For a moment Tarzan thought that by some strange freakof fate a miracle had saved him, but when he realized theease with which the girl had, single-handed, beaten offtwenty gorilla-like males, and an instant later, as he sawthem again take up their dance about him while she addressedthem in a singsong monotone, which bore every evidence ofrote, he came to the conclusion that it was all but a partof the ceremony of which he was the central figure.

After a moment or two the girl drew a knife from her girdle,and, leaning over Tarzan, cut the bonds from his legs.Then, as the men stopped their dance, and approached, shemotioned to him to rise. Placing the rope that had beenabout his legs around his neck, she led him across thecourtyard, the men following in twos.

Through winding corridors she led, farther and fartherinto the remoter precincts of the temple, until they came to agreat chamber in the center of which stood an altar. Then itwas that Tarzan translated the strange ceremony that hadpreceded his introduction into this holy of holies.

He had fallen into the hands of descendants of the ancientsun worshippers. His seeming rescue by a votaress of thehigh priestess of the sun had been but a part of the mimicryof their heathen ceremony--the sun looking down upon himthrough the opening at the top of the court had claimed himas his own, and the priestess had come from the innertemple to save him from the polluting hands of worldlings--to save him as a human offering to their flaming deity.

And had he needed further assurance as to the correctnessof his theory he had only to cast his eyes upon the brownish-red stains that caked the stone altar and covered the floorin its immediate vicinity, or to the human skulls whichgrinned from countless niches in the towering walls.

The priestess led the victim to the altar steps. Again thegalleries above filled with watchers, while from an archeddoorway at the east end of the chamber a procession of femalesfiled slowly into the room. They wore, like the men,only skins of wild animals caught about their waists withrawhide belts or chains of gold; but the black masses of theirhair were incrusted with golden headgear composed of manycircular and oval pieces of gold ingeniously held together toform a metal cap from which depended at each side ofthe head, long strings of oval pieces falling to the waist.

The females were more symmetrically proportioned thanthe males, their features were much more perfect, the shapesof their heads and their large, soft, black eyes denoting fargreater intelligence and humanity than was possessed bytheir lords and masters.

Each priestess bore two golden cups, and as they formed inline along one side of the altar the men formed opposite them,advancing and taking each a cup from the female opposite.Then the chant began once more, and presently froma dark passageway beyond the altar another femaleemerged from the cavernous depths beneath the chamber.

The high priestess, thought Tarzan. She was a young womanwith a rather intelligent and shapely face. Her ornamentswere similar to those worn by her votaries, but much moreelaborate, many being set with diamonds. Her bare armsand legs were almost concealed by the massive, bejeweledornaments which covered them, while her single leopardskin was supported by a close-fitting girdle of golden ringsset in strange designs with innumerable small diamonds.In the girdle she carried a long, jeweled knife, and in herhand a slender wand in lieu of a bludgeon.

As she advanced to the opposite side of the altar shehalted, and the chanting ceased. The priests and priestessesknelt before her, while with wand extended above them sherecited a long and tiresome prayer. Her voice was soft andmusical--Tarzan could scarce realize that its possessorin a moment more would be transformed by the fanaticalecstasy of religious zeal into a wild-eyed and bloodthirstyexecutioner, who, with dripping knife, would be the first todrink her victim's red, warm blood from the little golden cupthat stood upon the altar.

As she finished her prayer she let her eyes rest for the firsttime upon Tarzan. With every indication of considerablecuriosity she examined him from head to foot. Then sheaddressed him, and when she had finished stood waiting, asthough she expected a reply.

"I do not understand your language," said Tarzan."Possibly we may speak together in another tongue?"But she could not understand him, though he tried French,English, Arab, Waziri, and, as a last resort, the mongreltongue of the West Coast.

She shook her head, and it seemed that there was a note ofweariness in her voice as she motioned to the priests tocontinue with the rites. These now circled in a repetition oftheir idiotic dance, which was terminated finally at a commandfrom the priestess, who had stood throughout, stilllooking intently upon Tarzan.

At her signal the priests rushed upon the ape-man, and,lifting him bodily, laid him upon his back across the altar,his head hanging over one edge, his legs over the opposite.Then they and the priestesses formed in two lines, withtheir little golden cups in readiness to capture a share of thevictim's lifeblood after the sacrificial knife had accomplishedits work.

In the line of priests an altercation arose as to whoshould have first place. A burly brute with all the refinedintelligence of a gorilla stamped upon his bestial face wasattempting to push a smaller man to second place, but thesmaller one appealed to the high priestess, who in a coldperemptory voice sent the larger to the extreme end of the line.Tarzan could hear him growling and rumbling as he wentslowly to the inferior station.

Then the priestess, standing above him, began recitingwhat Tarzan took to be an invocation, the while she slowlyraised her thin, sharp knife aloft. It seemed ages to theape-man before her arm ceased its upward progress and theknife halted high above his unprotected breast.

Then it started downward, slowly at first, but as theincantation increased in rapidity, with greater speed. At theend of the line Tarzan could still hear the grumbling of thedisgruntled priest. The man's voice rose louder and louder.A priestess near him spoke in sharp tones of rebuke. The knifewas quite near to Tarzan's breast now, but it halted for aninstant as the high priestess raised her eyes to shoot her swiftdispleasure at the instigator of this sacrilegious interruption.

There was a sudden commotion in the direction of thedisputants, and Tarzan rolled his head in their directionin time to see the burly brute of a priest leap upon thewoman opposite him, dashing out her brains with a singleblow of his heavy cudgel. Then that happened which Tarzanhad witnessed a hundred times before among the wild denizensof his own savage jungle. He had seen the thing fallupon Kerchak, and Tublat, and Terkoz; upon a dozen of theother mighty bull apes of his tribe; and upon Tantor,the elephant; there was scarce any of the males of the forestthat did not at times fall prey to it. The priest went mad,and with his heavy bludgeon ran amuck among his fellows.

His screams of rage were frightful as he dashed hitherand thither, dealing terrific blows with his giant weapon, orsinking his yellow fangs into the flesh of some luckless victim.And during it the priestess stood with poised knife aboveTarzan, her eyes fixed in horror upon the maniacal thingthat was dealing out death and destruction to her votaries.

Presently the room was emptied except for the dead anddying on the floor, the victim upon the altar, the highpriestess, and the madman. As the cunning eyes of the latterfell upon the woman they lighted with a new and sudden lust.Slowly he crept toward her, and now he spoke; but thistime there fell upon Tarzan's surprised ears a language hecould understand; the last one that he would ever havethought of employing in attempting to converse with humanbeings--the low guttural barking of the tribe of greatanthropoids--his own mother tongue. And the woman answeredthe man in the same language.

He was threatening--she attempting to reason with him, for itwas quite evident that she saw that he was past her authority.The brute was quite close now--creeping with clawlike handsextended toward her around the end of the altar.Tarzan strained at the bonds which held his arms pinionedbehind him. The woman did not see--she had forgottenher prey in the horror of the danger that threatened herself.As the brute leaped past Tarzan to clutch his victim, theape-man gave one superhuman wrench at the thongs that held him.The effort sent him rolling from the altar to the stonefloor on the opposite side from that on which the priestessstood; but as he sprang to his feet the thongs dropped fromhis freed arms, and at the same time he realized that hewas alone in the inner temple--the high priestess and themad priest had disappeared.

And then a muffled scream came from the cavernous mouthof the dark hole beyond the sacrificial altar through which thepriestess had entered the temple. Without even a thought forhis own safety, or the possibility for escape which this rapidseries of fortuitous circumstances had thrust upon him,Tarzan of the Apes answered the call of the woman in danger.With a little bound he was at the gaping entrance to thesubterranean chamber, and a moment later was running downa flight of age-old concrete steps that led he knew not where.

The faint light that filtered in from above showed hima large, low-ceiled vault from which several doorways led offinto inky darkness, but there was no need to thread an unknownway, for there before him lay the objects of his search--themad brute had the girl upon the floor, and gorilla-likefingers were clutching frantically at her throat as shestruggled to escape the fury of the awful thing upon her.

As Tarzan's heavy hand fell upon his shoulder the priestdropped his victim, and turned upon her would-be rescuer.With foam-flecked lips and bared fangs the mad sun-worshiperbattled with the tenfold power of the maniac. In theblood lust of his fury the creature had undergone a suddenreversion to type, which left him a wild beast, forgetful ofthe dagger that projected from his belt--thinking only ofnature's weapons with which his brute prototype had battled.

But if he could use his teeth and hands to advantage, hefound one even better versed in the school of savage warfareto which he had reverted, for Tarzan of the Apes closedwith him, and they fell to the floor tearing and rending at oneanother like two bull apes; while the primitive priestessstood flattened against the wall, watching with wide, fear-fascinated eyes the growing, snapping beasts at her feet.

At last she saw the stranger close one mighty hand uponthe throat of his antagonist, and as he forced the bruteman'shead far back rain blow after blow upon the upturned face.A moment later he threw the still thing from him, and,arising, shook himself like a lion. He placed a footupon the carcass before him, and raised his head to give thevictory cry of his kind, but as his eyes fell upon the openingabove him leading into the temple of human sacrifice hethought better of his intended act.

The girl, who had been half paralyzed by fear as the twomen fought, had just commenced to give thought to herprobable fate now that, though released from the clutches ofa madman, she had fallen into the hands of one whom but amoment before she had been upon the point of killing.She looked about for some means of escape. The black mouthof a diverging corridor was near at hand, but as sheturned to dart into it the ape-man's eyes fell upon her, andwith a quick leap he was at her side, and a restraining handwas laid upon her arm.

"Wait!" said Tarzan of the Apes, in the language of thetribe of Kerchak.

The girl looked at him in astonishment.

"Who are you," she whispered, "who speaks the languageof the first man?"

"I am Tarzan of the Apes," he answered in the vernacularof the anthropoids.

"What do you want of me?" she continued. "For whatpurpose did you save me from Tha?"

"I could not see a woman murdered?" It was a half questionthat answered her.

"But what do you intend to do with me now?" she continued.

"Nothing," he replied, "but you can do something for me--youcan lead me out of this place to freedom." He made thesuggestion without the slightest thought that she would accede.He felt quite sure that the sacrifice would go on from thepoint where it had been interrupted if the high priestesshad her way, though he was equally positive that they wouldfind Tarzan of the Apes unbound and with a long daggerin his hand a much less tractable victim than Tarzandisarmed and bound.

The girl stood looking at him for a long moment beforeshe spoke.

"You are a very wonderful man," she said. "You aresuch a man as I have seen in my daydreams ever since Iwas a little girl. You are such a man as I imagine theforbears of my people must have been--the great race of peoplewho built this mighty city in the heart of a savage world thatthey might wrest from the bowels of the earth the fabulouswealth for which they had sacrificed their far-distant civilization.

"I cannot understand why you came to my rescue in thefirst place, and now I cannot understand why, having mewithin your power, you do not wish to be revenged uponme for having sentenced you to death--for having almostput you to death with my own hand."

"I presume," replied the ape-man, "that you but followedthe teachings of your religion. I cannot blame YOU for that,no matter what I may think of your creed. But who are you--what people have I fallen among?"

"I am La, high priestess of the Temple of the Sun, in thecity of Opar. We are descendants of a people who came tothis savage world more than ten thousand years ago in searchof gold. Their cities stretched from a great sea under therising sun to a great sea into which the sun descends at nightto cool his flaming brow. They were very rich and verypowerful, but they lived only a few months of the year intheir magnificent palaces here; the rest of the time theyspent in their native land, far, far to the north.

"Many ships went back and forth between this new worldand the old. During the rainy season there were but fewof the inhabitants remained here, only those whosuperintended the working of the mines by the black slaves,and the merchants who had to stay to supply their wants,and the soldiers who guarded the cities and the mines.

"It was at one of these times that the great calamity occurred.When the time came for the teeming thousands to return none came.For weeks the people waited. Then they sent out a great galleyto learn why no one came from the mother country, but thoughthey sailed about for many months, they were unable to findany trace of the mighty land that had for countless agesborne their ancient civilization--it had sunk into the sea.

"From that day dated the downfall of my people.Disheartened and unhappy, they soon became a prey to theblack hordes of the north and the black hordes of the south.One by one the cities were deserted or overcome. The lastremnant was finally forced to take shelter within this mightymountain fortress. Slowly we have dwindled in power, incivilization, in intellect, in numbers, until now we are nomore than a small tribe of savage apes.

"In fact, the apes live with us, and have for many ages.We call them the first men--we speak their language quiteas much as we do our own; only in the rituals of the templedo we make any attempt to retain our mother tongue. In timeit will be forgotten, and we will speak only the languageof the apes; in time we will no longer banish those of ourpeople who mate with apes, and so in time we shall descendto the very beasts from which ages ago our progenitors mayhave sprung."

"But why are you more human than the others?" askedthe man.

"For some reason the women have not reverted to savageryso rapidly as the men. It may be because only thelower types of men remained here at the time of the greatcatastrophe, while the temples were filled with the noblestdaughters of the race. My strain has remained clearerthan the rest because for countless ages my foremothers werehigh priestesses--the sacred office descends from motherto daughter. Our husbands are chosen for us from the noblestin 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 fromamong them."

The girl looked at him quizzically for a moment.

"Do not be sacrilegious," she said. "They are very holymen--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 ofthe vault he was impressed by her beauty.

"But how about myself?" he asked suddenly. "Are yougoing 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 tosave you--should they find you again. But I do not intendthat they shall find you. You risked your life to save mine.I may do no less for you. It will be no easy matter--it mayrequire days; but in the end I think that I can lead you beyondthe walls. Come, they will look here for me presently, andif they find us together we shall both be lost--they wouldkill me did they think that I had proved false to my god."

"You must not take the risk, then," he said quickly. "I willreturn to the temple, and if I can fight my way to freedomthere will be no suspicion thrown upon you."

But she would not have it so, and finally persuaded himto follow her, saying that they had already remained in thevault too long to prevent suspicion from falling upon hereven if they returned to the temple.

"I will hide you, and then return alone," she said, "tellingthem that I was long unconscious after you killed Tha, andthat 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 littlelight filtered through a stone grating in the ceiling.

"This is the Chamber of the Dead," she said. "None willthink of searching here for you--they would not dare. I willreturn after it is dark. By that time I may have found aplan to effect your escape."

She was gone, and Tarzan of the Apes was left alone inthe Chamber of the Dead, beneath the long-dead city of Opar.