so dark within the chamber that he might easily have
overlooked it.

He raised his hand toward it. The end of it was just within his reach.
He bore his weight upon it to see if it would hold him. Then he
released it and backed away, still watching it, as you have seen an
animal do after investigating some unfamiliar object, one of the little
traits that differentiated Tarzan from other men, accentuating his
similarity to the savage beasts of his native jungle. Again and again
he touched and tested the braided leather rope, and always he listened
for any warning sound from above.

He was very careful not to step upon the trap at any time and when
finally he bore all his weight upon the rope and took his feet from the
floor he spread them wide apart so that if he fell he would fall
astride the trap. The rope held him. There was no sound from above, nor
any from the trap below.

Slowly and cautiously he drew himself upward, hand over hand. Nearer
and nearer the roof he came. In a moment his eyes would be above the
level of the floor above. Already his extended arms projected into the
upper chamber and then something closed suddenly upon both his
forearms, pinioning them tightly and leaving him hanging in mid-air
unable to advance or retreat.

Immediately a light appeared in the room above him and presently he saw
the hideous mask of a priest peering down upon him. In the priest's
hands were leathern thongs and these he tied about Tarzan's wrists and
forearms until they were completely bound together from his elbows
almost to his fingers. Behind this priest Tarzan presently saw others
and soon several lay hold of him and pulled him up through the hole.

Almost instantly his eyes were above the level of the floor he
understood how they had trapped him. Two nooses had lain encircling the
aperture into the cell below. A priest had waited at the end of each of
these ropes and at opposite sides of the chamber. When he had climbed
to a sufficient height upon the rope that had dangled into his prison
below and his arms were well within the encircling snares the two
priests had pulled quickly upon their ropes and he had been made an
easy captive without any opportunity of defending himself or inflicting
injury upon his captors.

And now they bound his legs from his ankles to his knees and picking
him up carried him from the chamber. No word did they speak to him as
they bore him upward to the temple yard.

The din of batt