private landing-place. I pleaded a secret commission, and entreated him to go round by the pathway along the rocks to his own dwelling, and to bring me a boat-cloak. He went at length, but there was suspicion in his eye; and I fear he may have aroused those whose footsteps have alarmed you. Hasten to the boat."

He gave his hand to Claudia, and Alypius assisted Medora, whose steps were steady, though her cheek was deadly pale.

They rapidly descended the rocky slope by steps cut in its surface; Pyrrha and Yanina followed. Springing into a boat which lay hidden in the shadow, Indah and Alypius each seized an oar, and were on the point of leaving the shore; when the former dropped his oar, and sprang again on the rocky pathway, exclaiming,

"I must secure that door. If we are pursued, it will be by the way you have come. We must prevent any one from following us!"

He bounded up the steps, and hastily locked and barred the door. He was not a moment too soon; for as he leaped down the steps he heard the door violently shaken from within, and then several voices called upon his name.

But he was in the boat, and had pushed it from the rock. A few strokes of the oars carried the little vessel to a safe distance, before the man, who had so evidently given the alarm, appeared on the pathway by which he had left the spot. He carried a large cloak on his arm; and, in a friendly voice, he begged Indah to return and take it. While he spoke, he unfastened the door; and several dark figures rushed out, and hurried down to the water's edge.

Loudly they called on Indah to return, and promised him a full pardon, and a rich reward, if he would bring the fugitives again to shore. But Indah only indulged in a low chuckling laugh, and plied his oar with a vigour that was well seconded by the strong arms of Alypius.

Then the entreaties of their pursuers were changed into curses loud and fierce. The souls of the whole party, and especially Indah, were consigned to all the horrors of Amenti; and threatened with a transmigration into the forms of the most loathsome and degraded animals—into toads and swine.

The habitual fear and reverence which both Indah and his wife entertained for the priests, and their belief in their being endowed with supernatural power, caused them to tremble as these awful denunciations reached their ears. But their knowledge of the unscrupulous and fanatical character of the priests led them to doubt the fair promises they now made; and, even if they could have secured their own safety, and a rich remuneration for their treachery, they would not have delivered up those who had placed so much confidence in them, into the hands of such cruel enemies.

CHAPTER XXV.

APPILY-we should rather say, providentially-the moon retired behind a thick, heavy mist that rose up from the western desert, just as our fugitive party got beyond hearing the voices of the angry priests. Soon the whole sky was overcast, and darkness surrounded the little boat. The island was shrouded from view, and would have been altogether invisible, but for a few lights which could still be discerned, and which, as they moved rapidly from place to place, showed that the sacred island was in a state of unwonted alarm and commotion.

Hitherto the boat had taken a westerly course, and had appeared to be making directly for a small village on that side of the Nile; but as soon as her course could no longer be observed from the island, Indah gave the word, and she was allowed to drop down considerably to the south of Philæ. Then the rowers resumed their oars, and with redoubled efforts struck across the smooth, lake-like reach of the river, in the centre of which the sacred island stands, like a jewel set in a silver shield, towards the spot from which they had embarked not very many days before.

They felt sure that the priests, if they pursued them, would seek them on the western shore, as less frequented, and also as having seen them leave the island in that direction.