ment played upon his
lips; but as he regarded Elza, I saw another look--of speculation, as
though he were gauging her.

"The Red Woman, Lady Elza. She will preside tonight. You will find
her--very interesting. We will watch her together, you and I."

I did not know then what he meant; but I remembered the words later, and
understood only too well.

Just after sundown, when I chanced to be in a small boat alone, near the
palace, the first of two significant incidents occurred. From the
shadows beneath a house, the head of a swimming man emerged. A _slaan_,
and he gripped the sides of my boat as I drifted.

"Wait, Earth man." He spoke in the quaint universal language, which I
understood, though imperfectly.

I gazed at him. A bullet-like head, with sullen, blazing eyes. He added:
"We do not blame you--or your woman, Elza--or the Princess Maida. Have
no fear, but guard yourself well tonight."

Before I could speak he had sunk into the water, swimming beneath it. I
could see the phosphorescence of his moving body as he swam away into
the shadows beyond my line of vision.

The other incident came a moment later. As I was gazing down into the
water I saw a moving metal shape. A triangular metal head, as of a
diver's cap. More than that, it turned upward; and behind its pane was a
man's face. Unfamiliar to me--yet the face of an Anglo-Saxon man of
Earth! Unmistakable! It stared at me a moment--no more than three or
four feet below my boat. And then it moved away and vanished.

I had no opportunity to speak alone with Elza, or Georg or Maida that
entire evening. Always Tarrano was with us. We sat upon the palace
balcony, we men smoking our arrant-cylinders. Tarrano talked and joked
like a care-free youth. He was very courteous to Elza, with a holiday
spirit upon him. But his eyes never relaxed; and often I could see him
measuring her.

The aural lights mounted the sky. The holiday spirit which was on
Tarrano was spreading everywhere throughout the city. Boats gayly
bedecked--in such contrast to the funeral cortege of poor Wolfgar just
the night before--began passing the palace on their way to the festival
waters. Men and laughing girls thronged them. All with red masks
covering their faces. The men in grey tight-fitting garments, with
conical caps and flowing plumes; the girls in bright-colored, flowing
robes, and tresses dangling with flowers entwined in them.

The balcony upon which we sat was close above the wate