d of a way of conquering Diana, and we need this creature
alive."

Druga wrapped the great body around and around his body and arm, seizing
the neck of Dionaea in one hand and the neck of Baena in the other. So
burdened, he staggered down the steps and up again into the disk, and
the trip took him a good hour, for Baena twisted loose and tried to
flee, and he wrestled and fell from the ladder, and only succeeded by
tying the writhing pillar of strength into a bow-knot and pulling it up
into the ship with a rope.

* * * * *

Meanwhile the people of Armora had awakened from the tumult, and crowded
everywhere about the gardens, getting underfoot and wondering loudly
what this was all about. Eos hurried from the bed chamber of their Queen
with a great bundle of material she had selected as of possible future
use. They tried to stop her, but one glance of the potent magnetic power
that flamed from her great eyes sent them all to their knees in
worshipful, helpless adoration.

Druga, waiting above with the snake wound round with ropes and lashed to
the pillars, watched this evidence of her powers with awe, for he had
himself but narrowly escaped the swords of the guards, and had been
about to plunge down the ladder with his own sword in a futile attempt
to rescue Eos.

She sent the disk spinning upward in flight, and Druga took himself from
her and went and sat by the writhing, fettered body of the Amphis-Baena,
or Dionaea-Baena, or two-headed snake, saying to her as she spat venom
at him:

"Listen to me, Dionaea, the best thing you can do for yourself is to try
to win the favor of Eos. She is an enemy who has suffered as greatly as
yourself from the work of Diana, and would help you if you earned it, to
acquire a human body again. I think the snake himself would like that
better too. He is too greatly married, I would say, to relish the state
overmuch."

Baena relaxed at these words, and ceased to struggle. Then in great
snake hisses, he made himself heard.

"Dionaea, I think too you should seize this opportunity to get out of
this fix we are in. I gave you my tail to roost upon as a temporary
measure, not as a permanent part of my future. Diana, whom we both
serve, could have released us if she had been so inclined, and fixed us
up with separate bodies, but she chose not."

That Dionaea was considering his words was evident. She ceased to spit
at him, and composed her face into tho