During the grotesque dance of the votaries which followed, she lay
frozen in horror, nor did she require the sight of the thin blade in
the hands of the high priestess as it rose slowly above her to
enlighten her further as to her doom.

As the hand began its descent, Jane Porter closed her eyes and sent up
a silent prayer to the Maker she was so soon to face--then she
succumbed to the strain upon her tired nerves, and swooned.

Day and night Tarzan of the Apes raced through the primeval forest
toward the ruined city in which he was positive the woman he loved lay
either a prisoner or dead.

In a day and a night he covered the same distance that the fifty
frightful men had taken the better part of a week to traverse, for
Tarzan of the Apes traveled along the middle terrace high above the
tangled obstacles that impede progress upon the ground.

The story the young bull ape had told made it clear to him that the
girl captive had been Jane Porter, for there was not another small
white "she" in all the jungle. The "bulls" he had recognized from the
ape's crude description as the grotesque parodies upon humanity who
inhabit the ruins of Opar. And the girl's fate he could picture as
plainly as though he were an eyewitness to it. When they would lay her
across that trim altar he could not guess, but that her dear, frail
body would eventually find its way there he was confident.

But, finally, after what seemed long ages to the impatient ape-man, he
topped the barrier cliffs that hemmed the desolate valley, and below
him lay the grim and awful ruins of the now hideous city of Opar. At a
rapid trot he started across the dry and dusty, bowlder-strewn ground
toward the goal of his desires.

Would he be in time to rescue? He hoped against hope. At least he
could be revenged, and in his wrath it seemed to him that he was equal
to the task of wiping out the entire population of that terrible city.
It was nearly noon when he reached the great bowlder at the top of
which terminated the secret passage to the pits beneath the city. Like
a cat he scaled the precipitous sides of the frowning granite KOPJE. A
moment later he was running through the darkness of the long, straight
tunnel that led to the treasure vault. Through this he passed, then on
and on until at last he came to the well-like shaft upon the opposite
side of which lay the dungeon with the false wall.

As he paused a moment upon the brink of the well a fain