ve saved Ruth anyway," he said. "Drake ought to be able to hold that
hole in the wall. He's got lots of ammunition on the pony. But they've
got us."

Another wild shouting; down swept the pack.

We leaped to our feet, sent our last bullets into them; stood ready,
rifles clubbed to meet the rush. I heard Ruth scream--

What was the matter with the armored men? Why had they halted? What was
it at which they were glaring over our heads? And why had the rifle fire
of Ruth and Drake ceased so abruptly?

Simultaneously we turned.

Within the black background of the fissure stood a shape, an apparition,
a woman--beautiful, awesome, incredible!

She was tall, standing there swathed from chin to feet in clinging veils
of pale amber, she seemed taller even than tall Drake. Yet it was not
her height that sent through me the thrill of awe, of half incredulous
terror which, relaxing my grip, let my smoking rifle drop to earth; nor
was it that about her proud head a cloud of shining tresses swirled
and pennoned like a misty banner of woven copper flames--no, nor that
through her veils her body gleamed faint radiance.

It was her eyes--her great, wide eyes whose clear depths were like
pools of living star fires. They shone from her white face--not
phosphorescent, not merely lucent and light reflecting, but as though
they themselves were SOURCES of the cold white flames of far stars--and
as calm as those stars themselves.

And in that face, although as yet I could distinguish nothing but the
eyes, I sensed something unearthly.

"God!" whispered Ventnor. "What IS she?"

The woman stepped from the crevice. Not fifty feet from her were Ruth
and Drake and Chiu-Ming, their rigid attitudes revealing the same shock
of awe that had momentarily paralyzed me.

She looked at them, beckoned them. I saw the two walk toward her,
Chiu-Ming hang back. The great eyes fell upon Ventnor and myself. She
raised a hand, motioned us to approach.

I turned. There stood the host that had poured down the mountain road,
horsemen, spearsmen, pikemen--a full thousand of them. At my right were
the scattered company that had come from the tunnel entrance, threescore
or more.

There seemed a spell upon them. They stood in silence, like automatons,
only their fiercely staring eyes showing that they were alive.

"Quick," breathed Ventnor.

We ran toward her who had checked death even while its jaws were closing
upon us.

Before we had gone half-way