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"I have it not in reat your fault, for you have been an honorable and a loyal friend to Tara of Helium; but you must not say what my ears must not hear"

"You mean," he asked, "that the ears of a Princess must not listen to words of love from a panthan?"

"It is not that, Turan," she replied; "but rather that I may not in honor listen to words of love from another than him to whom I am betrothed-a fellow countryman, Djor Kantos"

"You mean, Tara of Helium," he cried, "that were it not for that you would-"

"Stop!" she coht else than my lips testify"

"The eyes are ofttimes more eloquent than the lips, Tara," he replied; "and in yours I have read that which is neither hatred nor contempt for Turan the panthan, and my heart tells er: 'I hate you!'"

"I do not hate you, Turan, nor yet irl, simply

"When I broke my way out froe of believing that you did hate me," he said, "for only hatred, it seeone withoutan effort to liberate ment told me that Tara of Heliuh I still anorance of the facts I know that it was beyond your power to aid irl "Scarce had I-Gos fallen at the bite of er than I heard the approach of warriors I ran then to hide until they had passed, thinking to return and liberate you; but in seeking to elude the party I had heard I ran full into the arms of another They questioned one ahead and that I was following you and thus I led them from you"

"I kneas Gahan's only colad with elation, as a lover's must be who has heard from the lips of his divinity an avowal of interest and loyalty, however little tinged by a suggestion of warard it may be To be abused, even, by the nored

As the two conversed in the ill-lit chamber, the dim bulbs of which were encrusted with the accuure traversed slowly the glooh thick lenses at the signs of passage written upon the dusty floor