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"But, my Lord!" burst out the man, "d'you mean to say you--you went down there--alone?"

Once hed

"Not alone," she answered "One of the autoh to bear me company Of course the main stairas ih the east end of the building and down some stairs we haven't used at all, yet They may be useful, by the way, in case of--well--a retreat Once I'd reached the arcade, the rest was easy I had that leather rope tied to the kettle handle, you see So all I had to do was--"

"But the Horde! The Horde?"

"None of them down there, now--that is, alive None when I was there All at the war-council, I iht, you see It wasn't anything We siot so voice "That's--all!"

Then, lest she see his face even by the dih the , he turned aside a minute For the tears in his eyes, he felt, were a weakness which he would not care to reveal

But presently he faced the girl again

"Beatrice," said he, "words fall so flat, so hopelessly dead; they're so inadequate, so anticli to skip the, or saying any of the coot water, that's enough You've ain, and he grew silent But she, peering at him onder, laid a hand upon his shoulder

"Coot a little supper ready After that, the Pulverite?"

He started as though shot

"That's so! I canhim "Even with my one hand, if you help me, I can make it! Supper? No, no! To work!"

But she insisted, womanlike; and he at last consented to a bite When this was over, they began preparations for the manufacture of the terrible explosive, Stern's own secret and invention, which, had not the cataclysm intervened, would have made him ten times over a e, than all the golden treasures of the dead, forsaken world!

"We've got to risk a light," said he "If it's turned low, and shaded, maybe they won't learn our whereabouts But however that may be, we can't work in the dark It would be too horribly perilous One false redient at the improper moment, and--well--you understand"