The City of Gold
The very night that Tarzan of the Apes became chief of
the Waziri the woman he loved lay dying in a tiny boat
two hundred miles west of him upon the Atlantic.
As he danced among his naked fellow savages, the firelight
gleaming against his great, rolling muscles, the
personification of physical perfection and strength,
the woman who loved him lay thin and emaciated in the
last coma that precedes death by thirst and starvation.
The week following the induction of Tarzan into the kingship
of the Waziri was occupied in escorting the Manyuema of
the Arab raiders to the northern boundary of Waziri in
accordance with the promise which Tarzan had made them.
Before he left them he exacted a pledge from them that they
would not lead any expeditions against the Waziri in the
future, nor was it a difficult promise to obtain. They had had
sufficient experience with the fighting tactics of the new
Waziri chief not to have the slightest desire to accompany
another predatory force within the boundaries of his domain.
Almost immediately upon his return to the village Tarzan
commenced making preparations for leading an expedition
in search of the ruined city of gold which old Waziri had
described to him. He selected fifty of the sturdiest
warriors of his tribe, choosing only men who seemed anxious
to accompany him on the arduous march, and share the dangers
of a new and hostile country.
The fabulous wealth of the fabled city had been almost
constantly in his mind since Waziri had recounted the
strange adventures of the former expedition which had
stumbled upon the vast ruins by chance. The lure of
adventure may have been quite as powerful a factor in urging
Tarzan of the Apes to undertake the journey as the lure of
gold, but the lure of gold was there, too, for he had learned
among civilized men something of the miracles that may
be wrought by the possessor of the magic yellow metal. What
he would do with a golden fortune in the heart of savage
Africa it had not occurred to him to consider--it would be
enough to possess the power to work wonders, even though he
never had an opportunity to employ it.
So one glorious tropical morning Waziri, chief of the Waziri,
set out at the head of fifty clean-limbed ebon warriors
in quest of adventure and of riches. They followed the course
which old Waziri had described to Tarzan. For days they
marched--up one river, across a low divide; down another
river; up a third, until at the end of the twenty-fifth day
they camped upon a mountainside, from the summit of
which they hoped to catch their first view of the marvelous
city of treasure.
Early the next morning they were climbing the almost
perpendicular crags which formed the last, but greatest,
natural barrier between them and their destination.
It was nearly noon before Tarzan, who headed the thin
line of climbing warriors, scrambled over the top of
the last cliff and stood upon the little flat table-land
of the mountaintop.
On either hand towered mighty peaks thousands of feet
higher than the pass through which they were entering the
forbidden valley. Behind him stretched the wooded valley
across which they had marched for many days, and at the
opposite side the low range which marked the boundary of
their own country.
But before him was the view that centered his attention.
Here lay a desolate valley--a shallow, narrow valley dotted
with stunted trees and covered with many great bowlders.
And on the far side of the valley lay what appeared to be
a mighty city, its great walls, its lofty spires, its turrets,
minarets, and domes showing red and yellow in the sunlight.
Tarzan was yet too far away to note the marks of ruin--to
him it appeared a wonderful city of magnificent beauty,
and in imagination he peopled its broad avenues and its huge
temples with a throng of happy, active people.
For an hour the little expedition rested upon the mountain-
top, and then Tarzan led them down into the valley below.
There was no trail, but the way was less arduous than the
ascent of the opposite face of the mountain had been.
Once in the valley their progress was rapid, so that it
was still light when they halted before the towering walls
of the ancient city.
The outer wall was fifty feet in height where it had not
fallen into ruin, but nowhere as far as they could see had
more than ten or twenty feet of the upper courses fallen away.
It was still a formidable defense. On several occasions
Tarzan had thought that he discerned things moving behind
the ruined portions of the wall near to them, as though
creatures were watching them from behind the bulwarks of
the ancient pile. And often he felt the sensation of unseen
eyes upon him, but not once could he be sure that it was more
than imagination.
That night they camped outside the city. Once, at midnight,
they were awakened by a shrill scream from beyond the great wall.
It was very high at first, descending gradually until it
ended in a series of dismal moans. It had a strange effect
upon the blacks, almost paralyzing them with terror while
it lasted, and it was an hour before the camp settled
down to sleep once more. In the morning the effects of it
were still visible in the fearful, sidelong glances that the
Waziri continually cast at the massive and forbidding structure
which loomed above them.
It required considerable encouragement and urging on
Tarzan's part to prevent the blacks from abandoning the
venture on the spot and hastening back across the valley
toward the cliffs they had scaled the day before. But at length,
by dint of commands, and threats that he would enter the
city alone, they agreed to accompany him.
For fifteen minutes they marched along the face of the
wall before they discovered a means of ingress. Then they
came to a narrow cleft about twenty inches wide. Within, a
flight of concrete steps, worn hollow by centuries of use,
rose before them, to disappear at a sharp turning of the
passage a few yards ahead.
Into this narrow alley Tarzan made his way, turning his
giant shoulders sideways that they might enter at all.
Behind him trailed his black warriors. At the turn in the
cleft the stairs ended, and the path was level; but it wound
and twisted in a serpentine fashion, until suddenly at a sharp
angle it debouched upon a narrow court, across which
loomed an inner wall equally as high as the outer. This inner
wall was set with little round towers alternating along its
entire summit with pointed monoliths. In places these had
fallen, and the wall was ruined, but it was in a much better
state of preservation than the outer wall.
Another narrow passage led through this wall, and at its
end Tarzan and his warriors found themselves in a broad avenue,
on the opposite side of which crumbling edifices of hewn granite
loomed dark and forbidding. Upon the crumbling debris along the
face of the buildings trees had grown, and vines wound in and
out of the hollow, staring windows; but the building directly
opposite them seemed less overgrown than the others, and in
a much better state of preservation. It was a massive pile,
surmounted by an enormous dome. At either side of its great
entrance stood rows of tall pillars, each capped by a huge,
grotesque bird carved from the solid rock of the monoliths.
As the ape-man and his companions stood gazing in varying
degrees of wonderment at this ancient city in the midst
of savage Africa, several of them became aware of
movement within the structure at which they were looking.
Dim, shadowy shapes appeared to be moving about in the
semi-darkness of the interior. There was nothing tangible
that the eye could grasp--only an uncanny suggestion of life
where it seemed that there should be no life, for living
things seemed out of place in this weird, dead city of the
long-dead past.
Tarzan recalled something that he had read in the library at
Paris of a lost race of white men that native legend described
as living in the heart of Africa. He wondered if he were not
looking upon the ruins of the civilization that this strange
people had wrought amid the savage surroundings of their
strange and savage home. Could it be possible that even now
a remnant of that lost race inhabited the ruined grandeur that
had once been their progenitor? Again he became conscious
of a stealthy movement within the great temple before him.
"Come!" he said, to his Waziri. "Let us have a look at what
lies behind those ruined walls."
His men were loath to follow him, but when they saw that
he was bravely entering the frowning portal they trailed a few
paces behind in a huddled group that seemed the personification
of nervous terror. A single shriek such as they had
heard the night before would have been sufficient to have
sent them all racing madly for the narrow cleft that led
through the great walls to the outer world.
As Tarzan entered the building he was distinctly aware of
many eyes upon him. There was a rustling in the shadows
of a near-by corridor, and he could have sworn that he
saw a human hand withdrawn from an embrasure that
opened above him into the domelike rotunda in which he
found himself.
The floor of the chamber was of concrete, the walls of
smooth granite, upon which strange figures of men and beasts
were carved. In places tablets of yellow metal had been set
in the solid masonry of the walls.
When he approached closer to one of these tablets he saw
that it was of gold, and bore many hieroglyphics. Beyond this
first chamber there were others, and back of them the building
branched out into enormous wings. Tarzan passed through
several of these chambers, finding many evidences of the
fabulous wealth of the original builders. In one room were
seven pillars of solid gold, and in another the floor itself
was of the precious metal. And all the while that he explored,
his blacks huddled close together at his back, and
strange shapes hovered upon either hand and before them
and behind, yet never close enough that any might say that
they were not alone.
The strain, however, was telling upon the nerves of the Waziri.
They begged Tarzan to return to the sunlight. They said that
no good could come of such an expedition, for the ruins were
haunted by the spirits of the dead who had once inhabited them.
"They are watching us, O king," whispered Busuli. "They are
waiting until they have led us into the innermost recesses of
their stronghold, and then they will fall upon us and tear
us to pieces with their teeth. That is the way with spirits.
My mother's uncle, who is a great witch doctor, has
told me all about it many times."
Tarzan laughed. "Run back into the sunlight, my children,"
he said. "I will join you when I have searched this old ruin
from top to bottom, and found the gold, or found that there
is none. At least we may take the tablets from the walls,
though the pillars are too heavy for us to handle; but there
should be great storerooms filled with gold--gold that we
can carry away upon our backs with ease. Run on now, out
into the fresh air where you may breathe easier."
Some of the warriors started to obey their chief with alacrity,
but Busuli and several others hesitated to leave him--hesitated
between love and loyalty for their king, and superstitious fear
of the unknown. And then, quite unexpectedly, that occurred which
decided the question without the necessity for further discussion.
Out of the silence of the ruined temple there rang, close to
their ears, the same hideous shriek they had heard the previous
night, and with horrified cries the black warriors turned and
fled through the empty halls of the age-old edifice.
Behind them stood Tarzan of the Apes where they had left
him, a grim smile upon his lips--waiting for the enemy he
fully expected was about to pounce upon him. But again
silence reigned, except for the faint suggestion of the sound
of naked feet moving stealthily in near-by places.
Then Tarzan wheeled and passed on into the depths of the temple.
From room to room he went, until he came to one at which
a rude, barred door still stood, and as he put his shoulder
against it to push it in, again the shriek of warning
rang out almost beside him. It was evident that he was
being warned to refrain from desecrating this particular room.
Or could it be that within lay the secret to the treasure stores?
At any rate, the very fact that the strange, invisible
guardians of this weird place had some reason for wishing him
not to enter this particular chamber was sufficient to treble
Tarzan's desire to do so, and though the shrieking was repeated
continuously, he kept his shoulder to the door until it gave
before his giant strength to swing open upon creaking wooden hinges.
Within all was black as the tomb. There was no window
to let in the faintest ray of light, and as the corridor upon
which it opened was itself in semi-darkness, even the open door
shed no relieving rays within. Feeling before him upon the floor
with the butt of his spear, Tarzan entered the Stygian gloom.
Suddenly the door behind him closed, and at the same time
hands clutched him from every direction out of the darkness.
The ape-man fought with all the savage fury of self-
preservation backed by the herculean strength that was his.
But though he felt his blows land, and his teeth sink into soft
flesh, there seemed always two new hands to take the place
of those that he fought off. At last they dragged him down,
and slowly, very slowly, they overcame him by the mere
weight of their numbers. And then they bound him--his
hands behind his back and his feet trussed up to meet them.
He had heard no sound except the heavy breathing of his
antagonists, and the noise of the battle. He knew not what
manner of creatures had captured him, but that they were
human seemed evident from the fact that they had bound him.
Presently they lifted him from the floor, and half dragging,
half pushing him, they brought him out of the black
chamber through another doorway into an inner courtyard
of the temple. Here he saw his captors. There must have
been a hundred of them--short, stocky men, with great beards
that covered their faces and fell upon their hairy breasts.
The thick, matted hair upon their heads grew low over
their receding brows, and hung about their shoulders and
their backs. Their crooked legs were short and heavy, their
arms long and muscular. About their loins they wore the
skins of leopards and lions, and great necklaces of the
claws of these same animals depended upon their breasts.
Massive circlets of virgin gold adorned their arms and legs.
For weapons they carried heavy, knotted bludgeons, and in the
belts that confined their single garments each had a long,
wicked-looking knife.
But the feature of them that made the most startling
impression upon their prisoner was their white skins--neither
in color nor feature was there a trace of the negroid about them.
Yet, with their receding foreheads, wicked little close-set eyes,
and yellow fangs, they were far from prepossessing in appearance.
During the fight within the dark chamber, and while
they had been dragging Tarzan to the inner court, no word
had been spoken, but now several of them exchanged grunting,
monosyllabic conversation in a language unfamiliar to
the ape-man, and presently they left him lying upon the
concrete floor while they trooped off on their short legs into
another part of the temple beyond the court.
As Tarzan lay there upon his back he saw that the temple
entirely surrounded the little inclosure, and that on all sides
its lofty walls rose high above him. At the top a little patch
of blue sky was visible, and, in one direction, through an
embrasure, he could see foliage, but whether it was beyond
or within the temple he did not know.
About the court, from the ground to the top of the temple,
were series of open galleries, and now and then the captive
caught glimpses of bright eyes gleaming from beneath masses
of tumbling hair, peering down upon him from above.
The ape-man gently tested the strength of the bonds that
held him, and while he could not be sure it seemed that they
were of insufficient strength to withstand the strain of his
mighty muscles when the time came to make a break for
freedom; but he did not dare to put them to the crucial test
until darkness had fallen, or he felt that no spying eyes were
upon him.
He had lain within the court for several hours before
the first rays of sunlight penetrated the vertical shaft;
almost simultaneously he heard the pattering of bare feet
in the corridors about him, and a moment later saw the
galleries above fill with crafty faces as a score or more
entered the courtyard.
For a moment every eye was bent upon the noonday sun,
and then in unison the people in the galleries and those in
the court below took up the refrain of a low, weird chant.
Presently those about Tarzan began to dance to the cadence
of their solemn song. They circled him slowly, resembling in
their manner of dancing a number of clumsy, shuffling bears;
but as yet they did not look at him, keeping their little eyes
fixed upon the sun.
For ten minutes or more they kept up their monotonous
chant and steps, and then suddenly, and in perfect unison,
they turned toward their victim with upraised bludgeons
and emitting fearful howls, the while they contorted their
features into the most diabolical expressions, they rushed
upon him.
At the same instant a female figure dashed into the midst
of the bloodthirsty horde, and, with a bludgeon similar to
their own, except that it was wrought from gold, beat back
the advancing men.
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