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294 across rocky uplands as inhospitable as the stunted thorns that dotted them.

And in the Royal Dome of Elkomoelhago, Thagosto of Veltopismakus, three people halted in a rock walled, hidden chamber and listened to a human voice that appeared to come to them out of the very rock of the walls surrounding them. Upon the floor about them lay the bones of long-dead men. About them rose the impalpable dust of ages.

The girl pressed closer to Tarzan. "Who is it?" she whispered.

Tarzan shook his head.

"It is a woman’s voice," said Komodoflorensal.

The ape-man raised his candle high above his head and took a step closer to the left hand wall; then he stopped and pointed. The others looked in the direction indicated by Tarzan’s finger and saw an opening in the wall a hual or two above his head. Tarzan handed his candle to Komodoflor­ensal, removed his sword and laid it on the floor, and then sprang lightly for the opening. For a moment he clung to its edge, listening, and then he dropped back into the chamber.

"It is pitch black beyond," he said. "Who­ever owns that voice is in another chamber beyond that into which I was just looking. There was no human being in the next apartment."

"If it was absolutely dark, how could you know