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Chapter 16 · Tarzan and the Lost Empire

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  Chapter sixteen of Tarzan and the Lost Empire by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This LibriVox
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  recording is in the public domain. Tarzan and the Lost Empire chapter sixteen.
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  Cassius Hastus but the helmet of a burly thief who opposed him, and as
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  he turned to look for a new opponent, he saw white cast a net
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  over Tarzan's head and shoulders from the rear. While the ape man was engaged
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  with a professional gladiator. Cassius was nearer the gladiator than Tarzan's other opponent,
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  and with a cry, he hurled himself upon him. Tarzan saw what Cassius
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  has to had done and wheeled to face the white who had attacked him from
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  the rear. The gladiator found Cassius Hasta a very different opponent from Tarzan.
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  Perhaps he was not as skillful with his shield, perhaps he was not as
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  powerful, But never in all his experience had the gladiator met such a swordsman.
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  The crowd had been watching Tarzan from the beginning of the event, because
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  his great height, and his nakedness and his leopard skin marked him from all
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  others. They noted that the first cast of his pike had split the shield
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  of his opponent and dropped him dead, and they washed his encounter with the
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  gladiator, which did not please them at all. It was far too slow,
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  and they hooted and voiced catcalls. When the White cast the net over
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  him, they howled with delight, for they did not know from one day
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  to the next, or from one minute to the next, what their minds
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  would be the next day or the next minute. They were cruel and stupid,
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  but they were no different from crowds of any place or any time.
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  As Tarzan, entangled in the net, turned to face the new menace,
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  the White leaped toward him to finish him with a dagger, and Tarzan caught
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  the net with the fingers of both his hands and tore it asunder as though
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  it had been made of paper. But the fellow was upon him in the
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  same instant. The dagger hands struck. As Tarzan seized the dagger wrist.
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  Blood ran from beneath the leopard skin from a wound over Tarzan's heart. So
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  close had he been to death, but his hands stopped the other just in
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  time, And now steel fingers closed upon that wrist, until the man cried
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  out with pain as he felt his bones crushed together, the ape man drew
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  his antagonist toward him and seized him by the throat and shook him as a
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  terrier shakes a rat, while the air trembled to the delighted screams of the
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  mob. An instant later, Tarzan cast the lifeless form aside, picked up
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  his sword and shield that he had been forced to abandon, and sought for
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  new foes. Thus the battle waged around the arena, each side seeking to
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  gain the advantage in numbers so that they might set upon the remnant of their
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  opponents and destroy them. Cassius Hasta had disposed of the gladiator that he had
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  drawn away from Tarzan, and was now engaged with another swordsman when a second
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  fell upon him. Two to one are heavy odds, but Cassius Hasta tried
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  to hold the second off until another Red could come to his assistance. This,
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  however, did not conform with the ideas of the whites who were engaging
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  him, and they fell upon him with redoubled fury. To prevent the very
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  thing that he hoped for. He saw an opening, and quick as lightning,
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  his sword leaped into it, severing the juggedter vein of one of his
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  antagonists, but his guard was down for the instant, and a glancing blow
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  struck his helmet, and though he did not pierce it, it sent him
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  stumbling to the sand, half stunned. Hobbot Hobbitt cried the people for Cassius
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  Hasta had fallen close to one side of the arena, where a great number
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  of people could see him. Standing over him, his antagonist raised his forefinger
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  to the audience, and every thumb went down with a smile. The White
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  raised his sword to drive it through his throat, but as he paused an
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  instant facing the crowd. In a little play to the galleries for effect,
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  Tarzan leaped across the soft sand, casting aside his sword and shield, reverting
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  to the primitive to the beast to save his friend. It was like the
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  charge of a lion. The crowd saw and was frozen into silence. They
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  saw him spring in his stride several yards before he reached the opposing gladiator,
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  and like a jungle beast, fell upon the shoulders and back of his prey.
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  Down the two went across the body of Hasta, but instantly the ape
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  man was upon his feet and in his hands was his antagonist, he shook
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  him as he had shaken the other, shook him into unconsciousness, choking him
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  as he shook, shook him to death, and cast his body from him.
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  The crowd went wild. They stood upon their benches and shrieked, and
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  waved scarfs and helmets, and threw many flowers and sweetmeats into the arena.
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  Tarzan stopped and lifted Kassius Hasta to his feet as he saw that he was
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  not killed and consciousness was returning. Scanning the arena quickly, he saw that
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  fifteen red survived, but ten whites. This was a battle for survival.
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  There were no rules and no ethics. It was your life or mine,
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  and Tarzan gathered the surplus five and set upon the strongest White, who,
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  now surrounded by six swordsmen, went down to death in an instant. At
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  Tarzan's command, the six divided and each three charged another White, with the
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  result that by following these tactics, the event was brought to a sudden and
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  bloody close, with fifteen Red surviving and the last White slain. The crowd
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  was crying Tarzan's name above all others, but Sublatis was enraged the affront that
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  had been put upon him by this wild barbarian had not been avenged as he
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  had hoped, but instead Tarzan had achieved a personal popularity far greater than his
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  own. That it was ephemeral and subject to the changes of the fickle public
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  mind did not lessen the indignation and chagrin of the emperor. His mind could
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  entertain but one thought toward Tarzan, the creature must be destroyed. He turned
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  to the prefect in charge of the games and whispered a command. The crowd
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  was loudly demanding that the lower weeks be accorded the victors and that they be
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  given their freedom, but instead they were herded back to their enclosure. All
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  but Tarzan, perhaps suggested some members of the audience Sublatas is going to honor
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  him particularly, and this rumor ran quickly through the crowd, as rumors will,
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  until it became a conviction. Slaves came and dragged away the corpses of
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  the slain and picked up the discarded weapons and scattered new sand and raked it.
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  While Tarzan stood where he had been told to stand, beneath the loge
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  of Caesar. He stood with folded arms, grimly waiting for what he knew
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  not, And then a low groan rose from the crowded stands, a groan
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  that grew in volume to loud cries of anger, above which Tarzan caught words
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  that sounded like tyrant, coward, trader, and done with sublatdis. He
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  looked around and saw them pointing to the opposite end of the arena, and
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  facing in that direction, he saw the thing that had aroused their wrath,
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  for instead of a laurel wreath and freedom, there stood eyeing him, a
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  great black maned lion, gaunt with hunger toward the anger of the populace,
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  Subladus exhibited outwardly and arrogant and indifferent mien. Contemptuously, he permitted his gaze
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  to circle the stands, but he whispered orders that sent three centuries of legionaries
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  among the audience, in time to overawe a few agitators who would have led
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  them against the imperial lowesg But now the lion was advancing, and the cruel
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  and selfish audience forgot its momentary anger against injustice in the expected thrill of another
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  bloody encounter. Some who a moment before had been loudly acclaiming Tarzan now cheered
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  the lion, though if the lion were vanquished, they would again cheer Tarzan.
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  That, however, they did not anticipate, but believed that they had
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  taken sides with the assured winner, since Tarzan was armed only with the dagger,
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  not having recovered his other weapons after he had thrown them aside. Naked
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  but for loincloth and leopard skin, Tarzan presented a magnificent picture of physical perfection,
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  and the people of Castra Sanguinarius gave him their admiration. They had seen
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  other men that weak face, other lions bravely and hopelessly, and they saw
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  the same courageous bearing in the giant barbarian. But the hopelessness they took for
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  granted the ape man did not feel. With head flattened, half crouching,
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  the lion moved slowly toward its prey, the tip of its tail twitching in
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  nervous anticipation, its gaunt sides greedy to be filled. Tarzan waited. Had
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  he been the lion himself, he scarcely could have better known what was passing
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  in that savage brain. He knew to the instant when the final charge would
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  start. He knew the speed of that swift and deadly rush. He knew
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  when and how the lion would rear upon its hind legs to cease him with
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  great talons and mighty yellow fangs. He saw the muscle's tents, He saw
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  the twitching tail. Quiet for an instant, his folded arms dropped to his
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  side. The dagger remained in its sheath at his hip. He waited,
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  crouching, almost imperceptibly, his weight upon the balls of his feet. And
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  then the lion charged, no knowing how accurately the beast had timed its final
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  rush. Measuring the distance to the fraction of a stride even as a hunter
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  approaches a jump, the ape man knew that the surest way in which to
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  gain the first advantage was to disconcert the charging beast by doing that which he
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  would least expect. Numa. The lion knows that his core usually does one
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  of two things. He either stands paralyzed with terror, or he turns and
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  flees. So seldom does he charge to meet Numa that the lion never takes
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  this possibility into consideration. And it was therefore this very thing that Tarzan did.
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  As the lion charged, the ape men leapt to meet him, and
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  the crowd sat breathless and silent. Even Subladus leaned forward with parted lips,
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  forgetful for a moment that he was Caesar. Numa tried to check himself and
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  rear to meet this presumptuous man thing. But he slipped a little in the
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  sand, and the great paw that struck at Tarzan was seal timed and missed,
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  for the ape man had dodged to one side and beneath it. And
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  in the fraction of a second that it took Numa to recover himself, he
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  found that their positions had been reversed, and that the prey that he would
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  have leapt upon had turned swiftly and leapt upon him. Full Upon the back
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  of the lion sprang Tarzan of the apes. A great form encircled the main
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  throat, steel thwed legs, crossed beneath the gaunt, slim belly, and
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  locked themselves there. Numa reared and pawed and turned to bite the savage beast
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  upon his back, but the vice like arm about his throat pressed tighter,
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  holding him so that his fangs could not reach their goal. He leaped into
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  the air, and when he alighted on the sand, shook himself to dislodge
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  the growling man beasts clinging to him. Holding his position with his legs and
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  one arm, Tarzan, with his free hand, sought the hilt of his
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  dagger. Numa, feeling the life being choked from him, became frantic.
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  He reared upon his hind legs and threw himself upon the ground, rolling upon
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  his antagonist. And now the crowd found its voice again and shouted hoarse delight.
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  Never in the history of the Arena had such a contest as this been
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  witnessed. The barbarian was offering such a defense as they had not thought possible,
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  and they cheered him, though they knew that eventually the lion would win.
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  Then Tarzan found his dagger and drove the thin blade into Numa's side,
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  just back of his left elbow. Again and again, the knife struck home,
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  but each blow seemed only to increase the savage efforts of the lunging beast
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  to shake the man from his back and tear him to pieces. Blood was
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  mixed with the foam on Numa's jows as he stood panting upon trembling legs.
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  After a last feudile effort to dislodge the ape man, he swayed dizzily.
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  The knife struck deep again. A great stream of blood gushed from the mouth
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  the nostrils of the dying beast. He lurched forward and fell lifeless upon the
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  crimson sand. Tarzan of the apes leaped to his feet. The savage personal
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  combat, the blood, the contact with the mighty body of the carnivore had
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  stripped from him, the last vestige of the thin veneer of civilization. It
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  was no English lord who stood there with one foot upon his kill, and
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  through narrowed lids glared about him at the roaring populace. It was no man
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  but a wild beast that raised its head and voiced the savage victory cry of
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  the bull ape, a cry that stilled the multitude and froze its blood.
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  But in an instant the spell that had seized him past his expression changed.
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  The shadow of a smile crossed his face as he stooped, and, wiping
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  the blood from his dagger upon Numa's mane returned the weapon to its sheath.
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  Caesar's jealousy had turned to terror as he realized the meaning of the tremendous ovation
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  The giant Barbarian was receiving from the people of Castra Sanguinarius. He well knew,
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  though he tried to conceal the fact, that he held no place in
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  popular favor, and that Fastus, his son, was equally hated and despised.
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  The barbarian was a friend of Maximus Proclarus, whom he had wronged,
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  and Maximus Proclarus, whose popularity with the troops was second to none, was
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  loved by Delecta, the daughter of Dionce Blendidas, who might easily aspire to
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  the Purple with the support of such a popular idol as Tarzan must become if
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  he were given his freedom in accordance with the customs and rules governing the contests.
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  While Tarzan waited in the arena and the people cheered themselves, horse more
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  legionaries filed into the stands until the wall bristled with glittering pikes. Caesar whispered
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  in consultation with the Prefect of the games. Trumpets blared, and the Prefect
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  arose and raised his open palm for silence. Gradually, the din subsided,
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  and the people waited listening, expecting the honors that were customarily bestowed upon the
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  outstanding hero of the games. The Prefect cleared his throat. This barbarian has
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  furnished such extraordinary entertainment that Caesar, as a special favor to his loyal subjects,
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  has decided to add one more event to the Games, in which the
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  barbarian may again demonstrate his supremacy. This event will but what further, the
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  Prefect said, was drowned in a murmur of surprise, disapproval, and anger.
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  For the people at sense by this time the vicious and unfair trick that
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  Sublettis was about to play upon their favorite. They cared nothing for fair play,
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  for though the individual may prate of it at home, it has no
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  place in mob psychology. But the mob knew what it wanted. It wanted
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  to eye Lies, a popular hero. It did not care to see him
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  fight again that day, and it wanted to thwart Sebladus, whom it hated.
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  Menacing were the cries and threats directed towards Caesar, and only the glittering
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  pikes kept the mob at bay. In the arena, the slaves were working
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  rapidly. Fallen Numa had been dragged away, the sands swept, and as
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  the last slave disappeared, leaving Tarzan again alone within the enclosure. Those menacing
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  gates at the far end swung open once more. End of Chapter sixteen.