aken, that the Dweller seized
Throckmartin," I cried. "How, if their wills, their life, were indeed
gone, how did they find each other mid all that horde? How did they
come together in the Dweller's lair?"

"I do not know," she answered, slowly. "You say they loved--and it is
true that love is stronger even than death!"

"One thing I _don't_ understand"--this was Larry again--"is why a girl
like you keeps coming out of the black-haired crowd; so frequently and
one might say, so regularly, Lakla. Aren't there ever any red-headed
boys--and if they are what becomes of them?"

"That, Larry, I cannot answer," she said, very frankly. "There was a
pact of some kind; how made or by whom I know not. But for long the
Murians feared the return of the _Taithu_ and greatly they feared the
Three. Even the Shining One feared those who had created it--for a
time; and not even now is it eager to face them--_that_ I know. Nor are
Yolara and Lugur so _sure_. It may be that the Three commanded it: but
how or why I know not. I only know that it is true--for here am I and
from where else would I have come?"

"From Ireland," said Larry O'Keefe, promptly. "And that's where
you're going. For 'tis no place for a girl like you to have been
brought up--Lakla; what with people like frogs, and a half-god three
quarters devil, and red oceans, an' the only Irish things yourself and
the Silent Ones up there, bless their hearts. It's no place for ye,
and by the soul of St. Patrick, it's out of it soon ye'll be gettin'!"

Larry! Larry! If it had but been true--and I could see Lakla and you
beside me now!

CHAPTER XXXI

Larry and the Frog-Men

Long had been her tale in the telling, and too long, perhaps, have I
been in the repeating--but not every day are the mists rolled away to
reveal undreamed secrets of earth-youth. And I have set it down here,
adding nothing, taking nothing from it; translating liberally, it is
true, but constantly striving, while putting it into idea-forms and
phraseology to be readily understood by my readers, to keep accurately
to the spirit. And this, I must repeat, I have done throughout my
narrative, wherever it has been necessary to record conversation with
the Murians.

Rising, I found I was painfully stiff--as muscle-bound as though I had
actually trudged many miles. Larry, imitating me, gave an involuntary
groan.

"Faith, _mavourneen_," he said to Lakla, relapsing unconsciously into
English, "your road