Alpha in a
torrent."

"Surely there is some mistake," she said; "such a thing has never
happened."

"It may have been caused by the explosives during the storm," went on
Thorndyke. "Branasko, the Alphian who was with Johnston, says we are in
imminent peril."

"There must be some mistake," she repeated incredulously, as she looked
to westward. The green glow of the second hour of the afternoon lay
over everything. She stood mute and motionless for a long time,
looking steadily at the horizon; then she started suddenly, changed her
position, and shaded her eyes from the sunlight.

"It really does seem to me that there is a cloud rising, and it is
unlike any cloud I ever saw."

"I see it too!" cried the Englishman; "it must be that the water has
already reached the internal fires."

Bernardino was very pale when she turned to him.

"My father must know this at once; come with me."

Into the palace, through the vast rotunda, past the throne, and into
the very apartment of the king himself she led him hastily. A royal
attendant met them and held up his hands warningly. "The king is
asleep," he said in an undertone.

"Wake him--wake him at once!" commanded the excited girl.

"I cannot, it would offend him," was the reply.

She did not pause an instant, but darting past the man and running to
the king's couch, she drew the curtain aside and touched the sleeper. He
waked in anger, but her first word disarmed him.

"Alpha is in danger."

"What!" he growled, half awake. "The sea is breaking through in the
west, and running into the internal fires."

"How do you know that?"

"A dense cloud is rising in the west, and:----"

"Impossible!" the word came from far down in his throat, and he was
ghastly pale. He ran to the table and touched a button and, to the
astonishment of Thorndyke, the walls on the western side of the room
silently parted, showing a little balcony overlooking the street
below. The king went hastily out and looked toward the west. The others
followed him. The princess stifled a cry of alarm when she glanced at
the sky.

Great black, rolling clouds were rapidly spreading along the horizon.

The king looked at them as helplessly as a frightened child. "The air!"
he groaned. "It is hot!" and then he held out his hand to the princess,
and showed her a flake of soot on it, and he dumbly pointed to others
that were falling about them.

"How did you discover it?" he asked, and Thorndyke saw that