ais."

"Ah," I said, and signed to her to take the clothes that I had sought
out. She was curiously like, so both my eyes and hearing said, to Ylga,
the fan-girl of Phorenice, but as she had told me of no parentage I
asked for none then. Still her talk alone let me know that she was bred
of none of the common people, and I made up my mind towards definite
understanding. "Nais," I said, "you wish to kill me. At the same time I
have no doubt you wish to live on yourself, if only to get credit from
your people for what you have done. So here I will make a contract with
you. Prove to me that my death is for Atlantis' good, and I swear by our
Lord the Sun to go out with you beyond the walls, where you can stab me
and then get you gone. Or the--"

"I will not be your slave."

"I do not ask you for service. Or else, I wished to say, I shall live
so long as the High Gods wish, and do my poor best for this country. And
for you--I shall set you free to do your best also. So now, I pray you,
speak."

7. THE BITERS OF THE WALLS (FURTHER ACCOUNT)

"You will set me free," she said, regarding me from under her brows,
"without any further exactions or treaty?"

"I will set you free exactly on those terms," I answered, "unless indeed
we here decide that it is better for Atlantis that I should die, in
which case the freedom will be of your own taking."

"My lord plays a bold game."

"Tut, tut," I said.

"But I shall not hesitate to take the full of my bond, unless my
theories are most clearly disproved to me."

"Tut," I said, "you women, how you can play out the time needlessly.
Show me sufficient cause, and you shall kill me where and how you
please. Come, begin the accusation."

"You are a tyrant."

"At least I have not paraded my tyrannies in Atlantis these twenty
years. Why, Nais, I did but land yesterday."

"You will not deny you came back from Yucatan for a purpose."

"I came back because I was sent for. The Empress gives no reasons for
her recalls. She states her will; and we who serve her obey without
question."

"Pah, I know that old dogma."

"If you discredit my poor honesty at the outset like this, I fear we
shall not get far with our unravelling."

"My lord must be indeed simple," said this strange woman scornfully, "if
he is ignorant of what all Atlantis knows."

"Then simple you must write me down. Over yonder in Yucatan we were too
well wrapped up in our own parochial needs and policies to h