hey at last neared the cup of the crater, and passed
the place where the two diverging main corridors, each slanting
downwards, met, they heard Shabako's shouts and the rapid clatter of
his feet on the rock floor.

In a desperate sprint, they gained the flight of steps, stumbled up
them, and came again into the glorious fresh cold air, and the
slanting rays of the setting sun....

New life surged through Craig's body; but, whereas he ran across the
uneven cup of the crater with fresh speed, the girl seamed suddenly to
tire. He had taken the lead; now he went back, took her hand and
pulled her forward, puzzled by her sudden exhaustion. He did not have
time to question her, however, for the rapid beat of footsteps grew
quickly very loud, and with a shout Shabako burst up into the open and
caught sight of them.

The two went across the lip and slid down the slope of the volcano
with all the haste they could. Shabako only twenty yards behind, his
sword waving aloft and his dark face lit with a savage hate. And he
was gaining--gaining steadily; and Taia was tiring more and more, and
was becoming almost a dead weight on Wes Craig's supporting arm....

This was the last stretch, over almost the same ground the girl and
her dead lover, Inaros, had covered twenty years before--and with the
same pursuer behind. Again, by grace of the potent Kundrenaline,
Shabako and the girl were enacting the desperate chase of years
before, the chase that had ended in death for Inaros....

But there was a stricken look in Taia's eyes now.

"I am suddenly so tired, Divine One!" she gasped. She seemed hardly
able to walk. Craig could not understand. Snatching a glance
backwards, he saw that the Pharaoh, too, seemed to be strangely
tiring--but gaining nevertheless....

* * * * *

He was practically carrying the suddenly exhausted girl when they came
to the cleft in the ice from which he had dug her the day before.
There was no time to get across, for before they could climb the other
side Shabako would be on them. Wes gripped the handle of his blade.
Here the last fight would have to be made.

"Go down the cleft, out of the way!" he told the girl rapidly. He did
not have time to help her; he swung round just in time to parry a
slash of Shabako's sword with his own.

Then Wes Craig stepped back and stared at his opponent, a peculiar
look in his eyes.

It might have been merely from the force of his first