"Who is it?" cried one. "I see nobody."
"Where is he?" demanded another. "Why doesn't he show himself?"
"It is the god of us outside people," said d'Arnot. "He will kill you all."
"If he doesn't kill us, Atka will," said a warrior, "if we don't bring you back to Ashair;" then the four remaining warriors sought to herd their prisoners onto the back trail toward the city.
"Let's make a break for it," suggested Brian. "They're confused and frightened."
"No," counselled d'Arnot; "they'd get some of us with their spears. We can't take the chance now."
Suddenly there burst upon the surprised ears of the Asharians a deep voice that spoke the Swahili they all understood. "I am Tarzan of the Apes," it boomed. "Go, and leave my friends!"
"We might as well die here as in Ashair," a warrior shouted back, "for the Queen will have us killed if we come back empty handed; so we are going to take our prisoners with us, or kill them here."
"Kill them now!" cried another, and turned upon Brian, who was closest to him; but as he raised his spear an arrow passed through his heart; and then, with the rapidity of machine gun fire, three more arrows brought down the remaining Asharians, while the surviving fugitives looked on in amazement.
"There is only one man in the world who could have done that," said d'Arnot, "and we are very fortunate that he is our friend."
As Tarzan dropped to the ground among them, they surrounded him, voicing their thanks; but he silenced them with a gesture. "What are your plans?" he asked.
"There is a Thobotian with us who is going to show us a secret trail out of Tuen-Baka," explained d'Arnot. "We didn't know that anyone but us was left alive."
"Have you seen anything of Dad?" interrupted Helen. "Was he drowned?"
"No," replied Tarzan; "he and Magra are in Thobos and safe for the moment. Lavac is back there on the trail waiting for me. He and I were on our way to Ashair to look for you."
"Then we can all turn back to Thobos," said Brian.
"It is not as simple as that," replied Tarzan. "I shall have to go to Ashair and bring back a god and a diamond to Herat before he will release your father and Magra."
"It looks like a man-size job," commented d'Arnot, with a rueful smile. "I shall go with you."
"And I," said Helen.
Tarzan shrugged. "You'd be little better off in Thobos," he said, "and I doubt very much that you could ever make it back to Bonga if you succeeded in getting out of Tuen-Baka alive."
"I think we should all stick together," said Brian. "I'm going along with you."
"My duty lies near Ashair," said Herkuf. "I shall go with you. Perhaps, of all of us, I can be of the most help in getting what you want."
"Very well," agreed the ape-man. "I'll go back and bring Lavac."
A half hour later the little party was on its way back to Ashair, the Forbidden City of Tuen-Baka.
CHAPTER 23
As Magra sat in her apartment in the palace of Herat musing over the strange series of adventures that had brought her to this half civilized, half barbaric city, and dreaming of the godlike man she had come to love, the door opened; and the King entered.
Magra rose and faced him. "You should not come here," she said. "It will do you no good and only endanger my life. The Queen knew of the other time. She will know of this, and she will have me killed."
"Have no fear," said Herat, "for I am king."
"You only think you are," snapped Magra contemptuously.
"I am Herat, the King!" cried the monarch. "No one speaks to me like that, woman."
"Oh, they don't, don't they?" demanded an angry voice behind him; and, turning, he saw the Queen standing in the doorway. "So I have caught you at last!" she cried. "So no one speaks to you like that, eh? You haven't heard anything yet; wait 'til I get you alone!" She turned her blazing eyes on Magra. "And as for you, trollop; you die tomorrow!"
"But, my dear," expostulated Herat. "'But' me nothing!" snapped Mentheb. "Get out of here!"
"I thought that you said you were king," taunted Magra; then they were both gone, and the girl was left alone. Never in her life had she felt so much alone, so helpless and so hopeless. She threw herself upon a couch; and, had she been another woman, she would have burst into tears; but Magra had never cried for herself. Self-pity was not for her. She had said once that it was like cheating at solitaire, for nobody else knew about it and nobody cared and no one was hurt but herself. How she wished that Tarzan were here! He would have helped her—not with useless commiseration, but with action. He would have found a way to save her. She wondered if he would grieve for her; and then she smiled, for she knew that the philosophy of the wild beast had little place for grief. It was too accustomed to death, held life in such low esteem. But she must do something. She struck a gong that summoned a slave girl.
"Do you know where the prisoners, Gregory and Lavac, are quartered?" she asked.
"Yes, my mistress."
"Take me to them!"
When she entered Gregory's apartment, she found Thetan with him. At first she hesitated to talk before the Thobotian, but she recalled that he had befriended them; so she told them all that had just happened.
"I must escape tonight," she said. "Will you help me?"
"Mentheb is rather a decent sort," said Thetan. "She may come to realize that the fault is not yours, and of course she knows that it is not, and alter her decision to have you killed; but it would be dangerous to depend on that. I know you are guiltless, and I know that you are a friend of Tarzan; so I am going to help you to escape."
"Will you help me to go with her?" asked Gregory.
"Yes," said Thetan. "I got you into this, and I should get you out of it. I shall help you because you are Tarzan's friends, and Tarzan saved my life. But never return to Thobos, for if you escape her now, Mentheb will never forget. Follow the trail on the west side of the lake south; it will bring you to Ashair and probably to death there—it is the law of Tuen-Baka."
A half hour later Thetan led Magra and Gregory to a small gate in the city wall and wished them luck as they went out into the night and set their faces toward The Forbidden City.
"Well," said d'Arnot, "here we are right back where we started from," as the party of six reached the entrance to the secret passage to the Temple of Brulor on the rocky hillside above Ashair.
"I spent two years trying to get out of that hole," said Brian, "and now here I am trying to get back in again. That Herat certainly gave you a tough job, Tarzan."
"It was merely the old boy's way of condemning us all to death," said Lavac, "—an example of Thobotian humor. At least it was at first; but after Tarzan disposed of the bad man from Ashair and the two lions, I really believe that Herat came to the conclusion that he might actually bring back Brulor and The Father of Diamonds."
"Why does he want them so badly?" asked Helen.
"The Father of Diamonds belongs in Thobos," explained Herkuf, "where the temple of the true god, Chon, is located. It was stolen by Atka's warriors years ago when they attacked and sank Chon's galley in which it was being carried during a solemn religious rite. Brulor is a false god. Herat wishes to destroy him."
"Do you think that there is any possibility that we may be able to recover The Father of Diamonds and kidnap Brulor?" asked d'Arnot.
"Yes," replied Herkuf, "I do. We have the temple keys that Helen took from Zytheb; and I know where Brulor sleeps and the hours of the day that are supposedly set apart for meditation; but which, in reality, Brulor devotes to sleeping off the effects of the strong drink to which he is addicted. During these periods the throne room is deserted, and all the inmates of the temple are compelled to remain in their own quarters. We can go directly to the throne room and get the casket, and then to Brulor's room. If we threaten him with death, he will come with us without making any outcry."