Tarzan made no reply for in his heart was the same bitter thought that her own contained--not the fear that they would kill him but the fear that they would not kill her.The ape-man strained at his bonds but they were too many and too strong.A priest near him saw and with a jeering laugh struck the defenseless ape-man in the face.
"The brute!" cried Jane Clayton.
Tarzan smiled."I have been struck thus before, Jane," he said, "and always has the striker died."
"You still have hope?" she asked.
"I am still alive," he said as though that were sufficient answer.
She was a woman and she did not have the courage of this man who knew no fear.In her heart of hearts she knew that he would die upon the altar at high noon for he had told her, after he had been brought to the inner court, of the sentence of death that Obergatz had pronounced upon him, and she knew too that Tarzan knew that he would die, but that he was too courageous to admit it even to himself.
As she looked upon him standing there so straight and wonderful and brave among his savage captors her heart cried out against the cruelty of the fate that had overtaken him.It seemed a gross and hideous wrong that that wonderful creature, now so quick with exuberant life and strength and purpose should be presently naught but a bleeding lump of clay--and all so uselessly and wantonly.Gladly would she have offered her life for his but she knew that it was a waste of words since their captors would work upon them whatever it was their will to do--for him, death; for her--she shuddered at the thought.
And now came Lu-don and the naked Obergatz, and the high priest led the German to his place behind the altar, himself standing upon the other's left.Lu-don whispered a word to Obergatz, at the same time nodding in the direction of Ja-don.The Hun cast a scowling look upon the old warrior.
"And after the false god," he cried, "the false prophet," and he pointed an accusing finger at Ja-don.Then his eyes wandered to the form of Jane Clayton.
"And the woman, too?" asked Lu-don.
"The case of the woman I will attend to later," replied Obergatz.
"I will talk with her tonight after she has had a chance to meditate upon the consequences of arousing the wrath of Jad-ben-Otho."
He cast his eyes upward at the sun."The time approaches," he said to Lu-don."Prepare the sacrifice."
Lu-don nodded to the priests who were gathered about Tarzan.They seized the ape-man and lifted him bodily to the altar where they laid him upon his back with his head at the south end of the monolith, but a few feet from where Jane Clayton stood.
Impulsively and before they could restrain her the woman rushed forward and bending quickly kissed her mate upon the forehead.
"Good-bye, John," she whispered.
"Good-bye," he answered, smiling.
The priests seized her and dragged her away.Lu-don handed the sacrificial knife to Obergatz."I am the Great God," cried the German, "thus falleth the divine wrath upon all my enemies!" He looked up at the sun and then raised the knife high above his head.
