like a sea, which with terrifying slowness grew more and more
intense.

Ever and again a house crashed down unseen in the gloom, and
added to the tumult. But the great pyramid had been planned by its

old builders to stand rude shocks. Its stones were dovetailed into
one another with a marvellous cleverness, and were further clamped

and joined by ponderous tongues of metal. It was a boast that
one-half the foundations could be dug from beneath it, and still

the pyramid would stand four-square under heaven, more enduring
than the hills.

Flickering torches showed that its great stone doors lay open,
and ever and again I saw some frightened inmatescurry out and then

be lost to sight in the gloom. But with the royal pyramid and its
ultimate fate I had little concern; I did not even care then

whether Phorenice was trapped, or whether she came out sound and
fit for further mischief. I crouched by the granitethrone which

stood in the middle of that splendid square, and heard its stones
grate together like the ends of a broken bone as it rocked to the

earth-waves.
In that night of dust and darkness it was hard to see the

outline of one's own hand, but I think that the Gods in some
requital for the love which had ached so long within me, gave me

special power of sight. As I watched, I saw the great carved rock
which formed the capstone of the throne move slightly and then move

again, and then again; a tiny jerk for each earth-pulse, but still
there was an appreciable shifting; and, moreover, the stone moved

always to one side.
There was method in Zaemon's desperate work, and this in my

blind panic of love and haste, I had overlooked. So I went up the
steps of the throne on the side from which the great capstone was

moving, and clung there afire with expectation.
More and more violent did the earth-swing grow, though the

graduations of its increase could not be perceived, and the din of
falling houses and the shrieks and cries of hurt and frightened

people went louder up into the night. Thicker grew the dust that
filled the air, till one coughed and strangled in the breathing,

and more black did the night become as the dust rose and blotted
the rare stars from sight. I clung to an angle of the granite

throne, crouching on the uppermost step but one below the capstone,
and could scarcely keep my place against the violence of the earth

tremors.
But still the huge capstone that was carved with the snake and

the outstretched hand held my love fast locked in her living tomb,
and I could have bit the cold granite at the impotence which barred

me from her. The people who kept thronging into the square were
mad with terror, but their very numbers made my case more desperate

every moment. "Phorenice, Goddess, aid us now!" some cried, and
when the prayer did not bring them instantrelief, they fell to

yammering out the old confessions of the faith which they had
learned in childhood, turning in this hour of their dreadful need

to those old Gods, which, through so many dishonourable years, they
had spurned and deserted. It was a curious criticism on the

balance of their real religion, if one had cared to make it.
Louder grew the crash of falling masonry; and from the royal

pyramid itself, though indeed I could not even see its outline
through the darkness, there came sounds of grinding stones and

cracking bars of metal which told that even its superb majestic
strength had a breaking strain. There came to my mind the threat

that old Zaemon had thundered forth in that painted, perfumed
banqueting-hall: "You shall see," he had cried to the Empress,

"this royal pyramid which you have polluted with your debaucheries
torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, and scattered as

feathers spread before a wind!"
Still heavier grew the surging of the earth, and the pavement

of the great square gaped and upheaved, and the people who thronged
it screamed still more shrilly as their feet were crushed by the

grinding blocks. And now too the great pyramid itself was
commencing to split, and gape, and topple. The roofs of its

splendid chambers gave way, and the ponderousmasonry above
shuttered down and filled them. In part, too, one could see the

destruction now, and not guess at it merely from the fearful
hearings of the darkness. Thunders had begun to roar through the

black night above, and add their bellowings to this devil's
orchestration of uproar, and vivid lightning splashes lit the

flying dust-clouds.
It was perhaps natural that she should be there, but it came

as a shock when a flare of the lightning showed me Phorenice safe
out in the square, and indeed standing not far from myself.

She had taken her place in the middle of a great flagstone,
and stood there swaying her supple body to the shocks. Her face

was calm, and its loveliness was untouched by the years. From time
to time she brushed away the dust as it settled on the short red

hair which curled about her neck. There was no trace of fear
written upon her face. There was some weariness, some contempt,

and I think a tinge of amusement. Yes, it took more than the
crumbling of her royal pyramid to impress Phorenice with the

infinite powers of those she warred against.
Gods! How the sight of her cool indifference maddened me

then. I had it in me to have strangled her with my hands if she
had come within my reach. But as it was, she stood in her place,

swaying easily to the earth-waves as a sailor sways on a ship's
deck, and beside her, crouched on the same great flagstone, and

overcome with nausea was Ylga, who again was raised to be her
fan-girl. It came to my mind that Ylga was twin sister to Nais,

and that I owed her for an ancient kindness, but I had leisure to
do nothing for her then, and indeed it was little enough I could

have done. With each shock the great capstone of the throne to
which I clung jarred farther and farther from its bed place, and my

love was coming nearer to me. It was she who claimed all my
service then.

Once in their blind panic a knot of the people in the square
thought that the granite stone was too solid to be overturned, and

saw in it an oasis of safety. They flocked towards it, many of
them dragging themselves up the steep deep high steps on hands and

knees because their feet had been injured by the billowing
flagstones of the square.

But I was in no mood to have the place profaned by their silly
tremblings and stares: I beat at them with my hands, tearing them

away, and hurling them back down the steepness of the steps. They
asked me what was my title to the place above their own, and I

answered them with blows and gnashing teeth. I was careless as to
what they thought me or who they thought me. Only I wished them

gone. And so they went, wailing and crying that I was a devil of
the night, for they had no spirit left to defend themselves.

Farther and farther the great stone that made the top of the
throne slid out from its bed, but its slowness of movement maddened

me. A life's education left me in that moment, and I had no trace
of statelypatience left. In my puny fury I thrust at the great

block with my shoulder and head, and clawed at it with my hands
till the muscles rose on me in great ropes and knots, and the High

Gods must have laughed at my helplessness as They looked. All was
being ordered by the Three who were Their trusted servants, in

Their good time. The work of the Gods may be done slowly, but it
is done exceeding sure.

But at last, when all the people of the city were numb with