’It’s all up!’ he cried, throwing his hands into the air. ’There is treachery—treason—at work! Some strangers have made their way below and rescued Malandris from the cage. He is missing, and so is Malto; and there are signs that some of your visitors from the evening star have been there, for they have killed one of the krudias with their fire-weapons. Did I not warn you against ever allowing these people to come here prying about? This is what has come of it!’ Agrando at last was roused, and he turned his eyes from his beloved jewels. But when his gaze fell upon Kazzaro there was in it a menace which made even that hardened miscreant tremble. ’Miserable wretch!’ thundered his master. ’You dare to say this to me as an excuse for your own clumsy blundering and lack of vigilance! By Krondris, I’—— What awful threat he was about to utter, however, cannot be told, for he was interrupted by the unceremonious entry of Zuanstroom’s son Silas. ’Father, father!’ he exclaimed, failing, in his excitement, to notice the black looks cast at him by Agrando. ’Gerald and Jack have been shooting some of King Agrando’s soldiers, who have got them shut up in the pavilion tower! Alondra is with them, and two of King Agrando’s officers. I know their names—they are Malto and Malandris! I saw them shoot down a man sent to bring them back when they were running away.’ Out of breath, first with running and then with this speech, poured forth in a violent hurry, Silas subsided, panting, into a chair. ’They are in the pavilion—that tower by the side of the place where "the great beast," as you call it, lives?’ asked Agrando with deadly calmness. ’Yes, sir. They are defying all your people there, hoping, I expect, to be taken off by Alondra’s yacht.’ Agrando and Kazzaro looked at each other, the latter mutely asking for orders. ’We must have them out of that tower,’ said Agrando, in a hard, resolute tone, ’before they can be taken off! Do you hear? We must have them at any cost. Send out war-vessels! Knock the tower down with the traitors in it! Crush them at any cost!’ ’But how if Alondra’s yacht reaches him first?’ queried Kazzaro. ’Fight them! I ’m sick of this dissembling! Everything is prepared! We will throw off the mask, and show Ivanta that we have some teeth beneath it to bite with!’ *CHAPTER XXVI.* *THE WIRELESS MESSAGE.* While Agrando was issuing the orders which would precipitate his long-thought-of revolt against his overlord King Ivanta, Alondra and his four companions were waiting, with what patience they could command, for the hoped-for arrival of their friends.