Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar Read online

  4

  Prophecy and Fulfillment

  Then Tarzan turned his attention to the man. He had not slain Numa tosave the Negro--he had merely done it in revenge upon the lion; but nowthat he saw the old man lying helpless and dying before him somethingakin to pity touched his savage heart. In his youth he would haveslain the witch-doctor without the slightest compunction; butcivilization had had its softening effect upon him even as it does uponthe nations and races which it touches, though it had not yet gone farenough with Tarzan to render him either cowardly or effeminate. He sawan old man suffering and dying, and he stooped and felt of his woundsand stanched the flow of blood.

  "Who are you?" asked the old man in a trembling voice.

  "I am Tarzan--Tarzan of the Apes," replied the ape-man and not withouta greater touch of pride than he would have said, "I am John Clayton,Lord Greystoke."

  The witch-doctor shook convulsively and closed his eyes. When heopened them again there was in them a resignation to whatever horriblefate awaited him at the hands of this feared demon of the woods. "Whydo you not kill me?" he asked.

  "Why should I kill you?" inquired Tarzan. "You have not harmed me, andanyway you are already dying. Numa, the lion, has killed you."

  "You would not kill me?" Surprise and incredulity were in the tones ofthe quavering old voice.

  "I would save you if I could," replied Tarzan, "but that cannot bedone. Why did you think I would kill you?"

  For a moment the old man was silent. When he spoke it was evidentlyafter some little effort to muster his courage. "I knew you of old,"he said, "when you ranged the jungle in the country of Mbonga, thechief. I was already a witch-doctor when you slew Kulonga and theothers, and when you robbed our huts and our poison pot. At first Idid not remember you; but at last I did--the white-skinned ape thatlived with the hairy apes and made life miserable in the village ofMbonga, the chief--the forest god--the Munango-Keewati for whom we setfood outside our gates and who came and ate it. Tell me before Idie--are you man or devil?"

  Tarzan laughed. "I am a man," he said.

  The old fellow sighed and shook his head. "You have tried to save mefrom Simba," he said. "For that I shall reward you. I am a greatwitch-doctor. Listen to me, white man! I see bad days ahead of you.It is writ in my own blood which I have smeared upon my palm. A godgreater even than you will rise up and strike you down. Turn back,Munango-Keewati! Turn back before it is too late. Danger lies aheadof you and danger lurks behind; but greater is the danger before. Isee--" He paused and drew a long, gasping breath. Then he crumpledinto a little, wrinkled heap and died. Tarzan wondered what else hehad seen.

  It was very late when the ape-man re-entered the boma and lay downamong his black warriors. None had seen him go and none saw himreturn. He thought about the warning of the old witch-doctor before hefell asleep and he thought of it again after he awoke; but he did notturn back for he was unafraid, though had he known what lay in storefor one he loved most in all the world he would have flown through thetrees to her side and allowed the gold of Opar to remain forever hiddenin its forgotten storehouse.

  Behind him that morning another white man pondered something he hadheard during the night and very nearly did he give up his project andturn back upon his trail. It was Werper, the murderer, who in thestill of the night had heard far away upon the trail ahead of him asound that had filled his cowardly soul with terror--a sound such as henever before had heard in all his life, nor dreamed that such afrightful thing could emanate from the lungs of a God-created creature.He had heard the victory cry of the bull ape as Tarzan had screamed itforth into the face of Goro, the moon, and he had trembled then andhidden his face; and now in the broad light of a new day he trembledagain as he recalled it, and would have turned back from the namelessdanger the echo of that frightful sound seemed to portend, had he notstood in even greater fear of Achmet Zek, his master.

  And so Tarzan of the Apes forged steadily ahead toward Opar's ruinedramparts and behind him slunk Werper, jackal-like, and only God knewwhat lay in store for each.

  At the edge of the desolate valley, overlooking the golden domes andminarets of Opar, Tarzan halted. By night he would go alone to thetreasure vault, reconnoitering, for he had determined that cautionshould mark his every move upon this expedition.

  With the coming of night he set forth, and Werper, who had scaled thecliffs alone behind the ape-man's party, and hidden through the dayamong the rough boulders of the mountain top, slunk stealthily afterhim. The boulder-strewn plain between the valley's edge and the mightygranite kopje, outside the city's walls, where lay the entrance to thepassage-way leading to the treasure vault, gave the Belgian ample coveras he followed Tarzan toward Opar.

  He saw the giant ape-man swing himself nimbly up the face of the greatrock. Werper, clawing fearfully during the perilous ascent, sweatingin terror, almost palsied by fear, but spurred on by avarice, followingupward, until at last he stood upon the summit of the rocky hill.

  Tarzan was nowhere in sight. For a time Werper hid behind one of thelesser boulders that were scattered over the top of the hill, but,seeing or hearing nothing of the Englishman, he crept from his place ofconcealment to undertake a systematic search of his surroundings, inthe hope that he might discover the location of the treasure in ampletime to make his escape before Tarzan returned, for it was theBelgian's desire merely to locate the gold, that, after Tarzan haddeparted, he might come in safety with his followers and carry away asmuch as he could transport.

  He found the narrow cleft leading downward into the heart of the kopjealong well-worn, granite steps. He advanced quite to the dark mouth ofthe tunnel into which the runway disappeared; but here he halted,fearing to enter, lest he meet Tarzan returning.

  The ape-man, far ahead of him, groped his way along the rocky passage,until he came to the ancient wooden door. A moment later he stoodwithin the treasure chamber, where, ages since, long-dead hands hadranged the lofty rows of precious ingots for the rulers of that greatcontinent which now lies submerged beneath the waters of the Atlantic.

  No sound broke the stillness of the subterranean vault. There was noevidence that another had discovered the forgotten wealth since lastthe ape-man had visited its hiding place.

  Satisfied, Tarzan turned and retraced his steps toward the summit ofthe kopje. Werper, from the concealment of a jutting, graniteshoulder, watched him pass up from the shadows of the stairway andadvance toward the edge of the hill which faced the rim of the valleywhere the Waziri awaited the signal of their master. Then Werper,slipping stealthily from his hiding place, dropped into the somberdarkness of the entrance and disappeared.

  Tarzan, halting upon the kopje's edge, raised his voice in thethunderous roar of a lion. Twice, at regular intervals, he repeatedthe call, standing in attentive silence for several minutes after theechoes of the third call had died away. And then, from far across thevalley, faintly, came an answering roar--once, twice, thrice. Basuli,the Waziri chieftain, had heard and replied.

  Tarzan again made his way toward the treasure vault, knowing that in afew hours his blacks would be with him, ready to bear away anotherfortune in the strangely shaped, golden ingots of Opar. In themeantime he would carry as much of the precious metal to the summit ofthe kopje as he could.

  Six trips he made in the five hours before Basuli reached the kopje,and at the end of that time he had transported forty-eight ingots tothe edge of the great boulder, carrying upon each trip a load whichmight well have staggered two ordinary men, yet his giant frame showedno evidence of fatigue, as he helped to raise his ebon warriors to thehill top with the rope that had been brought for the purpose.

  Six times he had returned to the treasure chamber, and six timesWerper, the Belgian, had cowered in the black shadows at the far end ofthe long vault. Once again came the ape-man, and this time there camewith him fifty fighting men, turning porters for love of the onlycreature in the world who might command of their fierce and haughtynatu
res such menial service. Fifty-two more ingots passed out of thevaults, making the total of one hundred which Tarzan intended takingaway with him.

  As the last of the Waziri filed from the chamber, Tarzan turned backfor a last glimpse of the fabulous wealth upon which his two inroadshad made no appreciable impression. Before he extinguished the singlecandle he had brought with him for the purpose, and the flickeringlight of which had cast the first alleviating rays into theimpenetrable darkness of the buried chamber, that it had known for thecountless ages since it had lain forgotten of man, Tarzan's mindreverted to that first occasion upon which he had entered the treasurevault, coming upon it by chance as he fled from the pits beneath thetemple, where he had been hidden by La, the High Priestess of the SunWorshipers.

  He recalled the scene within the temple when he had lain stretched uponthe sacrificial altar, while La, with high-raised dagger, stood abovehim, and the rows of priests and priestesses awaited, in the ecstatichysteria of fanaticism, the first gush of their victim's warm blood,that they might fill their golden goblets and drink to the glory oftheir Flaming God.

  The brutal and bloody interruption by Tha, the mad priest, passedvividly before the ape-man's recollective eyes, the flight of thevotaries before the insane blood lust of the hideous creature, thebrutal attack upon La, and his own part of the grim tragedy when he hadbattled with the infuriated Oparian and left him dead at the feet ofthe priestess he would have profaned.

  This and much more passed through Tarzan's memory as he stood gazing atthe long tiers of dull-yellow metal. He wondered if La still ruled thetemples of the ruined city whose crumbling walls rose upon the veryfoundations about him. Had she finally been forced into a union withone of her grotesque priests? It seemed a hideous fate, indeed, forone so beautiful. With a shake of his head, Tarzan stepped to theflickering candle, extinguished its feeble rays and turned toward theexit.

  Behind him the spy waited for him to be gone. He had learned thesecret for which he had come, and now he could return at his leisure tohis waiting followers, bring them to the treasure vault and carry awayall the gold that they could stagger under.

  The Waziri had reached the outer end of the tunnel, and were windingupward toward the fresh air and the welcome starlight of the kopje'ssummit, before Tarzan shook off the detaining hand of reverie andstarted slowly after them.

  Once again, and, he thought, for the last time, he closed the massivedoor of the treasure room. In the darkness behind him Werper rose andstretched his cramped muscles. He stretched forth a hand and lovinglycaressed a golden ingot on the nearest tier. He raised it from itsimmemorial resting place and weighed it in his hands. He clutched itto his bosom in an ecstasy of avarice.

  Tarzan dreamed of the happy homecoming which lay before him, of deararms about his neck, and a soft cheek pressed to his; but there rose todispel that dream the memory of the old witch-doctor and his warning.

  And then, in the span of a few brief seconds, the hopes of both thesemen were shattered. The one forgot even his greed in the panic ofterror--the other was plunged into total forgetfulness of the past by ajagged fragment of rock which gashed a deep cut upon his head.