TARZAN, turning, discovered the man behind him on the top level of the -covered east tower of the Palace of Diamonds. His knife leaped from its sheath at the touch of his quick fingers. But almost his hand dropped to his side, and he stood the other, with an expression of incredulity upon his face that but reflected a similar emotion registered upon the of the stranger. For what Tarzan saw was no Bolgani, nor a Gomangani, but a white man, bald and old and shriveled, with a long, white beard—a white man, naked but for barbaric of gold spangles and diamonds.
“God!” exclaimed the strange .
Tarzan eyed the other quizzically. That single English word opened up such tremendous possibilities for as baffled the mind of the ape-man.
“What are you? Who are you?” continued the old man, but this time in the dialect of the great apes.
“You used an English word a moment ago,” said Tarzan. “Do you speak that language?” Tarzan himself in English.
“Ah, dear God!” cried the old man, “that I should have lived to hear that sweet tongue again.” And he, too, now spoke in English, halting English, as might one who was long unaccustomed to voicing the language.
“Who are you?” asked Tarzan, “and what are you doing here?”
“It is the same question that I asked you,” replied the old man. “Do not be afraid to answer me. You are evidently an Englishman, and you have nothing to fear from me.”
“I am here after a woman, captured by the Bolgani,” replied Tarzan.
The other nodded. “Yes,” he said, “I know. She is here.”
“Is she safe?” asked Tarzan.
“She has not been harmed. She will be safe until tomorrow or the next day,” replied the old man. “But who are you, and how did you find your way here from the outer world?”
“I am Tarzan of the Apes,” replied the ape-man. “I came into this valley looking for a way out of the valley of Opar where the life of my companion was in danger. And you?”
“I am an old man,” replied the other, “and I have been here ever since I was a boy. I was a on the ship that brought Stanley to Africa after the establishment of the station on Stanley Pool, and I came into the interior with him. I went out from camp to hunt, alone, one day. I lost my way and later was captured by unfriendly natives. They took me farther into the interior to their village from which I finally escaped, but so confused and lost that I had no idea what direction to take to find a trail to the coast. I wandered thus for months, until finally, upon an accursed day I found an entrance to this valley. I do not know why they did not put me to death at once, but they did not, and later they discovered that my knowledge could be turned to advantage to them. Since then I have helped them in their and mining and in their diamond cutting. I have given them iron drills with hardened points and drills tipped with diamonds. Now I am practically one of them, but always in my heart has been the hope that some day I might escape from the valley—a hopeless hope, though, I may assure you.”
“There is no way out?” asked Tarzan.
“There is a way, but it is always guarded.”
“Where is it?” Tarzan.
“It is a continuation of one of the mine tunnels, passing through the mountain to the valley beyond. The mines have been worked by the ancestors of this race for an almost incalculable length of time. The mountains are honeycombed with their and tunnels. Back of the gold-bearing lies an enormous deposit of altered peridotite, which contains diamonds, in the search for which it evidently became necessary to extend one of the shafts to the opposite side of the mountain, possibly for purposes of ventilation. This tunnel and the trail leading down into Opar are the only means of ingress to the valley. From time immemorial they have kept the tunnel guarded, more particularly, I imagine, to prevent the escape of slaves than to the inroads of an enemy, since they believe that there is no fear of the latter emergency. The trail to Opar they do not guard, because they no longer fear the Oparians, and know quite well that none of their Gomangani slaves would dare enter the valley of the sunworshipers. For the same reason, then, that the slaves cannot escape, we, too, must remain prisoners here forever.”
“How is the tunnel guarded?” asked Tarzan.
“Two Bolgani and a dozen or more Gomangani are always upon duty there,” replied the old man.
“The Gomangani would like to escape?”
“They have tried it many times in the past, I am told,” replied the old man, “though never since I have lived here, and always they were caught and tortured. And all their race was punished and worked the harder because of these attempts upon the part of a few.”
“They are numerous—the Gomangani?”
“There are probably five thousand of them in the valley,” replied the old man.
“And how many Bolgani?” the ape-man asked.
“Between ten and eleven hundred.”
“Five to one,” murmured Tarzan, “and yet they are afraid to attempt to escape.”
“But you must remember,” said the old man, “that the Bolgani are the and intelligent race—the others are intellectually little above the beasts of the forest.”
“Yet they are men,” Tarzan reminded him.
“In figure only,” replied the old man. “They cannot band together as men do. They have not as yet reached the community plane of evolution. It is true that families reside in a single village, but that idea, together with their weapons, was given to them by the Bolgani that they might not be entirely by the lions and panthers. , I am told, each individual Gomangani, when he became old enough to hunt for himself, constructed a hut apart from others and took up his life, there being at that time no slightest of family life. Then the Bolgani taught them how to build palisaded villages and compelled the men and women to remain in them and rear their children to , after which the children were required to remain in the village, so that now some of the communities can claim as many as forty or fifty people. But the death rate is high among them, and they cannot multiply as rapidly as people living under normal conditions of peace and security. The brutalities of the Bolgani kill many; the carnivora take a considerable .”
“Five to one, and still they remain in slavery—what cowards they must be,” said the ape-man.
“On the contrary, they are far from cowardly,” replied the old man. “They will face a lion with the utmost bravery. But for so many ages have they been to the will of the Bolgani, that it has become a habit in them—as the fear of God is inherent in us, so is the fear of the Bolgani inherent in the minds of the Gomangani from birth.”
“It is interesting,” said Tarzan. “But tell me now where the woman is of whom I have come in search.”
“She is your mate?” asked the old man.
“No,” replied Tarzan. “I told the Gomangani that she was, so that they would protect her. She is La, queen of Opar, High Priestess of the Flaming God.”
The old man looked his incredulity. “Impossible!” he cried. “It cannot be that the queen of Opar has risked her life by coming to the home of her enemies.”
“She was forced to it,” replied Tarzan, “her life being threatened by a part of her people because she had refused to sacrifice me to their god.”
“If the Bolgani knew this there would be great rejoicing,” replied the old man.
“Tell me where she is,” demanded Tarzan. “She preserved me from her people, and I must save her from whatever fate the Bolgani for her.”
“It is hopeless,” said the old man. “I can tell you where she is, but you cannot rescue her.”
“I can try,” replied the ape-man.
“But you will fail and die.”
“If what you tell me is true, that there is absolutely no chance of my escaping from the valley, I might as well die,” replied the ape-man. “However, I do not agree with you.”
The old man . “You do not know the Bolgani,” he said.
“Tell me where the woman is,” said Tarzan.
“Look,” replied the old man, motioning Tarzan to follow him into his apartment, and approaching a window which faced toward the west, he towards a strange flat tower which rose above the roof of the main building near the west end of the palace. “She is probably somewhere in the interior of that tower,” said the old man to Tarzan, “but as far as you are concerned, she might as well be at the north pole.”
Tarzan stood in silence for a moment, his keen eyes taking in every salient detail of the before him. He saw the strange, flat-topped tower, which it seemed to him might be reached from the roof of the main building. He saw, too, branches of the ancient trees that sometimes topped the roof itself, and except for the dim light shining through some of the palace windows he saw no signs of life. He turned suddenly upon the old man.
“I do not know you,” he said, “but I believe that I may trust you, since after all blood ties are strong, and we are the only men of our race in this valley. You might gain something in favor by betraying me, but I cannot believe that you will do it.”
“Do not fear,” said the old man, “I hate them. If I could help you I would, but I know that there is no hope of success for whatever plan you may have in mind—the woman will never be rescued; you will never leave the Valley of the Palace of Diamonds—you will never leave the palace itself unless the Bolgani wish it.”
The ape-man grinned. “You have been here so long,” he said, “that you are beginning to assume the attitude of mind that keeps the Gomangani in perpetual slavery. If you want to escape, come with me. We may not succeed, but at least you will have a better chance if you try than as if you remained forever in this tower.”
The old man shook his head. “No,” he said, “it is hopeless. If escape had been possible I should have been away from here long ago.”
“Good-bye then,” said Tarzan, and swinging out of the window he clambered toward the roof below, along the stem of the old ivy.
The old man watched him for a moment until he saw him make his way carefully across the roof toward the flat-topped tower where he hoped to find and La. Then the old fellow turned and hurried rapidly down the crude stairway that rose ladder-like to the center of the tower.
Tarzan made his way across the roof of the main building, clambering up the sides of its higher and dropping again to its lower levels as he covered a c............