As they halted before the entrance to this room a white-tunicked slave came forward in response to the summons of one of the warriors of the escort.
'A green tunic for this fellow from Trohanadalmakus,' he ordered.
'Whose insignia upon his back?' inquired the slave.
'He belongs to Zoanthrohago,' replied the warrior.
The slave ran quickly to one of the shelves from which he selected a green tunic. From another he took two large, wooden blocks upon the face of each of which was carved a different device. These he covered evenly with some sort of paint or ink, slipped a smooth board inside the tunic, placed one of the dies face downward upon the cloth, tapped it smartly with a wooden mallet several times and then repeated the operation with the other die upon the reverse side of the tunic. When he handed the garment to Tarzan with the instructions to don it the ape- man saw that it bore a device in black upon the breast and another upon the back, but he could not read them—his education had not progressed thus far.
The slave then gave him a pair of sandals and when he had strapped these to his feet the warriors motioned him on down the corridor, which, as they proceeded, he was aware changed rapidly in appearance. The rough boulder walls were plastered now and decorated with colored paintings portraying, most often, battle scenes and happenings of the hunt, usually framed in panels bordered in intricate, formal designs. Vivid colorings predominated. Many-hued candles burned in frequent niches. Gorgeously trapped warriors were numerous. The green-tunicked slave almost disappeared, while the white tunics of the higher caste bondsmen were of richer material and the slaves themselves were often resplendently trapped with jewels and fine leather.
The splendor of the scene, the brilliancy of the lighting, increased until the corridor came to an abrupt end before two massive doors of hammered gold in front of which stood gorgeously trapped warriors who halted them and questioned the commander of the escort as to their business.
'By the king's command we bring the slave of Zoanthrohago,' replied the commander; 'the giant who was taken prisoner at Trohanadalmakus.'
The warrior who had challenged them turned to one of his fellows. 'Go with this message and deliver it to the king!' he said.
After the messenger had departed the warriors fell to examining Tarzan and asking many questions concerning him, to few of which could his guard give more than speculative answers, and then, presently, the messenger returned with word that the party was immediately to be admitted to the king's presence. The heavy doors were swung wide and Tarzan found himself upon the threshold of an enormous chamber, the walls of which converged toward the opposite end, where a throne stood upon a dais. Massive wooden columns supported the ceiling, which was plastered between its beams. The beams as well as the columns were ornamented with carving, while the plastered portions of the ceiling carried gorgeous arabesques in brilliant colors. The walls were paneled to half their height, and above the paneling of wood were painted panels which Tarzan assumed depicted historical events from the history of Veltopismakus and her kings.
The room was vacant except for two warriors who stood before doors that flanked the throne dais, and as the party moved down the broad center aisle toward the throne one of these warriors signaled the leader and motioned to the door which he was guarding and which he now threw open before them, revealing a small antechamber in which were half a dozen handsomely trapped warriors seated on small, carved benches, while a seventh lolled in a high-backed chair, his fingers tapping upon its broad arms as he listened to the conversation of the others, into which he threw an occasional word that always was received with deepest attention. If he scowled when he spoke, the others scowled still more deeply; if he smiled, they broke into laughter, and scarcely for an instant did their eyes leave his face, lest they miss some fleeting index of his changing moods.
Just inside the doorway the warriors who were conducting Tarzan halted, where they remained in silence until the man in the high-backed armchair deigned to notice them, then the leader knelt upon one knee, raised his arms, palms forward, high above his head, leaned as far back as he could and in a monotonous dead level intoned his salutation.
'O, Elkomoelhago, King of Veltopismakus, Ruler of All Men, Master of Created Things, All-Wise, All- Courageous, All-Glorious! we bring these, as thou hast commanded, the slave of Zoanthrohago.'
'Arise and bring the slave closer,' commanded the man in the high-backed armchair, and then to his companions: 'This is the giant that Zoanthrohago brought back from Trohanadalmakus.'
'We have heard of him, All-Glorious,' they replied.
'And of Zoanthrohago's wager?' questioned the king.
'And of Zoanthrohago's wager, All-Wise!' replied one.
'What think you of it?' demanded Elkomoelhago.
'Even as you think, Ruler of All Men,' quickly spoke another.
'And how is that?' asked the king.
The six looked quickly and uneasily, one at the others. 'How does he think?' whispered he who was farthest from Elkomoelhago to his neighbor, who shrugged his shoulders hopelessly and looked to another.
'What was that, Gofoloso?' demanded the king. 'What was that you said?'
'I was about to remark that unless Zoanthrohago first consulted our august and all-wise ruler and is now acting upon his judgment he must, almost of necessity, lose the wager,' replied Gofoloso glibly.
'Of course,' said the king, 'there is something in what you say, Gofoloso. Zoanthrohago did consult me. It was I who discovered the vibratory principle which made the thing possible. It was I who decided just how the first experiments were to be carried out. Heretofore it has not been enduring; but we believe that the new formula will have a persistency of thirty-nine moons at least—it is upon this that Zoanthrohago has made his wager. If he is wrong he loses a thousand slaves to Dalfastomalo.'
'Wonderful!' exclaimed Gofoloso. 'Blessed indeed are we above all other peoples, with a king so learned and so wise as Elkomoelhago.'
'You have much to be thankful for, Gofoloso,' agreed the king; 'but nothing compared to what will follow the success of my efforts to apply this principle of which we have been speaking, but with results diametrically opposite to those we have so far achieved; but we work upon it, we work upon it. Some day it will come and then I shall give to Zoanthrohago the formula that will revolutionize Minuni—then with a hundred men might we go forth and conquer the world!'
Elkomoelhago now turned his attention suddenly upon the green-tunicked slave standing a short distance before him. He scrutinized him closely and in silence for several minutes.
'From what city do you come?' demanded the king, at last
'O, All-Glorious Elkomoelhago,' spoke up the leader of the escort, 'the poor ignorant creature is without speech.'
'Utters he any sound?' inquired the king.
'None since he was captured, Master of Men,' replied the warrior.
'He is a Zertalacolol,' stated Elkomoelhago. 'Why all this silly excitement over one of these low, speechless creatures?'
'See now!' exclaimed Gofoloso, 'how quickly and surely the father of wisdom grasps all things, probing to the bottom of all mysteries, revealing their secrets. Is it not marvelous!'
'Now that the Sun of Science has shone upon him even the dullest may see that the creature is indeed a Zertalacolol,' cried another of the king's companions. 'How simple, how stupid of us all! Ah, what would become of us were it not for the glorious intelligence of the All-Wise.'
Elkomoelhago was examining Tarzan closely. He seemed not to have heard the eulogies of his courtiers. Presently he spoke again.
'He has not the features of the Zertalacolols,' he pondered musingly. 'See his ears. They are not the ears of the speechless ones, nor his hair. His body is not formed as theirs and his head is shaped for the storing of knowledge and the functioning of reason. No, he cannot be a Zertalacolol.'
'Marvelous!' cried Gofoloso. 'Did I not tell you! Elkomoelhago, our king, is always right?'
'The most stupid of us may easily see that he is not a Zertalacolol, now that the king's divine intelligence has made it go plain,' exclaimed the second courtier.
At this juncture a door, opposite that through which Tarzan had been brought into the apartment, opened and a warrior appeared. 'O, Elkomoelhago, King of Veltopismakus,' he droned, 'thy daughter, the Princess Janzara, has come. She would see the strange slave that Zoanthrohago brought from Trohanadalmakus and craves the royal
