upon the deck of the LADY ALICE.

Before the other members of the little community were apprised of his
presence Tennington and Miss Strong questioned him regarding the other
occupants of the missing boat.

"They are all dead," replied Thuran. "The three sailors died before we
made land. Miss Porter was carried off into the jungle by some wild
animal while I was lying delirious with fever. Clayton died of the
same fever but a few days since. And to think that all this time we
have been separated by but a few miles--scarcely a day's march. It is
terrible!"

How long Jane Porter lay in the darkness of the vault beneath the
temple in the ancient city of Opar she did not know. For a time she
was delirious with fever, but after this passed she commenced slowly to
regain her strength. Every day the woman who brought her food beckoned
to her to arise, but for many days the girl could only shake her head
to indicate that she was too weak.

But eventually she was able to gain her feet, and then to stagger a few
steps by supporting herself with one hand upon the wall. Her captors
now watched her with increasing interest. The day was approaching, and
the victim was gaining in strength.

Presently the day came, and a young woman whom Jane Porter had not seen
before came with several others to her dungeon. Here some sort of
ceremony was performed--that it was of a religious nature the girl was
sure, and so she took new heart, and rejoiced that she had fallen among
people upon whom the refining and softening influences of religion
evidently had fallen. They would treat her humanely--of that she was
now quite sure.

And so when they led her from her dungeon, through long, dark
corridors, and up a flight of concrete steps to a brilliant courtyard,
she went willingly, even gladly--for was she not among the servants of
God? It might be, of course, that their interpretation of the supreme
being differed from her own, but that they owned a god was sufficient
evidence to her that they were kind and good.

But when she saw a stone altar in the center of the courtyard, and
dark-brown stains upon it and the nearby concrete of the floor, she
began to wonder and to doubt. And as they stooped and bound her
ankles, and secured her wrists behind her, her doubts were turned to
fear. A moment later, as she was lifted and placed supine across the
altar's top, hope left her entirely, and she trembled in an agony of
fright.