e is not here."

"Where is she, then?" demanded the ape-man. "You took her from the
palace at A-lur. If she is not here, where is she? Tell me not that
harm has befallen her," and he took a sudden threatening step toward
Mo-sar, that sent the chief shrinking back in terror.

"Wait," he cried, "if you are indeed the Dor-ul-Otho you will know that
I speak the truth. I took her from the palace of Ko-tan to save her for
Lu-don, the high priest, lest with Ko-tan dead Ja-don seize her. But
during the night she escaped from me between here and A-lur, and I have
but just sent three canoes full-manned in search of her."

Something in the chief's tone and manner assured the ape-man that he
spoke in part the truth, and that once again he had braved incalculable
dangers and suffered loss of time futilely.

"What wanted the priests of Lu-don that preceded me here?" demanded
Tarzan chancing a shrewd guess that the two he had seen paddling so
frantically to avoid a meeting with him had indeed come from the high
priest at A-lur.

"They came upon an errand similar to yours," replied Mo-sar; "to demand
the return of the woman whom Lu-don thought I had stolen from him, thus
wronging me as deeply, O Dor-ul-Otho, as have you."

"I would question the priests," said Tarzan. "Bring them hither." His
peremptory and arrogant manner left Mo-sar in doubt as to whether to be
more incensed, or terrified, but ever as is the way with such as he, he
concluded that the first consideration was his own safety. If he could
transfer the attention and the wrath of this terrible man from himself
to Lu-don's priests it would more than satisfy him and if they should
conspire to harm him, then Mo-sar would be safe in the eyes of
Jad-ben-Otho if it finally developed that the stranger was in reality
the son of god. He felt uncomfortable in Tarzan's presence and this
fact rather accentuated his doubt, for thus indeed would mortal feel in
the presence of a god. Now he saw a way to escape, at least temporarily.

"I will fetch them myself, Dor-ul-Otho," he said, and turning, left the
apartment. His hurried steps brought him quickly to the temple, for the
palace grounds of Tu-lur, which also included the temple as in all of
the Ho-don cities, covered a much smaller area than those of the larger
city of A-lur. He found Lu-don's messengers with the high priest of his
own temple and quickly transmitted to them the commands of the ape-man.

"What do you intend to d