登陆注册
15320300000030

第30章

Condemned To Torture and Death

La had followed her company and when she saw them clawing and biting 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 prevail over him, nor had she long to wait before the mighty jungle creature 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 clearing and threw him down beneath a tree.

"Build me a shelter!" ordered La."We shall stop here tonight and tomorrow in the face of the Flaming God, La will offer up the heart of this defiler of the temple.

Where is the sacred knife? Who took it from him?"

But no one had seen it and each was positive in his assurance that the sacrificial weapon had not been upon Tarzan'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.

"I do not know," replied Tarzan."The man took it with him when he slipped away during the night.Since you are so desirous for its return I would look for him and get it back for you, did you not hold me prisoner; but now that I am to die I cannot get it back.Of what good was your knife, anyway? You can make another.

Did you follow us all this way for nothing more than a knife? Let me go and find him and I will bring it back to you."

La laughed a bitter laugh, for in her heart she knew that Tarzan's sin was greater than the purloining of the sacrificial knife of Opar; yet as she looked at him lying bound and helpless before her, tears rose to her 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."All night I shall torture him,"

she muttered to her priests, "and at the first streak of dawn you may prepare the flaming altar upon which his heart shall be offered up to the Flaming God.

Gather wood well filled with pitch, lay it in the form and size of the altar at Opar in the center of the clearing that the Flaming God may look down upon our handiwork and be pleased."

During the balance of the day the priests of Opar were busy erecting an altar in the center of the clearing, and while they worked they chanted weird hymns in the ancient tongue of that lost continent that lies at the bottom of the Atlantic.They knew not the meanings of the words they mouthed; they but repeated the ritual that had been handed down from preceptor to neophyte since that long-gone day when the ancestors of the Piltdown man still swung by their tails in the humid jungles that are England now.

And in the shelter of the hut, La paced to and fro beside the stoic ape-man.Resigned to his fate was Tarzan.No hope of succor gleamed through the dead black of the death sentence hanging over him.He knew that his giant muscles could not part the many strands that bound his wrists and ankles, for he had strained often, but ineffectually for release.He had no hope of outside help and only enemies surrounded him within the camp, and yet he smiled at La as she paced nervously back and forth the length of the shelter.

And La? She fingered her knife and looked down upon her captive.She glared and muttered but she did not strike."Tonight!" she thought."Tonight, when it is dark I will torture him." She looked upon his perfect, godlike figure and upon his handsome, smiling face and then she steeled her heart again by thoughts of her love spurned; by religious thoughts that damned the infidel who had desecrated the holy of holies; who had taken from the blood-stained altar of Opar the offering to the Flaming God--and not once but thrice.

Three times had Tarzan cheated the god of her fathers.

At the thought La paused and knelt at his side.In her hand was a sharp knife.She placed its point against the ape-man's side and pressed upon the hilt; but Tarzan only smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

How beautiful he was! La bent low over him, looking into his eyes.How perfect was his figure.She compared it with those of the knurled 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 boma about the camp.The flames played upon the new altar erected in the center of the clearing, arousing in the mind of the High Priestess of the Flaming God a picture of the event of the coming dawn.She saw this giant and perfect form writhing 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 tousled upon Tarzan's well-shaped head disappear in a spurt 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, relieved only by the fitful flarings 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 temper the severity of his end and so he wasted no breath in pleadings; but waited patiently in the firm conviction that his sufferings could not endure forever.

同类推荐
  • 毅斋诗文集

    毅斋诗文集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • More Bab Ballads

    More Bab Ballads

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 慎柔五书

    慎柔五书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 蓼园词评

    蓼园词评

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Dona Perecta

    Dona Perecta

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 等我送你一夜星辰

    等我送你一夜星辰

    夜色茫茫,浓重的黑色铺天盖地。她站在虚云山山巅,身披星光,表情淡然,一步一步走向天空,点缀她的黑夜。曾顶着世间“最无用的神”的名头,葬身火海。星移斗转,重新归来,也摆脱不了“无用”二字。恶魔将出,天下将乱,“最无用的神”拼死一搏,力挽狂澜,却失去此身挚爱。为神为魔,一念之间。是天命难违,还是人定胜天?
  • 民间侦探

    民间侦探

    周涛是一个普通的打工者,平常就喜欢看福尔摩斯、柯南系列的侦探小说,他在厂里连续破获了厂里丢工资、手机、电脑的案子。后来他换了几个厂协助保安抓获了,偷电动车摩托车的贼。在一次偶然的机会他发现老婆给别人偷情,他就给老婆离婚带着女儿回家,跟村里人联合逮住了偷猪、偷羊的贼。他发现很多小孩子成了窃贼的帮凶,他利用空闲来教育小孩子改邪归正。
  • 六十年后的谢罪

    六十年后的谢罪

    从不同生活角度描绘了都市生活的画卷。全书分为五个部分,分别为微型故事、都市故事、乡村故事、校园故事、中篇故事。对各种发生在寻常百姓间的生活故事进行了极其新意的艺术加工。整部作品集更接近于精品的故事会的形式。令人读来不忍释卷。
  • 恋凯

    恋凯

    他总是那么遥不可及,她很普通。但她开朗,可爱,乐观
  • 我刀刻我心:关羽往事

    我刀刻我心:关羽往事

    本书采取《三国志》正史的时间顺序,沿用《三国演义》中虚构和夸张的情节,从第一人称的视角讲述了受历代中国人敬仰的“武圣”关羽一生的故事,诠释了一个崭新的充满时代气息的关羽。书中不仅细致刻画了关羽忠诚、义气、骄傲、智勇双全的性格特点,还着重描写了刘关张的手足情深、关羽与曹操的情谊等,同时赋予诸葛亮、张辽、庞统、夏侯惇、貂蝉、关平、周仓等人物鲜明的性格特征。人物形象真实、现代,贴近生活。
  • 佣金王

    佣金王

    “小子,这个世界妖兽异族都快被杀绝了,古墓遗迹都快被盗空了,天材地宝都快被挖光了,我劝你别当修炼者了,学点别的不好吗,比如……珠宝炼化,怎么样?”“也行,但是你还是得教我点防身的手段!我可是主角,我光靠鼓动宝石可闯不了世界!”“你不知道自己骨骼惊奇,练什么都没天份吗?”“你是作者,随便给我开个挂不就行了?”“嘘!小点声……让路人甲他们知道了多不好。你让我考虑考虑吧……”
  • 大明崇祯

    大明崇祯

    1627年,陈圆圆才四岁,顾横波八岁,柳如是还有一年就要当妓女了。皇太极刚登基,魏忠贤权倾朝野,客巴巴专横跋扈,一个时代刚刚拉开帷幕。1627年,我为信王,1627年我为皇帝,1627年我为崇祯!1627年,一个人故事,一群人的故事,一个时代的故事!
  • 来世你看不见我的美

    来世你看不见我的美

    多年后,当舒离问起:“你是怎么忍心,拒绝了多么多追求你的男生?”时。藜蕖只是淡淡一笑,似是开玩笑的说:“任何百毒不侵的人,都曾无药可救过。”
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 幻剑神尊

    幻剑神尊

    紫灵星系内,神、魔、人三界共存。一场大战,让神魔两界陷入了沉寂…而八百年后,人界出现了一个叫童皓的绝美少年。他的绝世美貌让女人羡慕嫉妒恨,他的真情大义让同伴誓死相随,他的逆天之能让敌人闻风丧胆。他总是能突破一个个逆境,打破一个个神话。而他,是三界永远的神话!