stioner.

"You may not be aware, Miss Trescott," he began (she was still in
advance, but he hoped to make up the distance), "that this whole shore,
called the Riviera--"

"Let us begin fairly," I said. "What _is_ the Riviera?"

"It is heaven," said Mrs. Clary.

[Illustration: RUE LONGUE BLOCKADED BY AN ARTIST]

"It is the coast of the Gulf of Genoa," said the Professor, "extending
both eastward and westward from the city of that name. On the west it
extends geographically to Nice; but Cannes and Antibes are generally
included. This shore-line, then, has been subject from a very early date
to attacks from the pirates of the Mediterranean, who swept down upon
the coast and carried off as slaves all who came in their way. To
escape the horrors of this slavery the inhabitants chose situations like
this steep hill-side, and crowded their stone dwellings closely together
so that they formed continuous walls, which were often joined also by
arched bridges, like these above us now, and connected by dark and
winding passageways below, so that escape was easy and pursuit
impossible. It was a veritable--"

"Rabbit-warren," suggested Baker.

Inness made no suggestions; he was next to the Professor, and fully
occupied in blocking, with apparent entire unconsciousness, all his
efforts to pass and join Janet.

The Professor, not accepting, however, the rabbit-warren, continued: "As
recently as 1830, Miss Trescott, when the French took possession of
Algiers, they found there thousands of miserable Christian slaves,
natives of this northern shore, who had been seized on the coast or
taken from their fishing-boats at sea. There are men now living in
Mentone who in their youth spent years as slaves in Tunis and Algiers.
These pirates, these scourges of the Mediterranean, were Saracens,
and--"

"Saracens!" said Janet, with an accent of admiration; "what a lovely
word it is! What visions of romance and adventure it brings up,
especially when spelled with two r's, so as to be Sarrasins! It is even
better than Paynim."

I could not see how the Professor took this, because we were now all
entirely in the dark, groping our way along a passage which apparently
led through cellars.

"We are in an _impasse_, or blind passage," called Mrs. Clary from
behind; "we had better go back."

Hearing this, we all retraced our steps--at least, we supposed we did.
But when we reached comparative daylight again we found that Janet,
Inness, and