with
the business."

"And I say," said Bastin, "that my most earnest desire is to be clear
of the whole thing, which wearies and perplexes me more than I can tell.
Only I am not going to run away, unless you think it desirable to do
so too, Lady Yva. I want you to understand that I am not in the least
afraid of the Lord Oro, and do not for one moment believe that he will
be allowed to bring about disaster to the world, as I understand is
his wicked object. Therefore on the whole I am indifferent and quite
prepared to accept any decision at which the rest of you may arrive."

"Be it understood," said Yva with a little smile when Bastin had
finished his sermonette, "that I must join my father in the bowels of
the earth for a reason which will be made plain afterwards. Therefore,
if you go we part, as I think to meet no more. Still my advice is that
you should go." [*]

[ * It is fortunate that we did not accept Yva's offer. Had
we done so we should have found ourselves shut in, and
perished, as shall be told.--H. A. ]

To this our only answer was to attend to the lighting of our lamps and
the disposal of our small impedimenta, such as our tins of oil and water
bottles. Yva noted this and laughed outright.

"Courage did not die with the Sons of Wisdom," she said.

Then we set out, Yva walking ahead of us and Tommy frisking at her side.

Our road led us through the temple. As we passed the great gates I
started, for there, in the centre of that glorious building, I perceived
a change. The statue of Fate was no more! It lay broken upon the
pavement among those fragments of its two worshippers which I had seen
shaken down some hours before.

"What does this mean?" I whispered to Yva. "I have felt no other
earthquake."

"I do not know," she answered, "or if I know I may not say. Yet learn
that no god can live on without a single worshipper, and, in a fashion,
that idol was alive, though this you will not believe."

"How very remarkable," said Bastin, contemplating the ruin. "If I were
superstitious, which I am not, I should say that this occurrence was an
omen indicating the final fall of a false god. At any rate it is dead
now, and I wonder what caused it?"

"I felt an earth tremor last night," said Bickley, "though it is odd
that it should only have affected this particular statue. A thousand
pities, for it was a wonderful work of art."

Then I remembered and reminded Bickley of the crash whi