Part 28 (1/2)
”None of us will enter it unless we find shelter soon,” he answered
”How far is the place away?”
”It should be a day's journey, Deliverer Were the one you could see it now The city is built at the foot of greatTo-morrow, if it lifts, you will see that I speak truth”
”Are there any houses near where we can shelter?” he asked again
”How can I tell?” she answered ”It is forty years since I passed this road, and here, where the land is barren, none dwell except the herdsmen Perhaps there is a house at hand, or perhaps there is none for ive no further information, Leonard returned to the others, and they huddled theht, and sat out the hours in silence, not atte to sleep The Settlement men were numb with cold, and Juanna also was overcoh she tried hard to be cheerful Francisco and Leonard heaped their own blankets on her, pretending that they had found spare ones, but the wraps ringing wet, and gave her little comfort Soa alone did not appear to suffer, perhaps because it was her native climate, and Otter kept his spirits, which neither heat, nor cold, nor hunger seemed to affect
”While my heart is warm I am warm,” he said cheerfully, when Leonard asked him how he fared As for Leonard hi to thethat twenty-four hoursthe troubles of most of them to an end Without food or shelter it was very certain that few of those alive to-night would live to see a second dawn
At last the light ca joy they found that the rain had ceased and the
Once more they beheld the face of the sun, and rejoiced in its warhts have lived in semi-darkness, wet to the skin and frozen to the one indeed, but it was not until they had breakfasted off a buck which Otter shot in the reeds by the river, that the lingering veils of vapour withdrew themselves from the more distant landscape At last they had vanished, and for the first tih which they were travelling They stood upon a vast plain that sloped upwards gradually till it ended at the foot of a e of snow-capped mountains named, as they learned in after-days, the Bina Mountains
This range was shaped like a half-moon, or a bent bow, and the nearest point of the curve, for snowy peak, was exactly opposite to them, and to all appearance not more than five-and-twenty miles away
On either side of this peak the unbroken line of mountains receded with a vast and majestic sweep till the eye could follow them no more The plain about theranite boulders, bethich wandered herds of wild cattle, roups of antelopes; but the lower slopes of thethes, presumably of cultivated land Otter searched the scene with his eyes, that were as those of a hawk; then said quietly:
”Look yonder, Baas; the old hag has not lied to us There is the city of the People of the Mist”
Following the line of the dwarf's outstretched hand, Leonard sahat had at first escaped hireat mountain in front of therey stone and roofed with green turf Indeed, had not his attention been called to it, the town ht well have missed observation until he was quite close to its walls, for the materials of which it was constructed resembled those of the boulders that lay about theave it the appearance of a distant space of grassy land
”Yes, there is the kraal of the Great People,” said Otter again, ”and it is a strong kraal See, Baas, they kno to defend themselves The mountain is behind them that none can cli itself together again on the plain beyond It would go ill with the 'impi' which tried to take that kraal”
For a while they all stood still and stared ae that they should have reached this fabled city; and now that they were there, hoould they be received within its walls? This was the question which each one of the of hio and see; no retreat was now possible
Even the Settlement people felt this ”Better to die at the hands of the Great Men,” said one of them aloud, ”than to perish ood cheer,” Leonard answered; ”you are not yet dead The sun shi+nes once more It is a happy omen”
When they had rested and dried their clothes they marched on with a certain sense of relief There before theoal they had travelled so far to win; soon they would know the worst that could befall, and anything was better than this long suspense
By round, and could now see the city clearly It was a great town, surrounded by a Cyclopean wall of boulders, about which the river ran on every side, fors within the wall seeed in streets, and to be build on a plan sihts before, the vast conglo the city the appearance of a broken field of turf hillocks supported upon walls of stone
For the rest the place was laid out upon a slope, and at its head, immediately beneath the sheer steps of the er in size than any of those below One of these resembled the other houses in construction, and was surrounded by a separate enclosure; but the second, which was placed on higher ground, so far as they could judge at that distance, was roofless, and had all the characteristics of a Roman ae rotesque reses, Soa?” asked Leonard
”The lower one is the house of the king, White Man, and that above is the Temple of Deep Waters, where the river rises from the bowels of the mountain”
”And what is the black stone beyond the temple?”
”That, White Man, is the statue of the God who sits there for ever, watching over the city of his people”
”Heto the size of the statue