In the meantime Bertha Kircher was conducted the lengthof the plaza toward the largest and most pretentious of thebuildings surrounding it. This edifice covered the entirewidth of one end of the plaza. It was several stories in height,the main entrance being approached by a wide flight of stonesteps, the bottom of which was guarded by enormous stonelions, while at the top there were two pedestals flanking theentrance and of the same height, upon each of which was thestone image of a large parrot. As the girl neared these latterimages she saw that the capital of each column was hewninto the semblance of a human skull upon which the parrotsperched. Above the arched doorway and upon the walls ofthe building were the figures of other parrots, of lions, and ofmonkeys. Some of these were carved in bas-relief; others weredelineated in mosaics, while still others appeared to havebeen painted upon the surface of the wall.

The colorings of the last were apparently much subdued byage with the result that the general effect was soft and beauti-ful. The sculpturing and mosaic work were both finely exe-cuted, giving evidence of a high degree of artistic skill. Unlikethe first building into which she had been conducted, theentrance to which had been doorless, massive doors closedthe entrance which she now approached. In the niches formedby the columns which supported the door's arch, and about thebase of the pedestals of the stone parrots, as well as in variousother places on the broad stairway, lolled some score of armedmen. The tunics of these were all of a vivid yellow and uponthe breast and back of each was embroidered the figure of aparrot.

As she was conducted up the stairway one of these yellow-coated warriors approached and halted her guides at the topof the steps. Here they exchanged a few words and while theywere talking the girl noticed that he who had halted them, aswell as those whom she could see of his companions, appearedto be, if possible, of a lower mentality than her originalcaptors.

Their coarse, bristling hair grew so low upon their foreheadsas, in some instances, to almost join their eyebrows, while theirises were smaller, exposing more of the white of the eyeball.

After a short parley the man in charge of the doorway, forsuch he seemed to be, turned and struck upon one of the panelswith the butt of his spear, at the same time calling to severalof his companions, who rose and came forward at his com-mand. Soon the great doors commenced slowly to swingcreakingly open, and presently, as they separated, the girlsaw behind them the motive force which operated the massivedoors -- to each door a half-dozen naked Negroes.

At the doorway her two guards were turned back and theirplaces taken by a half dozen of the yellow-coated soldiery.These conducted her through the doorway which the blacks,pulling upon heavy chains, closed behind them. And as thegirl watched them she noted with horror that the poor crea-tures were chained by the neck to the doors.

Before her led a broad hallway in the center of which wasa little pool of clear water. Here again in floor and walls wasrepeated in new and ever-changing combinations and designs,the parrots, the monkeys, and the lions, but now many of thefigures were of what the girl was convinced must be gold.The walls of the corridor consisted of a series of open arch-ways through which, upon either side, other spacious apart-ments were visible. The hallway was entirely unfurnished,but the rooms on either side contained benches and tables.Glimpses of some of the walls revealed the fact that they werecovered with hangings of some colored fabric, while upon thefloors were thick rugs of barbaric design and the skins of blacklions and beautifully marked leopards.

The room directly to the right of the entrance was filledwith men wearing the yellow tunics of her new guard whilethe walls were hung with numerous spears and sabers. At thefar end of the corridor a low flight of steps led to anotherclosed doorway. Here the guard was again halted. One of theguards at this doorway, after receiving the report of one ofthose who accompanied her, passed through the door, leavingthem standing outside. It was fully fifteen minutes before hereturned, when the guard was again changed and the girlconducted into the chamber beyond.

Through three other chambers and past three more massivedoors, at each of which her guard was changed, the girl wasconducted before she was ushered into a comparatively smallroom, back and forth across the floor of which paced a manin a scarlet tunic, upon the front and back of which wasembroidered an enormous parrot and upon whose head was abarbaric headdress surmounted by a stuffed parrot.

The walls of this room were entirely hidden by hangingsupon which hundreds, even thousands, of parrots were em-broidered. Inlaid in the floor were golden parrots, while, asthickly as they could be painted, upon the ceiling were bril-liant-hued parrots with wings outspread as though in the actof flying.

The man himself was larger of stature than any she hadyet seen within the city. His parchment-like skin was wrinkledwith age and he was much fatter than any other of his kindthat she had seen. His bared arms, however, gave evidence ofgreat strength and his gait was not that of an old man. Hisfacial expression denoted almost utter imbecility and he wasquite the most repulsive creature that ever Bertha Kircherhad looked upon.

For several minutes after she was conducted into his pres-ence he appeared not to be aware that she was there butcontinued his restless pacing to and fro. Suddenly, without theslightest warning, and while he was at the far end of the roomfrom her with his back toward her, he wheeled and rushedmadly at her. Involuntarily the girl shrank back, extending heropen palms toward the frightful creature as though to holdhim aloof but a man upon either side of her, the two who hadconducted her into the apartment, seized and held her.

Although he rushed violently toward her the man stoppedwithout touching her. For a moment his horrid white-rimmedeyes glared searchingly into her face, immediately followingwhich he burst into maniacal laughter. For two or threeminutes the creature gave himself over to merriment and then,stopping as suddenly as he had commenced to laugh, he fellto examining the prisoner. He felt of her hair, her skin, thetexture of the garment she wore and by means of signs madeher understand she was to open her mouth. In the latter heseemed much interested, calling the attention of one of theguards to her canine teeth and then baring his own sharp fangsfor the prisoner to see.

Presently he resumed pacing to and fro across the floor, andit was fully fifteen minutes before he again noticed the pris-oner, and then it was to issue a curt order to her guards, whoimmediately conducted her from the apartment.

The guards now led the girl through a series of corridorsand apartments to a narrow stone stairway which led to thefloor above, finally stopping before a small door where stooda naked Negro armed with a spear. At a word from one ofher guards the Negro opened the door and the party passedinto a low-ceiled apartment, the windows of which immedi-ately caught the girl's attention through the fact that they wereheavily barred. The room was furnished similarly to those thatshe had seen in other parts of the building, the same carvedtables and benches, the rugs upon the floor, the decorationsupon the walls, although in every respect it was simpler thananything she had seen on the floor below. In one corner was alow couch covered with a rug similar to those on the floor ex-cept that it was of a lighter texture, and upon this sat a woman.

As Bertha Kircher's eyes alighted upon the occupant of theroom the girl gave a little gasp of astonishment, for she recog-nized immediately that here was a creature more nearly of herown kind than any she had seen within the city's walls. Anold woman it was who looked at her through faded blue eyes,sunken deep in a wrinkled and toothless face. But the eyeswere those of a sane and intelligent creature, and the wrinkledface was the face of a white woman.

At sight of the girl the woman rose and came forward, hergait so feeble and unsteady that she was forced to supportherself with a long staff which she grasped in both her hands.One of the guards spoke a few words to her and then the menturned and left the apartment. The girl stood just within thedoor waiting in silence for what might next befall her.

The old woman crossed the room and stopped before her,raising her weak and watery eyes to the fresh young face ofthe newcomer. Then she scanned her from head to foot andonce again the old eyes returned to the girl's face. BerthaKircher on her part was not less frank in her survey of thelittle old woman. It was the latter who spoke first. In a thin,cracked voice she spoke, hesitatingly, falteringly, as though shewere using unfamiliar words and speaking a strange tongue.

"You are from the outer world?" she asked in English."God grant that you may speak and understand this tongue."

"English?" the girl exclaimed, "Yes, of course, I speak Eng-lish."

"Thank God!" cried the little old woman. "I did not knowwhether I myself might speak it so that another could under-stand. For sixty years I have spoken only their accursedgibberish. For sixty years I have not heard a word in mynative language. Poor creature! Poor creature!" she mumbled."What accursed misfortune threw you into their hands?"

"You are an English woman?" asked Bertha Kircher. "DidI understand you aright that you are an English woman andhave been here for sixty years?"

The old woman nodded her head affirmatively. "For sixtyyears I have never been outside of this palace. Come," shesaid, stretching forth a bony hand. "I am very old and cannotstand long. Come and sit with me on my couch."

The girl took the proffered hand and assisted the old ladyback to the opposite side of the room and when she was seatedthe girl sat down beside her.

"Poor child! Poor child!" moaned the old woman. "Farbetter to have died than to have let them bring you here. Atfirst I might have destroyed myself but there was always thehope that someone would come who would take me away,but none ever comes. Tell me how they got you."

Very briefly the girl narrated the principal incidents whichled up to her capture by some of the creatures of the city.

"Then there is a man with you in the city?" asked the oldwoman.

"Yes," said the girl, "but I do not know where he is norwhat are their intentions in regard to him. In fact, I do notknow what their intentions toward me are."

"No one might even guess," said the old woman. "Theydo not know themselves from one minute to the next whattheir intentions are, but I think you can rest assured, my poorchild, that you will never see your friend again."

"But they haven't slain you," the girl reminded her, "andyou have been their prisoner, you say, for sixty years."

"No," replied her companion, "they have not killed me, norwill they kill you, though God knows before you have livedlong in this horrible place you will beg them to kill you."

"Who are they --" asked Bertha Kircher, "what kind ofpeople? They differ from any that I ever have seen. And tellme, too, how you came here."

"It was long ago," said the old woman, rocking back andforth on the couch. "It was long ago. Oh, how long it was!I was only twenty then. Think of it, child! Look at me. I haveno mirror other than my bath, I cannot see what I look likefor my eyes are old, but with my fingers I can feel my old andwrinkled face, my sunken eyes, and these flabby lips drawnin over toothless gums. I am old and bent and hideous, butthen I was young and they said that I was beautiful. No, Iwill not be a hypocrite; I was beautiful. My glass told me that.

"My father was a missionary in the interior and one daythere came a band of Arabian slave raiders. They took themen and women of the little native village where my fatherlabored, and they took me, too. They did not know muchabout our part of the country so they were compelled to relyupon the men of our village whom they had captured toguide them. They told me that they never before had beenso far south and that they had heard there was a country richin ivory and slaves west of us. They wanted to go there andfrom there they would take us north, where I was to be soldinto the harem of some black sultan.

"They often discussed the price I would bring, and thatthat price might not lessen, they guarded me jealously fromone another so the journeys were made as little fatiguing forme as possible. I was given the best food at their commandand I was not harmed.

"But after a short time, when we had reached the confinesof the country with which the men of our village were familiarand had entered upon a desolate and arid desert waste, theArabs realized at last that we were lost. But they still kept on,ever toward the west, crossing hideous gorges and marchingacross the face of a burning land beneath the pitiless sun. Thepoor slaves they had captured were, of course, compelled tocarry all the camp equipage and loot and thus heavily bur-dened, half starved and without water, they soon commencedto die like flies.

"We had not been in the desert land long before the Arabswere forced to kill their horses for food, and when we reachedthe first gorge, across which it would have been impossibleto transport the animals, the balance of them were slaughteredand the meat loaded upon the poor staggering blacks who stillsurvived.

"Thus we continued for two more days and now all but ahandful of blacks were dead, and the Arabs themselves hadcommenced to succumb to hunger and thirst and the intenseheat of the desert. As far as the eye could reach back towardthe land of plenty from whence we had come, our route wasmarked by circling vultures in the sky and by the bodies ofthe dead who lay down in the trackless waste for the lasttime. The ivory had been abandoned tusk by tusk as theblacks gave out, and along the trail of death was strewn thecamp equipage and the horse trappings of a hundred men.

"For some reason the Arab chief favored me to the last,possibly with the idea that of all his other treasures I couldbe most easily transported, for I was young and strong and afterthe horses were killed I had walked and kept up with the bestof the men. We English, you know, are great walkers, whilethese Arabians had never walked since they were old enoughto ride a horse.

"I cannot tell you how much longer we kept on but at last,with our strength almost gone, a handful of us reached thebottom of a deep gorge. To scale the opposite side was outof the question and so we kept on down along the sands ofwhat must have been the bed of an ancient river, until finallywe came to a point where we looked out upon what appearedto be a beautiful valley in which we felt assured that we wouldfind game in plenty.

"By then there were only two of us left -- the chief and my-self. I do not need to tell you what the valley was, for youfound it in much the same way as I did. So quickly were wecaptured that it seemed they must have been waiting for us,and I learned later that such was the case, just as they werewaiting for you.

"As you came through the forest you must have seen themonkeys and parrots and since you have entered the palace,how constantly these animals, and the lions, are used in thedecorations. At home we were all familiar with talking par-rots who repeated the things that they were taught to say, butthese parrots are different in that they all talk in the samelan-guage that the people of the city use, and they say that themonkeys talk to the parrots and the parrots fly to the city andtell the people what the monkeys say. And, although it is hardto believe, I have learned that this is so, for I have lived hereamong them for sixty years in the palace of their king.

"They brought me, as they brought you, directly to the pal-ace. The Arabian chief was taken elsewhere. I never knewwhat became of him. Ago XXV was king then. I have seenmany kings since that day. He was a terrible man; but then,they are all terrible."

"What is the matter with them?" asked the girl.

"They are a race of maniacs," replied the old woman. "Hadyou not guessed it? Among them are excellent craftsmen andgood farmers and a certain amount of law and order, such asit is.

"They reverence all birds, but the parrot is their chief deity.There is one who is held here in the palace in a very beautifulapartment. He is their god of gods. He is a very old bird. Ifwhat Ago told me when I came is true, he must be nearlythree hundred years old by now. Their religious rites are re-volting in the extreme, and I believe that it may be the prac-tice of these rites through ages that has brought the race toits present condition of imbecility.

"And yet, as I said, they are not without some redeemingqualities. If legend may be credited, their forebears -- a littlehandful of men and women who came from somewhere outof the north and became lost in the wilderness of central Af-rica -- found here only a barren desert valley. To my ownknowledge rain seldom, if ever, falls here, and yet you haveseen a great forest and luxuriant vegetation outside of thecity as well as within. This miracle is accomplished by theutilization of natural springs which their ancestors developed,and upon which they have improved to such an extent thatthe entire valley receives an adequate amount of moisture atall times.

"Ago told me that many generations before his time theforest was irrigated by changing the course of the streamswhich carried the spring water to the city but that when thetrees had sent their roots down to the natural moisture of thesoil and required no further irrigation, the course of the streamwas changed and other trees were planted. And so the forestgrew until today it covers almost the entire floor of the valleyexcept for the open space where the city stands. I do not knowthat this is true. It may be that the forest has always beenhere, but it is one of their legends and it is borne out by thefact that there is not sufficient rainfall here to supportvegeta-tion.

"They are peculiar people in many respects, not only intheir form of worship and religious rites but also in that theybreed lions as other people breed cattle. You have seen howthey use some of these lions but the majority of them theyfatten and eat. At first, I imagine, they ate lion meat as a partof their religious ceremony but after many generations theycame to crave it so that now it is practically the only fleshtheyeat. They would, of course, rather die than eat the flesh of abird, nor will they eat monkey's meat, while the herbivorousanimals they raise only for milk, hides, and flesh for the lions.Upon the south side of the city are the corrals and pastureswhere the herbivorous animals are raised. Boar, deer, and an-telope are used principally for the lions, while goats are keptfor milk for the human inhabitants of the city."

"And you have lived here all these years," exclaimed thegirl, "without ever seeing one of your own kind?"

The old woman nodded affirmatively.

"For sixty years you have lived here," continued BerthaKircher, "and they have not harmed you!"

"I did not say they had not harmed me," said the old wom-an, "they did not kill me, that is all."

"What" -- the girl hesitated -- "what," she continued at last,"was your position among them? Pardon me," she addedquickly, "I think I know but I should like to hear from yourown lips, for whatever your position was, mine will doubtlessbe the same."

The old woman nodded. "Yes," she said, "doubtless; if theycan keep you away from the women."

"What do you mean?" asked the girl.

"For sixty years I have never been allowed near a woman.They would kill me, even now, if they could reach me. Themen are frightful, God knows they are frightful! But heavenkeep you from the women!"

"You mean," asked the girl, "that the men will not harmme?"

"Ago XXV made me his queen," said the old woman. "Buthe had many other queens, nor were they all human. He wasnot murdered for ten years after I came here. Then the nextking took me, and so it has been always. I am the oldestqueen now. Very few of their women live to a great age. Notonly are they constantly liable to assassination but, owing totheir subnormal mentalities, they are subject to periods of de-pression during which they are very likely to destroy them-selves."

She turned suddenly and pointed to the barred windows."You see this room," she said, "with the black eunuch out-side? Wherever you see these you will know that there arewomen, for with very few exceptions they are never allowedout of captivity. They are considered and really are more vio-lent than the men."

For several minutes the two sat in silence, and then theyounger woman turned to the older.

"Is there no way to escape?" she asked.

The old woman pointed again to the barred windows andthen to the door, saying: "And there is the armed eunuch.And if you should pass him, how could you reach the street?And if you reached the street, how could you pass through thecity to the outer wall? And even if, by some miracle, youshould gain the outer wall, and, by another miracle, you shouldbe permitted to pass through the gate, could you ever hopeto traverse the forest where the great black lions roam andfeed upon men? No!" she exclaimed, answering her own ques-tion, "there is no escape, for after one had escaped from thepalace and the city and the forest it would be but to invitedeath in the frightful desert land beyond.

"In sixty years you are the first to find this buried city. In athousand no denizen of this valley has ever left it, and withinthe memory of man, or even in their legends, none had foundthem prior to my coming other than a single warlike giant, thestory of whom has been handed down from father to son.

"I think from the description that he must have been aSpaniard, a giant of a man in buckler and helmet, who foughthis way through the terrible forest to the city gate, who fellupon those who were sent out to capture him and slew themwith his mighty sword. And when he had eaten of the vege-tables from the gardens, and the fruit from the trees anddrank of the water from the stream, he turned about andfought his way back through the forest to the mouth of thegorge. But though he escaped the city and the forest he didnot escape the desert. For a legend runs that the king, fearfulthat he would bring others to attack them, sent a party afterhim to slay him.

"For three weeks they did not find him, for they went in thewrong direction, but at last they came upon his bones pickedclean by the vultures, lying a day's march up the same gorgethrough which you and I entered the valley. I do not know,"continued the old woman, "that this is true. It is just one oftheir many legends."

"Yes," said the girl, "it is true. I am sure it is true, for Ihave seen the skeleton and the corroded armor of this greatgiant."

At this juncture the door was thrown open without ceremonyand a Negro entered bearing two flat vessels in which wereseveral smaller ones. These he set down on one of the tablesnear the women, and, without a word, turned and left. Withthe entrance of the man with the vessels, a delightful odor ofcooked food had aroused the realization in the girl's mind thatshe was very hungry, and at a word from the old woman shewalked to the table to examine the viands. The larger vesselswhich contained the smaller ones were of pottery while thosewithin them were quite evidently of hammered gold. To herintense surprise she found lying between the smaller vessels aspoon and a fork, which, while of quaint design, were quite asserviceable as any she had seen in more civilized communities.The tines of the fork were quite evidently of iron or steel, thegirl did not know which, while the handle and the spoon wereof the same material as the smaller vessels.

There was a highly seasoned stew with meat and vegetables,a dish of fresh fruit, and a bowl of milk beside which was alittle jug containing something which resembled marmalade.So ravenous was she that she did not even wait for her com-panion to reach the table, and as she ate she could have swornthat never before had she tasted more palatable food. Theold woman came slowly and sat down on one of the benchesopposite her.

As she removed the smaller vessels from the larger andarranged them before her on the table a crooked smile twistedher lips as she watched the younger woman eat.

"Hunger is a great leveler," she said with a laugh.

"What do you mean?" asked the girl.

"I venture to say that a few weeks ago you would havebeen nauseated at the idea of eating cat."

"Cat?" exclaimed the girl.

"Yes," said the old woman. "What is the difference -- a lionis a cat."

"You mean I am eating lion now?"

"Yes," said the old woman, "and as they prepare it, it is verypalatable. You will grow very fond of it."

Bertha Kircher smiled a trifle dubiously. "I could not tellit," she said, "from lamb or veal."

"No," said the woman, "it tastes as good to me. But theselions are very carefully kept and very carefully fed and theirflesh is so seasoned and prepared that it might be anything sofar as taste is concerned."

And so Bertha Kircher broke her long fast upon strangefruits, lion meat, and goat's milk.

Scarcely had she finished when again the door opened andthere entered a yellow-coated soldier. He spoke to the oldwoman.

"The king," she said, "has commanded that you be preparedand brought to him. You are to share these apartments withme. The king knows that I am not like his other women. Henever would have dared to put you with them. Herog XVIhas occasional lucid intervals. You must have been broughtto him during one of these. Like the rest of them he thinksthat he alone of all the community is sane, but more than onceI have thought that the various men with whom I have comein contact here, including the kings themselves, looked uponme as, at least, less mad than the others. Yet how I have re-tained my senses all these years is beyond me."

"What do you mean by prepare?" asked Bertha Kircher."You said that the king had commanded I be prepared andbrought to him."

"You will be bathed and furnished with a robe similar tothat which I wear."

"Is there no escape?" asked the girl. "Is there no way evenin which I can kill myself?"

The woman handed her the fork. "This is the only way,"she said, "and you will notice that the tines are very short andblunt."

The girl shuddered and the old woman laid a hand gentlyupon her shoulder. "He may only look at you and send youaway," she said. "Ago XXV sent for me once, tried to talkwith me, discovered that I could not understand him and thathe could not understand me, ordered that I be taught thelanguage of his people, and then apparently forgot me for ayear. Sometimes I do not see the king for a long period.There was one king who ruled for five years whom I never saw.There is always hope; even I whose very memory has doubtlessbeen forgotten beyond these palace walls still hope, thoughnone knows better how futilely."

The old woman led Bertha Kircher to an adjoining apart-ment in the floor of which was a pool of water. Here the girlbathed and afterward her companion brought her one of theclinging garments of the native women and adjusted it abouther figure. The material of the robe was of a gauzy fabricwhich accentuated the rounded beauty of the girlish form.

"There," said the old woman, as she gave a final pat to oneof the folds of the garment, "you are a queen indeed!"

The girl looked down at her naked breasts and but half-concealed limbs in horror. "They are going to lead me intothe presence of men in this half-nude condition!" she ex-claimed.

The old woman smiled her crooked smile. "It is nothing,"she said. "You will become accustomed to it as did I who wasbrought up in the home of a minister of the gospel, where itwas considered little short of a crime for a woman to exposeher stockinged ankle. By comparison with what you willdoubtless see and the things that you may be called upon toundergo, this is but a trifle."

For what seemed hours to the distraught girl she paced thefloor of her apartment, awaiting the final summons to thepresence of the mad king. Darkness had fallen and the oilflares within the palace had been lighted long before twomessengers appeared with instructions that Herog demandedher immediate presence and that the old woman, whom theycalled Xanila, was to accompany her. The girl felt someslight relief when she discovered that she was to have at leastone friend with her, however powerless to assist her the oldwoman might be.

The messengers conducted the two to a small apartment onthe floor below. Xanila explained that this was one of theanterooms off the main throneroom in which the king wasaccustomed to hold court with his entire retinue. A numberof yellow-tunicked warriors sat about upon the benches withinthe room. For the most part their eyes were bent upon thefloor and their attitudes that of moody dejection. As the twowomen entered several glanced indifferently at them, but forthe most part no attention was paid to them.

While they were waiting in the anteroom there entered fromanother apartment a young man uniformed similarly to theothers with the exception that upon his head was a fillet ofgold, in the front of which a single parrot feather rose erectlyabove his forehead. As he entered, the other soldiers in theroom rose to their feet.

"That is Metak, one of the king's sons," Xanila whisperedto the girl.

The prince was crossing the room toward the audiencechamber when his glance happened to fall upon BerthaKircher. He halted in his tracks and stood looking at her fora full minute without speaking. The girl, embarrassed by hisbold stare and her scant attire, flushed and, dropping her gazeto the floor, turned away. Metak suddenly commenced totremble from head to foot and then, without warning otherthan a loud, hoarse scream he sprang forward and seized thegirl in his arms.

Instantly pandemonium ensued. The two messengers whohad been charged with the duty of conducting the girl to theking's presence danced, shrieking, about the prince, wavingtheir arms and gesticulating wildly as though they wouldforce him to relinquish her, the while they dared not lay handsupon royalty. The other guardsmen, as though suffering insympathy the madness of their prince, ran forward screamingand brandishing their sabers.

The girl fought to release herself from the horrid embraceof the maniac, but with his left arm about her he held her aseasily as though she had been but a babe, while with his freehand he drew his saber and struck viciously at those nearesthim.

One of the messengers was the first to feel the keen edge ofMetak's blade. With a single fierce cut the prince drovethrough the fellow's collar bone and downward to the centerof his chest. With a shrill shriek that rose above the screamingof the other guardsmen the man dropped to the floor, and asthe blood gushed from the frightful wound he struggled to riseonce more to his feet and then sank back again and died in agreat pool of his own blood.

In the meantime Metak, still clinging desperately to the girl,had backed toward the opposite door. At the sight of theblood two of the guardsmen, as though suddenly aroused tomaniacal frenzy, dropped their sabers to the floor and fell uponeach other with nails and teeth, while some sought to reach theprince and some to defend him. In a corner of the room satone of the guardsmen laughing uproariously and just as Metaksucceeded in reaching the door and taking the girl through,she thought that she saw another of the men spring upon thecorpse of the dead messenger and bury his teeth in its flesh.

During the orgy of madness Xanila had kept closely at thegirl's side but at the door of the room Metak had seen herand, wheeling suddenly, cut viciously at her. Fortunately forXanila she was halfway through the door at the time, so thatMetak's blade but dented itself upon the stone arch of theportal, and then Xanila, guided doubtless by the wisdom ofsixty years of similar experiences, fled down the corridor asfast as her old and tottering legs would carry her.

Metak, once outside the door, returned his saber to itsscabbard and lifting the girl bodily from the ground carriedher off in the opposite direction from that taken by Xanila.