Part 27 (1/2)

What vexed usa few , and as our diet for the past days had not been generous we had some leeway to make up Stumm had never looked near us since ere shoved into the car We had been brought to some kind of house and bundled into a place like a wine-cellar It was pitch dark, and after feeling round the walls, first on my feet and then on Peter's back, I decided that there were no s It must have been lit and ventilated by so There was not a stick of furniture in the place: nothing but a damp earth floor and bare stone sides, The door was a relic of the Iron Age, and I could hear the paces of a sentry outside it

When things get to the pass that nothing you can do can better the is to live for the e from our empty stomachs The floor was the poorest kind of bed, but we rolled up our coats for pillows andthat he was asleep, and I presently followed him

I akened by a pressure below ht it was Peter, for it is the old hunter's trick of waking a man so that he makes no noise But another voice spoke It told me that there was no time to lose and to rise and follow, and the voice was the voice of Hussin

Peter ake, and we stirred Blenkiron out of heavy slu them by their laces round our necks as country boys do when they want to go barefoot Then we tiptoed to the door, which was ajar

Outside was a passage with a flight of steps at one end which led to the open air On these steps lay a faint shi+ne of starlight, and by its help I saw a man huddled up at the foot of theed and tied up

The steps brought us to a little courtyard about which the walls of the houses rose like cliffs We halted while Hussin listened intently Apparently the coast was clear and our guide led us to one side, which was clothed by a stout wooden trellis Once it -trees, but now the plants were dead and only withered tendrils and rotten stuo up that trellis, but it was the deuce and all for Blenkiron He was in poor condition and puffed like a grahts But he was as gaave out and he fairly stuck So Peter and I went up on each side of hi an aro in the Kloof Chiot hi on the top and Hussin had shi+nned up beside us

We crawled along a broadish wall, with an inch or two of powdery snow on it, and then up a sloping buttress on to the flat roof of the house It was a miserable business for Blenkiron, ould certainly have fallen if he could have seen as below him, and Peter and I had to stand to attention all the tie which took us past a stack of chi the route he fancied At that I sat down resolutely and put on my boots, and the others followed Frost-bitten feet would be a poor asset in this kind of travelling

It was a bad step for Blenkiron, and we only got hiainst the wall and passing hirip, and if he had stuot it over, and dropped as softly as possible on to the roof of the next house Hussin had his finger on his lips, and I soon sahy For there was a lightedin the e had descended

Some imp prompted me to wait behind and explore The others followed Hussin and were soon at the far end of the roof, where a kind of wooden pavilion broke the line, while I tried to get a look inside The as curtained, and had two folding sashes which clasped in the ap in the curtain I saw a little la at a table littered with papers

I watched him, fascinated, as he turned to consult so on the map before hilance at the , and went out of the roo the wooden staircase He left the door ajar and the laone to have a look at his prisoners, in which case the shoas up But what filled ht of his ht reason, a thing independent of any plan, a crazy leap in the dark But it was so strong that I would have pulled thatout by its fraet to that table

There was no need, for the fli open I scra for steps on the stairs I crumpled up the map and stuck it in my pocket, as well as the paper fro Very carefully I removed all marks of my entry, brushed away the snow froot out and refastened theStill there was no sound of his return Then I started off to catch up the others

I found theot toold Stumm's private cabinet Hussin, my lad, d'you hear that? They may be after us any '

Hussin understood He led us at a smart pace froht, and only low parapets and screens divided theht is not the time you choose to saunter on your housetop I kept my ears open for trouble behind us, and in about five minutes I heard it A riot of voices broke out, with one louder than the rest, and, looking back, I saw lanterns waving Stumm had realized his loss and found the tracks of the thief

Hussin gave one glance behind and then hurried us on at break-neck pace, with old Blenkiron gasping and sturew louder, as if soht our movement in the starlit darkness It was very evident that if they kept up the chase we should be caught, for Blenkiron was about as useful on a roof as a hippo

Presently we ca drop, with a kind of ladder down it, and at the foot a shallow ledge running to the left into a pit of darkness Hussin gripped my arm and pointed down it 'Follow it,' he whispered, 'and you will reach a roof which spans a street Cross it, and on the other side is afor fifty her roofs For Allah's sake keep in the shelter of the screen So the ledge for a bit and then went back, and with snow froht on hiame He wanted to lead our pursuers after him, and he had tothat they all were etting Blenkiron along that ledge He was pretty nearly foundered, he was in a sweat of terror, and as a est risks of his life, for we had no rope and his neck depended on hi soallantly, and we got to the roof which ran across the street That was easier, though ticklish enough, but it was no joke skirting the cupola of that infernal mosque At last we found the parapet and breathed more freely, for ere now under shelter froer I spared a moment to look round, and thirty yards off, across the street, I saeird spectacle

The hunt was proceeding along the roofs parallel to the one ere lodged on I saw the flicker of the lanterns, waved up and down as the bearers slipped in the snow, and I heard their cries like hounds on a trail Stu them: he had not the shape for that sort of business They passed us and continued to our left, now hid by a jutting chiainst the sky line The roofs they were on were perhaps six feet higher than ours, so even fro to be hunted across Erzeruiest notion where ere or where ere going to

But as atchedso lanterns were now three or four hundred yards away, but on the roofs just opposite us across the street there appeared a ht it was one of the hunters, and we all crouched lower, and then I recognized the lean agility of Hussin Hein the dusk to the left of the pursuit, and taking big risks in the open places But there he was now, exactly in front of us, and separated only by the width of the narrow street

He took a step backward, gathered hiap Like a cat he lighted on the parapet above us, and stuht on our heads

'We are safe for the moment,' he whispered, 'but when they ood haste'

The next half-hour was aicier chione, and from the black streets below cauns beat in the east Gradually we descended to a lower level, till we eave an odd sort of cry, like a dean to stir below us

It was a big covered wagon, full of bundles of forage, and drawn by four mules As we descended from the shed into the frozen litter of the yard, a man came out of the shade and spoke low to Hussin Peter and I lifted Blenkiron into the cart, and scra more blessed than the warmth and softness of that place after the frosty roofs I had forgotten all about on moved out of the courtyard into the dark streets