ch, but the spirit impelling that form enveloped in soaking garb
was one not long to be brooked by sentiment, and she moved like a
panther carefully forward, and peered through the casement left open to
admit the perfumed air. She gazed anxiously through the opening, and saw
the form of the beautiful Nika sitting on a low chair. The double tablet
of wax lay upon her knees, and in her hand was an ivory point chased
with diamonds. She had just written, and was evidently agitated.

At the sight of this the soul of the woman without was moved to its very
depths, and she longed to behold what was marked on the tablet. The
divining power of her spirit asserted itself, and she knew by the
writer's look that it was a message of importance, and probably one of
love. She waited till Nika had finished it; then the Roman stretched out
her white arms and flung herself back in a deep reverie.

The eyes of the witch Endora were directed steadily on her, and as she
gazed, Nika fell asleep, and her hands drooped listlessly by her side.

Like a snake, Endora glided into the room, reached the sleeping Roman,
then, gently raising the tablet from her knee, she moved as softly and
serpent-like from the room, and stole back by the way she came--back
through the deserted streets, up the hill Pion to her cave.

* * * * *

Once inside, she bolted the rough door, through the chinks of which the
wind moaned.

Lighting her lamp, she stripped off her saturated clothes. Before even
she kindled a fire, she drew out the stolen thing, and, with straining
eyes, read its contents. Then a hellish satisfaction lit up her haggard
face, and she laughed with fiendish glee, murmuring to herself, fearful
of listening ears:

'Ha, ha, ha! My mistress Nika, thou hast a lover. Thou art safe now in
the meshes of the fowler. The measure thou hast meted out to others
shall be measured back to thee again--again, I say. And the house of
Venusta shall sorrow, as they say the Egyptians did for their
first-born. Not only shall they suffer on thine account; their own sins
shall weigh mightily on them. Yea, root and branch shall suffer, and
they shall wither away until not a footfall of theirs be heard, nor an
echo of their voices resound through their marble home. The witch
Endora, like a Cassandra, smells the past, and speaks of evil.

'Day after day, night after night, have I been on the trail, tracked her
like a bloodhound, haunted h