Georg and Maida were still there. In the golden light I
could see them quite plainly--could see that Elza was flushed with
suppressed excitement. Not the alcholite fumes now. Georg, too, seemed
very alert. And Maida. There was, indeed, a tenseness about them all--an
air of vague expectancy which made my heart beat faster as I realized
it.

Was Tarrano totally unaware of what was about to happen? Was he unaware
of this hidden, lurking menace to him, which now, to me, was so obvious?
I could not believe that; yet, he was imperturbable, solemn as ever.

A shaft of golden light upon Tarrano. The darkened chamber. The silver
radiance coming down upon us in a shaft from the sky. A hush lay upon
the room. The music had ceased; now it began again, very soft, ethereal.
Everyone in the room was gazing upward. From high overhead in the silver
shaft a shape appeared, slowly floating downward. A woman's figure. It
came down, supported by what mechanical or scientific device I never
knew. It seemed floating unsupported.

Within the pavilion, suspended in mid-air, I saw that it was a woman in
filmy red veils. Poised on tip-toe in the air. Arms outstretched, with
the red veils hanging from them like wings. A woman fully matured. White
hair piled in coils on her head, with a huge, scarlet blossom in it. A
face, somewhat heavy of feature, powdered white; with glowing eyes, dark
lidded; and a scarlet mouth. A face, an expression in the smouldering
eyes, the full lips half parted--a face and an expression that seemed
the very incarnation of all that is sensuous in humans. The Red Woman!
The living symbol of all that lay beneath this festive merry-making.

The Red Woman! For a moment she hovered there before us. A shaft of red
light now came down from above. It caught her, bathed her in its lurid
glow. On her face came a look of triumph, and a leer almost insolent, as
slowly she began fluttering through the air toward Tarrano. He rose to
meet her. Whispered something aside to Elza.

Close before him, the Red Woman hovered. And now a circle-dais from the
floor came up to her. She rested upon it; began a slow, sinuous dance;
one by one loosening the veils; the red light deepening until it painted
her body red in lieu of the draperies.

No frivolous mockery here. Intense, smouldering eyes as she held her
gaze on Tarrano's face and slowly raised her arms in invitation to him.
At her gesture, he rose to his feet. Yet I knew he was not under