No sooner, however, was he safely gone than the other followed,
finding himself, after passing through the hole, on a little ledge
about halfway between the surface of the lake and the top of the
cliff above. The ledge inclined steeply upward, ending at the rear
of a building which stood upon the edge of the cliff and which the
second priest entered just in time to see Pan-sat pass out into
the city beyond.
As the latter turned a nearby corner the other emerged from the
doorway and quickly surveyed his surroundings. He was satisfied the
priest who had led him hither had served his purpose in so far as
the tracker was concerned. Above him, and perhaps a hundred yards
away, the white walls of the palace gleamed against the northern
sky. The time that it had taken him to acquire definite knowledge
concerning the secret passageway between the temple and the city
he did not count as lost, though he begrudged every instant that
kept him from the prosecution of his main objective. It had seemed
to him, however, necessary to the success of a bold plan that he
had formulated upon overhearing the conversation between Lu-don
and Pan-sat as he stood without the hangings of the apartment of
the high priest.
Alone against a nation of suspicious and half-savage enemies he
could scarce hope for a successful outcome to the one great issue
upon which hung the life and happiness of the creature he loved
best.
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