Beset thus unawares, I could do no less than listen to the rambling tale of woe and injustice her parted rosy lips delivered; how she had managed to escape from the hateful tutelage of the priestesses of the Sun; how she knew she could rely on my assistance; and how many sanctuaries of easy concealment existed in the purlieus of the palace. All the while this torrent of entreaty, flattery and self-commiseration was being poured forth in an unbroken stream, my suppliant contrived to edge nearer and nearer to myself, half-rising from her knees and lifting her shapely white arms to the level of my shoulders. There was an influence, an aroma about her that vaguely suggested the women of my own planet. I realised the existence of some indefinable link between my own nature and hers, something of the Earth earthy, and therefore inestimably precious here in Meleager. A warm current of human sympathy and magnetic attraction seemed to be circulating around me. One moment, one second more, and I felt we should be locked together in one another's arms, we two hapless dwellers on Meleager belonging of right to another world and meeting in an alien planet. One second more, and we two waifs of different sexes would have been caught in an embrace of commingled sorrow and devotion, caring naught for the dangers ahead and happy only in our new-found union of congenial souls. The bewitching face, with eyes that sparkled through the film of tears and with radiant youth lurking in their wells of light, was almost touching my own, when there flashed before me a vision rather than a thought of my impending danger. I glimpsed a sensation of orbs vigilant and sinister, multitudinous as the eyes in the peacock's tail, usurping the places of the leaves around me; the playing water's chant turned into a sudden note of terrified warning and entreaty; the golden haze above grew lurid. With supreme energy I knit my remaining strength together, as I battled with the temptation to surrender. My bodily powers rose in obedience to my guiding brain, and extricating myself none too gently from the already twining arms of the maiden, I caught her with my right palm a resounding box on the ear which echoed through that sylvan silence. At the same moment I shouted aloud, and leaped to my feet. It was as if scales had fallen from my mental eyes, for I could sense, even if I could not actually see the enclosing hedges filled with spies, some of whom were hurrying stealthily hence, whilst others were preparing to enter the alley in as natural a manner as they could assume. These latter came forward sheepishly and stood before me, as I pointed to the grovelling form of the girl who was now weeping violently at my feet. Whose duty was it, I asked, to prevent strange women from invading these gardens and disturbing the noontide repose of the Child of the Sun? As to my late reception of the charmer, even assuming that every motion of mine had been carefully observed by