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diff --git a/old/66602-0.txt b/old/66602-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8e31ee4..0000000 --- a/old/66602-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5467 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of At the Queen’s Mercy, by Mabel Fuller -Blodgett - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: At the Queen’s Mercy - -Author: Mabel Fuller Blodgett - -Illustrator: Henry Sandham - -Release Date: October 23, 2021 [eBook #66602] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images - made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE QUEEN’S MERCY *** - - - - - At the Queen’s Mercy - - -[Illustration] - - - - - At the Queen’s Mercy - - - By MABEL FULLER BLODGETT - - AUTHOR OF - _The Aspen Shade_, * _In Poppy Land_, * _Fairy Tales_ - - _Illustrated by_ HENRY SANDHAM, R.C.A. - -[Illustration: VT CRESCIT] - - Lamson, Wolffe and Company - - Boston, New York and London - - MDCCCXCVII - - - - - Copyright, 1897, - By Lamson, Wolffe and Company. - - _All rights reserved._ - - - _Norwood Press_ - _F. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith_ - _Norwood Mass. U.S.A._ - - - - - =To My Husband= - - _This Book is Dedicated_ - - - - - Contents - - - Chapter Page - I. A Slave’s Secret 1 - - II. The Pass of Blood 17 - - III. What Next Befell 31 - - IV. At the Queen’s Mercy 45 - - V. Astolba’s Errand 60 - - VI. The Cup of the Beast 73 - - VII. The High Priest’s Council 84 - - VIII. In the Cage 109 - - IX. The Mad Man of the Moon 121 - - X. The Red Witch holds her Revel 133 - - XI. The Treasure House of Edba and of Hed 144 - - XII. The Dance of the Maidens 161 - - XIII. A Strange Story 182 - - XIV. The Flower of Death 194 - - XV. The White Dove’s Flight 202 - - XVI. Zobo the Mighty Wrestles 215 - - XVII. Check to the Queen 225 - - XVIII. The Wisdom of Hubla 231 - - XIX. For life, for Love, for Freedom 240 - - XX. The Beginning of the End 252 - - - - - List of Illustrations - - - Page - At the Queen’s Mercy _Frontispiece_ - - The Mysterious Map 13 - - For Life or Death 127 - - At Bay 179 - - The Beginning of the End 258 - - - - - At the Queen’s Mercy - - - - - Chapter I - A Slave’s Secret - - -I am a plain man, and to do a plain man’s work was ever more to my taste -than to set down with a clerk’s skill such happenings as have befallen. - -Nevertheless, something within me spurs me onward; for, to tell the -truth, I am loath to die leaving no record of the sights that I have -seen; sights to brand the memory and stir the blood, and doings to turn -one hot and cold, years after the doers thereof have crumbled into dust. - -Fate, fickle jade, has willed a peaceful end for me—a man from whom -peace has ever been afar off. Yet by my fireside I am not alone: Zobo, -the Mighty, wrestles in the flames; Astolba, my fair white dove Astolba, -gently smiles upon my waking dreams, and she, the Queen with deadly -wondrous beauty, like some fair poisonous flower, flaunts before my -eyes. - -But enough of fancies. I must on to the beginning of the marvellous tale -in which I was to play so large a part. A tale strange beyond common -reckoning; strange beyond belief, were I not known not only as a man -whose inches well may bear him out, but also as one little versed in the -art of embroidering blunt facts with fine imaginings. - -It chanced in this wise:— - -We sat by the fire, Gaston Lestrade and I, one dark and stormy evening, -for this was the end of the rainy season. We were in the African -interior; fortune had dealt hardly with us. It is not needful to the -purpose of this tale to tell by what and by whom we had come to so -dismal a pass; enough that we found ourselves wet, hungry, surrounded by -hostile savages, and, worse than all, poor to nakedness after four -months’ irksome traffic in ivory and gum. Lestrade sat pulling his fine -black mustache, for all his present wretchedness, with the air of a -dandy on the Parisian boulevard, though there was not a petticoat within -miles, and death, from one cause or another, more like to be our portion -than amorous adventure. - -A quick eye for a woman had my comrade, and a heart big enough to hold -all the sex, or, at least, such as were personable. But over and above -all this, Gaston Lestrade was a man to die for a friend, albeit with a -jest on his lips, and I forbore to meddle with his pastimes. - -For myself, I cannot deny that women have ever held me in esteem, and -once or twice have urged me to retreat by hot advances. The reason of -this has ever seemed to me that I am big of limb and brawny withal; that -I am slow to speech and anger, yet enduring in that to which I have set -my mind. And this is not commonly the manner of the sex, who look up to -the power or strength such as the Lord has not given them, whose tongues -are nimble, and whose fancies float hither and thither with every -breath, like thistledown before the wind. And so they take to that which -is not of their fashion. - -Every man to his taste, say I—the wooing of maids to one, the clash of -arms to another, and for me comfort and plenty, and as little danger as -possible, which is in itself a strange thing, since it has been decreed -that all my life till now be spent for war and women. But I must hark -back to the fireside. We had taken stock of our resources, and with the -less trouble, inasmuch as they were few. - -“Four biscuit, _mon ami_,” said Lestrade, “and a few strips of smoked -meat. Truly, Africa is an excellent place to starve in.” And he yawned -as though the subject did not closely concern him. - -Which nettled me, and I spoke sharply: “Our powder and shot are nearly -spent. The king, next whose village we lie, loves us not; his fourth -wife can perhaps tell the reason.” - -Here Lestrade yawned again. - -“A spiritless wench, but not uncomely,” he murmured in his own tongue. - -“The palm-oil wine is gone,” I finished. - -Here my comrade was pricked to interest. He raised the flask and set it -down with a sigh. - -“_Hélas_, thou art ever right, my Dering. What shall it be? Do we fight -our way to shore, or on through the jungle, or does it meet with thy -judgment that we await here the tender mercies of our royal neighbor -yonder?” - -I gave the fire an ill-tempered shove with my foot, for I was cold and -hungry, and it has ever been my experience that a man’s sweetness of -temper will suffer from the emptiness of his stomach. “You know it is -equally impossible to go or to stay,” I answered shortly. Lestrade held -up his hand for silence, and through the heavy patter of the rain on the -roof of our hut came a noise that was not of the jungle. Gaston looked -to the priming of his rifle; I held my finger on the trigger of my own. - -“Some one running, and for his life,” said Lestrade, under his breath, -and even as he spoke, the door of our cabin was thrust open, and a man -leaped into the fire-lit circle. - -He stood a hunted creature, quivering and amazed for an instant, the -next, an arrow sped through the doorway and buried its point in his -shoulder. - -A yell of triumph rang through the forest, and two Fan warriors, hideous -in war-paint, followed. They faltered on seeing Lestrade and me, but -quickly plucked forth their spears to do us injury. - -It was not the time or place for argument. The report from Gaston’s -rifle rang out sharply, and the first savage pitched headlong and lay -still, a thin, dark stream trickling from the body over the earthen -threshold. The second, I dropped also, but not so neatly, for he -wriggled like a big black snake into the underbrush, and was lost to -sight. Seeing which I turned to look at our visitor, but here again -Lestrade was quicker than I. - -The negro was leaning heavily against the side of the hut, and Gaston -held in his hand the slender arrow which he had plucked from the man’s -shoulder. - -“A pin prick,” I began, with some contempt, for indeed the stranger’s -pallor, black though he was, and my comrade’s grave face, seemed greater -tribute than was needful for so slight a hurt. - -“Poisoned,” Gaston answered briefly, and even as he said it I knew that -it was so. - -I took the piece of bamboo in my hand. It was some ten inches long and -sharpened at one end. I stooped and picked up the bag of skin that lay -on the floor beside the body, still warm, of our fallen foe. Arranged in -careful order within were other arrows like to the first, each -red-tipped, each a swift and fatal messenger. - -There was no hope, and the wounded man knew it. - -He was a tall, muscular savage, a little stooped and grizzled with age, -but powerful, save for the death sickness that had begun already to -loosen his joints. - -Many lines crossed and recrossed his face, and as I looked on him more -closely, I saw that his features were not those of the neighboring -tribe, nor indeed did his face resemble the natives that I had seen. -Furthermore, his skin was more bronze than black. - -A curious woven strip falling from one shoulder over the right breast -bound his middle. Save for this, the man was naked, and I saw that some -strange torture had twisted and distorted his wrists and hands. -Moreover, his body bore in several places the mark of hot iron, and my -gorge rose at the thought of the infernal cruelties that had been -practised. - -Meanwhile Lestrade, with something of a woman’s touch, and in that was I -ever far behind my comrade, well-known as he is for skill and nicety in -sickness,—Gaston, I say, had helped the stranger down, had placed a -packet beneath his head, and now stood waiting, helpless to do more and -pitiful of the drops of agony that stood bead-like upon the forehead of -the dying man. - -The end would not be long. Presently the savage spoke, and in the -dialect of the neighboring tribe, but with the words somewhat clipped -and altered as one speaking a strange language to strange ears. - -“I am Sagamoso, priest of the Council,” he said, “and the door of Shimra -opens.” He raised himself with pain, upon his elbow, and his eyes -glittered strangely in the firelight. “Nevertheless, promise, O men of -white countenance, that you will bury me, my feet to the rising sun, -ashes upon my breast, in the name of Edba and of Hed; and deep, deep, so -that no beast shall rend me, no enemy loose me from my grave. Inasmuch -shall I escape the last evil.” - -“Christian burial, and no heathen mummery shall you have,” said I; for -in truth I was sore that this savage should have fled to us, as if our -case was not evil enough, and so was like to bring the whole tribe of -Fan, like a swarm of angry bees, about our ears. - -Lestrade was silent, and the stranger catching at my tone looked from -one to the other of us, for a space, in silence also. - -Then, as if some inward power thrust from him words he fain would have -held back, he burst forth:— - -“O men of white countenance! My hour is at hand. Swear by Edba and by -Hed to bury me as I have besought, and the place of the woman and of the -treasure shall be known to you, and, moreover, the secret way.” - -“The woman!” said Lestrade, drawing in his breath quickly. - -“The treasure!” I cried, and neither of us thought of the strangeness of -such words from the lips of a savage. - -Then by Edba and by Hed we swore; for the man’s words had somehow taken -hold upon our minds, and afterwards, all-curious, half-believing, for -the very strangeness of its telling lured us on, we heard the story of -Sagamoso, one time priest of the people of the Walled City, now outcast -and slave. - -I cannot tell it as he told it there in the African forest, with the -rain falling heavily without, and the fire casting strange shadows on -the face of the dying man, convulsed now and again by the action of the -poison that was eating out his life. But the things that he said are set -down in due order, though, as I told you, I am no scribe and cannot -cunningly interweave and polish my words as the learned do. - -“I am not of this people nor of this place,” said Sagamoso; “my home is -many miles hence, and the path is hidden and beset with peril. But two -of the people of white countenance like to yours have ever come so -far,—one a man old, not so much with years as with weariness and the -toil of wanderings; the other, his daughter, straight and slender, and -fair above the common lot of woman. - -“Him we slaughtered there at the outer gate, as is the law for -strangers. The maid was at the Queen’s behest brought to the palace, but -whether as the bride of Hed, I know not. Such service rendered to our -god is like to be her portion: nevertheless, three moons must wax and -wane before the feast, wherefore you who are of her people can yet save -her from the death marriage, unless, indeed, Hed be wroth, or Lah, the -Queen, set her will to thwart you. - -“Yet even so, surely of maids there are many, but of treasure like to -that in the secret storehouse of Edba, there is not in the whole world. - -“I, Sagamoso, priest of the Council, tell it you. O men of white -countenance! torture like to this,”—and he raised his twisted claw-like -hands,—“torture of hot iron and seared flesh could not have wrung it -from me. But if I be not buried with the rites of the dread god whose -servant I yet am, I must walk forever in the outer darkness, weariness -unutterable my portion throughout all ages. Because of the sin that I -have sinned, the door of Shimra indeed is shut before my face, but the -peace of nothingness is still within my grasp, and for that peace will I -betray the secret of the city that has cast me forth, the secret of the -jewels and the fragrant gums, the ivory and precious woods, the gold and -rich garments and the wines of price, that lay hid within the bowels of -the earth, and guarded by the name that may not be spoken.” - -Here the stranger’s voice faltered and was still, and Lestrade and I -looked at each other in amazement that was yet half belief, for the -passion in the tones rang through the hut, and that the manner of this -heathen burial was to him that asked it of vital import, none might -doubt. - -“This maiden,” said Lestrade, as though the thought of the treasure had -passed him by, “what dreadful fate threatens her, and where is this -walled city?” - -[Illustration] - -The poison was doing its work all too well. Thickly and with difficulty -the words came from the swollen lips of the dying man. He thrust aside -the woven strip that covered his breast. - -“Look!” he gasped; “the secret way.” Lestrade and I bent close and there -sure enough, tattooed in lines of blue and red, on a spot above the -heart as big as a man’s palm, we saw a rude map. - -“Straight through the jungle northward,” breathed the priest, “by the -swamp, by the waterfall, through the mountains, where beyond lieth the -Pass of Blood! Behold the sign!” - -His wavering forefinger touched the woven garment, and we saw the -fantastic outline of an evil, leering god, about whose squat and crooked -body twined a monstrous serpent. - -“Bid the gate open in the name of Hed!” he continued, his voice growing -full and resonant once more. “And look you—speak not of Sagamoso, the -betrayer of the trust, the defiler of the sanctuary. Him, they think -long since dead. Let his name be forgotten lest it be cursed before the -Council.” - -“But the maid, the maid!” cried Lestrade. - -The eyes of the stranger narrowed. A curious light blazed in their -depths. With a superhuman effort, the dying man raised himself from the -ground. - -“I am a priest of the Council,” he cried, in a strange, chanting kind of -voice. “I have been traitor. I have been slave. To Edba and to Hed have -I turned my back. But my gods remember, my gods are strong, my gods -punish. Think not to wrest from the Snake, his bride.” - -The strange, triumphant note broke. “By Edba and by Hed have you sworn,” -he muttered, and so passed. - -Lestrade and I had learned the slave’s secret, and the leaven for good -or ill was working within us, silently indeed, but with a strange, -persistent, and fateful power. - -First, without more words, we buried him, and with the rites he had -demanded, for I am a man of my word, and Lestrade follows my leading -easily in that which affects him not nearly. - -Then—for the day was at hand—we considered briefly that which had taken -place and that which was to come. - -Our present fortunes could well bear mending. The priest’s words of a -woman to be saved, and a treasure to be gained, had fired our blood. -Life held little of safety for us here, and the end of it was that -Lestrade’s daring spirit weighed down my more prudent advices, and the -die was cast. - -Once having resolved upon the enterprise, I put from me, as is my habit, -all thought against the wisdom of the undertaking, though to perish in -the jungle in the pursuit of a phantom city, or to be slain at its gates -in reality, seemed like to be our portion. - -Sagamoso’s last words echoed in my mind. That hatred of the white -stranger had lurked in the eyes of the dying man I doubted not, but -needs must when the devil drives. Wherefore, without more speech upon -the matter, our scanty goods were packed, and Lestrade, with a gay tune -upon his lips, and I, the more silent for his light-heartedness, set -forth upon our journeyings. - - - - - Chapter II - The Pass of Blood - - -The first step now was to flee from the wrath of the Fan tribe. - -Cannibals were they, and over and above their just cause for offence I -felt that they had long been tempted to try the flavor of a white-man -roast. However, I was not minded to end my days in so inglorious a -manner; neither would Gaston’s high spirit brook the thought of such -disgrace. We pushed our canoe, therefore, with all good-will up stream, -and by dint of hard paddling, in the art of which I stand second to -none, we had soon a comfortable distance between ourselves and our -neighbors. - -Lestrade had copied with feminine painstaking, on a strip of hide, every -line of the rude map tattooed upon Sagamoso’s brawny chest. I, for my -part, had taken with us the woven garment, which I saw was made of the -hair of some animal, a goat probably, and which was colored with vivid -dyes in orange, crimson, and blue. - -Following, as well as we might, the chart that was now our only guide, -towards nightfall we beached our canoe, and I, by great good-luck, -speared a small monkey that chattered in the branches of a tree -overhead. We quickly made a fire, and Lestrade served a steak which, -garnished with plantains, left nothing to be desired. - -The howling of a panther sounded faintly through my slumbers that first -night of our encampment, but the protecting fire kept the great cat at -bay, and he had gone by day-break. - -We arose refreshed and ready to look lightly upon our quest, all -undisturbed by the slenderness of our ammunition and stores. So one hour -passed and another. We had begun to suffer much from the thorns that -tore our flesh, from innumerable flies that ran their red-hot needles -into every unprotected inch of our bodies and even through our clothes. - -Our shoes, too, had by this time been cut in strips, and our feet were -swollen and bleeding. - -But these were hardships that every traveller looks to, and we were -consumed with the desire to find the Walled City and behold the maiden -and the treasure that its temple held. - -Indeed, we talked of little else. Gaston turned the slave’s tale this -way and that, and his nimble tongue wove pictures all different in form, -but all ending happily with processions of triumph, where crowned as -kings we bore away the damsel and the gold. - -Even to my sober thought, these tales lightened much the journey; yet, -though I am not given to fancies, the eyes of the heathen god outlined -upon the dead priest’s garment, at such times seemed to gleam, with a -kind of horrible joy and malice, and the snake’s crest reared, and I -could almost hear the thick hiss in which the python vents its rage. - -It is not my purpose to relate each adventure as it happened. Perils -from man and beast there were. Once we were captured by a strange tribe -and escaped narrowly, leaving behind us much of vital use to us in our -journeying. Once I saved Lestrade, helpless and unarmed, from the fury -of a gorilla. Once we fled for our lives before the onslaught of an army -of brown ants, that strip to the bone every living thing that ventures -in the line of its strange march. - -So on, and at last we reached the waterfall set down upon our chart, and -here a thing happened that kindled anew the fire of our drooping hearts. - -It was a thing wonderful in itself, more wonderful as explaining the -parting words of the slave Sagamoso, and it clearly showed us that we -had not strayed from the right path, and that the jungle had given up -its secret. - -This waterfall was higher than any I had seen in Africa. It fell with a -rush and a roar loud enough to be heard very far off, and it was split -at its lowest part by a tall pillar of stone, on which was carved—and -this was what cheered us like wine—the grotesque image of the -snake-encircled god. - -How such a pillar could have been set up by mortal hands in such a -place, exposed as it was to the fury of the downpour of this great body -of water, was in itself a marvel, and threw a new light on the people -that, with our small store of weapons, we two men had set out to brave. - -“The waterfall must have been turned from its course,” said Lestrade. - -And I, seeing no better way out of it, agreed. - -Yet was this no time to stop and argue the matter, so we took up our -burdens once more, and, with renewed hope, pressed on; and the more -certainly in that here the jungle broke, leaving before us a broad -track, as though an army of elephants had fled or been driven along the -way. - -This did not astonish us at the moment, for there are many such -clearings in the African forest; but as we sped onward, and the broad -thoroughfare still stretched before us, as far as eye could see, we knew -this was no common happening. - -Night found us yet on this untrammelled and solitary highway; and as the -shadows closed, I am not ashamed to confess that a chill settled on my -heart, and that even Lestrade grew silent. - -However, naught chanced to disturb our slumbers, and looking well to our -arms, we marched briskly forward. - -Lestrade was a little ahead, and on a sudden he gave a sharp cry -and—disappeared. The ground had opened and swallowed him. I pressed -forward, and my horrified gaze took in at a flash the devilish trap into -which he had fallen. - -A pit thirty feet in depth, twenty feet or more in width, stretched, as -I afterwards found, from one side of the road to the other. It had been -artfully covered with a fine mesh of woven grass, and this mesh by -several inches of earth, so that the fiendish contrivance was hidden -from the most careful gaze. Air-holes, the use of which I will tell -presently, were so arranged as to be concealed by the dense foliage of -the jungle. The plaited grass of course could not bear up any weight of -moment, although small animals might safely venture across. - -But this was not all. A loathsome mass of serpents crawled and twisted -upon the bottom of this pit; and hanging by his fingers from a slight -projecting rock on the side, some twelve feet down, I saw the agonized -form of my friend. - -“Courage, Gaston!” I cried, and cheerfully, though my soul was sick -within me. “I will save you—or shoot you,” I added inwardly. - -Even in that moment of horror the old mocking smile played for an -instant on the white face beneath. - -“Agreed,” Lestrade answered, in a voice that he fain would have copied -after my own. - -I slipped the woven garment of the priest Sagamoso from about my body, -and knotted it into a running noose. This I tied securely to the stock -of my rifle, and leaning over the pit, I swung it down in the hope that -I might fasten it under Gaston’s shoulders and so ease the terrible -strain that I could see grew instantly more unbearable. - -I beheld the white bones of animals or men in the pit beneath. The fetid -odor of that nameless place assailed my nostrils, and I saw, merciful -heaven! that it should be so—the noose fell short. - -I looked heavily upward, and there, carved on a tree that overtopped the -pit, I beheld the horrid image of the snake-encircled god. - -The face leered down upon me, and the eyes taunted me, vile slits that -they were, in the impassive cruelty of that smooth countenance. - -Then a frenzy seized me and lent strength to bone and sinew. - -“I will save you, man, or I will die with you.” The sound came thickly -from between my teeth. - -I thrust my spear deep into the ground beside the pit. I tied about me -one end of the garment of the dead priest, and fastened the other to the -spear. Then with my naked hands I made a kind of foothold in the close -packed earth, and let myself down over the edge. If there was a flaw in -the iron forged by savage hands, the spear would snap. The woven strip -of cloth that cut into my flesh might part under the strain, or the -stake be pulled from its earthen bed. I dared not look below, but I -heard Lestrade’s quick, hard breathing. - -That twelve feet seemed a hundred, and the snail pace all the slower for -the galloping pulses of my heart. - -All at once—for the ear grows keen in danger—I heard Gaston’s fingers -slipping,—slipping along the rock. - -“Friend, I can do no more.” - -The faint whisper was borne upward from the pit. With a superhuman -effort I let go my hold with one hand, and my fingers closed upon the -collar of Lestrade’s shirt. - -He hung a dead weight, limp in my grasp, and I thought my arms would -start from their sockets. The spear above us swung to one side; the -sweat from my forehead ran down and blinded my eyes. - -With an animal instinct I clung to the side of the pit. I could feel the -veins in my temples full to bursting, and for one brief moment, ease -from that terrible rack seemed more to be desired than a friend’s life; -more precious than sunlight; a better thing than honor itself. The next -instant, and my foot, by the Lord’s mercy, touched the stone that had -stayed Lestrade’s fall. - -Inch by inch, I, John Dering, lifted that unconscious body, while the -birds twittered in the branches overhead, and the pitiless sun beat -down, and the god of the people of the Walled City kept evil watch, and -the serpents hissed and writhed in the pit beneath. - -At last I had one arm over the edge of that place of torment. One final -mighty effort, and Lestrade was safe, while the spear shot from its -socket, and fell tinkling into the depths below. How I drew myself up to -lie upon the edge beside my friend, I do not know. My blood had turned -to water in my veins, and I was as weak as a new-born babe. I could not -have lifted a finger to have escaped a thousand deaths. Earth and sky -came together in one black threatening mass; the next I knew Lestrade -was pouring water on my forehead, and moreover kissing me on both -cheeks—a foreign practice I could never stomach, and one which soon -brought me to my senses. - -That day we rested. The next we tore the cover of grass from that foul -trap, and left it open to the gaze of men and beasts. - -Then because I am a religious man and believe in the right conduct of -human undertakings, I swore to set my face the more earnestly towards -the object of our travelling. Neither to seek peace or comfort till the -Walled City be found; praying that Providence might deliver into my hand -the maker of that death pit, that I might presently bring him to a -repentance that would be beyond the pale of backsliding forever. - -“The Lord do so to me, and more also, if I follow not the leading of my -conscience in this matter,” said I, and Lestrade answered, “Amen.” - -Then, because we were not to be put aside like children, from that to -which we had set our minds, we felled a tree, and bridged the pit and so -crossed. - -Much more slowly we now proceeded, for we had been taught caution, yet -we marched onward, with little thought to the map, for the course lay -plain before us. We were now in a mountainous country, and it had grown -cool, a matter for much thanksgiving. We guessed by this and other signs -that now our quest was well-nigh over, and we were right; for at length -after much toil of travel we came without mishap to our journey’s end. -Massed across the open appeared a pile of rock, and as we neared, I saw -the lines in Lestrade’s face deepen. Nor was I untouched, for we did not -doubt that before us lay the entrance to the City that we sought. We -looked to our guns and came up with all caution. - -The noise of the jungle was in our ears, but of human sight or sound -there was none. The mass in front towered above us to the sky, and we -saw that it had been set in place by some gigantic machinery unknown to -the civilized world. The massive barrier was formed of rock, fitted -together with cunning, and smooth like glass. - -The nature of the rock was strange to us, for it was splashed here and -there by great red stains, like gouts of blood; and the fancy was -further heightened by a scarlet creeper that clung and fed itself, and -well-nigh covered the base of the ponderous mass. - -There was no gate nor doorway nor visible opening of any kind, and on -each side of the great wall grew dense a prickly thorn, so tough that it -turned the edges of our axes, and we saw the hopelessness of cutting -through our way, even if the wall of stone extended not further in the -African forest than eye could see. - -That this was the mocking work of the people we had come to seek was -plain; for here, as before, by the waterfall and overlooking the pit, -here on the central rock and far above our heads, was painted the same -gross image of their god. - -We hoped to find some hidden entrance, and we went over the wall’s -surface, Lestrade and I, with patient fingers, all the long morning, and -again and again, till night had well-nigh settled down upon us. But all -in vain. The unyielding mass barred our further progress, and, as -before, the serpent god gloated over the failure of our hopes. Mad at -this ending, I seized my gun, and aimed it straight at the hideous face -above. The ball sped surely, as my shots ever do. It flattened itself -against the surface of the rock, between the creature’s eyes. - -There was a dull rumbling, a sound as of chains that slid and struck -against stone or metal. Then the central stone slowly turned, as on a -pivot, and forth from the opening poured a wild stream of men. - - - - - Chapter III - What Next Befell - - -On they came, like a swarm of angry bees from a hive; and I saw that -they were mostly men of great stature, though mine, I judged, would -still overtop the tallest, the which I do not say boastfully, but as one -bearing witness to the truth. - -Now that we had come at last to open war, my mind was clear, as my hand -and heart were steady, and I could take calm note of this, as of other -matters. - -Lestrade was humming a gay tune at my side, his rifle well aimed, his -finger on the trigger. - -These people were clearly brethren of the dead priest Sagamoso, for they -were of the same bronze color; and as they drew nearer, I perceived the -regularity of their features, like to his. - -They carried spears and swords that flashed bright in the rays of the -setting sun. They called to us in a strange language and with -threatening gestures; but I am, as I have said, a peaceful man, and -loath to shed blood, so with a word I restrained my more fiery Lestrade, -and we abode their onslaught. - -Then a spear hurtled through the air and clove the fleshy portion of my -arm, and with that, the lust of conflict fell upon me, and my eyes saw -red, and verily I was mad with the joy of battle. - -The foremost dropped before me, shot through the heart, and the second. - -They paused for an instant in their onward rush, but I thought not so -much with fear or surprise, as in obedience to a command. Then they -pressed forward. My rifle emptied itself into the compact living mass. -Lestrade was close behind. I seized the barrel in my hand, and the first -oncomer fell like an ox beneath the blow. - -So, thrusting, beating down the line of shining weapons, I clove my way -through, and for me there was no weariness, nor fear, nor prick of -bodily hurt. Only that fierce gladness, that inasmuch as it is the man’s -portion, transcends the lot of woman. There was one strange thing I -noted even in the midst of the tumult. The warriors seemed bound by some -observance to disable rather than to wound us. They struck heavily, it -is true, but with the flat of their swords, and this I could see was -from no love of the stranger. - -Hate flashed from their eyes and rang in their voices; so as I laid -stoutly about me, I did so with the more good-will in that I felt myself -reserved with Lestrade for some more devoted sacrifice than was possible -at the moment. - -On a sudden the howling horde melted away, and a new enemy appeared. -Down the open space, with great leaps, and with a cry, half bestial, -half human in its malice, it came. A gray, furry body, fantastically -striped in red and blue, two shining, bead-like eyes. This I saw; the -next instant two sinewy claw-like hands were at my throat, and we were -rolling over and over in the dust, the creature biting and striving to -smother me in its embrace. It was strong, and it knew the tricks of -wrestling. For a time neither one of us could boast of vantage. - -The fight had ceased, and I dimly saw Lestrade trussed into a helpless -bundle and lying upon the ground. The people of the Walled City stood in -silence, resting upon their arms, like warriors of bronze. - -Then the inward fury that consumed me stiffened my muscles to steel. My -knee rested on the creature’s hairy chest. I seized its jaw in my hand, -and forced its head slowly, slowly back. - -Its eyes rolled in helpless fury; its great teeth were ground together -in a rage that defied me to the worst; the tongue protruded. There was a -quick snap like the breaking of sugar-cane. The giant head rolled limply -to one side; the long arms relaxed their pressure. A wail of sorrow and -of anger rose from the waiting throng; I stood one instant, conqueror -and free! In another, I was brought heavily to my knees, and the meshes -of a net encompassed me. The horde of warriors fell into line. A litter -of crossed spears was quickly made, and Lestrade and I were hoisted up -and so with ignominy carried onward as is a bale of goods to the -warehouse. Through the cleft in the wall of the Pass of Blood, which -closed with ominous silence behind us; on through a passage-way, deep, -narrow, hewn out of the solid rock; so once more were we borne close -guarded, into the sunlight, and within the City of the worshippers of -the serpent god, the City of our golden dreams and the dead priest’s -promise. - -The street that opened was straight and wide, and bordered by houses of -good size, generally of one story only, but built in every case of -stone. Lestrade and I had never seen the like in all Africa, and the -smooth, hard roadbed over which we were carried was another proof of the -skill of this strange people. - -Now that the stress of battle was over, I could look about me. From the -open doorways of the houses peered a curious throng, men, children, and -women also, but these last were close veiled, much to my good Gaston’s -disappointment, as I could see. - -Our bodyguard were fine, stalwart fellows; each man had filed his two -upper and two lower front teeth to a point, a custom I have elsewhere -observed, and one giving the countenance a singularly wolfish look. -Their long black locks were braided, and the plats were interwoven with -strands of golden wire. They bore spears, and long curved knives stuck -in girdles of panther skin. They carried also shields of hide, and on -their feet were curious sandals that were laced to the calf with -leathern strips. - -The heads of the leaders were decorated with feathers held in place by a -jewelled clasp, and the size of the gems sent the blood tingling through -my veins. - -I could now see that one man commanded this array, and I was the more -sorry for that inasmuch as the steely glitter of his eye when turned our -way, boded his prisoners little good. He was an old man and unlike the -rest, covered from neck to heel by a flowing white garment around whose -hem appeared strange characters writ in scarlet. A long gray beard fell -over his breast, and his hair was bound by a plain gold fillet that -crossed the forehead. In his hand he carried a short rod of ebony, and I -noted with growing pain the reverence with which his followers observed -his every gesture. - -On a sudden, he raised his staff, and like one man the warriors halted. - -We had stopped before an archway that spanned the street, and which was -guarded by a gate of woven bamboo made strong by bars of iron, and -bristling with points of the same metal. This gate swung on a pivot, and -a man appeared who held earnest conference with our aged leader. - -This newcomer looked to be about thirty years of age. I judged that he -was not more than five feet tall, but the spread of his shoulders was so -enormous that he might well have looked shorter than his real height. -His massive arms were covered with bracelets of the precious yellow -metal; his garments were striped with gold and blue. He carried no spear -or buckler, but a short, straight two-edged sword hung from his side. - -The talk was brief but earnest, and its import was clearly not to the -satisfaction of our venerable friend. At last, with a vindictive -backward glance at me, he pointed his long, bony finger at the body of -the dead ape, for now I knew the kind of creature whose neck I had -broken. - -He of the broad shoulders looked at it and then at me again with more -discernment, and I thought with no less liking than before. Then as the -tide of remonstrance from him of the evil eye and white beard did not -cease, the other took from a fold in his garments a thing that glistened -and glittered like a molten rainbow in the fading light, a girdle whose -links were gold fastening squares studded with gems that defied, in -their brilliance, the noonday sun. - -This he laid upon the outstretched hand of the elder, and his clamor -ceased, hushed to muttered murmuring. The armed throng passed the open -gate, and as they defiled before him with the jewelled girdle, each -touched, with outstretched palm, the breast and forehead, and the -broad-shouldered one gravely bent his head in answer to their salute. - -So were we borne along through a maze of streets like to that through -which we had first come. - -At length a halt was called, and we found ourselves before a temple -built, indeed, of stone, but ornamented with carvings of fruit and -flowers and strange figures of beasts and birds, covered with a curious -lacquer in brilliant tints, red, green, violet, and gold. - -Six men received us. They wore short, white tunics, and had shaven -crowns bound by silver fillets, and they looked, I thought, with -ill-concealed pleasure on the body of the dead ape. - -Only a small bodyguard followed Lestrade and myself within the portals -of this temple. We were borne along a curious labyrinth of passages all -going downward and towards a common centre. A door of iron, heavily -barred, was loosened and turned upon its pivot. We were carried within. -Here our bonds were struck off by order of the chief with broad -shoulders, but contrariwise, a metal girdle was locked about our waists, -and this in turn was fastened by a stout but sufficiently long chain to -a staple in the wall of our prison chamber. - -Then the guards withdrew, and through the bars of the door I saw the -leader bind the outer bolts with a small cord. This he sealed with wax, -and likewise stamped the seal with a square of the jewelled girdle in -such manner that none could enter without having first broken the wax -itself. Then he also left us, and Lestrade and I were once more alone. - -We turned with one consent, and after we had each spoken somewhat to the -other on the marvels of our capture and present escape from death, and -had rubbed our arms and legs to a more comfortable complexion, for our -bonds had been drawn about us with no light hand, we then took, what was -plainly the next thing in order, and examined with due care our forced -abiding-place. - -The worst thing to be said against it was the darkness, for all light -filtered from a distance through slits in the roof. The room was airy -enough, however, and cool. The walls were closely overlaid with sticks -of bamboo, and the floor was of earth pressed into bricks and colored -with some show of art. Two woven sacks were filled to a pleasant -thickness with some sweet-smelling leaves, and were each provided with a -soft, wide strip of cloth, so that in the matter of beds, these heathen -had given us nothing of which to complain. - -A long, low settle of heavy black wood was also given over to our use, -and this made complete the furnishing of the place. - -After some hours of converse, and when darkness had settled like a pall -upon the chamber, we heard approaching footsteps, and a lighted torch -was thrust through the bars of the upper part of the door and into a -socket set for the purpose. Then from the same hand came a wooden -platter piled high with steaming meat and plantains, a gourd of water, -and three small stone pitchers brimming with palm wine. - -The three pitchers, and the fact that the meat was also divided into -three portions, puzzled, at the time, both Gaston and myself, but we -found afterwards that as I had killed the sacred ape belonging to the -service of Hed, I was supposed to be possessed of a devil to whose -strength was due this feat. - -One portion of all our food was therefore set apart for the use of this -same familiar. That I, who am, as I have said, a religious man, should -be so thought of, filled me, when I knew the facts, with righteous -indignation; but at the time, in my ignorance, I cheerfully abode the -insult, and the portion of the evil spirit said to dwell within me was -consumed like to the other victuals, with all the zeal and constancy of -a hungry man. - -After our first prison meal, Lestrade and I betook ourselves to bed, and -being a heavy sleeper, I knew no more until a hand shook me roughly by -the shoulder. Now I could never abide being broken of my rest, a thing -which was the less to be desired after the wearying events of the bygone -day. So it was with little ceremony I struck out, and should perhaps, -between sleeping and waking, have done some damage, had not the same -hand deftly emptied the gourd of water over my head, while Gaston’s -familiar voice cried, with less courtesy than need be, “Fool!” - -This brought me briskly to my senses, and I was about to argue the point -with him, when a new sound hushed my tongue to silence, and I needed not -Lestrade’s command to listen. - -A curious sound it was, and awesome, there in the midnight hour,—a sound -not all a wail, not all a chant, but holding a note of jubilee so coldly -cruel that it pierced with icy fear the very marrow of him who heard it. - -Three times this strange song rose and fell distinctly to our waiting -ears. Then it grew fainter and fainter, and died away, at length, in the -distance. - -I thought of my past sins and of my present straits, and I wished, with -all earnestness, that I and my good rifle had not been parted. - -Then sleep bore heavy upon my eyelids, and I turned over on my sack of -leaves, leaving Lestrade still sitting with the white moonlight shining -down through the slits in the roof above us upon his face. - - - - - Chapter IV - At the Queen’s Mercy - - -The next day passed without event of any kind, save the welcome advent -of three good meals. I can say, for my part, that no sweet adventure -could so well have satisfied my palate; and I bore the lack of present -peril with all fortitude. But Lestrade was not of my mind, and ate -moodily and more sparely than is fitting for the wellbeing of a -Christian stomach. He spoke, moreover, ungratefully of “fattening for -the sacrifice,” which, I take it, was neither a wise nor a comfortable -saying, inasmuch as there appears, to my way of thinking, little profit -in vain forebodings of that which is to come, and much mischief in -despising present good for fear of future evil. - -To be tied like a dog to a ring in the wall vexed him also, and sorely; -nor did my pointing out to him the value of a submissive spirit, and its -purpose in mastering the carnal pride of the flesh, greatly avail him. - -For myself, I believe in patience until the time be ripe for the -chastisement of the enemy, to the hurt, indeed, of his mortal body, but -to the everlasting benefit of his heathen soul. But Lestrade is of a -fiery nature, that cannot brook delay. Still the day wore on, and at -nightfall the sound of footsteps and the clang of metal resounded once -more through the rock-hewn corridors without. - -Nearer came the approaching feet, and soon the light of torches could be -seen by us dimly in the distance. - -Then he of the broad shoulders appeared, accompanied by a guard of armed -men. The seal of our prison was cut asunder, the door opened, we were -loosed from our chains, and cords were bound about our wrists. Then a -sign to follow was given, and we went forth. - -We passed from the temple into the street, and so on through many other -streets, until we halted before a great building, whose walls were set -with marbles of rare tints, and embellished with silver that glistened -in the moonlight. - -No time was given us to look and wonder; the massive gates swung open, -and we went within. From Lestrade and myself there broke an exclamation -of wonder, for we had come from darkness into the brightness of a hall, -the like of which is not, I verily believe, in all Africa. - -For a little the glare was blinding, but soon my eyes became used to the -light, and I began to look attentively about me. - -This then is what I saw. The audience room was brilliant with thousands -of torches that hung from silver sockets set in the wall, and depending -also from pillars of carved wood that held up the roof. These torches -burned clearly and with a sweet smell, and their light was shed on a -countless multitude of men that lined the room itself. - -The walls, too, of this great hall, though of stone, were enriched with -panels of rare woods in pink and in amber, polished like the supporting -pillars to a rare excellence of mirror-like brightness. - -The floor was fashioned of huge blocks of marble set close and in a -curious pattern, and covered towards the centre with a silk rug woven -with pictures of strange beasts and birds like to those carved upon the -temple we had just left. - -The corners of this room were filled with plants bearing vivid flowers -that gave forth a strong but very sweet scent. One end of this strange -apartment was fenced off from what might be called the outer court, by a -silver screen of fine open-work. Opposite this, at the further end, -stood a low chair of ebony, round which coiled a carven serpent wrought -in the same black wood, but with scales overlaid also in silver. - -On this seat, or throne, I beheld the aged man who had commanded the -force that had captured us, and whom I felt must be the High Priest of -the dread god Hed. - -He sat now, his chin in his hand, and he regarded us, I saw, with the -same dark disfavor. - -Surrounding him were men with shaven crowns and wearing woven garments -like to those of the dead priest Sagamoso, and without this circle stood -another line of men, but these were clothed in white like the six who -had received us at the entrance of our prison house. - -Beyond these again were massed warriors, naked save for their -leopard-skin girdles, their shields and swords. The outer ring was -composed of a curious throng of every age and condition, with women -closely veiled, and even children. - -Near the silver screen, on each side of the hall, sat, cross-legged, six -negroes, natives of a tribe I had never seen. These were richly dressed, -and before each was a drum ornamented with gold, and these they beat -constantly with long spoon-shaped pieces of wood. - -Behind them stood still other negroes thrumming on rude harps; the whole -producing a strange, not unmusical sound, very soul-stirring in effect -on him who listened. Suddenly there came from behind the silver screen -the clash of cymbals. The people bent to the earth, and even the white -beard of the haughty High Priest swept the ground. The warriors clashed -their shields together; a cry of reverence and of welcome broke from the -waiting throng; the silver screen parted. It slipped noiselessly back -into the wall on either side. - -Lestrade drew a quick breath, and at the same instant my eyes rested on -the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen. For a little her -loveliness held me fixed as though some spell had been wrought upon my -vision. It was not until her voice, full and musical, broke the tense -silence, that I turned my eyes away to see what setting held so fair a -jewel. - -And truly it was worthy. For the throne was of pure gold, and the back a -peacock’s tail, so encrusted with gems as to quite hide the precious -yellow metal, and the seat supported by four elephants’ tusks banded at -the top by a row of egg-shaped emeralds. Behind the throne crouched a -circle of mute veiled women before negro fan-bearers, erect and naked -save for turban and loin cloth of golden tissue. Surrounding with drawn -swords their royal mistress stood the guard of the household, each a -perfect specimen of manhood and each plainly but richly dressed. - -Lah, the Queen, was arrayed in some Eastern fabric, not silver and not -silk, but partaking of the nature of each, and bound about the waist by -the girdle that I had seen in the hands of him who had committed us to -the safe keeping of the temple. - -This garment was held in its place over the bare shoulder, by a clasp -whereof the diamonds were as big as hazel nuts. A fillet shaped like a -serpent encircled the Queen’s head and kept back from her face the long, -braided locks of blue-black hair that hung, heavy also with jewels, to -her knees. She alone of all the women present was unveiled. I drank in -the glory of her unfathomable eyes darker than midnight. I saw the -scarlet of her lips, the warm olive of her skin, the graceful lines of -her strong, supple, beautiful body. - -But I have little skill in such portraying. To Lestrade that task. -Enough that Lah, Queen of the people of the Walled City, was not only -fair above the need of woman,—the Lord knoweth the ruin that hath -followed the working of the tenth part of such charm,—but she held also -a subtle something in the serene cruelty of her gaze, a something in the -calm command that curved her lips, to drive men mad, to fill the heart -with a love that was half hatred, and a hate that could not do its worst -because of the love that stayed its ordering. - -So much let me say in my defence for what has followed. I am a man not -easily prone to fall into the toils of women; to whom has been given -subtlety to offset their weakness. But to Lah, a man’s brain and a -woman’s wit; a man’s will and a woman’s will; a man’s strength and a -woman’s beauty. Aye! more than woman’s. Look to it, you who would judge -me, and remember likewise the end, the end also with the beginning. - -But enough. I will now set down for the better ordering of this tale, -what befell at the Queen’s audience, although it was not for days after -that I learned the true import of that fateful evening. - -Lah then spoke in this wise:— - -“Who are these two strangers, whence their coming, and what their -purpose?” - -Then arose Agno, the High Priest, and his eyes glowed with a strange -fire, and we, watching, saw his aged hand clench fast the staff of -office that it held. With a fine gesture of mingled scorn and anger, he -threw out the other, palm open, towards us, where, still close guarded, -we stood in silence. - -“Behold!” he cried, “the invaders of our City, the murderers of the -sacred ape, whose hands are red with the blood of our warriors, whose -sacrilegious weapons have been turned against the dread god. Yes, I have -said it—violators of Hed himself!” - -A sudden thrill ran through the people, and there was something in the -faces turned towards us, so pitilessly cruel, that a cold chill settled -on my heart, and I was well put to it to preserve the calm disdain that -sat, as was fitting, upon my countenance. - -Only Lah, the Queen, looked straight before her at the speaker, and her -lips, I thought, curved slightly with a little smile whose meaning was -not plain to me. - -Agno turned towards the listening throng with a sudden change of voice -and manner. - -“O worshippers of the Serpent and of Edba! Shall the wrath of the gods -fall upon your heads because they look down from the appointed place and -see such deeds unpunished? - -“Nevertheless warmed and fed and unhurt have these two rested by royal -order till now in the sacred temple, and the wrath above grows black, -and the thirst of the Serpent is not slaked.” - -I thought I beheld again a swift change pass over the face of the Queen, -like a cloud that covers for an instant the glory of the sun, but when I -looked closer I saw that I was wrong, since her lips still wore that -same curious half-smile. - -“Doubtless,” went on the High Priest smoothly, “doubtless the Queen, who -is ever zealous for the glory of the gods, but bides her time, lest in -too swift a death, some pang of body or soul be lost to these defamers. -Surely such thought for the honor of Hed and of Edba shall not be -without reward. But I warn you,” and here his voice rang out with its -old passion, “the patience of the Serpent is at an end; the god clamors -for vengeance. Woe! woe! to him who setteth a stumbling-block in the way -of rightful punishment. - -“Let Lah, the Queen, command it! Let the torture that is the portion of -these begin! Let their death and the manner of their passing plead for -us and turn away, while there be yet time, the wrath that is to come!” - -A hoarse murmur of applause rang through the multitude, and of their -number, a man richly dressed and I judged a warrior, stepped out from -among his fellows and stood in the centre, alone. - -“Agno, the High Priest, has said it. We, the people, repeat it. Oh -Queen, let the blood of the stranger flow freely that the gods may be -appeased.” - -Lah turned, and I saw then, what, bewildered by the rising storm, I had -not noticed; namely, that the Queen’s sandalled foot rested upon the -head of an enormous tiger that lay motionless before the throne. - -She uttered a low, brief word of command, and the great beast rose, -stretched himself lazily, and then stepped noiselessly forth. - -A shudder ran through the throng. I saw the face blanch of the man who -had spoken. The soft, padding footfall sounded now through the tense -silence as the tiger drew slowly near. - -At length when about ten paces from the warrior, the beast paused. The -victim tried to speak, but no words came. His fixed distended eyes were -on the lithe form before him. The great cat was crouched to spring, its -tail waving gently, its tawny head raised. - -Lah’s voice broke the silence, caressingly, once more. - -The creature bounded lightly through the air. The next instant the -warrior lay prone on the marble floor, a swift, wide-spreading pool of -blood speaking dumbly yet to heaven, of the doom that had fallen. The -Queen turned to Agno. - -“Behold,” she said, “your answer.” - -With a graceful gesture she stopped the rising murmur of the multitude, -and again her wonderful voice changed. It hid not the majesty of the -speaker; no, truly, it hinted at power to enforce the words, but it was -sweet, sweet and persuasive, over and above anything that I have ever -heard. - -“O my people!” thus spoke the Queen. “When, before to-night, has the -highest in the land received an order of him who standeth next unto the -throne? When before this hour has the chief servant of the Snake set a -limit to the will of her who calls herself, and truly, the Snake’s -Bride? Have I not borne the embrace of the holy one, the python? In the -dread hour in the pit itself has not the marriage rite been held, and -for this? - -“Turn, O my people, ere it be too late! The fate of yonder man,” and she -pointed to the loose-limbed, weltering form upon the pavement, “the fate -of such as he is naught to the vengeance that shall surely fall on him -who sets his neck stiffly against the will of her, the best beloved of -Hed. Aye! of the highest! I have said it. Look you to it. - -“I am Lah, the Queen, and the just gods have given unto the hollow of my -hand all power. As for these,” and she turned her beautiful face an -instant towards us, “rest quietly. The defamers of the Serpent may not -hope for mercy. Nevertheless, in mine own time, and after mine own -choosing, shall they pay the penalty. - -“Guards, lead the prisoners behind the veil!” She turned smiling to the -High Priest. - -“More prudence would better befit thy white hairs, most pious Agno,” she -said, and the clash of cymbals answering to her nod drowned the bitter -answer that writhed upon his lips, and proved that the Queen was, after -all, but yet a woman, and so holding fast to the sex’s dear privilege of -the final word. - -Obedient to Lah’s command, six stalwart negro warriors, gorgeous in loin -cloths of scarlet and gold, advanced, and laying hands upon us, hurried -us, Lestrade and me, through the gaping multitude, on past the silver -screen, by the Queen’s glittering throne, the host of slave girls, the -musicians, the courtiers, onward still, until we reached a shimmering -network of silk and steel that draped securely an entrance at the back. - -With averted eyes the guards drew aside this heavy veil, and we passed -within, the plaudits of the fickle throng still ringing in our ears. - - - - - Chapter V - Astolba’s Errand - - -Lestrade and I looked about us. The face of Lah was still so potently -present in my friend’s memory that he seemed hardly conscious of the -aspect of this new prison. I am, however, of a colder nature, and I -scanned with eager gaze the inner hall in which we found ourselves. The -guards had halted without the veil that screened from the profane this -entrance to the palace of the Queen. - -We stood, therefore, quite alone, in a large recess, arched and -windowless and tiled with bricks painted in bright colors that showed, I -judged, a kind of sacred pictured story. Hanging lamps in red, green, -and blue, curiously wrought and giving forth a sweet heavy perfume, -depended from the roof above our heads. Another curtain, also formed of -tiny rings of silk and steel, screened the further end of this strange -anteroom. - -I plucked Gaston by the arm, for he was still in a day-dream, and -together we walked along, till I, stretching forth my hand, parted the -heavy woven folds before us. A massive door of some dark metal that -looked like bronze now barred the way, but only for an instant. -Invisible hands touched some hidden spring, and again we entered. This -time the chamber in which we found ourselves was far richer than the one -which we had left, and to which we might not return, since the door had -locked into place behind us. Here the floor was of sandalwood, and -covered with a rug so thick that our feet sank deep as though we walked -on moss, while fair flowers woven in soft hues, still further cheated -the eye that gazed upon their beauty. The walls were hung with silken -tapestries; four slaves marvellously carved in ebony and clothed in rich -garments, stood each in his respective corner, and these held high in -one hand a scented torch, while the other grasped a curved and -glittering knife. There were couches also here and there, covered with -rare stuffs, and a shimmering gauze enriched with silver and turquois -veiled here, as before, the further end of the apartment. - -Lestrade’s interest quickened. His swift gesture tore aside the curtain -and revealed a gate of beaten gold. - -My blood leaped at the sight. I put forth my hand and shook the massive -bars about which twined garlands of yellow, yellow flowers. My clumsy -fingers touched the delicate wreaths of roses and of leaves. They did -not melt away before my eyes; not a petal, not a spray so much as -trembled. It was all gold; solid, beautiful, wonderful gold. - -I grasped Lestrade by the shoulder, but with an impatience new to him he -shook off the touch and pointed to the gate. It was slowly opening; we -passed, and it closed behind us. I saw pillars of ivory, the sheen of -precious metal, the pink of tulip-wood walls inlaid with silver. I saw -tiger skins upon the floor, and stuffed leopards bent to spring; I saw -their jewelled eyes and claws of gold. Strange, sweet music floated -through the air. I heard the tinkle of distant fountains. Then the blaze -of light from the great star above ceased. The darkness of the pit -wrapped us round, the thick hiss of a serpent pierced the night. I heard -the rustle of garments and struck out valiantly. - -There came a mocking peal of feminine laughter, then strong hands seized -us from behind, and despite our struggles we were bound hand and foot -and carried on and on through a tangled labyrinth, now to the right, now -to the left, now doubling on our tracks, and all in the midnight -darkness, with the indescribable noises in our ears of a silent -attending multitude. - -I thought the bearers walked along ground that gradually sloped -downward. Afterward I found that I was right. At the moment there was so -much else to think of that the true force of this fact did not strike -me. I say this that you may note that I am a just man, as well as a -modest, that I do not lay claim to a foresight or an understanding of -the inwardness of things, over and above that which nature has bestowed -on me. This I may say has so far been sufficient for the purpose, as -indeed the event has in time borne out. And without former knowledge who -could have guessed the hidden secrets of Lah’s palace, or the mysteries -that gathered thick about the dwelling-place of Edba and of Hed. - -I heard Lestrade whistling softly there in the darkness not ten paces -away. The sound heartened me wonderfully. We were still together, and -what might befall lost half its terror. - -All at once our bearers halted. I was gently laid upon a couch. My bonds -were loosened, and as I sprang to my feet a light flashed from above, -and I found myself standing beside Lestrade. The throng had melted away -as if by magic. A woman closely veiled and draped in a white garment, -alone stood waiting. Ere I could speak she turned with a quick gesture -and threw back the filmy covering that hid her face. Lestrade and I -uttered a smothered exclamation, for the woman’s skin was fairer than -our own, and as she spoke, we knew on the instant that the tale of -Sagamoso was true, and that the daughter of the murdered explorer stood -before us. The girl was trembling so that Gaston made haste to lead her -to a couch, while I stood stolid, my eyes fixed upon her eyes, luminous -and wide with mingled fear and joy, while I waited in breathless silence -for her words. - -“How I have suffered,” she said half to herself, and the English was -sweet to me, and the sound of her voice yet sweeter. She looked about -her as a frightened fawn looks when the dogs are upon her. “These walls -have ears,” she said under her breath. “This horrible place is full of -treachery. Still I must ask you, for I cannot wait. You are of my -people. Have you come to save me?” - -Lestrade took her hand in his and kissed it, and his voice was the voice -of a mother soothing a tired child. - -“It is our sacred purpose, and naught shall turn us,” he said. - -“That and vengeance on your enemies,” I added. - -“Hush!” she answered, with a warning gesture. She listened in silence -for a moment, and then the folds of her veil once more hid her face, but -I had seen the pretty color come back to her lips and cheek, and her -smile of trust and gratitude had stirred me mightily. “I am Astolba, -handmaid of Lah, the Queen,” she continued aloud, and with a subtile -change of manner that Lestrade was quick to note and imitate. - -As for me, I stood still gazing dumbly, yet drinking in the music of her -speech. - -“She, the beloved of the gods, has sent me hither, that you may learn -from me the language of the people of the Walled City; that their -customs and rites may be made known to you. So that, strangers though -you be, you may yet stand within the inner circle,—if so the Queen -will,—and bring knowledge and power to the followers of Edba and of -Hed.” - -She looked with pleading towards _me_, for with a woman’s quick instinct -she saw that Gaston had no scruples at learning aught, let it but come -from her fair lips. - -For me, I have, thank the Lord, small stomach for heathen follies; -little patience with holy serpents and sacred apes, with bloody chanting -and such like deviltries. - -Nevertheless, when Astolba added softly, “It is the Queen’s order; will -you learn of me?” I nodded, and she, I think, was puzzled and not best -pleased, not knowing for certain which argument had changed the habit of -my mind. And that is, let me tell you, an excellent manner to deal with -women. - -Astolba, therefore,—for so she was called, and the word meaning “white -dove” did indeed singularly befit her,—Astolba having told her errand -and won consent, began at once her mission. - -I cannot fit with nicety the meaning of all she told into the jewelled -setting of her speech. I am, as I have said, a plain man, and can but -repeat the substance of the strange lesson begun that hour, and -continued in due order during many succeeding days, until the language -and customs of this strange people became at length known to us. - -For Astolba herself, her own story was simple. We already knew much from -the dying words of the fugitive priest. Her future fate was to her, as -to us, a sealed book, and we forbore to let her see the red light cast -upon it by those same last words. - -The maid had so far been treated well, with a kind of contemptuous pity, -by her beautiful mistress. Lah was curious of all that pertained to -Saxon life and usage. She had even learned the language; she had -questioned her white prisoner closely about the arts, the doings, the -manufactures of the stranger. She had copied in some measure, but -secretly, such things as pleased her fancy, or seemed like to extend her -power. - -“She is wonderful,” said Astolba, “but she is terrible. The Queen’s -nature is like a bottomless well. You drop a pebble into its depths, and -you listen and listen, and you hear no sound. It is falling, falling, -falling. And so with Lah. No one can judge that hidden depth. She is all -in one. Childlike, lovable, gentle, then fierce, treacherous, and oh so -unspeakably cruel!” - -The girl covered her face with her hands as if to shut out some horrid -sight. - -“You could not bear, strong men that you are, the things that I have -seen,” she said in a whisper. Then she went on more calmly, to speak of -other matters, but the vision of the icy fear that had pierced her was -by me not soon forgotten. - -As I look back on it all now, I see how, little by little, we learned -the belief of the people of the Walled City. - -For better comprehension of this tale, I will now briefly set forth the -substance of their strange faith. - -Lah and her subjects worshipped chiefly, and with dread, two singular -powers: Hed, the serpent god whose spirit dwelt in the body of a -monstrous python, called the holy Snake; and Edba, the moon goddess. - -Hed gave victory in battle, revenge over enemies, success in various -undertakings. Edba gave the crops and increase to the people. - -Hed was worshipped by bloody sacrifices; Edba, by offerings of fruit and -flowers, save on the great yearly feast, when she, too, demanded that a -human life be poured forth before her altar. - -Hed was the god of fear; Edba, the goddess of love. Once every twelve -months, a maiden, fair and without blemish, became the bride of the -Snake. That is, with songs and rejoicing, the rose-crowned victim was -thrown to the python, and crushed to death in the reptile’s horrid -folds, in the presence of a frenzied multitude. - -Two years before our coming a King had ruled with a heavy hand the -people of the Walled City. Unlike his royal predecessors, he had made -war upon the neighboring country, and he had brought home vast treasure -and many slaves, so that the High Priest dared not lift his voice -against the practice. To leave the City on any pretext whatsoever was a -thing forbidden alike to the Ruler and his people; a thing unheard of -for generations, and a thing accursed by Hed. But the King brooked no -restraint; the masses were drunk with their new-found liberty, and -Agno’s maledictions were looked upon as little more than the impotent -murmurings of a feeble old man. - -Then one day the King returned with a captive, none knew from whence, a -woman who despised the customs of the people, the beauty of whose -unveiled face made glad like wine the heart of him who beheld it. Her, -the King married; one month from that day he died, suddenly, at a -banquet, and Lah, upheld by the High Priest, had seized the sceptre. - -No woman had ever sat before upon the throne, and the people and army -rebelled, the priests alone remaining faithful to their new sovereign. - -But Lah faced the rising storm with calm authority. She appealed to an -ancient test almost forgotten. She became, by her own wish, the bride of -the Snake, and before the very eyes of her wondering subjects, she came -forth from the pit, not only alive, but unhurt. - -From that moment she became a sacred person. The chief ringleaders of -the revolt were cruelly butchered by their quondam followers, and Lah -was Queen indeed. - -So much for what had taken place before our coming. That there was no -longer peace between the High Priest and his sovereign, I already -guessed, but I did not know then how near the crisis was, or how the -scale of power trembled in the balance. - -This, for Astolba’s errand. I must now turn to the events that thickly -followed on her coming. - - - - - Chapter VI - The Cup of the Beast - - -On the noonday that followed Astolba’s last visit, our usual meal was -not brought to us, but on the hour, a turbaned slave appeared, bearing -rich vestments of the barbarous kind worn by the attendants at the -Queen’s court. These he flung upon the floor of our gilded cage, and by -signs, showed us that we were to divest ourselves of our Christian -garments and don instead these heathenish trappings. - -Lestrade, glad of any divertisement—for of a surety our enforced leisure -had become a burden to him—Lestrade, I say, bent himself with something -of a child’s glee to this mummery, and I must needs confess showed in -the issue bravely enough. But I, with some stubbornness to the -messenger’s mute importunities, shook my head, and having now achieved -some knowledge of the language, I put to the fellow a few questions as -to our state, and the term of our imprisonment. - -But the slave was silent; and at length, wearied by his sullenness, I -seized him by the shoulder, and (it shames me) with no gentle grip, for -I was bent on forcing something more reasonable from between his thick -lips than the senseless gibbering with which he had so far replied to my -inquiries. - -The fellow’s eyes rolled with fear, and opening his mouth, he pointed -inward, dumbly, and I saw that his tongue had been shorn off close to -the roots. The sight filled me with such mingled feelings of rage at the -hellish cruelty that had been practised, and of pity for the helpless -victim, that when the poor creature took from beneath his cloak two -covered silver goblets, and with mute entreaties offered one to me and -one to Gaston, I followed without a thought my friend’s example, and -drank off at a draught the spiced wine that the cup contained. - -Almost on the instant a mist arose before my eyes, and I saw, as in a -dream, Lestrade fall on the marble floor of our prison house. The slave -vanished as he had come; sweet music from a distance sounded in my ears, -a great joy took hold upon my heart. I looked up and beheld the unveiled -countenance of Lah, shining with its wondrous beauty, like a star, above -me. I stretched forth my arms to draw the vision nearer, and—I knew no -more. - -How many hours passed while I lay close wrapped in that dreamless sleep, -I cannot say. After a time, long or short as it may be, I awoke, and, -piece by piece, what had befallen came back to my mind. I was still -calm, still strangely happy, and loth to break the charmed spell that -held my being. But after a little my manhood struggled in the toils. I -opened my eyes, and saw, without wholly understanding all as yet, that I -was in another chamber, hewn, it appeared, out of solid rock, yet softly -draped with silken tapestries. I lay upon a couch covered with the skin -of a lion. I idly noted that the claws were of gold and the eyes of -emerald. I saw that I was dressed in the garments that the slave had -brought; but the sight awoke no anger. I glanced about me, and I beheld -Lestrade, sitting motionless, with bowed head, in a distant corner of -the room. I spoke to him, but he did not reply. Then I roused me, and -again I spoke, and still silence. At this, the fumes of that accursed -potion left my brain, and springing to my feet, I went swiftly to him, -and again spoke; and this time Gaston raised his head, and his eyes -encountered mine. His eyes! Not his, but those of an unthinking beast, -with no show of meaning, of friendliness, aye, of barest humanity, in -their depths. With trembling hand I touched him upon the shoulder. - -“Gaston!” I cried. “Gaston! what has happened? Speak! do you not know -me?” - -Then, as he answered not, I shook him roughly, in my terror and -amazement, and he turned,—turned like a savage dog that is -disturbed,—and snapped at my hand. His lips drew back over his white -teeth in an angry snarl, a beast-like snarl, and I, sick with horror, -let go my hold, and there, with the same smile of cruel, conscious -sovereignty, by my side stood Lah. - -Then the rage that was in me broke loose; and forgetting everything, her -womanhood with her power, I saw only the foul wrong that had been -wrought upon the body of my friend, and I seized her soft arm in my -hand, and gripped it savagely. - -“Cursed sorceress,” I cried, “this is your work!” - -For an instant the Queen’s eyes blazed, and had I not been beside myself -with rage, I needs must have blanched before them; then a look of -wonderful sweetness came into her face, and she said, with simple -dignity, in the language of her people:— - -“I will cure your friend.” - -I let go my hold and such a flood of mingled feeling overbore me, that I -knew not what to do or say, or what construction to put upon the matter. - -My usual slow thinking but unmoved self was far from me. I was on fire -with new thoughts, new feelings, that I knew not how to meet. - -I turned from my friend, crouched in bestial fear in the royal presence, -to the red marks that I had just brought in my blind fury to the satin -surface of the Queen’s beautiful bare arm. - -Then, with an effort, I shook off the spell of Lah’s wonderful presence. -I felt myself once more my own master. My eyes looked into her eyes, and -I did not flinch. - -“Is this your work?” I asked. - -Again a subtile change passed over the Queen’s face, but whether of -anger or no, I could not tell. She motioned me to sit beside her on the -couch from which I had just now risen, and I obeyed. - -Then she pointed to the marks of my fingers on her flesh. - -“This is your work,” she answered, “and you yet live.” - -I looked in silence on Lestrade’s cowering form, and again my heart was -hot within me. The Queen followed my gaze, and once more she spoke. - -“Do you not fear?” she asked. “See to what an end I can bring the gay -spirit of your friend. Like a whipped hound he will come to my call. See -him cringe as to the lash before my face. Take heed lest his fate be -your fate, and your pride in like manner be humbled.” - -“O Queen,” I answered, and my anger made me now again as cold and as -calm as I had before been hot and troubled within me. “In your power we -are indeed; nevertheless, think not that it can touch, as you have said, -the spirit of your captives. Lestrade’s body indeed trembles before you, -your cruelty has lost him his reason, but his soul has but fled to its -innermost retreat. You cannot lay so much as your little finger upon -Gaston’s real self. It defies you, it remains unchanged despite you. You -have turned his outer being by your devilish arts into the likeness of a -beast. I doubt not your will or your power to do the same to me.” - -“Doubt not my power,” said Lah, gently, “but doubt my will. Think you -another could have done so to me?” and she touched her bruised arm -again. “Could so have used me, the Queen, and have not repaid the insult -by a thousand deaths in one? But in you, my Dering,” and the name took -music on her tongue, “I behold my mate. The people and the priests cry -out for your blood. The one shall be appeased; the other balked.” She -laid her hand, light as a snow flake upon my brawny arm, and her -beautiful face was raised to mine. “What matters this broken slave, once -friend to you? I do not command your fear, O my prisoner! but I do -beseech your love.” - -Beneath her touch all my slow nature turned to fire. Her wonderful -loveliness beat upon my soul, like the unclouded vision of the noonday -sun, unbearable to the eyes. I felt a wave of turbulent and searching -passion flood my being, my veins throbbed with the quick pulsing of my -heart, and then—then the shivering, grovelling form of my once gallant -friend came between me and the sunlight, and I shut my eyes to the -beauty that tempted me to disloyalty and dishonor. - -Once more Lah’s spell was broken. Once more I was my own master. But -with self-control came prudence coldly back. I felt that Gaston’s life -and mine trembled in the balance, and life is strangely sweet. And so it -was that I turned to the Queen and bent my head, and kissed in silence -the bruise upon her arm, and I felt her tremble, and knew that, for the -time at least, I was her master also. And I knew then what to do, and -did it as readily as one possessing intimately the knowledge of an -instrument plays upon its keys. - -“Give back first to my friend his reason,” I said and somewhat coldly, -and Lah with meekness took from her bosom a golden box, and opening it, -plucked forth a strange-shaped nut. With the dagger from her girdle she -scraped part of this off to a powder, and this in turn she mixed with -water from a pitcher at hand, and poured the whole into a bowl. This cup -she raised to Gaston’s lips, and he drank greedily and with noise, -lapping up the water like a beast. Then at a word he crouched before -her, and after a moment his limbs relaxed,—the vacant look passed from -his face, he breathed quietly, now once more asleep. - -“He will wake,” said the Queen to my mute question, “in an hour, and you -will once more have your friend.” - -“I thank you,” I answered. - -“And is that all?” she asked, still tenderly, but with a warning note of -passion in her voice. “Is that all, when men have died, and joyfully, -that they might but kiss the hem of my garment, the print of my sandal -in the dust?” - -“No,” said I, boldly, “that is not all; but, Lah, in my country, men’s -hearts beat not to the ordering of aught save their own will. Neither do -they love as slaves, but as masters. Beautiful above all women as you -are, O my Queen, think not I will stoop before you. I am not cold. I -could love, strongly, faithfully, to the uttermost, with a passion far -outweighing that of these servants who you have said have died content -but to kiss the hem of your robe, the print of your sandal. But not, O -my Queen, as they, not as the subject to the ruler, not as vassal to his -mistress. You can rend my soul from my body if you will. You cannot make -me bend my heart to your ordering. Not fear, not even love, shall sway -me. For I love, O most proud, most beautiful of women, even as I have -said, not as the slave, but as the master.” - -Lah turned quickly as if stung. I waited breathless in silence for her -answer. Then at last she spoke, and there was new majesty in her -bearing, and though she bent her head with a strange humility, I knew -not the secret of her inmost thought. Yet the words came. “Be it so,” -she answered, and in obedience to a secret signal, the door of the cell -slowly opened, Lah passed through beyond, and I, save for the presence -of my sleeping comrade, was again alone. - - - - - Chapter VII - The High Priest’s Council - - -Heavy still with the fumes of the Queen’s sleeping-potion that the black -had brought me, I sat with my head in my hands after Lah’s departure, -thinking yet but lamely, on all that had just now passed, while Lestrade -slumbered in peace in the corner of our prison. - -It might have been an hour or mayhap two, when my friend stirred, -stretched himself, and at last sat up, his usual happy-go-lucky air -giving way to a look of surprise when he saw our new abiding-place. - -“How feel you, Gaston?” I asked anxiously, for I still distrusted the -Queen’s medicine, and the enduring nature of this sudden cure. - -“Never better,” Lestrade answered brightly; “but what means this sudden -change of quarters? As for thyself, man, no popinjay of the tropics ever -pricked it more blithely, no strolling mountebank bright with gold and -scarlet and jingling bells, no, nor Solomon himself, of a verity, so -much as touched the height of thy magnificence. Why, comrade! thy -raiment shineth like the sun, and thou in the midst of grandeur, solemn -as any owl.” - -And with that he fell a-laughing mightily, so that I was nettled, and -without more ado related briefly, and perchance too sharply, all that -had chanced since the slave’s coming, save, as was fitting, the last -passage between Lah and myself. - -And at my story Lestrade grew grave once more, but not as one would -fancy because of the danger he had but now passed, but all, if one would -believe it, because of the figure he had cut in the Queen’s presence. -And I was hard put to it, to answer with discretion his many questions, -without wounding him to the quick on the one hand, or ministering to his -vanity and vain hope of Lah’s favor, on the other. - -Indeed, I was sore beset, when the door of our cell swung open, and -Astolba came in, whereat Lestrade forgot apparently altogether and on -the instant, his interest in the Queen’s bearing, and turned, with all -singleness of mind, to the entertainment of his fair visitor. - -She, poor child, was in great spirits, and it was a pretty sight to -watch the swift color come and go in her cheek, and note the many -innocent little coquetries with which she met Gaston’s warm advances. - -Not that he took toll of every look and word; there were plenty still -for me, of another, and, I could not help thinking, of a deeper nature. -However that may be, the reason for her light-heartedness was soon made -known to us. - -The Queen, she told us, was on our side, and she would bring to naught -the cruelty of the priests of Hed. Lah had spoken softly to her, almost -as one sister to another, of us whose lives were forfeit to the gods; -had promised us powerful protection, and bade Astolba bear to us, with -all speed, the message. - -Yesterday, it seemed, a missive had reached the throne, which read that -Agno plotted, in the name of his unholy office, to tear us from the -sanctuary of the very palace itself, and bear us to the altar of torture -and of death. - -Hearing this, Lah had hidden her wrath, but had given orders to two -mutes that we be drugged with a harmless potion, and borne by a secret -way back to the Temple of Edba, whence we had come. - -“You are now,” said Astolba, “in a hidden chamber that is next the -Council Room itself. The Queen bids me tell you that at midnight the -priests will meet there, and your fate will be the subject of their -speech.” She drew back the tapestry that masked the wall, and put her -finger on the head of a painted snake that was revealed, for the stone -was covered with pictured emblems of Hed’s most revolting worship. - -Once, twice, and once again, she pressed the chosen spot, and -noiselessly a huge block of stone slipped back and disclosed a leathern -curtain. - -Astolba motioned us to silence, and drew forth the jewelled knife that -hung from my much bedizened girdle. With it she slit the drapery of hide -that screened the opening she had made. - -Then she pushed back the heavy folds, but with all caution, and stooping -at a sign from her, we gazed through the rent and saw indeed the High -Priest’s Council Room. - -Lestrade, when I had done, scanned the place also with curious eyes. -Then we fell back, and Astolba, again pressing, this time a painted -emblem of the moon, the huge stone slipped noiselessly into its -appointed socket. - -“Now,” said Astolba, “I have delivered to you the Queen’s message, save -for this scroll, which I have been also bidden to hand to you.” And she -placed, I fancied a shade reluctantly, in my hand an ivory tablet. - -And in the language of the people of the Walled City, I read:— - - “The wiles of the Serpent shall be brought to naught. Behold, even at - the twelfth hour the crystal globe shall fall, and into thy hand be - delivered the secret of thine enemy. But the wisdom and the power of - the lioness no man may measure. Wherefore beware! Yet walk in the - light openly, despising not the good gifts of the gods, and all shall, - in the day to come, be well.” - -The Queen’s signet, the same as that cut upon the middle stone of her -girdle, a hand grasping a writhing snake, was engraved on this missive, -which I again read carefully, and at Lestrade’s impatient asking, this -time aloud. - -“A precious epistle,” said Gaston, with an expressive shrug; for he was -nettled, I make no doubt, that the Queen’s majesty had addressed itself -to me rather than to him. - -“What is this crystal ball of which the letter speaks?” I asked, to -change, if might be, the current of my friend’s thought. - -“Look up,” Astolba answered, “and you will behold this people’s strange -clock. It works, I think, by water. Every hour a ball of lead curiously -and differently marked, will drop from the plate above, into the brazen -bowl which you see below. At midnight a crystal ball will show you by -its fall that the hour to act has come. And now I must say farewell.” -She smiled upon us each in turn. “Good by for a little, dear friends,” -she said; “be brave, be fortunate,” and had gone. - -After Astolba’s departure we waited with what patience we might for the -appointed hour. A mute, black as ebony, like his brother of the goblets, -brought us a supper that did no shame to the hospitality of his royal -mistress. Delicious fruits were served to us in massive silver dishes; -there was, beside, a steak, from what animal I know not, that was rarely -toothsome. There were flat cakes of grain and a jar of ruby-tinted wine -that would have made an anchorite forswear himself. So we dined -together, Lestrade and I, and little by little, a moodiness that before -had wrapped us round, now fell from us like a cloak; the potent grape -juice warmed us through, and we were gay. - -After the banquet the slave departed, silent as he had come, and Gaston, -stretched upon the lion skin, sang snatches of fair French ditties, -while I, in a reverie strangely sweet, with Lah’s face floating in a -glory through the waking dream, watched, motionless and content, the -leaden balls fall clanging, on the hour, into the bowl of brass beneath. - -At length the longed-for moment came, and with it the crystal ball. -Lestrade rose, yawned, and was about to speak, but I, with a warning -gesture, pressed thrice the serpent’s head painted on our prison wall. - -Back, slow and noiseless as before, slipped the massive stone. With a -courteous gesture Gaston bade me look. I plucked at the rent in the -curtain of hide, and even as I gazed, with measured step, two by two, -the priests of Edba and of Hed entered from the farther end of the -Council Room. - -Lestrade cut with my knife another slit in the folds of the heavy -drapery of skins, and together we watched in silence. - -The chamber into which we looked was of great size, and seemingly -hollowed like our prison cell, from out the solid rock. Massive pillars -of stone supported the roof, and these were carved with hideous, leering -figures grotesquely entwined. - -The walls of the place were covered with painted pictures, rudely drawn -but strangely and horribly lifelike. These represented victims suffering -all the tortures that a cruel and fertile mind could think of, and -through all the horrid story appeared at intervals the emblem of Hed, -the serpent, and the sign of Edba, the silver moon; and these were shown -forth also on curtains of hide that draped, as before our hiding-place, -certain portions of the apartment. - -The room was bare, but there was a throne of ebony on a raised platform -at the further end, and in front of this stood a round stone altar with -a deep groove running through it, that slanted and ended in a large -basin or trough. Before this altar burned a fire in a three-cornered and -very large brazier, holding not coals, but fagots. From this there shot -forth forked tongues of blue flame, and from it also came the only light -that illuminated the Council Hall. - -Back of the throne I beheld a gigantic figure of black marble, but -painted in glaring colors. The eyes of this image were of blazing jewels -worth a king’s ransom, and in the squat figure I recognized my old -enemy, Hed, the snake-encircled god. The firelight shone on the -serpent’s silver scales, and the reptile seemed to move. With an effort -I looked away and saw that beside the revolting figure of Hed, there -stood, on a pedestal, a tall, veiled, and graceful statue, all of white -and luminous stone, and holding in its hand a crescent jewelled moon. -This, then, was Edba. - -I turned once more to the advancing priests, and as I did so, a wild -blood-curdling chant broke from the on-moving ranks. I looked at -Lestrade; his face was white, and I saw that he recognized the song that -we had heard once before, at midnight, in our other prison cell beneath -the temple. Slowly the priests drew near, forty in number, and ranged -themselves about the sides of the apartment, near unto the throne. One -brawny fellow took his stand almost in front of me, and so near that I -could easily have plucked him by the shoulder. - -Twenty of these ministers to the gods were clothed in white garments, -and twenty wore robes blood red in hue, and I thought from the glances -cast one at the other, that there was little love lost between the two -parties. They stood there chanting their heathenish song, and at the end -fell flat on their faces on the stone pavement. As they did so, the -further door swung open, and Agno advanced through the prostrate ranks, -clad in a flowing gown of white and scarlet, and seated himself on the -throne. His piercing glance swept the Council Room, and had I not been -aware of the thickness of the shadow, the strength of my right arm, and -the justice of my cause, even I would have shrunk back before him into -the safety of my hiding-place. - -The High Priest waited an instant, then struck the dais twice with his -staff of office, and these ministers of evil arose. - -Then at their leader’s command, forth from the red-robed ranks came the -foremost of their number, who advanced, thrust his naked hand into the -very centre of the blazing pile and drew forth a flaming brand. - -Then he turned to the waiting throng, and no sign of pain writhed upon -his lips, though he must indeed have been terribly burned. - -“I, priest of Hed, do swear for myself and my brethren, by the Snake’s -head, by the Snake’s bride, by the power of blood, by the flame on the -altar, to keep secret the counsels of this holy meeting, and of our -office, and to obey him sitting upon the throne. May the body of him who -betrayeth the trust be tortured to the uttermost, and body and soul -forever hereafter! Let Hed himself bear witness.” - -He paused, and every man, worshipper of the Serpent, bent his head in -silent affirmation. - -Agno turned to the white-robed throng, and again the foremost stepped -from the ranks, caught out from the flames another brand, and spoke: “I, -priest of Edba, do swear for myself and my brethren, by the moon’s -light, by the yearly victim, by the earth’s fruits, by the flame on the -altar, to keep secret the counsels of this holy meeting, and of our -office, and to obey him sitting upon the throne. May the body of him who -betrays the trust be tortured to the uttermost, and body and soul -forever hereafter! Let Edba herself bear witness.” And again as with the -followers of Hed, his nineteen companions gave in solemn silence their -consent. - -“Friends,” said Agno, “the time is ripe, the hour of vengeance is at -hand. Let the followers of Edba and of Hed forget their impious -quarrels, and unite in peace and strength against the stranger. Yes, -brethren, our altar has been defamed, the sacred ape murdered, the power -of the gods scorned, and even we threatened in the exercise of our holy -office. Aye, and worst of all, the sacrilegious wretches are sheltered -beneath the royal mantle of the Queen.” - -A low murmur broke from the listening throng, and the wily Agno hastened -to say on. - -“Nay, brethren, think not that I bear malice against the throne. Rather -as a father would I defend the person of our mistress from the sorceries -of the stranger. Surely are the eyes of Lah bewitched, since she -protects these outcasts, and as surely will their blood, and their blood -only, make true again her vision. Look to it, ye priests of the temple. -The gods are angry; Hed and Edba cry out, ‘Why are my servants slothful? -Why do they sit with folded hands appeasing not our outraged majesty?’ -Shall they withdraw their favor from their ministers? Shall the light of -their countenance be turned from us? Shall we perish, that the strangers -live?” - -Again a low, fierce murmur broke from the assembly. Agno’s eyes gleamed, -for he saw that his words now sank deep—seed in fruitful soil. - -“Nay, more, mark you, followers of Edba, and you, too, worshippers of -Hed, already the people scorn us for our weakness. - -“Already the gold runs scantily in our coffers; already have fallen away -the gifts to the temple. Not twelve hours since, a blemished goat was -offered at the altar; already the voice of the multitude is raised -against us. Aye, even as I approached this sacred meeting-place, a -drunken soldier of the Queen stumbled rudely against me, and when I -cursed him for his awkwardness, he laughed,—yes, my brethren,—laughed in -my very face. May the flames consume him! May the Serpent eat his -heart!” - -Again an angry murmur confirmed his words, and the foremost of the band -of Edba spoke in answer. - -“We, followers of the Moon, ask peace rather than bloodshed,” he began. -“Nevertheless, we join with thee, most holy Agno, in clamoring for the -punishment of the stranger. Only this much must be granted. Give to us -the victims. For long have the worshippers of Hed lorded it over the -adorers of Edba. Now grant to us the sole honor of bringing to the altar -these unbelieving dogs, and rest assured, their fate shall be such as to -content even the thirsty souls of our red-robed brethren.” - -“Never!” shouted, as with one voice, the followers of the Serpent; and -an angry tumult arose on the instant, hardly stilled when Agno commanded -peace by all that was sacred, and with mingled threats and prayers -enforced his words. - -The calm ranks of the forty priests were broken, and the worshippers of -Edba and of Hed mingled together. Eyes gleamed hatred, and hot words -broke from the lips of the humblest. - -At length one voice bore down the rest, and the clamor was hushed for -the moment. It came from him of the scarlet garment, who had thrust his -hand into the burning pile. - -“My brothers, my brothers, let there be no strife amongst us,” he cried -aloud. “Rather turn this burst of fury upon the strangers. Are there not -two victims? Let the priests of Edba give one unbeliever, bound hand and -foot, unto the mercies of the Mad Man of the Moon; we, of Hed, will take -care that the Serpent be avenged upon the other.” - -A troubled silence succeeded this speech, and I saw that each side -feared to give advantage to the other by the renewal of the strife. - -Clearly, if nothing happened to prevent it, a temporary peace, bad -indeed for our prospects, would prevail. - -I looked at Lestrade, and I saw the same dare-devil thought spring into -his mind. I noted that the sacred fire burned low, unnoticed in the -tumult. The room was well-nigh wrapped in darkness. A scarlet robe and a -white were well within reach. Gaston and I, as one man, thrust forth our -arms through the rents made in the curtain by our knives. - -I struck him of the red robe, right joyously, a well-planted buffet on -the cheek. He reeled with the shock, and I saw Gaston slyly prick, with -his dagger, the fat side of the priest before him. - -In an instant all was confusion. A cry of treason was raised, and the -sons of Edba and of Hed flew like a pack of ill-bred curs straight at -each other’s throats. - -Agno shouted in vain; and I promise you the sight was such a merry one, -that forgetting the risk we ran, I laughed aloud for very joy of it. - -In the general scuffle over went the brazier, and the only light in the -Council Room came now from a few dying embers. - -Gaston’s rash spirit rose within him, and before I could utter a word, -he had pushed aside the heavy folds of the leathern curtain, and leaped -through the opening in the wall of our prison, straight into the -thickest of the fray. I could not leave my comrade, though my cooler -spirit saw little glory and much danger in the adventure into which he -had plunged us, and through which I was bound to follow him. - -Hoping much from the friendly darkness, however, I also sprang forth, -and it would seem unnoticed; and then the lust of battle that abides -still in the sinful heart of man arose in me, and in the good giving and -taking of blows I forgot all else. On a sudden, as I was struggling -right gladly with a fellow in a red cloak, who wrestled all too well to -have been a follower of false gods, just, I say, as I had tripped -him—for the heathen knew not the trick, and so went down like a bullock -under me, but still holding fast manfully; just then Agno—and may the -evil one repay him!—Agno threw a powder upon the dying flames, and at -once the Hall was brighter than day. - -I gave mine enemy a parting blow and sprang for cover, and I saw -Lestrade throw back a sturdy fellow, and start to follow. But his foot -tripped over a fallen priest, and I, turning to his rescue, was seized -and held fast by a dozen eager hands. - -We were prisoners again, and in much worse case, and as I stared about -me with late repentance that I had ever left my cell, the only -comfortable thought for me at all lay in the still fresh evidence of the -havoc we had wrought amongst the enemy in whose toils we once more found -ourselves. - -If I live to a ripe old age, which seems likely though I be now at -seventy but little past my prime, I shall, I am sure, never forget the -look of rage and triumph upon those dark faces bent above us. We lay, -Lestrade and I, bound and helpless on the stone floor of that bloody -Council Room. - -Agno would fain have played with us awhile, even as a cat with a mouse, -for the sheer love of the sport, but the High Priest’s hot-headed -followers would have none of it. They clamored for a swift judgment on -the culprits, and their wily leader saw their demands had best be -satisfied. - -So from the throne before the grim and silent images of the gods we had -dared, came forth the solemn sentence of our doom. - -Lestrade was given over to the worshippers of Hed. A week hence on the -high festival day he was to be tied to the horns of the altar, and there -done to death. My fate was swifter, but as terrible. Two nights hence -the moon would be at its full, and Edba would claim in me her chosen -victim. - -“Let the stranger,” said Agno, “be bound to the stone that stands in the -centre of the cleared space within the holy grove. There has Izab, the -Mad Man of the Moon, his abiding-place, and there, unpitied, and alone -save for the avenger, shall this dog of an unbeliever meet his doom.” - -“What is your meaning?” I began, for I have always held it the wiser -part to learn the worst at once; but in the hoarse roar of satisfied -revenge that rose from the priests about, my words were lost, and before -I could speak again a gag was thrust, none too tenderly, into my mouth. -I saw Lestrade wave his fettered hand to me, in parting, and the brave -smile on his white lips made my eyes strangely dim. - -Four lusty sons of Edba raised me up, and I was borne from the Council -Room and carried through a multitude of passages. - -At length my bearers stopped; a door opened, a massive door, but so low -that a short man must stoop to enter. The foul smell of a noisome -dungeon assailed my nostrils. I was thrust within, still fettered, and -so rudely that for a little my head swam with the force of the blow I -had received in falling, so that I could not note at once the quality of -my new prison. - -This, alas! I found quite soon enough, matched but too well the state of -my changed fortunes. The hole was unfit for a beast, much less for the -chamber of a Christian gentleman. Nevertheless, I had been placed there, -and it was cold comfort to reflect that I was not long to trespass on -the hospitality of my entertainers. - -However, it is ill crying over spilt milk, nor am I a man to waste good -time in such thankless observance. So I disposed myself upon the damp -floor of the dungeon, as well as the painful tightness of my bonds would -permit, and by dint of thrusting my swollen tongue this way and that, I -at last got rid, to my great joy, of the foul gag that had so -unceremoniously stopped my speech. - -My mouth was sore and my throat parched. A rare thirst consumed me, and -it was with delight that I observed the slimy coating on the walls made -by the constant fall of water from above. I put my lips close to the -cold stone, and with much greater patience than I thought could abide in -my nature, I waited till little by little, drop by drop, my suffering -was assuaged. - -It was dark in my prison house. Four small holes pierced the stone roof, -and from these came some air and, I hoped, by morning, light also. - -I heard the scuffling of a legion of rats; from whence I know not, -unless the earthen pipe that thrust its nozzle through the floor gave -access to the cell. This, I think, was the case, for soon I felt the -pattering of their feet upon my body; the boldest even nibbled at the -belt of leather that I wore, and had I not shown signs of life, they -might have been yet more uncivil in their advances. - -A hundred years passed by, and I was still a prisoner: let one who would -assure me that I am wrong, take but my place in that foul spot, and see -the bitter truth that lies within such reckoning as mine. - -No visitor, grim or otherwise, approached my cell. I would, I believe, -have welcomed, in my extremity, Satan himself, but he came not, nor his -ministers. The Queen’s hand could not reach me here; Gaston, my faithful -comrade, he too was absent, perhaps in pain like me, perhaps in bonds, -forgotten and, like me, well-nigh mad. - -My head was light from want of food and drink and sleep. I tossed about -from side to side in unavailing anguish, and it was not the agony of the -bonds eating into my flesh, that cowed me, but the darkness and the -solitude. - -There in that place of torment my manliness fought against such odds as -even now I dread to think on. But praise to Him whose servant I am, at -last my braver self prevailed, and when, after those hours of -interminable horror, Agno appeared, I did not grovel at his feet, but -faced him calmly and, at least in outward seeming, unafraid. - -A day had come and gone; the High Priest said my hour was at hand. By -his order my bonds were loosed, and the blood rushed painfully through -my numbed body, that pricked as with millions of needles. - -“What of my friend?” I managed to ask. - -Agno smiled with subtile malice. - -“The stranger waits his doom in the company of fair woman, with revel -and sweet minstrelsy. Goodly wines and rich meats are his portion, and -soft garments wrap him round. Yet in six short days shall the Snake -receive his own.” - -At least he knows not the torments of such a dungeon as this, I thought, -and my heart was a little lightened, which I think fell hardly within -the reckoning of the High Priest of Hed when he disclosed the fate of my -fellow captive. - -But there was no time to ponder this or other matters. At a sign from -their leader the guard closed in upon me. I was led along through a maze -of underground passages as before, and at last into the open. Before we -reached the outer wall my eyes were blindfolded, my hands tied, and I -was muffled in the folds of a cloak. - -In this fashion I was marched along, to my great inward misgiving; but -at length a halt was called and the bandage was taken from my eyes. - - - - - Chapter VIII - In the Cage - - -Though I knew from all that had gone before that change of quarters was -little likely to bring me comfort, pleasure, or ease, either of mind or -of body, my spirits rose, despite my better sense, as I turned my back -upon the place of torment that had held me captive. - -Neither did the triumphant malice of Agno’s dark countenance daunt me. -Whatever befell, it was good. Good to be alive and breathe again the -pure open air; good to be dazzled, half-blinded even, by a sun I had -thought never to shine on me again save in death. - -But I had not long in which to rejoice over my shackled freedom; for, -still chained, I was thrust rudely into a new and curious prison; a -barbarous invention of a barbarous people, a cage like a wild beast’s -den. - -In this, still closely guarded, I was borne along, and through its open -bars of stout bamboo, a gaping crowd beheld me, and it sent a hot wave -of righteous wrath surging through my veins to feel that I could not, at -least, stand upright like a man, and fling back scorn for scorn; but on -account of the lowness of my prison, needs must crouch, beast-like, in -shameful silence before the taunts of the rabble, this offscouring of -the people of the Walled City. - -Thus with ignominy was I carried through the broad streets of Lah’s -capital, and still caged thus, I was placed upon the central stone of -the great open market-place, and here, at the High Priest’s command, was -I left with the staring crowd for company. - -Agno himself had gone. I noted, through the open bars of my foul den, -that the walls of the storehouses about were hung with gay carpets, and -that the business of buying and selling had ceased in favor of the still -more urgent and exciting business of seeing an enemy put to scorn, -mayhap to death. - -The multitude were wreathed with flowers as for a festal day. They -jostled one another, it is true, to get a nearer look at the man about -to suffer the extremest wrath of the mighty gods; they pushed one -another aside, but with merry words and no anger. Their anger was all -for him who had defiled the sanctuary. The very women held up their -children and taught them words of infamy for me, the captive. - -A man loves not to be called a coward. It was not for this that with -patience I had learned from Astolba’s lips the language of this people. - -The time was long. The sun beat down upon my unprotected head. I shook -the bars of my cage with savage strength, and the people shrank back, -only to return with new-born laughter at my impotence. - -And Lah came not. - -Thus dragged the weary hours. At last, a few of them that tormented me, -bolder or more cruel than the rest, began to fling not only taunts, but -stones. Yet some unknown power restrained even these, for the stones -they chose were small, and did but sting and bruise the flesh, nor did -one of all draw blood. But it was merry sport for them, my enemies. As -they warmed to it, ’twas like enough that the unknown bond that held -them would have snapped, and I been given over, then and there, to an -easy death thus at their hands, when once more an ever-watchful fate -stepped between me and vengeance. - -The sound of chanting and of bells rose faint from the distance, and, as -at a command, the throng fell back, while I, with straining ears and -beating heart, waited for what this might portend. - -Was it the Queen bent on rescue? - -The thought thrilled me with new hope, but the strange chant came nearer -yet, and hope died. For I heard it now for the third time. The song of -wrath, the song of the Temple of Edba, of the High Priest’s Council—the -song of death to the stranger, to him within the gates. - -The dull beating of drums and the clash of weapons mingled with the -hymn. Then the first of a band of warrior priests came into sight, and -the people herded together, near to the walls, that the holy ones might -have room to pass. - -The strange procession circled about my cage. Of them that marched, some -bore shields and swords; some carried wands of office; others swung open -silver cups laden with sweet-scented spices consumed to the honor of the -gods. Some bore wreaths of many-colored flowers. All were in spotless -white, and all kept step with order and rhythm to the cadenced measures -of that horrible hymn of praise. - -But now an awed murmur rose from the waiting throng. Some fell on their -faces, and some, and these were women, rushed forward in a kind of -frenzied joy of welcome. The men drew aside with reverent haste to let -them pass, and the object of their devotion came in sight. - -I saw a canopied litter swung aloft; I saw fan-bearers and all the -jewelled trappings of royalty. And again my pulse beat thick with joy, -for a veiled figure sat within the litter, and for one fleeting moment I -believed that Lah had come to claim me, prisoner. Another instant -pricked the bubble of my hope. - -One woman and another from out the throng fell, face downward, on the -wayside, in the path of her who rode thus immovable, in state, herself, -no woman truly, but Edba, the Moon Goddess, come to behold her fallen -enemy. - -The priests marched steadily along over the prostrate bodies in the -dust, nor turned aside for any self-devoted victim. Only when the silver -statue reached the centre of the cleared space before my cage, was a -halt called. Then with much speech-making, and many strange observances, -was I once more committed to my doom. - -Surely had I no need to complain of lack of ceremony about my end, save -only the incivility with which these pious persons received my own -attempt at answer. - -But of a truth they may have feared, and rightly, the effect of -Christian eloquence. For though I be but a plain man, and one more of -deed than of word, I was roused in that hour to a flow of language, a -subtlety of wit, and a power of rebuke, that would, I think, have shamed -the boldest into silence, and carried me perchance a conqueror, victor -not victim, from that place of torment. - -But it was not so to be. The beat of drums drowned my voice; at a sign, -the bearers of the litter resumed their march. - -Edba, too, had gone; another hour had sped. I was still caged, still -fettered, still a prisoner. - -Some of the people, my former tormentors, had gone on with the Moon -Goddess and her train. Others stayed to bear away the victims left -behind her in the market-place. Of these some groaned mournfully, others -rent the air with cries, and one, a tall woman of some beauty, rose, -swayed for a moment, and then fell heavily, and lay motionless, but with -a strange smile on her parted lips. - -I still had a few spectators of my misery, but their zest at the sight -had somehow departed. No one now flung either taunts or pebbles. I began -to solace myself with the idea of an hour’s quiet before nightfall in -which to think; bitter comfort undisturbed my own thoughts, when a group -of chattering slave girls neared my prison. They gathered round it with -unseemly jests and laughter. Their tinkling anklets were of gold, and of -gold also were the bracelets on their bare brown arms. They belonged, I -saw, to some great house, but the thought of them and their concerns did -not affect me. - -Lestrade, now, in such a case, even such an evil case as mine, would -have held discourse with them. He would have saluted, I doubt not, with -flattering words, such as through their hampering veils seemed comely. - -But I am of sterner stuff. Their chatter irked me, and their -light-heartedness was an insult and a cruelty. I would not be a show and -a delight to such as these. So I held my head down, and drew my cloak -about me, and alike to their questioning and their jibes, maintained a -sullen silence. Seeing which, she who seemed the leader in their -merriment drew nearer. - -“I will have speech of the monster,” she cried, somewhat in this wise: -“Behold neither sweet words from fair lips, nor jibes, nor hard stones -move him. Yet, by the Veiled One I swear it, this I warrant shall -quicken his sense—the moody one;” and she drew from her hair a long gold -pin. “At least, will I see if his blood be red like that of other -mortals.” - -At these words the other slaves fell back, and some would have stayed -her, but with a light laugh she flung aside alike their restraining -hands and words, and came close, close to the bars of the cage. Now, I -am not a man to fear the prick of a weapon wielded by a woman, nor, for -that matter, in fair fight with any man; but I was mad that my quiet be -broken, and over and above that, her boldness vexed me, for I was one -who never could bear the forwardness of maids. - -So, as the pin-point touched my flesh, I seized the bodkin ’twixt thumb -and finger, and in my grasp it broke, or came apart, I know not which, -and I saw that it was hollow. - -At the instant the slave’s veil slipped aside a little. I saw her finger -seek her lip to caution me to silence. The next moment her shrill scream -rang through the air. - -“The brute! He has my golden pin,” she cried, and wrung her hands, and -thus bewailing her loss, passed, after a little, with her companions out -of sight. - -Then, as soon as I could, being unobserved, I looked closer on the -bodkin, and, as I held it this way and that, to catch the meaning of -some characters graven faintly on the surface, a small round pellet -slipped from out the hollow pin, and rolled along the floor of my cage. -It lay upon the very edge, but I had caught the Queen’s name in the -short sentence before me, so stooped not to pick it up, until I read: - - “Within, find help when all fails;” - -and the royal signet, - - “Lah.” - -I scanned the words with all care. Then my eager fingers sought the -fallen pellet, but, in my haste I jarred the cage so that the little -ball rolled over the edge, and was gone. - -As I gazed upon it, lying there on the bare earth not four feet away, -but as much out of my reach as though the world’s breadth was between it -and me, a dog came up, one of the many that hunt for scraps and offal -among the refuse of the market-place. One of these scraps, a strip of -dried beef, I think it was, lay, as luck would have it, close to my -treasure. The half-starved brute greedily seized on the fragment, and -his long tongue licked up as well the pellet,—gift to me from the Queen. - -With a wrathful cry I shook my clenched hand at the already retreating -brute. - -He was not three paces off, but almost on the instant a convulsive -tremor seized upon the creature. The mongrel’s legs stiffened, he raised -his head and gave a despairing howl, a sound choked in the uttering; -for, with another shuddering spasm, he dropped and lay still. - -A cry of terror rose from the multitude. - -“Behold, the captive looked upon the dog in anger, and he is dead! Let -us leave this place! Let us fly!” - -A panic seized the people at the words. Women snatched up their -offspring, covering them from harm beneath their mantles. Strong men -trampled upon the weak, that they might escape. - -The crowd melted away as if by magic. The sun beat down pitilessly as -before, but on an empty market-place. Empty, save for the hapless -prisoner crouched within his cage, and for the dead body of the brute -beside it,—victim to the mercy of Lah, the Queen. - - - - - Chapter IX - The Mad Man of the Moon - - -Thus it was that Agno and his ministers found me. Again, I may say their -coming added no new horror to these last hours. It is the interminable -waiting that wears to a thread a man’s courage. I would, of my own wish, -have that which was to come, over quickly. Already was the strain -beginning to tell. It would not be an easy death, this I knew, for it -was a death of the High Priest’s contriving. It was a death feared by -Lah, a death from which she would fain have saved me,—and how? After -all, I was glad that the Lord had put temptation from me. Brought face -to face with unknown terrors, I felt that my strength might have given -way before the trial. I set this down plainly with the rest. - -Read on, and see what fair foundation of truth had I for doubting mortal -strength in such extremity. - -Well, a day had come and gone, and Satan’s chiefest emissary was at -hand. The lagging feet of justice quickened. By Agno’s order was I again -blindfolded, and by his order was I loosed from my cage. - -Supported by two of the priests of Edba,—for my cramped legs refused to -do my bidding,—I was half dragged, half led, away. - -Still blindfolded, I was laid upon a stone and fastened there securely -by a band about my middle, and by thongs that tied me, wrist and ankle, -to rings set in the altar’s side. - -Then my bandage was taken off, but it was some minutes before my dazzled -eyes could see clearly, and then I found, to my surprise, that the High -Priest and his followers had vanished. For all I knew to the contrary, I -was quite alone. I looked about me, and I saw that I was in a cleared -space in the form of a circle. This was guarded by a high and thorny -hedge of some tropical plant, strange to me, whose narrow leaves -bristled like so many bayonets. - -The sun beat pitilessly upon my uncovered head, but I knew from its -position that night was not far off. I was bound to a rude granite-hewn -altar, and carved upon it in many places, amid a throng of grotesque -images, I saw the familiar sign of Edba, the crescent moon. - -This altar stood at one side of the circle; directly opposite, was -reared a hut shaped like a bee-hive, and made of close-woven branches. -There was no door to this strange dwelling, but a thin veil of plaited -grasses partly hid the entrance. I strained my eyes in a vain effort to -see beyond this curtain. Once or twice a faint rustling from within -broke the deathly silence, and that was all. These singular noises made -my heart beat faster, for I judged, and rightly, that here was the abode -of my enemy, perhaps of my executioner. - -The hours wore on. I was giddy from the length of my fast, the horrors -of my imprisonment, and the nameless dread of what was to come. A chill -crept over me, and though the day was hot, I shivered so that the rings -of the altar rattled. I thought I saw two fiery eyes gleam for an -instant upon me, from behind the curtain that veiled the entrance to the -hut, but when I looked again I knew my own base fears had called up the -vision. - -I turned my head resolutely away, and scanned the ground about me. As my -eyes travelled along the thorny hedge that circled the place, I saw -something that gleamed through the green, half hidden by the underbrush. -Idly I looked, but the next instant my pulse quickened; for as I gazed, -the horrid meaning of the thing leaped to my mind. I had seen the white -bones of a mouldering human skeleton. - -I set my teeth lest any sound escape me, and some watchful priest -staying behind his fellows to gloat over my misery, hear my cry and so -have joy over my weakness. - -The sun went down, and night fell. A wind arose, and it blew from the -silent hut to me, and I smelled the breath of the charnel house, and my -stomach turned within me. - -But the stars came out, and the moon rode in the sky; a full moon, round -and glorious. - -Then the curtain of grass was pushed aside, and the Thing that dwelt -within leaped into the circle. It was white, with a loathsome whiteness, -naked, and painted with spots of red and blue, and it mowed and mumbled -and danced uncouthly there in the moonlight. - -I watched it with a thick sense of impending horror. It flung its arms -wildly about its head and laughed shrilly at its own fantastic shadow. - -It rolled over and over on the ground and stretched its limbs in -content, while the moonlight bathed them, just as a beast will stretch -out comfortably in the warm sunshine. - -I moved a little on my bed of stone, and again the rings of the altar -rattled. - -Then the Thing raised its head, and its eyes rested on me with a look of -greed and cunning. - -It stopped its hideous play and began to crawl warily but surely towards -me. - -Nearer it came, and yet nearer. My throat was parched, and I shut fast -my lips lest a womanish shriek shame me forever. - -At last it reached my resting-place, stood upright, and craftily touched -my shackled hands and feet. - -Then the Thing, half beast and half human, bent over me, and its teeth -met in the flesh of my right arm. - -The vengeance of Agno, High Priest of Edba and of Hed, had fallen. The -whole sickening knowledge pulsed through my soul, even as the agony of -my wound racked my spent body. - -My doom was sealed. - -I was to be eaten alive by the Mad Man of the Moon, that the gods of the -people of the Walled City might be avenged. - -Suddenly the Thing let go its hold and raised its shaggy head, and I -noted, even in the stupor of horror that had come upon me, that it was -listening. - -Then a man stepped out from the thorny hedge into the cleared circle—a -man naked and quite unarmed. - -[Illustration] - -I saw, as in a dream, the breadth of his massive shoulders, and that he -was mighty above his fellows, and as I looked, the truth came to me, and -I knew that this was Zobo, the commander of the bodyguard of Lah, the -Queen. - -The Mad Man of the Moon gave a low snarl, and sprang at the throat of -the intruder. - -Then began a wrestling match between the two, made terrible by the time -and place, by the bestial noises of my would-be murderer, and by the -knowledge I somehow had, that this duel was to the death. - -Back and forth they strained and fought. I had looked to see my enemy -snap like a reed in Zobo’s iron grip, but I soon found the demon the -creature served had given it unholy powers. It was supple like a snake, -and its muscles were of steel. I saw great drops of sweat stand out upon -the bare body of the Queen’s servant, and, too, the veins in his -forehead stand out like whipcord, with the strain of the conflict. - -The unclean Thing bit, and foamed at the mouth, and strove with a -devil’s strength and a man’s cunning for the mastery. Zobo fought with a -kind of grim patience; while I, chained hand and foot, waited helpless -for the issue. - -Suddenly a cloud passed before the moon, and I saw the Mad Man falter. -It was only for an instant, but that instant the Keeper of the Seal was -quick to seize. - -He gripped my foe by the throat, and the two fell, rolling over and over -on the hard ground, not far from where I lay. - -The man-beast writhed in fury, and tore at the hands that held him, but -in vain. I saw his head fall limply back, and his limbs relax. Zobo, -with a deep breath, let go his hold, and I beheld on his face a look of -mingled fear and loathing for the deed he had done. - -Then I looked back on the prostrate form of mine enemy, and I cried out -in warning, for the Mad Man had but feigned death. - -Quick as thought, the Queen’s soldier turned also, but too late. Izab -had seized a stone that lay at hand, and the missile struck Zobo full on -the forehead as he tried to rise. The Keeper of the Seal fell backward -and was still. I looked to see my enemy rise and trample on the -prostrate body, but it was not to be. - -The Mad Man’s arms moved once above his head; a hoarse, guttural murmur -came from beneath his clenched teeth. - -The moon shone forth glorious indeed, but the body of my friend and the -body of my foe alike lay motionless. - -Then the bayonet thicket was parted yet once more, and the form of a -woman thickly veiled and wrapped in a mantle appeared in the open. - -With a swift, gliding motion she crossed the space; looked once at me -and then towards the quiet bodies in the moonlight. - -She passed the Mad Man’s lifeless form and spurned it contemptuously -with her foot. Then she turned to where Zobo lay, with upturned face and -staring eyes, before her. Motionless as he, she stayed an instant; then, -with an indescribably graceful gesture, she took her cloak from her -shoulders, and spread it over Edba’s victim. - -Once more she faced me, flinging back the veil that shrouded her, and I -saw that she was none other than Lah, the Queen. - -What happened next is only dimly present in my remembrance. As in a -dream, I knew that her lips met mine; that my bonds fell from me at her -touch, and that I walked a free man once more, but not firmly, because -of weakness, towards the bodies of the dead. - -My hand instinctively sought Zobo’s heart; and without surprise, because -in my weak state nothing could have surprised me, I found that it still -beat, though faintly. - -“Come,” said Lah, imperiously; “I have risked more than you dream of to -come thus, and at this hour, and to you. My life with your life trembles -in the balance. Now,—even at this moment,—Agno himself may come, and -then no power of mine could save us. Leave here the body of my servant -to die as he would wish, at my command, for me.” - -These words I remember sounded in my ears, and more, but I had never yet -left a fallen friend in trouble, still less would I desert now one who -had all but given his life for mine. - -Something of this I said to her, and seeing that I was bent upon my -purpose, Lah bade me lift the wounded soldier. - -“If you can bear him hence with my aid, not a dozen steps from here in a -secret place in the thicket help will meet you,” said the Queen, but as -one who grudged to yield her will to mine. - -How I did it I never knew. Weakness and long fast had made even my own -weight a sore burden, but I steeled my shrinking muscles to their duty, -and Lah, with supple strength beyond her sex, helped me in the task. - -So, half dragging, half supporting, the unconscious form we went, till -at a word from the Queen I halted. - -Lah stooped and knocked twice and then twice again upon a block of -granite that rose from the ground. - -I heard a dull noise sounding distantly from somewhere, and behold, -before us, the earth itself had opened. - -At Lah’s command I swung myself down into the black depth. - -Strong hands seized me; Lah called that she and Zobo followed, and—I -knew no more. - - - - - Chapter X - The Red Witch holds her Revel - - -It may have been hours or days. I do not fix the space of my captivity. - -A man in my state,—may it be reckoned with heavy reckoning against this -son of darkness, this foul priest of Hed,—a man, as I say, in my -condition of mind and body notes not the flight of time. Neither do I -deny that I may perchance have dreamed somewhat. That witch’s cave -wherein at length I came again to life was a likely enough nest for the -hatching of nightmares, aye! and worse things to follow. But this I -hold,—upon my honor as an honest man and a God-fearing gentleman, and to -defend the truth of the same, I will do violence to him who doubts me,—I -saw, and saw with waking eyes, and waking brain, the things I now relate -to you who read these pages. - -So, defending if need be every jot and tittle of my tale, I will set -forth in plain unvarnished words what fate set me to see of the red -witch and her revel. - -The last thing I remember was the fall of some heavy substance above my -head, as half-carried by Lah, the Queen, I was let down into that dark -hole, beyond which lay the moment’s safety, and perchance escape. - -Then came a swift rushing and surging as of mighty waters about and -above me; fiery darts shot through my brain and danced before my eyes. -Then distant voices, and figures passing and repassing, but ever afar -off. Lastly, a glimmer of light, and the touch of cooling bandages bound -tight about my head. After a time the darkness wholly passed; I lay on a -couch of skins, and a bowl full of some evil-smelling mixture was -pressed against my lips. - -At this, I remember I was wroth, and would have smote the unseen nurse -that teased me, but my hand, when I tried to raise it, fell, heavy as -lead, by my side. I heard a hoarse cackling laugh, and against my will I -drank of the cup held out to me. - -Nor, save for a slightly bitter flavor, was the draught nauseous. -Indeed, it warmed like wine. I felt new strength run tingling from limb -to limb, and I opened my eyes, my own man once more, a little weak and -stiff in the joints still, yet whole and sound again and ready for the -morrow and its burden. - -Looking about me I found that I lay in a corner of a cave barely six -feet high, whose end was lost in darkness. This cavern was lighted from -above, by torches stuck in rude brackets here and there in the rocky -wall. I saw, too, that the earth of the floor had been pounded hard and -smooth, and was covered over with intermingling lines of black and -white, red, blue, and yellow. - -I followed these lines with my eyes, and I beheld, without understanding -it, that the network had a meaning. Sometimes a line would end abruptly -with a star, sometimes it was cut clean across, often other lines met -the first, so that the colors ran thickly together; but at all times -there was a certain order like the lines of a map, or a puzzle in -geometry. - -After a time I grew giddy watching this never-ending maze, and I turned -upon my side that I might better see the other portion of my prison -house. A fire smouldered in a distant corner, and a leaping flame showed -the edge of a great cauldron that stood in the cave’s centre, from which -came the quick shimmer and sparkle of precious metal and of gems. A dark -mass near by uncoiled itself slowly, and two unwinking, lidless, fiery -eyes looked straight at me and beyond. The thing slipped away without -noise into the farther darkness, and I sat up. A draught of air played -about my head. It was damp, and pleasantly cool in this underground -retreat, and save for the crackling of the fire all was silent. - -I am not, I trust, a coward, but I tell this as it happened, leaving out -nothing, altering nothing. For all I knew I was alone, safe and alone, -but on a sudden my heart began to beat thickly, my hair stood erect, and -my tongue clave to the roof of my mouth. Cold sweat stood in beads upon -my body, and some inner force compelled me to look where I would not. - -And there, crouching by the fire, I saw the bent figure of a woman, -hardly larger than a child, but old beyond man’s counting. - -She swayed backward and forward. She was perfectly bald, and her face -was a mass of wrinkles, though the ashen, parchment-like skin was drawn -tight over the bones. - -I saw that the creature was wrapped in a red mantle. She turned her head -and opened her eyes full upon me. Such eyes! Two sparks of living fire, -deep set, that ate through bone and muscle, flesh and sinew, and laid -bare the soul. I shrank back, and the head of the red witch dropped down -once more between her shoulders. I felt the terror that had seized me -pass, but I had lost all wish to move. So I waited, in patience and -unsurprised, the pleasure of the shrivelled hag, to whose lair the Queen -had brought me. - -For a space the red witch sat still as some carven image. As the -firelight fell on the wizened, peering face, the peaked features took on -new shapes of ugliness; the lips writhed in a terrible smile, yet -stirred not, and I drew back into the shadows and waited for that which -was to come. As I did so, the hag arose. For an instant I feared that -she was about to approach my couch, but she passed into the outer -darkness with never a backward glance. - -Another moment and she had come again, walking slowly and with evident -pain, and indeed with so much feebleness that I thought every step would -be her last. - -Upheld by her skinny arms was a curious image in painted stone, the god -Hed, as I saw at once. - -The weight of the thing must have been a tax on the strength of a man -even of my inches, but this strange woman now held it aloft, and without -pausing, lightly as though lifting a feather, set the god in a niche -prepared for him above and opposite the cauldron. - -Then she drew from her withered bosom a small bag, and took from it a -pinch of powder. This she threw into the pot, and at once a thin blue -vapor arose from its depths. - -The hag squatted beside her brew, and began a monotonous beating with -her hands upon a hollow log, across either end of which a tanned skin -had been tightly drawn. - -Then she commenced to sing in a curious cracked voice, and the song had -no melody, but instead a kind of rhythm that met with the drum beats, -and stirred, I know not how or why, to frenzy him who listened. - -This is a fragment of the song as near as I can remember. For reasons -that I shall tell presently I stopped my ears in horror before its end. -It was no common chanting; for even as it rose, _the thin blue smoke -took on form and substance and imaged what she sang_. - - “I am Hubla the witch, and I hold in my palm the lives of men. - Blood shall flow that I may not thirst; and the white dove shall - flutter in the net at my command. - I am the ruler of the night, and the things that fly in the darkness. - And the things that crawl are mine, and jewels and gold are to me as - grains of sand. - I alone hold the flower of death, I alone read the scroll of days. - Come, hatred and strife, that Hubla may have joy. - Come, devils and men, and work my will. - Come, you fair Queen, and you white maid, you, stranger, and you, - priest of Hed. - Here by my brew I sit and sing; - Come ye and do my pleasuring.” - -And here it was that as a Christian man I stopped my ears. For I come of -honest yeoman stock, and God forbid that I should so much as listen to -such foul mouthings. - -That the devils the witch called were there, I doubted not, for as I -have said, even as the words passed her lips, the blue vapor from the -cauldron took shape, and I saw floating therein all those whom she had -named. But more was still to come. For presently my own image was joined -to theirs and was swept with them into a kind of evil dance. Faster and -faster the vapor figures whirled. There was despair and envy, and wrath -and sorrow and dismay, on the swift revolving faces. I could not turn my -eyes away, and my heart was as water in my breast. - -Then on a sudden the lips of the hag ceased to move, and like drifted -smoke the vision passed. - -I would have cried aloud in wrath against such practices, but the sound -died in my throat. - -Then Hubla spoke, but not to me. - -She had risen, and now stood before the hideous image of the Serpent -god, and in one hand she held a slender iron rod whose end was white -hot, and whose middle part glowed red from the flames. - -“False and perjured god!” I heard her cry, and the tones struck ice to -my breast, so full were they of malice and of rage. “Between me and thee -is the struggle yet to come. Think not that Hubla fears thee. Take this, -and this, in token of thy shame and thy defeat.” - -And as she spoke she smote with all her force, with the rod, the stolid -squatting figure. - -Drops of foam fell from the witch’s lips, and again her shrill voice -rang through the cavern. - -“I have shielded thine enemy. Out of the toils of thy priests I have -delivered him. Lo! he shall live, and the blast of thy anger shall not -smite him. Neither shall thy breath consume him. For I have thrown my -mantle about him, and he shall live to mock thee in thy courts.” - -Then once more, with all her might she smote, and the stone image fell -with a crash from its narrow ledge, and lay prone in the glowing embers -beneath the cauldron. - -Peal after peal of shrill laughter came from the shrivelled figure, and -straightway the witch began to dance,—a strange heathenish dance, in -which she flung about her withered arms, and took grotesque steps with -bare feet that trod upon the smouldering logs strewn about her fallen -enemy. - -Then at length she threw upon the flames another powder. A deafening -report followed; the cavern shook, and a column of red flame shot up to -the ceiling. The heat was intolerable, and the place was crimsoned as -with blood. - -I gasped for breath, and shielded my face as well as I might from the -awful scorch of that fiery pillar, nor, I think, could my mortal body -have withstood the flame; but after a moment’s space Hubla clapped her -hands, and on the instant the fire died down. - -Save from the flickering light from the torches, all was darkness; the -red witch crouched as before, motionless, before the embers. - -For a little she sat thus; then once more those fiery points that lay -behind her eyelids glowed on me, and I saw the skinny hand beckon. - -“Rise, son,” said the red witch. “Thy hour is come. Go boldly forward. -Death lies waiting with open maw, but Hubla bids you fear him not. Rise! -the treasures of the ages await thee.” - - - - - Chapter XI - The Treasure House of Edba and of Hed - - -As a man in a dream, I rose at her behest, and found that little of my -old strength had left me. Only my feet and legs prickled as though I -walked through nettles, but this in turn passed off. - -Hubla, the witch, had vanished into the darkness of the cavern’s other -end. I followed, stumbling over bones and other litter that strewed the -earthen floor, and once something slipped, all too softly, out from -beneath my tread. I am no coward, as I have said, but I take no shame to -myself that I was glad when I felt the cool night air upon my face, and -saw that I had left the cave’s mouth. - -The red witch still appeared some paces ahead, and old as she was, I had -all that I cared to do to keep the distance from widening between us. -She walked on and on, evenly, and without word or sign to me who -followed. Once she stopped and listened with head raised and nostrils -distended like a beast. Our course was winding, and I thought we doubled -on our tracks. Sometimes it was grass that my feet walked upon, -sometimes smooth rock, and again we crossed a torrent bridged by a -single tree trunk. - -All at once Hubla vanished. I stared stupidly at the empty air, and I -think another in my place would have run with all good speed from the -spot where such devil’s tricks and things of ill omen could happen. I -did indeed commend me to the holy four, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, -as is my wont before I lay me to rest. It is a worthy practice, and a -comfort to a man in my evil case. And that it was Hubla, the red witch, -who answered, shakes not my faith, seeing even the end with the -beginning. Her words coming almost from beneath my feet did both startle -and enrage me. It was, indeed, well for her who spoke that she was old, -and if a foul she-monster, that she still wore the shape of woman. - -“Son of a pig! Why standest thou staring? Is the golden apple of fortune -overripe that it should fall into that gaping mouth of thine?” - -At the same time I felt an iron clutch about my ankle, and the solid -earth gave way beneath my feet. Also, at the moment, a chain slipped -through my fingers. - -“Struggle not and hold, on your life,” said the same voice in my ear, -and I obeyed, because it was borne in upon me, that to obey was all that -there was left to do. I felt about me the swift fall of gravel and small -stones that went tinkling down into some abyss on which I dared not -think. - -Then once again I found a foothold, and clung to it with vigor and all -earnestness. I stood now upon a narrow platform bridging a bottomless -well, and the chain had vanished, pulled from my grasp by the turn of an -invisible windlass. At the opening far above me I saw the dark blue sky -and a single golden star. - -There was many a thing a man might have said to such a guide as this, -but Hubla waited not the hot words that burned upon my tongue. Instead, -she thrust into my hand a crooked piece of iron, and by signs showed me -how it might be made to fit an opening in the rock before me. She had -held her claw-like hand like a vice upon my wrist, but now she relaxed -her hold, and in another instant had gone, cat-like,—only no cat could -have done it,—up and up the side of this strange prison, until, reaching -the top, she sprang over the edge, without so much as a backward glance, -and I was left alone. - -Then, as one having no other outlet, I put my shoulder against the rock, -and with all my might I leaned upon the bar of iron that I held. Slowly, -slowly the great stone yielded to the strain, and presently there yawned -an opening big enough for a man of substance, like myself, to crawl -through. I had no stomach for further acquaintance with my latest -dungeon, so, grasping the iron as my one hope and weapon, I plunged feet -foremost through the hole. I swung for a moment thus, helpless, with no -resting-place within reach; then, as I could not hope to better my lot -by such procedure, I commended my soul to Heaven, and loosed my fingers -from their hold upon the ledge. Fortunately, the fall was not a bad one. -I picked myself up but little bruised and shaken, and found that I was -in a narrow passage whose sides I could touch on either hand. - -Walking thus, and moving with all caution, I advanced, until at length -further progress was barred by a door of stone. I went carefully over -its surface with my fingers and found a small opening. Into this I -thrust my strange key, and the rock giving way on a sudden to my touch, -I fell headlong into the next chamber. For a moment I was blinded by the -dazzle of light with which the room was flooded. But after a little I -opened my eyes, and as I did so, my heart leaped in my breast, and a -sudden faintness seized me, for I saw that I stood on the threshold of -the hidden storehouse, and the treasure of the kings of the people of -the Walled City, aye, and of their gods, had been delivered into my -hand. - -I am an old man now, but my pulse beats faster even to this day, when I -think of what it was mine to see in that same wondrous treasure house. I -noted not that the door had closed behind me, and that there was no -opening on the inner side into which my key might fit. I saw only that I -stood on piled-up ingots of yellow yellow gold; that bags of skins lay -bursting and brimming over with pearls by my side; that half-opened -wooden chests held each its store of many-colored jewels; that the -gem-encrusted weapons, crowns, and girdles of a dead and bygone royalty -littered the very floor. I saw great rough-hewn blocks of silver, curios -of many kinds, and mass on mass of ivory tusks. There were, also, -beautiful woven tapestries, and rugs of silken lustre, and great sealed -jars that I found held wine, fragrant and honey-colored, and fit for an -emperor’s banquet. - -The room was an exact circle, not over large, and lighted from above by -countless hanging lamps. The roof of solid rock was held up by massive -pillars. A hollowed block of stone made a kind of altar at one side. It -was like the altar in the Council Chamber, and it had the same red -stain. Above it leered the serpent god, a brazen image with emerald -eyes, and bracelets on wrists and ankles of diamonds, such as Lah in all -her magnificence had never worn. - -Twelve tiger skins, twelve lion skins, and twelve skins of the panther, -each one beyond common size, of great beauty and quite perfect, lay -spread upon the rocky floor. With some of these I made a couch, and, -wearied, sat me down to muse upon the secret of the storehouse and to -plan how I might best escape with some prudently chosen portion of the -treasure; how meet Astolba and Lestrade, and so journey swiftly and -safely away from this wicked city and its people, whose mad lust for -blood had well-nigh ended all our lives. - -It was sweet to dream of a peaceful homecoming, and rare sport to let -handful after handful of glittering jewels trickle through my fingers, -as thus I sat and pondered. I am not, I hope, a man covetous above my -fellows, but my soul within me warmed at the sight of all this countless -treasure, and the gold and gems were as meat and drink to my body. -Neither felt I now any weariness or fear. I laughed aloud, and the sound -echoed back from the rocky walls, and again I laughed, and Hed the -serpent god laughed too, but silently. - -And then, even then, I felt the touch of a hand upon my shoulder, and -looking upward I saw Lah, the Queen! She stood smiling and without -words, for a moment, and I, not knowing what the visit might portend, -spoke not. - -Being a woman I knew she must soon have speech with me, and that I -should then find whether the future should make peace between us, or -war. - -When at length she did open her lips, I found too that I had forgotten -the power of that musical voice; at least its tones sent a sudden thrill -through all my being, and I listened, spellbound, against my will. - -“Thou art a man,” said Lah; “therefore I say not to thee, let fear slip -from thee as a garment. Fear lodges not in this breast of thine, else -thou hadst not thrust thyself, by what means I know not, thus into the -jaws of death; aye! into the secret storeroom of the Kings of the House, -where lies the very treasure of the gods themselves.” - -Now I liked not much this address, for I saw the lady meant not all she -said. Nevertheless the time was ripe for action, and so with a swift -movement I put my arm about the Queen’s waist, and pulled her gently but -firmly down beside me. - -Then I slipped my hand beneath her chin, and looked straight into her -eyes. You who have looked without blanching into the eyes of a lioness -aroused will know that I did this deed yet boast not. - -“Come you as friend or as foe?” I said. - -I saw the Queen’s hand tremble as she grasped the hilt of the dagger at -her girdle. Then she relaxed her hold, and her beautiful head bent with -a kind of proud humility. - -“My lord himself shall say,” she answered. Then swifter than an arrow’s -flight her mood changed. With a regal gesture she drew back from my -embrace. - -“Tell me, stranger to me and to my people. Lay bare thy heart and lie -not. Is it I whom you love, or does thy fancy hold yet to that weak -thing, that white-faced girl Astolba?” - -The attack was so sudden that I knew not well how to stand against it. -For the first time in my life I wished for the nimble tongue of my -friend Lestrade, and somewhat too of his wider knowledge of the wiles of -women. - -“Answer, slave!” cried Lah, imperiously. - -I looked up, and the half-contemptuous tone stung me to a sullen -defiance. - -“I love neither you nor the other,” I said doggedly. - -“By Edba and by Hed!” breathed the Queen sharply, and I saw her face -grow ashen. - -She laughed, but not loudly, and I misliked the sound; and again silence -fell upon us. Then once more Lah’s voice, cruel, beautiful as her face, -and as calmly cold:— - -“Thou shalt die a dog’s death,” she said. “Even now is thy doom upon -thee,” and she pointed to the place where we stood. - -I looked down, and saw as I did so that a thin stream of water crawled -upon the floor and now had reached and wet the sole of my sandal. - -“What does this mean?” I asked, with strange foreboding, and again the -Queen laughed noiselessly at the question. - -The stream slowly widened; now it lapped the foot of the altar of stone; -a little further and an ingot of gold blocked its course, but only for -an instant. The emerald-eyed god looked on, serenely pitiless. - -Then the horrible truth flashed across me. I seized the Queen by the -arm, and she swayed backward and forward in my grasp. - -“Woman,” I cried in my despair, “what devil’s work is this?” - -Then, because I could not bear the terrible joy in her eyes, I became by -a mighty effort calm once more. - -“Little by little, and this rock-hewn chamber shall be filled even to -the roof with water, as thou seest,” said Lah, smiling. “I was passing -by a secret way, and I heard the noise of a fall in this the treasure -house. Without delay I touched the spring that sets free the waters that -they may do their work, avenge the gods, keep clean from the touch of -thieves, this my heritage and theirs. Then! O stranger, it was borne in -upon me that I should see the face in life of him who thus boldly dared -entrance to this place. The face was thine.” She was silent for a -moment. “And there was time for flight, for freedom before the waters -came.” - -“And you?” I asked. - -“The first thin stream locked fast the door behind me,” she calmly -answered. “What matters it? I also meet my doom.” She turned and held -forth her hand. “We die—together.” - -There was silence for a space, and then her voice fell again on my ear, -and now sweet beyond human fancying. - -“See,” she said softly. “The time is short; we were mated from the -beginning. O lion heart, since so soon we both must pass, forgive me, -even as thus I forgive you.” - -She stooped and kissed me once upon the forehead, and I in a frenzy born -of the hour and of her beauty, caught her to me, and kissed her also, -not once, but many times, on hair and hands and lips. - -And all the time the water rose with a swift relentless quiet that knew -no rest. No rest till its murderous task was done, and I, fool that I -was, and she, the Queen, should die, like rats in a trap, inglorious, if -together. - -My brief passion grew cold at the thought. Yet my despair was not all -for myself. It seemed too cruel a thing for truth, that one like to this -woman, so splendidly alive, so perfect a work of nature, should be -blotted out of existence by this cold, creeping, ignorant, pitiless -force. - -For now the water was ankle deep. I looked into the eyes of Lah, and -they met mine with a soft serenity. Women are queer creatures. I do not -doubt that in the very face of this slow and evil death, she, the Queen, -was altogether happy. - -I could not bear her gaze. Neither could I stand idle, while the -treacherous flood rose about us. - -It was wild and useless labor, but with a frenzy of energy I pulled -together two jewel chests, piled on blocks of silver that felt like -featherweights to my mad strength, took ivory tusks and casks of wine, -and built a throne higher than his who sat unmoved, the serpent god -looking upon our misery. Then, bearing her in my arms, on the topmost -part I set the Queen, and she, seeing that I would have it so, obeyed, -while I, a little lower, took my stand by her side. - -And still the water rose, and still with wide-open eyes, all undismayed, -sat Lah, while our swift heart-beats measured off the time,—the all too -little time that for us two meant the whole remaining span of life. - -The flood now had reached my knees, and had wet the hem of the Queen’s -garment. It seemed to rise more quickly. I measured the space left to -the roof of the storehouse and saw that soon our torture would be over. - -Then a great rage took hold on me that thus we two should perish. I -would at least make one more try for life. I would swim close to the -walls of this infernal trap and see if somewhere, somehow, there lay not -a chance of rescue. - -I turned to the Queen and told her of my purpose. She smiled, but -forbade me not. “There is no hope,” she said, “or I should know of it. -But see, take this my dagger, and just before the end—promise me—I would -go first along the dark way that leads to the gate of Shimra. Swear to -me. I would not die alone.” - -I was no Christian in that hour. I take shame to me that it was so. The -Queen had her will with me, and I gave her the promise that she craved. - -Then I struck out boldly, for the time was short. Round and round I -circled, swimming slowly and looking well for any crack or fissure in -stone or pillar. But the walls were as smooth as glass to my touch, and -I found no opening. - -He of the emerald eyes gloated over me, over us two. His massive knees -lent me a moment’s foothold, and in childish rage I struck him furiously -across the face with my dagger’s hilt. And at the sound the Queen sprang -to her feet. - -“Look!” she cried breathlessly; “look, the god is hollow!” - -Men’s wits work nimbly at such a time as this. Without pausing, I swam -behind the great metal image—and it was true: cleverly hidden in the -back I saw a door. But the water had now reached its base. - -“Swim for your life!” I called to the Queen, but she shook her head. - -“I know not how the trick is done,” she answered steadily. “Save then -yourself.” - -But I was half-way across the space between. The rest seems now like -some fantasy of the brain. I have said evil things of Hed. Let me now -put down in black and white one good thing to his memory: the door that -saved us was not locked. - -’Twas like the heathenish way of the priests who set it there to taunt -with bolts the maddened wretch who thus sought safety. Yet it was so, -even as I have written it. The door yielded to my pressure and revealed -a small winding staircase. - -Already the water flowed a torrent through the opening, but I had the -Queen safe in, and now had followed. Quickly I shut the barrier in place -behind me. And then—then safe at last in the darkness it was Lah who -sighed, so strange are the ways of women:— - -“I know not. But I had joy in death, and now life has been yet once more -thrust upon me.” - - - - - Chapter XII - The Dance of the Maidens - - -So I had come empty handed, after all, from out the Treasure House of -Kings. - -We groped our way down the spiral staircase, the Queen and I, and both -were silent. Far be it from me to guess the thoughts of the woman at my -side; as for my own, I fear that man is but an ungrateful animal at -best. For I thought little of our wonderful escape, and much of the -rubies, the ivory and pearls, and other goodly store of wealth that I -had left behind. - -Some day, I vowed to myself, I would wrest once more the secret of the -entrance to that room of death and gold, and then it should go hard with -me indeed, did I come forth as now, with not so much as a yellow ingot -to show for the adventure. - -I am a man of even temper, but I was cold and hungry and out of conceit -with myself and the world about me. Had some priest of Edba or of Hed -stayed our retreating steps, I could have stopped his protesting clamor -with more good-will than brotherly love. But we reached without let or -hindrance the last stair, and a door opening to my touch showed a long -corridor but dimly lighted, and winding before us. - -“Follow me,” whispered the Queen; “make no noise, but come quickly. From -this spot I can reach my own Palace, and once there, woe to him who -should so much as lay a finger on you, my lord.” - -She led the way with swift and silent footsteps, and I came close -behind. Then on a sudden she paused and signed to me to step within a -recess formed by the angle of two walls. - -I obeyed with rather an ill grace, I fear; for I had heard nothing, and -indeed was willing to run some risk, that I might the more readily find -dry raiment and victuals even of heathen cooking, but so that I might -eat. - -Yet Lah with finger on lip tarried, and I saw her bosom rise and fall -with her quick breathing. If such a woman could know fear, it was fear -now that looked from her eyes, as I gazed into their depths. And before -the end I knew that it _was_ terror that blanched her face, and that the -danger she shunned was danger to me. - -And then, just as I was about to protest against this useless dallying, -I heard in the distance the patter of loosely tied sandals upon the -stone floor, and soon a light showed forth like a glow-worm’s torch in -the blackness of the further end. - -There were voices too. A goodly company, I judged. Lah stood, a living -statue, her dagger drawn, the folds of her dripping mantle spread to -shield me as with unconscious force she thrust me back into the dark -corner of the recess. - -As for me, I pondered where and how it were best to strike, and if I -should find in the leader my old acquaintance, Agno, the High Priest. -The voices came nearer. The men were disputing, for now I caught stray -fragments of their speech. - -“Surely the god himself would strike down the thief,” said one, “did not -the water do its work.” - -“Since none of us knows the secret of the entrance,” said a second, “we -can do naught but guard the corridor till Agno comes.” - -“You are blind, both of you, as the bats that hang in the Temple’s inner -court,” sneered a third. “The stranger has strong magic. He has killed -the sacred ape; he has defied both Edba and Hed; he has escaped, though -bound, from the very Mad Man of the Moon, whom first he slew. Why should -we stand like fools watching for that which comes not? If the strangers -seek the treasures of the gods, why, let the gods defend their own!” - -“Blasphemer!” cried one in anger, and there was a hoarse clamor of -assent, and I thought they would have fallen then and there, like -wolves, upon the grumbler, but a new voice sternly bade the clamor -cease. - -“Get ye onward, and for him who lags or murmurs there shall be both -stripes and fasting. For him who compasses the death of the thief of the -Treasure House, honor and riches here, and glory hereafter. Forward!” - -The voices and the light were very near now, and two by two, I saw the -armed company turn the angle of the wall and march steadily on. - -We crouched closer in the inky shadow that befriended us, and I knew -that if they did but reach the further turning without beholding us, we -were safe. - -There were eight in all, and so deep were they in their now whispered -talk, or so much in awe of their leader, that they did not so much as -turn their heads our way, but marched steadily by. - -I began to breathe easily again. The whole array had passed the place, -the foremost had even reached the next turning, when the last man, with -a muttered oath, tripped on the loosened latchet of his sandal. - -His companions hurried on, and he, kneeling, stooped to fasten the -leathern thong. He had laid his torch beside him on the stone, and now -he turned to raise it. As ill-luck would have it, the light flashed for -a moment on our hiding-place. I saw his jaw drop and his look of wonder. -His fellow-guardsmen had just now turned the corner. - -I started forward, but I was too late. With the noiseless, supple spring -of a tigress, Lah was upon him. There was a swift flash of steel, and -the thing was over. The Queen even caught the reeling figure and laid it -quietly upon the stone. - -“I knew his voice,” she said. “’Tis he who called upon the gods to -defend their own. They will think that Edba and Hed have avenged the -insult. It is well. Let us come.” - -And so once more, half dazed, I followed. It was a very labyrinth we -threaded, but at length we reached its last winding, and I found myself -in the very chamber to which Lestrade and I had first been taken. - -The sight of it brought back my old companion to my mind. False friend -and comrade that I was! The events of the last hours had quite effaced -his image from my mind. - -He had fallen victim like me into the hands of these bloody and -treacherous priests. - -How long had I been prisoner unconscious in the lair of the red witch -Hubla? what was Gaston’s fate? and what of her whom I had given my word -to rescue? - -Filled with shame, I caught the Queen’s mantle as, with the promise of -the quick ministry of slaves, she turned to leave me. - -“My friend!” I said, in an agony of fear. “Tell me of his fate.” - -“He lives,” Lah answered. - -“Unhurt?” - -“Unhurt—as yet.” - -“And she—Astolba?” - -The Queen’s eyes narrowed, but she spoke calmly. - -“She lives also, but the feast of Edba is at hand.” - -“When?” I asked, shuddering; for I could not conceal the horror of my -soul. - -“To-night. At the sixth hour I will come for thee. Meanwhile rest -quietly; be warmed, be fed. Thou hast my promise; thou shalt see all.” - -Then I flung myself before the Queen in her pitiless beauty, and, as a -man distraught, I raved and pleaded, that she would protect this poor -girl, that she at least would give me the chance to die fighting by her -side. That she would save Astolba, sweet, innocent, frightened child, -alone in the hands of demons. That she would save Gaston, my friend— - -And all the time the face of Lah was as marble, and I saw no mercy in -those firm closed lips. - -At length, wearying of my suit, without a word she tore the hem of her -garment from my frantic grasp, and had gone. - -I sat stupefied with grief, my head in my hands. And then I raged in -helpless passion against fate, against a heaven that could let such -things be done, and against myself, thus safe in hiding, while she whom -I had sworn to protect, and he, my best, my faithful friend, went forth -to meet the lingering agony of a cruel death. - -Slaves came, and against my will I was clothed in warm and jewelled -raiment. Meat and wine and fruit were brought in golden salvers and set -before me. I turned from it all in loathing, and then the thought came -to me that the Queen had given her word that I should see the end. I -would eat then and drink, and force myself to rest, and it would go hard -if, at the appointed hour, I broke not my bonds, and took my rightful -place beside my friends. - -Without knowing it, a tender feeling stole into my heart for that poor -child, about to be thrown a sacrifice to the hideous god. I could not -bear that she should be hurt or frightened. And the tenderness grew -until it was something very like to love that found its place within my -breast, and I vowed that if the Queen should really let this monstrous -thing be done, that did she care for me as she had said, I would wring -her heart without pity and without remorse, in just revenge. But it -should not be. Neither should my brave and gallant Lestrade perish, a -victim to this horrid worship. - -I paced up and down the marble floor like a caged beast, and then I -remembered that I must husband my strength, and so, with all my power of -will, lay motionless upon the couch and watched the weary hours go -slowly by. - -But at length the fateful moment came, and with it Lah, resplendent in -her jewelled garments, the crown upon her head, the girdle of power -about her waist. She had never been more beautiful, and her beauty had -never touched me less. Indeed, it was almost hatred that I felt for her -in that hour, and I said to her in her own language that which was in my -heart. - -“If these two die, then never between me and thee is there peace again. -Thou shalt be my bitterest foe, and may this right hand of mine wither -ere it clasp thine in friendship. May I taste death rather than the -honeyed poison of thy lips. The choice is thine. I have spoken. Thou -knowest if I keep my word.” - -She turned proudly. - -“He is a fool who breathes threats into the ear of the Queen, and the -portion of fools is fire,” she said, and in the proverb I read my -answer. - -Then she signed to me to follow, and I obeyed. The way led through the -same dark tangle of underground passages, as those we threaded in our -escape from the Treasure House, but the journey was not so long, and at -length it ended in a kind of antechamber richly hung with rugs and -skins. - -Two giant slaves advanced and fell prostrate on the ground before the -face of Lah. - -“Take this man,” she said, “and array him as a member of my household. -See that he is veiled and that his cloak covers him from head to foot. -When I am seated upon my throne let him take his stand by my right hand. -As for you, choose well your station. Watch your prisoner closely. At -his first movement, his first outcry, seize him and bear him from the -court. Let there be no struggle and no noise. I have spoken. Look you to -it.” And without so much as a backward glance at me, the Queen had gone. - -It was therefore after the manner now set forth that I entered into the -inner Temple of Edba, and waited that which was to come. - -Already like thousands of ants, black and brown, the people swarmed -within the enclosure, filled the wooden balconies to overflowing, and -massed themselves in crowds upon the raised platform that lined the -walls. - -A band of musicians, stationed near the centre, beat monotonously on -their hidebound drums and chanted a doleful hymn of praise. - -With a refinement of cruelty, Lah had placed me where I could at once -see best the torment of my friends, and do least to relieve it. I -watched with cold fury the holiday look on the face and garb of the -people. They came to this hideous spectacle with the light laughter and -noisy bustle of a merrymaking. - -Yet the slow-moving, solemn files of priests pleased me no better, and -the calm of the close ranks of soldiery alike called forth my wrath. -There was not one in all that vast multitude that thought with pity on -the fate of her destined to be the Snake’s unhappy bride. Not one but -longed for the fall of the knife that was to sever for all time the -thread of life of him I called my friend. - -I thought how but the veil of silken tissue that I wore stood between me -and death; yet, I say it not with boasting, my pulse beat not faster for -the fact. I was as a man carried out of himself. I waited, immovable as -the very image of Hed himself whose squat figure presided side by side -with Edba, over this heathen revel. - -There was a stir among the people, as when the wind blows through the -trees of the forest. I heard the royal salute, the clash of arms, and -Lah had taken her place on the throne beside me. Then Agno raised his -staff, and the band of players in the centre of the court struck from -their rude instruments the first measures of a dance. At the wild -fantastic prelude, two doors at the Temple’s end swung back on their -central pivot, and from each appeared six maidens clad in white. They -wore silver girdles, and the veils on their heads were caught each with -a crescent of silver. - -These were the twelve, the fairest in the land, chosen by the priests -from out the people. They were to dance before the statue of the god, -and the god himself would show by his nod, which of the number was to be -his bride. - -I knew but all too well that on Astolba the lot would fall; but these -poor girls, her companions, were ignorant of their fate, and bound by -their awful rites, as I knew them to be, not one among them but looked -her anguish and her fear. With a slow gliding movement in time to the -music they took their stand before the veiled figure of Edba and the -leering image of Hed. I saw Astolba take her place with the rest, and I -glanced at the watchful eyes of my two guards who hung, ready to spring, -like eager mastiffs at either hand. - -Then the music changed. Again Agno raised his staff, and, with a wild -barbaric gush of melody, the centre door swung open. Four priests in -costly scarlet raiment advanced, bearing on their shoulders a litter -garlanded with flowers, and on this litter, attired as a king, but bound -a prisoner, I saw my friend Lestrade. - -The royal salute was given, and the people fell on their faces. Then the -bearers put the litter down and knelt with bowed heads before their -captive. Again Agno waved his wand of office. - -A deep shuddering sigh ran through the waiting throng as they stood -erect. The bearers, too, had risen. I saw them strike the fetters from -the victim’s feet and hands. Then, closely guarded, he was bound to the -horns of the altar, the sacrificial stone standing in the centre of the -inner circle, before the statues of the gods. I noted that between that -stone and me lay a pit sunk in the floor of the court, and in the pit a -giant python coiled asleep. - -But once more the musicians struck their instruments and began the -fantastic strains that heralded the dance. I saw the reptile move -uneasily. Then its great head was raised. It swayed from side to side, -as the music rose and fell. - -Agno gave the signal, and the maidens began their dance. It was a kind -of raised platform of marble on which they moved, and it was strangely -inlaid with tiles both green and white. Only in the centre, just before -the image of Hed, was set a single blood-red stone, and over this each -maiden was forced in the mazes of the dance to go. - -I saw them tremble and falter with terror as they stepped upon this -tile, and how their courage rose when once it was safely passed. - -The people watched with horrible eagerness all the scene. I glanced -covertly at my guard, and I perceived with joy that I was forgotten for -the moment. - -As for the Queen, she sat immovable, her level brows knit, one bare -sandalled foot resting on her tiger’s head. Something told me that the -moment had come. I saw Lah raise her hand. On the instant the head of -the serpent god fell forward, his chin resting on his breast. - -Astolba was standing, helpless as a bird in the snare of the fowler, her -feet resting on the centre crimson stone. - -A hush fell on the multitude. I saw a wreath of roses flung upon the -victim’s head, while at the same time a slender cord, sent swift through -the air by an unseen hand, coiled itself about the body of the -shuddering girl. - -“The great god Hed has chosen!” shrieked the people. “To the pit with -the bride! To the pit!” - -Then I knew my time had come. No human power could have held me back. I -tore the clinging veil and mantle from my limbs. I gave one burly slave -a backward blow that sent him reeling upon his fellows; the other I -tripped easily with my foot as he started to lay hold upon me. With a -quick leap I cleared the amazed circle of the guard. Zobo, back again in -life, and warned by the Queen’s cry, sprang to seize me as I fled, but I -slipped beneath his outstretched arm. - -The multitude seeing my face, which I grant was hardly human in that -hour, screamed aloud for very fear. I saw them huddled like sheep -together. - -A voice cried: “The Magician is upon us!” - -I had passed the serpent pit and reached the altar stone. The -sacrificial knife, broad-bladed, sharp of edge, lay close to my hand. -Another moment and Lestrade was free. - -Then together we had reached Astolba. Gaston seized the brazier of live -coals that stood before Hed’s image, and flung it full in the face of -the first pursuing priest. His cheerful voice rang out. Even in that -dread moment I could have sworn that his gaze had rested with instant -approval on the shapely ankle of a flying white-robed maiden. He swung -the empty brazier with right good-will, and I kept about me a clean -circle with my glittering knife. - -But already the end was near. Like a cloud of enraged insects the -priests swept down upon us, and the reluctant soldiery, fearing they -knew not what, came too at Agno’s shrill command. I gave myself three -minutes yet of life. My shoulder was bleeding from the stab of a spear, -but I felt no pain. With my back to the statue of Hed I fought on -blindly. - -[Illustration] - -The circle, bristling with swords and spears, narrowed. Some one had -thrown his dagger at me from afar, and the hilt had cut open my forehead -just above the eye. It was an irksome wound because I needed then, if -ever, clear sight, and the blood that trickled down did the more sadly -vex me in that I found no instant when I could pause and brush away the -teasing drops. - -As I have said, the end was near. Gaston, fighting still beside me, -cried out that it was so, and bade me “farewell and God speed.” I saw -the sword of a burly soldier within an inch of my breast. There was no -time for thrust or parry. I gave but one brief thought to the sweet -earth, and not, it shames me, to near heaven. Then on the second I saw -the sword struck upward. There was the blue flash of a weapon wielded -strong and well, and there by my side, with one foot on the body of a -fallen foe, stood Lah, a lioness at bay! - -There followed a moment’s pause. Then Zobo, with his tunic torn and -bloody from the struggle, leaped into the ring and took his place by the -woman he loved and served. - -“Back!” cried the Queen, “back! The priests outnumber us and the people -thirst for blood. On to the Palace; the guards will fight their way to -me and follow.” - -I saw the wisdom of her words, and it was plain to me that we must do -her bidding, and urgently, for our lives’ sake. I thought with longing -of the door just at my back. It is a comfortable thing, a strong-barred -door, when one has reached the side of safety and left the howling mob -without. - -So with all caution, step by step, we slowly gave way. There were still -shrewd blows struck, for the Queen’s presence had but made the fight -with the priests yet hotter, though now the warriors hung back, and -would not be spurred forward to battle by the curses freely poured forth -on them by Agno. A yard of ground thus counted by inches is longer than -many a mile. But the mighty Zobo fought as never man fought before. The -Queen, unwearied, guarded now my left, Lestrade, my right. - -All honor to such goodly company—they saved the day. Astolba, half led, -half carried by me, reached first the sheltering door. When all had -entered, it was made fast, and without a word Lah led onward. - -Back through the honeycombed passages, till the door of the harem swung -open at the royal order, a shattered remnant of the bodyguard greeting -us, and we were in the citadel at last. - -Then I saw the true spirit that reigned in the soul of her who ruled -that place: how, at her command, the gates were made fast, the slaves -armed, the secret entrance blocked,—one sent to this post, one to that. -This woman with a man’s brain thought of all these things and more; and -I, beholding, marvelled. And though I fain would have had it otherwise, -the marvel grew. - -For all being done, she turned to me at last, and proudly, though her -eyes were filled with tears. - -“I, who have flung away a kingdom for thy sake, ask now this question: -between me and thee, is it war or peace?” - -And I, clasping her hand in mine, the memory of her service wiping out -the past, answered right readily, and from my heart, that it was peace. - - - - - Chapter XIII - A Strange Story - - -What had befallen during my captivity I shall now relate in the words of -my comrade, Gaston Lestrade. It was long after that he thus set forth -the matter, and I transcribe it, leaving nothing out, not even such -reflections on me as have no bearing on the story, but with which, -nevertheless, he saw fit to garnish his strange tale. - -It was with pain [said he] that I saw you, my good friend Dering, vanish -in the distance in the company of that black priest and his followers. - -It was my folly, and mine alone, that had brought you to that pass, but -I did not let the thought deaden my hopes, or cause me to dwell less -confidently on plans for our escape. - -The beautiful, the adorable Lah, she would see to it, I felt sure, that -two gallant gentlemen be not foully murdered; and I set myself to -compose on the moment a love ditty in which I should relate to her not -only my admiration for her charms, but also my earnest expectation of -rescue at her fair hands and speedy safety for my friend as for myself. - -Meanwhile I too was borne along out from that blood-stained and evil -Council Room, and at a sign from that arch-traitor Agno, I was carried -down a long passage, hewn also from solid rock, and ending in a massive -door. - -This, after some delay, was opened, and I was set once more upon my -feet; my bonds were loosed and my guards left me, going out by the way -they had come. - -I was alone in an immense hall ornamented with colored marbles and hung -with colored lights, but quite bare of furniture of any kind. At one end -of this apartment hung a heavy curtain embroidered with mystic symbols -in both gold and silver. - -Soft music and the rippling laughter of women came faintly from beyond, -and without more ado I pressed forward, for the sound was strangely -sweet and inviting to a man perilously encompassed with dangers as I -was. - -I found that the tapestry of which I have spoken hid another door. This -stood ajar, and I entered without mishap into the next chamber. - -You, Dering, cold Puritan that you are, cannot imagine the delight that -filled my heart as I stood on that threshold and gazed about me. - -Every sad thought fled on the instant, for I had strayed before my time -into Mahomet’s paradise, and the houris that inhabit it were not -wanting. - -That room, Dering, was lovely beyond a poet’s dream and rich above a -miser’s wildest hopes. But it was not the room, beautiful as it was, -that caught and held me spellbound. It was the multitude of fair and -gracious women that it contained, each one a rare and perfect flower, -and each bending low in welcome and a kind of worship, as I approached. -The foremost—a tall, willowy creature, Dering, with blue-black waving -mass of hair and glorious violet eyes—advanced and kneeling bade me look -upon her and her companions as my slaves. - -“For seven days it is our mission to do you homage,” said she; “for -seven days you are our lord, and your pleasure, ours.” - -Then as she paused, I gallantly, as became a gentleman, raised her up -and taking the thread of her discourse, I said:— - -“And the seven days passing, what then, loveliest of women?” - -But she pointed back to the way by which I had come. - -“The door behind the veil shall open, and we shall know you no more,” -she answered. “Yet till then what is the pleasure of my lord?” - -Now I am a man who lives from one hour to the next. In this wise have I -escaped much bitterness of spirit, and garnered in great store of sweet. -It was plainly, then, the part of wisdom to let the future be, just as -it was the part of a chivalrous man to let no shadow hang upon the -converse that I should hold with this beauteous maid and her companions. -So I drank of the wine they pressed upon me. I tasted of this -flower-wreathed dish and that. I listened to the songs they sang, and -sang in turn for their entertaining. - -I was a king, but I was none the less a gentleman. I think I may say -with truth, these fair ladies of my court grew fast to think with dread -on that veiled door, and the moment that should mean farewell for them -and me. - -So the time went smoothly. I had it even in my heart to thank the -dark-browed priest to whose command I owed this interval. - -Had it not been for the captivity of my friend Dering and doubts of his -fate, for the continued absence of the lady we had come to rescue, and -for the cold reserve of Lah, the Queen, I could have flung myself with -my whole soul into the delights that by some unknown chance encompassed -me, a victim. - -But as I have said, mine is a light and joyous nature, and so it was -that when I kissed the little hand that held my trencher, my thoughts -were more with the slender fingers that I pressed and their beauteous -owner, than with black parting and divers other sorrows yet to come. - -And now I have to relate a strange thing, and one, beginning with what -was to me an impulse stranger yet. - -It was the evening of the sixth day. I sat in the midst of my fair -court, and was glad of the event, however sinister, that had brought me -to that place. - -Then on a sudden a yearning came to me to be alone. I am ever one to -spare a woman’s feelings. If an ungracious thing must indeed be said, I -say it, but I wrap the words about with tender nothings, and the wound -is dealt so gracefully, that oft times the stricken one forgets the hurt -in dreaming on the manner of its coming. - -Not so, alas! on this occasion, though I grieve to say it. For I turned -as bluntly as ever did my trusty comrade Dering, whose breadth of -shoulder does with the fair sex what his tongue would ever again undo, -only that there is no counting on a petticoat, and it is oft times the -whim of the fickle ones to follow, spaniel-like, him who most derides -them. - -Well, as I have said, I turned in the midst of the pretty tinkle of -feminine laughter and silvery speech, and asked almost roughly, if there -were not some spot in all that Palace, where a man, prisoner though he -be, might find a welcome solitude. - -Then she who chiefly tended on my wants bent her sweet head, and with a -new timidity besought that I should go with her. - -As in a dream I left behind the now silent and wondering bevy of -maidens, and my guide, pointing to a door I oft had noted, told me that -beyond that portal I could rest undisturbed by the idle chatter of my -slaves. - -“We are forbidden to enter there,” she said, “but to the King all things -are possible.” - -So I pushed open the door and passed within, and the cold air as of a -vault struck full on my face as I did so. My heart, too, felt that icy -chill, but I pushed on, as one driven by another’s will, and when my -eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom of the place, I looked about, and -the truth came to me: I stood within the Burial Hall of Kings. - -The chamber was hewn from stone resembling granite, and was supported by -pillars of the same dull gray hue. Lamps hanging from these lit the Hall -but dimly, yet I could see with all distinctness the thrones, also of -massive rock, that lined the walls. Save one in the centre each was -filled. - -I love not the company of such as these, yet something held me fast. I -thought with longing of that outer room, so bright, so gay; of the -flower-like faces and graceful forms I had but now left behind, and all -the while I stood rooted to the spot, in the dark shadow of a column, -and waited, though I knew it not, for that which was to be. The -flickering light of the lamps did strange things to the grim faces about -me. - -There they sat, those kings who once had ruled the people of the Walled -City. A greater Ruler than they had touched each with His sceptre, and -the passing of centuries was to each as the dry leaves that are blown -from the trees, in autumn, by the wind. - -I gazed upon them, and their silent majesty awed me, as a living, -breathing presence never could have done. Even now the dead king at my -right grasped in his hand the staff of power. Crowned and robed with -royalty sat he, yet the mouse that gnawed his sandal’s strap was more -potent far, for good or ill. - -As the thought crossed my mind I heard a faint noise like the trailing -of garments upon the floor. It was an eerie sound in such a place, but -as before, I stood motionless, held still by the same curious spell, and -the sound came nearer. - -Then from between two thrones at the Hall’s further end there glided a -woman clad all in white. It was impossible to mistake that grace and -dignity. I would fain have flung myself at her feet, but something in -the hushed look of her face held me back. I even closed my eyes, that -look so plainly was not meant for me. For the mask had fallen, and I saw -straight into the bared heart of her who was at once more and less than -other women, the heart of Lah, the Queen. A stifled sob reached my ears, -and behold, she had thrown herself upon the hard stone of the floor, and -with clasped hands, knelt, a suppliant, before the unmoved figures of -the royal dead. - -Then her voice, her wonderful, beautiful voice, broke the silence. - -“O Rulers of the people of the Walled City! I cry out to you. The gods -have turned away in anger. Edba, herself once a woman, heeds me no -longer. I am not of your race. I have come a stranger to this land, but -I ask you, have I not given back good measure for all that the land has -given me? Surely, has prosperity come upon your people, O Throned Ones -who sit and answer not. Much riches have I brought to them; my rule has -been strong; my justice known abroad. The wicked tremble before my face, -and the doer of brave deeds have I exalted! See, an empty throne awaits -me in your midst. Does that anger you that I, a woman and a stranger, -should there take my place? Then listen, Great Ones. Give me but a -single little gift from out your store. Turn to me the heart of the -stranger. Behold, I kneel to you, I, Lah, who kneel not even to the -gods. Hear then my oath: my throne shall remain empty throughout the -ages. Take back your kingdom if it please you. Strip from me my riches. -Take all—I care not, but turn to me this one heart. Leave but my beauty -and my lover.” - -Her voice died away, and again there was silence. Then the Queen rose -from her knees, and a splendid passion clothed her from head to foot. - -“Ye answer not, O Rulers of the people of the Walled City! In peace have -I come to you. Look to it that I come not again in war. For neither the -dead nor the living shall stay my will. Ye sit upon thrones indeed, but -at my pleasure. If the stranger love me, it is well, for me and for ye -also. For I can scatter your ashes to the winds, and I can fling ye, one -and all, upon a funeral pyre. For Lah can hate, as well as love, and -when she comes again, she comes your friend or foe.” - -Then she passed. And I, in mute amazement that was half terror, stayed -her not, but went back softly, groping in the dark for the door that had -let me within this sepulchre. - -For this woman was not as other women, and her words were not meant for -me to hear. So I locked them away in my breast, and only thus after many -days do I set them down, that he, my friend, may take from them some -comfort. - -For I know now, without room for doubt, whose love it was for which the -Queen pleaded of the silent dead, within the Burial Hall of Kings. - - - - - Chapter XIV - The Flower of Death - - -We were now in the Palace, and the place was besieged. About its walls -(and they were thick indeed, or this tale had not been written) a -howling mob surged through the day and still unwearied made hideous the -night. - -The people of the Walled City, maddened by their priests, cried out for -blood, and it added an unfailing interest to the cry that we who heard -it knew right well for whose blood they were thus loudly clamoring. - -But the Queen was deaf to the tumult, nor did she seem to heed the fact -that as the days wore on, the multitude, grown bolder, now cursed the -name of her who shielded thus the enemies of the gods. - -Agno was not idle. Abroad the wolves leaped at the gates; the royal -archers shot them down by hundreds, and in turn were slain. Grim death -walked thus a hundred paces off, and we within, moved by the will of her -who reigned supreme, lived softly and spoke not of that which chiefly -filled our thoughts. That it was the beginning of the end, we knew, but -one forbade the hint of danger, and we obeyed. - -Meanwhile the serene, luxurious life of the Palace flowed quietly on, -like some broad, placid stream that speeds not nor frets, for all the -thunder of the waterfall at hand. - -Lestrade, grown strangely moody, and Astolba, with white, hushed face, -sat with me, guests in the Queen’s banquet-hall; but I alone drank from -the royal cup, and on me alone did the eyes of Lah rest with the look -that was at once both promise and fulfilment. - -I am a prudent man, but a man has need of more than prudence to guard -against a foe like this. For the Queen was to me all woman in those -days, and the spell of her beauty and her new-born gentleness was on me. - -Also the uncertainty of these golden hours, and the sense of -ever-present danger, went to my head like wine. I set it down in penance -for the sin of my unfaithfulness. I forgot the garnered store of wealth, -whose secret I had held; I forgot my friend; I forgot the maid that I -had sworn to save. And it was in a mood like this, that Astolba found -me, the morning of the fifth day of the siege of the Palace. - -I was on my way to meet the Queen, and my whole soul was in my errand, -so that I looked with the less kindness and the more impatience on the -hand that stayed me. It was a small hand and white, but I am not -Lestrade, and I had little thought for its beauty. None the less I am a -man, and its weakness should have held me as its fairness might not do. -Yet it was with more haste than gentleness that I asked Astolba’s -errand. Had I been less amorously engaged with my own purpose, I think -the terror in the upturned face would have touched me to the quick; as -it was, I set her story down more to the vain fears of any maid in such -a case, than to the score of her with whom the tale chiefly dealt—for it -was of the Queen that Astolba spoke; the Queen, who, as I have said, was -all meekness and sweet humility with me. Yet this is what Astolba told -me, and little did I think that I should so soon see reason in her -speech:— - -“It was night at about the eleventh hour,” she began; “I lay shivering -upon my couch, and I could not sleep. You remember that I had asked -Lah’s permission to go from the banquet, and as I passed, you had turned -kindly to me, and bade me take courage, while even as you spoke the -hideous cries from without came faintly to my ears. Perhaps your notice -stirred the hatred of the Queen, for indeed of late she does hate me. At -least she looked at me, and her look pierced me through and through. The -thought of it kept me awake. I was cold with fear though the night was -warm. I shall die with terror in this evil place. Oh, if you be a man, -help me to escape or kill me quickly! But I tell you I will not longer -live this life of horror.” - -So Astolba cried, and I, with a coldness that I can never enough regret, -asked her to speak plainly and to the point; what else of evil had the -Queen done? Or had she compassed all wickedness in a single look? - -But the maid, like a frightened child, clung to me still, and -half-weeping went on with her story. - -“It was late, as I have told you, and yet I could not sleep. But at -length I was so worn with brooding on the dreadful past, and the black -future, that I think I must have dropped into a light slumber. And in my -dreams a still more awful horror took hold on me, and I would have cried -out but a hand was placed over my mouth, and I awoke. The Queen stood by -my side.” Astolba covered her face with her hands. “I shall never forget -the anger, the hatred, and the scorn of her look, yet when she spoke, -her voice was low, and calm with a cruel quiet. - -“‘Miserable white-faced slave,’ she said. ‘Have you wondered why I have -so far spared you? Did you think because you have escaped the serpent’s -pit, that you could hope to escape me? It would have been all too easy -to have thrown you to those dogs without the gates, who would have made -short work of your slender prettiness.’ - -“Then her passion seemed to break out of the bonds in which she held it. -She took hold of my arm—see the mark of her fingers on the flesh. She -dragged me half-fainting from the couch, and I swayed to and fro in her -iron grasp. - -“‘Look,’ she said, ‘look at me well, and ask yourself if your white face -can hold a charm for him, now that he has gazed upon my beauty? Yet will -I make sure. You have heard many a secret of the Palace; yet you have -not heard of the flower of death. But fear not, for of that also you -shall know. You shall breathe its perfume, when you think not, and you -shall die. Little by little your blood shall dry in your veins, and your -fair, white skin shall shrivel and hang loose. Your eyes shall lose -their lustre. You shall have pity, perchance, but love shall pass you -by. Day by day you will wither. You will seek for death, and death will -come all too slowly. Yet in the end, that also shall come, and with it -the first and last mercy that shall be rendered to you from the hands of -Lah, the Queen—’ - -“Then she left me—” - -“And you awoke,” said I, half-smiling, as one comforting a child. “For -surely, Astolba, you cannot think that such a thing as this could by any -chance be true. The flower of death! Are you not already a little -ashamed of all this nonsense? As for the Queen, has she not shielded us -all at the risk of her own life? And while I am here, and Lestrade, what -do you fear? Death could come to you only after it had come first to us. -And in truth, it shall go hard if we do not soon find some way to save -you and ourselves. But we must trust the Queen. Have patience a little—” -and here I stooped, and kissed as a brother might, the soft cheek, now -so pale and wan. “Meanwhile dream no more dreams.” - -And so I left her, with drooping head like a broken flower—left her and -sought the woman whose strong hand still held the threads of the tangled -web that men call fate. - - - - - Chapter XV - The White Dove’s Flight - - -Now I had gone from Astolba in the full belief that she had dreamed this -thing, yet such is the strangeness of life, an hour had not passed by, -when I gave fullest credence both to her story and her danger. For in -that hour the mask of womanly gentleness had dropped from the Queen, and -with it, the blindness from my eyes. I saw, as long ago I should have -seen, had the charm of her great beauty been less, that the Palace of -the Walled City was no fit resting-place, and that there was a brave -man’s work to be done, and by me. - -Astolba’s story had made me a little late, and Lah loved not to wait the -coming of either subject or lover. A dozen slave girls were seated on a -rug in the room’s centre; as I took my tardy place beside the Queen, -they, at the royal word, began a love chant that was strangely sweet and -plaintive. Perhaps I praised their voices over much; perhaps the jealous -humor that had seized their mistress had not yet been spent. However -this may be, I know the musicians were, at a word, dismissed, while, at -Lah’s command, one of the slaves attending on the Queen’s person took -the vacant place. - -Soft strains of wild, sad music came from a room beyond, and at the -royal signal the girl began to dance. Hers was a slender, jewelled -figure, and it floated hither and thither, like some gaudy tropical -blossom blown by the wind. Her whole body responded to the half-savage -harmonies; her arms wreathed themselves to the measures of the melody; -her bracelets and anklets tinkled as she swayed. - -Then as the strains grew wilder, discordant and yet strangely sweet, I -know not how it happened, but the veil that covered the girl’s face was -thrown back. I saw that she was beautiful, despite her red-bronze skin; -saw for an instant only, it is true, but in that instant the Queen -beside me was changed from a woman to a wild beast that springs upon its -prey. - -At the first words I saw the poor girl sink before the feet of Lah, in a -mute agony of supplication and of fear,—while from behind the throne two -burly blacks came forth to do the Queen’s bidding. I do not know how I -had wit to use the words I did. Perhaps Astolba’s story furnished me the -key. But I will say that never was human life in more deadly peril. I -thank Heaven that I have not its ending, in some measure, to lay at my -door. Trembling from head to foot the maid passed from the royal -presence, to disgrace and imprisonment indeed, but not to death. - -The sound of her weeping had not died away before Lah had become her -same, sweet, gentle self of the last five days. But I had seen that -which could not be forgotten. Astolba’s anguish was branded upon my -mind. Her white face came between the Queen and me, yet I had learned -dark wisdom in that same Palace, and I think I showed not the change -that had come upon me. - -Nevertheless, I turned over and over in my mind every device that could -lead to freedom. But I had now to guard against an enemy more potent and -subtle than Agno or any of his priest-ridden mob. I walked slowly, with -bent head, towards the women’s apartments, and there was little profit -in my musing. - -Then the thought came to me to match Astolba’s wit against the Queen’s; -and even, as half-smiling I pondered the conceit, a hand fell lightly on -my arm, and there before me stood the maid herself. - -Now the mild sweetness, even the fears of my gentle fellow-captive held -for me a new charm in the light of the tigress’s fury of her whose side -I had but lately left. It won me the more that she should lean on me. -And remorse burned within me that I had laughed at her terrors and left -her, hardly more than an hour since, in heaviness of spirit, well nigh -in tears. - -So I took in my two great hands her little one, and it nestled -unresisting but trembling like a bird ensnared by the fowler. Then I -looked into the depths of her innocent eyes, and they drew me nearer -with a strange power. So near that my lips had in another moment touched -hers, and the words that began “Forgive me”—ended with “I love you.” - -It was pretty to see the pink roses bloom again in that sweet face, -raised in perfect trust to mine, and to myself I swore that, come what -might, I would do a man’s part to keep them there. - -“Where is Lestrade?” I asked, and Astolba looking up, I added, “because -we prisoners must hold a counsel. I have seen that which makes this -Palace no fit shelter for my future wife.” - -At this she blushed, but after a few moments’ dalliance the seriousness -of my business urged me to action, and at my repeated question Astolba -drew me to a further room, where sat my comrade. - -I greeted him with frankness as is my way, and because we had been more -like brothers than mere friends, I told him bluntly at once of the -good-fortune that had befallen me. - -It grieved me then, the more that I had so little expected it, that -Lestrade should act as he did. For at my first words the smile left his -face, and with one long, and I could have sworn reproachful, look at -Astolba, he rushed by me and was gone. - -The maid, too, was strangely pale again. Well, I was hurt and puzzled -also. Astolba I could see had felt deeply the manner in which Gaston had -treated my announcement. But it was no time for idle questioning. The -hour to act had struck, and I passed over, in silence, my friend’s new -mood, and bade Astolba think on that which should best lead to our -escape. - -And with a woman’s instinct she put her finger at once upon the plan -most like to aid us. - -I had spoken of the dangers round about, and of the new and great danger -that was ours in acting thus in secret without the knowledge of the -Queen. - -“In all this city we have not a friend,” I said, when she with a new -impatience and insufficient deference cut short the thread of my -discourse. - -“You have one both willing and powerful. Zobo, the Captain of the -Queen’s guard, shall aid us.” - -“Zobo!” cried I, in amazement at her folly. “Zobo! the best friend of -Lah!” - -“And so yours,” she answered. “Can it be you have not seen? He loves the -Queen. He fears you as he fears not death. And he is a true man. He will -find a way to lead us from the Palace, yet neither will he deliver us to -the mob without. Have speech with him at once. For your friend Gaston -Lestrade, have no fear. Make your plan, and tell me but the time and -place and manner of your going. He and I will follow.” - -It was thus Astolba spoke, and there was so much wit in what she said, -and so much new-born energy and strength in the manner of the saying, -that I was convinced of the justice of her words. - -Thus she left me, going out by the door through which Lestrade had fled, -while I turned my steps to the guard-room of the Palace. Here a piece of -good-luck awaited me, for I found Zobo, and alone. - -He looked not over pleased at my coming, but with grave courtesy bade me -sit. - -Then I, with what craft I might, began the task before me, and Zobo -stood after the first few words motionless,—a giant statue of bronze. -Only his eyes were alive, and they glowed with a strange and savage -fire. - -When my plan began to unfold, I saw him start, and the great corded -muscles of his bare arms knotted as his hands gripped tight the rod of -metal that he held. When his fingers relaxed their hold, I saw that he -had bent the inch-wide bar, as a child bends a pliant twig. But I was -then in the midst of my discourse, and could not be turned aside by -trifles. - -When I had done, there was silence, the kind of silence that a man -feels, like to that which comes upon the face of nature before the -tempest breaks. I saw that but a very little thing was needed to turn -the unfailing loyalty of the man into its accustomed channel. Then we -should be dragged before the Queen to meet the reward of our treachery, -for such would be our attempted escape in the eyes of her who reigned -over the Walled City. Of that I had no single doubt. - -Perhaps a man grows used to danger. Perhaps my nerves were dulled by -what had gone before. At least, I can say this with truth, I thought in -that moment more on the pattern of the rug at my feet than on the chance -of life or death that trembled in the balance. The crucial moment -passed. Love triumphed. Zobo was ours. - -An hour later I had left the place. We were to make the attempt that -night,—Lestrade and myself disguised as priests, and Astolba dressed as -a singing-boy attached to Edba’s Temple. According to a blessed, if -heathenish, custom, we could go veiled. We should leave the Palace by -one of the many-tangled secret ways beneath it. The entrance to this, as -to all, was of course guarded, but Zobo held the Queen’s warrant, and -with that we might hope to pass. - -Once in the City, a friendly guide should meet us. We should be to him -inmates of the royal household fallen under Lah’s displeasure, to be -saved by Zobo’s contrivance. We were to make our way through our foes as -best we might, protected by our priestly garb, and wait in hiding in a -deserted hut to which our guide would conduct us. There we should be -left. And then it was that Zobo showed the greatest proof of friendship. -He held with the Queen alone the knowledge of a hidden door within the -City’s wall. One by one, we three swore by all that was sacred never to -reveal the secret. - -Through this door we were to pass, and once without, the wilderness -stretched before us. Save for famine, drouth, wild beasts, and roaming -savages, we should be safe. - -It was a wild and perilous enterprise, but we caught at it with -eagerness. The very air of the Palace had grown heavy in my nostrils. I -longed for freedom, as a shipwrecked mariner dying of thirst longs for -water. Despite the thousand risks we ran, my heart beat high with hope. -In secret I helped to pack the little store of food and drink that we -were to take with us, and with due care I made our choice of weapons. - -Then the hour came. The common danger knit us all closer together. -Lestrade and I once more, as in the old days, clasped hands and wished -each other luck. Astolba moved before us clad all in white. Zobo the -Mighty led the way, his flickering torch casting grotesque shadows on -the walls and floor of the underground passage. Sometimes this corridor -narrowed suddenly, so that we had to crawl beast-like upon all fours for -as much as fifty paces; then it arched high above our heads. I think we -were all three captives strangely lighthearted. There was no -presentiment of evil. We reached the outer entrance in safety, and in -safety passed. - -Smoothly, as runs a play, we escaped the multiform dangers that beset -our every step. The guide was not too curious; the people of the Walled -City gave way with respect before our priestly garments. - -We found the hut without misadventure; and his duty done, our guide -departed. A little later we had passed from its friendly shelter. A -double line of overhanging trees screened us from the curious, but -indeed, at that hour, there was none to question us. We were in an old -garden, and it reached well-nigh to the City wall. When the sentinel -should have passed, we in turn would step from beneath the shadow of the -trees, and then the opened door and freedom! - -My blood pulsed fast in my veins at the thought. I heard the guard go -slowly onward. I whispered to Lestrade, “The White Dove has brought us -liberty.” - -Then I stepped out from the tree’s shelter, and at the same moment -something dropped from the branches above my head. Two arms gripped me -about the throat and a hoarse chuckle sounded in my ears. - -“I am thy friend Hubla,” said the voice. “Back, you three! back to your -kennel, or I call the guard!” - - - - - Chapter XVI - Zobo the Mighty Wrestles - - -I would have made a fight for it even then. Had Lestrade and I been -alone, I would in truth have done so, but I knew that the sentinel was -in easy call of his fellows, and Astolba’s presence held my hands. - -The insolence of Hubla’s fiendish laughter choked me with rage, but I -met her taunts in silence; and if Lestrade had but followed my lead in -the matter, the red witch would have lacked food for merriment. - -As for Astolba—the poor maid was crushed. So near to freedom, and now -back to the manifold horrors of the gorgeous gilded cage we called our -prison. She followed blindly, as one in a dream, and her white face was -the best spur to my resolve to save her. This attempt should not be the -last. Edba and Hed and all the powers of darkness; the Queen, the -priests, the ravening mob,—all against one man’s promise; yet even in -the face of this disgraceful entry to the Palace I bound myself again by -a new oath, Astolba should be saved. - -I like not to think even now of that disgraceful journey to the royal -house. I saw the frenzied people shrink from the hag who drove us -reluctant onward; even the priests turned aside in fear at her approach. - -Thus in the early dawn we came, unmolested and unquestioned, to the -secret entrance by which we had left. The guard received us. I saw Hubla -whisper a word into the ear of Zobo, and he ungraciously bade us enter. -The smiling, malicious face of the red witch was for an instant pressed -close to mine. I drew back with a smothered exclamation of disgust. Her -jeering laugh rang again through the stone corridor, and she had gone. -May she receive a just reward! Through her we were once more prisoners. - -After an hour’s rest I sought the Queen, for it was no plan of mine to -make, without need, a new enemy. One glance at her face assured me that, -for reasons of her own, Hubla had kept our secret. As for Zobo, I had no -fear. It was for his interest, as much as mine, that he should be silent -as to that night’s doings. - -Lah was pacing up and down the open court where she was wont to receive -me. The tinkling fountain, the tapestries, the jewelled banquet cups, -the heavy perfumed flowers, the Queen’s very beauty, filled me with a -new unrest, but I hid the feeling. Lah was hardly mistress of herself in -that hour, else it was very like she would have read me. As it was, I -saw that something of importance had happened, and that for the time, at -least, I was quite safe. - -“Agno’s messenger has but now gone,” she said. “Some day I will have the -neck of that arch-traitor, the High Priest, beneath my heel. But now he -knows his power, yet knowing it fears mine. - -“This then is his message. The justice of our quarrel shall the gods -decide. To-day, if so it be my will, Zobo shall wrestle with the Head -Man of Edba’s Temple. I know the fellow; he is a giant in size and -strength, but slow of wit. - -“Agno believes that my faithful Captain is worn with lack of sleep and -much watching. It is also in the compact that the People’s Champion be -oiled from head to foot; he alone, not Zobo. Then shall these two -wrestle, and from the gods, judgment. Zobo holds the guard still loyal. -If he be slain, then I look for such mercy as the priests may show. But -if he be the victor—” - -The Queen’s eyes glowed with a strange fire. “Then am I once more in my -rightful place, the mistress of my people,—” she spoke softly,—“and -revenge is strangely sweet.” - -I stood in silence before her, and Lah took up again the thread of her -discourse. - -“Behold, every day we grow weaker, and the food less. I had not thought -to be a captive in mine own Palace, nor had I thought to give my heart -into another’s keeping, as weaker women do. Yet have both issues come to -pass.” - -She turned once more to me. “My Dering, I had looked to ask thy wisdom -in this matter; but no. On me alone shall rest the burden.” - -She clapped her hands, and a slave came forward and stood with folded -arms and bowed head, awaiting the royal word. - -“Go, bid my ministers proclaim from the Palace walls my answer, for -which the High Priest waits. Before the people, at the third hour, shall -Zobo the Mighty wrestle, and to the friend of Edba and of Hed, victory.” - -And thus the die was cast. I cannot tell with what feverish eagerness I -awaited the result of this new move in the game, whose stakes were life -and death. Lestrade was wild with alternate thrills of joy and fear when -I told him of the matter. That was his nature. As for me, I saw well -what the Queen’s defeat would mean to us, her captives, but I confess -that the thought of her victory raised little hope in my breast. - -As for the maid, to the blackness of Astolba’s despair there was just -then no light. The poor girl was haunted by the thought of the flower of -death, and the horror of it did what I much doubted the evil blossom -itself could do. She was wasting away, and kisses, even mine, could not -call back again, as once, the pretty color to her white cheeks. I did my -best to comfort her, however, and when the third hour—the time appointed -for the wrestling—came, Lestrade arrived and took my place beside her. - -So, knowing Astolba to be in good hands, I again sought the Queen, and -found from her that the meeting was to be in the open square before the -Palace walls. - -Already this was black with the mass of waiting people. From within I -could see all that went on below, but it irked me that Lah had forbidden -me to join her. - -A raised platform, richly ornamented and hung with multicolored silks, -had been hastily set up directly before the great centre gate. This gate -had been opened, and there the Queen was to sit enthroned and surrounded -by the guard. - -As I watched all this, Zobo passed me, coming from the royal apartments. -His face wore a look of such pure and noble resolve and such exalted -happiness, that I lowered my eyes before the light in his, with a -feeling near to envy, savage and worshipper of idols though he was. - -A few moments later and a roar from the mob without bade me look quickly -forth. The Queen in all the magnificence of her public presence had -taken her place, and the people, from mingled awe, or the force of -habit, had given the royal salute. - -Even at the distance at which I sat, I thought I could see, through my -loophole, the frown on Agno’s lowering face; but again a tumult of -cheers and cries drew my wandering gaze. - -The Head Man of Edba’s Temple had stepped into the cleared circle. My -spirits raised by my ancient enemy’s discomfiture, sank like lead, at -the sight of this giant figure. He stood motionless, stolidly waiting -for the tumult of welcoming cheers to cease, till at last, at a signal -from Agno, silence fell. - -Thus it was in the midst of an ominous calm that Zobo, the Queen’s -Champion, took his place. They stood together for a moment, by an evil -design of the High Priest, I doubt not; for it was all too plain that -the Head Man’s enormous bulk dwarfed even the burly form of the Captain -of the Royal Guard. But in that moment I remembered the look that I had -surprised on the face of the friend of Lah, and remembering, hoped on. - -Then as I gazed thus, the High Priest’s staff clanged once upon the -stone beneath his feet, and the two men fell back. They stood eying each -other warily, like two great dogs set on to fight. This was to be no -common wrestling, for no common stake, and at the latter end it was the -victor alone who should leave the field. - -I looked at the Queen. She was gently smiling, but I saw her hand -tighten on the arm of her throne. At the same moment a savage, exultant -roar broke from the waiting throng. The two men had clenched. I saw the -glistening limbs of the Head Man wound, snake-like, about the body of -his enemy, and, snake-like, slip from the iron grip of the Queen’s -Champion. Now one had the vantage, now the other. - -It was so still that I could hear the hoarse breathing of the wrestlers. -Then I laughed aloud, for Zobo’s mighty arms were about the trunk of his -foe, and I thought the giant’s ribs would crack beneath the strain. But -the next instant the Head Man was free again, and with a dexterous twist -was interlocked once more with his enemy. I knew the trick of that fall -and my heart sank. Zobo staggered, and was down. - -A mighty shout rose from the priestly ranks, and I saw the Queen lean -forward and fix her eyes on the agonized face of her gallant Captain. -The giant was grinding the life out of his fallen foe. I turned away, -sick with the horror of it, but a terrible fascination drew me back. -Zobo was looking straight into the eyes of the woman he loved, and as he -did so, that strange, glad, pure light in his, shone forth, undimmed, -once more. - -With a superhuman effort he raised himself on his arm. The next, he was -on his feet once more, his hands at the Head Man’s throat. I saw the -giant beat the air for an instant with a wild and futile motion. Then -the voice of the High Priest rose shrill in the awful quiet, bidding the -wrestlers cease. But too late. For even as his words rang out, the -massive form of Zobo’s foe relaxed, hung limp for a moment, then struck -the ground with a dull, lifeless thud. - -Zobo, turning, walked straight to the throne of Lah. As he reached it, I -saw his lips move in a vain effort at speech. Then his giant body swayed -and fell heavily. The Queen’s Champion lay, face downward, at her feet, -his hand holding fast the hem of her garment. - -From the ranks of the people burst forth the thunder of applause. For, -behold the gods had sat in judgment. The Queen was guiltless, and the -day was won. - - - - - Chapter XVII - Check to the Queen - - -From my loophole I had seen it all. From that same post of vantage, I -now beheld the arch-traitor Agno come forth at the head of his fawning -priests to do homage to his Queen. Through all the false ardor of his -congratulations, Lah had not spoken. Indeed, from the very beginning of -the conflict till now no word had passed her lips. Only in the midst of -Agno’s discourse, at a sign from their royal mistress, four slaves had -raised the body of the fallen hero, and borne him within the Palace. As -they passed, the Queen’s hand had rested lightly upon her Champion’s -forehead, in a mute caress. That was all, but I knew that Lah was not -ungrateful. - -The High Priest’s long-winded flatteries were not done, when at another -sign from the Queen, the royal salute broke forth from the guard and was -echoed by the people. The mighty clamor drowned the honeyed words, and I -saw Agno’s face writhe with passion, as Lah, with an imperious gesture, -bade him stand aside. But for once her woman’s hate had outrun her -wisdom. The public affront was too great to be silently borne. Another -moment, and Agno, surrounded by his priests, had reached his raised seat -of honor, and from thence had begun a wild address to the still waiting -throng. - -In the face of the late decision of Edba and of Hed, the High Priest -dared not impeach the Queen. His words, however, were aimed at her -new-born power, and they were full of painful interest to me who -listened, for they dealt with me and with my comrade, and with Astolba, -my promised bride. - -“All glory, honor, and strength to Lah!” he shouted. “Friend of the -gods; heaven-born mistress of the people of the Walled City. Behold Zobo -the Mighty has wrestled, and to him belongs the victory. I, the High -Priest of the Temple, proclaim a festival; a feast of gladness and of -thanksgiving. - -“On the third day hence shall it be, and on the altar of the gods will -we slay the strangers and do to death her, the Snake’s chosen bride. So -shall the Queen be rid of her enemies, peace and prosperity given to us, -and the anger of the great ones turned away.” - -At these words the bloodthirsty crowd went once again wild with joy. I -saw the Queen turn as though about to speak, but the deafening clamor -would have drowned her voice. I think at least she saw Agno’s evil, -smiling face, and dared not run the risk of insult. So in proud silence -she drew back. The Palace gates closed behind her, and I, with a new -anxiety gnawing at my heart, turned also to seek my fellow-victims. - -This was the sad end of a brilliant beginning. As I passed the Queen’s -private audience room, the sound of a strange low chant drew me closer. -The tapestried curtain was pulled a little aside, and within I saw the -red witch bending over a brazier, and showing dim through the blue smoke -that coiled upward, serpent-like, from the living embers. She it was who -chanted this weird monotonous refrain, and as I looked again, I beheld -Lah, pale and rigid, listening, with a look of mingled dread and -longing, to the evil song. - -Then I passed onward, and as I did so, the four slaves bearing the body -of Zobo met me in the passage. I signed for them to stop, and they did -so in submissive silence. The Champion lay on his back. There were red -stains on the embroidered cloth that covered him, and the giant frame -bore marks of the past struggle, that would never be effaced. But I saw -with joy that he still breathed deeply and regularly enough, though his -wide-open eyes knew me not. They were bringing him to the Queen and to -Hubla. The magic touch of the one or the muttered spell of the other -would call back again the light of reason to those glazed, unseeing -eyes. So much I knew, for I had sojourned already long enough in the -Walled City to learn somewhat of its dark wisdom. I drew aside therefore -and let the slaves go forward with their burden. - -There was deep silence within now, instead of that weird blood-curdling -chant, but its dull measures still beat upon my brain like the heavy -throb of a piston or the blow of a hammer. The desire filled me to lie -at rest and let Astolba’s white fingers smooth with light touch my weary -head. So thinking, I sought the spot where last we three had -met,—Lestrade, the maid, and I. But the place was empty. First calmly, -then with a secret dread and fevered anxiety, I sought them,—my -fellow-captives, going from room to room. But in vain. The deserted -chambers mocked me. A woman’s sandal lay upon the floor; it was small -and dainty like its owner, the fair girl whom I had lost, but it bore no -message. I picked it up and hid it safe within the folds of my tunic, -near my heart. - -Then I turned, and there in ominous silence stood the Queen. Her eyes -met mine, nor did they drop or falter before the imperious question that -sprung to my lips. And when her answer came, there was new depth and new -sweetness in her voice, so that the very memory of it, even in these -days, is a charm to bind me fast. - -“What is the loss of these two to me and to thee? O stranger to my gods -and to my people! through the lips of Hubla, fate hath spoken. Out of -all the world we two stand apart. For life, for death; for good, for -ill; for joy, for sorrow, thou and I, together and alone.” - - - - - Chapter XVIII - The Wisdom of Hubla - - -At first, after the Queen had spoken thus, I answered nothing. The light -in her eyes dazzled me, and the new tone of her voice echoed in my -heart. But when a second time she broke the silence, a certain menace -lurked beneath the sweetness of her words, and that acted as a spur to -my faltering impulse. - -So I wrestled with temptation and forgot not the peril of my friends, -and indeed I spoke sternly, demanding to be told their fate. - -“For I have searched, and they are gone from here,” I said. “This is no -hour for idle dalliance. Your Palace, O Queen! has much that I mislike. -In which of its many dungeons shall I look for these two, Astolba and -Lestrade?” - -At my words the quick color surged to the face of Lah, but she answered -calmly. “Question Agno and his servants. In this matter I have no part.” - -“To believe you is to doubt your power,” I said. “Do you tell me that -the High Priest has dared—” - -But here she stopped me with uplifted hand. “I pray thee, anger me not. -O my Dering,” and marvellously tender was that wondrous voice, “I am not -as other women, even as thou art beyond and above the horde of courtiers -and of warriors to whom my word is law, who kiss my sandal’s print, -rejoicing when I smile, trembling before my frown. Yet even to the -meanest of these, comes love. To thy lips, beloved, I hold in my turn -the golden cup. Drink deep and forget all care, all sorrow. Together we -will stand before Edba’s altar. There shalt thou be crowned on the third -day, with me, ruler of the people of the Walled City. Agno himself shall -bless our union, nor dare to lay a sacrilegious hand upon thy garment’s -hem. - -“Thus shalt thou escape death and gain great glory, and length of years, -and fulness of power. Thus, O my Dering, Hubla the red witch hath seen -it written in the magic vapor, and behold mine own eyes have been -unsealed, and I too have seen us there—we two encircled by the serpent -sacred to Hed. And for this day, I thank the gods, and thank them too -that I am fair and that I come not empty handed to my lord. Speak -quickly, for I bear not pain with patience, and indeed my soul hungers -for the love light in thine eyes, and the touch of thy lips on mine. -Speak then, my lord. Lah, the Queen, awaits thy answer.” - -Then it was that I said a cruel thing. In truth, between her beauty and -her proffered love, her tempting and the bond of my own oath, I was as a -man distraught. Before me rose the sweet, pale face of her whom I had -come to save. The vision of Astolba came between me and the Queen, and -being made savage by my own misery, I answered bitterly: “Is it thus in -thy country? The woman woos the man?” - -For a moment’s space she looked at me, and that look is branded forever -on my memory. The next, her hand leaped to her dagger’s hilt. I did not -move. In truth, death held for me then no terrors. The flash of the -blade passed before my eyes. The point struck through the flesh to the -bone and glanced off. Slowly the red stain spread upon the fold of my -white tunic. The Queen’s eyes, wide with horror, followed it in silence. -Then with a wild cry, Lah flung herself at my feet. She wept not as a -woman weeps, but as a man—not easily, but with low, strangling sobs that -caught and tore at the throat. - -Then because hers was no fit place for a woman I raised her up. Well, I -can bear most things, but I cannot bear to hear a woman cry. So I -comforted her with words: “Your tears against my blood; then we are -quits.” And kissed her once, and with the kiss I signed away my freedom -and my honor, for I said:— - -“Save but my friends, and on the third day, if we both live, then will I -meet you at Edba’s altar, and you shall have your will with me, for at -your bidding I am prisoner of yours until the end.” - -“Nay, not my prisoner, but my lord,” Lah answered, and she plucked from -her girdle the centre ring, that one which bore the signet stone, and -this by a chain of gold she hung about my neck, saying, “Nor yet my lord -alone, but master also of the people of the Walled City.” - -But I was silent, for I knew too well that I was but fate’s plaything, -and master not even of my plighted word. Thus Hubla’s dark wisdom -triumphed, and I being but a man,—on my head be the shame,—seeing the -Queen’s beauty, was not wholly sad. - -Then it was that a strange thing happened. Lah bade me take up the ring -that held the signet, and obedient to her wish in the matter, I fixed my -eyes upon the centre jewel. This was a ruby as large as a hazel nut, and -as I looked into its glorious depth I thought a crimson flame leaped -from its heart, a flame that waxed and waned, and changed from violet to -scarlet; a flame that, even as I gazed spellbound upon it, ceased -suddenly as it had come. - -Then the Queen took my hand in hers, and like a child I followed whither -she led me, for the dancing flame was still before my eyes; I felt the -jewel pulsing as it lay upon my breast, and I had no will but her will, -and no thought for anything in this world or the next, save of the ruby, -the wondrous jewel that was mine. So, in unbroken silence we went -together, out from the empty chambers that had held my lost love, lost -and too soon forgotten; out through the long winding corridors, and then -ever downward. - -At length Lah pushed aside a heavy curtain, and we stood, still hand in -hand, within the Burial Hall of Kings. You have heard already Lestrade’s -account of this same fearsome sepulchre. Now to his word I add my own, -for as I am a living man, thus I, too, crossed the threshold of that -awful place and stood within. - -The dead Kings stirred not as we came; neither spoke they word of -welcome. But had they risen one and all to repel the stranger whose -footfall thus boldly broke the peace of centuries, I should still have -been unsurprised and unafraid. For it was of the ruby, and of the ruby -alone, that I thought, and so I put forth no claim to bravery, other -than is natural to me, but relate the simple truth of what then -followed. - -Without pausing, Lah drew me forward until we reached the single empty -throne, and there, by a sign, she bade me sit. So, at her command, I, a -living man, as yet uncrowned, took my place with these, the monarchs of -the past. Then, with averted face, the Queen withdrew, and I, save for -the awful presence of the dead, was quite alone. - -A curious drowsiness clouded my brain and lulled to rest my every sense. -I thought the ruby’s fire scorched my flesh, and the pain of it was not -all pain, but pleasure, too, intermingled in a way of which I now find -it hard to rightly tell, though to this day I bear upon my breast a scar -which up to that strange hour was not there. - -Thus for a time I sat, and then the dead King at my right spoke, though -his lips moved not, and his words fell coldly on the silence. - -“O my brethren, the hour is at hand; the curse is fallen. The glory of -Edba and of Hed is darkened, and our bodies, reverenced throughout the -ages, shall crumble to dust, and be scattered through the world by every -varying wind. A woman hath wrought great things for the Walled City. A -woman shall pluck down even that which she hath set up. Speak, O my -brothers! What price shall the stranger pay?” - -Then a low, wrathful murmur filled that ancient Hall, to which I, still -gloating over my treasure, my ruby without price, listened without fear. - -“_He shall taste of love and die athirst_,” said one. - -“_He shall hold in the hollow of his hand great wealth, and behold it -shall avail him not_,” answered a third. - -“_Woe! woe!_” cried another; “_Death shall stay from him afar off. The -weariness of years and the coldness of friends be his portion._” - -Then again there was silence, and as I waited, lo! a great light filled -the Burial Hall, and from a distance came a glorious voice not mortal, -wholly sweet, yet full of power. And before it the dead Kings bent their -heads, and at its sound I forgot the jewel that I wore, and the voice -spoke to me, and of me, and with it both joy and sorrow overflowed my -heart. As for the words it spoke I know them not. - -But this I know, that it called me both blessed and cursed in the love -that raised me above my fellows; and bade me be of good cheer, for of -the blackness of the night is born the glory of the dawn, and both the -darkness and the light were to be mine throughout the years; and in the -latter end, peace, unknowable in time, endless throughout eternity. - -Then the voice was stilled, and I awoke, and descending from the throne -I sought the Queen’s presence. But all these things I kept close locked -in my heart, nor at her eager questioning would I tell my dream. - - - - - Chapter XIX - For Life, for Love, for Freedom - - -It was near to midnight. I was weary, mind and body, for I had been -urging the Queen to tell me plainly of the fate of my friends, and she -had pleaded ignorance, and either could not or would not give me -satisfaction. - -To a reasonable man like myself it is a tedious process and one bearing -little fruit, to thread the mazes of a woman’s mind, yet this had been -my task, and after all these hours I now laid me to rest with the -comfortable knowledge that I had perchance been cajoled, and at any rate -altogether baffled. - -Yet she was beautiful, my Queen, and I could not be wholly discontent. -Her very contrariness was a charm, or would have been, had I felt less -bondsman to the cause of my friends. And this was the more strange, in -that I have always loved obedience in a woman, and reckoned docility the -chief of female virtues. - -I put this down that men may read. You that wonder at my folly may -perchance go further and with less cause, when the touch of the blind -god comes to you as to me. As for you who smile on, knowing no better, -from your lonely height, you have missed wholly the inwardness of life -and its savor, and so my pity may well match your own and with the -greater reason. - -Well, I have said that it was close to midnight when I sought my couch, -and not five minutes after when I was wrapped in deepest slumber, -therefore I cannot say when the scent of coming trouble filled my -nostrils, or when the heavy burden of the foreknowledge of sorrow broke -my rest. But this I do know: I breathed with difficulty. A heavy weight -seemed pressing on my chest, and in the distance, even in my sleep, I -heard a thunderous rumble as of the chariot wheels of the gods. - -With that thought I woke, and waking, knew that the air was full of -sulphur and that something lay across me, motionless, in the darkness. I -put forth my strength and pushed the thing away, and it was cold, and it -rolled from off the couch, and fell on the floor beside it, with a dull -sound I liked but little. - -The lamp that lit my chamber had gone out, and the slave that was wont -to sleep at my feet had left his accustomed place. With a strange inward -shrinking I passed my hand swiftly over the huddled shape on the -pavement, and as I thus learned the sickening truth, a lurid flash of -lightning showed the distorted features of him whom I had called, and -proved the reason of his silence. - -Then a clap of thunder shook the very Palace. I heard the shrill scream -of a frightened woman, and I groped my way to the door. As I reached it, -a dull red glare lit up faintly the stone corridor, and I saw that it -came from without and through a loophole that pierced the massive wall. - -There was an indescribable murmur also that was deadened by the -thickness of outer stone of the fortress Palace. This murmur sounded to -me very much like the angry hum of a horde of bees. Hurrying feet, bare -of sandals, ran this way and that. The royal household was astir and -affrighted. - -Soon I saw again a blinding flash of blue light and heard the deafening -peal of thunder that followed. All this time there was no sound of -falling rain, but the air was heavy and stagnant and full of a curious -mineral odor that stank in my nostrils. - -Then as I groped my way onward through the tangled labyrinth that lay -between me and the Queen, I felt a hand fall on my shoulder, and a voice -spoke low in my ear through all the tumult. I turned, and the voice -whined on, and in a moment I had caught the sense of that which it -uttered. - -“For behold, I have given gifts of price to the Temple, yet doth fire -from heaven even now destroy my household. Woe is me! but the magic of -the white stranger is strong. Follow, my lord, and I will lead you to -your friends. So shall the shadow of your protecting mantle fall upon -me, and my miserable life be spared.” - -Thus the creature grovelled before me, and even as he spoke, a forked -tongue of light struck a cornice above our heads, and a great fragment -of carved stone fell at my feet. - -I bade the whimpering fellow rise and be a man and lead me, as he valued -his black skin, with all speed, to the dungeon where lay my comrade and -the maid. - -So at his word I turned me back once more, and, drawing my knife, I let -the shivering wretch gaze on the bright polish of its metal, that he -might forswear all thought of treachery. I think, however, that the -deadly fear of the storm that consumed him would have kept him true. - -At least, without mischance, he led me downward, by a way new to me, -till at length, in the bowels of the earth, I rejoined my friends. It -was a hasty, if a joyous, greeting that we gave one another. There was -no time to lose. Astolba’s face told me that, as did the feverish -pressure with which my good comrade Lestrade grasped my hands. - -So with eloquent maledictions in the native tongue, and in round -English, I swore the jailer, my trembling guide, to silence, and once -again we three together began the business of escape. - -Well for us that the friendly darkness covered us, and that before the -dreadful onslaught of the storm the sentinels had fled. Our hard-earned -knowledge of the network of dungeon, chamber, and corridor stood us in -good stead; fear lent us strength and pricked us onward, and it was not -long as we count by minutes before we paused for breath—we three -together without the Palace, and so far safe, within the shadow of its -wall. - -Then it was that my heart sank like lead within my bosom. In the -excitement of the flight, I had not thought of the Queen, and that -escape meant farewell and forever. - -One lives long in an hour like that, and in a flash I saw that I was -bound to Lah by a stronger chain than any that could be forged by the -word of a heathen priest before Edba’s altar. - -But awful peril faced us, and if ever a maid needed the service of two -stalwart men, such a one was Astolba, in the midst of this terrible -danger alike from the heavens and from the beasts about us. - -So, privately in the darkness, I kissed the ruby that lay upon my -breast. This also I set down,—I care not who reads it,—and with the kiss -I sealed a compact that led me from my desire to my duty. - -Then I resolutely turned my back upon the Palace. - -The dull roar was not so distant or so muffled now. It came from a -maddened crowd that surged about the royal entrance gates. - -Ghostly figures joined the mob, by twos and threes, showing not white, -but black, against the red glare of burning buildings; and over all hung -the sulphurous vapor; from above, peal upon peal of deafening -thunder—the serpent flash of light. - -The people of the Walled City were mad with fear, and in their terror -lay our best pledge of safety. Lestrade supported the maid and tenderly -urged her onward, and I in silence led the way, with naked sword to -answer him who should unwisely question us. - -My comrade bore with him such weapons as he had time to choose in our -hasty flight, and Astolba, with a woman’s foresight, had carried from -the cell provisions and a flask of water. - -The secret door of the outer wall was near, and freedom within our -grasp, but I took no joy of it. Lah’s face, beautiful and reproachful, -rose before me and filled me with a mighty longing that would not be -stilled. I even half hoped that we, or at least that I, would be -challenged, captured, and so stand once more a prisoner in that queenly -presence; but no man stayed us, and without let or hindrance we passed -through the door in the wall, and stood once again beyond the boundaries -of the City of the worshippers of Edba and of Hed. - -But even in that moment the shrill voice of Hubla reached my ears, -strangely broken with wild, strangling sobs, and though I knew it not, -the voice of Hubla was the voice of fate. How or by what means she had -tracked us, I cannot tell. - -Lestrade, mindful of her past malice, strode forth quickly with upraised -spear, but I withheld his hand. - -There was no power for evil in the shrunken, huddled figure at my feet. -Even her witch’s deviltry had fallen from her as a garment. - -It was not the sorceress who clasped my knees, but an old old woman, -half-mad with frantic grief and terror; and at her first words my blood -leaped in my veins, for she bade me save the Queen. - -I saw Astolba come forward from the shelter of Lestrade’s protecting -arm, and as in a dream, I heard her, with a strange hardness in her -voice, bid the red witch cease her lamentations, for she said coldly, -“What is Lah’s fate to you?” - -Then with something of her old fire, Hubla stood upright. - -“What is the Queen to me?” she repeated, with scorn in look and tone. -“For whom have I toiled? For whom have I betrayed the secrets of the -gods? Who sits, by my contriving, upon the throne of Kings? For whom -have I shed without mercy the blood of friend and foe? And she is all in -all to me. The wrath of Edba and Hed strike me alone. I am their -rightful victim; let them spare my child.” - -“Your child!” I cried in amazement, but she turned upon me with her old -savagery. - -“And you, her lover, waste the time in idle words. You stand here -prating, while the mob, maddened by the priests, fire the Palace and -tear in pieces Lah, their Queen.” - -I turned, stricken dumb by the horror of her words, and it was Lestrade -who put the question that trembled on my lips. - -“The hag is distraught or worse,” he said, with contempt. “Think not to -cheat us by so clumsy a trick. Did not Agno himself at the wrestling do -homage to the Queen?” - -Hubla answered, but it was to me she spoke. - -“If you have pity, hasten. By the gods I swear I tell nothing but the -bare truth. This storm has set the people wild with fear, and the crafty -priests have dared to say that Edba and Hed have sent it in punishment -of the Queen’s sins. In mercy, come quickly, for the end is near.” - -“And if we believe this likely tale,” sneered Lestrade, “what can one -man do? what is my friend among so many?” - -“The fire of the pit smite you!” raved the witch, beside herself with -passion. Then once again she clung to me, beseeching, “Come; for she -loves you.” - -And I answered, “I will come.” - -Then it was that Astolba spoke, and I knew not till then how pitiless -can be a woman’s voice. - -“Is this thing true?” she asked. “Promised to me as you are, do you love -this woman?” - -The lash of her scorn cut me like a knife, but I felt that the time for -half-truths was over. So I said humbly but yet steadfastly, “I do not -know. Nevertheless I cannot leave her to perish. Remember she has saved -your life and mine.” - -“Go then,” she cried bitterly. “We waste time. I thank Heaven there -beats yet one loyal heart; one who will stand my friend. If we part -here, it is forever.” - -“Forever if it be your will,” I answered, with sad pride. - -And with that I saw Lestrade draw the maid close, and together, without -a word, they passed from me, and the darkness swallowed them; and I, -turning, bade Hubla lead onward to the Queen. - - - - - Chapter XX - The Beginning of the End - - -How little a man sees of what is before him. A week hence I would have -scorned the thought that, once free, I should enter willingly again the -City of heathen gods; that monster city that stretched before me, -pitiless and dark, and full of mystery. Full, too, of the thirst of -blood and of nameless deeds. - -Surely the measure of its iniquity had overflowed. Within its walls -there was little room for a man of peace like myself, but in these days -I was not the master of my acts that I had once been; an inward fire -consumed me. I will not make out my case one whit better than it was. -Looking back in the calm of these latter days, I see Astolba was not all -wrong. - -It was not duty simply that drove me back; the duty of man to woman. It -was, too, a strange half-bitter gladness that rose within me, as by -Hubla’s side I went back, to face death, if need be, with her whose -peril called me,—Lah, the Queen. - -When the red witch had clutched my knees beseeching, she had seemed too -feeble for further effort. Now, however, as once before had chanced, as -we sought the road to the Palace, I had much ado to keep up with the -swiftness of her halting gait. - -For all my efforts she was ever in front, and as we had naught to say to -each other, it was not long before we reached one of the secret -entrances to the place, within which the uncanny figure of Hubla -vanished, flitting like a bat through the darkness. - -On the threshold I paused for an instant. One wing of the Palace was -already aflame; the great square in front was packed with a howling mob. -It had not yet surrounded the royal residence, but I knew it would soon -do so; for if the magic of the Queen’s eloquence had, as I surmised, -held it thus far in check, the spell now had lost its power. - -Already the maddened people swarmed up the front of the massive -building. The bodyguard within was faithful, and hurled back the rebels -as they came. But the struggle I knew was but too unequal. - -Fascinated by the spectacle, I still lingered. I saw one and another of -the enemy bearing off rich spoil: jewelled garments, costly furnishings, -goblets, skins, tapestries. - -In the midst of the foe stood Agno, urging on the plunderers by word and -gesture. His place was directly beneath the great statue of the god, -Hed, and even as I looked a blue flame shot from above, and the stone -image reeled. - -The High Priest with a cry of terror flung himself back, but too late. -The stone crashed downward. In a moment’s space all was over. Agno, the -arch-traitor, had received from his master a just reward. - -With a lighter heart I stepped within the Palace. Now that our chief -enemy was dead hope rose again within my breast. It would go hard indeed -if having received from Heaven this signal favor, I did not save the -Queen. - -Hubla had disappeared, but I had threaded the labyrinth before me too -often to need a guide. The thick walls of the place deadened the sound -of the storm without. Only the echo of my running feet jarred on the -silence. - -The lust of the battle was upon me. First, I would give a lesson to -these knaves, and that before the face of Lah; then, if need be, we -would fly together. So would I pay my debt. - -The clash of arms and the cries of the wounded told me all too surely -which way to turn. Breathless, I rushed into the Queen’s own chamber. -This place the last desperate handful of her followers had made their -stronghold. - -In their midst, clothed right royally, as for a festal day, stood Lah, -their mistress and my own. When she saw me, the fire in her eyes gave -place to a look of such glad wonder that I was humbled at the sight, and -would have knelt before her, save that the hour and place were for more -active service. - -The great tawny beast, the tiger that she fondled, stood guard on one -side; Zobo the Mighty, with drawn sword, had taken his stand on the -other. - -The same look of hostile jealousy leaped into the eyes of both man and -brute, as I advanced; but Lah saw it, and with a word made peace between -us. She was so lovely, so wondrously lovely, in that hour! All Queen and -yet all woman. - -And not ten paces off, and drawing ever nearer, came the ravening mob. -Agno’s death had not turned them from their purpose, as I had hoped. - -It was the beginning of the end; but I swore within me that it was life -with Lah, or death for me. It is thus fate laughs at the oaths of men. -In this hour I am whole and strong, while she— - -But I must not let the bitterness of memory stay my hand. I have, I know -it well, but little art in picturing out the past, and even now I could -not if I would dwell on what followed next. The wound, for all these -intervening years, is still too fresh. - -She stood there thus, my Queen, the love light in her eyes, in the full -radiance of her beauty. - -With my oath freshly sworn, I stepped forward to take my part in her -defence. That second a spear, flung from a distance, clove the air and -buried its point in Lah’s fair breast. It needed no surgeon’s skill to -know the hurt was mortal. With a roar like that of an angry beast Zobo -sprang forward to avenge the murder. - -The Queen swayed heavily forward, and I caught her in my arms. She -clasped her small hands round the spear’s shaft and tried with a man’s -courage to pull out the cruel steel, but I saw the useless agony it gave -her, and gently begged her cease. The tears rolled down my face, and I -cared not who should see them. - -Lah’s beautiful head lay on my shoulder. She rested there as a tired -child rests in its mother’s arms. The great brute, the tiger she had -loved, now lapped the hand that fell in piteous helplessness by her -side. - -The roar of battle came nearer, but I heeded it not. For me the worst -was over. - -With a mighty effort the Queen raised her head. She spoke no word to me, -but what need was there of words between us in that hour? But faintly, -in a strange tongue, she called to Zobo, and in the midst of all the din -and turmoil round about, he heard that cry. I saw his face convulsed -with agony, but again Lah spoke, with a sweet beseeching eagerness, and, -falling on his knees before her, the warrior kissed her garment’s hem -and bent his head in token of obedience. Then he turned to me. - -I looked once more into the depths of the Queen’s beautiful eyes. Then -their lids drooped. The tiger uttered a long, terrible cry. - -Zobo picked me up like a child in his giant arms and bore me from the -chamber. I saw the great tawny brute standing over the body of his -mistress. With burning shame and anger, I struggled to be free, but the -Captain of the Guard held me close. - -[Illustration] - -A forked tongue of flame licked the curtained tapestry that screened the -room from which he carried me. The threads of gold shone bright amongst -those of baser metal. The hanging fell into place behind us. At a word -from my captor four brawny slaves that waited took hold on me and bore -me onward. Zobo tore down the burning tapestry and smothered the flame -in his hands. He knelt beside the motionless body of the Queen. As he -did so, the last of the gallant guard reeled back pierced by a hundred -hungry knives. Then a turn in the winding corridor hid the room from -sight. - -Spurred by the fear of capture and of death, but bound by I know not -what strange spell of obedience, my captors hurried onward, but ever -with their burden. - -So ingloriously was I borne without the Palace, and when at last they -let me go, I saw a sheet of flame rise from its massive roof. The great -palace with its fearsome Burial Hall, its beautiful Throne Room, and its -wondrous Treasure Chamber, was even now a ruin—a fitting funeral pyre -for her whose fair body lay within. - -So once more I turned. And because in that hour, death would have been a -sweet and not a bitter draught, Heaven withheld the cup from my -thirsting lips. No man molested me, and at last I stood utterly alone -once again and for the last time at the secret door that led through the -wall of the City to the jungle without. Then that door, too, slipped -into place behind me. - -The dawn was breaking, the great storm was over, and I was free. - - -All this was, as I have said, many many years ago. I am an old man now, -and having done my self-allotted task, I can die in peace at the -appointed hour. - -I have never mated. I have seen fair women, but none like her whose -ashes lie within the dark circle of the City of Edba and of Hed. I have -heard sweet voices, but none like hers. - -Astolba, a matron now, passed me by on the arm of my one time gay -comrade, Gaston Lestrade. He bore himself not so lightheartedly, I -thought. Neither glanced at me as they passed on, but Astolba’s face -turned from rose to white. But I do not blame them. I know too much -which they would have forgotten. - -So I sit beside the fire alone, save for my dreams and for the ruby that -hangs upon my breast. When I hold the gem, I bear within the hollow of -my hand untold wealth. This I know full well, but the riches of the -universe would not tempt me to sell the parting gift of Lah, the Queen. - -Is this love? Again I say I know not. Only this: in life the jewel rests -upon my heart, and at my death he will be a bold man and not wise, who -shall dare to wrest it from me. - - - THE END - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in - spelling. - 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. - 3. 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