spectators turned round, and began to crawl off down the cave like a
scattered flock of sheep. When they were a fair distance from the daïs,
however, they rose and walked away, leaving the Queen and myself alone,
with the exception of the mutes and the few remaining guards, most of
whom had departed with the doomed men. Thinking this a good opportunity,
I asked _She_ to come and see Leo, telling her of his serious condition;
but she would not, saying that he certainly would not die before the
night, as people never died of that sort of fever except at nightfall
or dawn. Also she said that it would be better to let the sickness spend
its course as much as possible before she cured it. Accordingly, I was
rising to leave, when she bade me follow her, as she would talk with me,
and show me the wonders of the caves.

I was too much involved in the web of her fatal fascinations to say her
no, even if I had wished, which I did not. She rose from her chair, and,
making some signs to the mutes, descended from the daïs. Thereon four
of the girls took lamps, and ranged themselves two in front and two
behind us, but the others went away, as also did the guards.

"Now," she said, "wouldst thou see some of the wonders of this place, oh
Holly? Look upon this great cave. Sawest thou ever the like? Yet was it,
and many more like it, hollowed by the hands of the dead race that once
lived here in the city on the plain. A great and wonderful people must
they have been, those men of Kôr, but, like the Egyptians, they thought
more of the dead than of the living. How many men, thinkest thou,
working for how many years, did it need to the hollowing out this cave
and all the galleries thereof?"

"Tens of thousands," I answered.