He asked and received permission to light a cigarette, and then dropped wearily into a seat near the Princess, who sat upon the stone railing.

She was leaning back against the column and looking dreamily out across the lowlands toward the starlit sea.

The never-ceasing rush of the mountain stream came plainly up to them from below; now and then a cool dash of spray floated to their faces from the waterfall hard by.
The soft light from the shaded windows fell upon her glorious face.
Chase sat in silence for many minutes, covertly feasting his eyes upon her loveliness.

Her trim, graceful, seductive figure was outlined against the darkness; a delicate, sensuous fragrance exhaled from her person, filling him with an indescribable delight and languor; the spell of her beauty was upon him and he felt the leap of his blood.
"If I were you," he said at last, reluctant to despoil the picture, "I wouldn't sit up there.

It would be a very simple matter for one of our friends to pick you off with a shot from below.