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.

16

The Secret Way

It was a baffled gryf that bellowed in angry rage as Tarzan's sleek
brown body cutting the moonlit waters shot through the aperture in the
wall of the gryf pool and out into the lake beyond. The ape-man smiled
as he thought of the comparative ease with which he had defeated the
purpose of the high priest but his face clouded again at the ensuing
remembrance of the grave danger that threatened his mate. His sole
object now must be to return as quickly as he might to the chamber
where he had last seen her on the third floor of the Temple of the
Gryf, but how he was to find his way again into the temple grounds was
a question not easy of solution.

In the moonlight he could see the sheer cliff rising from the water for
a great distance along the shore--far beyond the precincts of the
temple and the palace--towering high above him, a seemingly impregnable
barrier against his return. Swimming close in, he skirted the wall
searching diligently for some foothold, however slight, upon its
smooth, forbidding surface. Above him and quite out of reach were
numerous apertures, but there were no means at hand by which he could
reach them. Presently, however, his hopes were raised by the sight of
an opening level with the surface of the water. It lay just ahead and a
few strokes brought him to it--cautious strokes that brought forth no
sound from the yielding waters. At the nearer side of the opening he
stopped and reconnoite