The procession wound through the forest to the foot of a mountain, up which it zig-zagged back and forth until it reached the rim of the crater of an extinct volcano at the summit. It was almost dawn as the procession made its way down a narrow trail to the bottom of the crater and stopped there at the edge of a yawning hole. Priests intoned a chant to the accompaniment of flutes, drums, and trumpets; and, just at dawn, the bag was cut away from Tarzan and he was hurled into the chasm, notwithstanding the pleas of Itzl Cha, who had repented and warned the priests that the man was really Che, Lord Forest . She had begged them not to kill him, but Chat Yip Xiu had silenced her and spoken the word that sent Tarzan to his doom.
Chapter XXIV
Patricia Leigh-Burden was not the type of girl easily moved to tears, but she stood now on the brink of that terrible abyss, her body racked by sobs; and then as the sun topped the rim and shed its light down into the crater, she saw Tarzan swimming slowly about in a pond some seventy feet below her. Instantly her mind leaped to the stories she had read of the sacred dzonot of ancient Chichen Itza in Yucatan , and hope burned again in her breast.
'Tarzan,' she called, and the man turned over on his back and looked up at her. 'Listen, ' she continued. 'I know this form of sacrifice well; it was practiced by the Maya in Central America hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The victim was thrown into the sacred well at Chichen Itza at dawn, and if he still lived at noon, he was taken out and raised to highest rank; he became practically a living god on earth. You must keep afloat until noon, Tarzan; you must! you must!'
Tarzan smiled up at her and waved. The priests eyed her suspiciously, though they had no idea what she had said to their victim.
'Do you think that you can, Tarzan?' she said. 'You must, because I love you.'
Tarzan did not reply, as he turned over and commenced to swim slowly around the pool, which was about a hundred feet in diameter with perpendicular sides of smooth volcanic glass.
The water was chilly but not cold, and Tarzan swam just strongly enough to keep from becoming chilled.
The people had brought food and drink; and as they watched through the long dragging hours, they made a fiesta of the occasion.
As the sun climbed toward zenith, Chal Yip Xiu commenced to show signs of strain and nervousness, for if the victim lived until noon, he might prove indeed to be Che, Lord Forest, which would be most embarrassing for the ah kin mai. Every eye that could see it was upon a crude sundial that stood beside the rim of the dzonot; and when it marked noon, a great shout arose, for the victim was still alive.
The high priest was furious as the people acclaimed Tarzan as Che, Lord Forest , and demanded that he be taken from the water. A long rope was thrown down to him, with a noose in the end of it by means of which he could be drawn out of the dzonot; but Tarzan ignored the noose and clambered up the rope, hand over hand. When he stepped out upon the rim, the people fell to their knees before him and supplicated him for forgiveness and for favors.
The king and the high priest looked most uncomfortable as Tarzan faced them. 'I came to earth in the form of a mortal,' he said, 'to see how you ruled my people of Chichen Itza . I am not pleased. I shall come again some day to see if you have improved. Now I go, and I take this woman with me,' and he placed a hand upon Patricia's arm. 'I command you to release Itzl Cha, and to see that neither she nor any others are sacrificed before I return.'
He took Patricia by the hand, and together they climbed the steep trail to the rim of the crater and then down the side of the volcano, the people following them, in a long procession, singing as they marched. As they reached the city, Tarzan turned and held up a hand. 'Come no farther,' he said to the people, and then to Patricia, 'Now I'll give them something to tell their grandchildren about.'
She looked up at him questioningly and smiled. 'What are you going to do?' she asked.
For answer, he voiced a long weird cry, and then, in the language of the great apes, shouted, 'Come, Tantor, come!' and as he and Patricia crossed the field and approached the forest, a great bull elephant came out of it to meet them, and a cry of astonishment and fear rose from the people behind them.
'Won't he gore us or something?' asked Patricia, as they approached the bull.
'He is my friend,' said Tarzan, laying his hand upon the trunk of the great beast. 'Don't be frightened,' he said to Patricia; 'he is going to lift you to his withers,' and at a word of command, Tantor swung the girl up and then lifted Tarzan.
As he wheeled to go into the forest, Tarzan and Patricia looked back to see the people of Chichen Itza all kneeling, their faces pressed against the ground.
'Their great-great-grandchildren will hear of this,' said Patricia.
In Camp Saigon , the discouraged company waited hopelessly for Tarzan's return. There had been little sleep the previous night for many of them, and the long hours of the morning had dragged heavily. Tea time came and Tarzan had not returned; but, as a matter of habit, they had tea served; and as they sat around the table, sipping it listlessly, the same thought must have been in the minds of all; they would never see Patricia or Tarzan again.
'You should never have let that creature go out after Patricia alone,' said Mrs., Leigh; 'he probably found her all right, and there is no telling what has happened to her by this time.'
'Oh, Penelope!' cried the Colonel hopelessly. 'Why are you so bitter against that man? He has done nothing but befriend us.'
'Hmph!' exclaimed Penelope, 'You are very dense, William; I could see through him from the first—he is a climber; he wants to get into our good graces and then he will probably try to marry Patricia for the money she will inherit.'
'Madam,' said de Groote very icily, ''that creature,' as you call him, is John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, an English viscount.'
'Bosh!' exclaimed Mrs., Leigh.
'It is not bosh,' said de Groote; 'Krause told me who he was while we were locked up together in that cage. He got it from the Arab, who has known the man for years.'
Mrs. Leigh's chin dropped, and she seemed to suddenly deflate, but she rallied quickly. 'I rather expected it,' she said after a moment. 'All that I ever criticized in him was his predilection for nudity. Why didn't you ever tell us this before, young man?'
'I don't know why I told you now,' replied de Groote; 'it is none of my business; if he had wanted us to know, he would have told us.'
'Here he comes now!' exclaimed Janette, 'and Patricia is with him!'
'How wonderful!' exclaimed Penelope. 'What a fine looking couple my niece and Lord Greystoke make.'
From the withers of the elephant, Patricia could see far out beyond the reef; and when she and Tarzan slipped to the ground, she ran toward the group awaiting them, pointing and crying, 'Look! A ship! A ship!'
It was a ship far out; and the men hastened to build a fire on the beach, and when it was burning, to throw on green leaves and kerosene until a great black smoke rose high into the sky.
De Groote and some of the sailors put out in one of the boats in a frantic, if potentially futile, effort to further attract the ship's attention.
'They don't see us,' said Janette.
'And there may not be another ship in a hundred years,' remarked Dr. Crouch.
'Jolly long time to wait for anything, what?' said Algy.
'They've changed their course,' said Bolton ; 'they're heading in.'
The Colonel had gone to his hut and now he came out with binoculars in his hand. He took a long look through them; and when he took the glasses down, there were tears in his eyes; and it was a moment before he could speak.
'It's the Naiad,' he said, 'and she is heading inshore.'
That night, under a full tropic moon, two couples lounged in comfortable chairs on the deck of the Naiad. Tarzan laid a hand on one of Patricia's. 'In your nervous excitement today at the Dzonot, you said something,
