TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
“If he is a prisoner, what is he doing here, then?” demanded the girl. “And why are you here?”
“This fellow attacked the Emperor himself and then escaped from the palace. The entire city is being searched and I, being in charge of a detachment of soldiers assigned to this district, came immediately hither, fearing the very thing that has happened and that this wild man might find you and do you harm.”
“It was the patrician, Fastus, son of Imperial Caesar, who would have harmed me,” said the girl. “It was the wild man who saved me from him.”
Maximus Praeclarus looked quickly at Fastus the son of Sublatus, and then at Tarzan. The young officer appeared to be resting upon the horns of a dilemma.
“There is your man,” said Fastus, with a sneer. “Back to the dungeons with him.”
“Maximus Praeclarus does not take orders from Fastus,” said the young man, “and he knows his duty without consulting him.”
“You will arrest this man who has protected me, Praeclarus?” demanded Dilecta.
“What else may I do?” asked Praeclarus. “It is my duty.”
“Then do it,” sneered Fastus.
Praeclarus went white. “It is with difficulty that I can keep my hands off you, Fastus,” he said. “If you were the son of Jupiter himself, it would not take much more to get yourself choked. If you know what is well for you, you will go before I lose control of my temper.”
“Mpingu,” said Dilecta, “show Fastus to the avenue.”
Fastus flushed. “My father, the Emperor, shall hear of this,” he snarled; “and do not forget, Dilecta, your father stands none too well in the estimation of Sublatus Imperator.”
“Get gone,” cried Dilecta, “before I order my black slave to throw you into the avenue.”
With a sneer and a swagger Fastus quit the garden, and when he had gone Dilecta turned to Maximus Praeclarus.
“What shall we do?” she cried. “I must protect this noble stranger who saved me from Fastus, and at the same time you must do your duty and return him to Sublatus.”
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