These he took as priceless treasures. More jars of edibles he discovered, also a stock of rare wines. Coffee and salt he came upon. In the ruins of the little French brass-ware shop, opposite the Flatiron, he made a rich haul of cups and plates and a still serviceable lamp. Strangely enough, it still had oil in it. The fluid hermetically sealed in, had not been able to evaporate. At last, when the lengthening shadows in Madison Forest warned him that day was ending, he betook himself, heavy laden, once more back past the spring, and so through the path which already was beginning to be visible back to the shelter of the Metropolitan. "Now for a great surprise for the girl!" thought he, laboriously toiling up the stair with his burden: "What will she say, I wonder, when she sees all these housekeeping treasures?" Eagerly he hastened. But before he had reached the third story he heard a cry from above. Then a spatter of revolver-shots punctured the air. He stopped, listening in alarm. "Beatrice! Oh, Beatrice!" he hailed, his voice falling flat and stifled in those ruinous passages. Another shot. "Answer!" panted Stern. "What's the matter _now?_" Hastily he put down his burden, and, spurred by a great terror, bounded up the broken stairs. Into their little shelter, their home, he ran, calling her name. No reply came! Stern stopped short, his face a livid gray. "Merciful Heaven!" stammered he. _The girl was gone!_ CHAPTER XI A THOUSAND YEARS! Sickened with a numbing anguish of fear such as in all his life he had never known, Stern stood there a moment, motionless and lost. Then he turned. Out into the hall he ran, and his voice, re-echoing wildly, rang through those long-deserted aisles. All at once he heard a laugh behind him--a hail. He wheeled about, trembling and spent. Out his arms went, in eager greeting. For the girl, laughing and flushed, and very beautiful, was coming down the stair at the end of the hall. Never had the engineer beheld a sight so wonderful to him as this woman, clad in the Bengal robe; this girl who smiled and ran to meet him. "What? Were you frightened?" she asked, growing suddenly serious, as he stood there speechless and pale. "Why--what could happen to me here?" His only answer was to take her in his arms and whisper her name. But she struggled to be free. "Don't! you mustn't!" she exclaimed. "I didn't mean to alarm you. Didn't even know you were here!" "I heard the shots--I called--you didn't answer. Then--" "You found me gone? I didn't hear you. It was nothing, after all. Nothing--much!" He led her back into the room. "What happened? Tell me!" "It was really too absurd!" "What was it?" "Only this," and she laughed again. "I was getting supper ready, as you see," with a nod at their provision laid out upon the clean-brushed floor. "When--" "Yes?"