17

Tarzan, the Jewels of Opar

by Edgar R. Burroughs

17, TARZAN, THE JEWELS OF OPAR by Edgar R. Burroughs
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The Deadly Peril of Jane Clayton


Lieutenant Albert Werper, terrified by contemplation of
the fate which might await him at Adis Abeba, cast
about for some scheme of escape, but after the black
Mugambi had eluded their vigilance the Abyssinians
redoubled their precautions to prevent Werper following
the lead of the Negro.

For some time Werper entertained the idea of bribing
Abdul Mourak with a portion of the contents of the
pouch; but fearing that the man would demand all the
gems as the price of liberty, the Belgian, influenced
by avarice, sought another avenue from his dilemma.

It was then that there dawned upon him the possibility
of the success of a different course which would still
leave him in possession of the jewels, while at the
same time satisfying the greed of the Abyssinian with
the conviction that he had obtained all that Werper had
to offer.

And so it was that a day or so after Mugambi had
disappeared, Werper asked for an audience with Abdul
Mourak. As the Belgian entered the presence of his
captor the scowl upon the features of the latter boded
ill for any hope which Werper might entertain, still he
fortified himself by recalling the common weakness of
mankind, which permits the most inflexible of natures
to bend to the consuming desire for wealth.

Abdul Mourak eyed him, frowningly. "What do you want
now?" he asked.

"My liberty," replied Werper.

The Abyssinian sneered. "And you disturbed me thus to
tell me what any fool might know," he said.

"I can pay for it," said Werper.

Abdul Mourak laughed loudly. "Pay for it?" he cried.
"What with--the rags that you have upon your back?
Or, perhaps you are concealing beneath your coat a thousand
pounds of ivory. Get out! You are a fool. Do not
bother me again or I shall have you whipped."

But Werper persisted. His liberty and perhaps his life
depended upon his success.

"Listen to me," he pleaded. "If I can give you as much
gold as ten men may carry will you promise that I shall
be conducted in safety to the nearest English
commissioner?"

"As much gold as ten men may carry!" repeated Abdul
Mourak. "You are crazy. Where have you so much gold
as that?"

"I know where it is hid," said Werper. "Promise, and I
will lead you to it--if ten loads is enough?"

Abdul Mourak had ceased to laugh. He was eyeing the
Belgian intently. The fellow seemed sane enough--yet
ten loads of gold! It was preposterous. The Abyssinian
thought in silence for a moment.

"Well, and if I promise," he said. "How far is this gold?"

"A long week's march to the south," replied Werper.

"And if we do not find it where you say it is, do you
realize what your punishment will be?"

"If it is not there I will forfeit my life," replied
the Belgian. "I know it is there, for I saw it buried
with my own eyes. And more--there are not only ten
loads, but as many as fifty men may carry. It is all
yours if you will promise to see me safely delivered
into the protection of the English."

"You will stake your life against the finding of the
gold?" asked Abdul.

Werper assented with a nod.

"Very well," said the Abyssinian, "I promise, and even
if there be but five loads you shall have your freedom;
but until the gold is in my possession you remain a
prisoner."

"I am satisfied," said Werper. "Tomorrow we start?"

Abdul Mourak nodded, and the Belgian returned to his
guards. The following day the Abyssinian soldiers were
surprised to receive an order which turned their faces
from the northeast to the south. And so it happened
that upon the very night that Tarzan and the two apes
entered the village of the raiders, the Abyssinians
camped but a few miles to the east of the same spot.

While Werper dreamed of freedom and the unmolested
enjoyment of the fortune in his stolen pouch, and Abdul
Mourak lay awake in greedy contemplation of the fifty
loads of gold which lay but a few days farther to the
south of him, Achmet Zek gave orders to his lieutenants
that they should prepare a force of fighting men and
carriers to proceed to the ruins of the Englishman's
DOUAR on the morrow and bring back the fabulous
fortune which his renegade lieutenant had told him was
buried there.

And as he delivered his instructions to those within, a
silent listener crouched without his tent, waiting for
the time when he might enter in safety and prosecute
his search for the missing pouch and the pretty pebbles
that had caught his fancy.

At last the swarthy companions of Achmet Zek quitted
his tent, and the leader went with them to smoke a pipe
with one of their number, leaving his own silken
habitation unguarded. Scarcely had they left the
interior when a knife blade was thrust through the
fabric of the rear wall, some six feet above the
ground, and a swift downward stroke opened an entrance
to those who waited beyond.

Through the opening stepped the ape-man, and close
behind him came the huge Chulk; but Taglat did not
follow them. Instead he turned and slunk through the
darkness toward the hut where the she who had arrested
his brutish interest lay securely bound. Before the
doorway the sentries sat upon their haunches,
conversing in monotones. Within, the young woman lay
upon a filthy sleeping mat, resigned, through utter
hopelessness to whatever fate lay in store for her
until the opportunity arrived which would permit her to
free herself by the only means which now seemed even
remotely possible--the hitherto detested act of
self-destruction.

Creeping silently toward the sentries, a white-burnoosed
figure approached the shadows at one end of the hut.
The meager intellect of the creature denied
it the advantage it might have taken of its disguise.
Where it could have walked boldly to the very sides of
the sentries, it chose rather to sneak upon them,
unseen, from the rear.

It came to the corner of the hut and peered around.
The sentries were but a few paces away; but the ape did
not dare expose himself, even for an instant, to those
feared and hated thunder-sticks which the Tarmangani
knew so well how to use, if there were another and
safer method of attack.

Taglat wished that there was a tree nearby from the
over-hanging branches of which he might spring upon his
unsuspecting prey; but, though there was no tree, the
idea gave birth to a plan. The eaves of the hut were
just above the heads of the sentries--from them he
could leap upon the Tarmangani, unseen. A quick snap
of those mighty jaws would dispose of one of them
before the other realized that they were attacked,
and the second would fall an easy prey to the strength,
agility and ferocity of a second quick charge.

Taglat withdrew a few paces to the rear of the hut,
gathered himself for the effort, ran quickly forward
and leaped high into the air. He struck the roof
directly above the rear wall of the hut, and the
structure, reinforced by the wall beneath, held his
enormous weight for an instant, then he moved forward a
step, the roof sagged, the thatching parted and the
great anthropoid shot through into the interior.

The sentries, hearing the crashing of the roof poles,
leaped to their feet and rushed into the hut. Jane
Clayton tried to roll aside as the great form lit upon
the floor so close to her that one foot pinned her
clothing to the ground.

The ape, feeling the movement beside him, reached down
and gathered the girl in the hollow of one mighty arm.
The burnoose covered the hairy body so that Jane
Clayton believed that a human arm supported her, and
from the extremity of hopelessness a great hope sprang
into her breast that at last she was in the keeping of
a rescuer.

The two sentries were now within the hut, but
hesitating because of doubt as to the nature of the
cause of the disturbance. Their eyes, not yet
accustomed to the darkness of the interior, told them
nothing, nor did they hear any sound, for the ape stood
silently awaiting their attack.

Seeing that they stood without advancing, and realizing
that, handicapped as he was by the weight of the she,
he could put up but a poor battle, Taglat elected to
risk a sudden break for liberty. Lowering his head, he
charged straight for the two sentries who blocked the
doorway. The impact of his mighty shoulders bowled
them over upon their backs, and before they could
scramble to their feet, the ape was gone, darting in
the shadows of the huts toward the palisade at the far
end of the village.

The speed and strength of her rescuer filled Jane
Clayton with wonder. Could it be that Tarzan had
survived the bullet of the Arab? Who else in all the
jungle could bear the weight of a grown woman as
lightly as he who held her? She spoke his name; but
there was no response. Still she did not give up hope.

At the palisade the beast did not even hesitate.
A single mighty leap carried it to the top, where it
poised but for an instant before dropping to the ground
upon the opposite side. Now the girl was almost
positive that she was safe in the arms of her husband,
and when the ape took to the trees and bore her swiftly
into the jungle, as Tarzan had done at other times in
the past, belief became conviction.

In a little moonlit glade, a mile or so from the camp
of the raiders, her rescuer halted and dropped her to
the ground. His roughness surprised her, but still she
had no doubts. Again she called him by name, and at
the same instant the ape, fretting under the restraints
of the unaccustomed garments of the Tarmangani, tore
the burnoose from him, revealing to the eyes of the
horror-struck woman the hideous face and hairy form of
a giant anthropoid.

With a piteous wail of terror, Jane Clayton swooned,
while, from the concealment of a nearby bush, Numa,
the lion, eyed the pair hungrily and licked his chops.

Tarzan, entering the tent of Achmet Zek, searched the
interior thoroughly. He tore the bed to pieces and
scattered the contents of box and bag about the floor.
He investigated whatever his eyes discovered, nor did
those keen organs overlook a single article within the
habitation of the raider chief; but no pouch or pretty
pebbles rewarded his thoroughness.

Satisfied at last that his belongings were not in the
possession of Achmet Zek, unless they were on the
person of the chief himself, Tarzan decided to secure
the person of the she before further prosecuting his
search for the pouch.

Motioning for Chulk to follow him, he passed out of the
tent by the same way that he had entered it, and
walking boldly through the village, made directly for
the hut where Jane Clayton had been imprisoned.

He noted with surprise the absence of Taglat, whom he
had expected to find awaiting him outside the tent of
Achmet Zek; but, accustomed as he was to the
unreliability of apes, he gave no serious attention to
the present defection of his surly companion. So long
as Taglat did not cause interference with his plans,
Tarzan was indifferent to his absence.

As he approached the hut, the ape-man noticed that a
crowd had collected about the entrance. He could see
that the men who composed it were much excited, and
fearing lest Chulk's disguise should prove inadequate
to the concealment of his true identity in the face of
so many observers, he commanded the ape to betake
himself to the far end of the village, and there await him.

As Chulk waddled off, keeping to the shadows, Tarzan
advanced boldly toward the excited group before the
doorway of the hut. He mingled with the blacks and the
Arabs in an endeavor to learn the cause of the
commotion, in his interest forgetting that he alone of
the assemblage carried a spear, a bow and arrows, and
thus might become an object of suspicious attention.

Shouldering his way through the crowd he approached the
doorway, and had almost reached it when one of the
Arabs laid a hand upon his shoulder, crying: "Who is
this?" at the same time snatching back the hood from
the ape-man's face.

Tarzan of the Apes in all his savage life had never
been accustomed to pause in argument with an
antagonist. The primitive instinct of self-preservation
acknowledges many arts and wiles; but
argument is not one of them, nor did he now waste
precious time in an attempt to convince the raiders
that he was not a wolf in sheep's clothing. Instead he
had his unmasker by the throat ere the man's words had
scarce quitted his lips, and hurling him from side to
side brushed away those who would have swarmed upon him.

Using the Arab as a weapon, Tarzan forced his way
quickly to the doorway, and a moment later was within
the hut. A hasty examination revealed the fact that it
was empty, and his sense of smell discovered, too, the
scent spoor of Taglat, the ape. Tarzan uttered a low,
ominous growl. Those who were pressing forward at the
doorway to seize him, fell back as the savage notes of
the bestial challenge smote upon their ears. They
looked at one another in surprise and consternation.
A man had entered the hut alone, and yet with their own
ears they had heard the voice of a wild beast within.
What could it mean? Had a lion or a leopard sought
sanctuary in the interior, unbeknown to the sentries?

Tarzan's quick eyes discovered the opening in the roof,
through which Taglat had fallen. He guessed that the
ape had either come or gone by way of the break, and
while the Arabs hesitated without, he sprang, catlike,
for the opening, grasped the top of the wall and
clambered out upon the roof, dropping instantly to the
ground at the rear of the hut.

When the Arabs finally mustered courage to enter the
hut, after firing several volleys through the walls,
they found the interior deserted. At the same time
Tarzan, at the far end of the village, sought for
Chulk; but the ape was nowhere to be found.

Robbed of his she, deserted by his companions, and as
much in ignorance as ever as to the whereabouts of his
pouch and pebbles, it was an angry Tarzan who climbed
the palisade and vanished into the darkness of the
jungle.

For the present he must give up the search for his
pouch, since it would be paramount to self-destruction
to enter the Arab camp now while all its inhabitants
were aroused and upon the alert.

In his escape from the village, the ape-man had lost
the spoor of the fleeing Taglat, and now he circled
widely through the forest in an endeavor to again pick
it up.

Chulk had remained at his post until the cries and
shots of the Arabs had filled his simple soul with
terror, for above all things the ape folk fear the
thunder-sticks of the Tarmangani; then he had clambered
nimbly over the palisade, tearing his burnoose in the
effort, and fled into the depths of the jungle,
grumbling and scolding as he went.

Tarzan, roaming the jungle in search of the trail of
Taglat and the she, traveled swiftly. In a little
moonlit glade ahead of him the great ape was bending
over the prostrate form of the woman Tarzan sought.
The beast was tearing at the bonds that confined her
ankles and wrists, pulling and gnawing upon the cords.

The course the ape-man was taking would carry him but a
short distance to the right of them, and though he
could not have seen them the wind was bearing down from them
to him, carrying their scent spoor strongly toward him.

A moment more and Jane Clayton's safety might have been
assured, even though Numa, the lion, was already
gathering himself in preparation for a charge; but
Fate, already all too cruel, now outdid herself--the
wind veered suddenly for a few moments, the scent spoor
that would have led the ape-man to the girl's side was
wafted in the opposite direction; Tarzan passed within
fifty yards of the tragedy that was being enacted in
the glade, and the opportunity was gone beyond recall.