hink not,
because you were more successful with that girl, than I, that you
can lord it over me. I shall answer no further charges from you."

"Krometz, your guilt speaks out in every line of your face," said
the excited Aphiz. "Meet me at sunset behind the signal rock on the
cliff, and we will settle this affair together."

"I will neither meet thee, nor account to thee for aught I may have
done."

"Then, as true as to-morrow's sun shall rise, with this good rifle I
will shoot you to the heart. I shall be there at the sunset hour;
fail me, and to-morrow you shall die."

Krometz knew well with whom he had to deal; he knew if he met Aphiz,
as he proposed, there would be a chance for his life, but if he
failed him, he feared the unerring aim of his rifle. He was no
coward--both of them had faced the enemy together, but he lacked the
moral courage that is far more sustaining than mere dogged bravery,
or contempt for immediate danger. Thus influence, at sunset he kept
the appointment.

The young mountaineer had been taught this mode of resort to arms by
the Russian and Polish officers who had been thrown much among them.
They had no seconds, but fought alone, starting back to back,
walking forward five paces, wheeling and firing together. The
position was on the brink of a precipice, and he who fell would be
hurled at once down an immense depth. Aphiz was desperate, Krometz
reckless; they fired and the body of the latter fell over the cliff.
Aphiz was unharmed.

In a moment after he realized his situation, has act, however just,
had made him a fugitive, and he must fly at once from those scenes
of his boyish love and happiness.

CHAPTER VI.

A SINGULAR MEETING.

Turning from the mountain scenes we have described, let us back once
more to Constantinople, and direct our footsteps up the fragrant
valley where the Barbyses threads its meandering course. Here let us
look once more into the gilded cage that holds the Sultan's
favorites, where art had exhausted itself to form a fairy-like spot,
as beautiful as the imagination could conceive. We find here, once
more, amid the fragrant atmosphere and the playing fountains, the
form of Lalla, and by her side again that form, before which all the
tribes of the faithful kneel in humble submission. It was strange
what a potent charm the dumb but beautiful Circassian had thrown
about herself. It seemed as though some fairy circle enshrined her,
within which no harm