said you had been in Zuli. The same man who told me these other things. This man!' And he snatched the cloth from the thing upon the table.
Glaring at the ape-man with staring eyes was the bloody head of the Englishman, Lord; and beside it was the great emerald of the Zuli.
Mafka watched his prisoner intently to note the reaction to this startling and dramatic climax to the interview, but he reaped scant satisfaction. The expression on Tarzan's face underwent no change.
For a moment there was silence; then Mafka spoke. 'Thus die the enemies of Mafka,' he said. 'Thus will you die and the others who have brought intrigue and discontent to Kaji.' He turned to the captain of the guard. 'Take him away. Place him again in the south chamber with the other troublemakers who are to die with him. It was an evil day that brought them to Kaji.'
Heavily guarded, Tarzan was returned to the room in which he had been confined. From Mafka's instructions to the captain of the guard, he had expected to find other prisoners here on his return; but he was alone. He wondered idly who his future companions were to be, and then he crossed to one of the windows and looked out across the city and the broad valley of the Kaji.
He stood there for a long time trying to formulate some plan by which he might contact Wood and discuss means by which the escape of the American could be assured. He had a plan of his own, but he needed the greater knowledge that Wood possessed of certain matters connected with Mafka and the Kaji before he could feel reasonably certain of its Success.
As he stood there pondering the advisability of returning to Gonfala's apartment and seeking again the cooperation that he knew she had been on the point of according him when the sudden Jekyll and Hyde transformation had wrought the amazing change in her, he heard footsteps outside the door of his prison; then the bolt was drawn and the door swung open, and four men were pushed roughly in. Behind them, the door was slammed and bolted.
One of the four men was Stanley Wood. At sight of Tarzan he voiced an exclamation of astonishment. 'Clayton!' he cried. 'Where did you come from? What in the world are you doing here?'
'The same thing that you are-waiting to be killed.'
'How did he get you? I thought you were immune-that he couldn't control you.'
Tarzan explained about the misadventure of the leopard pit; then Wood introduced the other three to him. They were Robert van Eyk, Wood's associate, and Troll and Spike, the two white hunters who had accompanied their safari. Troll he had already met.
'I ain't had a chance to tell Wood about seeing you,' explained Troll. 'This is the first time I've seen him. He was in the cooler, and I was just arrested. I don't even know what for, or what they're goin' to do to me.'
'I can tell you what they plan on doing to you,' said Tarzan. 'We're all to be killed. Mafka just told me. He says you are all troublemakers.'
'He wouldn't have to be a psychoanalyst to figure that out,' remarked van Eyk. 'If we'd had half a break we'd've shown him something in the trouble line, but what you going to do up against a bird like that? He knows what you're thinking before you think it.'
'We wouldn't have been in this mess if it hadn't been for Wood messin' around with that Gonfala dame,' growled Spike. 'I never knew it to fail that you didn't get into trouble with any bunch of heathen if you started mixin' up with their women folk-especially niggers. But a guy's got it comin' to him that plays around with a nigger wench.'
'Shut that dirty trap of yours,' snapped Wood, 'or I'll shut it for you.' He took a quick step toward Spike and swung a vicious right for the other man's jaw. Spike stepped back and van Eyk jumped between them.
'Cut it!' he ordered. 'We got enough grief without fighting among ourselves.'
'You're dead right,' agreed Troll. 'We'll punch the head of the next guy that starts anything like that again.'
'That's all right, too,' said Wood; 'but Spike's got to apologize or I'll kill him for that the first chance I get. He's got to take it back.'
'You'd better apologize, Spike,' advised van Eyk.
The hunter looked sullenly from beneath lowering brows. Troll went over and whispered to him. 'All right,' said Spike, finally; 'I take it back. I didn't mean nothin'.'
Wood nodded. 'Very well,' he said, 'I accept your apology,' and turned and joined Tarzan, who had been standing by a window a silent spectator of what had transpired.
He stood for a time in silence; then he shook his head dejectedly. 'The trouble is,' he said in low tones, 'I know Spike is right. She must have Negro blood in her-they all have; but it doesn't seem to make any difference to me-I'm just plain crazy about her, and that's all there is to it. If you could only see her, you'd understand.'
'I have seen her,' said the ape-man.
'What!' exclaimed Wood. 'You've seen her? When?'
'Shortly after I was brought here,' said Tarzan.
'You mean she came here to see you?'
'She was on the throne with Mafka when I was taken before him,' explained Tarzan.
'Oh, yes; I see. I thought maybe you'd talked with her.'
'I did-afterward, in her apartment. I found a way to get there.'
'What did she say? How was she? I haven't seen her since I got back. I was afraid something had happened to her.'
'Mafka suspects her of helping you to escape. He keeps her locked up under guard.'
'Did she say anything about me?' demanded Wood, eagerly.
'Yes; she wants to help you. At first she was eager and friendly; then, quite abruptly and seemingly with no reason, she became sullen and dangerous, screaming for her guard.'
'Yes, she was like that-sweet and lovely one moment; and the next, a regular she-devil. I never could understand it. Do you suppose she's-well, not quite right mentally?'
The ape-man shook his head. 'No,' he said, 'I don't think that. I believe there is another explanation. But that is neither here nor there now. There is just one matter that should concern us-getting out of here. We don't know when Mafka plans on putting us out of the way nor how. Whatever we are going to do we should do immediately-take him by surprise.'
'How are we going to surprise him-locked up here in a room, under guard?' demanded Wood.
'You'd be surprised,' replied Tarzan, smiling faintly; 'so will Mafka. Tell me, can we count on any help beyond what we can do ourselves-the five of us? How about the other prisoners? Will they join with us?'
'Yes, practically all of them-if they can. But what can any of us do against Mafka? We're beaten before we start. If we could only get hold of the Gonfal! I think that's the source of all his power over us.'
'We might do that, too,' said Tarzan.
'Impossible,' said Wood. 'What do you think, Bob?' he asked van Eyk, who had just joined them.
'Not a chance in a million,' replied van Eyk. 'He keeps the old rock in his own apartment at night, or in fact wherever he is the Gonfal is with him. His apartment is always locked and guarded-warriors at the door all the time. No, we never could get it.'
Tarzan turned to Wood. 'I thought you told me once that they seemed very careless of the Gonfal-that you had handled it.'
Wood grinned. 'I thought I had, but since I came back I learned differently. One of the women told me. It seems that Mafka is something of a chemist. He has a regular lab and plays around in it a lot-ordinary chemistry as well as his main line of black magic. Well, he learned how to make phony diamonds; so he makes an imitation of the Gonfal, and that's what I handled. They say he leaves the phony out where it can be seen and hides the real Gonfal at night when he goes to bed; so that if, by any chance, some one was able to get into his room to steal it they'd get the wrong stone. But he has to keep the Gonfal near him just the same, or he'd be more or less helpless against an enemy.'
'The only chance to get it would be to get into Mafka's apartment at night,' said van Eyk, 'and that just can't be done.'
'Do his apartments connect with Gonfala's?' asked Tarzan.
'Yes, but the old boy keeps the door between them locked at night. He isn't taking any chances-not even with Gonfala.'
