of strange beauty and violent passions
strongly withheld, nooks and crannies of mysterious, unreadable thought
far beyond his understanding to interpret. His senses turned away from
the inner mysterious glory of her mind, and his eyes came to rest on her
lips, crimson arches riper than tropic flowers, moist as with desire,
wide and capable and smiling upon him with a woman's will to captivate
twinkling all along the crimson outline of her smile. Behind her lips
her teeth gleamed, almost avid, parted in a hunger that he did not then
care to understand. Her breasts were ripe and full, beneath the blue,
shielding robe, her waist a column of cunningly tapered ivory rounding
into hips and thighs of masterful curves, moving with mysterious woman
magic beneath the vaguely transparent shimmer of her robe.

Druga stared into the blue lagoons of her eyes, and at last asked what
was closest to his heart.

"Who and what are you, who lives here at the summit of female attraction
in all the universe?"

"In ancient times, many were the men who were alive enough to sense this
pole and come questing to me as the moth to the flame. But in these
times, who are you to sense the mighty energy of the Universal Pole and
be drawn here to me?"

"I am Druga, and I am sad and bereft, and I wander seeking death as much
as life. If the name tells you anything, you are welcome to the
information. I am no immortal. Are you then one of those who do not
die?"

"I have been called by many names in the past, but men sometimes
remember me as Aurora. Others have called me Eos."

"A fool is easily convinced, immortal Eos. But though I have not lived
long, I have learned that appearances are deceiving and not to be
trusted. How do I know that I am not out of my mind, and this place and
yourself but delusions?"

"You _are_ in a state, aren't you? You must tell me all about it; there
will be plenty of time. For there is no way for a man to leave here of
his own will."

"What became of all those visitors you tell me came here in the old
time?"

Eos laughed loudly, a clear ringing laugh.

"Perhaps you had better worry about that, Druga! What do you suppose
could have happened to them?"

CHAPTER II

Eos led him into a great feasting chamber, and Druga saw there a great
host of men sitting, as to a feast, side by side.

Each one of them was of solid black stone. The fact struck Druga's mind
with a terrible impact. With a face like thunder