do next?"

Again the small lightnings darted, and Naida reached for the cylinder.

"Do you mind if I take it for a moment?"

"Of course not."

Promptly then she faced around.

"Wait here, everyone," she ordered.

And with that she waved the cylinder in a flashing little arc before
their eyes, and darted to the door.

It was all so unexpected that she was gone before Kirby could speak.
Slowly, with all of the suddenly gay company of girls following after
him, he went to the doorway, and stood on the steps leading to the
amphitheatre.

* * * * *

A minute passed. He heard voices downstairs. He heard Naida's voice
ringing clearly, though he could not distinguish her words. He heard a
great cry from a score of male throats. More minutes passed. Words that
were low and tense poured out in a rumbling volume. Above the rumble,
Naida's voice presently sounded again, clear and sweet, but incisive.
Then, when no more than five or six minutes had gone, Kirby heard the
clang of the bronze gate at the foot of the steps, heard light, swift
footsteps ascending.

"Naida!" he called softly.

She flashed upward toward him around the last curve in the stairway.
Straight to his outstretched arms she went.

"It is done! It is done!" she whispered.

"Tell us!" cried first one girl and then others.

Naida drew away from Kirby at last.

"I told the Duca," she said to all of them, "that our leader would keep
the cylinder for a period of time equal to one upper-world year. If the
Duca grants all the terms of peace which we will ask of him, and if he
accepts the upper-world man as our temporal ruler, and all goes well for
a year, then we will consider replacing the cylinder where it belongs."

"And what," Kirby asked exultantly, "does the Duca say?"

Suddenly, without warning, Naida dropped before him on one knee, and
from that position gazed up at him laughing.

"He says he will make you our King, to govern all temporal affairs
within our realm! He is waiting for you to come and hold a conclave
now."

"_What?_"

Still kneeling half in fun, half in sincere reverence, Naida held out
the precious, potent cylinder of gold.

"Guard it carefully!" she exclaimed. "So long as you keep it away from
the Duca, making him hope to win it back, he will consent to almost
anything. Yes, he is waiting with the caciques in the amphitheatre now;
waiting to draw up terms of peace."

CHAPTER VIII

To