What else she was I very shortly
learned.
"In accordance with one of the many strange customs of the City
of Fire, her personal servants, or rather slaves, were blind
mutes! Gentlemen, I warned you that my story was tough. Doubtless
you are beginning to appreciate the fact that I spoke no more
than the truth.
"Naida, for such was her name, told me that the Brahmin, Vadi,
who had acted as my guide, was one of the followers of the
Prophet of Fire, to whom had been given the duty of intercepting
me. His failure to report within a certain time had resulted in
two of the priests of this strange cult being sent out to obtain
information. That these were the yellow-robed mendicants who had
passed me in the mountains, I did not doubt.
"Their reports, so Naida informed me, had led to a belief that
Vadi had perished with me; but as an extra measure of precaution,
that very night--indeed, shortly after I had passed that way--a
guard had been set upon the secret entrance. Therefore, even if
my strength had permitted, I should have been unable to return by
the way I had come.
"But indeed I was as weak as a child, and only to the presence of
much foliage upon the acclivity down which I had rolled, and to
the fact that I had fallen upon soft soil in a bed of flowers,
can I ascribe my having failed to break my neck.
"In this way, gentlemen, I entered upon a brief period of my life
at once more sweet and more bitter than any I had known.
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