inhabitant was fixed on the
threatening horizon. Rapidly the scenes shifted at the king's will, till
a hundred cities, towns and villages had been reviewed.

"Enough! They are all ready--all faithful," groaned the king, "and,
Ornethelo, they may all have to perish to-day, and all for our ambition.
Poor mortals!"

Ornethelo's face was half submerged in the beard on his breast, but he
looked up suddenly and spoke:

"For their sakes, then, we ought not to delay; there may yet be hope."

"You are right, Ornethelo." There was a ring of hope in the voice of the
king. "Quick! show me my capitol, that I may see if all the protectors
are ready."

Ornethelo touched another button, and, as if seen from a great height,
the fair and wondrous city dawned before the eyes of the spectators.
In every street policemen and protectors and flying-machines stood
in orderly readiness. The housetops were colored with the variegated
costumes of men, women and children. Over all lay the wondrous sunlight,
through the green splendor of which the flakes of soot were falling like
black snow.

The king touched the old man's arm. "I must see beyond the walls; are
the connections made?"

"Ready, sir."

"Try them; they must not fail me now!"

The old man tremblingly unlocked a cabinet on the table, and another row
of electric buttons was displayed. Ornethelo touched one. Immediately
there was a sharp clicking sound under the stand, and the view was swept
from the mirror. Nothing could be seen but a dark suggestion of towering
cliffs and yawning caverns.

"Not the east, Ornethelo," cried the king impatiently. "Go on! the west!
the west!"

The black landscape flashed by like a glimpse of night from a flying
train, and then a blur of redly illuminated smoke in rolling billows
seemed to swell out from the surface of the mirror into the room.

"There, slow!" cried the king, and then a frightful scene burst upon
their sight. They beheld a great belching pit of fire and flames. The
sky from the earth to the zenith was a vast expanse of illuminated
smoke, and the black landscape round about was cut by rivulets of molten
lava rolling on and on like restless streams of quicksilver.

The king leaned against the stand as if faint with despair. "Call Prince
Arthur!" he ordered, and almost at that instant the young man appeared.

"Father!"

The king pointed a quivering finger at the mirror, and said huskily:

"Let not the sun go down! Let its l