ds her, thrust my helmeted head against it, for I felt
as though red-hot bradawls had been plunged into my eyes. So I stood
while she laughed and mocked behind me until at length I heard the door
close and the blessed darkness came like a gift from Heaven.

Then Ayesha began to loose Leo from his ray-proof armour, if so it can
be called, and he in turn loosed me; and there in that gentle radiance
we stood blinking at each other like owls in the sunlight, while the
tears streamed down our faces.

"Well, art satisfied, my Holly?" she asked.

"Satisfied with what?" I answered angrily, for the smarting of my
eyes was unbearable. "Yes, with burnings and bedevilments I am well
satisfied."

"And I also," grumbled Leo, who was swearing softly but continuously to
himself in the other corner of the place.

But Ayesha only laughed, oh! she laughed until she seemed the goddess
of all merriment come to earth, laughed till she also wept, then
said--"Why, what ingratitude is this? Thou, my Leo, didst wish to see
the wonders that I work, and thou, O Holly, didst come unbidden after I
bade thee stay behind, and now both of you are rude and angry, aye, and
weeping like a child with a burnt finger. Here take this," and she gave
us some salve that stood upon a shelf, "and rub it on your eyes and the
smart will pass away."

So we did, and the pain went from them, though, for hours afterwards,
mine remained red as blood.

"And what are these wonders?" I asked her presently. "If thou meanest
that unbearable flame----"

"Nay, I mean what is born of the flame, as, in thine ignorance thou dost
call that mighty agent. Look now;" and she pointed to the metallic lump
she had brought with her, which, still gleaming faintly, lay upon the
floor. "Nay, it has no heat. Thinkest thou that I would wish to burn my
tender hands and so make them unsightly? Touch it, Holly."

But I would not, who thought to myself that Ayesha might be well
accustomed to the hottest fires, and feared her impish mischief. I
looked, however, long and earnestly.

"Well, what is it, Holly?"

"Gold," I said, then corrected myself and added, "Copper," for the dull,
red glow might have been that of either metal.

"Nay, nay," she answered, "it is gold, pure gold."

"The ore in this place must be rich," said Leo, incredulously, for I
would not speak any more.

"Yes, my Leo, the iron ore is rich."

"Iron ore?" and he looked at her.

"Surely," she answered, "for from