"You don't know what you are talking about. I can lead you to diamonds. Diamonds! Diamonds! You can scoop them up by the handful."
"I care nothing for your diamonds," replied the ape-man, "but I will save you on one condition."
"What is that?"
"That you help me save the girl, if she still lives, and get her out of this valley."
"I promise. But hurry—soon it will be too late."
Tarzan had looped the center of his rope about the merlon; the loose ends dangled a few feet above the roof below. He saw that the rope hung between windows where the flames could not reach it.
"I will go first," he said, "to be sure that you do not run away and forget your promise."
"You do not trust me!" exclaimed the gorilla god.
"Of course not—you are a man."
He lowered his body over the parapet, hung by one hand, and seized both strands of the rope in the other.