of the corridor
and he was alone with the lions.

Chapter XIX

The Queen's Story

In the meantime Bertha Kircher was conducted the length of the
plaza toward the largest and most pretentious of the buildings
surrounding it. This edifice covered the entire width of one end
of the plaza. It was several stories in height, the main entrance
being approached by a wide flight of stone steps, the bottom of
which was guarded by enormous stone lions, while at the top there
were two pedestals flanking the entrance and of the same height,
upon each of which was the stone image of a large parrot. As the
girl neared these latter images she saw that the capital of each
column was hewn into the semblance of a human skull upon which
the parrots perched. Above the arched doorway and upon the walls
of the building were the figures of other parrots, of lions, and
of monkeys. Some of these were carved in bas-relief; others were
delineated in mosaics, while still others appeared to have been
painted upon the surface of the wall.

The colorings of the last were apparently much subdued by age
with the result that the general effect was soft and beautiful.
The sculpturing and mosaic work were both finely executed, giving
evidence of a high degree of artistic skill. Unlike the first
building into which she had been conducted, the entrance to which
had been doorless, massive doors closed the entrance which she now
approached. In the niches formed by the columns which supported
the door's arch, and about the base of the pedestals of the stone
parrots, as well as in various other places on the broad stairway,
lolled some score of armed men. The tunics of these were all of a
vivid yellow and upon the breast and back of each was embroidered
the figure of a parrot.

As she was conducted up the stairway one of these yellow-coated
warriors approached and halted her guides at the top of the steps.
Here they exchanged a few words and while they were talking the
girl noticed that he who had halted them, as well as those whom
she could see of his companions, appeared to be, if possible, of
a lower mentality than her original captors.

Their coarse, bristling hair grew so low upon their foreheads as,
in some instances, to almost join their eyebrows, while the irises
were smaller, exposing more of the white of the eyeball.

After a short parley the man in charge of the doorway, for such
he seemed to be, turned and struck upon one of the pa