he found that it was almost impossible to do so.
As he moved around the room examining the contents everything that he touched with his left hand stuck to it—it was annoying, but unavoidable. An inspection of the room revealed several windows along one side and a door at one end.
The door was equipped with a latch similar to that through which he had just passed and which was made to open from the outside with a key, but which could be operated by hand from the inside. It was a very crude and simple affair, and for that Tanar would have been grateful had he known how intricate locks may be made.
Lifting the catch Tanar pushed the door slightly ajar and before him he saw a long corridor, lighted by windows upon one side and with doors opening from it upon the other. As he looked a Korsar came from one of the doorways and, turning, walked down the corridor away from him and a moment later a woman emerged from another doorway, and then he saw other people at the far end of the corridor. Quickly Tanar of Pellucidar closed and latched the door.
Here was no avenue of escape. Were he back in his dark cell he could not have been cut off more effectually from the outer world than he was in this apartment at the far end of a corridor constantly used by Korsars; for with his smooth face and his naked body, he would be recognized and seized the instant that he stepped from the room. But Tanar was far from being overwhelmed by discouragement. Already he had come much further on the road to escape than he had previously dreamed could be possible and not only this thought heartened him, but even more the effect of daylight, which had for so long been denied him. He had felt his spirit and his courage expand beneath the beneficent influence of the light of the noonday sun, so that he felt ready for any emergency that might confront him.
Turning back once more into the room he searched it carefully for some other avenue of escape. He went to the windows and found that they overlooked the garden of The Cid , but there were many people there, too, in that part of the garden close to the palace. The trees cut off his view of the far end from which he had helped Stellara and Gura to escape, but he guessed that there were few, if any, people there, though to reach it would be a difficult procedure from the windows of this storeroom.
To his left, near the opposite side of the garden, he could see that the trees grew closely together and extended thus apparently the full length of the enclosure.
If those trees had been upon this side of the garden he guessed that he might have found a way to escape; at least as far as the gate in the garden wall close to the barracks, but they were not and so he must abandon thought of them.
There seemed, therefore, no other avenue of escape than the corridor into which he had just looked; nor could he remain indefinitely in this chamber where there was neither food nor water and with a steadily increasing danger that his absence from the dungeon would be discovered when they found that he did not consume the food they brought him.
Seating himself upon a bale of hide Tanar gave himself over to contemplation of his predicament and as he studied the matter his eyes fell upon some of the loose clothing strewn about the room. There he saw the shorts and shirts of Korsar, the gay sashes and head handkerchiefs, the wide-topped boots, and with a half smile upon his lips he gathered such of them as he required, shook the dust from them and clothed himself after the manner of a Korsar. He needed no mirror though to know that his smooth face would betray him.
He selected pistols, a dirk and a cutlass, but he could find neither powder nor balls for his firearms.
Thus arrayed and armed he surveyed himself as best he might without a mirror. 'If I could keep my back toward all Korsar,' he mused, 'I might escape with ease for I warrant I look as much a Korsar as any of them from the rear, but unless I can grow bushy whiskers I shall not deceive anyone.'
As he sat musing thus he became aware suddenly of voices raised in altercation just outside the door of the storeroom. One was a man's voice; the other a woman's.
'And if you won't have me,' growled the man, 'I'll take you.'
Tanar could not hear the woman's reply, though he heard her speak and knew from her voice that it was a woman.
'What do I care for The Cid?' cried the man. 'I am as powerful in Korsar as he. I could take the throne and be Cid myself, if I chose.'
Again Tanar heard the woman speak.
'If you do I'll choke the wind out of you,' threatened the man. 'Come in here where we can talk better. Then you can yell all you want for no one can hear you.'
Tanar heard the man insert a key in the lock and as he did so the Pellucidarian sought a hiding place behind a pile of wicker hampers.
'And after you get out of this room,' continued the man, 'there will be nothing left for you to yell about.'
'I have told you right along,' said the woman, 'that I would rather kill myself than mate with you, but if you take me by force I shall still kill myself, but I shall kill you first.'
The heart of Tanar of Pellucidar leaped in his breast when he heard that voice. His fingers closed upon the hilt of the cutlass at his side, and as Bulf voiced a sneering laugh in answer to the girl's threat, the Sarian leaped from his concealment, a naked blade shining in his right hand.
At the sound behind him Bulf wheeled about and for an instant he did not recognize the Sarian in the Korsar garb, but Stellara did and she voiced a cry of mingled surprise and joy.
'Tanar!' she cried. 'My Tanar!'
As the Sarian rushed him Bulf fell back, drawing his cutlass as he retreated. Tanar saw that he was making for the door leading into the corridor and he rushed at the man to engage him before he could escape, so that Bulf was forced to stand and defend himself.
'Stand back,' cried Bulf, 'or you shall die for this,' but Tanar of Pellucidar only laughed in his face, as he swung a wicked blow at the man's head, which Bulf but barely parried, and then they were at one another like two wild beasts.
Tanar drew first blood from a slight gash in Bulf's shoulder and then the fellow yelled for help.
'You said that no one could hear Stellara's cries for help from this apartment,' taunted Tanar, 'so why do you think that they can hear yours?'
'Let me out of here,' cried Bulf. 'Let me out and I will give you your freedom.' But Tanar rushed him into a corner and the sharp edge of his cutlass sheared an ear from Bulf's head.
'Help!' shrieked the Korsar. 'Help! it is Bulf. The Sarian is killing me.'
Fearful that his loud cries might reach the corridor beyond and attract attention, Tanar increased the fury of his assault. He beat down the Korsar's guard. He swung his cutlass in one terrible circle that clove Bulf's ugly skull to the bridge of his nose, and with a gurgling gasp the great brute lunged forward upon his face. And Tanar of Pellucidar turned and took Stellara in his arms.
'Thank God,' he said, 'that I was in time.'
'It must have been God Himself who led you to this room,' said the girl. 'I thought you dead. They told me that you were dead.'
'No,' said Tanar. 'They put me in a dark dungeon beneath the palace, where I was condemned to remain for life.'
'And you have been so near me all this time,' said Stellara, 'and I thought that you were dead.'
'For a long time I thought that I was worse than dead,' replied the man. 'Darkness, solitude and silence— God! That is worse than death.'
'And yet you escaped!' The girl's voice was filled with awe.
'It was because of you that I escaped,' said Tanar. 'Thoughts of you kept me from going mad—thought and hope urged me on to seek some avenue of escape. Never again as long as life is in me shall I feel that there can be any situation that is entirely hopeless after what I have passed any situation that is entirely hopeless after what I have passed through.'
Stellara shook her head. 'Your hope will have to be strong, dear heart, against the discouragement that you must face in seeking a way out of the palace of The Cid and the city of Korsar .'
'I have come this far,' replied Tanar, 'Already have I achieved the impossible. Why should I doubt my ability to wrest freedom for you and for me from whatever fate holds in store for us?'
'You cannot pass them with that smooth face, Tanar,' said the girl, sadly. 'Ah, if you only had Bulf's
