"Come." So I called to Hans, who was hanging about with a rifle on his arm, to follow with a cloth and soap, of which fortunately we had a couple of pieces left, and we started along what had once been a paved roadway running between stone houses, whereof the time-eaten ruins still remained on either side.
"Who and what is this Queen of yours, Billali ?" I asked as we went.
"Surely she is not of the Amahagger blood." "Ask it of herself, O Watcher, for I cannot tell you.

All I know is that I can trace my own family for ten generations and that my tenth forefather told his son on his deathbed, for the saying has come down through his descendants--that when he was young She-who-commands had ruled the land for more scores of years than he could count months of life." I stopped and stared at him, since the lie was so amazing that it seemed to deprive me of the power of motion.

Noting my very obvious disbelief he continued blandly, "If you doubt, ask.

And now here is where you may bathe." Then he led me through an arched doorway and down a wrecked passage to what very obviously once had been a splendid bath-house such as some I have seen pictures of that were built by the Romans.

Its size was that of a large room; it was constructed of a kind of marble with a sloping bottom that varied from three to seven feet in depth, and water still ran in and out of it through large glazed pipes.