continued Bertha Kircher,
"and they have not harmed you!"

"I did not say they had not harmed me," said the old woman, "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 added quickly, "I think
I know but I should like to hear from your own lips, for whatever
your position was, mine will doubtless be the same."

The old woman nodded. "Yes," she said, "doubtless; if they can 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. The men are frightful,
God knows they are frightful! But heaven keep you from the women!"

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

"Ago XXV made me his queen," said the old woman. "But he had many
other queens, nor were they all human. He was not murdered for ten
years after I came here. Then the next king took me, and so it has
been always. I am the oldest queen now. Very few of their women live
to a great age. Not only are they constantly liable to assassination
but, owing to their subnormal mentalities, they are subject to
periods of depression during which they are very likely to destroy
themselves."

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

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

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

The old woman pointed again to the barred windows and then 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 the city to the outer wall? And
even if, by some miracle, you should gain the outer wall, and, by
another miracle, you should be permitted to pass through the gate,
could you ever hope to traverse the forest where the great black
lions roam and feed upon men? No!" she exclaimed, answering her
own question, "there is no escape, for after one had escaped from
the palace and the city and the forest it would be but to invite
death in the frightful desert land beyond.

"In sixty y