Part 28 (1/2)

It was a hindrance so soon after their starting; but Yussuf seemed to set so good an example of patience and forbearance that the professor followed it, and Mr Burne was compelled to accept the position.

”We shall have plenty of such drawbacks,” Mr Preston said; ”and we must recollect that we are not in the land of time-tables and express trains.”

”We seem to be in the land of no tables at all, not even chairs,”

grumbled Mr Burne; ”but there, I don't complain. Go on just as you please. I'll keep all my complaints till I get back, and then put them in a big book.”

A week of steady slow travelling ensued, during which time they were continually journeying in and out among the mountains, following rough tracks, or roads as they were called, whose course had been suggested by that of the streams that wandered between the hills. Often enough the way was the dried-up bed of some torrent, amidst whose boulders the patient little Turkish horses picked their way in the most sure-footed manner.

It was along such a track as this that they were going in single file one day, for some particular reason that was apparently known only to the professor and Yussuf. They seemed to be deep down in the earth, for the rift along which they travelled was not above twenty feet wide, and on the one side the rock rose up nearly three thousand feet almost perpendicularly, while, on the other, where it was not perpendicular, it appeared to overhang.

Now and then it opened out a little more. Then it contracted, and seemed as if ere long the sides of the ravine would touch; but always when it came to this, it opened out directly after.

The heat was intense, for there was not a breath of wind. The gully was perfectly dry, and wherever there was a patch of greenery, it was fifty, a hundred, perhaps a thousand feet above their heads.

”How much farther is it to the village where we shall stop for the night?” said the old lawyer, pausing to mop his forehead.

”There is no village that we shall stop at, effendi,” said Yussuf quietly. ”We go on a little more, and then we shall have reached the remains that Mr Preston wishes to see.”

”Bless my heart!” panted the old gentleman. ”You are killing that boy.”

”I am quite well,” said Lawrence smiling, ”only hot and thirsty. I want to see the ruins.”

”Oh, go on,” cried Mr Burne. ”Don't stop for me.”

Just then they were proceeding along a more open and sunny part when the professor's horse in front suddenly s.h.i.+ed, swerved round, and darted back, throwing his rider pretty heavily.

”Mind, sir! Take care!” shouted Yussuf.

”What's the good of telling a man to take care when he is down?” cried Mr Burne angrily; and he tried to urge his horse forward, but it refused to stir, while Lawrence's had behaved in precisely the same manner, and stood s.h.i.+vering and snorting.

”Your gun, sir, quickly!” exclaimed Yussuf.

”What is it? Robbers?” cried Mr Burne excitedly as he handed the guide his double-barrelled fowling-piece.

”No, sir; one of the evil beasts which haunt these valleys and slopes.

Is the gun loaded, sir?”

”Loaded? No, man. Do you suppose I want to shoot somebody?”

”Quick, sir! The charges!” whispered Yussuf; and when, after much fumbling, Mr Burne had forced his hand into his cartridge-bag, Yussuf was closing the breech of the gun, having loaded it with a couple of cartridges handed by Lawrence, who had rapidly dismounted and drawn his sword.

It was evident that Mr Preston was stunned by the fall, for he lay motionless on one side of the ravine among the stones.

”No, no, stop!” cried Yussuf as Lawrence was making his way towards the professor.

The lad involuntarily obeyed, and waited breathless to see what would follow, as Yussuf advanced cautiously, gun in hand, his dark eyes rolling from side to side in search of the danger.

For some minutes he could see nothing. Then, all at once, they saw him raise the gun to his shoulder, take a quick aim and fire, when the horses started, and would have dashed off back, but for the fact that they were arrested by the way being blocked by the baggage animals and Mr Burne.

As the gun was fired its report was magnified a hundredfold, and went rolling along in a series of peals like thunder, while the faint blue smoke rose over where Yussuf stood leaning forward and gazing at some broken stones.