. No outward sound disturbed
her. Once a Nubian slave, who had heard the stoppage of the fountain's
flow, emerged from beneath an archway, as though to examine into the
difficulty. Finding that the water was still playing as usual, he
imagined that he must have been mistaken, gave utterance to an oath in
condemnation of his own stupidity, slowly walked around the basin,
looked inquiringly at Leta, and, for the moment, made as though he would
have accosted her--and then, changing his mind, withdrew and walked back
silently into the house. Still she did not move.

At length, however, she raised her head and stood upright. Her eyes now
shone with deep intensity of purpose, and her lips were firmly set.
Something akin to a smile flickered around the corners of her mouth,
betraying not pleasure, but satisfaction. She had evidently reflected to
some purpose, and now the trial for action had arrived.

'Strange that I should not have thought of it before,' she murmured to
herself. Then stepping under the archway which led from the courtyard
into the palace, she reached up against the wall and took down two keys
which hung there. Holding them tightly, so that they might not clink
together, she glided along, past the fountain--through the clump of
plane trees--keeping as much as possible in the deeper shadows of arch
and shrubbery--and so on along the whole length of the court, until she
stood by the range of lower erections which bounded its farther
extremity. Then, fitting one of the keys into an iron door, she softly
unlocked it.

Entering, she stood within a low stone cell. It was the prison house of
the palace, used for the reception of new slaves, and for the punishment
of such others as gave offence. It was a long, narrow apartment, paved
with stone and lighted by a single grated aperture set high in the wall
upon the courtyard side. The place was of sufficient dimensions to hold
fifty or sixty persons, but, in the present case, there was but one
tenant--Cleotos---Not even a guard was with him, for the strength of the
walls and the locks were considered amply sufficient to prevent escape.

Cleotos was sitting upon a stone bench, resting his head upon his right
hand. At the opening of the door he looked up. He could not see who it
was that entered, but the light tread and the faint rustle of a waving
dress sufficiently indicated the sex. If it had been daylight, a flush
might have been seen upon his face, for the thought