'Toss me your rope!'
He lifted the grass rope from where it lay coiled across one shoulder and threw a loop upward into the darkness toward the girl above. The first time, she missed it and it fell back; but the next, she caught it. He heard her working with it in the darkness above.
'Try it,' she whispered presently.
He seized the rope above his head and raised his feet from the ground so that it supported all his weight. It held without slipping; then, hand over hand, he climbed. He felt the girl reach out and touch his body; then she guided one of his feet to the ledge where she stood—a moment later he was standing by her side.
'What have you found?' he asked, straining his eyes through the darkness.
'I found a wooden beam,' she replied. 'I bumped my head on it.'
He understood now the origin of the exclamation he had heard, and reaching out felt a heavy beam opposite his shoulders. The rope was fastened around it. The ledge they were standing on was evidently the top of the wall of the room below. The shaft that ran upward was, as the girl had said, about two feet by three. The beam bisected its longer axis, leaving a space on each side large enough to permit a man's body to pass.
Tarzan wedged himself through, and clambered to the top of the beam. Above him, the shaft rose as far as he could reach without handhold or foothold.
He leaned down toward the girl. 'Give me your hand,' he said, and lifted her to the beam. 'We've got to do a little more exploring,' he whispered. 'I'll lift you as I did before.'
'I hope you can keep your balance on this beam,' she said, but she did not hesitate to step into his cupped hands.
'I hope so,' he replied laconically.
For a moment she groped about above her; then she whispered, 'Let me down.'
He lowered her to his side, holding her so that she would not lose her balance and fall
'Well?' he asked.
'I found another beam,' she said, 'but the top of it is just out of my reach. I could feel the bottom and a part of each side, but I was just a few inches too short to reach the top. What are we to do? It is just like a nightmare —straining here in the darkness, with some horrible menace lurking ready to seize one, and not being quite able to reach the sole means of safety.'
Tarzan stooped and untied the rope that was still fastened around the beam upon which they stood.
'The tarmangani have a number of foolish sayings,' he remarked. 'One of them is that there are more ways than one of skinning a cat.'
'Who are the tarmangani?' she asked.
Tarzan grinned in the safety of the concealing darkness. For a moment he had forgotten that he was playing a part. 'Oh, just a silly tribe,' he replied.
'That is an old saying in America. I have heard my grandfather use it. It is strange that an African tribe should have an identical proverb.'
He did not tell her that in his mother tongue, the first language that he had learned, the language of the great apes, tarmangani meant any or all white men.
He coiled the rope; and, holding one end, tossed the coils into the darkness of the shaft above him. They fell back
'Do you think you can climb it?' he asked the girl.
'I don't know,' she said, 'but I can try.'
'You might fall,' he warned. 'I'll carry you.' He swung her lightly to his back before she realized what he purposed. 'Hold tight!' he admonished; then he swarmed up the rope like a monkey.
At the top he seized the beam and drew himself and the girl onto it; and here they repeated what they had done before, searching for and finding another beam above the one upon which they stood.
As the ape-man drew himself to the third beam he saw an opening directly before his face, and through the opening a star. Now the darkness was relieved. The faint light of a partially cloudy night revealed a little section of flat roof bounded by a parapet, and when Tarzan reconnoitered further he discovered that they had ascended into one of the small towers that surmounted the castle.
As he was about to step from the tower onto the roof he heard the uncanny chuckle with which they were now so familiar, and drew back into the darkness of the interior. Silent and motionless the two stood there waiting, listening.
The chuckling was repeated, this time nearer; and to the keen ears of Tarzan came the sound of naked feet approaching. His ears told him more than this; they told him that the thing that walked did not walk alone—there was another with it.
Presently they came in sight, walking slowly. One of them, as the ape-man had guessed, was the creature that called itself God; the other was a large bull gorilla.
As they came opposite the two fugitives they stopped and leaned upon the parapet, looking down into the city.
'Henry should not have caroused tonight, Cranmer,' remarked the creature called God. 'He has a hard day before him tomorrow.'
'How is that, My Lord God?' inquired the other.
'Have you forgotten that this is the anniversary of the completion of the Holy Stairway to Heaven?'
' 'Sblood! So it is, and Henry has to walk up it on his hands to worship at the feet of his God.'
'And Henry is getting old and much too fat. The sun will be hot too. But—it humbleth the pride of kings and teacheth humility to the common people.'
'Let none forget that thou art the Lord our God, O Father!' said Cranmer piously.
'And what a surprise I'll have for Henry when he reaches the top of the stairs! There I'll stand with this English girl I stole from him kneeling at my feet. You sent for her, didn't you, Cranmer?'
'Yes, My Lord, I sent one of the lesser priests to fetch her. They should be here any minute now. But, My Lord, do you think that it will be wise to anger Henry further? You know that many of the nobles are on his side and are plotting against you.'
A horrid chuckle broke from the lips of the gorilla-man. 'You forget that I am God,' he said. 'You must never forget that fact, Cranmer. Henry is forgetting it, and his poor memory will prove his undoing.' The creature straightened up to its full height. An ugly growl supplanted the chuckle of a moment before. 'You all forget,' he cried, 'that it was I who created you; it is I who can destroy you! First I shall make Henry mad, and then I shall crush him. That is the kind of god that humans like—it is the only kind they can understand. Because they are jealous and cruel and vindictive they have to have a jealous, cruel, vindictive god. I was able to give you only the minds of humans; so I have to be a god that such minds can appreciate. Tomorrow Henry shall appreciate me to the full!'
'What do you mean, My Lord?'
The gorilla god chuckled again. 'When he reaches the top of the stairs I am going to blast him; I am going to destroy him.'
'You are going to kill the king! But, My Lord, the Prince of Wales is too young to be king.'
'He will not be king—I am tired of kings. We shall pass over Edward VI and Mary. That is one of the advantages of having God on your side, Cranmer—we shall skip eleven years and save you from burning at the stake. The next sovereign of England will be Queen Elizabeth.'
'Henry has many daughters from which to choose, My Lord,' said Cranmer.
'I shall choose none of them. I have just had an inspiration, Cranmer.'
'From whence, My Lord God?'
'From myself, of course, you fool! It is perfect. It is ideal.' He chuckled appreciatively. 'I am going to make this English girl queen of England —Queen Elizabeth! She will be tractable'—she will do as I tell her; and she will serve all my other purposes as well. Or almost all. Of course I cannot eat her, Cranmer. One cannot eat his queen and have her too.'
