Tarzan the Terrible - Edgar Rice Burroughs (free romance novels TXT) 📗

the inner entrance to the Forbidden Garden and there he paused and scanned quickly that portion of the beautiful spot that lay before his eyes. To his relief it seemed unoccupied and congratulating himself upon the ease with which he had so far outwitted the high powers of A-lur he moved rapidly to the opposite end of the enclosure. Here he found a patch of flowering shrubbery that might safely have concealed a dozen men.

Crawling well within he removed the uncomfortable headdress and sat down to await whatever eventualities fate might have in store for him the while he formulated plans for the future. The one night that he had spent in A-lur had kept him up to a late hour, apprising him of the fact that while there were few abroad in the temple grounds at night, there were yet enough to make it possible for him to fare forth under cover of his disguise without attracting the unpleasant attention of the guards, and, too, he had noticed that the priesthood constituted a privileged class that seemed to come and go at will and unchallenged throughout the palace as well as the temple. Altogether then, he decided, night furnished the most propitious hours for his investigation—by day he could lie up in the shrubbery of the Forbidden Garden, reasonably free from detection. From beyond the garden he heard the voices of men calling to one another both far and near, and he guessed that diligent was the search that was being prosecuted for him.

The idle moments afforded him an opportunity to evolve a more satisfactory scheme for attaching his stolen caudal appendage. He arranged it in such a way that it might be quickly assumed or discarded, and this done he fell to examining the weird mask that had so effectively hidden his features.

The thing had been very cunningly wrought from a single block of wood, very probably a section of a tree, upon which the features had been carved and afterward the interior hollowed out until only a comparatively thin shell remained. Two-semicircular notches had been rounded out from opposite sides of the lower edge. These fitted snugly over his shoulders, aprons of wood extending downward a few inches upon his chest and back. From these aprons hung long tassels or switches of hair tapering from the outer edges toward the center which reached below the bottom of his torso. It required but the most cursory examination to indicate to the ape-man that these ornaments consisted of human scalps, taken, doubtless, from the heads of the sacrifices upon the eastern altars. The headdress itself had been carved to depict in formal design a hideous face that suggested both man and gryf. There were the three white horns, the yellow face with the blue bands encircling the eyes and the red hood which took the form of the posterior and anterior aprons.

As Tarzan sat within the concealing foliage of the shrubbery meditating upon the hideous priest-mask which he held in his hands he became aware that he was not alone in the garden. He sensed another presence and presently his trained ears detected the slow approach of naked feet across the sward. At first he suspected that it might be one stealthily searching the Forbidden Garden for him but a little later the figure came within the limited area of his vision which was circumscribed by stems and foliage and flowers. He saw then that it was the princess O-lo-a and that she was alone and walking with bowed head as though in meditation—sorrowful meditation for there were traces of tears upon her lids.

Shortly after his ears warned him that others had entered the garden—men they were and their footsteps proclaimed that they walked neither slowly nor meditatively. They came directly toward the princess and when Tarzan could see them he discovered that both were priests.

“O-lo-a, Princess of Pal-ul-don,” said one, addressing her, “the stranger who told us that he was the son of Jad-ben-Otho has but just fled from the wrath of Lu-don, the high priest, who exposed him and all his wicked blasphemy. The temple, and the palace, and the city are being searched and we have been sent to search the Forbidden Garden, since Ko-tan, the king, said that only this morning he found him here, though how he passed the guards he could not guess.”

“He is not here,” said O-lo-a. “I have been in the garden for some time and have seen nor heard no other than myself. However, search it if you will.”

“No,” said the priest who had before spoken, “it is not necessary since he could not have entered without your knowledge and the connivance of the guards, and even had he, the priest who preceded us must have seen him.”

“What priest?” asked O-lo-a.

“One passed the guards shortly before us,” explained the man.

“I did not see him,” said O-lo-a.

“Doubtless he left by another exit,” remarked the second priest.

“Yes, doubtless,” acquiesced O-lo-a, “but it is strange that I did not see him.” The two priests made their obeisance and turned to depart.

“Stupid as Buto, the rhinoceros,” soliloquized Tarzan, who considered Buto a very stupid creature indeed. “It should be easy to outwit such as these.”

The priests had scarce departed when there came the sound of feet running rapidly across the garden in the direction of the princess to an accompaniment of rapid breathing as of one almost spent, either from fatigue or excitement.

“Pan-at-lee,” exclaimed O-lo-a, “what has happened? You look as terrified as the doe for which you were named!”

“O Princess of Pal-ul-don,” cried Pan-at-lee, “they would have killed him in the temple. They would have killed the wondrous stranger who claimed to be the Dor-ul-Otho.”

“But he escaped,” said O-lo-a. “You were there. Tell me about it.”

“The head priest would have had him seized and slain, but when they rushed upon him he hurled one in the face of Lu-don with the same ease that you might cast your breastplates at me, and then he leaped upon the altar and from there to the top of the temple wall and disappeared below. They are searching for him, but, O Princess, I pray that they do not find him.”

“And why do you pray that?” asked O-lo-a. “Has not one who has so blasphemed earned death?”

“Ah, but you do not know him,” replied Pan-at-lee.

“And you do, then?” retorted O-lo-a quickly. “This morning you betrayed yourself and then attempted to deceive me. The slaves of O-lo-a do not such things with impunity. He is then the same Tarzan-jad-guru of whom you told me? Speak woman and speak only the truth.”

Pan-at-lee drew herself up very erect, her little chin held high, for was not she too among her own people already as good as a princess? “Pan-at-lee, the Kor-ul-ja does not lie,” she said, “to protect herself.”

“Then tell me what you know of this Tarzan-jad-guru,” insisted O-lo-a.

“I know that he is a wondrous man and very brave,” said Pan-at-lee, “and that he saved me from the Tor-o-don and the gryf as I told you, and that he is indeed the same who came into the garden this morning; and even now I do not know that he is not the son of Jad-ben-Otho for his courage and his strength are more than those of mortal man, as are also his kindness and his honor: for when he might have harmed me he protected me, and when he might have saved himself he thought only of me. And all this he did because of his friendship for Om-at, who is gund of Kor-ul-ja and with whom I should have mated had the Ho-don not captured me.”

“He was indeed a wonderful man to look upon,” mused O-lo-a, “and he was not as are other men, not alone in the conformation of his hands and feet or the fact that he was tailless, but there was that about him which made him seem different in ways more important than these.”

“And,” supplemented Pan-at-lee, her savage little heart loyal to the man who had befriended her and hoping to win for him the consideration of the princess even though it might not avail him; “and,” she said, “did he not know all about Ta-den and even his whereabouts. Tell me, O Princess, could mortal know such things as these?”

“Perhaps he saw Ta-den,” suggested O-lo-a.

“But how would he know that you loved Ta-den,” parried Pan-at-lee. “I tell you, my Princess, that if he is not a god he is at least more than Ho-don or Waz-don. He followed me from the cave of Es-sat in Kor-ul-ja across Kor-ul-lul and two wide ridges to the very cave in Kor-ul-gryf where I hid, though many hours had passed since I had come that way and my bare feet left no impress upon the ground. What mortal man could do such things as these? And where in all Pal-ul-don would virgin maid find friend and protector in a strange male other than he?”

“Perhaps Lu-don may be mistaken—perhaps he is a god,” said O-lo-a, influenced by her slave’s enthusiastic championing of the stranger.”

“But whether god or man he is too wonderful to die,” cried Pan-at-lee. “Would that I might save him. If he lived he might even find a way to give you your Ta-den, Princess.”

“Ah, if he only could,” sighed O-lo-a, “but alas it is too late for tomorrow I am to be given to Bu-lot.”

“He who came to your quarters yesterday with your father?” asked Pan-at-lee.

“Yes; the one with the awful round face and the big belly,” exclaimed the Princess disgustedly. “He is so lazy he will neither hunt nor fight. To eat and to drink is all that Bu-lot is fit for, and he thinks of naught else except these things and his slave women. But come, Pan-at-lee, gather for me some of these beautiful blossoms. I would have them spread around my couch tonight that I may carry away with me in the morning the memory of the fragrance that I love best and which I know that I shall not find in the village of Mo-sar, the father of Bu-lot. I will help you, Pan-at-lee, and we will gather armfuls of them, for I love to gather them as I love nothing else—they were Ta-den’s favorite flowers.”

The two approached the flowering shrubbery where Tarzan hid, but as the blooms grew plentifully upon every bush the ape-man guessed there would be no necessity for them to enter the patch far enough to discover him. With little exclamations of pleasure as they found particularly large or perfect blooms the two moved from place to place upon the outskirts of Tarzan’s retreat.

“Oh, look, Pan-at-lee,” cried O-lo-a presently; “there is the king of them all. Never did I see so wonderful a flower—No! I will get it myself—it is so large and wonderful no other hand shall touch it,” and the princess wound in among the bushes toward the point where the great flower bloomed upon a bush above the ape-man’s head.

So sudden and unexpected her approach that there was no opportunity to escape and Tarzan sat silently trusting that fate might be kind to him and lead Ko-tan’s daughter away before her eyes dropped from the high-growing bloom to him. But as the girl cut the long stem with her knife she looked down straight into the smiling face of Tarzan-jad-guru.

With a stifled scream she drew back and the ape-man rose and faced her.

“Have no fear, Princess,” he assured her. “It is the friend of Ta-den who salutes you,” raising her fingers to his lips.

Pan-at-lee came now excitedly forward. “O Jad-ben-Otho, it is he!”

“And now that you have found me,” queried Tarzan, “will you give me up to Lu-don, the high priest?”

Pan-at-lee threw herself