“Perhaps Lu-don may be mistaken—perhaps he is a god,” said O-lo-a, influenced by her slave’s enthusiastic championing of the stranger.
“But whether god or man he is too wonderful to die,” cried Pan-at-lee. “Would that I might save him. If he lived he might even find a way to give you your Ta-den, Princess.”
“Ah, if he only could,” sighed O-lo-a, “but alas it is too late for tomorrow I am to be given to Bu-lot.”
“He who came to your quarters yesterday with your father?” asked Pan-at-lee.
“Yes; the one with the awful round face and the big belly,” exclaimed the Princess disgustedly. “He is so lazy he will neither hunt nor fight. To eat and to drink is all that Bu-lot is fit for, and he thinks of naught else except these things and his slave women. But come, Pan-at-lee, gather for me some of these beautiful blossoms. I would have them spread around my couch tonight that I may carry away with me in the morning the memory of the fragrance that I love best and which I know that I shall not find in the village of Mo-sar, the father of Bu-lot. I will help you, Pan-at-lee, and we will gather armfuls of them, for I love to gather them as I love nothing else—they were Ta-den’s favorite flowers.”
The two approached the flowering shrubbery where Tarzan hid, but as the blooms grew plentifully upon every bush the ape-man guessed there would be no necessity for them to enter the patch far enough to discover him. With little exclamations of pleasure as they found particularly large or perfect blooms the two moved from place to place upon the outskirts of Tarzan’s retreat.
“Oh, look, Pan-at-lee,” cried O-lo-a presently; “there is the king of them all. Never did I see so wonderful a flower—No! I will get it myself—it is so large and wonderful no other hand shall touch it,” and the princess wound in among the bushes toward the point where the great flower bloomed upon a bush above the ape-man’s head.
So sudden and unexpected her approach that there was no opportunity to escape and Tarzan sat silently trusting that fate might be kind to him and lead Ko-tan’s daughter away before her eyes dropped from the high-growing bloom to him. But as the girl cut the long stem with her knife she looked down straight into the smiling face of Tarzan-jad-guru.
With a stifled scream she drew back and the ape-man rose and faced her.
“Have no fear, Princess,” he assured her. “It is the friend of Ta-den who salutes you,” raising her fingers to his lips.
Pan-at-lee came now excitedly forward. “O Jad-ben-Otho, it is he!”
“And now that you have found me,” queried Tarzan, “will you give me up to Lu-don, the high priest?”
Pan-at-lee threw herself upon her knees at O-lo-a’s feet. “Princess! Princess!” she beseeched, “do not discover him to his enemies.”
“But Ko-tan, my father,” whispered O-lo-a fearfully, “if he knew of my perfidy his rage would be beyond naming. Even though I am a princess Lu-don might demand that I be sacrificed to appease the wrath of Jad-ben-Otho, and between the two of them I should be lost.”
“But they need never know,” cried Pan-at-lee, “that you have seen him unless you tell them yourself for as Jad-ben-Otho is my witness I will never betray you.”
“Oh, tell me, stranger,” implored O-lo-a, “are you indeed a god?”
“Jad-ben-Otho is not more so,” replied Tarzan truthfully.
“But why do you seek to escape then from the hands of mortals if you are a god?” she asked.
“When gods mingle with mortals,” replied Tarzan, “they are no less vulnerable than mortals. Even Jad-ben-Otho, should he appear before you in the flesh, might be slain.”
“You have seen Ta-den and spoken with him?” she asked with apparent irrelevancy.
“Yes, I have seen him and spoken with him,” replied the ape-man. “For the duration of a moon I was with him constantly.”
“And—” she hesitated—“he—” she cast her eyes toward the ground and a flush mantled her cheek—“he still loves me?” and Tarzan knew that she had been won over.
“Yes,” he said, “Ta-den speaks only of O-lo-a and he waits and hopes for the day when he can claim her.”
“But tomorrow they give me to Bu-lot,” she said sadly.
“May it be always tomorrow,” replied Tarzan, “for tomorrow never comes.”
“Ah, but this unhappiness will come, and for all the tomorrows of my life I must pine in misery for the Ta-den who will never be mine.”
“But for Lu-don I might have helped you,” said the ape-man. “And who knows that I may not help you yet?”
“Ah, if you only could, Dor-ul-Otho,” cried the girl, “and I know that you would if it were possible for Pan-at-lee has told me how brave you are, and at the same time how kind.”
“Only Jad-ben-Otho knows what the future may bring,” said Tarzan. “And now you two go your way lest someone should discover you and become suspicious.”
“We will go,” said O-lo-a, “but Pan-at-lee will return with food. I hope that you escape and that Jad-ben-Otho is pleased with what I have done.” She turned and walked away and Pan-at-lee followed while the ape-man again resumed his hiding.
At dusk Pan-at-lee came with food and having her alone Tarzan put the question that he had been anxious to put since his conversation earlier in the day with O-lo-a.
“Tell me,” he said, “what you know of the rumors of which O-lo-a spoke of the mysterious stranger which is supposed to be hidden in A-lur. Have you too heard of this during the short time that
