"Absolutely. She is certain that I, Sergius Tchigorsky, have gone over to the great majority. Besides, I have placed proofs of my alleged crime in her hand--the Garuda stone all the fuss was about. It is a clever imitation, but that is beside the question." "So you have been taken into her confidence?" "Well, not exactly that. But every new scheme is relegated so far as details are concerned to some of us, and therefore I am in a position to discount the future. In ordinary circumstances I should simply have warned you against going fishing to-day, and thus checkmated the foe again; but that would have been inartistic. "Besides, I wanted the princess to regard you as another victim, hence the whole of this rather cheap dramatic business. You will come to life again in a few hours--when we shall have to be guided by events." "Who was it who tampered with the boat?" "You will learn in good time. Let us meanwhile assume that it was the work of one of my dusky companions. For the present you and I remain where we are--till dark probably--when it will be possible to smuggle you up to your uncle's room. I have not been regardless of your creature comforts. Here are cold meat and a bottle of champagne. We dine together." Geoffrey accepted his portion with resignation. And Tchigorsky was an entertaining companion. There was no dullness in his presence. "Very well," Geoffrey said as he lighted a cigarette. "We are safe here. Now's the time for a further recital of your thrilling adventures in Lassa." "Agreed," Tchigorsky cried. "Where did I leave off?" "You had been gagged and bound at the instigation of the princess." "True. It is also true that but for the intervention of the same princess we should have been torn to pieces on the spot; and, incidentally, I may mention that that would have resulted in the absolute extinction of the house of Ravenspur. The men who a moment before had been grave, reserved priests were transformed instantly into raging fiends. "Had they been possessed by devils they could not have flamed out more suddenly. They were mad to know that the secrets of all ages had passed into the hands of Christian dogs--dogs who had defiled their altars. And yet much the same kind of barbarous fanaticism has been displayed in civilized dominions. They were not any worse than the bigots who burned your English martyrs. "We should have been torn to pieces on the spot, as I told you, but for the authority of the princess. So commonplace a death did not suit her ideas of the eternal fitness of things. Many and many a time afterwards, when racked by agony, I deeply deplored that supposed act of clemency. It would have been a far more merciful death. "Well, we were spared for the moment and cast into a loathsome dungeon, where we were overrun with vermin, great rats which we had constantly to drive off, and spiders whose bite was very painful.