stirred the souls of the dead.

If only the confounded sense of approaching disaster would leave him,
Kirby thought grimly, this would be a magnificent moment. As it was, he
turned his eyes away from the girls, and began to examine the temple.

Just as Naida had told him the case would be, he found both sides of the
nave surrounded by arches similar to the one under which he was
standing. Everywhere, dim and tortuous corridors led to cells like the
one he had just left. Then, in one end of the nave, loomed a closed door
from behind which the Duca and caciques would appear when the couple to
be wedded were in place, before the altar.

The altar itself, a rectangular mass of some jadelike stone, stood at a
distance of perhaps twenty paces in front of the closed door. On top of
the greenish stones, resting on a cushion of some crimson material,
flashed the crown which would be used at the coronation. Kirby's eyes
widened as he beheld a single rose-cut diamond two inches in diameter,
mounted in an exquisitely simple bandeau of wrought gold. But, a moment
later, even the crown which would be his--if nothing happened--seemed
only a bauble compared to the other prize which he had won in this world
beneath the world.

Naida!

* * * * *

He realized that the dance was ended, the music stilled, and that the
rainbow garbed girls had formed a double line in the center of the
temple. Suddenly his heart beat fast, and for just a moment, as he dared
look full and deeply at Naida, and she smiled back at him across the
distance, he even forgot to be depressed.

But even as he advanced to meet her, his uneasiness returned.

Now the girls were singing again, their voices raised in a triumphant
chorale as beautiful as Naida's face with its warm red lips and smiling
eyes, as beautiful as her wedding gown that might have been woven, in
its filminess, of mist from the sea. The bridesmaids, silent, their
lovely faces alight, paused. But Naida came on.

From her floated to Kirby a fragrance more overwhelming than even the
perfume of the geyser. Presently he felt her hand on his arm, and at
last they stood side by side. Now again, his premonition of evil left
him for a flash; but again it returned.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love _you_."

"But I am still afraid."

Naida's smile faded.

"And I too. Oh, I've been terribly afraid! We will keep our guard!"

"Yes."

* * *