he southward, and approaching the inner
valley at right angles to the course of the river and the railway.

The sun had sunk behind the western mountain barrier and the dusk was
gathering when the colonel quickened the pace, and the car topped the
last of the hills in a staccato rush. Ballard heard the low thunder of
the Boiling Water in its upper canyon, and had glimpses of weird shapes
of eroded sandstone looming in huge pillars and fantastic mushroom
figures in the growing darkness.

Then the lights of Castle 'Cadia twinkled in their tree-setting at the
top of the little knoll; the drought-hardened road became a gravelled
carriage-drive under the pneumatic tires; and a final burst of speed
sent the car rocketing to the summit of the knoll through a
maple-shadowed avenue.

The great tree-trunk-pillared portico of the country house was deserted
when the colonel cut out the motor-battery switch at the carriage step.
But a moment later a white-gowned figure appeared in the open doorway,
and the colonel's daughter came to the step, to laugh gayly, and to say:

"Why, Mr. Ballard, I'm astounded! Have you really decided that it is
quite safe to trust yourself in the camp of the enemy?"

Ballard had seen Castle 'Cadia at field-glass range; and he had
Bromley's enthusiastic description of the house of marvels to push
anticipation some little distance along the way to meet the artistic
reality. None the less, the reality came with the shock of the
unexpected.

In the softened light of the shaded electric pendants, the massive
pillars of the portico appeared as single trees standing as they had
grown in the mountain forest. Underfoot the floor was of hewn
tree-trunks; but the house walls, like the pillars, were of logs in the
rough, cunningly matched and fitted to conceal the carpentry.

A man had come to take the automobile, and the colonel paused to call
attention to a needed adjustment of the motor. Ballard made use of the
isolated moment.

"I have accounted for you at last," he said, prolonging the greeting
hand-clasp to the ultimate limit. "I know now what has made you what you
are."

"Really?" she questioned lightly. "And all these years I have been
vainly imagining that I had acquired the manner of the civilized East!
Isn't it pathetic?"

"Very," he agreed quite gravely. "But the pathos is all on my side."

"Meaning that I might let you go and dress for dinner? I shall. Enter
the house of the enemy, Mr. Ball