With ready bludgeons a dozen of them approached the thing that had aroused Cadj’s curiosity, and when they had come close to it they saw lying before them the lifeless figure of Tarzan of the Apes. “The Flaming God has reached forth to avenge his desecrated altar,” cried the High Priest, his eyes glowing with the maniacal fires of fanaticism. But another priest, more practical, perhaps, or at least more cautious, kneeled beside the figure of the ape-man and placed his ear against the latter’s heart. “He is not dead,” he whispered; “perhaps he only sleeps.” “Seize him, then, quickly,” cried Cadj, and an instant later Tarzan’s body was covered by the hairy forms of as many of the frightful men as could pile upon him. He offered no resistance—he did not even open his eyes, and presently his arms were securely bound behind him. “Drag him forth where the eye of the Flaming God may rest upon him,” cried Cadj. They dragged Tarzan out into the center of the boma into the full light of the sun, and Cadj, the High Priest, drawing his knife from his loin cloth, raised it above his head and stood over the prostrate form of his intended victim. Cadj’s followers formed a rough circle about the ape-man and some of them pressed close behind their leader. They appeared uneasy, looking alternately at Tarzan and their High Priest, and then casting furtive glances at the sun, riding high in a cloud-mottled sky. But whatever the thoughts that troubled their half-savage brains, there was only one who dared voice his, and he was the same priest who, upon the preceding day, had questioned Cadj’s proposal to slay the ape-man. “Cadj,” he said now, “who are you to offer up a sacrifice to the Flaming God? It is the privilege alone of La, our High Priestess and our queen, and indeed will she be angry when she learns what you have done.” “Silence, Dooth!” cried Cadj; “I, Cadj, am the High Priest of Opar. I, Cadj, am the mate of La, the queen. My word, too, is law in Opar. And you would remain a priest, and you would remain alive, keep silence.” “Your word is not law,” replied Booth, angrily, “and if you anger La, the High Priestess, or if you anger the Flaming God, you may be punished as another. If you make this sacrifice both will be angry.” “Enough,” cried Cadj; “the Flaming God has spoken to me and has demanded that I offer up as sacrifice this defiler of his temple.” He knelt beside the ape-man and touched his breast above the heart with the point of his sharp blade, and then he raised the weapon high above him, preparatory to the fatal plunge into the living heart. At that instant a cloud passed before the face of the sun and a shadow rested upon them. A murmur rose from the surrounding priests. “Look,” cried Dooth, “the Flaming God is angry. He has hidden his face from the people of Opar.”