spectators sat in gloom behind the mirrors. Maida had not come. The
Skylan Director, impatient ordered a woman to go for her.

Then, suddenly, Georg said to this Director:

"I--these lights--this heat. It makes me feel faint--standing here."

Georg had stumbled from the platform. Between two of the mirrors, shaded
from the glare, the perturbed Director met him. Moisture beaded Georg's
forehead.

"I'll--be quite all right in a moment. I'm going over there." He smiled
weakly. A dozen feet away there was an opened outer casement. It looked
down twenty feet, perhaps, to the deep snow that covered the station's
grounds. The Director started with Georg; but Georg pushed him violently
away.

"No! No! You let me alone!" His accents were those of a spoiled child.
The Director hesitated, and Georg, with a hand to his forehead, wavered
toward the casement. The Director saw him standing there; saw him sway,
then fall or jump forward, and disappear.

They rushed outside. The snow was trampled all about with heavy
footprints, but Georg had vanished. From the women's apartment, the
attendant came back. The Princess Maida could not be found!

And in those moments of confusion, from outside across the starlit snow,
an aero was rising. Silent, black--and no one saw it as it winged away
into the night.

CHAPTER XII

_Tara_

I must revert now to those moments in the tower room when Tarrano
dissolved the isolation barrage which Wolfgar had thrown around us.
Georg escaped, as I have recounted. Tarrano--there in the tower
room--rendered me unconscious. I came to myself on the broad divan and
found Elza bending over me.

I sat up, dizzily, with the room reeling.

"Jac! Jac, dear----" She made me lie back, until I could feel the blood
returning to my clammy face; and the room steadied, and the clanging of
the gongs in my ears died away.

"I--why, I'm--all right," I gasped. And I lay there, clinging to her
hand. Dear little Elza! In that moment of relief that I had come to my
senses, she could not hide the love which even now was unspoken between
us. Tarrano! I lay there weak and faint; but with the pressure of Elza's
hand, I did not fear that this Tarrano could win her from me.

Wolfgar was standing across the room from us. He came forward.

"You did not die," he said; and smiled. "I told her you would not die."

It was now morning. Wolfgar and Elza told me I had been unconscious some
hours. We were still imprisoned