
by-gone past was there any suggestion that strangers other
than these had ever visited Opar. Yet from time immemorial a
guard had always remained upon the summit of the outer wall.
Now a single knurled and crippled man-like creature was all
that recalled the numerous, lithe warriors of lost Atlantis.
For down through the long ages the race had deteriorated and
finally, through occasional mating with the great apes, the
men had become the beast-like things of modern Opar. Strange
and inexplicable had been the providence of nature that had
confined this deterioration almost solely to the males,
leaving the females straight, well-formed, often of comely
and even beautiful features, a condition that might be
largely attributable to the fact that female infants
possessing ape-like characteristics were immediately
destroyed, while, on the other hand, boy babies who
possessed purely human attributes were also done away with.

Typical indeed of the male inhabitants of Opar was the lone
watcher upon the outer city wall, a short, stocky man with
matted hair and beard, his tangled locks growing low upon a
low, receding forehead; small, close-set eyes and fang-like
teeth bore evidence of his simian ancestry, as did his
short, crooked legs and long, muscular ape-like arms, all
scantily hair-covered as was his torso.

As his wicked, blood-rimmed eyes watched the progress of the
party across the valley toward Opar, evidences of his
growing excitement were manifested in the increased rapidity
of his breathing, and low, almost inaudible growls that
issued from his throat. The strangers were too far distant
to be recognizable only as human beings, and their number to
be roughly approximated as between two and three score.
Having assured himself of these two facts the watcher
descended from the outer wall, crossed the space between it
and the inner wall, through which he passed, and at a rapid
trot crossed the broad avenue beyond and disappeared within
the crumbling but still magnificent temple beyond.

Cadj, the High Priest of Opar, squatted beneath the shade of
the giant trees which now overgrew what had once been one of
the gardens of the ancient temple. With him were a dozen
members of the lesser priesthood, the intimate cronies of
the High Priest, who were star tied by the sudden advent of
one of the inferior members of the clan of Opar. The fellow
hurried breathlessly to Cadj.

"Cadj," he cried, "strange men descend upon Opar! From the
northwest they have come into the valley from beyond the
barrier cliffs--fifty of them at least, perhaps half again
that number. I saw them as I watched from the summit of the
outer wall, but further than they are men I cannot say, for
they are still a great distance away. Not since the great
Tarmangani came among us last have there been strangers
within Opar."

"It has been many moons since the great Tarmangani who
called himself Tarzan of the Apes was among us," said Cadj.
"He promised us to return before the rain to see that no
harm had befallen La, but he did not come back and La has
always insisted that he is dead. Have you told any other of
what you have seen?" he demanded, turning suddenly upon the
messenger.

"No," replied the latter.

"Good!" exclaimed Cadj. "Come, we will all go to the outer
wall and see who it is who dares enter forbidden Opar, and
let no one breathe a word of what Blagh has told us until I
give permission."

"The word of Cadj is law until La speaks," murmured one of
the priests.

Cadj turned a scowling face upon the speaker. "I am High
Priest of Opar," he growled. "Who dares disobey me?"

"But La is High Priestess," said one, "and the High
Priestess is the queen of Opar."

"But the High Priest can offer whom he will as sacrifice in
the Chamber of the Dead or to the Flaming God," Cadj
reminded the other meaningly.

"We shall keep silence, Cadj," replied the priest, cringing.

"Good!" growled the High Priest and led the way from the
garden through the corridors of the temple back toward the
outer wall of Opar. From here they watched the approaching
party that was in plain view of them, far out across the
valley.  The watchers conversed in low gutturals in the
language of the great apes, interspersed with which were
occasional words and phrases of a strange tongue that were
doubtless corrupted forms of the ancient language of
Atlantis handed down through countless generations from
their human progenitors--that now extinct race whose
cities and civilization lie buried deep beneath the tossing
waves of the Atlantic, and whose adventurous spirit had, in
remote ages, caused them to penetrate into the heart of
Africa in search of gold and to build there, in duplication
of their far home cities, the magnificent city of Opar.

As Cadj and his followers watched from beneath shaggy brows
the strangers plodding laboriously beneath the now declining
equatorial sun across the rocky, barren valley, a gray little
monkey eyed them from amidst the foliage of one of the giant
trees that had forced its way through the pavement of the
ancient avenue behind them.  A solemn, sad-faced little
monkey it was, but like all his kind overcome by curiosity,
and finally to such an extent that his fear of the fierce
males of Opar was so considerably overcome that he at last
swung lightly from the tree to the pavement, made his way
through the inner wall and up the inside of the outer wall
to a position in their rear where he could hide behind one
of the massive granite blocks of the crumbling wall in
comparative safety from detection, the while he might
overhear the conversation of the Oparians, all of which that
was carried on in the language of the great apes he could
understand perfectly.

The afternoon was drawing to a close before the slowly
moving company approaching Opar was close enough for
individuals to be recognizable in any way, and then
presently one of the younger priests exclaimed excitedly.
“It is he, Cadj. It is the great Tarmangani who calls himself
Tarzan of the Apes. I can see him plainly; the others are
all black men. He is urging them on prodding them with his
spear.  They act as though they were afraid and very tired,
but he is forcing them forward."

"You are sure," demanded Cadj, "you are sure that it
is Tarzan of the Apes?"

"I am positive," replied the speaker, and then another of
the priests joined his assurances to that of his fellow. At
last they were close enough so that Cadj himself, whose
eyesight was not as good as that of the younger members of
the company, realized that it was indeed Tarzan of the Apes
who was returning to Opar. The High Priest scowled angrily
in thought.  Suddenly he turned upon the others.

"He must not come," he cried; "he must not enter Opar.
Hasten and fetch a hundred fighting men.  We will meet them
as they come through the outer wall and slay them one by
one."

But La," cried he who had aroused Cadj's anger in the
garden, "I distinctly recall that La offered the friendship
of Opar to Tarzan of the Apes upon that time, many moons
ago, that he saved her from the tusks of infuriated Tantor."

"Silence," growled Cadj, "he shall not enter; we shall slay
them all, though we need not know their identity until it is
too late.  Do you understand?  And know, too, that whosoever
attempts to thwart my purpose shall die--and he die not as
a sacrifice, he shall die at my hands, but die he shall. You
hear me?" And he pointed an unclean finger at the trembling
priest.

Manu, the monkey, hearing this, was almost bursting with
excitement. He knew Tarzan of the Apes--as all the
migratory monkeys the length and breadth of Africa knew him
--he knew him for friend and protector.  To Manu the males
of Opar were neither beast, nor man, nor friend. He knew
them as cruel and surly creatures who ate the flesh of his
kind, and he hated them accordingly.  He was therefore
greatly exercised at the plot that he had heard discussed
which was aimed at the life of the great Tarmangani. He
scratched his little gray head, and the root of his tail,
and his belly, as he attempted to mentally digest what he
had heard, and bring forth from the dim recesses of his
little brain a plan to foil the priests and save Tarzan of
the Apes. He made grotesque grimaces that were aimed at the
unsuspecting Cadj and his followers, but which failed to
perturb them, possibly because a huge granite block hid the
little monkey from them. This was quite the most momentous
thing that had occurred in the life of Manu. He wanted to
jump up and down and dance and screech and jabber--to
scold and threaten the hated Oparians, but something told
him that nothing would be gained by this, other than,
perhaps, to launch in his direction a shower of granite
missiles, which the priests knew only too well how to throw
with accuracy. Now Manu is not a deep thinker, but upon this
occasion he quite outdid himself, and managed to concentrate
his mind upon the thing at hand rather than permit its being
distracted by each falling leaf or buzzing insect. He even
permitted a succulent caterpillar to crawl within his reach
and out again with impunity.

Just before darkness fell, Cadj saw a little gray monkey
disappear over the summit of the outer wall fifty paces from
where he crouched with his fellows, waiting for the coming
of the fighting men. But so numerous were the monkeys about
the ruins of Opar that the occurrence left Cadj's mind
almost as quickly as the monkey disappeared from his view,
and in the gathering gloom he did not see the little gray
figure scampering off across the valley toward the band of
intruders who now appeared to have stopped to rest at the
foot of a large kopje that stood alone out in the valley,
about a mile from the city.

Little Manu was very much afraid out there alone in the
growing dusk, and he scampered very fast with his tail bowed
up and out behind him. All the time he cast affrighted
glances to the right and left. The moment he reached the
kopje he scampered up its face as fast as he could. It was
really a huge, precipitous granite rock with almost
perpendicular sides, but sufficiently weather-worn to make
its ascent easy to little Manu. He paused a moment at the
summit to get his breath and still the beatings of his
frightened little heart, and then he made his way around to
a point where he could look down upon the party beneath.

There, indeed, was the great Tarmangani Tarzan, and with him
were some fifty Gomangani. The latter were splicing together
a number of long, straight poles, which they had laid upon
the ground in two parallel lines. Across these two, at
intervals of a foot or more, they were lashing smaller
straight branches about eighteen inches in length, the whole
forming a crude but substantial ladder. The purpose of all
this Manu, of course, did not understand, nor did he know
that it had been evolved from the fertile brain of Flora
Hawkes as a means of scaling the precipitous kopje, at the
summit of which lay the outer entrance to the treasure
vaults of Opar.  Nor did Manu know that the party had no
intention of entering the city of Opar and were therefore in
no danger of becoming victims of Cadj's hidden assassins. To
him, the danger to Tarzan of the Apes was very real, and so,
having regained his breath, he lost no time in delivering
his warning to the friend of his people.

"Tarzan," he cried, in the language that was common to both.
 The white man and the blacks looked up at the sound of his
chattering voice.

"It is Manu, Tarzan," continued the little monkey, "who has
come to tell you not to go to Opar. Cadj and his people
await within the outer wall to slay you."

The blacks, having discovered that the author of the
disturbance was nothing but a little gray monkey, returned
immediately to their work, while the white man similarly
ignored his words of warning.  Manu was not surprised at the
lack of interest displayed by the blacks, for he knew that
they did not understand his language, but he could not comprehend why Tarzan failed to pay any attention whatsoever
to him.  Again and again he called Tarzan by name. Again and
again he shrieked his warning to the ape-man, but without
eliciting any reply or any information that the great
Tarmangani had either heard or understood him. Manu was
mystified. What had occurred to render Tarzan of the Apes so
indifferent to the warnings of his old friend?

At last the little monkey gave it up and looked longingly
back in the direction of the trees within the walled city of
Opar.  It was now very dark and he trembled at the thought
of recrossing the valley, where he knew enemies might prowl
by night.  He scratched his head and he hugged his knees,
then sat there whimpering, a very forlorn and unhappy little
ball of a monkey.  But however uncomfortable he was upon the
high kopje, he was comparatively safe, and so he decided to
remain there during the night rather than venture the
terrifying return trip through the darkness. Thus it was
that he saw the ladder completed and erected against the
side of the kopje; and when the moon rose at last and
lighted the scene, he saw Tarzan of the Apes urging his men
to mount the ladder. He had never seen Tarzan thus rough and
cruel with the blacks who accompanied him.  Manu knew how
ferocious the great Tarmangani could be with an enemy,
whether man or beast, but he had never seen him accord such
treatment to the blacks who were his friends.

One by one and with evident reluctance the blacks ascended
the ladder, continually urged forward to greater speed by
the sharp spear of the white man; when they had all ascended
Tarzan followed, and Manu saw them disappear apparently into
the heart of the great rock.

It was only a short time later that they commenced to
reappear, and now each was burdened by two heavy objects
which appeared to Manu to be very similar to some of the
smaller stone blocks that had been used in the construction
of the buildings in Opar. He saw them take the blocks to the
edge of the kopje and cast them over to the ground beneath,
and when the last of the blacks had emerged with his load
and cast it to the valley below, one by one the party
descended the ladder to the foot of the kopje. But this time
Tarzan of the Apes went first.  Then they lowered the ladder
and took it apart and laid its pieces close to the foot of
the cliff, after which they took up the blocks which they
had brought from the heart of the kopje, and following
Tarzan, who set out in the lead, they commenced to retrace
their steps toward the rim of the valley.

Manu would have been very much mystified had he been a man,
but being only a monkey he saw only what he saw without
attempting to reason very much about it. He knew that the
ways of men were peculiar, and oftentimes unaccountable. For
example, the Gomangani who could not travel through the
jungle and the forest with the ease of any other of the
animals which frequented them, added to their difficulties
by loading themselves down with additional weights in the
form of metal anklets and armlets, with necklaces and
girdles, and with skins of animals, which did nothing more
than impede their progress and render life much more
complicated than that which the untrammeled beasts enjoyed.
Manu, whenever he gave the matter a thought, congratulated
himself that he was not a man--he pitied the foolish,
unreasonable creatures.


Manu must have slept. He thought that he had only closed his
eyes a moment, but when he opened them the rosy light of
dawn had overspread the desolate valley. Just disappearing
over the cliffs to the northeast he could see the last of
Tarzan's party commencing the descent of the barrier, then
Manu turned his face toward Opar and prepared to descend
from the kopje, and scamper back to the safety of his trees
within the walls of Opar.

But first he would reconnoiter--Sheeta, the panther, might
be still abroad, and so he scampered around the edge of the
kopje to a point where he could see the entire valley floor
between himself and Opar. And there it was that he saw again
that which filled him with greatest excitement. For,
debouching from the ruined outer wall of Opar was a large
company of Opar's frightful men--fully a hundred of them
Manu could have counted had Manu been able to count.

They seemed to be coming toward the kopje, and he sat and
watched them as they approached, to defer his return to the
city until after the path was cleared of hated Oparians.  It
occurred to him that they were coming after him, for the
egotism of the lower animals is inordinate. Because he was a
monkey, the idea did not seem at all ridiculous and so he
hid behind a jutting rock, with only one little, bright eye
exposed to the enemy. He saw them come closer and he grew
very much excited, though he was not at all afraid, for he
knew that if they ascended one side of the kopje he could
descend the other and be half-way to Opar before they could
possibly locate him again.

On and on they came, but they did not stop at the kopje--as a matter of fact they did not come very close to it, but
continued on beyond it. Then it was that the truth of the
matter flashed into the little brain of the monkey--Cadj
and his people were pursuing Tarzan of the Apes to slay him.
If Manu had been offended by Tarzan's indifference to him
upon the night before, he had evidently forgotten it, for
now he was quite as excited about the danger which he saw
menace the ape-man as he had been upon the afternoon
previous. At first he thought of running ahead, and again
warning Tarzan, but he feared to venture so far from the
trees of Opar, even if the thought of having to pass the
hated Oparians had not been sufficient to deter him from
carrying out this plan. For a few minutes he sat watching
them, until they had all passed the kopje, and then it
became quite clear to him that they were heading directly
for the spot at which the last of Tarzan's party had
disappeared from the valley--there could be no doubt that
they were in pursuit of the ape-man.

Manu scanned the valley once more toward Opar. There was
nothing in sight to deter him from an attempted return, and
so, with the agility of his kind, he scampered down the
vertical face of the kopje and was off at great speed toward
the city's wall. Just when he formulated the plan that he
eventually followed it is difficult to say. Perhaps he
thought it all out as he sat upon the kopje, watching Cadj
and his people upon the trail of the ape-man, or perhaps it
occurred to him while he was scampering across the barren
waste toward Opar. It may just have popped into his mind
from a clear sky after he had regained the leafy sanctuary
of his own trees. Be that, however as it may, the fact
remains, that as La, High Priestess and princess of Opar, in
company with several of her priestesses, was bathing in a
pool in one of the temple gardens, she was startled by the
screaming of a monkey, swinging frantically by his tail from
the branch of a great tree which overspread the pool--it
was a little gray monkey with a face so wise and serious
that one might easily have imagined that the fate of nations
lay constantly upon the shoulders of its owner.

"La, La," it screamed, "they have gone to kill Tarzan. They
have gone to kill Tarzan."

At the sound of that name La was instantly all attention.
Standing waist deep in the pool she looked up at the little
monkey questioningly.  What do you mean, Manu?" she asked.
"It has been many moons since Tarzan was at Opar. He is not
here now. What are you talking about?"

"I saw him," screamed Manu, "I saw him last night with many
Gomangani.  He came to the great rock that lies in the
valley before Opar; with all his men he climbed to the top
of it, went into the heart of it, and came out with stones
which they threw down into the valley. Afterward they
descended from the rock, and picked up the stones again and
left the valley there," and Manu pointed toward the
northeast with one of his hairy little fingers.

"How do you know it was Tarzan of the Apes?" asked La.

"Does Manu not know his cousin and his friend?" demanded the
monkey. "With my eyes I saw him--it was Tarzan of the
Apes."

La of Opar puckered her brows in thought. Deep in her heart
smoldered the tires of her great love for Tarzan. Fires that
had been quenched by the necessity that had compelled her
marriage with Cadj since last she had seen the ape-man. For
it is written among the laws of Opar that the High Priestess
of the Flaming God must take a mate within a certain number
of years after her consecration. For many moons had La
longed to make Tarzan that mate.  The ape-man had not loved
her, and finally she had come to a realization that he could
never love her. Afterward she had bowed to the frightful
fate that had placed her in the arms of Cadj.

As month after month had passed and Tarzan bad not returned
to Opar, as he had promised he would do, to see that no harm
befell La, she had come to accept the opinion of Cadj that
the ape-man was dead, and though she hated the repulsive
Cadj none the less, her love for Tarzan had gradually become
little more than a sorrowful memory. Now to learn that he
was alive and had been so near was like re-opening an old
wound. At first she comprehended little else than that
Tarzan had been close to Opar, but presently the cries of
Manu aroused her to a realization that the ape-man was in
danger--just what the danger was, she did not know.

"Who has gone to kill Tarzan of the Apes?  she demanded
suddenly.

"Cadj, Cadj!" shrieked Manu. "He has gone with many, many
men, and is following upon the spoor of Tarzan."

La sprang quickly from the pool, seized her girdle and
ornaments from her attendant and adjusting them hurriedly,
sped through the garden and into the temple.