their hoods.
Magra had scarcely more than taken in the scene before her when she saw Gregory being dragged in as she had been. They looked at one another resignedly, and Gregory shook his head. 'Guess we're in for it,' he said. 'Looks like the Klu Klux Klan. You were right. Some of them must have been watching us.'
'I wonder what they are,' she said, 'and what they want of us. God! Haven't we been through enough, without this?'
'I don't wonder Tuen-Baka is taboo and Ashair forbidden. If I ever get out of it, k will be taboo as far as I am concerned.'
'If we ever get out,' she said rather wistfully.
'We got out of Thobos,' he reminded her.
'Yes, I know; but we have no Tarzan nor any Thetan here. Now we are on our own, and we are helpless.'
'Maybe they don't intend us any harm,' he suggested. 'If I only knew their language, I'd ask 'em. They have a language. They've been whispering together ever since they brought us in.'
'Try Swahili,' she suggested. 'Every one else we've seen in this accursed country speaks it.'
'My Swahili is a little lame,' he said, 'but if they understand Swahili maybe they can make it out.' He turned toward the nearest white robed figure, and cleared his throat. 'Why did you bring us here?' he asked. 'What are you going to do with us? We haven't done anything to you.'
'You dared enter the temple of the true god,' replied the man. 'Who are you to dare enter the sacred temple of Chon ?'
'They are minions of Atka,' said another.
'Or spies of the false Brulor,' suggested a third.
'We are nothing of the kind,' said Magra. 'We are just strangers who became lost. All we want to do is find our way out of Tuen-Baka.'
'Then why did you come here?'
'We were looking for a place to hide until we could get out,' replied the girl.
'You are probably lying. We shall keep you here until the true god returns; then you shall learn your fate and the manner of your death.'
Chapter 28
AFTER THEY HAD rested, Herkuf, Helen, and Tarzan went to look for the boat that Herkuf had hidden, in which they were to return to the temple of Brulor in an attempt to rescue d'Arnot, Brian, and Lavac. The inlet in which he had sunk it was not a great distance from the cave they had chosen; and as almost the entire distance was through wooded country, they had no fear of being detected by the occupants of any of the Asharian galleys which occasionally passed within eyesight of the shore, as they patrolled the lower end of Horus in eternal quest of their hereditary enemies from Thobos.
When they reached the inlet, Herkuf parted the overhanging bushes and looked down into the shallow water. 'This is the place,' he muttered to himself. 'I know it is the place. I cannot be mistaken.'
'What's wrong?' asked Tarzan. 'Can't you find it?'
'This is the place,' repeated Herkuf, 'but the boat is not here. Though I hid it carefully, some one found it. Now all our plans are wrecked. What are we to do?'
'Can't we walk around the end of the lake and enter the water near the temple from the Asharian shore?' asked Helen.
'The escarpment at the lower end of the lake is unscalable,' replied Herkuf. 'If we went by way of Thobos, we should most certainly be captured; and although I was once a priest of Chon at Thobos, no one would know me now; and we should all be imprisoned.'
'Maybe we could build a raft,' suggested the girl.
Herkuf shook his head. 'We have no tools,' he said; 'and even if we had, we'd never dare attempt it, as the Asharians would be sure to discover us.'
'Must we give up, then?' demanded Helen. 'Oh, we can't do that and leave Paul and Brian and Lavac to die.'
'There is a way,' said Tarzan.
'What is it?' demanded Herkuf.
'When it is dark, I'll swim to Ashair and steal a boat from the quay there.'
'That is impossible,' said Herkuf. 'You saw with what we had to contend when we crossed last night. You wouldn't get half way across, swimming at the surface. We'd better walk back.'
'It was only by the best of luck that we got across last night,' Tarzan reminded him. 'We might not be so lucky another time; and, if we did succeed, we should still be without a boat to return to Thobos or escape through the tunnel. You know that the success of our whole plan rested upon our having a boat. I shall swim the lake tonight.'
'Don't do it, Tarzan; please don't,' begged Helen. 'You would just be throwing your life away uselessly.'
'I do not intend to throw my life away at all,' he replied. 'I have my knife.'
They returned to the cave to await darkness; and, finding it impossible to dissuade Tarzan from his plan, Her-kuf and Helen finally gave up in despair; and, when darkness fell, they stood at the shore line and watched him wade into the dark waters of Horus. With straining eyes they watched his progress until he disappeared from their view in the darkness, and even then they remained where they were, staring out into the black void across the blacker waters.
Tarzan had completed about half the distance to the Asharian shore without encountering any dangers, when he saw a torch flare suddenly in the bow of a galley only a short distance from him. He watched it; and when it altered its course and came toward him, he realized that he had been discovered. To be taken now by an Asharian galley would doubtless mean death not only for him but for the men he was risking his life to save, and so he grasped at the only chance he had to elude them. Diving, he swam away, trying to escape the circle of their torch's light; and, glancing back, he felt that he might succeed, for the light appeared to be receding; but as he rose toward the surface for air before diving again, he saw a shadowy form approaching him; and knew that at last the thing that Helen and Herkuf had so feared had happened. He recalled his words of assurance to them, 'I have my knife,' and half smiled as he drew it.
On Ashair's distant wall, a sentry saw the flare of the torch out upon the lake and summoned an officer. 'A galley from Thobos,' he said, 'for there are no Asharian galleys out tonight.'
The officer nodded. 'I wonder why they risked a light,' he said. 'They always sneak by in the night without torches. Well, it is our good luck, and because of it we shall have a prize tonight and some more victims for Atka and Brulor.'
As the great shark turned on its back to seize Tarzan, he plunged his knife into its belly and ripped it open for a distance of several feet. Mortally hurt, the great fish thrashed about in its agony, dyeing the water crimson with its blood and creating a great commotion upon the surface of the lake, a commotion that attracted the attention of those in the galley.
The ape-man, avoiding the lashing tail and angry jaws of the shark, now saw other great forms converging upon them, silent, sinister tigers of the deep attracted at first, like their fellow, by the light of the torch in the bow of the galley; but now by the blood of the wounded shark. Terrible creatures, they were coming for the kill.
His lungs bursting, Tarzan swam toward the surface for air, confident that the wounded shark would occupy the attention of the others. He knew, from the radiance of the water, that he would come up close to the galley; but he had to choose between that and death from drowning; there was no other alternative.
As he broke the surface of the water, he was close beside the galley; and warriors seized him and drew him over the gunwale. Here now was an end to all the fine plans he and Herkuf had concocted, for to fall into the hands of the Asharians must be equivalent to the signing of his death warrant; but as he looked at his captors he saw the black plumes of Thobos and heard a familiar voice call him by name. It was Thetan's.
