I. Death, Life, and Love
II. Eastward Ho!
III. Catastrophe!
IV. “To-Morrow is Our Wedding-Day”
V. The Search for the Records
VI. Trapped!
VII. The Leaden Chest
VIII. “Till Death Us Do Part”
IX. At Settlement Cliffs
X. Separation
XI. “Hail to the Master!”
XII. Challenged!
XIII. The Ravished Nest
XIV. On the Trail of the Monster
XV. In the Grip of Terror
XVI. A Respite from Toil
XVII. The Distant Menace
XVIII. The Annunciation
XIX. The Master of His Race
XX. Disaster!
XXI. Allan Returns Not
XXII. The Treason of H'yemba
XXIII. The Return of the Master
XXIV. “The Boy Is Gone!”
XXV. The Fall of H'yemba
XXVI. The Coming of the Horde
XXVII. War!
XXVIII. The Besom of Flame
XXIX. Allan's Narrative
XXX. Into the Fire-Swept Wilderness
XXXI. A Strange Apparition
XXXII. The Meeting of the Bands
XXXIII. Five Years Later
XXXIV. History and Roses
XXXV. The Afterglow
BOOK I
THE VACANT WORLD
CHAPTER I
THE AWAKENING
Dimly, like the daybreak glimmer of a sky long wrapped in fogs, a sign of consciousness began to dawn in the face of the tranced girl.
Once more the breath of life began to stir in that full bosom, to which again a vital warmth had on this day of days crept slowly back.
And as she lay there, prone upon the dusty floor, her beautiful face buried and shielded in the hollow of her arm, a sigh welled from her lips.
Life--life was flowing back again! The miracle of miracles was growing to reality.
Faintly now she breathed; vaguely her heart began to throb once more. She stirred. She moaned, still for the moment powerless to cast off wholly the enshrouding incubus of that tremendous, dreamless sleep.
Then her hands closed. The finely tapered fingers tangled themselves in the masses of thick, luxuriant hair which lay outspread all over and about her. The eyelids trembled.