have no passions, save where they have interests.  Though I may seem to slay in wrath, or because my mood is crossed, it is not so.  Thou hast seen how in the heavens the little clouds blow this way and that without a cause, yet behind them is the great wind sweeping on its path whither it listeth.  So it is with me, oh Holly.  My moods and changes are the little clouds, and fitfully these seem to turn; but behind them ever blows the great wind of my purpose.  Nay, the men must die; and die as I have said.”  Then, suddenly turning to the captain of the guard:—­

“As my word is, so be it!”

XVI

THE TOMBS OF KOR

After the prisoners had been removed Ayesha waved her hand, and the spectators turned round, and began to crawl off down the cave like a scattered flock of sheep.  When they were a fair distance from the dais, however, they rose and walked away, leaving the Queen and myself alone, with the exception of the mutes and the few remaining guards, most of whom had departed with the doomed men.  Thinking this a good opportunity, I asked She to come and see Leo, telling her of his serious condition; but she would not, saying that he certainly would not die before the night, as people never died of that sort of fever except at nightfall or dawn.  Also she said that it would be better to let the sickness spend its course as much as possible before she cured it.  Accordingly, I was rising to leave, when she bade me follow her, as she would talk with me, and show me the wonders of the caves.

I was too much involved in the web of her fatal fascinations to say her no, even if I had wished, which I did not.  She rose from her chair, and, making some signs to the mutes, descended from the dais.  Thereon four of the girls took lamps, and ranged themselves two in front and two behind us, but the others went away, as also did the guards.

“Now,” she said, “wouldst thou see some of the wonders of this place, oh Holly?  Look upon this great cave.  Sawest thou ever the like?  Yet was it, and many more like it, hollowed by the hands of the dead race that once lived here in the city on the plain.  A great and wonderful people must they have been, those men of Kor, but, like the Egyptians, they thought more of the dead than of the living.  How many men, thinkest thou, working for how many years, did it need to the hollowing out this cave and all the galleries thereof?”

“Tens of thousands,” I answered.

“So, oh Holly.  This people was an old people before the Egyptians were.  A little can I read of their inscriptions, having found the key thereto—­and see, thou here, this was one of the last of the caves that they hollowed,” and, turning to the rock behind her, she motioned the mutes to hold up the lamps.  Carven over the dais was the figure of an old man seated in a chair, with an ivory rod in his hand.  It struck me at once that his features