may be too
late, I do not know. The gods will permit the possible. But this I
know: the Royal Guard are of the lahnas, on whom the tax to make
good the Hereditary Treasure will fall most heavily. They are filled
with rage against your people--you and the king who is of your
people. I do not know what they will do, but you are not safe for
one moment in the palace. I come to warn you."

Amory's pipe went out. He sat pulling at it abstractedly, trying to
fit together what St. George had told him of the Hereditary Treasure
situation. And more than at any other time since his arrival on the
island his heart leaped up at the prospect of promised adventure.
What if St. George's romantic apostasy were not, after all, to spoil
the flavour of the kind of adventure for which he, Amory, had been
hoping? He leaned eagerly forward.

"What would you suggest?" he said.

Jarvo's eyes brightened. At once he sprang to his feet and stood
before Amory, taking soft steps here and there as he talked, in
movement graceful and tenuous as the greyhound of which he had
reminded St. George.

"In the palace yard," explained the little man rapidly, "is a motor
which came from Melita, bringing guests for the ceremony of
to-night. They will remain in the palace until after the marriage of
the prince, two days hence. But the motor--that must go back
to-night to Melita, adon. I have made for myself permission to take
it there. But you--the three--must go with me. At the tower in the
ilex grove I shall leave you, and I shall return. Is this good?"

"Excellent. But what afterward?" demanded Amory. "Are we all to keep
house in the tower?"

Jarvo shook his head, like a man who has thought of everything.

"Through to-morrow, yes," he said, "but to-morrow night, when the
dark falls--"

He bent forward and spoke softly.

"Did not the adon wish to ascend the mountain?" he asked.

"Rather," said Amory, "but how, good heavens?"

"I and Akko wish to ascend also; the prince has sent us no message,
and we fear him," said Jarvo simply. "There are on the island, adon,
six carriers, trained from birth to make the ascent. They are the
sons of those whose duty it was to ascend, and they the sons for
many generations. The trail is very steep, very perilous. Six were
taught to go up with messages long before the knowledge of the
wireless way, long before the flight of the airships. They are
become a tradition of the island. It is with them that you must
a