For her sake he must win allies and it was for this purpose
that he had sacrificed these precious moments, but now he lost no
further time in seeking to regain entrance to the palace grounds
that he might search out whatever new prison they had found in
which to incarcerate his lost love.
He found no difficulty in passing the guards at the entrance to
the palace for, as he had guessed, his priestly disguise disarmed
all suspicion. As he approached the warriors he kept his hands behind
him and trusted to fate that the sickly light of the single torch
which stood beside the doorway would not reveal his un-Pal-ul-donian
feet. As a matter of fact so accustomed were they to the comings
and goings of the priesthood that they paid scant attention to him
and he passed on into the palace grounds without even a moment's
delay.
His goal now was the Forbidden Garden and this he had little
difficulty in reaching though he elected to enter it over the wall
rather than to chance arousing any suspicion on the part of the
guards at the inner entrance, since he could imagine no reason why
a priest should seek entrance there thus late at night.
He found the garden deserted, nor any sign of her he sought. That
she had been brought hither he had learned from the conversation
he had overheard between Lu-don and Pan-sat, and he was sure that
there had been no time or opportunity for the high priest to remove
her from the palace grounds.
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