Passing through a broad hall and up a wide flight of stairs, the Croixilian paused outside a lofty door, which was covered with rich hangings. Here two men, tall in comparison with their fellows, stood on guard, being completely equipped in chain armour and carrying enormous axes; while another, clad in black velvet, with a cap of maintenance on his head and a golden chain flung round his neck, demanded the names and style of the three strangers. "Style!" remarked Reeves to his young companions, after he had given the official their names. "The nearest approach to style that I could boast of was my stylo. pen, and those rascally Arabs sneaked that. Now," he continued, dropping his banter, "keep your eye on Garth, and do what he does--unless he makes too great a fool of himself before this big pot." The next instant the Englishmen found themselves in a spacious hall built of white stone and surrounded by aisles, which were separated from the main building by massive rounded arches springing from plain rounded pillars. In the middle of the tiled floor was a fountain, out of which the water splashed melodiously into a fern-grown pond. Here and there were heavy wooden benches, which formed the only furniture of the hall. At the farthermost end was a dais, approached by seven stone steps; and on it, in a massive wooden chair, resembling the letter X, sat the overlord of Croixilia. Sir Jehan de Valx was a burly man of middle height, dark-complexioned, and wearing a closely-trimmed beard, after the fashion of the majority of the men of Croixilia. He was dressed in a kirtle of dark blue, edged with ermine, while over his shoulders was a cloak of white samite, marked with a triple crown in red. He was unarmed, but held a short ivory rod in his right hand. Ranged on either side of him were about twenty men of rank, all wearing double-lined crosses similar to those Reeves had observed in the courtyard. Marching with head erect up to the foot of the dais, Garth saluted, the movement resembling a military salute performed by both hands at the same time. Reeves and the lads did likewise, after setting their flintlocks on the floor. "These, then, are the men from England?" exclaimed Sir Jehan in a deep voice. "Welcome!" For nearly two hours Reeves kept the ruler of Croixilia engrossed with the story of their adventures in the desert and the wonders of Europe, particularly of Great Britain. Sir Jehan, Reeves noticed, used a language that corresponded with the Anglo-Norman tongue, subject to slight variations for which the lapse of time was responsible. (The lads were already making vast strides in the study of the Croixilian tongue, thanks to their fair knowledge of French and their interest in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.)