The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-03-12
CHAPTER x.-continued.

How beautiful he wasi La bent
low over him. looking into his eyes.
How perfect was his figure. She
compared it with those Of the gnarled
and knotted men from whom she must
choose a mate, and La shuddered at
the thought. Dusk came, and after
dusk came night. A great fire blazed
within the little thorn bona about
the camp. The flames played upon
the new altar erectedsin the center of
the clearing, arousing in the mind OF
the high priestess Of the Flaming God
picture of the event of the coming
dawn. She saw this giant and perfect
form writing amid the flames Of the
burning pyre. She saw those smiling
lips, burned and blackened, falling
away from the strong, white teeth.
She saw the, shock of black hair tou-
sled upon Tarzan's well-shaped head
disappear in a squirt of flame. She
saw these and many other frightful
pictures as she stood with closed eyes
and clenched fists above the object
of her hate-ah! was it hate that La
of Opar felt?
: The darkness of the jungle night
had settled down upon the camp, re-
lieved only by the fitful Earrings of the
fire that was kept up to warn off the
man-eaters. Tarzan lay quietly in his
bonds. He suffered from thirst and
from the cutting of the tight strands
about his wrists and ankles; but he
made no complaint. A jungle beast
was Tarzan, with the stoicism of the
beast and the intelligence of man. He
knew that his doom was sealed-that
no supplications would avail to tenn
per the severity Of his end, and so he
wasted no breath in pleadings. but
waited patiently in the firm convic-
ton that his sufferings could not en-
dure forever.
In the darkness La stopped above
him. In her hand was a sharp knife
and in her mind the determination to
initiate his torture without further de-
lay. The knife was pressed against
his side and Las face was close to
his when a sudden burst of flame
from new branches thrown upon the
fire without lighted up the interior of
the shelter. Close beneath her lips
La saw the perfect features of the
forest god and into her woman's
heart welled all the great love she had
felt for TarZan since first she had seen
him, and all the accumulated passion
of the years that she had dreamed of
him.
Dagger in hand, La, the high priest
ess, lowered above the helpless crea-
ture that had dared to violate the
sanctuary of her deity. There should
be no torture-there should be instant
death. A single stroke of the heavy
blade and then the corpse to the fam
ing pyre without. The knife arm stiff
.fened ready for the downward plunge,
and then La. the woman, collapsed
weakly upon the body of the man she
loved.
She ran her hands in mute caress
over his naked flesh; she covered his
forehead. his eyes, his lips with hot
kisses; she covered him with her body
as though to protect him from the
hideous fate she had ordained for him,
and In trembling, piteous tones she
begged him for his love. For hours
the frenzy of her passion possessed
the burning handmaiden of the Flam-
ing God. until at last sleep overpow.
cred her and she lapsed into uncon-
sciousness beside the man she had
sworn to torture and to Stay. And
Tarzan, untroubled by thoughts of the
future, slept peacefully in Las en-
S-ace.
At the first hint of dawn the chant
ing of the priests of Opar brought
Tarzan to wakefulness. INFLATED in
low and subdued tones, the sound
soon rose in volume TO the open diapa-
son of barbaric blood lust. La stirred.
Her perfect arm pressed Tarzan closer
TO boa sinue parted her lips ana