ting
in the forests as though they had never heard of the horrors of war,
and had no part or share in the Titanic strife whose final issue they
would soon have to go forth and decide.

One of the hardest workers in the colony was the Admiral of the
aerial fleet. Morning after morning he shut himself up in his
laboratory for three or four hours experimenting with explosives of
various kinds, and especially on a new form of fire-shell which he
had invented, and which he was now busy perfecting in preparation for
the next, and, as he hoped, final conflict that he would have to wage
with the forces of despotism and barbarism.

The afternoons he spent supervising the erection of the mills, and
the construction of new machinery, and in exploring the mountain
sides in search of mineral wealth, of which he was delighted to find
abundant promise that was afterwards realised beyond his
expectations.

On these exploring expeditions he was frequently accompanied by
Natasha and Radna and her husband. Sometimes Arnold would be enticed
away from his chemicals, and his designs on the lives of his enemies,
and after breakfasting soon after sunrise would go off for a long
day's ramble to some unknown part of their wonderful domain, in
which, like children in a fairyland, they were always discovering
some new wonders and beauties. And, indeed, no children could have
been happier or freer from care than they were during this delightful
interval in the tragedy in which they were so soon to play such
conspicuous parts. The two wedded lovers, with the dark past put far
behind them for ever, found perfect happiness in each other's
society, and so left, it is almost needless to add, Arnold and
Natasha pretty much to their own devices. Indeed, Natasha had more
than once declared that she would have to get the Princess to join
the party, as Radna had proved herself a hopeless failure as a
chaperone.

Every one in the valley by this time looked upon Arnold and Natasha
as lovers, though their rank in the Brotherhood was so high that no
one ventured to speak of them as betrothed save by implication. How
Natas regarded them was known only to himself. He, of course, saw
their intimacy, and since he said nothing he doubtless looked upon it
with approval; but whether he regarded it as an intimacy of friends
or of lovers, remained a mystery even to Natasha herself, for he
never by any chance made an allusion to it.

As for Arnold, he had scrupulo