overcome at last, sank on to a bench in silence.
Leo rose, looking about him bewildered, and said in the strained voice
of one who is weak with much suffering--"But just in time, Ayesha.
Another second, and that murderous dog"--and he pointed to the
Shaman--"well, it was in time. But how went the battle, and how earnest
thou here through that awful hurricane? And, oh, Horace, thank heaven
they did not kill you after all!"

"The battle went ill for some," Ayesha answered, "and I came not through
the hurricane, but on its wings. Tell me now, what has befallen thee
since we parted?"

"Trapped, overpowered, bound, brought here, told that I must write to
thee and stop thy advance, or die--refused, of course, and then----" and
he glanced at the dead body on the floor.

"And then?" repeated Ayesha.

"Then that fearful tempest, which seemed to drive me mad. Oh! if thou
couldst have heard the wind howling round these battlements, tearing
off their stones as though they were dry leaves; if thou hadst seen the
lightnings falling thick and fast as rain----"

"They were my messengers. I sent them to save thee," said Ayesha simply.

Leo stared at her, making no comment, but after a pause, as though he
were thinking the matter over, he went on--"Atene said as much, but I
did not believe her. I thought the end of the world had come, that was
all. Well, she returned just now more mad even than I was, and told me
that her people were destroyed and that she could not fight against the
strength of hell, but that she could send me thither, and took a knife
to kill me.

"I said, 'Kill on,' for I knew that wherever I went thou wouldst follow,
and I was sick with the loss of blood from some hurt I had in that
struggle, and weary of it all. So I shut my eyes waiting for the stroke,
but instead I felt her lips pressed upon my forehead, and heard her
say--"'Nay, I will not do it. Fare thee well; fulfil thou thine own
destiny, as I fulfil mine. For this cast the dice have fallen against
me; elsewhere it may be otherwise. I go to load them if I may.'

"I opened my eyes and looked. There Atene stood, a glass in her
hand--see, it lies beside her.

"'Defeated, yet I win,' she cried, 'for I do but pass before thee to
prepare the path that thou shalt tread, and to make ready thy place in
the Under-world. Till we meet again I pledge thee, for I am destroyed.
Ayesha's horsemen are in my streets, and, clothed in lightnings at their
head, rides