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CHAPTER XIX - THE MENACE OF THE DEAD
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 room with the insolence of a privileged character, as in truth he
was. As he approached the head of the long board O-Tar took notice of him.
"
Well, hoary one!" he cried. "What brings you out of your beloved and stinking
burrow again this day. We thought that the sight of the multitude of living men at
the games 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 some apprentice tanner's hands, ey, ey!"
"But they have again 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 emphasizing 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 know where 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 them and I heard them speaking 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 them," he
looked about the table as though 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 them where the moaning Corphals pursue the shrieking ghost of O-Mai;
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