"Yes," replied the officer.
"Present yourself with the prisoner."
As Tarzan advanced toward the throne surrounded by the detachment of the guard, all eyes were turned upon him, for he was a conspicuous figure even in this assemblage of gorgeously appareled courtiers and soldiers, though his only garments were a loin-cloth and a leopard-skin. His sun-tanned skin, his shock of black hair, and his gray eyes might not alone have marked him especially in such an assemblage, for there were other dark-skinned, black-haired, gray-eyed men among them, but there was only one who towered inches above them all and he was Tarzan. The undulating smoothness of his easy stride suggested even to the mind of the proud and haughty Sublatus the fierce and savage power of the king of beasts, which perhaps accounted for the fact that the Emperor, with raised hand, halted the party a little further from the throne than usual.
As the party halted before the throne, Tarzan did not wait to be questioned, but, turning to the Bagego interpreter, said: "Ask Sublatus why I have been made a prisoner and tell him that I demand that he free me at once."
The black quailed. "Do as I tell you," said Tarzan.
"What is he saying?" asked Sublatus of the interpreter.
"I fear to repeat such words to the Emperor," replied the black.
"I command it," said Sublatus.
"He asked why he has been made a prisoner and demands that he be released at once."
"Ask him who he is," said Sublatus, angrily, "that he dares issue commands to Sublatus Imperator."