'We have got to cross the river, and it is easier to cross here than below the falls. There the current is much swifter, and there are hippopotamuses and crocodiles. Take hold of my shoulders and hold tight.'
He plunged in and struck for the opposite shore, while the terrified girl clung to him in desperation. The farther bank looked far away indeed. Below she could hear the roar of the falls. They seemed to be drifting down toward them.
But presently the strong, even strokes of the swimmer reassured her. He seemed unhurried and unexcited, and gradually she relaxed as though she had absorbed a portion of his confidence. But she sighed in relief as he clambered out on solid ground.
Her terror at the river crossing was nothing to that which she experienced in the descent of the escarpment to the foot of the falls—it froze her to silent horror.
The man descended as nimbly as a monkey; the burden of her weight seemed nothing to him. Where had Stanley Obroski acquired this facility that almost put to shame the mountain goat and the monkey?
Half way down he called her attention to three figures near the foot of the cliff. 'There are Orman and West and the Arab,' he said, but she did not dare look down.
The three men below them were watching in astonishment—they had just recognized that of the two descending toward them one was Obroski and the other a girl, but whether Naomi or Rhonda they could not be sure.
Orman and West ran forward to meet them as they neared the foot of the cliff. Tears' came to Orman's eyes as he took Naomi in his arms; and West was glad to see her too, but he was saddened when he discovered that it was not Rhonda.
'Poor girl!' he muttered as they walked back to their little camp. 'Poor Rhonda! What an awful death!'
'But she is not dead,' said Naomi.
'Not dead! How do you know?'
'She is worse than dead, Bill,' and then Naomi told all that she knew of Rhonda's fate.
When she was through, Tarzan rose. 'You have enough of that buck left to last until you can make a kill?' he asked.
'Yes,' replied Orman.
'Then I'll be going,' said the ape-man.
'Where?' asked the director.
'To find Rhonda.'
West leaped to his feet. 'I'll go with you, Stanley,' he cried.
'But, my God, man! you can't save her now. After what Eyad has told us of those beasts and Naomi's experience with them you must know that you haven't a chance.' Orman spoke with great seriousness.
'It is my duty to go anyway,' said West, 'not Stanley 's; and I'm going.'
'You'd better stay here,' advised Tarzan. 'You wouldn't have a chance.'
'Why wouldn't I have as good a chance as you?' demanded West.
'Perhaps you would, but you would delay me.' Tarzan turned away and walked toward the foot of the escarpment.
Naomi Madison watched him through half closed eyes. 'Good bye, Stanley!' she called.
'Oh, good-bye!' replied the ape-man and continued on.
They saw him seize a trailing liana and climb to another handhold; the quick equatorial night engulfed him before he reached the top.
West had stood silently watching him, stunned by his grief. 'I'm going with him,' he said finally and started for the escarpment.
'Why, you couldn't climb that place in the daytime, let alone after dark,' warned Orman.
'Don't be foolish, Bill,' counseled Naomi. 'We know how you feel, but there's no sense throwing away another life uselessly. Even Stanley'll never come back.' She commenced to sob.
'Then I won't either,' said West; 'but I'm goin'.'
Chapter Twenty-Four
God
Beyond the summit of the escarpment the ape-man moved silently through the night. He heard familiar noises, and his nostrils caught familiar scents that told him that the great cats roamed this strange valley of the gorillas.
He crossed the river farther up than he had swum it with Naomi, and he kept to the floor of the valley as he sought the mysterious city. He had no plan, for he knew nothing of what lay ahead of him—his planning must await the result of his reconnaissance.
He moved swiftly, often at a trot that covered much ground; and presently he saw dim lights ahead. That must be the city! He left the river and moved in a straight line toward the lights, cutting across a bend in the river which again swung back into his path just before he reached the shadowy mass of many buildings.
The city was walled, probably, he thought, against lions; but Tarzan was not greatly concerned—he had scaled walls before. When he reached this one he discovered that it was not high—perhaps ten feet—but sharpened stakes, pointing downward, had been set at close intervals just below the capstones, providing an adequate defense against the great cats
The ape-man followed the wall back toward the cliff, where it joined the rocky, precipitous face of the escarpment. He listened, scenting the air with his delicate nostrils, seeking to assure himself that nothing was near on the opposite side of the wall.
Satisfied, he leaped for the stakes. His hands closed upon two of them; then he drew himself up slowly until his hips were on a level with his hands, his arms straight at his sides. Leaning forward, he let his body drop slowly forward until it rested on the stakes and the top of the wall.
Now he could look down into the narrow alleyway beyond the barrier. There was no sign of life as far as he could see in either direction—just a dark, shadowy, deserted alleyway. It required but a moment now to draw his body to the wall top and drop to the ground inside the city of the gorillas.
From the vantage point of the wall he had seen lights a short distance above the level of the main part of the city and what seemed to be the shadowy outlines of a large building. That, he conjectured, must be the castle of God, of which Naomi Madison had spoken.
If he were right, that would be his goal; for there the other girl was supposed to be imprisoned. He moved along the face of the cliff in a narrow, winding alley that followed generally the contour of the base of the mountain, though sometimes it wound around buildings that had been built against the cliff.
He hoped that he would meet none of the denizens of the city, for the passage was so narrow that he could not avoid detection; and it was so winding that an enemy might be upon him before he could find concealment in a shadowy doorway or upon a rooftop, which latter he had decided would make the safest hiding place and easy of access, since many of the buildings were low.
He heard voices and saw the dim glow of lights in another part of the city, and presently there rose above the strange city the booming of drums.
Shortly thereafter Tarzan came to a flight of steps cut from the living rock of the cliff. They led upward, disappearing in the gloom above; but they pointed in the general direction of the building he wished to reach. Pausing only long enough to reconnoiter with his ears, the ape-man started the ascent.
He had climbed but a short distance when
He saw the shaggy figures of the great apes of the tribe of Kerchak. He saw an earthen drum. About it the apes were forming a great circle. The females and the young squatted in a thin line at its periphery, while just in front of them ranged the adult males. Before the drum sat three old females, each armed with a knotted branch
