15
"The King Is Dead!"
As they conversed Ja-don had led her down the stone stairway that
leads from the upper floors of the Temple of the Gryf to the chambers
and the corridors that honeycomb the rocky hills from which the
temple and the palace are hewn and now they passed from one to the
other through a doorway upon one side of which two priests stood
guard and upon the other two warriors. The former would have halted
Ja-don when they saw who it was that accompanied him for well known
throughout the temple was the quarrel between king and high priest
for possession of this beautiful stranger.
"Only by order of Lu-don may she pass," said one, placing himself
directly in front of Jane Clayton, barring her progress. Through
the hollow eyes of the hideous mask the woman could see those of
the priest beneath gleaming with the fires of fanaticism. Ja-don
placed an arm about her shoulders and laid his hand upon his knife.
"She passes by order of Ko-tan, the king," he said, "and by virtue
of the fact that Ja-don, the chief, is her guide. Stand aside!"
The two warriors upon the palace side pressed forward. "We are here,
gund of Ja-lur," said one, addressing Ja-don, "to receive and obey
your commands."
The second priest now interposed. "Let them pass," he admonished
his companion. "We have received no direct commands from Lu-don
to the contrary and it is a law of the temple and the palace that
chiefs and priests may come and go without interference."
"But I know Lu-don's wishes," insisted the other.
"He told you then that Ja-don must not pass with the stranger?"
"No--but--"
"Then let them pass, for they are three to two and will pass
anyway--we have done our best."
Grumbling, the priest stepped aside. "Lu-don will exact an accounting,"
he cried angrily.
Ja-don turned upon him. "And get it when and where he will," he
snapped.
They came at last to the quarters of the Princess O-lo-a where, in
the main entrance-way, loitered a small guard of palace warriors
and several stalwart black eunuchs belonging to the princess, or
her women. To one of the latter Ja-don relinquished his charge.
"Take her to the princess," he commanded, "and see that she does
not escape."
Through a number of corridors and apartments lighted by stone
cressets the eunuch led Lady Greystoke halting at last before a
doorway concealed by hangings of jato skin, where the guide beat
with his staff upon the wall beside the door.
"O-lo-a, Princess of Pal-ul-don," he called, "here is the stranger
woman, the prisoner from the temple."
"Bid her enter," Jane heard a sweet voice from within command.
The eunuch drew aside the hangings and Lady Greystoke stepped within.
Before her was a low-ceiled room of moderate size. In each of the
four corners a kneeling figure of stone seemed to be bearing its
portion of the weight of the ceiling upon its shoulders. These
figures were evidently intended to represent Waz-don slaves and were
not without bold artistic beauty. The ceiling itself was slightly
arched to a central dome which was pierced to admit light by day,
and air. Upon one side of the room were many windows, the other
three walls being blank except for a doorway in each. The princess
lay upon a pile of furs which were arranged over a low stone dais
in one corner of the apartment and was alone except for a single
Waz-don slave girl who sat upon the edge of the dais near her feet.
As Jane entered O-lo-a beckoned her to approach and when she stood
beside the couch the girl half rose upon an elbow and surveyed her
critically.
"How beautiful you are," she said simply.
Jane smiled, sadly; for she had found that beauty may be a curse.
"That is indeed a compliment," she replied quickly, "from one so
radiant as the Princess O-lo-a."
"Ah!" exclaimed the princess delightedly; "you speak my language!
I was told that you were of another race and from some far land of
which we of Pal-ul-don have never heard."
"Lu-don saw to it that the priests instructed me," explained Jane;
"but I am from a far country, Princess; one to which I long to
return--and I am very unhappy."
"But Ko-tan, my father, would make you his queen," cried the girl;
"that should make you very happy."
"But it does not," replied the prisoner; "I love another to whom I
am already wed. Ah, Princess, if you had known what it was to love
and to be forced into marriage with another you would sympathize
with me."
The Princess O-lo-a was silent for a long moment. "I know," she said
at last, "and I am very sorry for you; but if the king's daughter
cannot save herself from such a fate who may save a slave woman?
for such in fact you are."
The drinking in the great banquet hall of the palace of Ko-tan,
king of Pal-ul-don had commenced earlier this night than was usual,
for the king was celebrating the morrow's betrothal of his only
daughter to Bu-lot, son of Mo-sar, the chief, whose great-grandfather
had been king of Pal-ul-don and who thought that he should be king,
and Mo-sar was drunk and so was Bu-lot, his son. For that matter
nearly all of the warriors, including the king himself, were drunk.
In the heart of Ko-tan was no love either for Mo-sar, or Bu-lot, nor
did either of these love the king. Ko-tan was giving his daughter
to Bu-lot in the hope that the alliance would prevent Mo-sar from
insisting upon his claims to the throne, for, next to Ja-don, Mo-sar
was the most powerful of the chiefs and while Ko-tan looked with
fear upon Ja-don, too, he had no fear that the old Lion-man would
attempt to seize the throne, though which way he would throw his
influence and his warriors in the event that Mo-sar declare war
upon Ko-tan, the king could not guess.
Primitive people who are also warlike are seldom inclined toward
either tact or diplomacy even when sober; but drunk they know not
the words, if aroused. It was really Bu-lot who started it.
"This," he said, "I drink to O-lo-a," and he emptied his tankard
at a single gulp. "And this," seizing a full one from a neighbor,
"to her son and mine who will bring back the throne of Pal-ul-don
to its rightful owners!"
"The king is not yet dead!" cried Ko-tan, rising to his feet; "nor
is Bu-lot yet married to his daughter--and there is yet time to
save Pal-ul-don from the spawn of the rabbit breed."
The king's angry tone and his insulting reference to Bu-lot's
well-known cowardice brought a sudden, sobering silence upon the
roistering company. Every eye turned upon Bu-lot and Mo-sar, who
sat together directly opposite the king. The first was very drunk
though suddenly he seemed quite sober. He was so drunk that for an
instant he forgot to be a coward, since his reasoning powers were
so effectually paralyzed by the fumes of liquor that he could not
intelligently weigh the consequences of his acts. It is reasonably
conceivable that a drunk and angry rabbit might commit a rash
deed. Upon no other hypothesis is the thing that Bu-lot now did
explicable. He rose suddenly from the seat to which he had sunk
after delivering his toast and seizing the knife from the sheath
of the warrior upon his right hurled it with terrific force at
Ko-tan. Skilled in the art of throwing both their knives and their
clubs are the warriors of Pal-ul-don and at this short distance
and coming as it did without warning there was no defense and but
one possible result--Ko-tan, the king, lunged forward across the
table, the blade buried in his heart.
A brief silence followed the assassin's cowardly act. White with
terror, now, Bu-lot fell slowly back toward the doorway at his rear,
when suddenly angry warriors leaped with drawn knives to prevent
his escape and to avenge their king. But Mo-sar now took his stand
beside his son.
"Ko-tan is dead!" he cried. "Mo-sar is king! Let the loyal warriors
of Pal-ul-don protect their ruler!"
Mo-sar commanded a goodly following and these quickly surrounded
him and Bu-lot, but there were many knives against them and now
Ja-don pressed forward through those who confronted the pretender.
"Take them both!" he shouted. "The warriors of Pal-ul-don will
choose their own king after the assassin of Ko-tan has paid the
penalty of his treachery."
Directed now by a leader whom they both respected and admired those
who had been loyal to Ko-tan rushed forward upon the faction that
had surrounded Mo-sar. Fierce and terrible was the fighting, devoid,
apparently, of all else than the ferocious lust to kill and while
it was at its height Mo-sar and Bu-lot slipped unnoticed from the
banquet hall.
To that part of the palace assigned to them during their visit to
A-lur they hastened. Here were their servants and the lesser warriors
of their party who had not been bidden to the feast of Ko-tan.
These were directed quickly to gather together their belongings
for immediate departure. When all was ready, and it did not take
long, since the warriors of Pal-ul-don require but little impedimenta
on the march, they moved toward the palace gate.
Suddenly Mo-sar approached his son. "The princess," he whispered.
"We must not leave the city without her--she is half the battle
for the throne."
Bu-lot, now entirely sober, demurred. He had had enough of fighting
and of risk. "Let us get out of A-lur quickly," he urged, "or we
shall have the whole city upon us. She would not come without a
struggle and that would delay us too long."
"There is plenty of time," insisted Mo-sar. "They are still fighting
in the pal-e-don-so. It will be long before they miss us and, with
Ko-tan dead, long before any will think to look to the safety of
the princess. Our time is now--it was made for us by Jad-ben-Otho.
Come!"
Reluctantly Bu-lot followed his father, who first instructed
the warriors to await them just inside the gateway of the palace.
Rapidly the two approached the quarters of the princess. Within the
entrance-way only a handful of warriors were on guard. The eunuchs
had retired.
"There is fighting in the pal-e-don-so," Mo-sar announced in feigned
excitement as they entered the presence of the guards. "The king
desires you to come at once and has sent us to guard the apartments
of the princess. Make haste!" he commanded as the men hesitated.
The warriors knew him and that on the morrow the princess was to
be betrothed to Bu-lot, his son. If there was trouble what more
natural than that Mo-sar and Bu-lot should be intrusted with the
safety of the princess. And then, too, was not Mo-sar a powerful
chief to whose orders disobedience might prove a dangerous thing?
They were but common fighting men disciplined in the rough school
of tribal warfare, but they had learned to obey a superior and so
they departed for the banquet hall--the place-where-men-eat.
Barely waiting until they had disappeared Mo-sar crossed to the
hangings at the opposite end of the entrance-hall and followed by
Bu-lot made his way toward the sleeping apartment of O-lo-a and a
moment later, without warning, the two men burst in upon the three
occupants of the room. At sight of them O-lo-a sprang to her feet.
"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded angrily.
Mo-sar advanced and halted before her. Into his cunning mind had
entered a plan to trick her. If it succeeded it would prove easier
than taking her by force, and then his eyes fell upon Jane Clayton
and he almost gasped in astonishment and admiration, but he caught
himself and returned to the business of the moment.
"O-lo-a," he cried, "when you know the urgency of our mission you
will forgive us. We have sad news for you. There has been an uprising
in the palace and Ko-tan, the king, has been slain. The rebels are
drunk with liquor and now on their way here. We must get you out
of A-lur at once--there is not a moment to lose. Come, and quickly!"
"My father dead?" cried O-lo-a, and suddenly her eyes went wide.
"Then my place is here with my people," she cried. "If Ko-tan is
dead I am queen until the warriors choose a new ruler--that is the
law of Pal-ul-don. And if I am queen none can make me wed whom I
do not wish to wed--and Jad-ben-Otho knows I never wished to wed
thy cowardly son. Go!" She pointed a slim forefinger imperiously
toward the doorway.
Mo-sar saw that neither trickery nor persuasion would avail now
and every precious minute counted. He looked again at the beautiful
woman who stood beside O-lo-a. He had never before seen her but he
well knew from palace gossip that she could be no other than the
godlike stranger whom Ko-tan had planned to make his queen.
"Bu-lot," he cried to his son, "take you your own woman and I will
take--mine!" and with that he sprang suddenly forward and seizing
Jane about the waist lifted her in his arms, so that before O-lo-a
or Pan-at-lee might even guess his purpose he had disappeared
through the hangings near the foot of the dais and was gone with
the stranger woman struggling and fighting in his grasp.
And then Bu-lot sought to seize O-lo-a, but O-lo-a had her
Pan-at-lee--fierce little tiger-girl of the savage Kor-ul-ja--Pan-at-lee
whose name belied her--and Bu-lot found that with the two of them
his hands were full. When he would have lifted O-lo-a and borne
her away Pan-at-lee seized him around the legs and strove to drag
him down. Viciously he kicked her, but she would not desist, and
finally, realizing that he might not only lose his princess but be
so delayed as to invite capture if he did not rid himself of this
clawing, scratching she-jato, he hurled O-lo-a to the floor and
seizing Pan-at-lee by the hair drew his knife and--
The curtains behind him suddenly parted. In two swift bounds a
lithe figure crossed the room and before ever the knife of Bu-lot
reached its goal his wrist was seized from behind and a terrific
blow crashing to the base of his brain dropped him, lifeless,
to the floor. Bu-lot, coward, traitor, and assassin, died without
knowing who struck him down.
As Tarzan of the Apes leaped into the pool in the gryf pit of
the temple at A-lur one might have accounted for his act on the
hypothesis that it was the last blind urge of self-preservation to
delay, even for a moment, the inevitable tragedy in which each some
day must play the leading role upon his little stage; but no--those
cool, gray eyes had caught the sole possibility for escape that the
surroundings and the circumstances offered--a tiny, moonlit patch
of water glimmering through a small aperture in the cliff at
the surface of the pool upon its farther side. With swift, bold
strokes he swam for speed alone knowing that the water would in no
way deter his pursuer. Nor did it. Tarzan heard the great splash
as the huge creature plunged into the pool behind him; he heard
the churning waters as it forged rapidly onward in his wake. He
was nearing the opening--would it be large enough to permit the
passage of his body? That portion of it which showed above the
surface of the water most certainly would not. His life, then,
depended upon how much of the aperture was submerged. And now it
was directly before him and the gryf directly behind. There was
no alternative--there was no other hope. The ape-man threw all the
resources of his great strength into the last few strokes, extended
his hands before him as a cutwater, submerged to the water's level
and shot forward toward the hole.
Frothing with rage was the baffled Lu-don as he realized how neatly
the stranger she had turned his own tables upon him. He could of
course escape the Temple of the Gryf in which her quick wit had
temporarily imprisoned him; but during the delay, however brief,
Ja-don would find time to steal her from the temple and deliver her
to Ko-tan. But he would have her yet--that the high priest swore in
the names of Jad-ben-Otho and all the demons of his faith. He hated
Ko-tan. Secretly he had espoused the cause of Mo-sar, in whom he
would have a willing tool. Perhaps, then, this would give him the
opportunity he had long awaited--a pretext for inciting the revolt
that would dethrone Ko-tan and place Mo-sar in power--with Lu-don
the real ruler of Pal-ul-don. He licked his thin lips as he sought
the window through which Tarzan had entered and now Lu-don's only
avenue of escape. Cautiously he made his way across the floor,
feeling before him with his hands, and when they discovered that
the trap was set for him an ugly snarl broke from the priest's
lips. "The she-devil!" he muttered; "but she shall pay, she shall
pay--ah, Jad-ben-Otho; how she shall pay for the trick she has
played upon Lu-don!"
He crawled through the window and climbed easily downward to the
ground. Should he pursue Ja-don and the woman, chancing an encounter
with the fierce chief, or bide his time until treachery and intrigue
should accomplish his design? He chose the latter solution, as
might have been expected of such as he.
Going to his quarters he summoned several of his priests--those
who were most in his confidence and who shared his ambitions for
absolute power of the temple over the palace--all men who hated
Ko-tan.
"The time has come," he told them, "when the authority of the temple
must be placed definitely above that of the palace. Ko-tan must
make way for Mo-sar, for Ko-tan has defied your high priest. Go
then, Pan-sat, and summon Mo-sar secretly to the temple, and you
others go to the city and prepare the faithful warriors that they
may be in readiness when the time comes."
For another hour they discussed the details of the coup d'etat that
was to overthrow the government of Pal-ul-don. One knew a slave
who, as the signal sounded from the temple gong, would thrust a
knife into the heart of Ko-tan, for the price of liberty. Another
held personal knowledge of an officer of the palace that he could
use to compel the latter to admit a number of Lu-don's warriors
to various parts of the palace. With Mo-sar as the cat's paw, the
plan seemed scarce possible of failure and so they separated, going
upon their immediate errands to palace and to city.
As Pan-sat entered the palace grounds he was aware of a sudden
commotion in the direction of the pal-e-don-so and a few minutes
later Lu-don was surprised to see him return to the apartments of
the high priest, breathless and excited.
"What now, Pan-sat?" cried Lu-don. "Are you pursued by demons?"
"O master, our time has come and gone while we sat here planning.
Ko-tan is already dead and Mo-sar fled. His friends are fighting
with the warriors of the palace but they have no head, while Ja-don
leads the others. I could learn but little from frightened slaves
who had fled at the outburst of the quarrel. One told me that Bu-lot
had slain the king and that he had seen Mo-sar and the assassin
hurrying from the palace."
"Ja-don," muttered the high priest. "The fools will make him king
if we do not act and act quickly. Get into the city, Pan-sat--let
your feet fly and raise the cry that Ja-don has killed the king and
is seeking to wrest the throne from O-lo-a. Spread the word as you
know best how to spread it that Ja-don has threatened to destroy
the priests and hurl the altars of the temple into Jad-ben-lul.
Rouse the warriors of the city and urge them to attack at once.
Lead them into the temple by the secret way that only the priests
know and from here we may spew them out upon the palace before they
learn the truth. Go, Pan-sat, immediately--delay not an instant."
"But stay," he called as the under priest turned to leave the
apartment; "saw or heard you anything of the strange white woman
that Ja-don stole from the Temple of the Gryf where we have had
her imprisoned?"
"Only that Ja-don took her into the palace where he threatened the
priests with violence if they did not permit him to pass," replied
Pan-sat. "This they told me, but where within the palace she is
hidden I know not."
"Ko-tan ordered her to the Forbidden Garden," said Lu-don, "doubtless
we shall find her there. And now, Pan-sat, be upon your errand."
In a corridor by Lu-don's chamber a hideously masked priest leaned
close to the curtained aperture that led within. Were he listening
he must have heard all that passed between Pan-sat and the high priest,
and that he had listened was evidenced by his hasty withdrawal to
the shadows of a nearby passage as the lesser priest moved across
the chamber toward the doorway. Pan-sat went his way in ignorance
of the near presence that he almost brushed against as he hurried
toward the secret passage that leads from the temple of Jad-ben-Otho,
far beneath the palace, to the city beyond, nor did he sense the
silent creature following in his footsteps.
