care to talk with you any longer."

"Won't you forgive me? I'm a poor brute--don't lash me. In two or three
weeks I'll step down and out of your life; that will be penalty enough,
don't you think?"

"For whom?" she asked in a voice so low that he could scarcely hear the
words. Then she laughed ironically. "I _do_ forgive. It is all that a
prince or a princess is ever asked to do, I'm beginning to believe. I
also forgive you for coming into my life."

"If I had been a trifle more intelligent, I should not have come into it
at all," he said. She turned upon him quickly, stung by the remark.

"Is that the way you feel about it?" she asked sharply.

"You don't understand. A man of intelligence would never have kicked
Prince Karl. As a matter of fact, in trying to kick Prince Karl out of
your life, I kicked myself into it. A very simple process, and yet
scarcely intellectual. A jackass could have done as much."

"A jackass may kick at a king," she paraphrased casually. "A cat may
only look at him. But let us go back to realities. Do you mean to tell
me that they--these wretches--would dare to sell me--us, I mean--into
the kind of slavery you mention?" A trace of anxiety deepened the tone
of her voice. She was now keenly alert and no longer trivial.

"Why not?" he asked soberly, arising and coming quite close to her side.
"You are beautiful. If they should take you alive, it would be a very
simple matter for any one of these men to purchase you from the others.
You might easily be kept on this island for the rest of your days, and
the world would be none the wiser. Or you could be sold into Persia, or
Arabia, or Turkey. I am not surprised that you shudder. Forgive me for
alarming you, perhaps needlessly. Nevertheless, it is a thing to
consider. I have learned all of the plans from Selim's wife. They do not
contemplate the connubial traffic, 'tis true, but that would be a
natural consequence. Von Blitz and Rasula mean to destroy all of us. We
are to disappear from the face of the earth. When our friends come to
look for us, we will have died from the plague and our bodies will have
been burned, as they always are in Japat. There will be no one left to
deny the story. All outsiders are to be destroyed--even the Persian and
Turkish women, who hate their liege lords too well. After to-morrow, no
ship is due to put in here for three weeks. They will see to it that
none of us get out to that ship; nor will the ship's officer