res to speak to you."

The Shadow Witch lifted her eyes. Before her stood her most faithful
servant, Creeping Shadow.

"What is his message?" the Shadow Witch demanded.

"He declares that it is for your ear alone," the Shadow answered.

Her mistress frowned impatiently. She was in no mood to talk with him.

"He waits at the palace door," continued Creeping Shadow, "and says that
he will remain there until you are pleased to receive him."

"Go, then, and bring him hither," was the reluctant answer. "I will hear
what he has to say."

Creeping Shadow hastened to obey, and presently returned accompanied by
a dwarfed creature, black as the blackest soot and clad in raiment as
dusky as himself. It was the Chief Imp, a trusted messenger of the
Wizard.

The Shadow Witch especially disliked him. He was at times impertinent
when he came on her brother's errands, therefore she held herself
haughtily and folded her robes closer about her when he drew near.

But the Chief Imp bore himself humbly today and his disagreeable face
wore an air of deep distress. He bowed himself to the earth, and waited
permission to speak.

"What says your master?" demanded the Shadow Witch imperiously. "Speak."

"Alas!" groaned the Imp, as if in profound grief, "My master lies in his
cavern sick unto death. He begs that you will come to him, and, by your
magic, restore him to himself."

The Shadow Witch regarded him unmoved. "Has so great a magician as my
brother no magic of his own that will be potent to restore him, that he
must ask aid of mine?" she inquired.

"Nay, madam," replied the Chief Imp, rolling up his eyes, "He has tried
every means within his power and grows no better. He turns to you,
therefore, in his extremity and beseeches you not to refuse him."

Knowing, as she did, the craftiness of her brother, the Shadow Witch
heard his message with distrust. She knew that if he had discovered that
it was by her help that the prince had escaped him and that evil had
been brought upon himself, it would go hard with her once she was in his
power. Therefore, she determined, before she yielded to his request, to
learn from his servant whether or not he suspected her of what she had
done. So she bent a searching gaze upon the Chief Imp and began to
question him.

"Tell me," she commanded, "what is this sickness from which your master
suffers, and what is its cause?"

The Imp hastened to inform her. "A strange prince penetrated the Ca