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The night was still young when there came one to the entrance of the banquet hall where O-Tar of Manator dined with his chiefs, and brushing past the guards entered the great rooed character, as in truth he was As he approached the head of the long board O-Tar took notice of his you out of your beloved and stinking burrow again this day We thought that the sight of the ames would drive you back to your corpses as quickly as you could go"

The cackling laugh of I-Gos acknowledged the royal sally "Ey, ey, O-Tar," squeaked the ancient one, "I-Gos goes out not upon pleasure bound; but when one does ruthlessly desecrate the dead of I-Gos, vengeance must be had!"

"You refer to the act of the slave Turan?" demanded O-Tar

"Turan, yes, and the slave Tara, who slipped beneath my hide a murderous blade Another fraction of an inch, O-Tar, and I-Gos' ancient and wrinkled covering were even now in soain eluded us," cried O-Tar "Even in the palace of the great jeddak twice have they escaped the stupid knaves I call The Jeddak's Guard" O-Tar had risen and was angrily e his words with heavy blows upon the table, dealt with a golden goblet

"Ey, O-Tar, they elude thy guard but not the wise old calot, I-Gos"

"What mean you? Speak!" commanded O-Tar

"I knohere they are hid," said the ancient taxidermist "In the dust of unused corridors their feet have betrayed them"

"You followed them? You have seen them?" demanded the jeddak

"I followed the beyond a closed door," replied I-Gos; "but I did not see them"

"Where is that door?" cried O-Tar "We will send at once and fetch theh to decide to whom he would entrust this duty A dozen warrior chiefs arose and laid their hands upon their swords

"To the chambers of O-Mai the Cruel I traced them," squeaked I-Gos "There you will find thehost of O-Mai; ey!" and he turned his eyes from O-Tar toward the warriors who had arisen, only to discover that, to alaughter of I-Gos broke derisively the hush that had fallen on the room The warriors looked sheepishly at the food upon their plates of gold O-Tar snapped his fingers i the chiefs of Manator?" he cried "Repeatedly have these presumptuous slaves flouted the o and fetch them?"