taken him to acquire definite knowledge concerning the secret
passageway between the temple and the city he did not count as lost,
though he begrudged every instant that kept him from the prosecution of
his main objective. It had seemed to him, however, necessary to the
success of a bold plan that he had formulated upon overhearing the
conversation between Lu-don and Pan-sat as he stood without the
hangings of the apartment of the high priest.

Alone against a nation of suspicious and half-savage enemies he could
scarce hope for a successful outcome to the one great issue upon which
hung the life and happiness of the creature he loved best. For her sake
he must win allies and it was for this purpose that he had sacrificed
these precious moments, but now he lost no further time in seeking to
regain entrance to the palace grounds that he might search out whatever
new prison they had found in which to incarcerate his lost love.

He found no difficulty in passing the guards at the entrance to the
palace for, as he had guessed, his priestly disguise disarmed all
suspicion. As he approached the warriors he kept his hands behind him
and trusted to fate that the sickly light of the single torch which
stood beside the doorway would not reveal his un-Pal-ul-donian feet. As
a matter of fact so accustomed were they to the comings and goings of
the priesthood that they paid scant attention to him and he passed on
into the palace grounds without even a moment's delay.

His goal now was the Forbidden Garden and this he had little difficulty
in reaching though he elected to enter it over the wall rather than to
chance arousing any suspicion on the part of the guards at the inner
entrance, since he could imagine no reason why a priest should seek
entrance there thus late at night.

He found the garden deserted, nor any sign of her he sought. That she
had been brought hither he had learned from the conversation he had
overheard between Lu-don and Pan-sat, and he was sure that there had
been no time or opportunity for the high priest to remove her from the
palace grounds. The garden he knew to be devoted exclusively to the
uses of the princess and her women and it was only reasonable to assume
therefore that if Jane had been brought to the garden it could only
have been upon an order from Ko-tan. This being the case the natural
assumption would follow that he would find her in some other portion of
O-lo-a's quarters.

Just where the