One instant all was quiet and stability--the next, and the world
rocked, the tortured sides of the narrow passageway split and
crumbled, great blocks of granite, dislodged from the ceiling,
tumbled into the narrow way, choking it, and the walls bent inward
upon the wreckage. Beneath the blow of a fragment of the roof,
Tarzan staggered back against the door to the treasure room, his
weight pushed it open and his body rolled inward upon the floor.

In the great apartment where the treasure lay less damage was wrought
by the earthquake. A few ingots toppled from the higher tiers, a
single piece of the rocky ceiling splintered off and crashed downward
to the floor, and the walls cracked, though they did not collapse.

There was but the single shock, no other followed to complete the
damage undertaken by the first. Werper, thrown to his length by
the suddenness and violence of the disturbance, staggered to his
feet when he found himself unhurt. Groping his way toward the
far end of the chamber, he sought the candle which Tarzan had left
stuck in its own wax upon the protruding end of an ingot.

By striking numerous matches the Belgian at last found what
he sought, and when, a moment later, the sickly rays relieved the
Stygian darkness about him, he breathed a nervous sigh of relief,
for the impenetrable gloom had accentuated the terrors of his
situation.

As they became accustomed to the light the man turned his eyes toward
the door--his one thought now was of escape from this frightful
tomb--and as he did so he saw the body of the naked giant lying
stretched upon the floor just within the doorway. Werper drew