--Zara el-Khala! At any hour my enemies may be
clamoring at my doors. But _this_ hour is mine!"

He moved at his customary slow gait to the table, took up the keys ...
and locked both doors!

Miska, perceiving in this her chance of aid from Chunda Lal utterly
destroyed, sank slowly upon the _diwan,_ her pale face expressing the
utmost consternation. Suppose the police did not come!

Fo-Hi dropped the keys on the table again and approached her. She
stood up, retreating before him. He inhaled sibilantly and paused.

"So your 'acceptance' was only a trick," he said. "Your loathing of
my presence is as strong as ever. Well!" At the word, as a volcano
leaps into life, the hidden fires which burned within this terrible
man leapt up consumingly--"if the gift of the flower is withheld, at
least I will grasp the Dead Sea Fruit!"

He leapt toward Miska--and she fled shrieking before him. Running
around a couch which stood near the centre of the room, she sprang to
the door and beat upon it madly.

"Chunda Lal!" she cried--"Chunda Lal!"

Fo-Hi was close upon her, and she turned striving to elude him.

"Oh, merciful God! _Chunda Lal!"_

The name burst from her lips in a long frenzied scream. Fo-Hi had
seized her!

Grasping her shoulders, he twisted her about so that he could look
into her eyes. A low, shuddering cry, died away, and her gaze became
set, hypnotically, upon Fo-Hi. He raised one hand, fingers
outstretched before her. She swayed slightly.

"Forget!" he said in a deep, guttural voice of command--"forget. I
_will_ it. We stand in an empty world, you and I; you, Miska, and I,
Fo-Hi, your master."

"My master," she whispered mechanically.

"Your lover."

"My lover."

"You give me your life, to do with as I will."

"As you will."

Fo-Hi momentarily raised the blazing eyes.

"Oh, empty shell of a vanished joy!" he cried.

Then, frenziedly grasping Miska by her arms, he glared into her
impassive face.

"Your heart leaps wildly in your breast!" he whispered tenderly.
"Look into my eyes...."

Miska sighed and opened her eyes yet more widely. She shuddered and a
slow smile appeared upon her lips.

The lacquer screen making the window was pushed open and Chunda Lal
leapt in over the edge. As Fo-Hi drew the yielding, hypnotised girl
towards him, Chunda Lal, a gleaming _kukri_ held aloft, ran with a
silent panther step across the floor.

He reached Fo-Hi, drew himself upright; the glittering blade
qu