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 you have been
here?"

"Yes," said Pan-at-lee, "I have heard it spoken of among the other
slaves. It is something of which all whisper among themselves but of
which none dares to speak aloud. They say that there is a strange she
hidden in the temple and that Lu-don wants her for a priestess and that
Ko-tan wants her for a wife and that neither as yet dares take her for
fear of the other."

"Do you know where she is hidden in the temple?" asked Tarzan.

"No," said Pan-at-lee. "How should I know? I do not even know that it
is more than a story and I but tell you that which I have heard others
say."

"There was only one," asked Tarzan, "whom they spoke of?"

"No, they speak of another who came with her but none seems to know
what became of this one."

Tarzan nodded. "Thank you Pan-at-lee," he said. "You may have helped me
more than either of us guess."

"I hope that I have helped you," said the girl as she turned back
toward the palace.

"And I hope so too," exclaimed Tarzan emphatically.

14

The Temple of the Gryf

When night had fallen Tarzan donned the mask and the dead tail of the
priest he had slain in the vaults beneath the temple. He judged that it
would not do to attempt again to pass the guard, especially so late at
night as it would be likely to arouse comment and suspicion, and so he
swung into the tree that overhung the garden wall and from its branches
dropped to the ground beyond.

Avoiding too grave risk of apprehension the ape-man passed through the
grounds to the court of the palace, approaching the temple from the
side opposite to that at which he had left it at the time of his
escape. He came thus it is true through a portion of the grounds with
which he was unfamiliar but he preferred this to the danger of
following the beaten track between the palace apartments and those of
the temple. Having a definite goal in mind and end