'What was that?' asked Zor.
'That the girl from Sari was actually my mate, Dian the Beautiful.'
'It was a fortunate chance, then, that caused you to be captured by the Jukans.'
We found Kleeto in the kitchen of the major-domo. She was surprised and delighted to see us; but at first she could scarcely believe that it was I, so greatly had Dian's handiwork disguised me. She had not recognized me when she met my guide and me in the corridor; but she recalled having seen us pass.
We talked matters over and decided to enter the corridor and go as far as the rear entrance to the cave. There we should wait until the Jukans had completed their investigation and left. We were quite sure that they would not investigate the corridor; but if they did, we should simply have to keep ahead of them so as not to be detected, even if we had to come all the way back to the entrance.
Now, however, another obstacle presented itself. None of us knew how to reach the entrance to the corridor. Neither Zor nor Kleeto had ever been there, and I could not retrace my steps to it, even though my life and Dian's depended upon it.
'We shall have to attempt to pass out through the city, then,' said Zor.
'You two go, then,' said Kleeto. 'I am sure that they would not permit me to pass.'
'There must be some other way,' said Zor.
'There is,' I said. 'You and I will go out of the village to search for David. When the Jukans have finished their search in the Ravine of the Kings, we can enter the cave and come back for Kleeto, for after you have found your way from the corridor to these quarters, you could easily retrace your steps, while I could not.'
'It is a good plan,' said Zor; 'but it will not be necessary for you to come back with me and leave your mate, for all I shall have to do is guide Kleeto out of the palace; and it will not require two men for that.'
'That is right,' said Kleeto; 'but I do not wish you to risk your lives for me. I never expected to escape, anyway; so you might as well go along and make sure of yours.'
'David has already risked his life and that of his mate to come back here to rescue us,' said Zor. 'We shall take you with us, if it is possible to do so.'
We left Kleeto and went out into the city, presently finding ourselves at the outer gate. As warriors were still passing through in search of me, we had no trouble in leaving the city.
We found the Ravine of the Kings full of searching warriors; so we joined them in order to be near Dian and learn if she were discovered.
'If she is,' I said, 'we shall have to fight, for I shall not permit her to be taken back into the city alive.'
Mingling with the Jukans, and pretending to be hunting for myself, I made my way close to the cave where Dian was hidden. The barricade was still up, and the brush covered it. Nothing had been disturbed. Inside that cave, not ten feet from me, was the woman I loved, the only woman I had ever loved, the only woman I ever should love. She was doubtless worrying as much about my safety as I had worried about hers; and yet I dared not call out to let her know that I was there, close to her and safe, for all about us were the Jukans.
I saw some of them descending from the large cave; so I knew they had made their investigation there and that it would be safe for Zor to enter as soon as the searchers had left the ravine and make his way through the corridor to the interior of the palace.
There may not be any such thing as time in Pellucidar; but I think an eternity must have passed before the Jukans gave up their search in the ravine and left it. Zor and I had managed to conceal ourselves without appearing to do so, so that no one noticed that we remained behind when the others left.
'And now,' I said to Zor, 'you can make your attempt to reach Kleeto and bring her back here. The entrance to the corridor is directly opposite the mouth of the cave. After you enter the corridor, always keep your left hand against the wall; and you will be bound to retrace my steps through the palace and the corridor;-' I stopped aghast, as a recollection came suddenly to my mind.
'What's the matter?' demanded Zor, noticing my perturbation.
'How stupid of me to have forgotten!' I exclaimed.
'What are you talking about?' he demanded.
'You will not be able to pass the gate at the farther end of the corridor,' I said. 'It was behind that gate that I was imprisoned, and it defied my every effort to batter it down.'
'Is there no other way?' he asked.
'Yes, there is; but I do not know how you can find it. There is a doorway from the corridor to the room in which I found Moko and Dian. Perhaps you will feel it, and recognize it when you come to it; but as I recall it, it seems only a part and parcel of the wooden wall that faces most of the corridor. It is, I should say, about half way between the cave and the far end of the corridor.'
'If the gate is still locked, I shall find that door,' Zor assured me.
'Your chances will be mighty slim, if you have to go that way,' I told him, 'because I am sure that that room lay in the quarters of either Moko or Meeza, for it was near there that they had Dian imprisoned. If you are discovered there, you will certainly be destroyed. Perhaps you had better give up the idea entirely, if the gate at the end of the corridor is still fastened. We shall then have done all that we humanly could to bring Kleeto out.'
'If I am not back at the end of two sleeps,' said Zor, 'I shall never be back; and you and your mate may commence your journey to Sari.'
I bade him goodby, then, with a heavy heart, and watched him climb the tree and enter the mouth of the large cave above.
Chapter XV
As soon as Zor had started upon his mission, I returned to the cave where Dian was hidden; and, making sure that no one was in sight in the ravine, I started removing the brush and the barricade. As I was doing so, I called to her; but receiving no reply I presumed that she was asleep; and so I proceeded to remove the remainder of the barrier as quietly as possible so as not to disturb her, for sleep in Pellucidar is precious.
I do not know when I have been as happy as I was at that moment. My spirits were high, for now it seemed certain to me that we had an excellent chance of escaping from the Valley of the Jukans and returning to our beloved Sari.
When I had made an opening large enough to admit my body, I crawled into the cave backwards and replaced the barrier as best I could, intending to lie down beside Dian and get a little sleep myself.
How surprised she would be when she awakened to find me there beside her. I couldn't resist the temptation to reach out and touch her. The cave was small, and she could not possibly be more than an arm's length from me; but though I felt in all directions I did not find her. It was then that the terrible truth dawned upon me-Dian was gone!
To be cast from such heights of hopefulness to such a depth of despair almost unnerved me. More like a maniac than a sane man, I felt over every inch of the floor of the cave. I found some food and water. I found my weapons, too; but no Dian.
No longer was there thought of sleep; no longer thoughts of Zor or Kleeto; only Dian mattered now.
Taking a spear and the bow and arrows that I had made for myself, I pushed away the barrier and came out into the open. For a moment I stood there, undecided. Where was I to look for Dian? Something seemed to tell me, I do not know what that she had not been taken back into the village; and I decided to go down the ravine, away from the village, which was the direction that we should have taken to leave the Valley of the Jukans on our way towards Sari. That much I knew, because I had asked Dian the direction of our country, and she had told me which way we must go to reach it.
All through the Ravine of the Kings, the ground had recently been walked over by the searching Jukans; so that any possible trace of Dian's spoor would have been obliterated; but I hoped that if I went far enough I might eventually pick it up, for not having the homing instinct of the Pellucidarians, I had been forced to develop myself into an excellent tracker. I could follow a spoor that an ordinary man could not detect and I banked heavily upon this ability to pick the spoor of Dian and whomever had stolen her.
I came to the end of the Jukan forest without meeting man or beast, or finding any trace of Dian.
According to Dian's directions, I turned right here and skirted the forest. She had told me that this would lead
