. Also Ithobal holds
Zimboe so firmly in his net that no sparrow could fly out of it and he
not know. And there is worse to tell: Beloved, they purpose to give me
up as a peace-offering to Ithobal. Yes, even my father is of the plot,
for in his despair he thinks it his duty to sacrifice his daughter to
save the town, if, indeed, that will suffice to save us."

"But you are the Baaltis and inviolate."

"In such a time the goddess herself would not be held inviolate in
Zimboe, much less her priestess, Aziel. I have discovered that this very
night they have laid their plans to seize me. Mesa and others have been
chosen for the deed, and afterwards they think to offer me as a bribe to
Ithobal, who will take no other price."

Aziel groaned aloud: "It were better that we should die," he said.

She nodded and answered: "It were better that _I_ should die. But hear
me, for I also have a plan, and there is still hope, though very little.
Perhaps, as you drew near to Zimboe by the coast road, you may have
noted three miles or more from the gates of the city, and almost
overhanging the path on which you travelled, a shoulder of the mountain
where the rock is cut away, showing the narrow entrance to a cave closed
with a gate of bronze?"

"I saw it," answered Aziel, "and was told that there was the most sacred
burying-place of the city."

"It is the tomb of the high-priestesses of Baaltis," went on Elissa,
"and this day at sunset I must visit it to lay an offering upon the
shrine of her who was the Baaltis before me, entering alone, and closing
the gate, for it is not lawful that any one should pass in there with
me. Now, the plan is to lay hands on me as I go back from the tomb
to the palace--but I shall not go back. Aziel, I shall stay in the
tomb--nay, do not fear--not dead. I have hidden food and water there,
enough for many days, and there with the departed I shall live--till I
am of their number."

"But if so, how can it help you, Elissa, for they will break in the
gates of the place, and drag you away?"

"Then, Aziel, they will drag away a corpse, and that they will scarcely
care to present to Ithobal. See, I have hidden poison in my breast, and
here at my girdle hangs a dagger; are not the two of them enough to make
an end of one frail life? Should they dare to touch me, I shall tell
them through the bars that most certainly I shall drink the bane, or use
the knife; and when they know it, they will leave me unharmed