you have been long in coming."

"We came as fast as we might, O Hes," said Leo; "and if thy spies could
visit those mountains, where no man was, and find a path down that
hideous precipice, they must have been able also to tell thee the reason
of our delay. Therefore I pray, ask it not of us."

"Nay, I will ask it of Atene herself, and she shall surely answer me,
for she stands without," replied the Hesea in a cold voice. "Oros, lead
the Khania hither and be swift."

The priest turned and walking quickly to the wooden doors by which we
had entered the shrine, vanished there.

"Now," said Leo to me nervously in the silence that followed, and
speaking in English, "now I wish we were somewhere else, for I think
that there will be trouble."

"I don't think, I am sure," I answered; "but the more the better,
for out of trouble may come the truth, which we need sorely." Then I
stopped, reflecting that the strange woman before us said that her spies
had overheard our talk upon the mountains, where we had spoken nothing
but English.

As it proved, I was wise, for quite quietly the Hesea repeated after
me--"Thou hast experience, Holly, for out of trouble comes the truth, as
out of wine."

Then she was silent, and, needless to say, I did not pursue the
conversation.

The doors swung open, and through them came a procession clad in black,
followed by the Shaman Simbri, who walked in front of a bier, upon which
lay the body of the Khan, carried by eight priests. Behind it was Atene,
draped in a black veil from head to foot, and after her marched another
company of priests. In front of the altar the bier was set down and the
priests fell back, leaving Atene and her uncle standing alone before the
corpse.

"What seeks my vassal, the Khania of Kaloon?" asked the Hesea in a cold
voice.

Now Atene advanced and bent the knee, but with little graciousness.

"Ancient Mother, Mother from of old, I do reverence to thy holy Office,
as my forefathers have done for many a generation," and again she
curtseyed. "Mother, this dead man asks of thee that right of sepulchre
in the fires of the holy Mountain which from the beginning has been
accorded to the royal departed who went before him."

"It has been accorded as thou sayest," answered the Hesea, "by those
priestesses who filled my place before me, nor shall it be refused to
thy dead lord--or to thee Atene--when thy time comes."

"I thank thee, O Hes, and I pray that this decree