Moreover, as I slowly circled over the lake that only a few hours before Zarlah and I had wistfully gazed upon together as we built a world of happiness for ourselves, I felt that I was near to her, should the danger of which I had been forewarned prove real.  Here in the scene of our happiness I would wait through the early hours—­the last hours of our separation.

Slowly descending, I brought the aerenoid to rest in a spot obscured by trees from the villa.  A few feet away, the little brook sparkled merrily in the sunlight as it leaped along on its journey to the lake, and, as I opened the door of the car, its joyous song swelled upon the fragrant morning air, laughing at my forebodings in this world of peace, as it had laughed at my despair of the previous night.

As I stepped out into the warm sunlight and made my way toward the lake, a great joy filled my heart.  It would not be long ere Zarlah shared with me the happiness of the knowledge that we need never again be separated.

“Poor Zarlah!” I murmured, as the memory of our last parting with its great anguish of a forlorn hope sent a pang to my heart.  “The bitterness in thy cup was indeed great, but it is past.  Oh, my beloved, awake to the light of a new day filled with gladness, and sorrow shall not again cross thy path!”

I paused, fancying I heard footsteps, and, glancing back, listened intently.  All was still, and I was just about to proceed when again the sound came.  This time I could not be mistaken; it was the sound of hurried footsteps some distance off and in the direction of the villa.

I was still hidden from the villa by the trees, but across the stream, some thirty yards away, was an opening from which a view of it could be had.  Leaping the stream I hastened thither, anxious to learn the cause of the untimely activity.  Another moment, and I should have been too late to see a slight figure, laden with what appeared to be wraps and other travelling equipment, hurry across the balcony and step into the large high-speed aerenoid that I had observed there the previous evening.

It was Zarlah!  But what was the reason of this hasty departure at such an hour?  Suddenly a frenzy seized me, and, rushing toward the villa, I frantically called to her, but it was too late.  She had not seen me, and, before I had taken many steps, the aerenoid rose rapidly to a great height and disappeared over the trees.

Not a moment was to be lost.  Turning, I dashed wildly back toward the aerenoid I had so foolishly left in concealment.  Reaching the stream, I stumbled over an entanglement of vines and plunged headlong therein, only to scramble, dripping and bruised, up the opposite bank and continue my frantic efforts to reach the aerenoid, before Zarlah’s car had disappeared from sight.  What her intention was I knew not, but the early hour, the haste with which she had departed, and the absence of her brother, all conspired to arouse the fears that had beset me during the long hours of the night.