stess he would have profaned.

This and much more passed through Tarzan's memory as he stood gazing at
the long tiers of dull-yellow metal. He wondered if La still ruled the
temples of the ruined city whose crumbling walls rose upon the very
foundations about him. Had she finally been forced into a union with
one of her grotesque priests? It seemed a hideous fate, indeed, for
one so beautiful. With a shake of his head, Tarzan stepped to the
flickering candle, extinguished its feeble rays and turned toward the
exit.

Behind him the spy waited for him to be gone. He had learned the
secret for which he had come, and now he could return at his leisure to
his waiting followers, bring them to the treasure vault and carry away
all the gold that they could stagger under.

The Waziri had reached the outer end of the tunnel, and were winding
upward toward the fresh air and the welcome starlight of the kopje's
summit, before Tarzan shook off the detaining hand of reverie and
started slowly after them.

Once again, and, he thought, for the last time, he closed the massive
door of the treasure room. In the darkness behind him Werper rose and
stretched his cramped muscles. He stretched forth a hand and lovingly
caressed a golden ingot on the nearest tier. He raised it from its
immemorial resting place and weighed it in his hands. He clutched it
to his bosom in an ecstasy of avarice.

Tarzan dreamed of the happy homecoming which lay before him, of dear
arms about his neck, and a soft cheek pressed to his; but there rose to
dispel that dream the memory of the old witch-doctor and his warning.

And then, in the span of a few brief seconds, the hopes of both these
men were shattered. The one forgot even his greed in the panic of
terror--the other was plunged into total forgetfulness of the past by a
jagged fragment of rock which gashed a deep cut upon his head.

5

The Altar of the Flaming God

It was at the moment that Tarzan turned from the closed door to pursue
his way to the outer world. The thing came without warning. One
instant all was quiet and stability--the next, and the world rocked,
the tortured sides of the narrow passageway split and crumbled, great
blocks of granite, dislodged from the ceiling, tumbled into the narrow
way, choking it, and the walls bent inward upon the wreckage. Beneath
the blow of a fragment of the roof, Tarzan staggered back against the
door to the treasure room, his weigh