maiden's modesty. I will die as you choose, but I will not do

this indecency."
"Well, I am a maiden too, and though because I am Empress

also, questions of State have to stand before questions of my
private modesty, I can have a sympathy for yours--although in truth

it did not obtrude unduly when you were my fan-girl, Nais. No,
come to think of it, you liked a tender glance and a pretty phrase

as well as any when you were fan-girl. You have grown wild and
shy, amongst these savage rebels, but I will not punish you for

that.
"Let me call your favourites to memory now. There was Tarca,

of course, but Tarca had a difference with that ill-dressed father
of yours, and wears a leprosy on half his face instead of that

beard he used to trim so finely. And then there is Tatho, but
Tatho is away overseas. Eron, too, you liked once, but be lost an

arm in fighting t'other day, and I would not marry you to less than
a whole man. Ah, by my face! I have it, the dainty exquisite,

Rota! He is the husband! How well I remember the way he used to
dress in a change of garb each day to catch your proud fancy, girl.

Well, you shall have Rota. He shall lead you to wife before this
hour to-morrow."

Again the prisoner moistened her lips. "I will not have Rota,
and spare me the others. I know why you mock me, Phorenice."

"Then there are three of us here who share one
knowledge."--She turned her eyes upon me. Gods! who ever saw the

like of Phorenice's eyes, and who ever saw them lit with such fire
as burned within them then?--"My lord, you are marrying me for

policy; I am marrying you for policy, and for another reason which
has grown stronger of late, and which you may guess at. Do you

wish still to carry out the match?"
I looked once at Nais, and then I looked steadily back to

Phorenice. The command given by the mouth of Zaemon from the High
Council of the Sacred Mountain had to outweigh all else, and I

answered that such was my desire.
"Then," said she, glowering at me with her eyes, "you shall

build me up the pretty body of Nais beneath a throne of granite as
a wedding gift. And you shall do it too with your own proper

hands, my Deucalion, whilst I watch your devotion."
And to Nais she turned with a cruel smile. "You lied to me,

my girl, and you spoke truth to the soldiers in the harbour forts.
There is a man here in the city you came after, and he is the one

man you may not have. Because you know me well, and my methods
very thoroughly, your love for him must be very deep, or you would

not have come. And so, being here, you shall be put beyond
mischief's reach. I am not one of those who see luxury in

fostering rivals.
"You came for attention at the hands of Deucalion. By my face!

you shall have it. I will watch myself whilst he builds you up
living."

11. AN AFFAIR WITH THE
BARBAROUS FISHERS

So this mighty Empress chose to be jealous of a mere woman
prisoner!

Now my mind has been trained to work with a soldierly
quickness in these moments of stress, and I decided on my proper

course on the instant the words had left her lips. I was
sacrificing myself for Atlantis by order of the High Council of the

Priests, and, if needful, Nais must be sacrificed also, although in
the same flash a scheme came to me for saving her.

So I bowed gravely before the Empress, and said I, "In this,
and in all other things where a mere human hand is potent, I will

carry out your wishes, Phorenice." And she on her part patted my
arm, and fresh waves of feeling welled up from the depths of her

wondrous eyes. Surely the Gods won for her half her schemes and
half her battles when they gave Phorenice her shape, and her voice,

and the matters which lay within the outlines of her face.
By this time the merchants, and the other dwellers adjacent to

this part of the harbour, where the royal quay stands, had come
down, offering changes of raiment, and houses to retire into.

Phorenice was all graciousness, and though it was little enough I
cared for mere wetness of my coat, still that part of the harbour

into which we had been thrown by the mammoth was not over savoury,
and I was glad enough to follow her example. For myself, I said no

further word to Nais, and refrained even from giving her a glance
of farewell. But a small sop like this was no meal for Phorenice,

and she gave the port-captain strict orders for the guarding of his
prisoner before she left him.

At the house into which I was ushered they gave me a bath, and
I eased my host of the plainest garment in his store, and he was

pleased enough at getting off so cheaply. But I had an hour to
spend outside on the pavement listening to the distant din of

bombardment before Phorenice came out to me again, and I could not
help feeling some grim amusement at the face of the merchant who

followed. The fellow was clearly ruined. He had a store of jewels
and gauds of the most costly kind, which were only in fraction his

own, seeing that he had bought them (as the custom is) in
partnership with other merchants. These had pleased Phorenice's

eye, and so she had taken all and disposed them on her person.
"Are they not pretty?" said she, showing them to me. "See how

they flash under the sun. I am quite glad now, Deucalion, that the
mammoth gave us that furious ride and that spill, since it has

brought me such a bonny present. You may tell the fellow here that
some day when he has earned some more, I will come and be his guest

again. Ah! They have brought us litters, I see. Well, send one
away and do you share mine with me, sir. We must play at being

lovers to-day, even if love is a matter which will come to us both
with more certainty to-morrow. No; do not order more bearers. My

own slaves will carry us handily enough. I am glad you are not one
of your gross, overfed men, Deucalion. I am small and slim myself,

and I do not want to be husbanded by a man who will overshadow me."
"Back to the royal pyramid?" I asked.

"No, nor to the walls. I neither wish to fight nor to sit as
Empress to-day, sir. As I have told you before, it is my whim to

be Phorenice, the maiden, for a few hours, and if some one I wot of
would woo me now, as other maidens are wooed, I should esteem it a

luxury. Bid the slaves carry us round the harbour's rim, and give
word to these starers that, if they follow, I will call down fire

upon them as I did upon the sacrifice."
Now, I had seen something of the unruliness of the streets

myself, and I had gathered a hint also from the officer at the gate
of the royal pyramid that night of Phorenice's welcoming banquet.

But as whatever there was in the matter must be common knowledge to
the Empress, I did not bring it to her memory then. So I dismissed

the guard which had come up, and drove away with a few sharp words
the throng of gaping sightseers who always, silly creatures, must

needs come to stare at their betters; and then I sat in the litter
in the place where I was invited, and the bearers put their heads

to the pole.
They swung away with us along the wide pavement which runs

between the houses of the merchants and the mariner folk and the
dimpling waters of the harbour, and I thought somewhat sadly of the

few ships that floated on that splendid basin now, and of the few
evidences of business that showed themselves on the quays. Time

was when the ships were berthed so close that many had to wait in
the estuary outside the walls, and memorials had been sent to the

King that the port should be doubled in size to hold the glut of
trade. And that, too, in the old days of oar and sail, when

machines drawing power from our Lord the Sun were but rarely used