ard," I ordered. "Be sure you
are properly relieved."

"Right, sir!"

I turned to Correy and Kincaide, who were watching me with curious
eyes. My excitement must have shown upon my face.

"Mr. Hendricks and Liane are at the exit, asking to see me," I
snapped. "They'll be here in a moment. What do you suppose is in the
air?"

"Hendricks?" muttered Correy, his face darkening. "It seems to me he
has a lot of nerve to--"

There was a sharp tap on the door.

"Come!" I ordered quickly. The door opened and Liane, followed by
Hendricks, hurried into the room.

"That will do," I nodded to the guard who had accompanied them. "You
may go."

"You wonder why we're here, I suppose?" demanded Liane. "I'll tell
you, quickly, for every instant is precious."

This was a very different Liane. She was no longer clad in diaphanous
black; she was wearing a tunic similar to the one she had worn on
board the _Ertak_, save that this one was torn and soiled. Her lips,
as she talked, twitched with an insane anger; her amazing eyes were
like those of a cornered beast of the wilderness.

"My council of wise old men turned against me when I told them my
plans to marry the man of my choice. They said he was an outsider, an
enemy, a foreigner. They would have none of him. They demanded that I
give him to the Flame, and marry one of my own kind. They had not, of
course, understood what I had said to you there in the great chapel of
the Flame.

"I defied them. We escaped through a passage which is not known to any
save myself, and the existence of which my father taught me years ago.
We are here, but they will guess where we have gone. My old men are
exciting my people against me--and for that shall all, down to the
last one, know the embrace of the Flame!" She gritted her teeth on the
words, her nostrils distended with rage.

"I--I am safe. I can command them; I can make them know my power, and I
shall. The Flame will have much to feed upon in the days which are to
come, I promise you. But my beloved would not be safe; at this moment I
cannot protect him. So I have brought him back. I--I know he ... but I
will not be weak. I am Liane!"

* * * * *

She faced Hendricks, who had stood there like a graven image, watching
her. Her arms went about his neck; her lips sought his.

"My beloved!" she whispered. "Liane was but a woman, after all.
Darling! Good-by!" She kissed him again, and hurried to the door.