At its end we entered a building of which the doorway
was hung with mats, to find that it was lighted with lamps and that
all down its length on either side guards with long spears stood at
intervals.

"Oh, Baas," said Hans hesitatingly, "this is the mouth of a trap," while
Umslopogaas glared about him suspiciously, fingering the handle of his
great axe.

"Be silent," I answered. "All this mountain is a trap, therefore another
does not matter, and we have our pistols."

Walking forward between the double line of guards who stood immovable as
statues, we came to some curtains hung at the end of a long, narrow hall
which, although I know little of such things, were, I noted, made of
rich stuff embroidered in colours and with golden threads. Before these
curtains Billali motioned us to halt.

After a whispered colloquy with someone beyond carried on through the
join of the curtains, he vanished between them, leaving us alone for
five minutes or more. At length they opened and a tall and elegant woman
with an Arab cast of countenance and clad in white robes, appeared and
beckoned to us to enter. She did not speak or answer when I spoke to
her, which was not wonderful as afterwards I discovered that she was a
mute. We went in, I wondering very much what we were going to see.

On the further side of the curtains was a room of no great size
illumined with lamps of which the light fell upon sculptured walls. It
looked to me as though it might once have been the inmost court or a
sanctuary of some temple, for at its head was a dais upon which once
perhaps had stood the shrine or statue of a god. On this dais there was
now a couch and on the couch--a goddess!

There she sat, straight and still, clothed in shining white and veiled,
but with her draperies so arranged that they emphasised rather than
concealed the wonderful elegance of her tall form. From beneath the
veil, which was such as a bride wears, appeared two plaits of glossy,
raven hair of great length, to the end of each of which was suspended a
single large pearl. On either side of her stood a tall woman like to her
who had led us through the curtains, and on his knees in front, but to
the right, knelt Billali.

About this seated personage there was an air of singular majesty, such
as might pervade a queen as fancy paints her, though she had a nobler
figure than any queen I ever saw depicted. Mystery seemed to flow from
her; it clothed her like the veil she wore,