early triangular in shape, thirty feet
possibly at its greatest width. In one wall were set several
silvery-curtained windows, opening out on to the lake. On the other side
was a broad fireplace and hearth with another archway beside it leading
farther into the house. The walls of the room were lined with small gray
tiles; the floor also was tiled with gray and white, set in design.

On the floor were spread several large rugs, apparently made of grass or
fibre. The walls were bare, except between the windows, where two long,
narrow, heavily embroidered strips of golden cloth were hanging.

In the center of the room stood a circular stone table, its top a highly
polished black slab of stone. This table was set now for a meal, with
golden metal dishes, huge metal goblets of a like color, and beautifully
wrought table utensils, also of gold. Around the table were several
small chairs, made of wicker. In the seat of each lay a padded fiber
cushion, and over the back was hung a small piece of embroidered cloth.

With the exception of these chairs and table, the room was practically
devoid of furniture. Against one wall was a smaller table of stone, with
a few miscellaneous objects on its top, and under each window stood a
small white stone bench.

A fire glowed in the fireplace grate--a fire that burned without flame.
On the hearth before it, reclining on large silvery cushions, was a
woman holding in her hands a small stringed instrument like a tiny harp
or lyre. When the men entered the room she laid her instrument aside and
rose to her feet.

As she stood there for an instant, expectant, with the light of welcome
in her eyes, the three strangers beheld what to them seemed the most
perfect vision of feminine loveliness they had ever seen.

The woman's age was at first glance indeterminate. By her face, her
long, slender, yet well-rounded neck, and the slim curves of her girlish
figure, she might have been hardly more than twenty. Yet in her bearing
there was that indefinable poise and dignity that bespoke the more
mature, older woman.

She was about five feet tall, with a slender, almost fragile, yet
perfectly rounded body. Her dress consisted of a single flowing garment
of light-blue silk, reaching from the shoulders to just above her knees.
It was girdled at the waist by a thick golden cord that hung with golden
tasseled pendants at her side.

A narrower golden cord crossed her breast and shoulders. Her arms, le