Hotter and hotter grew that stifling spell, more and more languid manand beast, drier and drier the parching earth.

　　All the water gave out on the morning after I had bearded Ar-hap in hisden, and our strength went with it. No earthly heat was ever like it, and itdrank our vitality up from every pore. Water there was down below inthe bitter, streaming gulf, but so noisome that we dared not even bathethere; here there was none but the faintest trickle. All discipline was at anend; all desire save such as was born of thirst. Heru I saw as often as Iwished as she lay gasping, with poor Si at her feet, in the women'sverandah; but the heat was so tremendous that I gazed at her with lack-lustre eyes, staggering to and fro amongst the court- yard shadows,without nerve to plot her rescue or strength to carry out anything my mindmight have conceived.

　　We prayed for rain and respite. Ar-hap had prayed with a wealth ofpicturesque ceremonial. We had all prayed and cursed by turns, but stillthe heavens would not relent, and the rain came not.

　　At last the stifling heat and vapour reached an almost intolerable pitch.

　　The earth reeked with unwholesome hum- ours no common summer coulddraw from it, the air was sulphurous and heavy, while overhead the skyseemed a tawny dome, from edge to edge of angry clouds, parting nowand then to let us see the red disc threatening us.

　　Hour after hour slipped by until, when evening was upon us, theclouds drew together, and thunder, with a continu- ous low rumble, beganto rock from sky to sky. Fitful showers of rain, odorous and heavy, butunsatisfying, fell, and birds and beasts of the woodlands came slinking into our streets and courtyards. Ever since the sky first darkened our ownanimals had become strangely familiar, and now here were these wildthings of the woods slinking in for companion- ship, sagheaded andfrightened. To me especially they came, until that last evening as Istaggered dying about the streets or sat staring into the remorseless skyfrom the steps of Heru's prison house, all sorts of beasts drew softly in andcrowded about, whether I sat or moved, all asking for the hope I had not to  give them.

　　At another time this might have been embarrassing; then it seemedpure commonplace. It was a sight to see them slink in between theuseless showers, which fell like hot tears upon us--sleek panthers withlolling tongues; russet-red wood dogs; bears and sloths from the darkarcades of the remote forests, all casting themselves down gasping in thepalace shadows; strange deer, who staggered to the garden plots and laythere heaving their lives out; mighty boars, who came from the rivermarshes and silently nozzled a place amongst their enemies to die in!

　　Even the wolves came off the hills, and, with bloodshot eyes and tonguesthat dripped foam, flung themselves down in my shadow.

　　All along the tall stockades apes sat sad and listless, and on the roof-ridges storks were dying. Over the branches of the trees, whose leaveswere as thin as though we had had a six months' drought, the toucans andMartian parrots hung limp and fashionless like gaudy rags, and in thecourtyard ground the corn-rats came up from their tunnels in the scorchingearth to die, squeaking in scores along under the walls.

　　Our common sorrow made us as sociable as though I were Noah, andAr-hap's palace mound another Ararat. Hour after hour I sat amongst allthese lesser beasts in the hot darkness, waiting for the end. Every nowand then the heavy clouds parted, changing the gloom to sudden fierydaylight as the great red eye in the west looked upon us through thecrevice, and, taking advantage of those gleams, I would reel across towhere, under a spout leading from a dried rivulet, I had placed a cup tocollect the slow and tepid drops that were all now coming down the reedfor Heru. And as I went back each time with that sickly spoonful at thebottom of the vessel all the dying beasts lifted their heads and watched-the thirsty wolves shamb- ling after me; the boars half sat up and gruntedplaintively; the panthers, too weak to rise, beat the dusty ground with theirtails; and from the portico the blue storks, with trailing wings, croakedhusky greeting.

　　But slower and slower came the dripping water, more and moreintolerable the heat. At last I could stand it no longer. What purposedid it serve to lay gasping like this, dying cruelly without a hope of rescue,  when a shorter way was at my side? I had not drank for a day and a half.

　　I was past active reviling; my head swam; my reason was clouded. No!

　　would not stand it any longer. Once more I would take Heru and poor Sithe cup that was but a mockery after all, then fix my sword into the groundand try what next the Fates had in store for me.

　　So once again the leathern mug was fetched and carried through theprostrate guards to where the Martian girl lay, like a withered flower, uponher couch. Once again I moistened those fair lips, while my own tonguewas black and swollen in my throat, then told Si, who had had none all theafternoon, to drink half and leave half for Heru. Poor Si put her achinglips to the cup and tilted it a little, then passed it to her mistress. AndHeru drank it all, and Si cried a few hot tears behind her hands, FOR SHEHAD TAKEN NONE, and she knew it was her life!

　　Again picking a way through the courtyard, scarce notic- ing how thebeasts lifted their heads as I passed, I went instinctively, cup in hand, tothe well, and then hesitated. Was I a coward to leave Heru so? Ought Inot to stay and see it out to the bitter end? Well, I would compound withFate. I would give the malicious gods one more chance. I would put thecup down again, and until seven drops had fallen into it I would wait.

　　That there might be no mistake about it, no sooner was the mug in placeunder the nozzle wherefrom the moisture beads collected and fell withinfinite slowness, than my sword, on which I meant to throw my- self, wasbared and the hilt forced into a gaping crack in the ground, and sullenlycontented to leave my fate so, I sat down beside it.

　　I turned grimly to the spout and saw the first drop fall, then another,and another later on, but still no help came. There was a long rift in theclouds now, and a glare like that from an open furnace door was upon me.

　　I had noticed when I came to the spring how the comet which was killingus hung poised exactly upon the point of a dis- tant hill. If he had passedhis horrible meridian, if he was going from us, if he sunk but a hair'sbreadth before that seventh drop should fall, I could tell it would meansalvation.

　　But the fourth drop fell, and he was big as ever. The fifth drop fell,and a hot, pleasing nose was thrust into my hand, and looking down I saw  a grey wolf had dragged herself across the court and was asking witheloquent eyes for the help I could not give. The sixth drop gathered, andfell; already the seventh was like a seedling pearl in its place. The dyingwolf yanked affectionately at my hand, but I put her by and undid mytunic. Big and bright that drop hung to the spout lip; another minute andit would fall. A beauti- ful drop, I laughed, peering closely at it, manycoloured, prismatic, flushing red and pink, a tiny living ruby, hanging by atouch to the green rim above; enough! enough! The quiver of an eyelashwould unhinge it now; and angry with the life I already felt was behind me,and turning in defiant expectation to the new to come, I rose, saw the redgleam of my sword jutting like a fiery spear from the cracking soil where Ihad planted it, then looked once more at the drop and glanced for the lasttime at the sullen red terror on the hill.

　　Were my eyes dazed, my senses reeling? I said a space ago that themeteor stood exactly on the mountain-top and if it sunk a hair's breadth Ishould note it; and now, why, there WAS a flaw in its lower margin, aflattening of the great red foot that before had been round and perfect. Iturned my smarting eyes away a minute,--saw the seventh drop fall with amelodious tingle into the cup, then back again,-- there was no mistake--thetruant fire was a fraction less, it had shrunk a fraction behind the hill evensince I looked, and thereon all my life ran back into its channels, the worlddanced before me, and "Heru!" I shouted hoarsely, reeling back towardsthe palace, "Heru, 'tis well; the worst is past!"But the little princess was unconscious, and at her feet was poor Si,quite dead, still reclining with her head in her hands just as I had left her.

　　Then my own senses gave out, and dropping down by them I rememberedno more.

　　I must have lain there an hour or two, for when con- sciousness cameagain it was night--black, cool, profound night, with an inky sky low downupon the tree-tops, and out of it such a glorious deluge of rain descendingswiftly and silently as filled my veins even to listen to. Eagerly Ishuffled away to the porch steps, down them into the swimming courtyard,and ankle-deep in the glorious flood, set to work lapping furiously at thefirst puddle, drinking with gasps of pleasure, gasping and drinking again,  feeling my body filling out like the thirsty steaming earth below me.

　　Then, as I still drank insatiably, there came a gleam of lightning out of thegloom overhead, a brilliant yellow blaze, and by it I saw a few yards awaya panther drinking at the same pool as myself, his gleaming eyes lowdown like mine upon the water, and by his side two apes, the black waterrunning in at their gaping mouths, while out beyond were more pools,more drinking animals. Everything was drinking. I saw their outlinedforms, the gleam shining on wet skins as though they were cut out in silveragainst the darkness, each beast steaming like a volcano as the Heaven-sent rain s............