"Enough, if Nemone saw her," replied Phobeg meaningly. "To be more beautiful than the Queen is equivalent to high treason in the estimation of Nemone. Why, men hide their wives and daughters if they think that they are too beautiful; but there are few who would risk hiding an alien prisoner.
"I know a man who has a very ugly wife," continued Phobeg, "who never comes out of her house in daytime. She tells her neighbors that her husband keeps her hidden for fear Nemone will see her. Then there was another who was too beautiful. Her husband tried to keep her hidden from Nemone, but one day the Queen saw her and ordered her nose and ears cut off. Yes, I am glad that I am an ugly man rather than a beautiful woman."
"Is the Queen beautiful?" asked Tarzan.
"Yes, by the claws of the all-high, she is the most beautiful woman in the world."
"Knowing her policy, as you have explained it," remarked the ape-man, "I can readily believe that she may be the most beautiful woman in Cathne and quite sure of remaining so as long as she lives and is Queen."
"Do not mistake me," said Phobeg; "Nemone is beautiful; but," and he lowered his voice to a whisper, "she is a she-Satan. Even I who have served her faithfully may not look to her for mercy."
"What did you do to get here?" inquired the ape-man.
"I accidentally stepped on god's tail," replied Phobeg gloomily.
The man's strange oaths had not gone unnoticed by Tarzan, and now this latest remarkable reference to deity astounded him; but contact with strange peoples had taught him to learn certain things concerning them by observation and experience rather than by direct questioning, matters of religion being chief among these; so now he only commented, "And therefore you are being punished."
"Not yet," replied Phobeg. "The form of my punishment has not yet been decided. If Nemone has other amusements I may escape punishment, or I may come through my trial successfully and be freed; but the chances are all against me, for Nemone seldom has sufficient bloody amusement to sate her.