Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Tarzan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
He stood perfectly still where he had halted at the first sound of the
descending stone door. Not again would he easily be precipitated to the
GRYF pit, or some similar danger, as had occurred when Lu-don had
trapped him in the Temple of the Gryf. As he stood there his eyes
slowly grew accustomed to the darkness and he became aware that a dim
light was entering the chamber through some opening, though it was
several minutes before he discovered its source. In the roof of the
chamber he finally discerned a small aperture, possibly three feet in
diameter and it was through this that what was really only a lesser
darkness rather than a light was penetrating its Stygian blackness of
the chamber in which he was imprisoned.
Since the doors had fallen he had heard no sound though his keen ears
were constantly strained in an effort to discover a clue to the
direction taken by the abductor of his mate. Presently he could discern
the outlines of his prison cell. It was a small room, not over fifteen
feet across. On hands and knees, with the utmost caution, he examined
the entire area of the floor. In the exact center, directly beneath the
opening in the roof, was a trap, but otherwise the floor was solid.
With this knowledge it was only necessary to avoid this spot in so far
as the floor was concerned. The walls next received his attention.
There were only two openings. One the doorway through which he had
entered, and upon the opposite side that through which the warrior had
borne Jane Clayton. These were both closed by the slabs of stone which
the fleeing warrior had released as he departed.
Lu-don, the high priest, licked his thin lips and rubbed his bony white
hands together in gratification as Pan-sat bore Jane Clayton into his
presence and laid her on the floor of the chamber before him.
"Good, Pan-sat!" he exclaimed. "You shall be well rewarded for this
service. Now, if we but had the false Dor-ul-Otho in our power all
Pal-ul-don would be at our feet."
"Master, I have him!" cried Pan-sat.
"What!" exclaimed Lu-don, "you have Tarzan-jad-guru? You have slain him
perhaps. Tell me, my wonderful Pan-sat, tell me quickly. My breast is
bursting with a desire to know."
"I have taken him alive, Lu-don, my master," replied Pan-sat. "He is in
the little chamber that the ancients built to trap those who were too
powerful to take alive in personal encounter."
"You have done well, Pan-sat, I--"
A frightened priest burst into the apartment. "Quick, master, quick,"
he cried, "the corridors are filled with the warriors of Ja-don."
"You are mad," cried the high priest. "My warriors hold the palace and
the temple."
"I speak the truth, master," replied the priest, "there are warriors in
the corridor approaching this very chamber, and they come from the
direction of the secret passage which leads hither from the city."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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