'Lal Taask,' said Magra, 'it is he. That is Brian Gregory.'
'You are right,' agreed Lal Taask. 'After all these months that we have been planning, he walks right into our arms. We must get him to Atan Thome at once—but how?'
'Leave it to me,' said the girl. 'I have a plan. Fortunately, he has not seen us yet. He would never come if he had, for he has no reason to trust us. Come! We'll go inside; then call a boy, and I'll send him a note.'
As Tarzan, d'Arnot, and the Gregorys conversed, a boy approached and handed a note to the ape-man. The latter glanced through it. 'There must be some mistake,' he said; 'this must be meant for someone else.'
'No, bwana,' said the boy. 'She say give it big bwana in loin cloth. No other bwana in loin cloth.'
'Says she wants to see me in little salon next to the entrance,' said Tarzan to d'Arnot. 'Says it's very urgent. It's signed, 'An old friend'; but of course it must be a mistake. I'll go and explain.'
'Be careful, Tarzan,' laughed d'Arnot; 'you're used only to the wilds of Africa , not to the wiles of women.'
'Which are supposed to be far more dangerous,' said Helen, smiling.
A slow smile lighted the face of the Lord of the Jungle as he looked down into the beautiful eyes of the girl. 'That is easy to believe,' he said. 'I think I should warn d'Arnot.'
'Oh, what Frenchman needs schooling in the ways of women?' demanded Helen. 'It is the women who should be protected.'
'He is very nice,' she said to d'Arnot, after Tarzan had left; 'but I think that one might be always a little afraid of him. There is something quite grim about him, even when he smiles.'
'Which is not often,' said d'Arnot, 'and I have never heard him laugh. But no one who is honorable need ever be afraid of Tarzan.'
As Tarzan entered the small salon he saw a tall, svelte brunette standing by a table at one side of the room. What he did not see was the eye of Lal Taask at the crack of a door in the opposite wall.
'A boy brought me this note,' said Tarzan. 'There is some mistake. I don't know you, and you don't know me.'
'There is no mistake, Brian Gregory,' said Magra. 'You cannot fool such an old friend as I.'
Unsmiling, the ape-man's steady gaze took the girl in from head to foot; then he turned to leave the room. Another might have paused to discuss the matter, for Magra was beautiful; but not Tarzan—he had said all that there was to say, as far as he was concerned.
'Wait, Brian Gregory!' snapped Magra. 'You are too impetuous. You are not going now.'
Tarzan turned back, sensing a threat in her tone. 'And why not?' he asked.
'Because it would be dangerous. Lal Taask is directly behind you. His pistol is almost touching your back. You are coming upstairs with me like an old friend, arm in arm; and Lal Taask will be at your back. A false move, and— poof! you are dead.'
Tarzan shrugged. 'Why not?' he thought. In some way these two were concerning themselves with the affairs of the Gregorys, and the Gregorys were d'Arnot's friends. Immediately the ape-man's sympathies were enlisted upon the side of the Gregorys. He took Magra's arm. 'Where are we going?' he asked.
'To see another old friend, Brian Gregory,' smiled Magra.
They had to cross the terrace to reach the stairway leading to the second floor of another wing of the hotel, Magra smiling and chatting gaily, Lal Taask walking close behind; but now his pistol was in his pocket. D'Arnot looked up at them in surprise as they passed.
'Ah, so it was an old friend,' remarked Helen.
D'Arnot shook Ms head. 'I do not like the looks of it,' he said.
'You have changed, Brian Gregory,' said Magra, smiling up at him, as they ascended the stairway. 'And I think I like you better.'
'What is this all about?' demanded Tarzan.
'Your memory shall soon be refreshed, my friend,' replied the girl. 'Down this hall is a door, behind the door is a man.'
At the door they halted, and Magra knocked.
'Who is it?' inquired a voice from the interior of the room.
'It is I, Magra, with Lal Taask and a friend,' replied the girl.
The voice bade them enter, and as the door swung open, Tarzan saw a plump, greasy, suave appearing Eurasian sitting at a table at one side of an ordinary hotel room. The man's eyes were mere slits, his lips thin. Tar- zan's eyes took in the entire room with a single glance. There was a window at the opposite end; at the left, across the room from the man, was a dresser; beside it a closed door, which probably opened into an adjoining room to form a suite.
'I have found him at last, Atan Thome,' said Magra.
'Ah, Brian Gregory!' exclaimed Thome. 'I am glad to see you again—shall I say 'my friend'?'
'I am not Brian Gregory,' said Tarzan, 'and of course you know it. Tell me what you want.'
'You are Brian Gregory, and I can understand that you would wish to deny it to me,' sneered Thome; 'and, being Brian Gregory, you know what I want. I want directions to the city of Ashair —the Forbidden City . You wrote those directions down; you made a map; I saw you. It is worth ten thousand pounds to me—that is my offer.'
'I have no map. I never heard of Ashair,' replied Tarzan.
Atan Thome's face registered an almost maniacal rage as he spoke rapidly to Lal Taask in a tongue that neither Tarzan nor Magra understood. The East Indian, standing behind Tarzan, whipped a long knife from beneath his coat.
'Not that, Atan Thome!' cried Magra.
'Why not?' demanded the man. 'The gun would make too much noise. Lal Taask's knife will do the work quietly. If Gregory will not help us, he must not live to hinder us. Strike, Lal Taask!'
Chapter 2
'I CANNOT UNDERSTAND,' said d'Arnot, 'why Tarzan went with those two. It is not like him. If ever a man were wary of strangers, it is he.'
'Perhaps they were not strangers,' suggested Helen. 'He seemed on the best of terms with the woman. Didn't you notice how gay and friendly she appeared?'
'Yes,' replied d'Arnot, 'I did; but I also noticed Tarzan. Something strange is going on. I do not like it.'
Even as d'Arnot was speaking, Tarzan, swift as Ara, the lightning, wheeled upon Lal Taask before the knife hand struck; and, seizing the man, lifted him above his head, while Atan Thome and Magra shrank back against the wall in stark amazement. They gasped in horror, as Tarzan hurled Lal Taask heavily to the floor.
Tarzan fixed his level gaze upon Atan Thome. 'You are next,' he said.
'Wait, Brian Gregory,' begged Thome, backing away from the ape-man and dragging Magra with him. 'Let us reason.'
'I do not reason with murderers,' replied Tarzan. 'I kill.'
'I only wish to frighten you, not to kill you,' explained Atan Thome, as he continued to edge his way along the wall around the room, holding tightly to Mag-ra's hand.
'Why?' demanded Tarzan.
'Because you have something I want—a route map to Ashair,' replied Thome.
'I have no map,' said Tarzan, 'and once again I tell you that I never heard of Ashair. What is at Ashair that you want?'
'Why quibble, Brian Gregory?' snapped Atan Thome. 'You know as well as I do that what we both want in Ashair is The Father of Diamonds. Will you work with me, or shall you continue to lie?'
Tarzan shrugged. 'I don't know what you're talking about,' he said.
'All right, you fool,' growled Thome. 'If you won't work with me, you'll not live to work against me.' He whipped a pistol from a shoulder holster and levelled it at the ape-man. 'Take this!'
'You shan't!' cried Magra, striking the weapon up as Thome pressed the trigger; 'you shall not kill Brian Gregory!'
