Part 17 (1/2)

”Only Jad-ben-Otho knohat the future o your way lest someone should discover you and becoo,” said O-lo-a, ”but Pan-at-lee will return with food I hope that you escape and that Jad-ben-Otho is pleased hat I have done” She turned and walked away and Pan-at-lee follohile the ape-

At dusk Pan-at-lee ca her alone Tarzan put the question that he had been anxious to put since his conversation earlier in the day with O-lo-a

”Tell me,” he said, ”what you know of the ruer which is supposed to be hidden in A-lur Have you too heard of this during the short time that you have been here?”

”Yes,” said Pan-at-lee, ”I have heard it spoken of a of which all whisper a themselves but of which none dares to speak aloud They say that there is a strange she hidden in the temple and that Lu-don wants her for a priestess and that Ko-tan wants her for a wife and that neither as yet dares take her for fear of the other”

”Do you knohere she is hidden in the temple?” asked Tarzan

”No,” said Pan-at-lee ”How should I know? I do not even know that it is more than a story and I but tell you that which I have heard others say”

”There was only one,” asked Tarzan, ”whom they spoke of?”

”No, they speak of another who came with her but none seems to knohat became of this one”

Tarzan nodded ”Thank you Pan-at-lee,” he said ”You uess”

”I hope that I have helped you,” said the girl as she turned back toward the palace

”And I hope so too,” exclaimed Tarzan emphatically

14

The Teht had fallen Tarzan donned the mask and the dead tail of the priest he had slain in the vaults beneath the teain to pass the guard, especially so late at night as it would be likely to arouse co into the tree that overhung the garden wall and fro too grave risk of apprehension the ape-rounds to the court of the palace, approaching the temple from the side opposite to that at which he had left it at the tih a portion of the grounds hich he was unfa the beaten track between the palace apartoal in mind and endowed as he ith an alreat assurance through the shadows of the tee of the denser shadows close to the walls and of what shrubs and trees there were he ca the purpose of which he had asked Lu-don only to be put off with the assertion that it was forgotten-nothing strange in itself but given possible importance by the apparent hesitancy of the priest to discuss its use and the iained at the time that Lu-don lied

And now he stood at last alone before the structure which was three stories in height and detached frole barred entrance which was carved fro rock in representation of the head of a GRYF, whose wide-open mouth constituted the doorway The head, hood, and front paws of the creature were depicted as though it lay crouching with its lower jaw on the ground between its outspread paws Small oval hich were likewise barred, flanked the doorway

Seeing that the coast was clear, Tarzan stepped into the darkened entrance where he tried the bars only to discover that they were ingeniously locked in place by some device hich he was unfa to be broken even if he could have risked the noise which would have resulted Nothing was visible within the darkened interior and so, ht the s Here also the bars refused to yield up their secret, but again Tarzan was not dis different

If the bars would not yield to his cunning they would yield to his giant strength if there proved no other ress, but first he would assure hi entirely around the building he examined it carefully There were other s but they were similarly barred He stopped often to look and listen but he saw no one and the sounds that he heard were too far away to cause hilanced above hi Like so many of the other walls of the city, palace, and temple, it was ornately carved and there were too the peculiar ledges that ran sole, giving ofttiularity and even crookedness to the buildings It was not a difficult wall to climb, at least not difficult for the ape-man

But he found the bulky and aard headdress a considerable handicap and so he laid it aside upon the ground at the foot of the wall Nimbly he ascended to find the s of the second floor not only barred but curtained within He did not delay long at the second floor since he had in h the roof which he had noticed was roughly dome shaped like the throneroom of Ko-tan Here there were apertures He had seen theround, and if the construction of the interior resehtly that of the throneroom, bars would not be necessary upon these apertures, since no one could reach thele question: would they be large enough to adain at the third floor, and here, in spite of the hangings, he saw that the interior was lighted and simultaneously there came to his nostrils from within a scent that stripped froht have reles of Kerchak So sudden and complete was the e lips the hideous challenge of his kind, but the cunning brute-mind saved him this blunder

And now he heard voices within-the voice of Lu-don he could have sworn, de words though utter hopelessness spoke in the tones of this other voice which brought Tarzan to the pinnacle of frenzy