will I
burn than yield to Joshua."

"I am going to the cave city," he answered; "we have nowhere else to
go, and little time to lose. Four men with rifles can hold that place
against a thousand. Come."

"I obey," she answered, bowing her head.

We went down the stairway that led from the roof on which the
inhabitants of the palace were accustomed to spend much of their day,
and even to sleep in hot weather, as is common in the East. Another
minute and we should have been too late. The fire from one of the domes
had spread to the upper story, and was already appearing in little
tongues of flame mingled with jets of black smoke through cracks in the
crumbling partition wall.

As a matter of fact this wall fell in just as my son Roderick, the last
of us, was passing down the stairs. With the curiosity of youth he had
lingered for a few moments to watch the sad scene below, a delay which
nearly cost him his life.

On the ground floor we found ourselves out of immediate danger, since
the fire was attacking this part of the palace from above and burning
downward. We had even time to go to our respective sleeping-places and
collect such of our possessions and valuables as we were able to carry.
Fortunately, among other things, these included all our note-books,
which to-day are of priceless value. Laden with these articles, we met
again in the audience hall, which, although it was very hot, seemed as
it had always been, a huge, empty place, whereof the roof, painted with
stars, was supported upon thick cedar columns, each of them hewn from a
single tree.

Passing down that splendid apartment, which an hour later had ceased to
exist, lamps in hand, for these we had found time to fetch and light,
we reached the mouth of the passage that led to the underground city
without meeting a single human being.

Had the Abati been a different race they could perfectly well have
dashed in and made us prisoners, for the drawbridge was still intact.
But their cowardice was our salvation, for they feared lest they should
be trapped by the fire. So I think at least, but justice compels me to
add that, on the spur of the moment, they may have found it impossible
to clear the gateways of the mass of fallen or dead soldiers over which
it would have been difficult to climb.

Such, at any rate, was the explanation that we heard afterwards.

We reached the mouth of the vast cave in perfect safety, and clambered
through the little orific