with Sah-luma at the Palace of the High Priestess, has been as
much my choice as his example. Who among men would turn aside from
high feasting and mirthful company? ... not I, believe me! ... and
Sah-luma's desires herein were but the reflex of mine own. We came
together through the woodland, and parted but a moment since..."

He stopped abruptly, startled by a sudden clash as of steel and
the tramp-tramp of approaching feet. His aged companion caught him
by the arm...

"Hush!" he whispered.. "Not a word more.. not a breath! ... or thy
life must pay the penalty! Quick,--follow me close! ... step
softly! ... there is a hiding-place near at hand where we may
couch unseen till these dread visitants pass by."

Moving stealthily and with anxious precaution, he led the way to a
niche hollowed deeply out in the thickness of the wall, and
turning his lamp aside so that not the faintest glimmer of it
could be perceived, he took Theos by the hand, and drew him into
what seemed to be a huge cavernous recess, utterly dark and icy
cold.

Here, crouching low in the furthest gloom, they both waited
silently,--Theos ignorant as to the cause of the sudden alarm, and
wondering vaguely what strange new circumstance was about to
happen. The measured tramp-tramp of feet came nearer and nearer,
and in another moment the flare of smoking torches illumined the
vaulted passage, casting many a ruddy flicker and flash on the
ivory-gleaming whiteness of the vast skeleton army that stood with
such grim and pallid patience as though waiting for a marching