f courage and honor that the
profession of arms best develops. In the hypocritical priest there was
no redeeming quality. Of the two then she might best choose the
warrior. With him there was a chance--with Lu-don, none. Even the very
process of exchange from one prison to another might offer some
possibility of escape. She weighed all these things and decided, for
Lu-don's quick glance at the thongs had not gone unnoticed nor
uninterpreted by her.

"Warrior," she said, addressing Ja-don, "if you would live enter not
that portion of the room."

Lu-don cast an angry glance upon her. "Silence, slave!" he cried.

"And where lies the danger?" Ja-don asked of Jane, ignoring Lu-don.

The woman pointed to the thongs. "Look," she said, and before the high
priest could prevent she had seized that which controlled the partition
which shot downward separating Lu-don from the warrior and herself.

Ja-don looked inquiringly at her. "He would have tricked me neatly but
for you," he said; "kept me imprisoned there while he secreted you
elsewhere in the mazes of his temple."

"He would have done more than that," replied Jane, as she pulled upon
the other thong. "This releases the fastenings of a trapdoor in the
floor beyond the partition. When you stepped on that you would have
been precipitated into a pit beneath the temple. Lu-don has threatened
me with this fate often. I do not know that he speaks the truth, but he
says that a demon of the temple is imprisoned there--a huge gryf."

"There is a gryf within the temple," said Ja-don. "What with it and the
sacrifices, the priests keep us busy supplying them with prisoners,
though the victims are sometimes those for whom Lu-don has conceived
hatred among our own people. He has had his eyes upon me for a long
time. This would have been his chance but for you. Tell me, woman, why
you warned me. Are we not all equally your jailers and your enemies?"

"None could be more horrible than Lu-don," she replied; "and you have
the appearance of a brave and honorable warrior. I could not hope, for
hope has died and yet there is the possibility that among so many
fighting men, even though they be of another race than mine, there is
one who would accord honorable treatment to a stranger within his
gates--even though she be a woman."

Ja-don looked at her for a long minute. "Ko-tan would make you his
queen," he said. "That he told me himself and surely that were
honorable treatment from one