The Temple of the Gryf

When night had fallen Tarzan donned the mask and the dead tail of the

priest he had slain in the vaults beneath the temple. He judged that it

would not do to attempt again to pass the guard, especially so late at

night as it would be likely to arouse comment and suspicion, and so he

swung into the tree that overhung the garden wall and from its branches

dropped to the ground beyond.

Avoiding too grave risk of apprehension the ape-man passed through the

grounds to the court of the palace, approaching the temple from the

side opposite to that at which he had left it at the time of his

escape. He came thus it is true through a portion of the grounds with

which he was unfamiliar but he preferred this to the danger of

following the beaten track between the palace apartments and those of

the temple. Having a definite goal in mind and endowed as he was with

an almost miraculous sense of location he moved with great assurance

through the shadows of the temple yard.

Taking advantage of the denser shadows close to the walls and of what

shrubs and trees there were he came without mishap at last to the

ornate building concerning 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 impression the

ape-man had gained 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 from all the other temple buildings. It

had a single barred entrance which was carved from the living 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 windows, which 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 with which he was unfamiliar

and that they also were probably too strong to be broken even if he

could have risked the noise which would have resulted. Nothing was

visible within the darkened interior and so, momentarily baffled, he

sought the windows. Here also the bars refused to yield up their

secret, but again Tarzan was not dismayed since he had counted upon

nothing different.

If the bars would not yield to his cunning they would yield to his

giant strength if there proved no other means of ingress, but first he

would assure himself that this latter was the case. Moving entirely

around the building he examined it carefully. There were other windows

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

him any apprehension.

He glanced above him at the wall of the building. 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 sometimes in a horizontal

plane and again were tilted at an angle, giving ofttimes an impression

of irregularity 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 awkward 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 windows of the second floor not only barred but

curtained within. He did not delay long at the second floor since he

had in mind an idea that he would find the easiest entrance through the

roof which he had noticed was roughly dome shaped like the throneroom

of Ko-tan. Here there were apertures. He had seen them from the ground,

and if the construction of the interior resembled even slightly that of

the throneroom, bars would not be necessary upon these apertures, since

no one could reach them from the floor of the room.

There was but a single question: would they be large enough to admit

the broad shoulders of the ape-man.

He paused again 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 from him temporarily any

remnant of civilization that might have remained and left him a fierce

and terrible bull of the jungles of Kerchak. So sudden and complete was

the metamorphosis that there almost broke from the savage 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, demanding. And haughty and disdainful came the answering words

though utter hopelessness spoke in the tones of this other voice which

brought Tarzan to the pinnacle of frenzy.

The dome with its possible apertures was forgotten. Every consideration

of stealth and quiet was cast aside as the ape-man drew back his mighty

fist and struck a single terrific blow upon the bars of the small

window before him, a blow that sent the bars and the casing that held

them clattering to the floor of the apartment within.

Instantly Tarzan dove headforemost through the aperture carrying the

hangings of antelope hide with him to the floor below. Leaping to his

feet he tore the entangling pelt from about his head only to find

himself in utter darkness and in silence. He called aloud a name that

had not passed his lips for many weary months. "Jane, Jane," he cried,

"where are you?" But there was only silence in reply.

Again and again he called, groping with outstretched hands through the

Stygian blackness of the room, his nostrils assailed and his brain

tantalized by the delicate effluvia that had first assured him that his

mate had been within this very room. And he had heard her dear voice

combatting the base demands of the vile priest. Ah, if he had but acted

with greater caution! If he had but continued to move with quiet and

stealth he might even at this moment be holding her in his arms while

the body of Lu-don, beneath his foot, spoke eloquently of vengeance

achieved. But there was no time now for idle self-reproaches.

He stumbled blindly forward, groping for he knew not what till suddenly

the floor beneath him tilted and he shot downward into a darkness even

more utter than that above. He felt his body strike a smooth surface

and he realized that he was hurtling downward as through a polished

chute while from above there came the mocking tones of a taunting laugh

and the voice of Lu-don screamed after him: "Return to thy father, O

Dor-ul-Otho!"

The ape-man came to a sudden and painful stop upon a rocky floor.

Directly before him was an oval window crossed by many bars, and beyond

he saw the moonlight playing on the waters of the blue lake below.

Simultaneously he was conscious of a familiar odor in the air of the

chamber, which a quick glance revealed in the semidarkness as of

considerable proportion.

It was the faint, but unmistakable odor of the GRYF, and now Tarzan

stood silently listening. At first he detected no sounds other than

those of the city that came to him through the window overlooking the

lake; but presently, faintly, as though from a distance he heard the

shuffling of padded feet along a stone pavement, and as he listened he

was aware that the sound approached.

Nearer and nearer it came, and now even the breathing of the beast was

audible. Evidently attracted by the noise of his descent into its

cavernous retreat it was approaching to investigate. He could not see

it but he knew that it was not far distant, and then, deafeningly there

reverberated through those gloomy corridors the mad bellow of the GRYF.

Aware of the poor eyesight of the beast, and his own eyes now grown

accustomed to the darkness of the cavern, the ape-man sought to elude

the infuriated charge which he well knew no living creature could

withstand. Neither did he dare risk the chance of experimenting upon

this strange GRYF with the tactics of the Tor-o-don that he had found

so efficacious upon that other occasion when his life and liberty had

been the stakes for which he cast. In many respects the conditions were

dissimilar. Before, in broad daylight, he had been able to approach the

GRYF under normal conditions in its natural state, and the GRYF itself

was one that he had seen subjected to the authority of man, or at least

of a manlike creature; but here he was confronted by an imprisoned

beast in the full swing of a furious charge and he had every reason to

suspect that this GRYF might never have felt the restraining influence

of authority, confined as it was in this gloomy pit to serve likely but

the single purpose that Tarzan had already seen so graphically

portrayed in his own experience of the past few moments.

To elude the creature, then, upon the possibility of discovering some

loophole of escape from his predicament seemed to the ape-man the

wisest course to pursue. Too much was at stake to risk an encounter

that might be avoided--an encounter the outcome of which there was

every reason to apprehend would seal the fate of the mate that he had

just found, only to lose again so harrowingly. Yet high as his

disappointment and chagrin ran, hopeless as his present estate now

appeared, there tingled in the veins of the savage lord a warm glow of

thanksgiving and elation. She lived! After all these weary months of

hopelessness and fear he had found her. She lived!

To the opposite side of the chamber, silently as the wraith of a

disembodied soul, the swift jungle creature moved from the path of the

charging Titan that, guided solely in the semi-darkness by its keen

ears, bore down upon the spot toward which Tarzan's noisy entrance into

its lair had attracted it. Along the further wall the ape-man hurried.

Before him now appeared the black opening of the corridor from which

the beast had emerged into the larger chamber. Without hesitation

Tarzan plunged into it. Even here his eyes, long accustomed to darkness

that would have seemed total to you or to me, saw dimly the floor and

the walls within a radius of a few feet--enough at least to prevent him

plunging into any unguessed abyss, or dashing himself upon solid rock

at a sudden turning.

The corridor was both wide and lofty, which indeed it must be to

accommodate the colossal proportions of the creature whose habitat it

was, and so Tarzan encountered no difficulty in moving with reasonable

speed along its winding trail. He was aware as he proceeded that the

trend of the passage was downward, though not steeply, but it seemed

interminable and he wondered to what distant subterranean lair it might

lead. There was a feeling that perhaps after all he might better have

remained in the larger chamber and risked all on the chance of subduing

the GRYF where there was at least sufficient room and light to lend to

the experiment some slight chance of success. To be overtaken here in

the narrow confines of the black corridor where he was assured the GRYF

could not see him at all would spell almost certain death and now he

heard the thing approaching from behind. Its thunderous bellows fairly

shook the cliff from which the cavernous chambers were excavated. To

halt and meet this monstrous incarnation of fury with a futile whee-oo!

seemed to Tarzan the height of insanity and so he continued along the

corridor, increasing his pace as he realized that the GRYF was

overhauling him.

Presently the darkness lessened and at the final turning of the passage

he saw before him an area of moonlight. With renewed hope he sprang

rapidly forward and emerged from the mouth of the corridor to find

himself in a large circular enclosure the towering white walls of which

rose high upon every side--smooth perpendicular walls upon the sheer

face of which was no slightest foothold. To his left lay a pool of

water, one side of which lapped the foot of the wall at this point. It

was, doubtless, the wallow and the drinking pool of the GRYF.

And now the creature emerged from the corridor and Tarzan retreated to

the edge of the pool to make his last stand. There was no staff with

which to enforce the authority of his voice, but yet he made his stand

for there seemed naught else to do. Just beyond the entrance to the

corridor the GRYF paused, turning its weak eyes in all directions as

though searching for its prey. This then seemed the psychological

moment for his attempt and raising his voice in peremptory command the

ape-man voiced the weird whee-oo! of the Tor-o-don. Its effect upon the

GRYF was instantaneous and complete--with a terrific bellow it lowered

its three horns and dashed madly in the direction of the sound.

To right nor to left was any avenue of escape, for behind him lay the

placid waters of the pool, while down upon him from before thundered

annihilation. The mighty body seemed already to tower above him as the

ape-man turned and dove into the dark waters.

Dead in her breast lay hope. Battling for life during harrowing months

of imprisonment and danger and hardship it had fitfully flickered and

flamed only to sink after each renewal to smaller proportions than

before and now it had died out entirely leaving only cold, charred

embers that Jane Clayton knew would never again be rekindled. Hope was

dead as she faced Lu-don, the high priest, in her prison quarters in

the Temple of the Gryf at A-lur. Both time and hardship had failed to

leave their impress upon her physical beauty--the contours of her

perfect form, the glory of her radiant loveliness had defied them, yet

to these very attributes she owed the danger which now confronted her,

for Lu-don desired her. From the lesser priests she had been safe, but

from Lu-don, she was not safe, for Lu-don was not as they, since the

high priestship of Pal-ul-don may descend from father to son.

Ko-tan, the king, had wanted her and all that had so far saved her from

either was the fear of each for the other, but at last Lu-don had cast

aside discretion and had come in the silent watches of the night to

claim her. Haughtily had she repulsed him, seeking ever to gain time,

though what time might bring her of relief or renewed hope she could

not even remotely conjecture. A leer of lust and greed shone hungrily

upon his cruel countenance as he advanced across the room to seize her.

She did not shrink nor cower, but stood there very erect, her chin up,

her level gaze freighted with the loathing and contempt she felt for

him. He read her expression and while it angered him, it but increased

his desire for possession. Here indeed was a queen, perhaps a goddess;

fit mate for the high priest.

"You shall not!" she said as he would have touched her. "One of us

shall die before ever your purpose is accomplished."

He was close beside her now. His laugh grated upon her ears. "Love

does not kill," he replied mockingly.

He reached for her arm and at the same instant something clashed

against the bars of one of the windows, crashing them inward to the

floor, to be followed almost simultaneously by a human figure which

dove headforemost into the room, its head enveloped in the skin window

hangings which it carried with it in its impetuous entry.

Jane Clayton saw surprise and something of terror too leap to the

countenance of the high priest and then she saw him spring forward and

jerk upon a leather thong that depended from the ceiling of the

apartment. Instantly there dropped from above a cunningly contrived

partition that fell between them and the intruder, effectively barring

him from them and at the same time leaving him to grope upon its

opposite side in darkness, since the only cresset the room contained

was upon their side of the partition.

Faintly from beyond the wall Jane heard a voice calling, but whose it

was and what the words she could not distinguish. Then she saw Lu-don

jerk upon another thong and wait in evident expectancy of some

consequent happening. He did not have long to wait. She saw the thong

move suddenly as though jerked from above and then Lu-don smiled and

with another signal put in motion whatever machinery it was that raised

the partition again to its place in the ceiling.

Advancing into that portion of the room that the partition had shut off

from them, the high priest knelt upon the floor, and down tilting a

section of it, revealed the dark mouth of a shaft leading below.

Laughing loudly he shouted into the hole: "Return to thy father, O

Dor-ul-Otho!"

Making fast the catch that prevented the trapdoor from opening beneath

the feet of the unwary until such time as Lu-don chose the high priest

rose again to his feet.

"Now, Beautiful One!" he cried, and then, "Ja-don! what do you here?"

Jane Clayton turned to follow the direction of Lu-don's eyes and there

she saw framed in the entrance-way to the apartment the mighty figure

of a warrior, upon whose massive features sat an expression of stern

and uncompromising authority.

"I come from Ko-tan, the king," replied Ja-don, "to remove the

beautiful stranger to the Forbidden Garden."

"The king defies me, the high priest of Jad-ben-Otho?" cried Lu-don.

"It is the king's command--I have spoken," snapped Ja-don, in whose

manner was no sign of either fear or respect for the priest.

Lu-don well knew why the king had chosen this messenger whose heresy

was notorious, but whose power had as yet protected him from the

machinations of the priest. Lu-don cast a surreptitious glance at the

thongs hanging from the ceiling. Why not? If he could but maneuver to

entice Ja-don to the opposite side of the chamber!

"Come," he said in a conciliatory tone, "let us discuss the matter,"

and moved toward the spot where he would have Ja-don follow him.

"There is nothing to discuss," replied Ja-don, yet he followed the

priest, fearing treachery.

Jane watched them. In the face and figure of the warrior she found

reflected those admirable traits of courage and honor that the

profession of arms best develops. In the hypocritical priest there was

no redeeming quality. Of the two then she might best choose the

warrior. With him there was a chance--with Lu-don, none. Even the very

process of exchange from one prison to another might offer some

possibility of escape. She weighed all these things and decided, for

Lu-don's quick glance at the thongs had not gone unnoticed nor

uninterpreted by her.

"Warrior," she said, addressing Ja-don, "if you would live enter not

that portion of the room."

Lu-don cast an angry glance upon her. "Silence, slave!" he cried.

"And where lies the danger?" Ja-don asked of Jane, ignoring Lu-don.

The woman pointed to the thongs. "Look," she said, and before the high

priest could prevent she had seized that which controlled the partition

which shot downward separating Lu-don from the warrior and herself.

Ja-don looked inquiringly at her. "He would have tricked me neatly but

for you," he said; "kept me imprisoned there while he secreted you

elsewhere in the mazes of his temple."

"He would have done more than that," replied Jane, as she pulled upon

the other thong. "This releases the fastenings of a trapdoor in the

floor beyond the partition. When you stepped on that you would have

been precipitated into a pit beneath the temple. Lu-don has threatened

me with this fate often. I do not know that he speaks the truth, but he

says that a demon of the temple is imprisoned there--a huge GRYF."

"There is a GRYF within the temple," said Ja-don. "What with it and the

sacrifices, the priests keep us busy supplying them with prisoners,

though the victims are sometimes those for whom Lu-don has conceived

hatred among our own people. He has had his eyes upon me for a long

time. This would have been his chance but for you. Tell me, woman, why

you warned me. Are we not all equally your jailers and your enemies?"

"None could be more horrible than Lu-don," she replied; "and you have

the appearance of a brave and honorable warrior. I could not hope, for

hope has died and yet there is the possibility that among so many

fighting men, even though they be of another race than mine, there is

one who would accord honorable treatment to a stranger within his

gates--even though she be a woman."

Ja-don looked at her for a long minute. "Ko-tan would make you his

queen," he said. "That he told me himself and surely that were

honorable treatment from one who might make you a slave."

"Why, then, would he make me queen?" she asked.

Ja-don came closer as though in fear his words might be overheard. "He

believes, although he did not tell me so in fact, that you are of the

race of gods. And why not? Jad-ben-Otho is tailless, therefore it is

not strange that Ko-tan should suspect that only the gods are thus. His

queen is dead leaving only a single daughter. He craves a son and what

more desirable than that he should found a line of rulers for

Pal-ul-don descended from the gods?"

"But I am already wed," cried Jane. "I cannot wed another. I do not

want him or his throne."

"Ko-tan is king," replied Ja-don simply as though that explained and

simplified everything.

"You will not save me then?" she asked.

"If you were in Ja-lur," he replied, "I might protect you, even against

the king."

"What and where is Ja-lur?" she asked, grasping at any straw.

"It is the city where I rule," he answered. "I am chief there and of

all the valley beyond."

"Where is it?" she insisted, and "is it far?"

"No," he replied, smiling, "it is not far, but do not think of

that--you could never reach it. There are too many to pursue and

capture you. If you wish to know, however, it lies up the river that

empties into Jad-ben-lul whose waters kiss the walls of A-lur--up the

western fork it lies with water upon three sides. Impregnable city of

Pal-ul-don--alone of all the cities it has never been entered by a

foeman since it was built there while Jad-ben-Otho was a boy."

"And there I would be safe?" she asked.

"Perhaps," he replied.

Ah, dead Hope; upon what slender provocation would you seek to glow

again! She sighed and shook her head, realizing the inutility of

Hope--yet the tempting bait dangled before her mind's eye--Ja-lur!

"You are wise," commented Ja-don interpreting her sigh. "Come now, we

will go to the quarters of the princess beside the Forbidden Garden.

There you will remain with O-lo-a, the king's daughter. It will be

better than this prison you have occupied."

"And Ko-tan?" she asked, a shudder passing through her slender frame.

"There are ceremonies," explained Ja-don, "that may occupy several days

before you become queen, and one of them may be difficult of

arrangement." He laughed, then.

"What?" she asked.

"Only the high priest may perform the marriage ceremony for a king," he

explained.

"Delay!" she murmured; "blessed delay!" Tenacious indeed of life is

Hope even though it be reduced to cold and lifeless char--a veritable

phoenix.

15

"The King Is Dead!"

As they conversed Ja-don had led her down the stone stairway that leads

from the upper floors of the Temple of the Gryf to the chambers and the

corridors that honeycomb the rocky hills from which the temple and the

palace are hewn and now they passed from one to the other through a

doorway upon one side of which two priests stood guard and upon the

other two warriors. The former would have halted Ja-don when they saw

who it was that accompanied him for well known throughout the temple

was the quarrel between king and high priest for possession of this

beautiful stranger.

"Only by order of Lu-don may she pass," said one, placing himself

directly in front of Jane Clayton, barring her progress. Through the

hollow eyes of the hideous mask the woman could see those of the priest

beneath gleaming with the fires of fanaticism. Ja-don placed an arm

about her shoulders and laid his hand upon his knife.

"She passes by order of Ko-tan, the king," he said, "and by virtue of

the fact that Ja-don, the chief, is her guide. Stand aside!"

The two warriors upon the palace side pressed forward. "We are here,

gund of Ja-lur," said one, addressing Ja-don, "to receive and obey your

commands."

The second priest now interposed. "Let them pass," he admonished his

companion. "We have received no direct commands from Lu-don to the

contrary and it is a law of the temple and the palace that chiefs and

priests may come and go without interference."

"But I know Lu-don's wishes," insisted the other.

"He told you then that Ja-don must not pass with the stranger?"

"No--but--"

"Then let them pass, for they are three to two and will pass anyway--we

have done our best."

Grumbling, the priest stepped aside. "Lu-don will exact an accounting,"

he cried angrily.

Ja-don turned upon him. "And get it when and where he will," he snapped.

They came at last to the quarters of the Princess O-lo-a where, in the

main entrance-way, loitered a small guard of palace warriors and

several stalwart black eunuchs belonging to the princess, or her women.

To one of the latter Ja-don relinquished his charge.

"Take her to the princess," he commanded, "and see that she does not

escape."

Through a number of corridors and apartments lighted by stone cressets

the eunuch led Lady Greystoke halting at last before a doorway

concealed by hangings of JATO skin, where the guide beat with his staff

upon the wall beside the door.

"O-lo-a, Princess of Pal-ul-don," he called, "here is the stranger

woman, the prisoner from the temple."

"Bid her enter," Jane heard a sweet voice from within command.

The eunuch drew aside the hangings and Lady Greystoke stepped within.

Before her was a low-ceiled room of moderate size. In each of the four

corners a kneeling figure of stone seemed to be bearing its portion of

the weight of the ceiling upon its shoulders. These figures were

evidently intended to represent Waz-don slaves and were not without

bold artistic beauty. The ceiling itself was slightly arched to a

central dome which was pierced to admit light by day, and air. Upon one

side of the room were many windows, the other three walls being blank

except for a doorway in each. The princess lay upon a pile of furs

which were arranged over a low stone dais in one corner of the

apartment and was alone except for a single Waz-don slave girl who sat

upon the edge of the dais near her feet.

As Jane entered O-lo-a beckoned her to approach and when she stood

beside the couch the girl half rose upon an elbow and surveyed her

critically.

"How beautiful you are," she said simply.

Jane smiled, sadly; for she had found that beauty may be a curse.

"That is indeed a compliment," she replied quickly, "from one so

radiant as the Princess O-lo-a."

"Ah!" exclaimed the princess delightedly; "you speak my language! I was

told that you were of another race and from some far land of which we

of Pal-ul-don have never heard."

"Lu-don saw to it that the priests instructed me," explained Jane; "but

I am from a far country, Princess; one to which I long to return--and I

am very unhappy."

"But Ko-tan, my father, would make you his queen," cried the girl;

"that should make you very happy."

"But it does not," replied the prisoner; "I love another to whom I am

already wed. Ah, Princess, if you had known what it was to love and to

be forced into marriage with another you would sympathize with me."

The Princess O-lo-a was silent for a long moment. "I know," she said at

last, "and I am very sorry for you; but if the king's daughter cannot

save herself from such a fate who may save a slave woman? for such in

fact you are."

The drinking in the great banquet hall of the palace of Ko-tan, king of

Pal-ul-don had commenced earlier this night than was usual, for the

king was celebrating the morrow's betrothal of his only daughter to

Bu-lot, son of Mo-sar, the chief, whose great-grandfather had been king

of Pal-ul-don and who thought that he should be king, and Mo-sar was

drunk and so was Bu-lot, his son. For that matter nearly all of the

warriors, including the king himself, were drunk. In the heart of

Ko-tan was no love either for Mo-sar, or Bu-lot, nor did either of

these love the king. Ko-tan was giving his daughter to Bu-lot in the

hope that the alliance would prevent Mo-sar from insisting upon his

claims to the throne, for, next to Ja-don, Mo-sar was the most powerful

of the chiefs and while Ko-tan looked with fear upon Ja-don, too, he

had no fear that the old Lion-man would attempt to seize the throne,

though which way he would throw his influence and his warriors in the

event that Mo-sar declare war upon Ko-tan, the king could not guess.

Primitive people who are also warlike are seldom inclined toward either

tact or diplomacy even when sober; but drunk they know not the words,

if aroused. It was really Bu-lot who started it.

"This," he said, "I drink to O-lo-a," and he emptied his tankard at a

single gulp. "And this," seizing a full one from a neighbor, "to her

son and mine who will bring back the throne of Pal-ul-don to its

rightful owners!"

"The king is not yet dead!" cried Ko-tan, rising to his feet; "nor is

Bu-lot yet married to his daughter--and there is yet time to save

Pal-ul-don from the spawn of the rabbit breed."

The king's angry tone and his insulting reference to Bu-lot's

well-known cowardice brought a sudden, sobering silence upon the

roistering company. Every eye turned upon Bu-lot and Mo-sar, who sat

together directly opposite the king. The first was very drunk though

suddenly he seemed quite sober. He was so drunk that for an instant he

forgot to be a coward, since his reasoning powers were so effectually

paralyzed by the fumes of liquor that he could not intelligently weigh

the consequences of his acts. It is reasonably conceivable that a drunk

and angry rabbit might commit a rash deed. Upon no other hypothesis is

the thing that Bu-lot now did explicable. He rose suddenly from the

seat to which he had sunk after delivering his toast and seizing the

knife from the sheath of the warrior upon his right hurled it with

terrific force at Ko-tan. Skilled in the art of throwing both their

knives and their clubs are the warriors of Pal-ul-don and at this short

distance and coming as it did without warning there was no defense and

but one possible result--Ko-tan, the king, lunged forward across the

table, the blade buried in his heart.

A brief silence followed the assassin's cowardly act. White with

terror, now, Bu-lot fell slowly back toward the doorway at his rear,

when suddenly angry warriors leaped with drawn knives to prevent his

escape and to avenge their king. But Mo-sar now took his stand beside

his son.

"Ko-tan is dead!" he cried. "Mo-sar is king! Let the loyal warriors of

Pal-ul-don protect their ruler!"

Mo-sar commanded a goodly following and these quickly surrounded him

and Bu-lot, but there were many knives against them and now Ja-don

pressed forward through those who confronted the pretender.

"Take them both!" he shouted. "The warriors of Pal-ul-don will choose

their own king after the assassin of Ko-tan has paid the penalty of his

treachery."

Directed now by a leader whom they both respected and admired those who

had been loyal to Ko-tan rushed forward upon the faction that had

surrounded Mo-sar. Fierce and terrible was the fighting, devoid,

apparently, of all else than the ferocious lust to kill and while it

was at its height Mo-sar and Bu-lot slipped unnoticed from the banquet

hall.

To that part of the palace assigned to them during their visit to A-lur

they hastened. Here were their servants and the lesser warriors of

their party who had not been bidden to the feast of Ko-tan. These were

directed quickly to gather together their belongings for immediate

departure. When all was ready, and it did not take long, since the

warriors of Pal-ul-don require but little impedimenta on the march,

they moved toward the palace gate.

Suddenly Mo-sar approached his son. "The princess," he whispered. "We

must not leave the city without her--she is half the battle for the

throne."

Bu-lot, now entirely sober, demurred. He had had enough of fighting and

of risk. "Let us get out of A-lur quickly," he urged, "or we shall have

the whole city upon us. She would not come without a struggle and that

would delay us too long."

"There is plenty of time," insisted Mo-sar. "They are still fighting in

the pal-e-don-so. It will be long before they miss us and, with Ko-tan

dead, long before any will think to look to the safety of the princess.

Our time is now--it was made for us by Jad-ben-Otho. Come!"

Reluctantly Bu-lot followed his father, who first instructed the

warriors to await them just inside the gateway of the palace. Rapidly

the two approached the quarters of the princess. Within the

entrance-way only a handful of warriors were on guard. The eunuchs had

retired.

"There is fighting in the pal-e-don-so," Mo-sar announced in feigned

excitement as they entered the presence of the guards. "The king

desires you to come at once and has sent us to guard the apartments of

the princess. Make haste!" he commanded as the men hesitated.

The warriors knew him and that on the morrow the princess was to be

betrothed to Bu-lot, his son. If there was trouble what more natural

than that Mo-sar and Bu-lot should be intrusted with the safety of the

princess. And then, too, was not Mo-sar a powerful chief to whose

orders disobedience might prove a dangerous thing? They were but common

fighting men disciplined in the rough school of tribal warfare, but

they had learned to obey a superior and so they departed for the

banquet hall--the place-where-men-eat.

Barely waiting until they had disappeared Mo-sar crossed to the

hangings at the opposite end of the entrance-hall and followed by

Bu-lot made his way toward the sleeping apartment of O-lo-a and a

moment later, without warning, the two men burst in upon the three

occupants of the room. At sight of them O-lo-a sprang to her feet.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded angrily.

Mo-sar advanced and halted before her. Into his cunning mind had

entered a plan to trick her. If it succeeded it would prove easier than

taking her by force, and then his eyes fell upon Jane Clayton and he

almost gasped in astonishment and admiration, but he caught himself and

returned to the business of the moment.

"O-lo-a," he cried, "when you know the urgency of our mission you will

forgive us. We have sad news for you. There has been an uprising in the

palace and Ko-tan, the king, has been slain. The rebels are drunk with

liquor and now on their way here. We must get you out of A-lur at

once--there is not a moment to lose. Come, and quickly!"

"My father dead?" cried O-lo-a, and suddenly her eyes went wide. "Then

my place is here with my people," she cried. "If Ko-tan is dead I am

queen until the warriors choose a new ruler--that is the law of

Pal-ul-don. And if I am queen none can make me wed whom I do not wish

to wed--and Jad-ben-Otho knows I never wished to wed thy cowardly son.

Go!" She pointed a slim forefinger imperiously toward the doorway.

Mo-sar saw that neither trickery nor persuasion would avail now and

every precious minute counted. He looked again at the beautiful woman

who stood beside O-lo-a. He had never before seen her but he well knew

from palace gossip that she could be no other than the godlike stranger

whom Ko-tan had planned to make his queen.

"Bu-lot," he cried to his son, "take you your own woman and I will

take--mine!" and with that he sprang suddenly forward and seizing Jane

about the waist lifted her in his arms, so that before O-lo-a or

Pan-at-lee might even guess his purpose he had disappeared through the

hangings near the foot of the dais and was gone with the stranger woman

struggling and fighting in his grasp.

And then Bu-lot sought to seize O-lo-a, but O-lo-a had her

Pan-at-lee--fierce little tiger-girl of the savage

Kor-ul-JA--Pan-at-lee whose name belied her--and Bu-lot found that with

the two of them his hands were full. When he would have lifted O-lo-a

and borne her away Pan-at-lee seized him around the legs and strove to

drag him down. Viciously he kicked her, but she would not desist, and

finally, realizing that he might not only lose his princess but be so

delayed as to invite capture if he did not rid himself of this clawing,

scratching she-JATO, he hurled O-lo-a to the floor and seizing

Pan-at-lee by the hair drew his knife and--

The curtains behind him suddenly parted. In two swift bounds a lithe

figure crossed the room and before ever the knife of Bu-lot reached its

goal his wrist was seized from behind and a terrific blow crashing to

the base of his brain dropped him, lifeless, to the floor. Bu-lot,

coward, traitor, and assassin, died without knowing who struck him down.

As Tarzan of the Apes leaped into the pool in the GRYF pit of the

temple at A-lur one might have accounted for his act on the hypothesis

that it was the last blind urge of self-preservation to delay, even for

a moment, the inevitable tragedy in which each some day must play the

leading role upon his little stage; but no--those cool, gray eyes had

caught the sole possibility for escape that the surroundings and the

circumstances offered--a tiny, moonlit patch of water glimmering

through a small aperture in the cliff at the surface of the pool upon

its farther side. With swift, bold strokes he swam for speed alone

knowing that the water would in no way deter his pursuer. Nor did it.

Tarzan heard the great splash as the huge creature plunged into the

pool behind him; he heard the churning waters as it forged rapidly

onward in his wake. He was nearing the opening--would it be large

enough to permit the passage of his body? That portion of it which

showed above the surface of the water most certainly would not. His

life, then, depended upon how much of the aperture was submerged. And

now it was directly before him and the GRYF directly behind. There was

no alternative--there was no other hope. The ape-man threw all the

resources of his great strength into the last few strokes, extended his

hands before him as a cutwater, submerged to the water's level and shot

forward toward the hole.

Frothing with rage was the baffled Lu-don as he realized how neatly the

stranger she had turned his own tables upon him. He could of course

escape the Temple of the Gryf in which her quick wit had temporarily

imprisoned him; but during the delay, however brief, Ja-don would find

time to steal her from the temple and deliver her to Ko-tan. But he

would have her yet--that the high priest swore in the names of

Jad-ben-Otho and all the demons of his faith. He hated Ko-tan. Secretly

he had espoused the cause of Mo-sar, in whom he would have a willing

tool. Perhaps, then, this would give him the opportunity he had long

awaited--a pretext for inciting the revolt that would dethrone Ko-tan

and place Mo-sar in power--with Lu-don the real ruler of Pal-ul-don. He

licked his thin lips as he sought the window through which Tarzan had

entered and now Lu-don's only avenue of escape. Cautiously he made his

way across the floor, feeling before him with his hands, and when they

discovered that the trap was set for him an ugly snarl broke from the

priest's lips. "The she-devil!" he muttered; "but she shall pay, she

shall pay--ah, Jad-ben-Otho; how she shall pay for the trick she has

played upon Lu-don!"

He crawled through the window and climbed easily downward to the

ground. Should he pursue Ja-don and the woman, chancing an encounter

with the fierce chief, or bide his time until treachery and intrigue

should accomplish his design? He chose the latter solution, as might

have been expected of such as he.

Going to his quarters he summoned several of his priests--those who

were most in his confidence and who shared his ambitions for absolute

power of the temple over the palace--all men who hated Ko-tan.

"The time has come," he told them, "when the authority of the temple

must be placed definitely above that of the palace. Ko-tan must make

way for Mo-sar, for Ko-tan has defied your high priest. Go then,

Pan-sat, and summon Mo-sar secretly to the temple, and you others go to

the city and prepare the faithful warriors that they may be in

readiness when the time comes."

For another hour they discussed the details of the coup d'etat that was

to overthrow the government of Pal-ul-don. One knew a slave who, as

the signal sounded from the temple gong, would thrust a knife into the

heart of Ko-tan, for the price of liberty. Another held personal

knowledge of an officer of the palace that he could use to compel the

latter to admit a number of Lu-don's warriors to various parts of the

palace. With Mo-sar as the cat's paw, the plan seemed scarce possible

of failure and so they separated, going upon their immediate errands to

palace and to city.

As Pan-sat entered the palace grounds he was aware of a sudden

commotion in the direction of the pal-e-don-so and a few minutes later

Lu-don was surprised to see him return to the apartments of the high

priest, breathless and excited.

"What now, Pan-sat?" cried Lu-don. "Are you pursued by demons?"

"O master, our time has come and gone while we sat here planning.

Ko-tan is already dead and Mo-sar fled. His friends are fighting with

the warriors of the palace but they have no head, while Ja-don leads

the others. I could learn but little from frightened slaves who had

fled at the outburst of the quarrel. One told me that Bu-lot had slain

the king and that he had seen Mo-sar and the assassin hurrying from the

palace."

"Ja-don," muttered the high priest. "The fools will make him king if we

do not act and act quickly. Get into the city, Pan-sat--let your feet

fly and raise the cry that Ja-don has killed the king and is seeking to

wrest the throne from O-lo-a. Spread the word as you know best how to

spread it that Ja-don has threatened to destroy the priests and hurl

the altars of the temple into Jad-ben-lul. Rouse the warriors of the

city and urge them to attack at once. Lead them into the temple by the

secret way that only the priests know and from here we may spew them

out upon the palace before they learn the truth. Go, Pan-sat,

immediately--delay not an instant."

"But stay," he called as the under priest turned to leave the

apartment; "saw or heard you anything of the strange white woman that

Ja-don stole from the Temple of the Gryf where we have had her

imprisoned?"

"Only that Ja-don took her into the palace where he threatened the

priests with violence if they did not permit him to pass," replied

Pan-sat. "This they told me, but where within the palace she is hidden

I know not."

"Ko-tan ordered her to the Forbidden Garden," said Lu-don, "doubtless

we shall find her there. And now, Pan-sat, be upon your errand."

In a corridor by Lu-don's chamber a hideously masked priest leaned

close to the curtained aperture that led within. Were he listening he

must have heard all that passed between Pan-sat and the high priest,

and that he had listened was evidenced by his hasty withdrawal to the

shadows of a nearby passage as the lesser priest moved across the

chamber toward the doorway. Pan-sat went his way in ignorance of the

near presence that he almost brushed against as he hurried toward the

secret passage that leads from the temple of Jad-ben-Otho, far beneath

the palace, to the city beyond, nor did he sense the silent creature

following in his footsteps.

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