e shining high
above them, while on either hand domed and minareted buildings were
silhouetted sharply against the starlit sky. Metak swam swiftly to
the north side of the lagoon where, by means of a ladder, the two
climbed out upon the embankment. There were others in the plaza
but they paid but little if any attention to the two bedraggled
figures. As Metak walked quickly across the pavement with the girl
at his side, Bertha Kircher could only guess at the man's intentions.
She could see no way in which to escape and so she went docilely
with him, hoping against hope that some fortuitous circumstance
might eventually arise that would give her the coveted chance for
freedom and life.

Metak led her toward a building which, as she entered, she recognized
as the same to which she and Lieutenant Smith-Oldwick had been led
when they were brought into the city. There was no man sitting
behind the carved desk now, but about the room were a dozen or more
warriors in the tunics of the house to which they were attached, in
this case white with a small lion in the form of a crest or badge
upon the breast and back of each.

As Metak entered and the men recognized him they arose, and in answer
to a query he put, they pointed to an arched doorway at the rear
of the room. Toward this Metak led the girl, and then, as though
filled with a sudden suspicion, his eyes narrowed cunningly and
turning toward the soldiery he issued an order which resulted in
their all preceding him through the small doorway and up a flight
of stairs a short distance beyond.

The stairway and the corridor above were lighted by small flares
which revealed several doors in the walls of the upper passageway.
To one of these the men led the prince. Bertha Kircher saw them
knock upon the door and heard a voice reply faintly through the
thick door to the summons. The effect upon those about her was
electrical. Instantly excitement reigned, and in response to orders
from the king's son the soldiers commenced to beat heavily upon the
door, to throw their bodies against it and to attempt to hew away
the panels with their sabers. The girl wondered at the cause of
the evident excitement of her captors.

She saw the door giving to each renewed assault, but what she did
not see just before it crashed inward was the figures of the two
men who alone, in all the world, might have saved her, pass between
the heavy hangings in an adjoining alcove and disappear into a da