god and into her woman's heart welled all the great love she had
felt for Tarzan since first she had seen him, and all the accumulated
passion of the years that she had dreamed of him.

Dagger in hand, La, the High Priestess, towered above the helpless
creature that had dared to violate the sanctuary of her deity.
There should be no torture--there should be instant death. No
longer should the defiler of the temple pollute the sight of the
lord god almighty. A single stroke of the heavy blade and then
the corpse to the flaming pyre without. The knife arm stiffened
ready for the downward plunge, and then La, the woman, collapsed
weakly upon the body of the man she loved.

She ran her hands in mute caress over his naked flesh; she covered
his forehead, his eyes, his lips with hot kisses; she covered him
with her body as though to protect him from the hideous fate she
had ordained for him, and in trembling, piteous tones she begged
him for his love. For hours the frenzy of her passion possessed
the burning hand-maiden of the Flaming God, until at last sleep
overpowered her and she lapsed into unconsciousness beside the man
she had sworn to torture and to slay. And Tarzan, untroubled by
thoughts of the future, slept peacefully in La's embrace.

At the first hint of dawn the chanting of the priests of Opar
brought Tarzan to wakefulness. Initiated in low and subdued tones,
the sound soon rose in volume to the open diapason of barbaric
blood lust. La stirred. Her perfect arm pressed Tarzan closer
to her--a smile parted her lips and then she awoke, and slowly the
smile faded and her eyes went wide in horror as the significance
of the death chant impinged upon her understanding.