"But the risk is too great?" asked Tarzan.

"It is great, but not too great," replied Ta-den. "I shall go."

"And I shall go with you, if I may," said the ape-man, "for I must see
this City of Light, this A-lur of yours, and search there for my lost
mate even though you believe that there is little chance that I find
her. And you, Om-at, do you come with us?"

"Why not?" asked the hairy one. "The lairs of my tribe lie in the crags
above A-lur and though Es-sat, our chief, drove me out I should like to
return again, for there is a she there upon whom I should be glad to
look once more and who would be glad to look upon me. Yes, I will go
with you. Es-sat feared that I might become chief and who knows but
that Es-sat was right. But Pan-at-lee! it is she I seek first even
before a chieftainship."

"We three, then, shall travel together," said Tarzan.

"And fight together," added Ta-den; "the three as one," and as he spoke
he drew his knife and held it above his head.

"The three as one," repeated Om-at, drawing his weapon and duplicating
Ta-den's act. "It is spoken!"

"The three as one!" cried Tarzan of the Apes. "To the death!" and his
blade flashed in the sunlight.

"Let us go, then," said Om-at; "my knife is dry and cries aloud for the
blood of Es-sat."

The trail over which Ta-den and Om-at led and which scarcely could be
dignified even by the name of trail was suited more to mountain sheep,
monkeys, or birds than to man; but the three that followed it were
trained to ways which no ordinary man might essay. Now, upon the lower
slopes, it led through dense forests where the ground was so matted
with fallen trees and over-rioting vines and brush that the way held
always to the swaying branches high above the tangle; again it skirted
yawning gorges whose slippery-faced rocks gave but momentary foothold
even to the bare feet that lightly touched them as the three leaped
chamois-like from one precarious foothold to the next. Dizzy and
terrifying was the way that Om-at chose across the summit as he led
them around the shoulder of a towering crag that rose a sheer two
thousand feet of perpendicular rock above a tumbling river. And when at
last they stood upon comparatively level ground again Om-at turned and
looked at them both intently and especially at Tarzan of the Apes.

"You will both do," he said. "You are fit companions for Om-at, the
Waz-don."

"What do you mean?" asked Tarzan.

"I brought you this w