"And you speak the language of these people?" asked Tarzan, indicating the young woman and Fastus and ignoring the black's query. "Of course," said the black. "I have been a prisoner among them for many years, but there are many Bagegos among my fellow prisoners and we have not forgotten the language of our mothers." "Good," said Tarzan. "Through you this young woman may speak to me." "She wants to know who you are, and where you came from, and what you were doing in her garden, and how you got here, and how you happened to protect her from Fastus, and--" Tarzan held up his hand. "One at a time," he cried. "Tell her I am Tarzan of the Apes, a stranger from a far country, and I came here in friendship seeking one of my own people who is lost." Now came an interruption in the form of loud pounding and hallooing beyond the outer doorway of the building. "See what that may be, Axuch," directed the girl, and as the one so addressed, and evidently a slave, humbly turned to do her bidding, she once more addressed Tarzan through the interpreter. "You have won the gratitude of Dilecta," she said, "and you shall be rewarded by her father." At this moment Axuch returned followed by a young officer. As the eyes of the newcomer fell upon Tarzan they went wide and he started back, his hand going to the hilt of his sword, and simultaneously Tarzan recognized him as Maximus Praeclarus, the young patrician officer who had conducted him from the Colosseum to the palace. "Lay off your sword, Maximus Praeclarus," said the young girl, "for this man is no enemy." "And you are sure of that, Dilecta?" demanded Praeclarus. "What do you know of him?" "I know that he came in time to save me from this swine who would have harmed me," said the girl haughtily, casting a withering glance at Fastus. "I do not understand," said Praeclarus. "This is a barbarian prisoner of war who calls himself Tarzan and whom I took this morning from the Colosseum to the palace at the command of the Emperor, that Sublatus might look upon the strange creature, whom some thought to be a spy from Castrum Mare." "If he is a prisoner, what is he doing here, then?" demanded the girl. "And why are you here?" "This fellow attacked the Emperor himself and then escaped from the palace. The entire city is being searched and I, being in charge of a detachment of soldiers assigned to this district, came immediately hither, fearing the very thing that has happened and that this wild man might find you and do you harm." "It was the patrician, Fastus, son of Imperial Caesar, who would have harmed me," said the girl. "It was the wild man who saved me from him." Maximus Praeclarus looked quickly at Fastus the son of Sublatus, and then at Tarzan. The young officer appeared to be resting upon the horns of a dilemma. "There is your man," said Fastus, with a sneer. "Back to the dungeons with him."