"Run on for your lives, and look not back; we will follow," cried Pylea, as she ranged her warriors in front of the stairs. Up they went, one after the other, as fast as they could scramble, those thousands of steps. Exhausted at last, they reached the chamber of the pythons. Here they sank down breathless to wait on Pylea and her regiment. Not a sound could be heard from below. Had the brave girls remained there to face their infuriated queen? For the second time in their lives our heroes felt themselves to be mean cowards. The first time had been when they killed the baby gorilla. "We can never leave these brave girls in the lurch like this, lads. We must return and save them, or die with them," cried Ned, in sharp tones of agony. Gripping his revolver, and followed by his men, he rushed with frantic steps down the stairs. At the fourth landing he stopped suddenly. There before him leaned against the wall the friend of Cocoeni, with the blood dripping through her fingers as she pressed her hand against her side. "Come no further," she gasped faintly. "I only am left alive." "What!" cried Ned, starting back in dismay. "Are they all slain? Is Pylea also dead?" Cocoeni by this time had reached forward, and was holding the dying girl in his arms, the hot tears running down his cheeks. "All," replied the girl. "I was sent forward to close the wall at the first stair. Before I reached it they were cut down. I saw Pylea fall even as I received this wound, but I had strength enough to close the stone door and creep up the stairs thus far." Her head sank as she uttered the last words against the breast of Cocoeni. "Bring her up to the hall, Cocoeni," said Ned, brokenly. Not a dry eye was amongst them. Cocoeni carried her up as gently as he could, but before they reached the sculptured hall, she was almost gone. As he laid her down, she opened her eyes and smiled wanly. Then she whispered so faintly that they had to bend close to hear the feeble accents. "They cannot open the door I closed, for hours. You have time to escape. Destroy the stairs at the top and you are safe." Her military trained mind was still planning, even although the life-blood was nearly drained from her heart. Another long pause, and then she opened her lips and her eyes for the last time. "Cocoeni, you are only a man, after all, for you are weeping just as ours do when they are hurt. Kiss me, as you did two nights ago in the garden, for which I rebuked you then, but I am now as weak and foolish as you are." Cocoeni pressed his warm lips to her cold ones. When he removed them her lips remained apart. She was dead. CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR. THE RETURN.