he great temple before him. "Come!" he said,
to his Waziri. "Let us have a look at what lies behind those ruined
walls."

His men were loath to follow him, but when they saw that he was bravely
entering the frowning portal they trailed a few paces behind in a
huddled group that seemed the personification of nervous terror. A
single shriek such as they had heard the night before would have been
sufficient to have sent them all racing madly for the narrow cleft that
led through the great walls to the outer world.

As Tarzan entered the building he was distinctly aware of many eyes
upon him. There was a rustling in the shadows of a near-by corridor,
and he could have sworn that he saw a human hand withdrawn from an
embrasure that opened above him into the domelike rotunda in which he
found himself.

The floor of the chamber was of concrete, the walls of smooth granite,
upon which strange figures of men and beasts were carved. In places
tablets of yellow metal had been set in the solid masonry of the walls.

When he approached closer to one of these tablets he saw that it was of
gold, and bore many hieroglyphics. Beyond this first chamber there
were others, and back of them the building branched out into enormous
wings. Tarzan passed through several of these chambers, finding many
evidences of the fabulous wealth of the original builders. In one room
were seven pillars of solid gold, and in another the floor itself was
of the precious metal. And all the while that he explored, his blacks
huddled close together at his back, and strange shapes hovered upon
either hand and before them and behind, yet never close enough that any
might say that they were not alone.

The strain, however, was telling upon the nerves of the Waziri. They
begged Tarzan to return to the sunlight. They said that no good could
come of such an expedition, for the ruins were haunted by the spirits
of the dead who had once inhabited them.

"They are watching us, O king," whispered Busuli. "They are waiting
until they have led us into the innermost recesses of their stronghold,
and then they will fall upon us and tear us to pieces with their teeth.
That is the way with spirits. My mother's uncle, who is a great witch
doctor, has told me all about it many times."

Tarzan laughed. "Run back into the sunlight, my children," he said.
"I will join you when I have searched this old ruin from top to bottom,
and found the gold, or found that t