other body of men; but for all their care and all their diligence they uncovered no single clew as to the fate or whereabouts of Tarzan of the Apes, and so, disheartened yet indefatigable, they searched on and on through tangled miles of steaming jungle or across rocky uplands as inhospitable as the stunted thorns that dotted them.
And in the Royal Dome of Elkomoelhago, Thagostogal of Veltopismakus, three people halted in a rock-walled, hidden chamber and listened to a human voice that appeared to come to them out of the very rock of the walls surrounding them. Upon the floor about them lay the bones of long-dead men. About them rose the impalpable dust of ages.
The girl pressed closer to Tarzan. 'Who is it?' she whispered.
Tarzan shook his head.
'It is a woman's voice,' said Komodoflorensal.
The ape-man raised his candle high above his head and took a step closer to the left-hand wall; then he stopped and pointed. The others looked in the direction indicated by Tarzan's finger and saw an opening in the wall a hual or two above his head. Tarzan handed his candle to Komodoflorensal, removed his sword and laid it on the floor, and then sprang lightly for the opening. For a moment he clung to its edge, listening, and then he dropped back into the chamber.
'It is pitch-black beyond,' he said. 'Whoever owns that voice is in another chamber beyond that into which I was just looking. There was no human being in the next apartment.'
'If it was absolutely dark, how could you know that?' demanded Komodoflorensal.
'Had there been anyone there I should have smelled him,' replied the ape-man.
The others looked at him in astonishment. 'I am sure of it,' said Tarzan, 'because I could plainly feel a draught sucking up from the chamber, through the aperture, and into this chamber. Had there been a human being there his effluvium would have been carried directly to my nostrils.'
'And you could have detected it?' demanded Komodoflorensal. 'My friend, I can believe much of you, but not that!'
Tarzan smiled. 'I, at least, have the courage of my convictions,' he said, 'for I am going over there and investigate. From the clearness with which the voice comes to us I am certain that it comes through no solid wall. There must be an opening into the chamber where the woman is and as we should investigate every possible avenue of escape, I shall investigate this.' He stepped again toward the wall below the aperture.
'Oh, let us not separate,' cried the girl. 'Where one goes, let us all go!'
'Two swords are better than one,' said Komodoflorensal, though his tone was only halfhearted.
TARZAN AND THE ANT MEN
'Very well,' replied Tarzan. 'I will go first, and then you can pass Talaskar up to me.'
Komodoflorensal nodded. A minute or two later the three stood upon the opposite side of the wall. Their candle revealed a narrow passage that showed indications of much more recent use than those through which they had passed from the quarters of Kalfastoban. The wall they had passed through to reach it was of stone, but that upon the opposite side was of studding and rough boards.
'This is a passage built along the side of a paneled room,' whispered Komodoflorensal.
'The other side of these rough boards supports beautifully polished panels of brilliant woods or burnished metals.'
'Then there should be a door, you think, opening from this passage into the adjoining chamber?' asked Tarzan.
'A secret panel, more likely,' he replied.
They walked along the passage, listening intently. At first they had just been able to distinguish that the voice they heard was that of a woman; but now they heard the words.
'—had they let me have him,' were the first that they distinguished.
'Most glorious mistress, this would not have happened then,' replied another female voice.
'Zoanthrohago is a fool and deserves to die; but my illustrious father, the king, is a bigger fool,' spoke the first voice. 'He will kill Zoanthrohago and with him the chance of discovering the secret of making our warriors giants. Had they let me buy this Zuanthrol he would not have escaped. They thought that I would have killed him, but that was farthest from my intentions.'
'What would you have done with him, wondrous Princess?'
'That is not for a slave to ask or know,' snapped the mistress.
For a time there was silence.
'That is the Princess Janzara speaking,' whispered Tarzan to Komodoflorensal. 'It is the daughter of Elkomoelhago whom you would have captured and made your princess; but you would have had a handful.'
'Is she as beautiful as they say?' asked Komodoflorensal.
'She is very beautiful, but she is a devil.'
'It would have been my duty to take her,' said Komodoflorensal.
Tarzan was silent. A plan was unfolding itself within his mind. The voice from beyond the partition spoke again.
'He was very wonderful,' it said. 'Much more wonderful than our warriors,' and then, after a silence, 'You may go, slave, and see to it that I am not disturbed before the sun stands midway between the Women's Corridor and the King's Corridor.'
'May your candles burn as deathlessly as your beauty, Princess,' said the slave, as she backed across the apartment.
An instant later the three behind the paneling heard a door close.
Tarzan crept stealthily along the passage, seeking the secret panel that connected the apartment where the Princess Janzara lay composed for the night; but it was Talaskar who found it.
'Here!' she whispered and together the three examined the fastening. It was simple and could evidently be opened from the opposite side by pressure upon a certain spot in the panel.
'Wait here!' said Tarzan to his companions. 'I am going to fetch the Princess Janzara. If we cannot escape with her we should be able to buy our liberty with such a hostage.'
Without waiting to discuss the advisability of his action with the others, Tarzan gently slid back the catch that held the panel and pushed it slightly ajar. Before him was the apartment of Janzara—a creation of gorgeous barbarity in the center of which, upon a marble slab, the princess lay upon her back, a gigantic candle burning at her head and another at her feet.
Regardless of the luxuriousness of their surroundings, of their wealth, or their positions in life, the Minunians never sleep upon a substance softer than a single thickness of fabric, which they throw upon the ground, or upon wooden, stone, or marble sleeping slabs, depending upon their caste and their wealth.
Leaving the panel open the ape-man stepped quietly into the apartment and moved directly toward the princess, who lay with closed eyes, either already asleep, or assiduously wooing Morpheus. He had crossed halfway to her cold couch when a sudden draught closed the panel with a noise that might well have awakened the dead.
Instantly the princess was on her feet and facing him. For a moment she stood in silence gazing at him and then she moved slowly toward him, the sinuous undulations of her graceful carriage suggesting to the Lord of the Jungle a similarity to the savage majesty of Sabor, the lioness.
'It is you, Zuanthrol!' breathed the princess. 'You have come for me?'
'I have come for you, Princess,' replied the ape-man. 'Make no outcry and no harm will befall you.'
'I will make no outcry,' whispered Janzara as with half-closed lids she glided to him and threw her arms about his neck.
Tarzan drew back and gently disengaged himself. 'You do not understand, Princess,' he told her. 'You are my prisoner. You are coming with me.'
'Yes,' she breathed, 'I am your prisoner, but it is you who do not understand. I love you. It is my right to choose whatever slave I will to be my prince. I have chosen you.'
Tarzan shook his head impatiently. 'You do not love me,' he said. 'I am sorry that you think you do, for I do not love you. I have no time to waste. Come!' and he stepped closer to take her by the wrist.
Her eyes narrowed. 'Are you mad?' she demanded. 'Or can it be that you do not know who I am?'
'You are Janzara, daughter of Elkomoelhago,' replied Tarzan. 'I know well who you are.'
