will
wait outside I will be with you in a moment."

Hastily tidying myself up, and giving my hair a comb, as though just
off to see Mr. Secretary for the Navy, or on the way to get a senator
to push a new patent medicine for me, I rejoined my guide outside, and
together we crossed the wide courtyard, entered the great log-built
portals of Ar-hap's house, and immediately afterwards found ourselves
in a vast hall dimly lit by rays coming in through square spaces under
the eaves, and crowded on both sides with guards, courtiers, and
supplicants. The heat was tremendous, the odour of Thither men and the
ill-dressed hides they wore almost overpowering. Yet little I recked
for either, for there at the top of the room, seated on a dais made of
rough-hewn wood inlet with gold and covered with splendid furs, was
Ar-hap himself.

A fine fellow, swarthy, huge, and hairy, at any other time or place I
could have given him due admiration as an admirable example of the
savage on the borderland of grace and culture, but now I only glanced
at him, and then to where at his side a girl was crouching, a gem of
human loveliness against that dusky setting. It was Heru, my ravished
princess, and, still clad in her diaphanous Hither robes, her face
white with anxiety, her eyes bright as stars, the embodiment of
helpless, flowery beauty, my heart turned over at sight of her.

Poor girl! When she saw me stride into the hall she rose swiftly from
Ar-hap's side, clasped her pretty hands, and giving a cry of joy would
have rushed towards me, but the king laid a mighty paw upon her, under
which she subsided with a shiver as though the touch had blanched all
the life within.

"Good morning, your majesty," I said, walking boldly up to the lower
step of the dais.

"Good morning, most singular-looking vagrant from the Unknown,"
answered the monarch. "In what way can I be of service to you?''

"I have come about that girl," I said, nodding to where Heru lay
blossoming in the hot gloom like some night-flowering bud. "I do not
know whether your majesty is aware how she came here, but it is a
highly discreditable incident in what is doubtless your otherwise
blameless reign. Some rough scullions intrusted with the duty of
collecting your majesty's customs asked Prince Hath of the Hither
people to point out the most attractive young person at his wedding
feast, and the prince indicated that lady there at your side. It was a
dirty trick, and al