ts led their own forces through the secret passageway into the
temple, while some of the loyal ones sought out Ja-don and told him all
that had happened. The fight in the banquet hall had spread over a
considerable portion of the palace grounds and had at last resulted in
the temporary defeat of those who had opposed Ja-don. This force,
counseled by under priests sent for the purpose by Lu-don, had
withdrawn within the temple grounds so that now the issue was plainly
marked as between Ja-don on the one side and Lu-don on the other.

The former had been told of all that had occurred in the apartments of
O-lo-a to whose safety he had attended at the first opportunity and he
had also learned of Tarzan's part in leading his men to the gathering
of Lu-don's warriors.

These things had naturally increased the old warrior's former
inclinations of friendliness toward the ape-man, and now he regretted
that the other had departed from the city.

The testimony of O-lo-a and Pan-at-lee was such as to strengthen
whatever belief in the godliness of the stranger Ja-don and others of
the warriors had previously entertained, until presently there appeared
a strong tendency upon the part of this palace faction to make the
Dor-ul-otho an issue of their original quarrel with Lu-don. Whether
this occurred as the natural sequence to repeated narrations of the
ape-man's exploits, which lost nothing by repetition, in conjunction
with Lu-don's enmity toward him, or whether it was the shrewd design of
some wily old warrior such as Ja-don, who realized the value of adding
a religious cause to their temporal one, it were difficult to
determine; but the fact remained that Ja-don's followers developed
bitter hatred for the followers of Lu-don because of the high priest's
antagonism to Tarzan.

Unfortunately however Tarzan was not there to inspire the followers of
Ja-don with the holy zeal that might have quickly settled the dispute
in the old chieftain's favor. Instead, he was miles away and because
their repeated prayers for his presence were unanswered, the weaker
spirits among them commenced to suspect that their cause did not have
divine favor. There was also another and a potent cause for defection
from the ranks of Ja-don. It emanated from the city where the friends
and relatives of the palace warriors, who were largely also the friends
and relatives of Lu-don's forces, found the means, urged on by the
priesthood, to circulate throughout t