TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
Harben is an emissary of Cassius Hasta, who is reputed to be in Castra Sanguinarius.”
Caecilius Metellus laughed. “Go on then and make a fool of yourself, Fupus,” be said. “You will probably bring up at the end of a rope.”
“The end of a rope will terminate this business,” agreed Fupus, “but von Harben will be there, not I.”
Chapter Nine
As night fell upon the city of Castra Sanguinarius, the gloom of the granite dungeons beneath the city’s Colosseum deepened into blackest darkness, which was relieved only by a rectangular patch of starlit sky where barred windows pierced the walls.
Squatting upon the rough stone floor, his back against the wall, Tarzan watched the stars moving in slow procession across the window’s opening. A creature of the wild, impatient of restraint, the ape-man suffered the mental anguish of the caged beast—perhaps, because of his human mind, his suffering was greater than would have been that of one of the lower orders, yet he endured with even greater outward stoicism than the beast that paces to and fro seeking escape from the bars that confine it.
As the feet of the beast might have measured the walls of its dungeon, so did the mind of Tarzan, and never for a waking moment was his mind not occupied by thoughts of escape.
Lukedi and the other inmates of the dungeon slept, but Tarzan still sat watching the free stars and envying them when he became conscious of a sound, ever so slight, coming from the arena, the floor of which was about on a level with the sill of the little window in the top of the dungeon wall.
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