ding just around the first turn of the winding stairway,
presently cocked his ears to listen to the conclave being held in the
amphitheatre.

"Why not starve them out, O Holy One?" he heard one of the caciques ask
of the Duca, only to be answered by a growl of negation.

The Duca, Kirby had gathered before this, wanted to fight.

"But there is no food in the tower, is there?" the cacique still pressed
on, and this time he was supported by other voices.

"No," the Duca rumbled back. "But am I to be deprived of my retreat,
left here like a common dog amongst other dogs, while these accursed
fiends starve slowly to death? No! I tell you, you must fight for me!"

* * * * *

But he had told them so several times before and nothing had happened.
Kirby grinned at the thought of the caste the Duca was losing by being
driven to this belittling parley.

"Holy One," exclaimed a new priest in answer to the urge to fight, "what
can we do against the golden haired fiend? The stairs are so narrow that
he could defend them alone. And then there are the gates of bronze. If
we could shatter the first, at the foot of the steps, we should only
encounter others. The Duca must remember that his tower was built to
withstand attack."

"Even so," the Duca snapped back, "it must be attacked! I--"

But then he fell silent, having been made so by the sounds of dissension
which arose amongst his caciques. Kirby, laughing to himself, turned
away from his listening post, and tip-toed up the steps.

After he had closed and bolted behind him three of the bronze portals so
feared by the caciques, he turned to the entrance of the chamber in
which he had left Naida and the others. Here all was silent, and he
found his friends grouped about a couch on which lay Elana. Feeling the
solemnity of the moment, he would have taken his place quietly amongst
the mourners.

Naida, however, came to him at once, and in a low voice asked for news
from the amphitheatre, and when Kirby answered that the caciques were
unanimously in favor of leaving them alone until they starved, she
exclaimed:

"Oh, then it is good news!"

After that, however, a shadow of doubt flickered in her great eyes.

"And yet, is it? It means temporary immunity, of coarse.
But--starvation!"

Kirby assured her with a grin.

"If we had to starve we might worry. But there is more food here than
the Duca thinks. Look!"

* * *