"It would require centuries to make me forget
that I am a princess, just as centuries were taken up in creating me
what I am. I am no better than you, dear, but--but--you understand?" She
said it so pleadingly, so hopelessly that he understood what it was that
she could not say to him. "We seldom if ever marry the men whom God has
made for us to love."

He lifted her hands to his breast and held them there. "If you will just
go on loving me, I'll some day make you forget you're a princess." She
smiled and shook her head. Her hair gleamed red and bronze in the kindly
light; a soft perfume came up to his nostrils.

* * * * *

The next day three of the native servants became violently ill, seized
by the most appalling convulsions. At first, a thrill of horror ran
through the chateau. The plague! The plague in reality! Faces blanched
white with dread, hearts turned cold and sank like lead; a hundred eyes
looked out to sea with the last gleam of hope in their depths.

But these fears were quickly dissipated. Baillo and the other natives
unhesitatingly announced that the men were not afflicted with the "fatal
sickness." As if to bear out these positive assertions, the sufferers
soon began to mend. By nightfall they were fairly well recovered. The
mysterious seizure, however, was unexplained. Chase alone divined the
cause. He brooded darkly over the prospect that suddenly had presented
itself to his comprehension. Poison! He was sure of it! But who the
poisoner?

All previous perils and all that the future seemed to promise were
forgotten in the startling discovery that came with the fall of night.
The first disclosures were succeeded by a frantic but ineffectual search
throughout the grounds; the chateau was ransacked from top to bottom.

Lady Deppingham and Robert Browne were missing! They had disappeared as
if swallowed by the earth itself!

Neenah, the wife of Selim, was the last of those in the chateau to see
the heirs. When the sun was low in the west, she observed them strolling
leisurely along the outer edge of the moat. They crossed the swift
torrent by the narrow bridge at the base of the cliff and stopped below
the mouth of the cavern which blew its cool breath out upon the hanging
garden. Later on, she saw them climb the staunch ladder and stand in the
black opening, apparently enjoying the cooling wind that came from the
damp bowels of the mountain. Her attention was called el