Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar Read online

  7

  The Jewel-Room of Opar

  For some time Tarzan lay where he had fallen upon the floor of thetreasure chamber beneath the ruined walls of Opar. He lay as one dead;but he was not dead. At length he stirred. His eyes opened upon theutter darkness of the room. He raised his hand to his head and broughtit away sticky with clotted blood. He sniffed at his fingers, as awild beast might sniff at the life-blood upon a wounded paw.

  Slowly he rose to a sitting posture--listening. No sound reached tothe buried depths of his sepulcher. He staggered to his feet, andgroped his way about among the tiers of ingots. What was he? Wherewas he? His head ached; but otherwise he felt no ill effects from theblow that had felled him. The accident he did not recall, nor did herecall aught of what had led up to it.

  He let his hands grope unfamiliarly over his limbs, his torso, and hishead. He felt of the quiver at his back, the knife in his loin cloth.Something struggled for recognition within his brain. Ah! he had it.There was something missing. He crawled about upon the floor, feelingwith his hands for the thing that instinct warned him was gone. Atlast he found it--the heavy war spear that in past years had formed soimportant a feature of his daily life, almost of his very existence, soinseparably had it been connected with his every action since thelong-gone day that he had wrested his first spear from the body of ablack victim of his savage training.

  Tarzan was sure that there was another and more lovely world than thatwhich was confined to the darkness of the four stone walls surroundinghim. He continued his search and at last found the doorway leadinginward beneath the city and the temple. This he followed, mostincautiously. He came to the stone steps leading upward to the higherlevel. He ascended them and continued onward toward the well.

  Nothing spurred his hurt memory to a recollection of past familiaritywith his surroundings. He blundered on through the darkness as thoughhe were traversing an open plain under the brilliance of a noonday sun,and suddenly there happened that which had to happen under thecircumstances of his rash advance.

  He reached the brink of the well, stepped outward into space, lungedforward, and shot downward into the inky depths below. Still clutchinghis spear, he struck the water, and sank beneath its surface, plumbingthe depths.

  The fall had not injured him, and when he rose to the surface, he shookthe water from his eyes, and found that he could see. Daylight wasfiltering into the well from the orifice far above his head. Itillumined the inner walls faintly. Tarzan gazed about him. On thelevel with the surface of the water he saw a large opening in the darkand slimy wall. He swam to it, and drew himself out upon the wet floorof a tunnel.

  Along this he passed; but now he went warily, for Tarzan of the Apeswas learning. The unexpected pit had taught him care in the traversingof dark passageways--he needed no second lesson.

  For a long distance the passage went straight as an arrow. The floorwas slippery, as though at times the rising waters of the welloverflowed and flooded it. This, in itself, retarded Tarzan's pace,for it was with difficulty that he kept his footing.

  The foot of a stairway ended the passage. Up this he made his way. Itturned back and forth many times, leading, at last, into a small,circular chamber, the gloom of which was relieved by a faint lightwhich found ingress through a tubular shaft several feet in diameterwhich rose from the center of the room's ceiling, upward to a distanceof a hundred feet or more, where it terminated in a stone gratingthrough which Tarzan could see a blue and sun-lit sky.

  Curiosity prompted the ape-man to investigate his surroundings.Several metal-bound, copper-studded chests constituted the solefurniture of the round room. Tarzan let his hands run over these. Hefelt of the copper studs, he pulled upon the hinges, and at last, bychance, he raised the cover of one.

  An exclamation of delight broke from his lips at sight of the prettycontents. Gleaming and glistening in the subdued light of the chamber,lay a great tray full of brilliant stones. Tarzan, reverted to theprimitive by his accident, had no conception of the fabulous value ofhis find. To him they were but pretty pebbles. He plunged his handsinto them and let the priceless gems filter through his fingers. Hewent to others of the chests, only to find still further stores ofprecious stones. Nearly all were cut, and from these he gathered ahandful and filled the pouch which dangled at his side--the uncutstones he tossed back into the chests.

  Unwittingly, the ape-man had stumbled upon the forgotten jewel-room ofOpar. For ages it had lain buried beneath the temple of the FlamingGod, midway of one of the many inky passages which the superstitiousdescendants of the ancient Sun Worshipers had either dared not or carednot to explore.

  Tiring at last of this diversion, Tarzan took up his way along thecorridor which led upward from the jewel-room by a steep incline.Winding and twisting, but always tending upward, the tunnel led himnearer and nearer to the surface, ending finally in a low-ceiled room,lighter than any that he had as yet discovered.

  Above him an opening in the ceiling at the upper end of a flight ofconcrete steps revealed a brilliant sunlit scene. Tarzan viewed thevine-covered columns in mild wonderment. He puckered his brows in anattempt to recall some recollection of similar things. He was not sureof himself. There was a tantalizing suggestion always present in hismind that something was eluding him--that he should know many thingswhich he did not know.

  His earnest cogitation was rudely interrupted by a thunderous roar fromthe opening above him. Following the roar came the cries and screamsof men and women. Tarzan grasped his spear more firmly and ascendedthe steps. A strange sight met his eyes as he emerged from thesemi-darkness of the cellar to the brilliant light of the temple.

  The creatures he saw before him he recognized for what they were--menand women, and a huge lion. The men and women were scuttling for thesafety of the exits. The lion stood upon the body of one who had beenless fortunate than the others. He was in the center of the temple.Directly before Tarzan, a woman stood beside a block of stone. Uponthe top of the stone lay stretched a man, and as the ape-man watchedthe scene, he saw the lion glare terribly at the two who remainedwithin the temple. Another thunderous roar broke from the savagethroat, the woman screamed and swooned across the body of the manstretched prostrate upon the stone altar before her.

  The lion advanced a few steps and crouched. The tip of his sinuoustail twitched nervously. He was upon the point of charging when hiseyes were attracted toward the ape-man.

  Werper, helpless upon the altar, saw the great carnivore preparing toleap upon him. He saw the sudden change in the beast's expression ashis eyes wandered to something beyond the altar and out of theBelgian's view. He saw the formidable creature rise to a standingposition. A figure darted past Werper. He saw a mighty arm upraised,and a stout spear shoot forward toward the lion, to bury itself in thebroad chest.

  He saw the lion snapping and tearing at the weapon's shaft, and he saw,wonder of wonders, the naked giant who had hurled the missile chargingupon the great beast, only a long knife ready to meet those ferociousfangs and talons.

  The lion reared up to meet this new enemy. The beast was growlingfrightfully, and then upon the startled ears of the Belgian, broke asimilar savage growl from the lips of the man rushing upon the beast.

  By a quick side step, Tarzan eluded the first swinging clutch of thelion's paws. Darting to the beast's side, he leaped upon the tawnyback. His arms encircled the maned neck, his teeth sank deep into thebrute's flesh. Roaring, leaping, rolling and struggling, the giant catattempted to dislodge this savage enemy, and all the while one great,brown fist was driving a long keen blade repeatedly into the beast'sside.

  During the battle, La regained consciousness. Spellbound, she stoodabove her victim watching the spectacle. It seemed incredible that ahuman being could best the king of beasts in personal encounter and yetbefore her very eyes there was taking place just such an improbability.

  At last Tarzan's knife found the great heart, and with a final,spasmo
dic struggle the lion rolled over upon the marble floor, dead.Leaping to his feet the conqueror placed a foot upon the carcass of hiskill, raised his face toward the heavens, and gave voice to so hideousa cry that both La and Werper trembled as it reverberated through thetemple.

  Then the ape-man turned, and Werper recognized him as the man he hadleft for dead in the treasure room.