Tarzan and the Golden Lion - Edgar Rice Burroughs (electronic reader .TXT) 📗

“What do you want?” finally stammered the black. “Are you looking for the white she, your mate, whom the Bolgani took?”

“Yes,” replied Tarzan. “What do you know of her?”

“I know where she is hidden,” replied the black, “and if you will follow me I will lead you to her.”

“Why do you offer to do this for me?” asked Tarzan, immediately suspicious. “Why is it that you do not go at once to your masters and tell them that I am here that they may send men to capture me?”

“I do not know the reason that I was sent to tell you this,” replied the black. “The Bolgani sent me. I did not wish to come for I was afraid.”

“Where did they tell you to lead me?” asked Tarzan.

“I am to lead you into a chamber, the door of which will be immediately bolted upon us. You will then be a prisoner.”

“And you?” inquired Tarzan.

“I, too, shall be a prisoner with you. The Bolgani do not care what becomes of me. Perhaps you will kill me, but they do not care.”

“If you lead me into a trap I shall kill you,” replied Tarzan. “But if you lead me to the woman perhaps we shall all escape. You would like to escape, would you not?”

“I should like to escape, but I cannot.”

“Have you ever tried?”

“No, I have not. Why should I try to do something that cannot be done?”

“If you lead me into the trap I shall surely kill you. If you lead me to the woman, you at least have the chance that I do to live. Which will you do?”

The black scratched his head in thought, the idea slowly filtering through his stupid mind. At last he spoke.

“You are very wise,” he said. “I will lead you to the woman.”

“Go ahead, then,” said Tarzan, “and I will follow you.”

The black descended to the next level and opening the door entered a long, straight corridor. As the ape-man followed his guide he had leisure to reflect upon the means through which the Bolgani had learned of his presence in the tower, and the only conclusion he could arrive at was that the old man had betrayed him, since in so far as Tarzan was aware he alone knew that the ape-man was in the palace. The corridor along which the black was leading him was very dark, receiving a dim and inadequate illumination from the dimly lighted corridor they had just left, the door into which remained open behind them. Presently the black stopped, before a closed door.

“The woman is in there,” said the black, pointing to the door.

“She is alone?” asked Tarzan.

“No,” replied the black. “Look,” and he opened the door, revealing a heavy hanging, which he gently separated, revealing to Tarzan the interior of the chamber beyond.

Seizing the black by the wrist, that he might not escape, Tarzan stepped forward and put his eyes to the aperture. Before him lay a large chamber, at one end of which was a raised dais, the base of which was of a dark, ornately carved wood. The central figure upon this dais was a huge, black-maned lion—the same that Tarzan had seen escorted through the gardens of the palace. His golden chains were now fastened to rings in the floor, while the four blacks stood in statuesque rigidity, two upon either side of the beast. Upon golden thrones behind the lion sat three magnificently ornamented Bolgani. At the foot of the steps leading to the stair stood La, between two Gomangani guards. Upon either side of a central aisle were carved benches facing the dais, and occupying the front section of these were some fifty Bolgani, among whom Tarzan almost immediately espied the little, old man that he had met in the tower, the sight of whom instantly crystallized the ape-man’s conviction of the source of his betrayal.

The chamber was lighted by hundreds of cressets, burning a substance which gave forth both light and the heavy incense that had assailed Tarzan’s nostrils since first he entered the domain of the Bolgani. The long, cathedralesque windows upon one side of the apartment were thrown wide, admitting the soft air of the jungle summer night. Through them Tarzan could see the palace grounds and that this chamber was upon the same level as the terrace upon which the palace stood. Beyond those windows was an open gate-way to the jungle and freedom, but interposed between him and the windows were fifty armed gorilla-men. Perhaps, then, strategy would be a better weapon than force with which to carve his way to freedom with La. Yet to the forefront of his mind was evidently a belief in the probability that in the end it would be force rather than strategy upon which he must depend. He turned to the black at his side.

“Would the Gomangani guarding the lion like to escape from the Bolgani?” he asked.

“The Gomangani would all escape if they could,” replied the black.

“If it is necessary for me to enter the room, then,” said Tarzan to the black, “will you accompany me and tell the other Gomangani that if they will fight for me I will take them out of the valley?”

“I will tell them, but they will not believe,” replied the black.

“Tell them that they will die if they do not help me, then,” said Tarzan.

“I will tell them.”

As Tarzan turned his attention again to the chamber before him he saw that the Bolgani occupying the central golden throne was speaking.

“Nobles of Numa, King of Beasts, Emperor of All Created Things,” he said in deep, growling tones, “Numa has heard the words that this she has spoken, and it is the will of Numa that she die. The Great Emperor is hungry. He, himself, will devour her here in the presence of his Nobles and the Imperial Council of Three. It is the will of Numa.”

A growl of approval arose from the beast-like audience, while the great lion bared his hideous fangs and roared until the palace trembled, his wicked, yellow-green eyes fixed terribly upon the woman before him, evidencing the fact that these ceremonies were of sufficient frequency to have accustomed the lion to what he might expect as the logical termination of them.

“Day after tomorrow,” continued the speaker, “the mate of this creature, who is by this time safely imprisoned in the Tower of the Emperors, will be brought before Numa for judgment. Slaves,” he cried suddenly in a loud voice, rising to his feet and glaring at the guards holding La, “drag the woman to your emperor.”

Instantly the lion became frantic, lashing its tail and straining at its stout chains, roaring and snarling as it reared upon its hind feet and sought to leap upon La, who was now being forcibly conducted up the steps of the dais toward the bejeweled man-eater so impatiently awaiting her.

She did not cry out in terror, but she sought to twist herself free from the detaining hands of the powerful Gomangani—all futilely, however.

They had reached the last step, and were about to push La into the claws of the lion, when they were arrested by a loud cry from one side of the chamber—a cry that halted the Gomangani and brought the assembled Bolgani to their feet in astonishment and anger, for the sight that met their eyes was well qualified to arouse the latter within them. Leaping into the room with raised spear was the almost naked white man of whom they had heard, but whom none of them had as yet seen. And so quick was he that in the very instant of entry—even before they could rise to their feet—he had launched his spear.