So sudden and unexpected her approach that there was no opportunity to escape and Tarzan sat silently trusting that fate might be kind to him and lead Ko-tan's daughter away before her eyes dropped from the high-growing bloom to him. But as the girl cut the long stem with her knife she looked down straight into the smiling face of Tarzan-jad-guru. With a stifled scream she drew back and the ape-man rose and faced her. "Have no fear, Princess," he assured her. "It is the friend of Ta-den who salutes you," raising her fingers to his lips. Pan-at-lee came now excitedly forward. "O Jad-ben-Otho, it is he!" "And now that you have found me," queried Tarzan, "will you give me up to Lu-don, the high priest?" Pan-at-lee threw herself upon her knees at O-lo-a's feet. "Princess! Princess!" she beseeched, "do not discover him to his enemies." "But Ko-tan, my father," whispered O-lo-a fearfully, "if he knew of my perfidy his rage would be beyond naming. Even though I am a princess Lu-don might demand that I be sacrificed to appease the wrath of Jad-ben-Otho, and between the two of them I should be lost." "But they need never know," cried Pan-at-lee, "that you have seen him unless you tell them yourself for as Jad-ben-Otho is my witness I will never betray you." "Oh, tell me, stranger," implored O-lo-a, "are you indeed a god?" "Jad-ben-Otho is not more so," replied Tarzan truthfully. "But why do you seek to escape then from the hands of mortals if you are a god?" she asked. "When gods mingle with mortals," replied Tarzan, "they are no less vulnerable than mortals. Even Jad-ben-Otho, should he appear before you in the flesh, might be slain." "You have seen Ta-den and spoken with him?" she asked with apparent irrelevancy. "Yes, I have seen him and spoken with him," replied the ape-man. "For the duration of a moon I was with him constantly." "And--" she hesitated--"he--" she cast her eyes toward the ground and a flush mantled her cheek--"he still loves me?" and Tarzan knew that she had been won over. "Yes," he said, "Ta-den speaks only of O-lo-a and he waits and hopes for the day when he can claim her." "But tomorrow they give me to Bu-lot," she said sadly. "May it be always tomorrow," replied Tarzan, "for tomorrow never comes." "Ah, but this unhappiness will come, and for all the tomorrows of my life I must pine in misery for the Ta-den who will never be mine." "But for Lu-don I might have helped you," said the ape-man. "And who knows that I may not help you yet?" "Ah, if you only could, Dor-ul-Otho," cried the girl, "and I know that you would if it were possible for Pan-at-lee has told me how brave you are, and at the same time how kind." "Only Jad-ben-Otho knows what the future may bring," said Tarzan. "And now you two go your way lest someone should discover you and become suspicious."