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.





5

The Altar of the Flaming God




It was at the moment that Tarzan turned from the closed door to
pursue his way to the outer world. The thing came without warning.