“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,” I thought, “for she is the princess royal of all Cupia; and you, for all that the professors have decided, may not be even human!” The fairy orchestra of the wood grasshoppers played its sweetest wind-bell tunes, which earthly ears alone could hear. Delicate fragrances crept in on an occasional breeze. The night was velvet soft. And in my arms lay sweetly breathing, in perfect peace and trust, the dearest being any world could hold. Thus we lay in our bower of leafy hearts, until the invisible sun rose over Poros the next morning. When Lilla finally awakened it was with the sweet dewey smile of a little child. I kissed her lightly on the cheek, and she smiled again and said: “You are very good to me, Myles Cabot; better than I deserve, who treated you so.” “It is morning, my princess,” said I, “and we must be on our way.” She gave a slight shudder. “That is so,” she regally replied. “I _am_ a princess.” The spell was broken, and we arose, and set out together through the wood, traveling due west, for we had left the road on the east side the night before. In this way I hoped to reach the road again and continue along it to the border. We were able to tell the points of the compass in the early morning light, owing to the pinkness of the eastern sky and the darkness of the western. Reaching the road in safety, we set out northward along it, I blessing my sense of hearing which enabled me to keep a keen ear out for approaching kerkools, each one of which we dodged by hiding in the woods at the side of the road. In this manner, we kept on without further adventure for the entire day, slaking our thirst at an occasional brook, and staving off hunger by means of certain edible plants with which the princess was well acquainted. At last, on topping a slight rise, we saw before us a long wall stretching away out of sight in the distance to both right and left. “Is this the pale of which I had heard so much?” I asked. “It is,” Lilla replied, “and beyond it lies Cupia, and safety. Look! Directly before us at the foot of the hill is the Third Gate.” With a cry of joy, we rushed down the hill, hand in hand together. Sure enough, there stood Yuri talking with the Cupian sentinel. Just beyond the gate stood a kerkool. Yuri greeted the princess respectfully and assisted her into the car, the sentinel offering no objection. But as I sought to follow her, the sentinel stepped before me and drew a short broadsword, which he held menacingly in his hand. “Yuri,” I called, “this guard won’t let me pass. Please tell him that it is all right.” Yuri turned around in his seat in the car, and gradually a mocking smile spread over his features. Then he spoke to the sentinel. “I don’t know the fellow,” he declared. “Probably he is an escaped Cupian slave. You had better arrest him.” The princess shrieked, Yuri’s car shot ahead, and they disappeared northward, leaving me staring after them with mouth agape.