lling upon her knees and touching
her forehead to the elder woman's sandaled feet. As she rose I could see
there were tears in the eyes of them both. Then Miela presented me. I
stood for an instant, confused, not knowing quite what I should do.

Miela laughed her gay little laugh.

"Bow low, Alan--as I did--to our mother."

I knelt to her respectfully, and she put her hands lightly upon my head,
speaking low words of greeting. Then, as I stood up again, I met her eyes
and smiled an answer to the gentle smile on her lips. From that moment I
felt almost as though she were my own mother, and I am sure she took me
then into her heart as her son.

The introduction over, I turned toward one of the windows, leaving Miela
to talk with her mother. Anina followed me, standing timidly by my side,
with her big, curious eyes looking up into my face.

"You're a sweet, dear little sister," I said, "and I _am_ going to love
you very much."

I put my arm about her shoulders, and she smiled as though she understood
me, yielding to my embrace with the ready friendship of a child. For some
moments we stood together, looking out of the window and talking to each
other with words that were quite unintelligible to us both. Then Miela
suddenly called me.

"We shall eat now, Alan," she said, "for you are hungry, I know. And above
there is water, that we may wash." Her face clouded as she went on: "Our
mother has told me a little that has happened. It is very serious, Alan,
as you shall hear. Tao, with his great news of your wonderful world, is
very fast winning over our men to his cause. A revolt, there may be, here
in our own city--a revolution against our government, our king. We can
only look to you now, my husband, to save our country from Tao as well as
your own."

The situation as I found it in the Light Country was, as Miela said,
alarmingly serious. During the two years Tao had been in the Twilight
Country, preparing for his attack upon the earth, his project had caused
little stir among the Light Country people.

Its women were, at first, perturbed at this wanton attack upon the
humanity of another world, but since the earth was such an unknown
quantity, and the fact of its being inhabited at all was problematical,
interest in the affair soon lagged. The government of the Light Country
concerned itself not at all.

But now, upon Tao's return, the news of his venture, as told by the
emissaries he sent to the Light Country, s