Victory! She was here, a slave to these black conquerors.Once more I started toward her, but better judgment held meback--I could do nothing to help her other than by stealth.Could I even accomplish aught by this means? I did notknow. It seemed beyond the pale of possibility, and yet Ishould try.

"And you will not bend the knee to me?" continued Menelek,after she had spoken. Victory shook her head in a mostdecided negation.

"You shall be my first choice, then," said the emperor. "Ilike your spirit, for the breaking of it will add to mypleasure in you, and never fear but that it shall be broken--this very night. Take her to my apartments," and hemotioned to an officer at his side

I was surprised to see Victory follow the man off inapparent quiet submission. I tried to follow, that I mightbe near her against some opportunity to speak with her orassist in her escape. But, after I had followed them fromthe throne room, through several other apartments, and downa long corridor, I found my further progress barred by asoldier who stood guard before a doorway through which theofficer conducted Victory.

Almost immediately the officer reappeared and started backin the direction of the throne room. I had been hiding in adoorway after the guard had turned me back, having takenrefuge there while his back was turned, and, as the officerapproached me, I withdrew into the room beyond, which was indarkness. There I remained for a long time, watching thesentry before the door of the room in which Victory was aprisoner, and awaiting some favorable circumstance whichwould give me entry to her.

I have not attempted to fully describe my sensations at themoment I recognized Victory, because, I can assure you, theywere entirely indescribable. I should never have imaginedthat the sight of any human being could affect me as hadthis unexpected discovery of Victory in the same room inwhich I was, while I had thought of her for weeks either asdead, or at best hundreds of miles to the west, and asirretrievably lost to me as though she were, in truth, dead.

I was filled with a strange, mad impulse to be near her. Itwas not enough merely to assist her, or protect her--Idesired to touch her--to take her in my arms. I wasastounded at myself. Another thing puzzled me--it was myincomprehensible feeling of elation since I had again seenher. With a fate worse than death staring her in the face,and with the knowledge that I should probably die defendingher within the hour, I was still happier than I had been forweeks--and all because I had seen again for a few briefminutes the figure of a little heathen maiden. I couldn'taccount for it, and it angered me; I had never before feltany such sensations in the presence of a woman, and I hadmade love to some very beautiful ones in my time.

It seemed ages that I stood in the shadow of that doorway,in the ill-lit corridor of the palace of Menelek XIV. Asickly gas jet cast a sad pallor upon the black face of thesentry. The fellow seemed rooted to the spot. Evidently hewould never leave, or turn his back again.

I had been in hiding but a short time when I heard the soundof distant cannon. The truce had ended, and the battle hadbeen resumed. Very shortly thereafter the earth shook tothe explosion of a shell within the city, and from time totime thereafter other shells burst at no great distance fromthe palace. The yellow men were bombarding New Gondaragain.

Presently officers and slaves commenced to traverse thecorridor on matters pertaining to their duties, and thencame the emperor, scowling and wrathful. He was followed bya few personal attendants, whom he dismissed at the doorwayto his apartments--the same doorway through which Victoryhad been taken. I chafed to follow him, but the corridorwas filled with people. At last they betook themselves totheir own apartments, which lay upon either side of thecorridor.

An officer and a slave entered the very room in which I hid,forcing me to flatten myself to one side in the darknessuntil they had passed. Then the slave made a light, and Iknew that I must find another hiding place.

Stepping boldly into the corridor, I saw that it was nowempty save for the single sentry before the emperor's door.He glanced up as I emerged from the room, the occupants ofwhich had not seen me. I walked straight toward thesoldier, my mind made up in an instant. I tried to simulatean expression of cringing servility, and I must havesucceeded, for I entirely threw the man off his guard, sothat he permitted me to approach within reach of his riflebefore stopping me. Then it was too late--for him.

Without a word or a warning, I snatched the piece from hisgrasp, and, at the same time struck him a terrific blowbetween the eyes with my clenched fist. He staggered backin surprise, too dumbfounded even to cry out, and then Iclubbed his rifle and felled him with a single mighty blow.

A moment later, I had burst into the room beyond. It wasempty!

I gazed about, mad with disappointment. Two doors openedfrom this to other rooms. I ran to the nearer and listened.Yes, voices were coming from beyond and one was a woman's,level and cold and filled with scorn. There was no terrorin it. It was Victory's.

I turned the knob and pushed the door inward just in time tosee Menelek seize the girl and drag her toward the far endof the apartment. At the same instant there was a deafeningroar just outside the palace--a shell had struck much nearerthan any of its predecessors. The noise of it drowned myrapid rush across the room.

But in her struggles, Victory turned Menelek about so thathe saw me. She was striking him in the face with herclenched fist, and now he was choking her.

At sight of me, he gave voice to a roar of anger.

"What means this, slave?" he cried. "Out of here! Out ofhere! Quick, before I kill you!"

But for answer I rushed upon him, striking him with the buttof the rifle. He staggered back, dropping Victory to thefloor, and then he cried aloud for the guard, and came atme. Again and again I struck him; but his thick skull mighthave been armor plate, for all the damage I did it.

He tried to close with me, seizing the rifle, but I wasstronger than he, and, wrenching the weapon from his grasp,tossed it aside and made for his throat with my bare hands.I had not dared fire the weapon for fear that its reportwould bring the larger guard stationed at the farther end ofthe corridor.

We struggled about the room, striking one another, knockingover furniture, and rolling upon the floor. Menelek was apowerful man, and he was fighting for his life. Continuallyhe kept calling for the guard, until I succeeded in gettinga grip upon his throat; but it was too late. His cries hadbeen heard, and suddenly the door burst open, and a score ofarmed guardsmen rushed into the apartment.

Victory seized the rifle from the floor and leaped betweenme and them. I had the black emperor upon his back, andboth my hands were at his throat, choking the life from him.

The rest happened in the fraction of a second. There was arending crash above us, then a deafening explosion withinthe chamber. Smoke and powder fumes filled the room. Halfstunned, I rose from the lifeless body of my antagonist justin time to see Victory stagger to her feet and turn towardme. Slowly the smoke cleared to reveal the shatteredremnants of the guard. A shell had fallen through thepalace roof and exploded just in the rear of the detachmentof guardsmen who were coming to the rescue of their emperor.Why neither Victory nor I were struck is a miracle. Theroom was a wreck. A great, jagged hole was torn in theceiling, and the wall toward the corridor had been blownentirely out.

As I rose, Victory had risen, too, and started toward me.But when she saw that I was uninjured she stopped, and stoodthere in the center of the demolished apartment looking atme. Her expression was inscrutable--I could not guesswhether she was glad to see me, or not.

"Victory!" I cried. "Thank God that you are safe!" And Iapproached her, a greater gladness in my heart than I hadfelt since the moment that I knew the Coldwater must beswept beyond thirty.

There was no answering gladness in her eyes. Instead, shestamped her little foot in anger.

"Why did it have to be you who saved me!" she exclaimed. "Ihate you!"

"Hate me?" I asked. "Why should you hate me, Victory? I donot hate you. I--I--" What was I about to say? I was veryclose to her as a great light broke over me. Why had Inever realized it before? The truth accounted for a greatmany hitherto inexplicable moods that had claimed me fromtime to time since first I had seen Victory.

"Why should I hate you?" she repeated. "Because Snider toldme--he told me that you had promised me to him, but he didnot get me. I killed him, as I should like to kill you!"

"Snider lied!" I cried. And then I seized her and held herin my arms, and made her listen to me, though she struggledand fought like a young lioness. "I love you, Victory. Youmust know that I love you--that I have always loved you, andthat I never could have made so base a promise."

She ceased her struggles, just a trifle, but still tried topush me from her. "You called me a barbarian!" she said.

Ah, so that was it! That still rankled. I crushed her tome.

"You could not love a barbarian," she went on, but she hadceased to struggle.

"But I do love a barbarian, Victory!" I cried, "the dearestbarbarian in the world."

She raised her eyes to mine, and then her smooth, brown armsencircled my neck and drew my lips down to hers.

"I love you--I have loved you always!" she said, and thenshe buried her face upon my shoulder and sobbed. "I havebeen so unhappy," she said, "but I could not die while Ithought that you might live."

As we stood there, momentarily forgetful of all else thanour new found happiness, the ferocity of the bombardmentincreased until scarce thirty seconds elapsed between theshells that rained about the palace.

To remain long would be to invite certain death. We couldnot escape the way that we had entered the apartment, fornot only was the corridor now choked with debris, but beyondthe corridor there were doubtless many members of theemperor's household who would stop us.

Upon the opposite side of the room was another door, andtoward this I led the way. It opened into a third apartmentwith windows overlooking an inner court. From one of thesewindows I surveyed the courtyard. Apparently it was empty,and the rooms upon the opposite side were unlighted.

Assisting Victory to the open, I followed, and together wecrossed the court, discovering upon the opposite side anumber of wide, wooden doors set in the wall of the palace,with small windows between. As we stood close behind one ofthe doors, listening, a horse within neighed.

"The stables!" I whispered, and, a moment later, had pushedback a door and entered. From the city about us we couldhear the din of great commotion, and quite close the soundsof battle--the crack of thousands of rifles, the yells ofthe soldiers, the hoarse commands of officers, and the blareof bugles.

The bombardment had ceased as suddenly as it had commenced.I judged that the enemy was storming the city, for thesounds we heard were the sounds of hand-to-hand combat.

Within the stables I groped about until I had found saddlesand bridles for two horses. But afterward, in the darkness,I could find but a single mount. The doors of the oppositeside, leading to the street, were open, and we could seegreat multitudes of men, women, and children fleeing towardthe west. Soldiers, afoot and mounted, were joining the madexodus. Now and then a camel or an elephant would passbearing some officer or dignitary to safety. It was evidentthat the city would fall at any moment--a fact which wasamply proclaimed by the terror-stricken haste of the fear-mad mob.

Horse, camel, and elephant trod helpless women and childrenbeneath their feet. A common soldier dragged a general fromhis mount, and, leaping to the animal's back, fled down thepacked street toward the west. A woman seized a gun andbrained a court dignitary, whose horse had trampled herchild to death. Shrieks, curses, commands, supplicationsfilled the air. It was a frightful scene--one that will beburned upon my memory forever.

I had saddled and bridled the single horse which hadevidently been overlooked by the royal household in itsflight, and, standing a little back in the shadow of thestable's interior, Victory and I watched the surging throngwithout.

To have entered it would have been to have courted greaterdanger than we were already in. We decided to wait untilthe stress of blacks thinned, and for more than an hour westood there while the sounds of battle raged upon theeastern side of the city and the population flew toward thewest. More and more numerous became the uniformed soldiersamong the fleeing throng, until, toward the last, the streetwas packed with them. It was no orderly retreat, but arout, complete and terrible.

The fighting was steadily approaching us now, until thecrack of rifles sounded in the very street upon which wewere looking. And then came a handful of brave men--alittle rear guard backing slowly toward the west, workingtheir smoking rifles in feverish haste as they fired volleyafter volley at the foe we could not see.

But these were pressed back and back until the first line ofthe enemy came opposite our shelter. They were men ofmedium height, with olive complexions and almond eyes. Inthem I recognized the descendants of the ancient Chineserace.

They were well uniformed and superbly armed, and they foughtbravely and under perfect discipline. So rapt was I in theexciting events transpiring in the street that I did nothear the approach of a body of men from behind. It was aparty of the conquerors who had entered the palace and weresearching it.

They came upon us so unexpectedly that we were prisonersbefore we realized what had happened. That night we wereheld under a strong guard just outside the eastern wall ofthe city, and the next morning were started upon a longmarch toward the east.

Our captors were not unkind to us, and treated the womenprisoners with respect. We marched for many days--so manythat I lost count of them--and at last we came to anothercity--a Chinese city this time--which stands upon the siteof ancient Moscow.

It is only a small frontier city, but it is well built andwell kept. Here a large military force is maintained, andhere also, is a terminus of the railroad that crosses modernChina to the Pacific.

There was every evidence of a high civilization in all thatwe saw within the city, which, in connection with the humanetreatment that had been accorded all prisoners upon the longand tiresome march, encouraged me to hope that I mightappeal to some high officer here for the treatment which myrank and birth merited.

We could converse with our captors only through the mediumof interpreters who spoke both Chinese and Abyssinian. Butthere were many of these, and shortly after we reached thecity I persuaded one of them to carry a verbal message tothe officer who had commanded the troops during the returnfrom New Gondar, asking that I might be given a hearing bysome high official.

The reply to my request was a summons to appear before theofficer to whom I had addressed my appeal. A sergeant camefor me along with the interpreter, and I managed to obtainhis permission to let Victory accompany me--I had never lefther alone with the prisoners since we had been captured.

To my delight I found that the officer into whose presencewe were conducted spoke Abyssinian fluently. He wasastounded when I told him that I was a Pan-American. Unlikeall others whom I had spoken with since my arrival inEurope, he was well acquainted with ancient history--wasfamiliar with twentieth century conditions in Pan-America,and after putting a half dozen questions to me was satisfiedthat I spoke the truth.

When I told him that Victory was Queen of England he showedlittle surprise, telling me that in their recentexplorations in ancient Russia they had found manydescendants of the old nobility and royalty.

He immediately set aside a comfortable house for us,furnished us with servants and with money, and in other waysshowed us every attention and kindness.

He told me that he would telegraph his emperor at once, andthe result was that we were presently commanded to repair toPeking and present ourselves before the ruler.

We made the journey in a comfortable railway carriage,through a country which, as we traveled farther toward theeast, showed increasing evidence of prosperity and wealth.

At the imperial court we were received with great kindness,the emperor being most inquisitive about the state of modernPan-America. He told me that while he personally deploredthe existence of the strict regulations which had raised abarrier between the east and the west, he had felt, as hadhis predecessors, that recognition of the wishes of thegreat Pan-American federation would be most conducive to thecontinued peace of the world.

His empire includes all of Asia, and the islands of thePacific as far east as 175dW. The empire of Japan no longerexists, having been conquered and absorbed by China over ahundred years ago. The Philippines are well administered,and constitute one of the most progressive colonies of theChinese empire.

The emperor told me that the building of this great empireand the spreading of enlightenment among its diversified andsavage peoples had required all the best efforts of nearlytwo hundred years. Upon his accession to the throne he hadfound the labor well nigh perfected and had turned hisattention to the reclamation of Europe.

His ambition is to wrest it from the hands of the blacks,and then to attempt the work of elevating its fallen peoplesto the high estate from which the Great War precipitatedthem.

I asked him who was victorious in that war, and he shook hishead sadly as he replied:

"Pan-America, perhaps, and China, with the blacks ofAbyssinia," he said. "Those who did not fight were the onlyones to reap any of the rewards that are supposed to belongto victory. The combatants reaped naught but annihilation.You have seen--better than any man you must realize thatthere was no victory for any nation embroiled in thatfrightful war."

"When did it end?" I asked him.

Again he shook his head. "It has not ended yet. There hasnever been a formal peace declared in Europe. After a whilethere were none left to make peace, and the rude tribeswhich sprang from the survivors continued to fight amongthemselves because they knew no better condition of society.War razed the works of man--war and pestilence razed man.God give that there shall never be such another war!"

You all know how Porfirio Johnson returned to Pan-Americawith John Alvarez in chains; how Alvarez's trial raised apopular demonstration that the government could not ignore.His eloquent appeal--not for himself, but for me--ishistoric, as are its results. You know how a fleet was sentacross the Atlantic to search for me, how the restrictionsagainst crossing thirty to one hundred seventy-five wereremoved forever, and how the officers were brought toPeking, arriving upon the very day that Victory and I weremarried at the imperial court.

My return to Pan-America was very different from anything Icould possibly have imagined a year before. Instead ofbeing received as a traitor to my country, I was acclaimed ahero. It was good to get back again, good to witness thekindly treatment that was accorded my dear Victory, and whenI learned that Delcarte and Taylor had been found at themouth of the Rhine and were already back in Pan-America myjoy was unalloyed.

And now we are going back, Victory and I, with the men andthe munitions and power to reclaim England for her queen.Again I shall cross thirty, but under what alteredconditions!

A new epoch for Europe is inaugurated, with enlightenedChina on the east and enlightened Pan-America on the west--the two great peace powers whom God has preserved toregenerate chastened and forgiven Europe. I have beenthrough much--I have suffered much, but I have won two greatlaurel wreaths beyond thirty. One is the opportunity torescue Europe from barbarism, the other is a littlebarbarian, and the greater of these is--Victory.