He shall lead you to wife before
this hour to-morrow."

Again the prisoner moistened her lips. "I will not have Rota, and spare
me the others. I know why you mock me, Phorenice."

"Then there are three of us here who share one knowledge."--She turned
her eyes upon me. Gods! who ever saw the like of Phorenice's eyes, and
who ever saw them lit with such fire as burned within them then?--"My
lord, you are marrying me for policy; I am marrying you for policy, and
for another reason which has grown stronger of late, and which you may
guess at. Do you wish still to carry out the match?"

I looked once at Nais, and then I looked steadily back to Phorenice. The
command given by the mouth of Zaemon from the High Council of the Sacred
Mountain had to outweigh all else, and I answered that such was my
desire.

"Then," said she, glowering at me with her eyes, "you shall build me up
the pretty body of Nais beneath a throne of granite as a wedding gift.
And you shall do it too with your own proper hands, my Deucalion, whilst
I watch your devotion."

And to Nais she turned with a cruel smile. "You lied to me, my girl,
and you spoke truth to the soldiers in the harbour forts. There is a man
here in the city you came after, and he is the one man you may not have.
Because you know me well, and my methods very thoroughly, your love for
him must be very deep, or you would not have come. And so, being here,
you shall be put beyond mischief's reach. I am not one of those who see
luxury in fostering rivals.

"You came for attention at the hands of Deucalion. By my face! you shall
have it. I will watch myself whilst he builds you up living."

11. AN AFFAIR WITH THE BARBAROUS FISHERS

So this mighty Empress chose to be jealous of a mere woman prisoner!

Now my mind has been trained to work with a soldierly quickness in these
moments of stress, and I decided on my proper course on the instant the
words had left her lips. I was sacrificing myself for Atlantis by
order of the High Council of the Priests, and, if needful, Nais must
be sacrificed also, although in the same flash a scheme came to me for
saving her.

So I bowed gravely before the Empress, and said I, "In this, and in all
other things where a mere human hand is potent, I will carry out your
wishes, Phorenice." And she on her part patted my arm, and fresh waves
of feeling welled up from the depths of her wondrous eyes. Surely the
Gods won for her half her schemes an