n riding towards
us upon a snow-white steed. As the moonlight touched her spotless robe
and her floating hair, with the pearls which adorned it, she seemed to
us to be more like some vision than a living reality. I had just time to
notice that she now carried the weapon of the tribe over which she had
so long ruled--a bow--and that across her fair shoulders was slung a
quiver of arrows, when a sudden cry rose from the forest, and at the
same moment Hassan exclaimed:--

"Quick, sahibs! The Dhahs are upon us!"

We leapt upon our horses and dashed away from the forest just as a heavy
shower of arrows narrowly missed us. Hassan went on in front, while
Denviers and I galloped on either side of the queen. Glancing back at
the Dhahs I observed that they were massed already upon the margin of
the forest, the flight of their queen having become rapidly known. The
women raised a mournful and appealing cry of entreaty to her to go back
to them, and, glancing at the queen, I saw that her face was wet with
tears. We heard the hoarse shouts of the warrior Dhahs when they found
that their arrows fell short, but they did not dare to pass the limits
of the forest beyond which their strange law forbade them to go. We rode
on for some hours at a rapid rate, then, on nearing the hut of the
Cingalese, Denviers leapt down and succeeded in awaking its sole
occupant, who was induced to vacate it. The queen dismounted and entered
the hut wearied, as we thought, with the long ride, for the dawn had
come before we finished our journey. Hassan secured the horses, and soon
after we were all lying at a little distance from the hut fast asleep in
the shade of some giant ferns.

The morning was far advanced when we awoke, but hour after hour passed
and the door of the hut remained closed. Becoming uneasy, at last I
ventured to open it. The queen had disappeared!

"Denviers!" I shouted. "Come here a minute!" My companion hastened
towards the hut, and was considerably surprised to find it empty.
Glancing round it we saw against one of its thin palm leaf sides an
arrow projecting. Going close to it we found roughly scratched beneath
it a message to us, which said simply:--

"_The Queen of the Dhahs could not rest away from her people and the
forest where lies her dead lover!_" We stared at the writing
incredulously for a minute or two, then a sudden thought occurred to
me:--

"Hassan!" I shouted, "see to the horses." The Arab went slowly to the
s