When Tarzan fell to the ground on the other side of the temple wall, he had no intention of escaping from the city of A-Luri until it was certain that his wife was imprisoned there. But how he could live and continue his search in this strange city, where every man’s hand now had to raise against him, was by no means clear to him.
There was only one place where he could find even temporary refuge, and that was the King’s Forbidden Garden. There was a dense bush where the man could hide, as well as water and fruit. A skilled jungle animal could, as long as it could get there without anyone seeing it, hide there for quite some time; but how he would have succeeded in making the journey between the temple area and the garden without appearing was quite a serious dilemma.
– It’s awesome in Tarzan’s home jungle, – he snarled to himself, – but in the cities he’s not much more qualified than their own inhabitants.
Relying on his sharp perception and sense of locality, he certainly assumed he could enter the palace area through the underground corridors and temple chambers through which he had been led the previous day, the slightest detail of which had not escaped his precise eyes. It was, in his view, wiser than to move up on open ground, where the emergency responders, of course, would have immediately escaped from the temple to his hocks and quickly invented him.
Thus, about twelve steps from the wall of the temple, he lost sight of anyone who might happen to peek from above, down to a rocky stairway that led to underground chambers. The road along which he had been guided the day before had meandered through the twists and turns of numerous corridors and closets, but Tarzan, in such matters, was sure to find the point exactly and without hesitation.
He had little need to fear immediate trapping here, for he thought all the priests of the temple had gathered up in the courtyard to witness his judgment, humiliation, and death; but still, as he turned in the bend of the corridor, he struck against a sub-priest. This bizarre headdress concealed the shock that Tarzan’s sight in him must have evoked.
Tarzan had the advantage over Jad-ben-Otho’s disguised servant that when he saw the priest he knew his intentions immediately, so he did not have to procrastinate in his actions. It so happened that before the priest had decided before what was most appropriate to do in this coincidence, a long, sharp knife sank into his chest.
As the body leaned toward the heir, Tarzan grabbed it, snatching the headgear from its shoulders; as soon as he appeared, a bold inch had awakened in the monkey’s ever-alert brain to betray the enemies.
After protecting it from the damage it would no doubt have suffered if it had collapsed to the ground with its owner, Tarza’s headgear carefully lowered onto the main floor, after she had relaxed her body. He then bent down to cut off the base of the hodon’s tail near the base. A short distance to his right was a small chamber from which the priest had just come, and there Tarzan dragged his body, headgear, and tail.
Quickly cutting a narrow strip from the priest’s lumbar spine, Tarzan tied it firmly to the top of that detached member and stuck his tail behind his own lumbar spine, put it in place as best I could, fitted the headgear to his shoulders, and stepped out of the room and big toes.
He had noticed that the ho-donits and waz-donons more often than not hold the tail end in his hand, and he did the trick too, so that its relentless dragging behind would not arouse suspicion.
Stepping along the corridors and through various shelters, he finally came to daylight in the palace area on the other side of the temple. The emergency services had not yet gotten there, even though there was already a noise from behind. He now encountered both warriors and slaves, but they glanced at him only in passing, the priests as they quite commonly moved near the palace.
Thus he quietly ignored the guards; eventually ending at the inner gate of the Forbidden Garden. In it, he stopped to quickly observe the part of the beautiful orchard that was before his eyes. He was relieved not to see anyone there, and, congratulating himself on having betrayed A-Luri’s high powers with so little effort, he stepped quickly to the opposite end of the fence. Here he found a flowering shrub into which even ten men could have safely hid.
Crawling right inside it, he took off his awkward headunit and sat down waiting for what fate might have reserved for him, while he made plans for the future. Outside the garden, he heard the voices of men shouting at each other from near and far; so diligently he was sought.
As he sat in the shelter’s key to the shrub and thoughtfully, looking at the horrible priest’s mask he was holding, he noticed that there were others in the garden. He instincted another presence, and soon separated his brushed ears from the squeaking of approaching bare feet on the lawn. At first he suspected someone creeping in the Forbidden Garden in search of him, but a little later the creature came to his cramped horizon, limited by trunks, leaves, and flowers. He stated that it was Princess O-lo-a alone walking with her head depressed, as if in her thoughts — sad thoughts, for there were signs of tears in her eyelids. Soon after, his ears warned others to come to the garden. They were male, and judging by the steps, they did not walk slowly or in their thoughts.
“O-lo-a, the princess of Pal-ul-don,” said another of the comers, “a stranger who claimed to be the son of Jad-ben-Othon had recently fled the wrath of the high priest, after Lu-don had exposed him and all his wicked slander The temple, the palace, and the city are thoroughly searched, and we have been sent to search the Forbidden Garden, for King Ko-tan said that he had met him here this morning, though he could not comprehend how he had gotten past the guards.
“He’s not here,” replied O-lo-a. “I have sojourned in the garden for a while and I have not seen or heard of anyone other than myself. But seek ye, when you want.”
“No,” said the priest who had already spoken, “it is not necessary, for he could not have come here without your knowledge or the guards without closing his eyes; and even then the priest who had walked before us should have seen him.”
“Which priest?” asked O-lo-a.
“Some priest went past the guards just before us,” the man explained.
“I didn’t see him,” said O-lo-a.
“No doubt he went out the second gate,” another priest remarked.
“No doubt,” admitted O-lo-a, “but it’s strange I didn’t see him.” The priests bowed and turned to leave.
“Stupid as Buto, the rhino,” said Tarzan, who sometimes thought Buto was originally a stupid creature. – It should be easy to deceive those!
The priests had barely left when Tarzan heard the princess approaching swiftly across the garden, accompanied by a rapid, almost gasping breath, whether the person concerned was starving or in a state of agitation.
“Pan-at-li,” exclaimed O-lo-a, “what has happened? You look scared like Sarvas that you got your name!”
“Oh, Princess of Pal-ul-don,” panted Pan-at-li, “they wanted to kill her in the temple! They wanted to kill a miraculous stranger who claimed to be Dor-ul-Otho!”
“But he escaped,” said O-lo-a. “You were there. Tell me!”
“The high priest wanted to arrest and kill him, but when they attacked him, he threw one of the priests against Lu-don’s face as lightly as you could throw your breastplate at me; and then he jumped on the altar and from there to the edge of the temple wall and disappeared down to the other side. Now they seek him, but, O princess, I pray that they will not find him. ”
“And why are you praying for it?” asked O-lo-a. “Hasn’t such a horrible slander deserved death?”
“Ah, you don’t know him!” answered Pan-at-li.
“And do you know?” tokasi O-lo-a. “This morning you tricked yourself and then tried to deceive me. The slaves of O-lo-an don’t do that with impunity. So is she the same Tarzan-jad-guru you told me about? Talk, woman, and tell the mere truth!”
Pan-at-li straightening proudly, little chin high, for wasn’t she already worthy of a princess among her own people? “Pan-at-li kor-ul-jalainen does not lie in his defense,” he said.
“Tell me, therefore, what you know about this Tarzan-jad guru,”
O-lo-a insisted .
“I know he’s a wonderful man and very brave,” said Pan-at-li, “and that he saved me from the clutches of Tor-o-donrn and gryf, as I told you, and that he’s really the same one this morning. came into the garden, and I am still not sure that he was not the son of Jad-ben-Othon, for his bravery and strength are greater than that of a mortal man, just as he could have done me evil, he protected me, and when he could have been saved, he thought he was just me. And all this he did out of his friendship with Om-ati, who is the gund of Kor-ul-jan and whose partner I would have gone if the Khodons had not captured me.
“He was indeed a wonderful man to watch,” crocheted O-lo-a dreamily, “and he was no different from other men just because of the shape of his hands and feet, or because of his taillessness, but he had something that made him different in even the most important things.”
“And,” supplemented Pan-at-li, his wild little heart, faithful to the man who had defended him, and hoping to gain for him the respect of the princess, though it might not be of benefit to Tarzan; “and,” he said, “did he not know all about Ta-den and his whereabouts? Tell me, O princess, could a mortal know such things?”
“Maybe he had seen Ta-den,” O-lo-a remarked.
“But how could he know you loved Ta-Den?” dodged Pan-at-li. “I tell you, my princess, that if she is not a god, she is at least more than any ho-don or waz-don. She followed me from Kor-ul-ja from the cave of Es-Sat through Kor-ul-Lul and two wide ridges across to the very same cave of Kor-ul-gryf I had hid in, even though it had been many hours since I had dug that road and my bare feet had left no trace on the ground. a virgin to be his friend and protector except him? ”
“Maybe Lu-don is wrong – maybe he’s a god after all,” said
O-lo-a, to whom his slave’s eager defense had been effective.
“Whether he’s a god or a man, he’s too wonderful to die!” exclaimed Pan-at-li. “I wish I could save her! If she survived, she might come up with a way to get you your Den-princess, too.”
“Ah, I wish he could!” sighed O-lo-a. “But oh! It’s late!
For tomorrow I will be given to Bu-lot.”
“To him who arrived at your apartment with your father yesterday?” asked Pan-at-li.
“Yeah, for someone with a horrible round face and a big belly,” the princess exclaimed in disgust. “He is so lazy that he does not bother to hunt or fight. There is nothing in that belly but to eat and drink, and he thinks of nothing but his slave. But kah, Pan-at-li, pick me those beautiful flowers! I’d like to have them sprinkled on my bed so I can take with me in the morning the memory of the sweet scent I love the most and of course I don’t meet in the village of Mo-Sar, Bu-Lot’s father.I’ll help you, Pan-at-li, and we’ll collect them by grab, because picking them is my favorite they were the flowers of Ta-den. ”
The women approached a flowering bush with Tarzan’s lure; but the flowers, when they were exceedingly abundant in every bush, the ape thought, that they should not enter the thicket, and he might be noticed. Exclaiming with pleasure, finding the extra-large and perfect flowers, the young women moved from bush to bush around Tarzan’s hiding place.
“Oh, look, Pan-at-li!” Said O-lo-a suddenly, “there’s the queen of them all! I’ve never seen such a wonderfully lovely flower… No, I’ll pin it myself! It’s so big and wonderful that no one else’s hand shall touch it. ” And the princess would slip through the bushes to where the big flower shone on its branch above the monkey’s head.
So suddenly and unexpectedly the maiden had approached that Tarzan did not have time to sneak into each other, but remained silent, hoping that fate would be favorable to her and lead Ko-tan’s daughter away before he would turn her eyes from the flower growing high on her. But as he cut the long arm with his knife, the girl glanced straight at the smiling face of the Tarzan-jad guru.
Stunned, the girl backed away, and the monkey rose to look at him.
“Fear not, Princess,” he reassured; “Ta-den’s friend greets you,” and raised the girl’s fingers to her lips. That’s when Pan-at-li approached in rapture. “Oh, Jad-ben-Otho, it’s him!”
“And now that you’ve found me,” Tarzan asked, “will you hand me over to High Priest Lu-don?”
Pan-at-li threw O-lo-an at his feet. “Princess, princess,” he prayed, “do not reveal him to his enemies!”
“But if my father, Ko-tan,” whispered O-lo-a fearfully, “should I hear of my deceit, he would be indignant indefinitely. together they would condemn me to destruction. ”
“But they must never know,” Pan-at-li exclaimed, “that you have seen him, unless you tell them yourself, for Jad-ben-Otho is my witness that I will never let you down.”
“Oh tell me, stranger,” asked O-lo-a, “are you really a god?”
“Dor-ul-Otho, no more,” Tarzan replied honestly.
“But why did you try to escape the hands of mortals if you are a god?” asked the princess.
“When the gods throw themselves at the mortal,” replied Tarzan, “they are no more invulnerable than these. If Jad-ben-Otho appeared embodied before you, he could be killed.”
“Have you seen Ta-den and addressed him?” asked the princess apparently fragmented.
“Yes, I have seen him and spoken with him,” replied the ape man.
“For a month I was always with him.”
“And…” the maiden continued hesitantly, “ra…” – he lowered his eyes to the ground, and his cheeks turned red – “does he still love me?”
Now he knew Tarzan had won the girl for him. “To love,” he said, “Ta-den speaks only of O-lo, waiting and hoping for a day when he can claim him as his own.”
“But tomorrow I will be given to Bu-lot,” the girl explained sadly.
“May that day always remain tomorrow,” replied Tarzan, “for tomorrow will never come.”
“Ah, but this misfortune is coming, and all tomorrow of my life I will have to reef in misery and long for Ta-Den, which I will never get my own.”
“If it weren’t for Lu-don, I guess I could have helped you,” the monkey crocheted. “And maybe I can help you even more?”
“Ah, I wish you could, Dor-ul-Otho!” exclaimed O-lo-a. “And I know you would do it, for Pan-at-li has told me how brave you are and how kind.”
“Only Jad-ben-Otho knows what the future holds in its bosom,” Tarzan said. “And now go both ways, lest any man should see you, and be suspicious of you.”
“We will go,” replied the O-lo-a, “but the Pan-at-li to bring the pieces of the size of the food. I hope that you can access from their hands, and that Jad-ben-Otho was pleased with what I’ve done.” He turned and walked away following Pan-at-lin, and the monkey hid behind again.
In the twilight, Pan-at-li brought groceries, and after reaching him bilaterally, he asked Tarza a question he had been eager to ask since he had interviewed Ö-lo-an earlier in the day.
“Tell me,” he said, “what do you know about the rumors mentioned by O-lo-an about a mysterious stranger supposedly hidden in A-luri. Have you heard that in the short time you’ve been here, too?”
“Yes,” replied Pan-at-li, “I have heard of others maidservants puhelevan from each other. All of the whisper, but no one would dare it out loud summons. Let’s say a strange female to be hidden in the temple, and Lu-methadone want her priestess and Ko-Tan wife, but for fear of each other neither of them is supposed to take her. ”
“Do you know where he’s hidden in the temple?” Tarzan asked.
“No,” said Pan-at-li. “How would I know? I do not even know if this is more than just a story, and I tell you only what I have heard others speak.”
“Did they only talk about one?” Tarzan asked.
“No, they also mentioned another who came here with him, but no one seems to know where that other is.”
Tarzan nodded. “Thank you, Pan-at-li,” he said. “You may have helped me more than either of us guessed.”
“I hope that I have helped you,” said the girl turning off towards the palace.
“That’s what I hope for,” Tarzan exclaimed vigorously after him.
