Down and down they went, choking and coughing the while as they penetrated farther and deeper into the very bowels of the planet. The air grew hotter and hotter and peering over the narrow, winding stairway, they could see at the extreme bottom a red hot mass of seething, burning matter. “Hark! I thought I heard the Princess scream,” said the Prince, abruptly stopping on his way. “I heard no one,” said Harold, “so I guess you are mistaken, or it might have been the voice of some one down below.” “Perhaps so,” replied the Prince; but love’s ears are sharp, and he had heard aright, though he was overpersuaded and continued on his way. The Princess had screamed because directly in front of her the ground had suddenly opened like a big door and out of the opening had come a red-clad figure with horns on its head and a staff in its hand. Ione was too astonished to move and sat there staring at the newcomer, with eyes and mouth wide open. Bitterly she repented her suggestion, which both girls had acted upon, that they remove their magic robes and appear once more to each other as the American girl and the little Oriental Princess. “I have come for you,” said he. Neither girl moved an inch. “Come,” he continued, “or I shall have to carry you.” Still neither girl moved or knew what to do. Stiff with fright, they vaguely wondered what he would do if they refused to go with him. [Illustration: THE GIANT RAISED HIS SWORD (p. 50) ] They soon found out, for he struck the ground three times with his tail which rattled like that of a great rattlesnake and immediately the ground opened as it had before and out jumped a figure in scales of green. He gave Ione one look, and then at a signal from the other lifted her in his arms which were as strong as iron and followed the red sprite, who had picked up the Princess. It was no use to struggle, thought the girls, and maybe the boys had sent for them, anyway they decided not to do anything until they found what was going to be done with them. The two sprites approached a large, flat, white stone and both stepped upon it at the same instant. Down it went, taking them with it into the very center of the planet. Not a word was spoken while they were slipping through the long, dark shaft, and the stone platform on which they were standing stopped after a time, while a door at one end of the shaft opened and they found themselves in Hades, proper, as this portion of it was called. The girls blinked like bats at first when the vivid light flashed into their eyes but they soon became accustomed to it. They were now put into wheelbarrows that looked as if used for carrying coal, and were wheeled along without a word. The Princess found a chance to whisper, “Do you think they are going to burn us as they would coal?” “I am sure I don’t know. Oh, for our magic robes!” said Ione in a similar whisper.