nsequences to one of you
ladies. And you can observe everything almost as well from below.
Permit me. Come along, little sweetheart,"--to Ida--"let us go below,
and watch what happens from the cabin windows. Mildmay, do you see our
old friends, the black troop of horsemen, yonder? I am taking Lady
Olivia and Ida below, out of harm's way."

And, so saying, he conducted his charges down into the dining-saloon,
and placed them at one of the ports--the thick glass window of which he
closed--while Mildmay followed with Mlle. Sziszkinski. But, as it
turned out, the precaution was needless, for presently, as the ship
swept past, above and between the two bodies of native horsemen, the
latter, instead of greeting the strange visitant with a shower of
arrows, as before, straightened themselves on their horses, and, at a
signal from their leader, raised their right arms above their heads in
salute, and shouted in deep-chested unison the single word--

"_Bietu_!"

Then, at another signal, they wheeled right and left, as one man, and,
at a break-neck gallop, dashed along on either side of the ship, forming
a kind of escort, or guard of honour, as long as they could keep pace
with her.

The sun was within an hour of setting when the hilly country over which
the _Flying Fish_ was sweeping gave place to a wide-stretching level
plain, grass-grown, with here and there an occasional isolated clump of
bush, a small grove of graceful palms, an irregular patch of tall,
feathery bamboos, an acre or so of wild plantains, and, further on,
occasional fields of maize or sugarcane. A faint blue level streak on
the far eastern horizon indicated their close proximity to the sea,
while certain shapeless irregularities that began to show up against
that narrow streak of blue insensibly resolved themselves, as the ship
sped onward, into a vast assemblage of enormous columns, isolated and in
groups, some still upreared and perpendicular, others prostrate and
broken, the remains of great temples and other buildings, that, judging
from the elaborate and splendid carved work of the ruined entablatures,
fallen capitals, crumbling arches, massive cornices, and mutilated
statues, must, long ages ago, have formed part of a city of
extraordinary extent and magnificence. The _Flying Fish_ came to earth
on, as von Schalckenberg asserted, the identical spot upon which she had
rested on the occasion of their former visit, in the very midst of the
vast