7
The Jewel-Room of Opar
For some time Tarzan lay where he had fallen upon the floor of the
treasure 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 the utter darkness of the room. He raised his hand to his
head and brought it away sticky with clotted blood. He sniffed at
his fingers, as a wild beast might sniff at the life-blood upon a
wounded paw.
Slowly he rose to a sitting posture--listening. No sound reached
to the buried depths of his sepulcher. He staggered to his feet,
and groped his way about among the tiers of ingots. What was he?
Where was he? His head ached; but otherwise he felt no ill effects
from the blow that had felled him. The accident he did not recall,
nor did he recall aught of what had led up to it.
He let his hands grope unfamiliarly over his limbs, his torso, and
his head. 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, feeling with his hands for the thing that instinct warned
him was gone. At last he found it--the heavy war spear that in past
years had formed so important a feature of his daily life, almost
of his very existence, so inseparably had it been connected with
his every action since the long-gone day that he had wrested his
first spear from the body of a black victim of his savage training.
Tarzan was sure that there was another and more lovely world than
that which was confined to the darkness of the four stone walls
surrounding him. He continued his search and at last found the
doorway leading inward beneath the city and the temple. This he
followed, most incautiously. He came to the stone steps leading
upward to the higher level. He ascended them and continued onward
toward the well.
Nothing spurred his hurt memory to a recollection of past familiarity
with his surroundings. He blundered on through the darkness as
though he were traversing an open plain under the brilliance of a
noonday sun, and suddenly there happened that which had to happen
under the circumstances of his rash advance.
He reached the brink of the well, stepped outward into space, lunged
forward, and shot downward into the inky depths below. Still
clutching his spear, he struck the water, and sank beneath its
surface, plumbing the depths.
The fall had not injured him, and when he rose to the surface, he
shook the water from his eyes, and found that he could see. Daylight
was filtering into the well from the orifice far above his head.
It illumined the inner walls faintly. Tarzan gazed about him. On
the level with the surface of the water he saw a large opening in
the dark and slimy wall. He swam to it, and drew himself out upon
the wet floor of a tunnel.
Along this he passed; but now he went warily, for Tarzan of the
Apes was learning. The unexpected pit had taught him care in the
traversing of dark passageways--he needed no second lesson.
For a long distance the passage went straight as an arrow. The
floor was slippery, as though at times the rising waters of the
well overflowed 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. It turned back and forth many times, leading, at last, into
a small, circular chamber, the gloom of which was relieved by
a faint light which found ingress through a tubular shaft several
feet in diameter which rose from the center of the room's ceiling,
upward to a distance of a hundred feet or more, where it terminated
in a stone grating through 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 sole
furniture of the round room. Tarzan let his hands run over these.
He felt of the copper studs, he pulled upon the hinges, and at
last, by chance, he raised the cover of one.
An exclamation of delight broke from his lips at sight of the
pretty contents. Gleaming and glistening in the subdued light of
the chamber, lay a great tray full of brilliant stones. Tarzan,
reverted to the primitive by his accident, had no conception of the
fabulous value of his find. To him they were but pretty pebbles.
He plunged his hands into them and let the priceless gems filter
through his fingers. He went to others of the chests, only to find
still further stores of precious stones. Nearly all were cut, and
from these he gathered a handful and filled the pouch which dangled
at his side--the uncut stones he tossed back into the chests.
Unwittingly, the ape-man had stumbled upon the forgotten jewel-room
of Opar. For ages it had lain buried beneath the temple of the
Flaming God, midway of one of the many inky passages which the
superstitious descendants of the ancient Sun Worshipers had either
dared not or cared not to explore.
Tiring at last of this diversion, Tarzan took up his way along the
corridor which led upward from the jewel-room by a steep incline.
Winding and twisting, but always tending upward, the tunnel led him
nearer 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
of concrete steps revealed a brilliant sunlit scene. Tarzan viewed
the vine-covered columns in mild wonderment. He puckered his brows
in an attempt to recall some recollection of similar things. He
was not sure of himself. There was a tantalizing suggestion always
present in his mind that something was eluding him--that he should
know many things which he did not know.
His earnest cogitation was rudely interrupted by a thunderous roar
from the opening above him. Following the roar came the cries and
screams of men and women. Tarzan grasped his spear more firmly
and ascended the steps. A strange sight met his eyes as he emerged
from the semi-darkness of the cellar to the brilliant light of the
temple.
The creatures he saw before him he recognized for what they were--men
and women, and a huge lion. The men and women were scuttling for
the safety of the exits. The lion stood upon the body of one who
had been less fortunate than the others. He was in the center of
the temple. Directly before Tarzan, a woman stood beside a block
of stone. Upon the top of the stone lay stretched a man, and as
the ape-man watched the scene, he saw the lion glare terribly at
the two who remained within the temple. Another thunderous roar
broke from the savage throat, the woman screamed and swooned across
the body of the man stretched prostrate upon the stone altar before
her.
The lion advanced a few steps and crouched. The tip of his sinuous
tail twitched nervously. He was upon the point of charging when
his eyes were attracted toward the ape-man.
Werper, helpless upon the altar, saw the great carnivore preparing
to leap upon him. He saw the sudden change in the beast's expression
as his eyes wandered to something beyond the altar and out of the
Belgian's view. He saw the formidable creature rise to a standing
position. A figure darted past Werper. He saw a mighty arm
upraised, and a stout spear shoot forward toward the lion, to bury
itself in the broad 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
charging upon the great beast, only a long knife ready to meet
those ferocious fangs and talons.
The lion reared up to meet this new enemy. The beast was growling
frightfully, and then upon the startled ears of the Belgian, broke
a similar savage growl from the lips of the man rushing upon the
beast.
By a quick side step, Tarzan eluded the first swinging clutch of
the lion's paws. Darting to the beast's side, he leaped upon the
tawny back. His arms encircled the maned neck, his teeth sank deep
into the brute's flesh. Roaring, leaping, rolling and struggling,
the giant cat attempted to dislodge this savage enemy, and all the
while one great, brown fist was driving a long keen blade repeatedly
into the beast's side.
During the battle, La regained consciousness. Spellbound, she stood
above her victim watching the spectacle. It seemed incredible that
a human being could best the king of beasts in personal encounter
and yet before her very eyes there was taking place just such an
improbability.
At last Tarzan's knife found the great heart, and with a final,
spasmodic struggle the lion rolled over upon the marble floor, dead.
Leaping to his feet the conqueror placed a foot upon the carcass
of his kill, raised his face toward the heavens, and gave voice to
so hideous a cry that both La and Werper trembled as it reverberated
through the temple.
Then the ape-man turned, and Werper recognized him as the man he
had left for dead in the treasure room.
