the banquet and learned it roughly" target="_blank" title="ad.完全地，彻底地">thoroughly, and so was able to thread my

way through its angular mazes without pause or blunder. I, too,
was heavily wearied with what I had gone through since my last

snatch of sleep, but I dare set apart no time for rest just then.
Nais must be sacrificed in part for the needs of Atlantis; but a

plan had come to me by which it seemed that she need not be
sacrificed wholly; and to carry this through there was need for

quick thought and action.
Help came to me also from a quarter I did not expect. As I

passed along the tortuous way between the ponderous stones of the
pyramid, which led to the apartments that had been given me by

Phorenice, a woman glided up out of the shadows of one of the side
passages, and when I lifted my hand lamp, there was Ylga.

She regarded me half-sullenly. "I have lost my place," she
said, "and it seems I need never have spoken. She intended to have

you all along, and it was not a thing like that which could put her
off. And you--you just think me officious, if, indeed, you have

ever given me another thought till now."
"I never forget a kindness."

"Oh, you will learn that trick soon now. And you are going to
marry her, you! The city is ringing with it. I thought at least

you were honest, but when there is a high place to be got by merely
taking a woman with it, you are like the rest. I thought, too,

that you would be one of those men who have a distrust for ruddy
hair. And, besides she is little."

"Ylga," I said, "you have taught me that these walls are full
of crannies and ears. I will listen to no word against Phorenice.

But I would have further converse with you soon. If you still have
a kindness for me, go to the chamber that is mine and wait for me

there. I will join you shortly."
She drooped her eyes. "What do you want of me, Deucalion?"

"I want to say something to you. You will learn who it
concerns later."

"But is it--is it fitting for a maiden to come to a man's room
at this hour?"

"I know little of your conventions here in this new Atlantis.
I am Deucalion, girl, and if you still have qualms, remembering

that, do not come."
She looked up at me with a sneer. "I was foolish," she said.

"My lord's coldness has grown into a proverb, and I should have
remembered it. Yes; I will come."

"Go now, then," said I, and waited till she had passed on ahead
and was out of sight and hearing. With Ylga to help me, my tasks

were somewhat lightened, and their sequence changed. In the
first instance, now, I had got to make my way with as little delay

and show as possible into a certain sanctuary which lay within the
temple of our Lady the Moon. And here my knowledge as one of the

Seven stood me in high favour.
All the temples of the city of Atlantis are in immediate and

secret connection with the royal pyramid, but the passages are
little used, seeing that they are known only to the Seven and to

the Three above them, supposing that there are three men living at
one time sufficientlylearned in the highest of the highest

mysteries to be installed in that sublime degree of the Three.
And, even by these, the secret ways may only be used on occasions

of the greatest stress, so that a generation well may pass without
their being trodden by a human foot.

It was with some trouble, and after no little experiment that
I groped my way into this secret alley; but once there, the rest

was easy. I had never trodden it before certainly, but the plan of
it had been taught me at my initiation as one of the Seven, and the

course of the windings came back to me now with easy accuracy. I
walked quickly, not only because the air in those deep crannies is

always full of lurking evils, but also because the hours were
fleeting, and much must be done before our Lord the Sun again rose

to make another day.
I came to the spy-place which commands the temple, and found

the holy place empty, and, alas! dust-covered, and showing little
trace that worshippers ever frequented it these latter years. A

vast stone of the wall swung outwards and gave me entrance, and
presently (after the solemn prayer which is needful before

attempting these matters), I took the metal stair from the place
where it is kept, and climbed to the lap of the Goddess, and then,

pulling the stair after me, climbed again upwards till my length
lay against her calm mysterious face.

A shivering seized me as I thought of what was intended, for
even a warrior hardened to horrid sights and deeds may well have

qualms when he is called upon to juggle with life and death, and
years and history, with the welfare of his country in one hand, and

the future of a woman who is as life to him in the other. But
again I told myself that the hours flew, and laid hold of the jewel

which is studded into the forehead of the image with one hand, and
then stretching out, thrust at a corner of the eyebrow with the

other. With a faint creak the massive eyeball below, a stone that
I could barely have covered with my back, swung inwards. I stepped

off the stair, and climbed into the gap. Inside was the chamber
which is hollowed from the head of the Goddess.

It was the first time I had seen this most secret place, but
the aspect of it was familiar to me from my teaching, and I knew

where to find the thing which would fill my need. Yet, occupied
though I might be with the stress of what was to befall, I could

not help having a wonder and an admiration for the cleverness with
which it was hidden.

High as I was in the learning and mysteries of the Priestly
Clan, the structure of what I had come to fetch was hidden from me.

Beforetime I had known only of their power and effect; and now that
I came to handle them, I saw only some roughly rounded balls, like

nut kernels, grass green in colour, and in hardness like the wax of
bees. There were three of these balls in the hidden place, and I

took the one that was needful, concealing the others as I had found
them. It may have been a drug, it may have been something more;

what exactly it was I did not know; only of its power and effect I
was sure, as that was set forth plainly in the teaching I had

learned; and so I put it in a pouch of my garment, returning by the
way I had come, and replacing all things in due order behind me.

One look I took at the image of the Goddess before I left the
temple. The jet of earth-breath which burns eternally" target="_blank" title="ad.永久地；不朽地">eternally from the

central altar lit her from head to toe, and threw sparkles from the
great jewel in her forehead. Vast she was, and calm and peaceful

beyond all human imaginings, a perfect symbolism of that rest and
quietness which many sigh for so vainly on this rude earth, but

which they will never attain unless by their piety they earn a
place in the hereafter, where our Lady the Moon and the rest of the

High Ones reign in Their eternalglorious majesty.
It was with tired dragging limbs that I made my way back again

to the royal pyramid, and at last came to my own private chamber.
Ylga awaited me there, though at first I did not see her. The

suspicions of these modern days had taken a deep hold of the girl,
and she must needs crouch in hiding till she made sure it was I who

came to the chamber, and, moreover, that I came alone.
"Oh, frown at me if you choose," said she sullenly, "I am past

caring now for your good opinion. I had heard so much of
Deucalion, and I thought I read honesty in you when first you came

ashore; but now I know that you are no better than the rest.
Phorenice offers you a high place, and you marry her blithely to

get it. And why, indeed, should you not marry her? People say she
is pretty, and I know she can be warm. I have seen her warm and