TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
these mountains, but I slipped upon the cliffside and fell and while I was unconscious the Bagegos took me prisoner, and when your soldiers raided the Bagego village they found me there. Now that you know about me, I presume that I shall be released.”
“Why?” demanded the officer. “Are you a citizen of Rome?”
“Of course not,” said Tarzan. “What has that to do with it?”
“Because if you are not a citizen of Rome it is quite possible that you are an enemy. How do we know that you are not from Castrum Mare?”
Tarzan shrugged. “I do not know,” he said, “how you would know that since I do not even know what Castrum Mare means.”
“That is what you would say if you wished to deceive us,” said the officer, “and you would also pretend that you could not speak or understand our language, but you will find that it is not going to be easy to deceive us. We are not such fools as the people of Castrum Mare believe us to be.”
“Where is this Castrum Mare and what is it?” asked Tarzan.
The officer laughed. “You are very clever,” he said.
“I assure you,” said the ape-man, “that I am not trying to deceive you. Believe me for a moment and answer one question.”
“What is it you wish to ask?”
“Has another white man come into your country within the last few weeks? He is the one for whom I am searching.”
“No white man has entered this country,” replied the officer, “since Marcus Crispus Sanguinarius led the Third Cohort of the Tenth Legion in victorious conquest of the barbarians who inhabited it eighteen hundred and twenty-three years ago.”
“And if a stranger were in your country you would know it?” asked Tarzan.
“If he were in Castra Sanguinarius, yes,” replied the officer, “but if he had ‘entered Castrum Mare at the east end of the valley I should not know it; but come, I was not sent here to answer questions, but to fetch you before one who will ask them.”
At a word from the officer, the soldiers who accompanied
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