Tarzan and the Lion-Man

The ape-man shrugged and looked over the edge of the parapet down the side of the castle wall. Twenty feet below was the roof of a section of the building that rose only one story. It was too far to jump. Flames were coming from the windows on that side, flames and smoke, but not in the volumes that were pouring from the openings on the opposite side.

Tarzan tested the strength of one of the merlons of the battlemented parapet. It was strong. The stones were set in good mortar. He uncoiled his rope, and passed it about the merlon.

The gorilla god had followed him and was watching. 'You are going to escape!' he cried. 'Oh, save me too.'

'So that you can kill and eat me later?' asked the ape-man.

'No, no! I will not harm you. For God's sake save me!'

'I thought you were God. Save yourself.'

'You can't desert me. I'm an Englishman. Blood is thicker than water—you wouldn't see an Englishman die when you can save him!'

'I am an Englishman,' replied the ape-man, 'but you would have killed me and eaten me into the bargain.'

'Forgive me that. I was mad to regain my human form, and you offered the only chance that I may ever have. Save me, and I will give you wealth beyond man's wildest dreams of avarice.'

'I have all I need,' replied Tarzan.

'You don't know what you are talking about. I can lead you to diamonds. Diamonds! Diamonds! You can scoop them up by the handful.'

'I care nothing for your diamonds,' replied the ape-man, 'but I will save you on one condition.'

'What is that?'

'That you help me save the girl, if she still lives, and get her out of this valley.'

'I promise. But hurry—soon it will be too late.'

Tarzan had looped the center of his rope about the merlon; the loose ends dangled a few feet above the roof below. He saw that the rope hung between windows where the flames could not reach it.

'I will go first,' he said, 'to be sure that you do not run away and forget your promise.'

'You do not trust me!' exclaimed the gorilla god.

'Of course not—you are a man.'

He lowered his body over the parapet, hung by one hand, and seized both strands of the rope in the other.

The gorilla god shuddered. 'I could never do that,' he cried. 'I should fall. It is awful!' He covered his eyes with his hands.

'Climb over the parapet and get on my back, then.' directed the ape-man. 'Here, I will steady you.' He reached up a powerful hand.

'Will the rope hold us both?'

'I don't know. Hurry, or I'll have to go without you. The heat is getting worse.'

Trembling, the gorilla god climbed over the parapet; and, steadied and assisted by Tarzan, slid to the ape- man's back where he clung with a deathlike grip about the bronzed neck.

Slowly and carefully Tarzan descended. He had no doubt as to the strength of the rope on a straight pull, but feared that the rough edges of the merlon might cut it.

The heat was terrific. Flames leaped out of the openings on each side of them. Acrid, stifling smoke enveloped them. Where the descent at this point had seemed reasonably safe a moment before, it was now fraught with dangers that made the outcome of their venture appear more than doubtful. It was as though the fire demon had discovered their attempt to escape his clutches and had marshaled all his forces to defeat it and add them to his list of victims.

With grim persistence Tarzan continued his slow descent. The creature clinging to his back punctuated paroxysms of coughing and choking with piercing screams of terror. The ape-man kept his eyes closed and tried not to breathe in the thick smoke that enveloped them.

His lungs seemed upon the point of bursting when, to his relief, his feet touched solid footing. Instantly he threw himself upon his face and breathed. The rising smoke, ascending with the heat of flames, drew fresh air along the roof on which the two lay; and they filled their lungs with it.

Only for a moment did Tarzan lie thus; then he rolled over on his back and pulled rapidly upon one end of the rope until the other passed about the merlon above and fell to the roof beside him.

This lower roof on which they were was but ten feet above the level of the ground; and, using the rope again, it was only a matter of seconds before the two stood in comparative safety between the castle and the towering cliff.

'Come now,' said the ape-man; 'we will go around to the front of the castle and find out if the girl escaped.'

'We shall have to be careful,' cautioned the gorilla god. 'This fire will have attracted a crowd from the city. I have many enemies in the palace of the king who would be glad to capture us both. Then we should be killed and the girl lost—if she is not already dead.'

'What do you suggest, then?' Tarzan was suspicious. He saw a trap, he saw duplicity in everything conceived by the mind of man.

'The fire has not reached this low wing yet,' explained the other. 'In it is the entrance to a shaft leading down to the quarters of a faithful priest who dwells in a cave at the foot of the cliff on a level with the city. If we can reach him we shall be safe. He will hide us and do my bidding.'

Tarzan scowled. He had the wild beast's aversion to entering an unfamiliar enclosure, but he had overheard enough of the conversation between the gorilla god and Cranmer to know that the former's statement was at least partially true—his enemies in the palace might gladly embrace an opportunity to imprison or destroy him.

'Very well,' he assented; 'but I am going to tie this rope around your neck so that you may not escape me, and remind you that I still have the knife with which I killed several of your gorillas. I and the knife will be always near you.'

The gorilla god made no reply; but he submitted to being secured, and then led the way into the building and to a cleverly concealed trap opening into the top of a shaft descending into darkness.

Here a ladder led downward, and Tarzan let his companion precede him into the Stygian blackness of the shaft. They descended for a short distance to a horizontal corridor which terminated at another vertical shaft. These shafts and corridors alternated until the gorilla god finally announced that they had reached the bottom of the cliff.

Here they proceeded along a corridor until a heavy wooden door blocked their progress. The gorilla god listened intently for a moment, his ear close to the planking of the door. Finally he raised the latch and pushed the door silently ajar. Through the crack the ape-man saw a rough cave lighted by a single smoky torch.

'He is not here,' said the gorilla god as he pushed the door open and entered. 'He has probably gone with the others to see the fire.'

Tarzan looked about the interior. He saw a smoke blackened cave, the floor littered with dirty straw. Opposite the doorway through which they had entered was another probably leading into the open. It was closed with a massive wooden door. Near the door was a single small window. Some sacks made of the skins of animals hung from pegs driven into the walls. A large jar sitting on the floor held water.

'We shall have to await his return,' said the gorilla god. 'In the meantime let us eat.'

He crossed to the bags hanging on the wall and examined their contents, finding celery, bamboo tips, fruit, and nuts. He selected what he wished and sat down on the floor. 'Help yourself,' he invited with a wave of a hand toward the sacks.

'I have eaten,' said Tarzan and sat down near the gorilla god where he could watch both him and the doorway.

His companion ate in silence for a few minutes; then he looked up at the ape-man. 'You said that you did not want diamonds.' His tone was skeptical. 'Then why did you come here?'

'Not for diamonds.'

The gorilla god chuckled. 'My people killed some of your party as they were about to enter the valley. On the body of one of them was a map of this valley—the valley of diamonds. Are you surprised that I assume that you