.

The time had been long, and they were now yawning for very weariness,
yet they dared not relax their vigilance, knowing, as they did, that
they would be severely punished by the Wizard if they allowed the Prince
to slip by them unobserved.

At last one of the Imps arose and stretched himself, for his limbs were
cramped and stiff. "I go to spy out over the Plain," he said. "I shall
be absent but a moment."

His companions nodded indifferently, and he strolled slowly toward the
entrance of the cavern. All at once, he stopped, transfixed with
surprise, for at the Cave Mouth he saw for a single instant a richly
glowing figure standing, one who could be no other than the stranger
Prince, he for whom they waited. Scarcely had he seen it, however, than
it disappeared.

He rushed back to his fellows. "The Prince is here!" he whispered
hoarsely. "I saw him at the Cave Mouth. To be sure he has vanished, but
I know he is close by."

The Imps started to their feet, and stood ready, the ropes of darkness
with which they were to bind the Prince clutched firmly in their hands.
But no one appeared, and when they searched the Cave Mouth, they did so
in vain.

Presently they began to scoff at their companion. "Your eyes are wearied
with long watching," they told him. "They have played you false. Come
not to us with such idle tales."

"Nay, but I saw him," the Imp insisted. "Without doubt this Prince has
the power to make himself invisible. Even now he may have slipped past
us unseen. If this be so, and I fail to tell the Wizard what I saw, I
shall surely be punished. I go to warn him."

The others shrugged their shoulders. "Go if you choose," they said. "For
our own part, we think it not impossible that he lurks in some near-by
hiding-place, from whence he steals forth at times, watching his
opportunity to slip in unobserved. He saw you, and has retreated to it.
We will keep close watch as before. He will return, and then we will
secure him. If, on the other hand, he has power to make himself
invisible, and passes us unseen, we are not to blame."

Even as they spoke thus, Prince Ember stood near them, listening to
their words. It was as the first Imp had suspected. On passing into the
Cave of Darkness, he had, by his own power of enchantment, made himself
invisible, and having overheard the watchers talking together, he had
paused, so that the Imp who had seen him might go before him and without
being aware of it, would gu