"Agreed," said Tarzan.
"But I am responsible to the Queen for the safe return of Tarzan," demurred Gemnon; "I do not like to have him out of my sight even for a short time."
"I promise that I shall not try to escape," the ape-man assured him.
"It was not that alone of which I was thinking," explained Gemnon.
"And I can assure you that I can take care of myself, if you feel fears for my safety," added Tarzan.
"Come, let us go," urged Xerstle. "I shall hunt with Gemnon and Pindes with Tarzan. We shall take one lion, they the other."
Reluctantly Gemnon assented to the arrangement, and presently the two parties separated, Xerstle and Gemnon going toward the northwest while Pindes and Tarzan took an easterly direction. The latter had proceeded but a short distance, the lion still upon its leash, when Pindes suggested that they separate, spreading out through the forest, and thus combing it more carefully.
"You go straight east," he said to Tarzan, "the keepers and the lion will go northeast, and I will go north. If any comes upon the trail he may shout to attract the others to his position. If we have not located the quarry in an hour let us all converge toward the mountains at the eastern side of the forest."
The ape-man nodded and started off in the direction assigned him, soon disappearing among the trees; but neither Pindes nor the keepers moved from where he had left them, the keepers held by a whispered word from Pindes. The leashed lion looked after the departing ape-man, and Pindes smiled. The keepers looked at him questioningly.
"Such sad accidents have happened many times before," said Pindes.