“You must not take the risk, then,” he said quickly. “I will return to the temple, and if I can fight my way to freedom there will be no suspicion thrown upon you.”
But she would not have it so, and finally persuaded him to follow her, saying that they had already remained in the vault too long to prevent suspicion from falling upon her even if they returned to the temple.
“I will hide you, and then return alone,” she said, “telling them that I was long unconscious after you killed Tha, and that I do not know whither you escaped.”
And so she led him through winding corridors of gloom, until finally they came to a small chamber into which a little light filtered through a stone grating in the ceiling.
“This is the Chamber of the Dead,” she said. “None will think of searching here for you—they would not dare. I will return after it is dark. By that time I may have found a plan to effect your escape.”
She was gone, and Tarzan of the Apes was left alone in the Chamber of the Dead, beneath the long-dead city of Opar.
Chapter XXI
The Castaways
Clayton dreamed that he was drinking his fill of water, pure, delightful drafts of fresh water. With a start he gained consciousness to find himself wet through by torrents of rain that were falling upon his body and his upturned face. A heavy tropical shower was beating down upon them. He opened his mouth and drank. Presently he was so revived and strengthened that he was enabled to raise himself upon his hands. Across his legs lay Monsieur Thuran. A few feet aft Jane Porter was huddled in a pitiful little heap in the bottom of the boat—she was quite still. Clayton knew that she was dead.
After infinite labor he released himself from Thuran’s pinioning body, and with renewed strength crawled toward the girl. He raised her head from the rough boards of the boat’s bottom. There might be life in that poor, starved frame even yet. He could not quite abandon all hope, and so he seized a water-soaked rag and squeezed the precious drops between the swollen lips of the hideous thing that had but a few short days before glowed with the resplendent life of happy youth and glorious beauty.
For some time there was no sign of returning animation, but at last his efforts were rewarded by a slight tremor of the half-closed lids. He chafed the thin hands, and forced a few more drops of water into the parched throat. The girl opened her eyes, looking up at him for a long time before she could recall her surroundings.