und, not one demurred when he outlined a plan to return
by night and bring away what they could carry of the vast treasure; and
so it was that as dusk fell across the desolate valley of Opar fifty
ebon warriors trailed at a smart trot over the dry and dusty ground
toward the giant bowlder that loomed before the city.

If it had seemed a difficult task to descend the face of the bowlder,
Tarzan soon found that it would be next to impossible to get his fifty
warriors to the summit. Finally the feat was accomplished by dint of
herculean efforts upon the part of the ape-man. Ten spears were
fastened end to end, and with one end of this remarkable chain attached
to his waist, Tarzan at last succeeded in reaching the summit.

Once there, he drew up one of his blacks, and in this way the entire
party was finally landed in safety upon the bowlder's top. Immediately
Tarzan led them to the treasure chamber, where to each was allotted a
load of two ingots, for each about eighty pounds.

By midnight the entire party stood once more at the foot of the
bowlder, but with their heavy loads it was mid-forenoon ere they
reached the summit of the cliffs. From there on the homeward journey
was slow, as these proud fighting men were unaccustomed to the duties
of porters. But they bore their burdens uncomplainingly, and at the
end of thirty days entered their own country.

Here, instead of continuing on toward the northwest and their village,
Tarzan guided them almost directly west, until on the morning of the
thirty-third day he bade them break camp and return to their own
village, leaving the gold where they had stacked it the previous night.

"And you, Waziri?" they asked.

"I shall remain here for a few days, my children," he replied. "Now
hasten back to thy wives and children."

When they had gone Tarzan gathered up two of the ingots and, springing
into a tree, ran lightly above the tangled and impenetrable mass of
undergrowth for a couple of hundred yards, to emerge suddenly upon a
circular clearing about which the giants of the jungle forest towered
like a guardian host. In the center of this natural amphitheater, was
a little flat-topped mound of hard earth.

Hundreds of times before had Tarzan been to this secluded spot, which
was so densely surrounded by thorn bushes and tangled vines and
creepers of huge girth that not even Sheeta, the leopard, could worm
his sinuous way within, nor Tantor, with his giant strength,