mpty chamber. After several
failures to find the stairs they descended to the door they had entered.
Branasko opened it a little, and a breeze came in. They sat down on
the stone, and after a while, in sheer fatigue, they fell asleep. Hours
passed. Branasko rose with a start, and shook Johnston.

"Our speed is lessening," he exclaimed. "We must be going down. Be ready
to jump out the instant we stop. There, let me open the door wider."

Chapter XIV.

When Tradmos spoke the words of warning, Thorndyke put his arm round
the princess and drew her after Tradmos, who was hastening away in the
gloom.

"Wait," she said, drawing back. "Let us not get excited. We are really
as safe here as there; for in their madness they will kill one another
and trample them under foot." She led him to a parapet overlooking the
great court below. "Hear them," she said, in pity, "listen to their
blows and cries. That was a woman's voice, and some man must have struck
her."

"Tell me what is best to do," said the Englishman. "I want to protect
you, but I am helpless; I don't know which way to turn."

"Wait," she said simply, and the Englishman thought she drew closer to
him, as if touched by his words.

There was a crash of timbers--a massive door had fallen--a scrambling
of feet on the stone pavement, and they could see the dark human mass
surging into the court through the corridors leading from the streets.

"What are they doing?" asked Thorn dyke.

She shrank from the parapet as if she had been struck.

"Tearing the pillars down," she replied aghast; "this part of the palace
will fall. Oh, what can be done!"

There was a grinding of stone upon stone, a mad yell from an hundred
throats, the crash of glass, and, with a thunderous sound, a colossal
pillar fell to the earth. The roof beneath the feet of the princess and
Thorndyke trembled and sagged, and the tiling split and showered about
them.

Raising Bernardino in his arms, as if she were an infant, Thorndyke
sprang toward the stairway leading to his chambers, but the roof had
sunken till it was steep and slippery. One instant he was toppling
over backward, the next, by a mighty effort, he had recovered his
equilibrium, and finally managed to reach a safer place. As he hurried
on another pillar went down. The roof sagged lower, and an avalanche of
mortar and tiling slid into the court below. Yells, groans, and cries of
fury rent the air.

Bernardino had fainted. Thorndyk