Queen Sheba's Ring: Chapter 11

Chapter 11

THE RESCUE FAILS

Our breakfast on the following morning was a somewhat gloomy meal. By
common consent no allusion was made to the events of the previous day,
or to our conversation at bedtime.

Indeed, there was no talk at all to speak of, since, not knowing
what else to do, I thought I could best show my attitude of mind by
preserving a severe silence, while Quick seemed to be absorbed
in philosophical reflections, and Orme looked rather excited and
dishevelled, as though he had been writing poetry, as I daresay was
the case. In the midst of this dreary meal a messenger arrived, who
announced that the Walda Nagasta would be pleased to see us all within
half-an-hour.

Fearing lest Orme should say something foolish, I answered briefly that
we would wait upon her, and the man went, leaving us wondering what had
happened to cause her to desire our presence.

At the appointed time we were shown into the small audience room, and,
as we passed its door, I ventured to whisper to Oliver:

"For your own sake and hers, as well as that of the rest of us, I
implore you to be careful. Your face is watched as well as your words."

"All right, old fellow," he answered, colouring a little. "You may trust
me."

"I wish I could," I muttered.

Then we were shown in ceremoniously, and made our bows to Maqueda, who
was seated, surrounded by some of the judges and officers, among them,
Prince Joshua, and talking to two rough-looking men clad in ordinary
brown robes. She greeted us, and after the exchange of the usual
compliments, said:

"Friends, I have summoned you for this reason. This morning when the
traitor Shadrach was being led out to execution at the hands of these
men, the officers of the law, he begged for a delay. When asked why, as
his petition for reprieve had been refused, he said that if his life
was spared he could show how your companion, he whom they call Black
Windows, may be rescued from the Fung."

"How?" asked Orme and I in one breath.

"I do not know," she answered, "but wisely they spared the man. Let him
be brought in."

A door opened, and Shadrach entered, his hands bound behind his back and
shackles on his feet. He was a very fearful and much chastened Shadrach,
for his eyes rolled and his teeth chattered with terror, as, having
prostrated himself to the Walda Nagasta, he wriggled round and tried to
kiss Orme's boot. The guards pulled him to his feet again, and Maqueda
said:

"What have you to tell us, traitor, before you die?"

"The thing is secret, O Bud of the Rose. Must I speak before so many?"

"Nay," she answered, and ordered most of those present to leave the
room, including the executioners and soldiers.

"The man is desperate, and there will be none left to guard him," said
Joshua nervously.

"I'll do that, your Highness," answered Quick in his bad Arabic, and
stepping up behind Shadrach he added in English, "Now then, Pussy, you
behave, or it will be the worse for you."

When all had gone again Shadrach was commanded to speak and say how he
could save the Englishman whom he had betrayed into the hands of the
Fung.

"Thus, Child of Kings," he answered, "Black Windows, as we know, is
imprisoned in the body of the great idol."

"How do you know it, man?"

"O Lady, I do know it, and also the Sultan said so, did he not? Well,
I can show a secret road to that idol whence he may be reached and
rescued. In my boyhood I, who am called Cat, because I can climb so
well, found that road, and when the Fung took me afterward and threw
me to the lions, where I got these scars upon my face, by it I escaped.
Spare me, and I will show it to you."

"It is not enough to show the road," said Maqueda. "Dog, you must save
the foreign lord whom you betrayed. If you do not save him you die. Do
you understand?"

"That is a hard saying, Lady," answered the man. "Am I God that I should
promise to save this stranger who perchance is already dead? Yet I
will do my best, knowing that if I fail you will kill me, and that if
I succeed I shall be spared. At any rate, I will show you the road to
where he is or was imprisoned, although I warn you that it is a rough
one."

"Where you can travel we can follow," said Maqueda. "Tell us now what we
must do."

So he told her, and when he had done the Prince Joshua intervened,
saying that it was not fitting that the Child of Kings in her own sacred
person should undertake such a dangerous journey. She listened to his
remonstrances and thanked him for his care of her.

"Still I am going," she said, "not for the sake of the stranger who is
called Black Windows, but because, if there is a secret way out of Mur
I think it well that I should know that way. Yet I agree with you,
my uncle, that on such a journey I ought not to be unprotected, and
therefore I pray that you will be ready to start with us at noon, since
I am sure that then we shall all be safe."

Now Joshua began to make excuses, but she would not listen to them.

"No, no," she said, "you are too honest. The honour of the Abati is
involved in this manner, since, alas! it was an Abati that betrayed
Black Windows, and an Abati--namely, yourself--must save him. You have
often told me, my uncle, how clever you are at climbing rocks, and now
you shall make proof of your skill and courage before these foreigners.
It is a command, speak no more," and she rose, to show that the audience
was finished.

That same afternoon Shadrach, by mountain paths that were known to him,
led a little company of people to the crest of the western precipice of
Mur. Fifteen hundred feet or more beneath us lay the great plains upon
which, some miles away, could be seen the city of Harmac. But the idol
in the valley we could not see, because here the precipice bent over and
hid it from our sight.

"What now, fellow," said Maqueda, who was clad in the rough sheepskin
of a peasant woman, which somehow looked charming upon her. "Here is the
cliff, there lies the plain; I see no road between the two, and my wise
uncle, the prince, tells me that he never heard of one."

"Lady," answered the man, "now I take command, and you must follow me.
But first let us see that nobody and nothing are lacking."

Then he went round the company and numbered them. In all we were
sixteen; Maqueda and Joshua, we three Englishmen, armed with repeating
rifles and revolvers, our guide Shadrach, and some picked Mountaineers
chosen for their skill and courage. For even in Mur there were brave men
left, especially among the shepherds and huntsmen, whose homes were on
the cliffs. These sturdy guides were laden with ropes, lamps, and long,
slender ladders that could be strapped together.

When everything had been checked and all the ladders and straps tested,
Shadrach went to a clump of bushes which grew feebly on the wind-swept
crest of the precipice. In the midst of these he found and removed a
large flat stone, revealing what evidently had been the head of a stair,
although now its steps were much worn and crumbled by the water that in
the wet season followed this natural drain to the depths below.

"This is that road the ancients made for purposes of their own,"
explained Shadrach, "which, as I have said, I chanced to discover when
I was a boy. But let none follow it who are afraid, for it is steep and
rough."

Now Joshua, who was already weary with his long ride and walk up to the
crest of the precipice, implored Maqueda almost passionately to abandon
the idea of entering this horrid hole, while Oliver backed up his
entreaties with few words but many appealing glances, for on this point,
though for different reasons, the prince and he were at one.

But she would not listen.

"My uncle," she said, "with you, the experienced mountaineer, why should
I be afraid? If the Doctor here, who is old enough to be the father of
either of us" (so far as Joshua was concerned this remark lacked truth),
"is willing to go, surely I can go also? Moreover, if I remained behind,
you would wish to stay to guard me, and never should I forgive myself
if I deprived you of such a great adventure. Also, like you, I love
climbing. Come, let us waste no more time."

So we were roped up. First went Shadrach, with Quick next to him, a
position which the Sergeant insisted upon occupying as his custodian,
and several of the Mountaineers, carrying ladders, lamps, oil, food and
other things. Then in a second gang came two more of these men, Oliver,
Maqueda, myself, and next to me, Joshua. The remaining mountaineers
brought up the rear, carrying spare stores, ladders, and so forth. When
all was ready the lamps were lit, and we started upon a very strange
journey.

For the first two hundred feet or so the stairs, though worn and almost
perpendicular, for the place was like the shaft of a mine, were not
difficult to descend, to any of us except Joshua, whom I heard puffing
and groaning behind me. Then came a gallery running eastward at a steep
slope for perhaps fifty paces, and at the end of it a second shaft of
about the same depth as the first, but with the stairs much more worn,
apparently by the washing of water, of which a good deal trickled out of
the sides of the shaft. Another difficulty was that the air rushing up
from below made it hard to keep the lamps alight.

Toward the bottom of this section there was scarcely any stair left, and
the climbing became very dangerous. Here, indeed, Joshua slipped, and
with a wail of terror slid down the shaft and landed with his legs
across my back in such a fashion that had I not happened to have
good hand and foot hold at the time, he would have propelled me on to
Maqueda, and we must have all rolled down headlong, probably to our
deaths.

As it was, this fat and terrified fellow cast his arms about my neck, to
which he clung, nearly choking me, until, just when I was about to faint
beneath his weight and pressure, the Mountaineers in the third party
arrived and dragged him off. When they had got him in charge, for I
refused to move another step while he was immediately behind me, we
descended by a ladder which the first party had set up, to the second
level, where began another long, eastward sloping passage that ended at
the mouth of a third pit.

Here arose the great question as to what was to be done with the Prince
Joshua, who vowed that he could go no farther, and demanded loudly to be
taken back to the top of the cliff, although Shadrach assured him that
thenceforward the road was much easier. At length we were obliged to
refer the matter to Maqueda, who settled it in very few words.

"My uncle," she said, "you tell us that you cannot come on, and it
is certain that we cannot spare the time and men to send you back.
Therefore, it seems that you must stop where you are until we return,
and if we should not return, make the best of your own way up the shaft.
Farewell, my uncle, this place is safe and comfortable, and if you are
wise you will rest awhile."

"Heartless woman!" gobbled Joshua, who was shaking like a jelly with
fear and rage. "Would you leave your affianced lord and lover alone in
this haunted hole while you scramble down rocks like a wild cat with
strangers? If I must stay, do you stay with me?"

"Certainly not," replied Maqueda with decision. "Shall it be said that
the Child of Kings is afraid to go where her guests can travel?"

Well, the end of it was that Joshua came on in the centre of the third
body of Mountaineers, who were practically obliged to carry him.

Shadrach was right, since for some reason or other the stairs
thenceforward remained more perfect. Only they seemed almost endless,
and before we reached our goal I calculated that we must have descended
quite twelve hundred feet into the bowels of the rock. At length, when I
was almost tired out and Maqueda was so breathless that she was obliged
to lean on Oliver, dragging me behind her like a dog on a string, of a
sudden we saw a glimmer of daylight that crept into the tunnel through a
small hole. By the mouth of yet another pit or shaft, we found Shadrach
and the others waiting for us. Saluting, he said that we must unrope,
leave our lamps behind, and follow him. Oliver asked him whither this
last shaft led.

"To a still lower level, lord," he answered, "but one which you will
scarcely care to explore, since it ends in the great pit where the Fung
keep their sacred lions."

"Indeed," said Oliver, much interested for reasons of his own, and he
glanced at Quick, who nodded his head and whistled.

Then we all followed Shadrach to find ourselves presently upon a plateau
about the size of a racquet court which, either by nature or by the hand
of man, had been recessed into the face of that gigantic cliff. Going
to the edge of this plateau, whereon grew many tree-ferns and some thick
green bushes that would have made us invisible from below even had there
been any one to see us, we saw that the sheer precipice ran down beneath
for several hundred feet. Of these yawning depths, however, we did not
at the moment make out much, partly because they were plunged in shadow
and partly for another reason.

Rising out of the gulf below was what we took at first to be a rounded
hill of black rock, oblong in shape, from which projected a gigantic
shaft of stone ending in a kind of fretted bush that alone was of the
size of a cottage. The point of this bush-like rock was exactly opposite
the little plateau on to which we had emerged and distant from it not
more than thirty, or at most, forty feet.

"What is that?" asked Maqueda, of Shadrach, pointing in front of her, as
she handed back to one of the Mountaineers a cup from which she had been
drinking water.

"That, O Walda Nagasta," he answered, "is nothing else than the back
of the mighty idol of the Fung, which is shaped like a lion. The great
shaft of rock with the bush at the end of it is the tail of the lion.
Doubtless this platform on which we stand is a place whence the old
priests, when they owned Mur as well as the land of the Fung, used to
hide themselves to watch whatever it was they wanted to see. Look," and
he pointed to certain grooves in the face of the rock, "I think that
here there was once a bridge which could be let down at will on to the
tail of the lion-god, though long ago it has rotted away. Yet ere now I
have travelled this road without it."

We stared at him astonished, and in the silence that followed I heard
Maqueda whisper to Oliver:

"Perhaps that is how he whom we call Cat escaped from the Fung; or
perhaps that is how he communicates with them as a spy."

"Or perhaps he is a liar, my Lady," interrupted Quick, who had also
overheard their talk, a solution which, I confess, commended itself to
me.

"Why have you brought us here?" asked Maqueda presently.

"Did I not tell you in Mur, Lady--to rescue Black Windows? Listen, now,
it is the custom of the Fung to allow those who are imprisoned within
the idol to walk unguarded upon its back at dawn and sunset. At least,
this is their custom with Black Windows--ask me not how I know it; this
is truth, I swear it on my life, which is at stake. Now this is my plan.
We have with us a ladder which will reach from where we stand to the
tail of the idol. Should the foreign lord appear upon the back of the
god, which, if he still lives, as I believe he does, he is almost sure
to do at sundown, as a man who dwells in the dark all day will love the
light and air when he can get them, then some of us must cross and bring
him back with us. Perhaps it had best be you, my lord Orme, since if
I went alone, or even with these men, after what is past Black Windows
might not altogether trust me."

"Fool," broke in Maqueda, "how can a man do such a thing?"

"O Lady, it is not so difficult as it looks. A few steps across the
gulf, and then a hundred feet or so along the tail of the lion which
is flat on the top and so broad that one may run down it if careful to
follow the curves, that is on a still day--nothing more. But, of course,
if the Lord Orme is afraid, which I did not think who have heard so much
of his courage----" and the rogue shrugged his shoulders and paused.

"Afraid, fellow," said Oliver, "well, I am not ashamed to be afraid of
such a journey. Yet if there is need I will make it, though not before
I see my brother alone yonder on the rock, since all this may be but
a trick of yours to deliver me to the Fung, among whom I know that you
have friends."

"It is madness; you shall not go," said Maqueda. "You will fall and be
dashed to pieces. I say that you shall not go."

"Why should he not go, my niece?" interrupted Joshua. "Shadrach is
right; we have heard much of the courage of this Gentile. Now let us see
him do something."

She turned on the Prince like a tiger.

"Very good, my uncle, then you shall go with him. Surely one of the
ancient blood of the Abati will not shirk from what a 'Gentile' dares."

On hearing this Joshua relapsed into silence, and I have no clear memory
of what he did or said in connection with the rest of that thrilling
scene.

Now followed a pause in the midst of which Oliver sat down and began to
take off his boots.

"Why do you undress yourself, friend?" asked Maqueda nervously.

"Because, Lady," he answered, "if I have to walk yonder road it is safer
to do so in my stockings. Have no fear," he added gently, "from boyhood
I have been accustomed to such feats, and when I served in my country's
army it was my pleasure to give instruction in them, although it is true
that this one surpasses all that ever I attempted."

"Still I do fear," she said.

Meanwhile Quick had sat down and begun to take off _his_ boots.

"What are you doing, Sergeant?" I asked.

"Getting ready to accompany the Captain upon forlorn hope, Doctor."

"Nonsense," I said, "you are too old for the game, Sergeant. If any one
goes, I should, seeing that I believe my son is over there, but I can't
try it, as I know my head would give out, and I should fall in a second,
which would only upset everybody."

"Of course," broke in Oliver, who had overheard us, "I'm in command
here, and my orders are that neither of you shall come. Remember,
Sergeant, that if anything happens to me it is your business to take
over the stores and use them if necessary, which you alone can do. Now
go and see to the preparations, and find out the plan of campaign, for I
want to rest and keep quiet. I daresay the whole thing is humbug, and we
shall see nothing of the Professor; still, one may as well be prepared."

So Quick and I went to superintend the lashing of two of the light
ladders together and the securing of some planks which we had brought
with us upon the top of the rungs, so as to make these ladders easy to
walk on. I asked who would be of the party besides Shadrach and Orme,
and was told no one, as all were afraid. Ultimately, however, a man
named Japhet, one of the Mountaineers, volunteered upon being promised
a grant of land from the Child of Kings herself, which grant she
proclaimed before them all was to be given to his relatives in the event
of his death.

At length everything was ready, and there came another spell of silence,
for the nerves of all of us were so strained that we did not seem able
to talk. It was broken by a sound of sudden and terrible roaring that
arose from the gulf beneath.

"It is the hour of the feeding of the sacred lions which the Fung keep
in the pit about the base of the idol," explained Shadrach. Then he
added, "Unless he should be rescued, I believe that Black Windows
will be given to the lions to-night, which is that of full moon and a
festival of Harmac, though maybe he will be kept till the next full moon
when all the Fung come up to worship."

This information did not tend to raise anyone's spirits, although Quick,
who always tried to be cheerful, remarked that it was probably false.

The shadows began to gather in the Valley of Harmac, whereby we knew
that the sun was setting behind the mountains. Indeed, had it not been
for a clear and curious glow reflected from the eastern sky, the gulf
would have plunged us in gloom. Presently, far away upon a rise of rock
which we knew must be the sphinx head of the huge idol, a little figure
appeared outlined against the sky, and there began to sing. The moment
that I heard the distant voice I went near to fainting, and indeed
should have fallen had not Quick caught me.

"What is it, Adams?" asked Oliver, looking up from where he and Maqueda
sat whispering to each other while the fat Joshua glowered at them in
the background. "Has Higgs appeared?"

"No," I answered, "but, thank God, my son still lives. That is his
voice. Oh! if you can, save him, too."

Now there was much suppressed excitement, and some one thrust a pair
of field-glasses into my hand, but either they were wrongly set or the
state of my nerves would not allow me to see through them. So Quick took
them and reported.

"Tall, slim figure wearing a white robe, but at the distance in this
light can't make out the face. One might hail him, perhaps, only it
would give us away. Ah! the hymn is done and he's gone; seemed to jump
into a hole in the rock, which shows that he's all right, anyway, or
he couldn't jump. So cheer up, Doctor, for you have much to be thankful
for."

"Yes," I repeated after him, "much to be thankful for, but still I would
that I had more after all these years to search. To think that I should
be so close to him and he know nothing of it."

After the ceasing of the song and the departure of my son, there
appeared upon the back of the idol three Fung warriors, fine fellows
clad in long robes and armed with spears, and behind them a trumpeter
who carried a horn or hollowed elephant's tusk. These men marched up and
down the length of the platform from the rise of the neck to the root of
the tail, apparently to make an inspection. Having found nothing, for,
of course, they could not see us hidden behind the bushes on our little
plateau, of which no doubt they did not even know the existence, and
much less that it was connected with the mountain plain of Mur, the
trumpeter blew a shrill blast upon his horn, and before the echoes of it
had died away, vanished with his companions.

"Sunset tour of inspection. Seen the same kind of thing as at Gib.,"
said the Sergeant. "Oh! by Jingo! Pussy isn't lying after all--there
he is," and he pointed to a figure that rose suddenly out of the black
stone of the idol's back just as the guards had done.

It was Higgs, Higgs without a doubt; Higgs wearing his battered
sun-helmet and his dark spectacles; Higgs smoking his big meerschaum
pipe, and engaged in making notes in a pocket-book as calmly as though
he sat before a new object in the British Museum.

I gasped with astonishment, for somehow I had never expected that we
should really see him, but Orme, rising very quietly from his seat
beside Maqueda, only said:

"Yes, that's the old fellow right enough. Well, now for it. You,
Shadrach, run out your ladder and cross first that I may be sure you
play no trick."

"Nay," broke in Maqueda, "this dog shall not go, for never would he
return from his friends the Fung. Man," she said, addressing Japhet, the
Mountaineer to whom she had promised land, "go you over first and hold
the end of the ladder while this lord crosses. If he returns safe your
reward is doubled."

Japhet saluted, the ladder was run out and its end set upon the
roughnesses in the rock that represented the hair of the sphinx's tail.
The Mountaineer paused a moment with hands and face uplifted; evidently
he was praying. Then bidding his companions hold the hither end of the
ladder, and having first tested it with his foot and found that it hung
firm, calmly he walked across, being a brave fellow, and presently was
seen seated on the opposing mass of rock.

Now came Oliver's turn. He nodded to Maqueda, who went white as a sheet,
muttering some words to her that did not reach me. Then he turned and
shook my hand.

"If you can, save my son also," I whispered.

"I'll do my best if I can get hold of him," he answered. "Sergeant, if
anything happens to me you know your duty."

"I'll try and follow your example, Captain, under all circumstances,
though that will be hard," replied Quick in a rather shaky voice.

Oliver stepped out on the ladder. I reckoned that twelve or fourteen
short paces would take him across, and the first half of these he
accomplished with quiet certainty. When he was in the exact middle of
the passage, however, the end of one of the uprights of the ladder at
the farther side slipped a little, notwithstanding the efforts of Japhet
to keep it straight, with the result that the plank bound on the rungs
lost its level, sinking an inch or so to the right, and nearly causing
Oliver to fall from it into the gulf. He wavered like a wind-shaken
reed, attempted to step forward, hesitated, stopped, and slowly sank on
to his hands and knees.

"_Ah_!" panted Maqueda.

"The Gentile has lost his head," began Joshua in a voice full of the
triumph that he could not hide. "He--will----"

Joshua got no further, for Quick, turning, threatened him savagely with
his fist, saying in English:

"Stow your jaw if you don't want to follow him, you swine," whereon
Joshua, who understood the gesture, if not the words, relapsed into
silence.

Now the Mountaineer on the farther side spoke, saying:

"Have no fear, the ladder is safe."

For a moment Oliver remained in his crouching posture on the board,
which was all that separated him from an awful death in the gulf
beneath. Next, while we watched, agonized, he rose to his feet again,
and with perfect calmness walked across to its other end.

"Well done our side!" said Quick, addressing Joshua, "why don't your
Royal Highness cheer? No, you leave that knife alone, or presently
there'll be a hog the less in this world," and stooping down he relieved
the Prince of the weapon which he was fingering with his round eyes
fixed upon the Sergeant.

Maqueda, who had noted all, now interfered.

"My uncle," she said, "brave men are risking their lives yonder while we
sit in safety. Be silent and cease from quarrelling, I pray you."

Next moment we had forgotten all about Joshua, being utterly absorbed in
watching the drama in progress upon the farther side of the gulf. After
a slight pause to recover his nerve or breath, Orme rose, and preceded
by Japhet, climbed up the bush-like rock till he reached the shaft
of the sphinx's tail. Here he turned and waved his hand to us,
then following the Mountaineer, walked, apparently with the utmost
confidence, along the curves of the tail to where it sprang from the
body of the idol. At this spot there was a little difficulty in climbing
over the smooth slope of rock on to the broad terrace-like back. Soon,
however, they surmounted it, and vanishing for a few seconds into
the hollow of the loins, which, of course, was a good many feet deep,
re-appeared moving toward the shoulders. Between these we could see
Higgs standing with his back toward us, utterly unconscious of all that
was passing behind him.

Passing Japhet, Oliver walked up to the Professor and touched him on
the arm. Higgs turned, stared at the pair for a moment, and then, in
his astonishment, or so we guessed, sat down plump upon the rock. They
pulled him to his feet, Orme pointing to the cliff behind, and evidently
explaining the situation and what must be done. Then followed a short
and animated talk. Through the glasses we could even see Higgs shaking
his head. He told them something, they came to a determination, for
now he turned, stepped forward a pace or two, and vanished, as I learnt
afterwards, to fetch my son, without whom he would not try to escape.

A while went by; it seemed an age, but really was under a minute. We
heard the sound of shouts. Higgs's white helmet reappeared, and then his
body, with two Fung guards clinging on to him. He yelled out in English
and the words reached us faintly:

"Save yourself! I'll hold these devils. Run, you infernal fool, run!"

Oliver hesitated, although the Mountaineer was pulling at him, till the
heads of more Fung appeared. Then, with a gesture of despair, he turned
and fled. First ran Oliver, then Japhet, whom he had outpaced, and after
them came a number of priests or guards, waving knives, while in the
background Higgs rolled on the rock with his captors.

The rest was very short. Orme slid down the rump of the idol on to the
tail, followed by the Mountaineer, and after them in single file came
three Fung, who apparently thought no more of the perilous nature of
their foothold than do the sheiks of the Egyptian pyramids when they
swarm about those monuments like lizards. Nor, for the matter of that,
did Oliver or Japhet, who doubled down the tail as though it were a race
track. Oliver swung himself on to the ladder, and in a second was
half across it, we holding its other end, when suddenly he heard his
companion cry out. A Fung had got hold of Japhet by the leg and he lay
face downward on the board.

Oliver halted and slowly turned round, drawing his revolver as he did
so. Then he aimed and fired, and the Fung, leaving go of Japhet's leg,
threw up his arms and plunged headlong into the gulf beneath. The next
thing I remember is that they were both among us, and somebody shouted,
"Pull in the ladder."

"No," said Quick, "wait a bit."

Vaguely I wondered why, till I perceived that three of those courageous
Fung were following across it, resting their hands upon each other's
shoulders, while their companions cheered them.

"Now, pull, brothers, pull!" shouted the Sergeant, and pull we did. Poor
Fung! they deserved a better fate.

"Always inflict loss upon the enemy when you get a chance," remarked the
Sergeant, as he opened fire with his repeating rifle upon other Fung
who by now were clustering upon the back of the idol. This position,
however, they soon abandoned as untenable, except one or two of them who
remained there, dead or wounded.

A silence followed, in the midst of which I heard Quick saying to Joshua
in his very worst Arabic:

"Now does your Royal Highness think that we Gentiles are cowards,
although it is true those Fung are as good men as we any day?"

Joshua declined argument, and I turned to watch Oliver, who had covered
his face with his hands, and seemed to be weeping.

"What is it, O friend, what is it?" I heard Maqueda say in her gentle
voice--a voice full of tears, tears of gratitude I think. "You have done
a great deed; you have returned safe; all is well."

"Nay," he answered, forgetting her titles in his distress, "all is ill.
I have failed, and to-night they throw my brother to the lions. He told
me so."

Maqueda, finding no answer, stretched out her hand to the Mountaineer,
his companion in adventure, who kissed it.

"Japhet," she said, "I am proud of you; your reward is fourfold, and
henceforth you are a captain of my Mountaineers."

"Tell us what happened," I said to Oliver.

"This," he answered: "I remembered about your son, and so did Higgs. In
fact, he spoke of him first--they seem to have become friends. He said
he would not escape without him, and could fetch him in a moment, as
he was only just below. Well, he went to do so, and must have found the
guard instead, who, I suppose, had heard us talking. You know as much
about the rest as I do. To-night, when the full moon is two hours high,
there is to be a ceremony of sacrifice, and poor Higgs will be let down
into the den of lions. He was writing his will in a note-book when we
saw him, as Barung had promised to send it to us."

"Doctor," said the Sergeant, in a confidential voice, when he had
digested this information, "would you translate for me a bit, as I want
to have a talk with Cat there, and my Arabic don't run to it?"

I nodded, and we went to that corner of the plateau where Shadrach stood
apart, watching and listening.

"Now, Cat," said the Sergeant (I give his remarks in his own language,
leaving out my rendering) "just listen to me, and understand that if
you tell lies or play games either you or I don't reach the top of this
cliff again alive. Do you catch on?"

Shadrach replied that he caught on.

"Very well. You've told us that once you were a prisoner among the
Fung and thrown to these holy lions, but got out. Now just explain what
happened."

"This, O Quick. After ceremonies that do not matter, I was let down in
the food-basket into the feeding-den, and thrown out of the basket like
any other meat. Then the gates were lifted up by the chains, and the
lions came in to devour me according to their custom."

"And what happened next, Shadrach?"

"What happened? Why, of course I hid myself in the shadow as much as
possible, right against the walls of the precipice, until a satan of
a she-lion snuffled me out and gave a stroke at me. Look, here are the
marks of her claws," and he pointed to the scars upon his face. "Those
claws stung like scorpions; they made me mad. The terror which I had
lost when I saw their yellow eyes came back to me. I rushed at the
precipice as a cat that is hunted by a dog rushes at a wall. I clung
to its smooth side with my nails, with my toes, with my teeth. A lion
leaped up and tore the flesh of my leg, here, here," and he showed the
marks, which we could scarcely see in that dim light. "He ran back for
another spring. Above me I saw a tiny ledge, big enough for a hawk to
sit on--no more. I jumped, I caught it, drawing up my legs so that the
lion missed me. I made the effort a man makes once in his life. Somehow
I dragged myself to that ledge; I rested one thigh upon it and pressed
against the rock to steady myself. Then the rock gave, and I tumbled
backward into the bottom of a tunnel. Afterwards I escaped to the top
of the cliff in the dark, O God of Israel! in the dark, smelling my way,
climbing like a baboon, risking death a thousand times. It took me two
whole days and nights, and the last of those nights I knew not what I
did. Yet I found my way, and that is why my people name me Cat."

"I understand," said Quick in a new and more respectful voice, "and
however big a rascal you may be, you've got pluck. Now, say, remembering
what I told you," and he tapped the handle of his revolver, "is that
feeding-den where it used to be?"

"I believe so, O Quick; why should it be changed? The victims are let
down from the belly of the god, just there between his thighs where are
doors. The feeding-place lies in a hollow of the cliff; this platform on
which we stand is over it. None saw my escape, therefore none searched
for the means of it, since they thought that the lions had devoured
me, as they have devoured thousands. No one enters there, only when the
beasts have fed full they draw back to their sleeping-dens, and those
who watch above let down the bars. Listen," and as he spoke we heard a
crash and a rattle far below. "They fall now, the lions having eaten.
When Black Windows and perhaps others are thrown to them, by and by,
they will be drawn up again."

"Is that hole in the rock still there, Shadrach?"

"Without doubt, though I have not been down to look."

"Then, my boy, you are going now," remarked Quick grimly.

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