The room was vacant except for two warriors who stood before doors that flanked the throne dais, and as the party moved down the broad center aisle toward the throne one of these warriors signaled the leader and motioned to the door which he was guarding and which he now threw open before them, revealing a small antechamber in which were half a dozen handsomely trapped warriors seated on small, carved benches, while a seventh lolled in a high-backed chair, his fingers tapping upon its broad arms as he listened to the conversation of the others, into which he threw an occasional word that always was received with deepest attention. If he scowled when he spoke, the others scowled still more deeply; if he smiled, they broke into laughter, and scarcely for an instant did their eyes leave his face, lest they miss some fleeting index of his changing moods.
Just inside the doorway the warriors who were conducting Tarzan halted, where they remained in silence until the man in the high-backed arm chair deigned to notice them, then the leader knelt upon one knee, raised his arms, palms forward, high above his head, leaned as far back as he could and in a monotonous dead level intoned his salutation.
“O, Elkomoelhago, King of Veltopismakus, Ruler of All Men, Master of Created Things, All-Wise, All-Courageous, All-Glorious! we bring thee, as thou hast commanded, the slave of Zoanthrohago.”
“Arise and bring the slave closer,” commanded the man in the high-backed arm chair, and then to his companions: “This is the giant that Zoanthrohago brought back from Trohanadalmakus.”
“We have heard of him, All-Glorious,” they replied.
“And of Zoanthrohago’s wager?” questioned the king.
“And of Zoanthrohago’s wager, All-Wise!” replied one.
“What think you of it?” demanded Elkomoelhago.
“Even as you think, Ruler of All Men,” quickly spoke another.
“And how is that?” asked the king.
The six looked quickly and uneasily, one at the others. “How does he think?” whispered he who was farthest from Elkomoelhago to his neighbor, who shrugged his shoulders hopelessly and looked to another.
“What was that, Gofoloso?” demanded the king. “What was that you said?”
“I was about to remark that unless Zoanthrohago first consulted our august and all-wise ruler and is now acting upon his judgment he must, almost of necessity, lose the wager,” replied Gofoloso glibly.
“Of course,” said the king, “there is something in what you say, Gofoloso. Zoanthrohago did consult me. It was I who discovered the vibratory principle which made the thing possible. It was I who decided just how the first experiments were to be carried out. Heretofore it has not been enduring; but we believe that the new formula will have a persistency of thirty-nine moons at least—it is upon this that Zoanthrohago has made his wager. If he is wrong he loses a thousand slaves to Dalfastomalo.”
“Wonderful!” exclaimed Gofoloso. “Blessed indeed are we above all other peoples, with a king so learned and so wise as Elkomoelhago.”
“You have much to be thankful for, Gofoloso,” agreed the king; “but nothing compared to what will follow the success of my efforts to apply this principle of which we have been speaking, but with results diametrically opposite to those we have so far achieved; but we work upon it, we work upon it! Some day it will come and then I shall give to Zoanthrohago the formula that will revolutionize Minuni—then with a hundred men might we go forth and conquer the world!”
Elkomoelhago now turned his attention suddenly upon the green-tunicked slave standing a short distance before him. He scrutinized him closely and in silence for several minutes.
“From what city do you come?” demanded the king, at last.
“O, All-Glorious Elkomoelhago,” spoke up the leader of the escort, “the poor ignorant creature is without speech.”
“Utters he any sound?” inquired the king.
“None since he was captured, Master of Men,” replied the warrior.
“He is a Zertalacolol,” stated Elkomoelhago. “Why all this silly excitement over one of these low, speechless creatures?”
“See now!” exclaimed Gofoloso, “how quickly and surely the father of wisdom grasps all things, probing to the bottom of all mysteries, revealing their secrets. Is it not marvelous!”
“Now that the Sun of Science has shone upon him even the dullest may see that the creature is indeed a Zertalacolol,” cried another of the king’s companions. “How simple, how stupid of us all! Ah, what would become of us were it not for the glorious intelligence of the All-Wise.”
Elkomoelhago was examining Tarzan closely. He seemed not to have heard the eulogies of his courtiers. Presently he spoke again.
“He has not the features of the Zertalacolols,” he pondered musingly. “See his ears. They are not the ears of the speechless ones, nor his hair. His body is not formed as theirs and his head is shaped for the storing of knowledge and the functioning of reason. No, he cannot be a Zertalacolol.”
“Marvelous!” cried Gofoloso. “Did I not tell you! Elkomoelhago, our king, is always right.”
“The most stupid of us may easily see that he is not a Zertalacolol, now that the king’s divine intelligence has made it so plain,” exclaimed the second courtier.
At this juncture a door, opposite that through which Tarzan had been brought into the apartment, opened and a warrior appeared. “O, Elkomoelhago, King of Veltopismakus,” he droned, “thy daughter, the Princess Janzara, has come. She would see the strange slave that Zoanthrohago brought from Trohanadalmakus and craves the royal permission to enter.”
Elkomoelhago nodded his assent. “Conduct the princess to us!” he commanded.
The princess must have been waiting within earshot immediately outside the door, for scarcely had the king spoken when she appeared upon the threshold, followed by two other young women, behind whom were a half dozen warriors. At sight of her the courtiers rose, but not the king.
“Come in, Janzara,” he said, “and behold the strange giant who is more discussed in Veltopismakus than Veltopismakus’ king.”
The
