ght effort to prevent
it.

"I am your obedient slave; what shall I do?" he asked.

"Do not try to rescue him now," she said softly. "I shall come to you
again when we are not watched--you can know me by this dress. There is
no need for great haste, he could live in the Barrens several days;
I shall try to think of some way to save him, though such a thing has
never been done--never."

Footsteps were heard on the other side of the row of ferns. A man was
passing and others soon followed him. The bathers were leaving the great
pool.

"I must leave you now," she whispered. "If the king honors you again by
talking of his kingdom, continue to act as you did; your fearlessness
and good humor have pleased him greatly."

"Could I not persuade him to bring Johnston back?"

"No; that would be impossible; those who are pronounced physically unfit
are obliged to die. It has been a law for a long time; you must not
count on that. I have, however, another plan, but I cannot tell you of
it now, for they may miss me and wonder where I am, and then, too, my
father may be looking for you. He will naturally desire to see you soon
again."

Bowing, she turned away and passed on toward the apartments of the king,
which the Englishman now recognized in the distance. Thorndyke went
into the bathing-room to watch those remaining in the great pool of
rose-colored water. The sight was beautiful. The waves which lapped
against the shelving shores of white marble were pink and white, and the
deeper water was as red as coral.

The Englishman was at once troubled over the fate of Johnston and elated
over having won Bernardino's regard. Thoughtfully he strolled away from
the bathers into a great picture-gallery. Here hung on the walls and
stood on pedestals some of the rarest works of art he had ever seen. He
passed through this room and was entering a shady retreat where plants,
flowers and umbrageous trees grew thickly, when he heard a step behind
him and the rustling of a silken skirt against the plants.

It was Bernardino.

"We can be unobserved here," she said, taking off her thick veil and
arranging her luxuriant hair. "I hasten back. The king thinks, so
my maid tells me, that I am asleep in my chamber. He is busy with an
audience of police from a neighboring town and will not think of us."

She sat down on a sofa upholstered in leather, and he took a seat beside
her. "I am glad that we can talk alone," he said, "for I have much to