eight in depth; it was lined and bottomed with flat
paving-stones. A fire of hard-wood had been burning in it for hours, the
preliminary to a gigantic barbecue of fat oxen. Upon the open space in
front of the guard-huts, slaves were erecting long trestle-tables to
serve as the banqueting-board. The day had turned so warm that there
would be no discomfort in dining out-of-doors, for all that the date was
March 22d and the last snow-fall still lay a foot or more in depth in
the side streets. The square itself had been thoroughly cleaned, or it
would have been a veritable sea of slush. Astonishing! but as the sun's
rays became more and more inclined to the vertical, it became apparent
that the day would not only be warm but actually hot.

Constans had grown tired of making his observations at long range; he
resolved to descend and mingle boldly with the people in the square. He
had only Quinton Edge to fear, and it should be easy to keep out of his
way. Moreover, this was a golden chance for him to pick up some intimate
information about the defences of the Citadel Square.

Carefully adjusting the details of his ecclesiastical costume, Constans
prepared to descend. His last act was to cast a perfunctory glance in
the direction of Arcadia House, and it seemed that his eye caught the
flutter of something white. He raised the binoculars--it was true, the
signal was there, a handkerchief tied to the lattice-blind of the cupola
window.

Constans frowned and reflected. It was only last night that the girl had
asserted her entire ability to look after herself--it was like a woman
to be so soon of another mind. And there was Ulick--Ulick who would have
shed the last drop in his veins to serve her. Yet she would have none of
him, and she had deliberately tied Constans's hands in exacting the
promise that he should not reveal her whereabouts to the man who of all
things desired to serve her. There could be no reasoning with this
wilful young person; she would have her way in spite of all the
masculine logic in the world, and he realized the fact with a growing
resentment.

Yet there was his promise and it must be kept. He would go again to
Arcadia House sometime during the afternoon or evening, for the matter
was not one of absolute urgency. In the latter case two signals would
have been displayed, and there was but the one. So, dismissing the
matter from mind for the present, he made his way to the street and
joined with the cr