they spoke the truth and when they had told him the direction in
which the two were traveling, Lu-don guessed that they were on their
way to Ja-lur to join Ja-don, a contingency that he felt must be
prevented at any cost. As was his wont in the stress of emergency, he
called Pan-sat into consultation and for long the two sat in close
conference. When they arose a plan had been developed. Pan-sat
went immediately to his own quarters where he removed the headdress
and trappings of a priest to don in their stead the harness and
weapons of a warrior. Then he returned to Lu-don.

"Good!" cried the latter, when he saw him. "Not even your fellow-priests
or the slaves that wait upon you daily would know you now. Lose no
time, Pan-sat, for all depends upon the speed with which you strike
and--remember! Kill the man if you can; but in any event bring the
woman to me here, alive. You understand?"

"Yes, master," replied the priest, and so it was that a lone warrior
set out from A-lur and made his way northwest in the direction of
Ja-lur.

The gorge next above Kor-ul-ja is uninhabited and here the wily
Ja-don had chosen to mobilize his army for its descent upon A-lur.
Two considerations influenced him--one being the fact that could he
keep his plans a secret from the enemy he would have the advantage
of delivering a surprise attack upon the forces of Lu-don from a
direction that they would not expect attack, and in the meantime he
would be able to keep his men from the gossip of the cities where
strange tales were already circulating relative to the coming of
Jad-ben-Otho in person to aid the high priest in his war against
Ja-don. It took stout hearts and loyal ones to ignore the implied