is levying a private tribute; and so,
judging that most of his goods had been unlawfully come by, I had little
qualm at making a selection. It was not decent that the woman, being
an Atlantean, should go bereft of the dignity of clothes, as though
she were a mere savage from Europe; and so I sought about amongst the
captain's spoil for garments that would be befitting.

But, as I busied myself in this search for raiment, rummaging amongst
the heaps and bales, with a hand and eye little skilled in such
business, I heard a sound behind which caused me to turn my head, and
there was the woman with a dagger she had picked from the floor, in the
act of drawing it from the sheath.

She caught my eye and drew the weapon clear, but seeing that I made no
advance towards her, or move to protect myself, waited where she was,
and presently was took with a shuddering.

"Your designs seem somewhat of a riddle," I said. "At first you
wished to kill me from motives which you explained, and which I quite
understood. It lay in my power next to confer some small benefit
upon you, in consequence of which you are here, and not--shall we
say?--yonder in the circus. Why you should desire now to kill the only
man here who can set you completely free, and beyond these walls, is a
thing it would gratify me much to learn. I say nothing of the trifle of
ingratitude. Gratitude and ingratitude are of little weight here. There
is some far greater in your mind."

She pressed a hand hard against her breasts. "You are Deucalion," she
gasped; "I heard you say it."

"I am Deucalion. So far, I have known no reason to feel shame for my
name."

"And I come of those," she cried, with a rising voice, "who bite against
this city, because they have found their fate too intolerable with the
land as it is ordered now. We heard of your coming from Yucatan. It was
we who sent the fleet to take you at the entrance to the Gulf."

"Your fleet gave us a pretty fight."

"Oh, I know, I know. We had our watchers on the high land who brought us
the tidings. We had an omen even before that. Where we lay with our army
before the walls here, we saw great birds carrying off the slain to the
mountains. But where the fleet failed, I saw a chance where I, a woman,
might--"

"Where you might succeed?" I sat me down on a pile of the captain's
stuffs. It seemed as if here at last that I should find a solution for
many things. "You carry a name?" I asked.

"They call me N