a high point.
Bedient drank with a relish almost forgotten, but instantly followed
that crippling pang--that it was not for Beth; that she could not
breathe the warm fragrant winds.... Bedient sprang up. Some hard,
brain-filling, body-straining task was the cry of his mind. This was
its first defensive activity against the tearing down of bitter
loneliness. Until this moment, he had endured passively.

Bedient determined to go to _The Pleiad_. He had thought of various
ways to get in contact with Jim Framtree, but there were obstacles in
every path, from the point of view of one conceded by the whole Island
to be Dictator Jaffier's right hand, as Captain Carreras had been. The
idea appealed more every second. It would startle all concerned,
Jaffier and Celestino Rey especially. But the former had just received
a large financial assurance of his loyalty, and there was value in
giving the ex-pirate something formidable to cope with. Moreover, to
meet Jim Framtree again was Bedient's first reason for sudden return to
Equatoria.... He called for a pony, and followed by a servant with a
case of fresh clothing, rode down the trail to Coral City.

TWENTY-SIXTH CHAPTER

HOW STARTLING IS TRUTH

Bedient entered _The Pleiad_, and with relief breathed the coolness of
the vast shadowed halls. One does not ride for pleasure on a June
afternoon in Equatoria, and Bedient was far from fit.... There were no
guests about. A pale, slender, sad-eyed gentleman appeared in a sort of
throne of marble and mahogany, and perceiving the arrival, his look
became fixed and glassy.

"Just give me your name, please, if you wish," the pale one said,
clearing as dry a throat as ever gave passage to words. Indeed, Bedient
could only think of some one stepping upon nut-shells to compare with
that voice. The sentence was spoken in answer to his glance about for a
register or something of the sort.... No questions were asked regarding
price, baggage, nor the nature of the quarters desired. A Chinese
servant appeared, and took the case from Bedient's man, who was sent
down to quarter in the city. The guest followed the Oriental. The
stillness and vast proportions of the structure; the endless darkened
halls robed in tapestries and animate with oils; the heavy fragrance
from the gardens, crushed out of blossoms by the fierce heat; rugs of
all the world's weaving, from the golden fleeces of Persia to fire-lit
Navajos; a glimpse to the left, of a ro