for almost at the same instant a
dozen doors opened in the courtyard wall and a horde of frightful men
rushed in upon him.

They were the priests of the Flaming God of Opar--the same, shaggy,
knotted, hideous little men who had dragged Jane Clayton to the
sacrificial altar at this very spot years before. Their long arms,
their short and crooked legs, their close-set, evil eyes, and their
low, receding foreheads gave them a bestial appearance that sent a
qualm of paralyzing fright through the shaken nerves of the Belgian.

With a scream he turned to flee back into the lesser terrors of the
gloomy corridors and apartments from which he had just emerged, but the
frightful men anticipated his intentions. They blocked the way; they
seized him, and though he fell, groveling upon his knees before them,
begging for his life, they bound him and hurled him to the floor of the
inner temple.

The rest was but a repetition of what Tarzan and Jane Clayton had
passed through. The priestesses came, and with them La, the High
Priestess. Werper was raised and laid across the altar. Cold sweat
exuded from his every pore as La raised the cruel, sacrificial knife
above him. The death chant fell upon his tortured ears. His staring
eyes wandered to the golden goblets from which the hideous votaries
would soon quench their inhuman thirst in his own, warm life-blood.

He wished that he might be granted the brief respite of unconsciousness
before the final plunge of the keen blade--and then there was a
frightful roar that sounded almost in his ears. The High Priestess
lowered her dagger. Her eyes went wide in horror. The priestesses,
her votaresses, screamed and fled madly toward the exits. The priests
roared out their rage and terror according to the temper of their
courage. Werper strained his neck about to catch a sight of the cause
of their panic, and when, at last he saw it, he too went cold in dread,
for what his eyes beheld was the figure of a huge lion standing in the
center of the temple, and already a single victim lay mangled beneath
his cruel paws.

Again the lord of the wilderness roared, turning his baleful gaze upon
the altar. La staggered forward, reeled, and fell across Werper in a
swoon.

6

The Arab Raid

After their first terror had subsided subsequent to the shock of the
earthquake, Basuli and his warriors hastened back into the passageway
in search of Tarzan and two of their own number who we