Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1920 — TARZAN AND THE Jewels of Opar [ARTICLE]

TARZAN AND THE Jewels of Opar

By EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

Author of ••Tuouuu of Ao A**" V “Sto of TatOM“ .

. 4tonk*t.iua.»y au Moffimgsoa.

SYNOPSIS. < , CHAPTER I.—Hiding In the. jungle after killing hfe captain a Ing madness, Lieut. Albert Werper, Belgian officer, is captured by Achmet Zek, Arab slave raider, who spares his life and 1 proposes to him a scheme to kidnap Jane, wife of Tarsan (Lord Greystoke) and sell her into slavery. Werper accepts. CHAPTER 11.-Posing as Jules Freooult, French traveler, Werper is hospitably received by the Greystokes. He learns his host is in financial straits and plans an expedition to the treasure vaults of Opar to procure gold. Werper informs Achmet Zek of the opportunity to seise Lady Greystoke, and follows Tarsan to HArn the secret of Ouar CHAPTER 111. / Prophecy and Fulfillment Then Tarzan turned his attention to the man. He had not slain Numa to save the negro—he had merely done It in revenge upon the lion ; but now that he saw the old man lying helpless and dying before him something akin to pity touched his savage heart. He stooped and felt -of the witch-doctor’s wounds and stanched the flow of blood. “Who are you?” asked the old man in a trembling voice. “I am Tarzan —Tarzan of the Apes.” replied the ape-man and not without a greater touch of pride than he would have said, “I am John Claytori, Lord Greystoke.” The witch-doctor shook convulsively and closed his eyes. When he opened them again there was In them a resignation to whatever horrible fate awaited him at the hands of this reared demon of the woods. “Why do you not kill me?" he asked. “Why should I kill you?” inquired Tarzan. “You have not hartned me, and anyway you are already dying. Numa, the lion, has killed you. I would save you If I could, but that cannot be done. Why did you think I would kill you?”

For a moment the old man was silent When he spoke it was evidently after some IJttfe effort to muster his courage. "I knew you of old,” he. said, ‘.‘when you ranged the jungle tn the country of Mbonga. the chief. I was already a witch-doctor when you slew Kulonga and the ■ others, and when you robbed our huts and our poison pot. At flrat I did not remember you; but at last I did —the whiteskinned ape that lived with the hairy apes and made life miserable In the village of Mbonga, the chief—the forest god—the Munango-Keewatl for whom we set food outside our gates and who came and ate It. Tell me before I die —are you man or devil?* Tarzan laughed. “I am a man,” he said. The old fellow sighed and shook his head. “You have tried to save me -from Numa/’ -he said. that I shall reward you. I am a great witchdoctor. Listen to me, white man! I see bad' days ahead of you. It is writ In my own blood which I have smeared upon my palm. A god greater even than you will rise up and strike you down. Turn back, Munango-Keewatl !" Turn back before It Is too late. Danger lies ahead of you and danger lurks behind: hut greater hh the danger before. I see —■” He paused and drew a gasping breath. Then he crumpled into a little, wrinkled heap and died. Tarzan wondered what else he had seen. . It was very late when the ape-man re-entered the homa and lay down among his black warriors. None had seen him go and none saw him Return. He thought about, the warning of the old witch-doctor before he fell asleep and he thought of it again after he awoke; but he did not turn back, for he was unafraid, though had he known what lay In store for one he loved moat In all the world he would have flown through the trees to her side and allowed the gold of Opar to remain forever hidden in its forgotten storehouse. — ■:

; Behind him that morning another witite man pondered something he had heard during the night and very nearly did he give up his project arid turn back upon his trail. It was Werper, who in the still of the night had heard, far away npdn the trail ahead of him a sound that .had filled his cowardly soul with terror-—a sound such as he never before had heard In an hts life, nor dreamed that such a frightful thing could emanate from the tungs of a God-created creature. He had heard the victory cry of the bull ape as Tarxan had screamed It forth info the face of Goro, the moon, and he had trembled then and hidden his face:; and now in the broad light fig a new day be trembled again as he recalled it, and would have turned back from the nameless danger |he echo of that frightful sound seethed to portend, had he not stood in even greater fear, of Achmet Zek. his master. And so Tarxan of the Apes forged steadily ahead toward Opar’s rained ramparts and beWnd him slunk Web* teiWctaddtke, and only God knew Wh o ’Xe' Of valley.

overlooking gviuen domes ana minarets of Opar, Tarzan halted. By night he would go alone to the treasure vault, reconnoitering, for he had determined that caution should mark bis every move upon this expedition. With the coming of night he set forth, arid Werper, who had scaled the diffs alone behind the ape-man’s party, and hidden through the day among the , rough boulders of the mountain top. Slunk stealthily after him. HeAaw the' giant ape-man swing' himself nimbly up the face of the great rock. Werper, clawing fearfully during the perilous ascent, sweating in terror, almost palsied by fear, but spurred on by avarice, followed upward, until at last he stood upon the summit of the rocky hill. Tarzan was nowhere in sight. For a time Werper hid behind one of the lesser boulders that were scattered ever the top of the hill, but, seeing or • hearing nothing of the Englishman, he 1 crept from his place of concealment to undertake a systematic search of his surroundings. In the hope that he might discover the location of the treasure In ample time to make his escape before Tarzan returned, for It was the Belgian’s desire merely to locate the gold so that, after Tarzan had departed, he might come in safety with his followers and carry away as much as he could transport. He found the narrow cleft leading downward Into the heart of the kopje along well-worn, granite steps. He advanced quite to the dark mouth of the tunnel Into which the runway disappeared; but here he halted, fearing to enter, lest he meet Tarzan returning. The ape-man, far ahead of him, groped his way along the rocky passage, until he came to the ancient wooden door. A moment later he stood within the treasure chamber, where, ages stupe, long-dead hands had ranged the lofty rows of precious Ingots for the rulers of that great continent which now lies submerged beneath the waters of the Atlantic. There was no evidence that another had discovered the forgotten wealth , since last the ape-man had Visited its hiding place. Satisfied, Tarzan turned and retraced his steps‘toward the summit of the kopje. Werper, from the concealment of a jutting granite shoulder, Watched him pass up from the shadow of the stairway and advance toward the edge of the hill which faced the rim of the valley where the Waziri awaited the signal of their master. Then Werper, slipping vtealthily from his hiding place, dropped Into the somber darkness of the entrance and disappeared.

Tarzan, halting upon the kopje’s edge, raised his, voice In the thunderpus roar of a lion. Twice, at regular Intervals, he repeated the cafll, standing in attentive silence for 'Several minutes after the echoes of the third call had died away. And then, from far across the valley, faintly came an answering roar—once, twice, thrice. Basuli, the Waziri chieftain, had heard and replied. Tarzan again made his way toward the treasure vault, knowing that in a few hours his blacks would be with him, ready to bear away another for- • tune in the strangely shaped, golden Ingots of Opar. In the meantime he would carry as much of the precipue metal to the summit of the kopje as he could. Six trips he made in the five hours before Basuli reached the kopje, and at-the end of that time he had transported 48 ingots to the edge of the great boulder, carrying upon each trip a load which might well have staggered two ordinary men, yet his glam frame showed no evidence of fatigue as he helped to raise his ebon warriors to the hill top with the rope that had been brought for the purpose. Six times he had returned to the treasure chamber, and six times Werper, the Belgian, had cowered In the black shadows at the far end of the long vault. Once again came the apeman, and this time there came with him fifty fighting men, turned porter? for love of the only creature in the world who might command of theh fierce and haughty natures such menial service. Fifty-two more Ingots passed out of the vaults, making the total of one hundred which Tarzan intended taking away with him. » As the last of the Waziri filed from the chamber, Tarzan turned back for a last glimpse of the fabulous wealth upon which his two Inroads had made 'no appreciable impression. His mind reverted to that first occasion upon which he had entered the treasure vault, coming upon it by chance as he fled from- the pits beneath the temple. ‘ where he had been hidden by .La, the Hgh priestess of the Sun Worshipers. He recalled the scene the temple when he had lain stretched Upon the sacrificial altar, while La, with high-raised dagger, stood above him, and the rows of priests and priestesses awaited, In the ecstatic hysteria of fanaticism, the first gush of their victim’s warm blood, that they might fill their golden goblets and drink to the glory of their Flaming

God. - The brutal and bloody interruption by Tha, the mad priest, passed vividly before the ape-man's recollecttve eye, the flight of the votaries before the insane blood Inst of the hideous creature, the brutal attack upon La, and hts own part In the grim tragedy when he had battled with the infuriated Oparian and left him dead at the feet of the priestess he would have pro- -

! I ■ -- -j L. ir . : qr oeen mhw* wto a union with one of her grotesque priests? It seemed a hideous fAe, Indeed, for one so beautiful. With a shake of his head, Tarj zan stepped to the flickering candle, ( extinguished its feeble rays and ' turned toward the exit. j Behind him the spy waited for him to be gone. He had learned the secret tor which he had come, and now he could return at his leisure to his waiting followers, bring them to the treasure vault and carry away all the gold that they could stagger under. The Waziri had reached the outer end of the tunnel, and were winding 'upward toward the fresh air and the ' welcome starlight of the kopje’s sum!mit, before Tarzan shook off the detaining hand of reverie and started I slowly after them. Once again, and, he thought, for the last time, he closed the massive door of the treasure room. In the darkness behind him Werper rose and stretched his cramped muscles. He stretched forth a hand and lovingly caressed a golden ingot on the nearest tier. He raised it from its immemorial resting place and weighed it in his hands. He clutched It to his bosom in an ecstasy of avarice. Tarzan dreamed of the happy homecoming which lay before him, of dear arms about his neck, and a soft cheek pressed to his; but there rose to dispel that dream the memory of the old witch-doctor and his warning. And then, in the span of a few brief seconds, the hopes of both these men were shattered. The one forgot even his greed In the- panic of terror—the other was plunged into total forgetfulness of the past by a jagged fragment of rock which gashed a deep cut upon his head. (TO BE CONTINUED.)