The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1920-11-19
CHAPTER x.

La had followed her company and
when She saw them clawing and bit
ing at Tarzan she raised her voice and
cautioned them not to kill him. She
saw that he was weakening and that
soon the greater numbers would pre-
vail over him, nor had she long to
wait before the mighty jungle crea-
ture lay helpless and bound at her
feet.
Bring him to the place at which we
stopped she commanded, and they
carried Tarzan back to the little clear
ing and threw him down beneath a
tree.
Build me shelterl" ordered La.
I'VE shall stop here tonight and to.
morrow in the face of the Flaming
God La will offer up the heart of this
detiier of the temple. Where is the
sacred knife? Who took it from him 2"
But no one had seen it and each was
positive in his assurance that the sac
rificial weapon had not been upon
Tar2an's person when they captured
him. The ape-man looked upon the
menacing creatures which surrounded
him and snarled his defiance. He
looked upon La and smiled. In the
face of death he was unafraid.
where is the knife?" La asked
him.
y do not know" replied Tarzan.
"The man took it away with him when
he slipped away during the night. OF
what good was your knife, anyway? :?
You can make another. Did you fol-
low us all this way for nothing more
than knife? Let me go and find him
and I will bring it back to you"
La laughed bitter laugh, Tor in her
heart sha knew that Tarzans sin was
greater than the purloining of the sa-
cred sacrificial knife of Opar; yet as
she looked at him lying bound and
helpless before her, tears rose to heI
eyes so that she had to turn away to
hide them; but she remained inflexible
in her determination to make him pay
in frightful suffering and in eventual
death for daring to spurn the love OF
La.
When the shelter was completed La
had Tarzan transferred to it. "Al
night ! shall torture him." she nut
tered to her priests, land at the frs
streak of dawn you may prepare TIL,
| flaming altar upon which his hear
| shall be offered up to the Flaming
| God"
! During the balance of the day tn
priests of Opar were busy erecting al
altar In the center of the clearing, an,
while they worked they chanted weir
hymns in the ancient tongue of tina
lost continent that lies at the bottor
of the Atlantic.
In the shelter of the hut La pace
to and fro beside the stole ape-mar
| Resigned to his fate was Tarzan. N
hope of succor cleaned through tn
dead black of the death sentenc
hanging over him. He knew that hi
| giant muscles could not part the man
strands that bound his wrists an'
ankles, for he had strained often bu
Intellectually for release. He had n
hope of outside help and only enemie
surrounded him within the camp, an,
yet he smiled at La as she paced nerv
ously back and forth the length o
the shelter.
And La? She fingered her knife ant
looked down upon her captive. Sh
glared and muttered but she did no
strike Tonight" she thought. ITO
night, when it is dark l will tortur
him." She looked upon his perfect
godlike figure and upon his handsome
smiling face and then she steeled he
heart again by thoughts of her low
spurned; by religious thoughts tina
damned the infidel who had desecratet
the holy of holies: who had taker
from the blood-stained altar of Opa
the offering to the Flaming God-ant
not once but thrice. Three times hat
Tarzan cheated the god of her fathers
At the thought La paused and knel
at his side. In her hand was sharI
knife. She placed its point agains
the ape-man's side and pressed upor
the hilt; but Tarzan only smiled ant
shrugged his shoulders.