he police. The crowd ceased struggling and dispersed,
only to gather again in another place.

The city was in a turmoil of excitement without apparent reason, or
definite object. Yet there was a steady tide in the direction the first
armed mob had gone, and with that tide went the Big Business Man and his
two companions.

After a time they came to an open park, beyond which, on a prominence,
with the lake behind, stood a large building that the Chemist had
already pointed out to them as the king's palace.

Oteo led them swiftly into a side street to avoid the dense crowd around
the park. Making a slight detour they came back to it again--much nearer
the palace now--and approached from behind a house that fronted the open
space near the palace.

"Friend of the Master--his house!" Oteo explained as he knocked
peremptorily at a side door.

They waited a moment, but no one came. Oteo pushed the door and led them
within. The house was deserted, and following Oteo, they went to the
roof. Here they could see perfectly what was going on around the palace,
and in the park below them.

This park was nearly triangular in shape--a thousand feet possibly on
each side. At the base of the triangle, on a bluff with the lake behind
it, stood the palace. Its main entrance, two huge golden doors, stood at
the top of a broad flight of stone steps. On these steps a fight was in
progress. A mob surged up them, repulsed at the top by a score or more
of men armed with swords, who were defending the doorway.

The square was thronged with people watching the palace steps and
shouting almost continuously. The fight before the palace evidently had
been in progress for some time. Many dead were lying in the doorway and
on the steps below it. The few defenders had so far resisted
successfully against tremendous odds, for the invaders, pressed upward
by those behind, could not retreat, and were being killed at the top
from lack of space in which to fight.

"Look there," cried the Big Business Man suddenly. Coming down a cross
street, marching in orderly array with its commander in front, was a
company of soldier police. It came to a halt almost directly beneath the
watchers on the roof-tops, and its leader brandishing his sword after a
moment of hesitation, ordered his men to charge the crowd. They did not
move at the order, but stood sullenly in their places. Again he ordered
them forward, and, as they refused to obey, made a threatening mo