d in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then
flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it
tenfold.

"Peace, good friends," she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and
nodding toward the raging battle. "Come with me. Both of ye. The day
goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye.
Come quickly, and with caution."

A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered
intensely: "Haste. This is your opportunity."

Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush;
and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she
stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then
gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and
beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own
dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they
crowded in a milling, roaring mass. Then she glided back to the
underbrush and said tersely:

"Come!"

Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each
other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete
whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the
cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And
they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope
predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then
lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the
pirates' long boats lay on the shore abreast of her.

They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe
that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby
lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day
entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a
smile, and they reached the massive plated sliding door and stood
beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness
of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from
beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous
discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the passage
where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall.

Their faces went white, and Dolores gave them a reassuring clasp of the
hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley
and weight mechanism that would give them entry.

"Welcome, frien