14
A Priestess But Yet a Woman
At first La closed her eyes and clung to Tarzan in terror, though
she made no outcry; but presently she gained sufficient courage
to look about her, to look down at the ground beneath and even to
keep her eyes open during the wide, perilous swings from tree to
tree, and then there came over her a sense of safety because of
her confidence in the perfect physical creature in whose strength
and nerve and agility her fate lay. Once she raised her eyes to
the burning sun and murmured a prayer of thanks to her pagan god
that she had not been permitted to destroy this godlike man, and
her long lashes were wet with tears. A strange anomaly was La of
Opar--a creature of circumstance torn by conflicting emotions. Now
the cruel and bloodthirsty creature of a heartless god and again
a melting woman filled with compassion and tenderness. Sometimes
the incarnation of jealousy and revenge and sometimes a sobbing
maiden, generous and forgiving; at once a virgin and a wanton; but
always--a woman. Such was La.
She pressed her cheek close to Tarzan's shoulder. Slowly she turned
her head until her hot lips were pressed against his flesh. She
loved him and would gladly have died for him; yet within an hour
she had been ready to plunge a knife into his heart and might again
within the coming hour.
A hapless priest seeking shelter in the jungle chanced to show
himself to enraged Tantor. The great beast turned to one side,
bore down upon the crooked, little man, snuffed him out and then,
diverted from his course, blundered away toward the south. In a few
minutes even the noise of his trumpeting was lost in the distance.
Tarzan dropped to the ground and La slipped to her feet from his
back. "Call your people together," said Tarzan.
"They will kill me," replied La.
"They will not kill you," contradicted the ape-man. "No one will
kill you while Tarzan of the Apes is here. Call them and we will
talk with them."
La raised her voice in a weird, flutelike call that carried far
into the jungle on every side. From near and far came answering
shouts in the barking tones of the Oparian priests: "We come! We
come!" Again and again, La repeated her summons until singly and
in pairs the greater portion of her following approached and halted
a short distance away from the High Priestess and her savior. They
came with scowling brows and threatening mien. When all had come
Tarzan addressed them.
"Your La is safe," said the ape-man. "Had she slain me she would
now herself be dead and many more of you; but she spared me that
I might save her. Go your way with her back to Opar, and Tarzan
will go his way into the jungle. Let there be peace always between
Tarzan and La. What is your answer?"
The priests grumbled and shook their heads. They spoke together
and La and Tarzan could see that they were not favorably inclined
toward the proposition. They did not wish to take La back and they
did wish to complete the sacrifice of Tarzan to the Flaming God.
At last the ape-man became impatient.
"You will obey the commands of your queen," he said, "and go back
to Opar with her or Tarzan of the Apes will call together the
other creatures of the jungle and slay you all. La saved me that
I might save you and her. I have served you better alive than I
could have dead. If you are not all fools you will let me go my
way in peace and you will return to Opar with La. I know not where
the sacred knife is; but you can fashion another. Had I not taken
it from La you would have slain me and now your god must be glad
that I took it since I have saved his priestess from love-mad
Tantor. Will you go back to Opar with La, promising that no harm
shall befall her?"
The priests gathered together in a little knot arguing and discussing.
They pounded upon their breasts with their fists; they raised their
hands and eyes to their fiery god; they growled and barked among
themselves until it became evident to Tarzan that one of their number
was preventing the acceptance of his proposal. This was the High
Priest whose heart was filled with jealous rage because La openly
acknowledged her love for the stranger, when by the worldly customs
of their cult she should have belonged to him. Seemingly there
was to be no solution of the problem until another priest stepped
forth and, raising his hand, addressed La.
"Cadj, the High Priest," he announced, "would sacrifice you both
to the Flaming God; but all of us except Cadj would gladly return
to Opar with our queen."
"You are many against one," spoke up Tarzan. "Why should you not
have your will? Go your way with La to Opar and if Cadj interferes
slay him."
The priests of Opar welcomed this suggestion with loud cries of
approval. To them it appeared nothing short of divine inspiration.
The influence of ages of unquestioning obedience to high priests
had made it seem impossible to them to question his authority; but
when they realized that they could force him to their will they
were as happy as children with new toys.
They rushed forward and seized Cadj. They talked in loud menacing
tones into his ear. They threatened him with bludgeon and knife
until at last he acquiesced in their demands, though sullenly, and
then Tarzan stepped close before Cadj.
"Priest," he said, "La goes back to her temple under the protection
of her priests and the threat of Tarzan of the Apes that whoever
harms her shall die. Tarzan will go again to Opar before the next
rains and if harm has befallen La, woe betide Cadj, the High Priest."
Sullenly Cadj promised not to harm his queen.
"Protect her," cried Tarzan to the other Oparians. "Protect her so
that when Tarzan comes again he will find La there to greet him."
"La will be there to greet thee," exclaimed the High Priestess,
"and La will wait, longing, always longing, until you come again.
Oh, tell me that you will come!"
"Who knows?" asked the ape-man as he swung quickly into the trees
and raced off toward the east.
For a moment La stood looking after him, then her head drooped, a
sigh escaped her lips and like an old woman she took up the march
toward distant Opar.
Through the trees raced Tarzan of the Apes until the darkness of
night had settled upon the jungle, then he lay down and slept, with
no thought beyond the morrow and with even La but the shadow of a
memory within his consciousness.
But a few marches to the north Lady Greystoke looked forward to
the day when her mighty lord and master should discover the crime
of Achmet Zek, and be speeding to rescue and avenge, and even as
she pictured the coming of John Clayton, the object of her thoughts
squatted almost naked, beside a fallen log, beneath which he was
searching with grimy fingers for a chance beetle or a luscious
grub.
Two days elapsed following the theft of the jewels before Tarzan
gave them a thought. Then, as they chanced to enter his mind, he
conceived a desire to play with them again, and, having nothing
better to do than satisfy the first whim which possessed him, he
rose and started across the plain from the forest in which he had
spent the preceding day.
Though no mark showed where the gems had been buried, and though
the spot resembled the balance of an unbroken stretch several miles
in length, where the reeds terminated at the edge of the meadowland,
yet the ape-man moved with unerring precision directly to the place
where he had hid his treasure.
With his hunting knife he upturned the loose earth, beneath which
the pouch should be; but, though he excavated to a greater distance
than the depth of the original hole there was no sign of pouch or
jewels. Tarzan's brow clouded as he discovered that he had been
despoiled. Little or no reasoning was required to convince him of
the identity of the guilty party, and with the same celerity that
had marked his decision to unearth the jewels, he set out upon the
trail of the thief.
Though the spoor was two days old, and practically obliterated in
many places, Tarzan followed it with comparative ease. A white man
could not have followed it twenty paces twelve hours after it had
been made, a black man would have lost it within the first mile; but
Tarzan of the Apes had been forced in childhood to develop senses
that an ordinary mortal scarce ever uses.
We may note the garlic and whisky on the breath of a fellow strap
hanger, or the cheap perfume emanating from the person of the
wondrous lady sitting in front of us, and deplore the fact of our
sensitive noses; but, as a matter of fact, we cannot smell at all,
our olfactory organs are practically atrophied, by comparison with
the development of the sense among the beasts of the wild.
Where a foot is placed an effluvium remains for a considerable time.
It is beyond the range of our sensibilities; but to a creature
of the lower orders, especially to the hunters and the hunted, as
interesting and ofttimes more lucid than is the printed page to
us.
Nor was Tarzan dependent alone upon his sense of smell. Vision
and hearing had been brought to a marvelous state of development by
the necessities of his early life, where survival itself depended
almost daily upon the exercise of the keenest vigilance and the
constant use of all his faculties.
And so he followed the old trail of the Belgian through the forest
and toward the north; but because of the age of the trail he was
constrained to a far from rapid progress. The man he followed was
two days ahead of him when Tarzan took up the pursuit, and each
day he gained upon the ape-man. The latter, however, felt not
the slightest doubt as to the outcome. Some day he would overhaul
his quarry--he could bide his time in peace until that day dawned.
Doggedly he followed the faint spoor, pausing by day only to kill
and eat, and at night only to sleep and refresh himself.
Occasionally he passed parties of savage warriors; but these he
gave a wide berth, for he was hunting with a purpose that was not
to be distracted by the minor accidents of the trail.
These parties were of the collecting hordes of the Waziri and
their allies which Basuli had scattered his messengers broadcast to
summon. They were marching to a common rendezvous in preparation
for an assault upon the stronghold of Achmet Zek; but to Tarzan
they were enemies--he retained no conscious memory of any friendship
for the black men.
It was night when he halted outside the palisaded village of the
Arab raider. Perched in the branches of a great tree he gazed
down upon the life within the enclosure. To this place had the
spoor led him. His quarry must be within; but how was he to find
him among so many huts? Tarzan, although cognizant of his mighty
powers, realized also his limitations. He knew that he could not
successfully cope with great numbers in open battle. He must resort
to the stealth and trickery of the wild beast, if he were to succeed.
Sitting in the safety of his tree, munching upon the leg bone of
Horta, the boar, Tarzan waited a favorable opportunity to enter
the village. For awhile he gnawed at the bulging, round ends of
the large bone, splintering off small pieces between his strong
jaws, and sucking at the delicious marrow within; but all the time
he cast repeated glances into the village. He saw white-robed
figures, and half-naked blacks; but not once did he see one who
resembled the stealer of the gems.
Patiently he waited until the streets were deserted by all save
the sentries at the gates, then he dropped lightly to the ground,
circled to the opposite side of the village and approached the
palisade.
At his side hung a long, rawhide rope--a natural and more dependable
evolution from the grass rope of his childhood. Loosening this,
he spread the noose upon the ground behind him, and with a quick
movement of his wrist tossed the coils over one of the sharpened
projections of the summit of the palisade.
Drawing the noose taut, he tested the solidity of its hold. Satisfied,
the ape-man ran nimbly up the vertical wall, aided by the rope
which he clutched in both hands. Once at the top it required but
a moment to gather the dangling rope once more into its coils, make
it fast again at his waist, take a quick glance downward within
the palisade, and, assured that no one lurked directly beneath him,
drop softly to the ground.
Now he was within the village. Before him stretched a series
of tents and native huts. The business of exploring each of them
would be fraught with danger; but danger was only a natural factor
of each day's life--it never appalled Tarzan. The chances appealed
to him--the chances of life and death, with his prowess and his
faculties pitted against those of a worthy antagonist.
It was not necessary that he enter each habitation--through a
door, a window or an open chink, his nose told him whether or not
his prey lay within. For some time he found one disappointment
following upon the heels of another in quick succession. No spoor
of the Belgian was discernible. But at last he came to a tent where
the smell of the thief was strong. Tarzan listened, his ear close
to the canvas at the rear, but no sound came from within.
At last he cut one of the pin ropes, raised the bottom of the
canvas, and intruded his head within the interior. All was quiet
and dark. Tarzan crawled cautiously within--the scent of the
Belgian was strong; but it was not live scent. Even before he had
examined the interior minutely, Tarzan knew that no one was within
it.
In one corner he found a pile of blankets and clothing scattered
about; but no pouch of pretty pebbles. A careful examination of
the balance of the tent revealed nothing more, at least nothing
to indicate the presence of the jewels; but at the side where the
blankets and clothing lay, the ape-man discovered that the tent
wall had been loosened at the bottom, and presently he sensed that
the Belgian had recently passed out of the tent by this avenue.
Tarzan was not long in following the way that his prey had fled.
The spoor led always in the shadow and at the rear of the huts
and tents of the village--it was quite evident to Tarzan that the
Belgian had gone alone and secretly upon his mission. Evidently
he feared the inhabitants of the village, or at least his work had
been of such a nature that he dared not risk detection.
At the back of a native hut the spoor led through a small hole
recently cut in the brush wall and into the dark interior beyond.
Fearlessly, Tarzan followed the trail. On hands and knees, he
crawled through the small aperture. Within the hut his nostrils
were assailed by many odors; but clear and distinct among them
was one that half aroused a latent memory of the past--it was the
faint and delicate odor of a woman. With the cognizance of it
there rose in the breast of the ape-man a strange uneasiness--the
result of an irresistible force which he was destined to become
acquainted with anew--the instinct which draws the male to his
mate.
In the same hut was the scent spoor of the Belgian, too, and as
both these assailed the nostrils of the ape-man, mingling one with
the other, a jealous rage leaped and burned within him, though his
memory held before the mirror of recollection no image of the she
to which he had attached his desire.
Like the tent he had investigated, the hut, too, was empty, and
after satisfying himself that his stolen pouch was secreted nowhere
within, he left, as he had entered, by the hole in the rear wall.
Here he took up the spoor of the Belgian, followed it across the
clearing, over the palisade, and out into the dark jungle beyond.
