your arms about me and bear
me whither you will. You have conquered me, king Ithobal! Henceforward
these lips of mine are yours and no other man's. Give the signal, I pray
you, and I will cast aside the dagger and the poison and come out living
from this tomb."

Aziel hung in his cage over the abyss of air, awaiting death, and glad
to die, because now he was sure that Elissa had refused to purchase his
life at the expense of her own surrender. There he hung, dizzy and sick
at heart, making his prayer to heaven and waiting the end, while the
eagles that would prey upon his shattered flesh swept past him.

Presently, from the opposing cliff, came the sound of a horn blown
thrice. Then, while Aziel wondered what this might mean, the cage in
which he lay was drawn in gently over the edge of the precipice, and
carried down the steeps of the granite hill as it had been carried up
them.

At the foot of the hill its covering was torn aside, and he saw before
him a caravan of camels, and seated on each camel a comrade of his own.
But one camel had no rider, and Metem led it by a rope.

The servants of Ithobal took him from the cage and set him upon this
camel, though they did not loosen the bonds about the wrists.

"This is the command of the king," said the captain to Metem "that the
arms of the prince Aziel shall remain bound until you have travelled for
six hours. Begone in safety, fearing nothing."

*****

"What happens now, Metem," asked Aziel, as the camels strode forward,
"and why am I set free who was expecting death? Is this some new
artifice of yours, or has the lady Elissa----" and he ceased.

"Upon the word of an honest merchant I cannot tell you, Prince.
Yesterday, as I was forced, I gave the message of king Ithobal to the
lady Elissa yonder in the tomb. She would answer me only one thing,
which she whispered in my ear through the bars of the holy tomb; that if
we could escape we should do so, moreover that you must have no fear for
her since she also had found a means of escape from Ithobal, and would
certainly join us upon the road."

As Metem spoke, the camels passed round the little hill on to the path
that ran beneath the tomb of Baaltis. There, standing upon the rock
some fifty feet above them, was Elissa, and with her, but at a distance,
Ithobal the king.

"Halt, prince Aziel," she called in a clear voice, "and hearken to my
farewell. I have bought your life, and the lives of your companions, and