13
Condemned To Torture and Death
La had followed her company and when she saw them clawing and
biting at Tarzan, she raised her voice and cautioned them not to
kill him. She saw that he was weakening and that soon the greater
numbers would prevail over him, nor had she long to wait before
the mighty jungle creature lay helpless and bound at her feet.
"Bring him to the place at which we stopped," she commanded and
they carried Tarzan back to the little clearing and threw him down
beneath a tree.
"Build me a shelter!" ordered La. "We shall stop here tonight
and tomorrow in the face of the Flaming God, La will offer up the
heart of this defiler of the temple. Where is the sacred knife?
Who took it from him?"
But no one had seen it and each was positive in his assurance
that the sacrificial weapon had not been upon Tarzan's person when
they captured him. The ape-man looked upon the menacing creatures
which surrounded him and snarled his defiance. He looked upon La
and smiled. In the face of death he was unafraid.
"Where is the knife?" La asked him.
"I do not know," replied Tarzan. "The man took it with him when
he slipped away during the night. Since you are so desirous for
its return I would look for him and get it back for you, did you
not hold me prisoner; but now that I am to die I cannot get it
back. Of what good was your knife, anyway? You can make another.
Did you follow us all this way for nothing more than a knife? Let
me go and find him and I will bring it back to you."
La laughed a bitter laugh, for in her heart she knew that Tarzan's
sin was greater than the purloining of the sacrificial knife of
Opar; yet as she looked at him lying bound and helpless before her,
tears rose to her eyes so that she had to turn away to hide them;
but she remained inflexible in her determination to make him pay
in frightful suffering and in eventual death for daring to spurn
the love of La.
When the shelter was completed La had Tarzan transferred to it.
"All night I shall torture him," she muttered to her priests, "and
at the first streak of dawn you may prepare the flaming altar upon
which his heart shall be offered up to the Flaming God. Gather
wood well filled with pitch, lay it in the form and size of the
altar at Opar in the center of the clearing that the Flaming God
may look down upon our handiwork and be pleased."
During the balance of the day the priests of Opar were busy erecting
an altar in the center of the clearing, and while they worked they
chanted weird hymns in the ancient tongue of that lost continent
that lies at the bottom of the Atlantic. They knew not the meanings
of the words they mouthed; they but repeated the ritual that had
been handed down from preceptor to neophyte since that long-gone
day when the ancestors of the Piltdown man still swung by their
tails in the humid jungles that are England now.
And in the shelter of the hut, La paced to and fro beside the
stoic ape-man. Resigned to his fate was Tarzan. No hope of succor
gleamed through the dead black of the death sentence hanging over
him. He knew that his giant muscles could not part the many strands
that bound his wrists and ankles, for he had strained often, but
ineffectually for release. He had no hope of outside help and
only enemies surrounded him within the camp, and yet he smiled at
La as she paced nervously back and forth the length of the shelter.
And La? She fingered her knife and looked down upon her captive.
She glared and muttered but she did not strike. "Tonight!" she
thought. "Tonight, when it is dark I will torture him." She looked
upon his perfect, godlike figure and upon his handsome, smiling
face and then she steeled her heart again by thoughts of her love
spurned; by religious thoughts that damned the infidel who had
desecrated the holy of holies; who had taken from the blood-stained
altar of Opar the offering to the Flaming God--and not once but
thrice. Three times had Tarzan cheated the god of her fathers.
At the thought La paused and knelt at his side. In her hand was a
sharp knife. She placed its point against the ape-man's side and
pressed upon the hilt; but Tarzan only smiled and shrugged his
shoulders.
How beautiful he was! La bent low over him, looking into his
eyes. How perfect was his figure. She compared it with those of
the knurled and knotted men from whom she must choose a mate, and
La shuddered at the thought. Dusk came and after dusk came night.
A great fire blazed within the little thorn boma about the camp.
The flames played upon the new altar erected in the center of the
clearing, arousing in the mind of the High Priestess of the Flaming
God a picture of the event of the coming dawn. She saw this giant
and perfect form writhing amid the flames of the burning pyre. She
saw those smiling lips, burned and blackened, falling away from
the strong, white teeth. She saw the shock of black hair tousled
upon Tarzan's well-shaped head disappear in a spurt of flame.
She saw these and many other frightful pictures as she stood with
closed eyes and clenched fists above the object of her hate--ah!
was it hate that La of Opar felt?
The darkness of the jungle night had settled down upon the camp,
relieved only by the fitful flarings of the fire that was kept up
to warn off the man-eaters. Tarzan lay quietly in his bonds. He
suffered from thirst and from the cutting of the tight strands
about his wrists and ankles; but he made no complaint. A jungle
beast was Tarzan with the stoicism of the beast and the intelligence
of man. He knew that his doom was sealed--that no supplications
would avail to temper the severity of his end and so he wasted no
breath in pleadings; but waited patiently in the firm conviction
that his sufferings could not endure forever.
In the darkness La stooped above him. In her hand was a sharp knife
and in her mind the determination to initiate his torture without
further delay. The knife was pressed against his side and La's face
was close to his when a sudden burst of flame from new branches
thrown upon the fire without, lighted up the interior of the shelter.
Close beneath her lips La saw the perfect features of the forest
god and into her woman's heart welled all the great love she had
felt for Tarzan since first she had seen him, and all the accumulated
passion of the years that she had dreamed of him.
Dagger in hand, La, the High Priestess, towered above the helpless
creature that had dared to violate the sanctuary of her deity.
There should be no torture--there should be instant death. No
longer should the defiler of the temple pollute the sight of the
lord god almighty. A single stroke of the heavy blade and then
the corpse to the flaming pyre without. The knife arm stiffened
ready for the downward plunge, and then La, the woman, collapsed
weakly upon the body of the man she loved.
She ran her hands in mute caress over his naked flesh; she covered
his forehead, his eyes, his lips with hot kisses; she covered him
with her body as though to protect him from the hideous fate she
had ordained for him, and in trembling, piteous tones she begged
him for his love. For hours the frenzy of her passion possessed
the burning hand-maiden of the Flaming God, until at last sleep
overpowered her and she lapsed into unconsciousness beside the man
she had sworn to torture and to slay. And Tarzan, untroubled by
thoughts of the future, slept peacefully in La's embrace.
At the first hint of dawn the chanting of the priests of Opar
brought Tarzan to wakefulness. Initiated in low and subdued tones,
the sound soon rose in volume to the open diapason of barbaric
blood lust. La stirred. Her perfect arm pressed Tarzan closer
to her--a smile parted her lips and then she awoke, and slowly the
smile faded and her eyes went wide in horror as the significance
of the death chant impinged upon her understanding.
"Love me, Tarzan!" she cried. "Love me, and you shall be saved."
Tarzan's bonds hurt him. He was suffering the tortures of
long-restricted circulation. With an angry growl he rolled over
with his back toward La. That was her answer! The High Priestess
leaped to her feet. A hot flush of shame mantled her cheek and
then she went dead white and stepped to the shelter's entrance.
"Come, Priests of the Flaming God!" she cried, "and make ready the
sacrifice."
The warped things advanced and entered the shelter. They laid hands
upon Tarzan and bore him forth, and as they chanted they kept time
with their crooked bodies, swaying to and fro to the rhythm of
their song of blood and death. Behind them came La, swaying too;
but not in unison with the chanted cadence. White and drawn was
the face of the High Priestess--white and drawn with unrequited
love and hideous terror of the moments to come. Yet stern in
her resolve was La. The infidel should die! The scorner of her
love should pay the price upon the fiery altar. She saw them lay
the perfect body there upon the rough branches. She saw the High
Priest, he to whom custom would unite her--bent, crooked, gnarled,
stunted, hideous--advance with the flaming torch and stand awaiting
her command to apply it to the faggots surrounding the sacrificial
pyre. His hairy, bestial face was distorted in a yellow-fanged
grin of anticipatory enjoyment. His hands were cupped to receive
the life blood of the victim--the red nectar that at Opar would
have filled the golden sacrificial goblets.
La approached with upraised knife, her face turned toward the
rising sun and upon her lips a prayer to the burning deity of her
people. The High Priest looked questioningly toward her--the brand
was burning close to his hand and the faggots lay temptingly near.
Tarzan closed his eyes and awaited the end. He knew that he would
suffer, for he recalled the faint memories of past burns. He knew
that he would suffer and die; but he did not flinch. Death is no
great adventure to the jungle bred who walk hand-in-hand with the
grim specter by day and lie down at his side by night through all
the years of their lives. It is doubtful that the ape-man even
speculated upon what came after death. As a matter of fact as his
end approached, his mind was occupied by thoughts of the pretty
pebbles he had lost, yet his every faculty still was open to what
passed around him.
He felt La lean over him and he opened his eyes. He saw her white,
drawn face and he saw tears blinding her eyes. "Tarzan, my Tarzan!"
she moaned, "tell me that you love me--that you will return to Opar
with me--and you shall live. Even in the face of the anger of my
people I will save you. This last chance I give you. What is your
answer?"
At the last moment the woman in La had triumphed over the High
Priestess of a cruel cult. She saw upon the altar the only creature
that ever had aroused the fires of love within her virgin breast;
she saw the beast-faced fanatic who would one day be her mate,
unless she found another less repulsive, standing with the burning
torch ready to ignite the pyre; yet with all her mad passion for
the ape-man she would give the word to apply the flame if Tarzan's
final answer was unsatisfactory. With heaving bosom she leaned
close above him. "Yes or no?" she whispered.
Through the jungle, out of the distance, came faintly a sound that
brought a sudden light of hope to Tarzan's eyes. He raised his
voice in a weird scream that sent La back from him a step or two.
The impatient priest grumbled and switched the torch from one hand
to the other at the same time holding it closer to the tinder at
the base of the pyre.
"Your answer!" insisted La. "What is your answer to the love of
La of Opar?"
Closer came the sound that had attracted Tarzan's attention and now
the others heard it--the shrill trumpeting of an elephant. As La
looked wide-eyed into Tarzan's face, there to read her fate for
happiness or heartbreak, she saw an expression of concern shadow
his features. Now, for the first time, she guessed the meaning of
Tarzan's shrill scream--he had summoned Tantor, the elephant, to
his rescue! La's brows contracted in a savage scowl. "You refuse
La!" she cried. "Then die! The torch!" she commanded, turning
toward the priest.
Tarzan looked up into her face. "Tantor is coming," he said. "I
thought that he would rescue me; but I know now from his voice that
he will slay me and you and all that fall in his path, searching
out with the cunning of Sheeta, the panther, those who would hide
from him, for Tantor is mad with the madness of love."
La knew only too well the insane ferocity of a bull elephant in
MUST. She knew that Tarzan had not exaggerated. She knew that the
devil in the cunning, cruel brain of the great beast might send it
hither and thither hunting through the forest for those who escaped
its first charge, or the beast might pass on without returning--no
one might guess which.
"I cannot love you, La," said Tarzan in a low voice. "I do not know
why, for you are very beautiful. I could not go back and live in
Opar--I who have the whole broad jungle for my range. No, I cannot
love you but I cannot see you die beneath the goring tusks of mad
Tantor. Cut my bonds before it is too late. Already he is almost
upon us. Cut them and I may yet save you."
A little spiral of curling smoke rose from one corner of the
pyre--the flames licked upward, crackling. La stood there like a
beautiful statue of despair gazing at Tarzan and at the spreading
flames. In a moment they would reach out and grasp him. From
the tangled forest came the sound of cracking limbs and crashing
trunks--Tantor was coming down upon them, a huge Juggernaut of the
jungle. The priests were becoming uneasy. They cast apprehensive
glances in the direction of the approaching elephant and then back
at La.
"Fly!" she commanded them and then she stooped and cut the bonds
securing her prisoner's feet and hands. In an instant Tarzan
was upon the ground. The priests screamed out their rage and
disappointment. He with the torch took a menacing step toward La
and the ape-man. "Traitor!" He shrieked at the woman. "For this
you too shall die!" Raising his bludgeon he rushed upon the High
Priestess; but Tarzan was there before her. Leaping in to close
quarters the ape-man seized the upraised weapon and wrenched it
from the hands of the frenzied fanatic and then the priest closed
upon him with tooth and nail. Seizing the stocky, stunted body in
his mighty hands Tarzan raised the creature high above his head,
hurling him at his fellows who were now gathered ready to bear down
upon their erstwhile captive. La stood proudly with ready knife
behind the ape-man. No faint sign of fear marked her perfect
brow--only haughty disdain for her priests and admiration for the
man she loved so hopelessly filled her thoughts.
Suddenly upon this scene burst the mad bull--a huge tusker, his little
eyes inflamed with insane rage. The priests stood for an instant
paralyzed with terror; but Tarzan turned and gathering La in his arms
raced for the nearest tree. Tantor bore down upon him trumpeting
shrilly. La clung with both white arms about the ape-man's neck.
She felt him leap into the air and marveled at his strength and
his ability as, burdened with her weight, he swung nimbly into the
lower branches of a large tree and quickly bore her upward beyond
reach of the sinuous trunk of the pachyderm.
Momentarily baffled here, the huge elephant wheeled and bore down
upon the hapless priests who had now scattered, terror-stricken,
in every direction. The nearest he gored and threw high among
the branches of a tree. One he seized in the coils of his trunk
and broke upon a huge bole, dropping the mangled pulp to charge,
trumpeting, after another. Two he trampled beneath his huge feet
and by then the others had disappeared into the jungle. Now Tantor
turned his attention once more to Tarzan for one of the symptoms
of madness is a revulsion of affection--objects of sane love become
the objects of insane hatred. Peculiar in the unwritten annals
of the jungle was the proverbial love that had existed between the
ape-man and the tribe of Tantor. No elephant in all the jungle
would harm the Tarmangani--the white-ape; but with the madness
of MUST upon him the great bull sought to destroy his long-time
play-fellow.
Back to the tree where La and Tarzan perched came Tantor, the elephant.
He reared up with his forefeet against the bole and reached high
toward them with his long trunk; but Tarzan had foreseen this and
clambered beyond the bull's longest reach. Failure but tended to
further enrage the mad creature. He bellowed and trumpeted and
screamed until the earth shook to the mighty volume of his noise.
He put his head against the tree and pushed and the tree bent before
his mighty strength; yet still it held.
The actions of Tarzan were peculiar in the extreme. Had Numa, or
Sabor, or Sheeta, or any other beast of the jungle been seeking to
destroy him, the ape-man would have danced about hurling missiles
and invectives at his assailant. He would have insulted and taunted
them, reviling in the jungle Billingsgate he knew so well; but now
he sat silent out of Tantor's reach and upon his handsome face was
an expression of deep sorrow and pity, for of all the jungle folk
Tarzan loved Tantor the best. Could he have slain him he would
not have thought of doing so. His one idea was to escape, for he
knew that with the passing of the MUST Tantor would be sane again
and that once more he might stretch at full length upon that mighty
back and make foolish speech into those great, flapping ears.
Finding that the tree would not fall to his pushing, Tantor was
but enraged the more. He looked up at the two perched high above
him, his red-rimmed eyes blazing with insane hatred, and then he
wound his trunk about the bole of the tree, spread his giant feet
wide apart and tugged to uproot the jungle giant. A huge creature
was Tantor, an enormous bull in the full prime of all his stupendous
strength. Mightily he strove until presently, to Tarzan's
consternation, the great tree gave slowly at the roots. The ground
rose in little mounds and ridges about the base of the bole, the
tree tilted--in another moment it would be uprooted and fall.
The ape-man whirled La to his back and just as the tree inclined
slowly in its first movement out of the perpendicular, before the
sudden rush of its final collapse, he swung to the branches of a
lesser neighbor. It was a long and perilous leap. La closed her
eyes and shuddered; but when she opened them again she found herself
safe and Tarzan whirling onward through the forest. Behind them
the uprooted tree crashed heavily to the ground, carrying with it
the lesser trees in its path and then Tantor, realizing that his
prey had escaped him, set up once more his hideous trumpeting and
followed at a rapid charge upon their trail.
