iescence, but smiled.

"When thou hast witnessed how the Naya ruleth her subjects, perhaps thou
wilt not so readily defend her," one of the Governors observed. "Our
ruler is not so just nor so merciful as when thou wert last in Mo. Go,
let Goliba take thee in secret among the people, and only when we next
meet decide the point."

"I will never allow the Naya to fall beneath the blade or poison-cup of
the assassin," Omar said decisively. "A Sanom departeth not from the word
he hath uttered."

After some further discussion this horrible detail of the conspiracy was
dropped, and other matters arranged with a coolness that utterly
astounded me.

We were plotting to obtain a kingdom!

CHAPTER XXII.

TO THE UNKNOWN.

WHEN, with elaborate genuflections and vows of allegiance, the governors
of the six principal provinces of the mystic Kingdom had taken leave of
Omar, we remained in consultation with the old sage for upwards of
another hour. He told us many horrible stories of the Naya's fierce and
unrelenting cruelty. It seemed as though during the later years of her
reign she had been seized by an insane desire to cause just as much
misery and suffering as her predecessors on the Emerald Throne had
promoted prosperity and happiness. In every particular her temperament
was exactly opposite to the first Naya, the good queen whose memory had,
through a thousand years, been revered as that of a goddess.

Goliba explained how, during the past three years, the Great White Queen
had suddenly become highly superstitious. This was not surprising, for as
far as I could gather the people of Mo had no religion as we understand
the term, but their minds were nevertheless filled with ideas relating to
supernatural objects, by which they sought to explain the phenomena about
them of which the causes were not immediately obvious. He told us that
the Naya, preying upon the superstitions of the people, had recently
introduced into the country, entirely against the advice of himself and
his fellow-councillors, a number of customs, all of which were apparently
devised to cause death. He told us that if a great man died his friends
never now remained content with the explanation that he died from natural
causes. Their minds flew at once to witchcraft. Some one had cast an evil
spell upon him, and it was the duty of the friends of the dead man to
discover who it was that had had dealings with the powers of darkness.
Suspicion fell