cious thrill as he reflected that if such were
the understanding, there would seem to be no cause for the lovely Ariel
to come thus far out of her way to repeat what Ziffak was sure to
explain before the departure of the explorers.

Ah, it must have been because of her interest in him that she had
sought this perilous stolen interview.

"Well, then," said he mournfully, "I must depart and never see you
again. Death would be preferable to _that_!"

"But you may come back some time," said she in such a tremulous,
hesitating voice, that he impulsively sprang forward and caught her
dainty hand before she could escape him.

"O don't!" she plead like a timid bird, striving to withdraw the
imprisoned fingers which he still held fast.

"Nay, but you must, if I am never to see you again," he exclaimed
vehemently; "O, Ariel, I had hoped that I might stay here until I could
see and talk with you and tell you that I can never, never leave you;
that if I go, you must go with me; I will take you to my home which is
many many long miles away, but I will be your slave; I will love you; I
will make you happy; you shall never sigh for the land and the people
you leave behind you----"

There is no saying when the impetuous lover would have stopped his
wooing in this cyclone-like fashion hut for an alarming interruption.
He had been smitten profoundly, and the urgency of the case impelled
him to an ardor which could not have found expression under any other
conditions; but, all the time the frightened maiden was striving to
free her imprisoned hand, and the lover felt he ought to release it but
could not.

Suddenly she ceased her efforts and looked beyond him with a gasp and
such a startled expression, that he knew some unusual cause had
produced it.

CHAPTER XXV.

ZIFFAK'S BLOW.

Ziffak, head chieftain of the Murhapas, was a shrewder and more
far-seeing man than even his white friends suspected.

He had been the first to observe the significant glances of Fred Ashman
at the hanging curtains, as he was the first to detect the presence of
his beloved niece behind them.

Although King Haffgo saw not the smile which flitted over the face of
his daughter, when her eyes met those of the young American, yet Ziffak
observed it, and he could not have translated it wrongly had he wished
to do so.

An intimation has been given of the nature of the quarrel between
Ziffak and his royal brother. The latter was so infuriated th