that of a dead man.

Yes, I believe that last speech of hers, although she knew it not, was
addressed to his spirit, for in her burning kiss his flesh had perished.

When at length I recovered myself a little, it was to hear Ayesha in
a cold, calm voice--her face I could not see for she had veiled
herself--commanding certain priests who had been summoned to "bear away
the body of that accursed woman and bury her as befits her rank." Even
then I bethought me, I remember, of the tale of Jehu and Jezebel.

Leo, looking strangely calm and happy, lay now upon a couch, the arms
folded on his breast. When the priests had tramped away carrying their
royal burden, Ayesha, who sat by his body brooding, seemed to awake, for
she rose and said--"I need a messenger, and for no common journey,
since he must search out the habitations of the Shades," and she turned
herself towards Oros and appeared to look at him.

Now for the first time I saw that priest change countenance a little,
for the eternal smile, of which even this scene had not quite rid it,
left his face and he grew pale and trembled.

"Thou art afraid," she said contemptuously. "Be at rest, Oros, I will
not send one who is afraid. Holly, wilt thou go for me--and him?"

"Aye," I answered. "I am weary of life and desire no other end. Only let
it be swift and painless."

She mused a while, then said--"Nay, thy time is not yet, thou still hast
work to do. Endure, my Holly, 'tis only for a breath."

Then she looked at the Shaman, the man turned to stone who all this
while had stood there as a statue stands, and cried--"Awake!"

Instantly he seemed to thaw into life, his limbs relaxed, his breast
heaved, he was as he had always been: ancient, gnarled, malevolent.

"I hear thee, mistress," he said, bowing as a man bows to the power that
he hates.

"Thou seest, Simbri," and she waved her hand.

"I see. Things have befallen as Atene and I foretold, have they not?
'Ere long the corpse of a new-crowned Khan of Kaloon,'" and he pointed
to the gold circlet that Ayesha had set on Leo's brow, "'will lie upon
the brink of the Pit of Flame'--as I foretold." An evil smile crept into
his eyes and he went on--"Hadst thou not smote me dumb, I who watched
could have warned thee that they would so befall; but, great mistress,
it pleased thee to smite me dumb. And so it seems, O Hes, that thou hast
overshot thyself and liest broken at the foot of that pinnacle which
step by step thou