ort of reception which they might expect
from the Uluans, they observed a light yellow cloud-like appearance
across the lake, on that side of it upon which the city was built, and
bringing their glasses to bear upon it, they perceived that it was dust,
in the midst of which could be perceived the forms of horsemen and the
glitter of accoutrements. After careful scrutiny, Earle pronounced the
troop to be about a hundred strong, and it appeared to be advancing at a
fairly rapid pace.

While the American kept his glasses bearing upon the cavalcade, Dick
permitted his gaze to search the nearer landscape; and it was while he
was thus engaged that he detected another and much smaller dust cloud,
almost immediately beneath the guard house, on the road which wound
round the south-eastern extremity of the lake toward that part of the
valley where the cliff road leading to the guard house began. Focussing
his glasses on this smaller dust cloud, he saw that it was caused by a
group of three horsemen who were riding as if for their lives. Judging
from the richness of their garb and the sumptuous trappings of their
horses, they were persons of considerable consequence, and Dick, who
always had an eye for detail, noticed that two of them, who rode a
horse's length in the rear of the third, carried each a capacious roll
or bundle of some sort strapped to the bow of his saddle. He directed
Earle's attention to the little group; and together they watched it
until it disappeared round a bend in the road.

"Coming here, I guess," pronounced Earle. And half an hour later his
surmise proved to be correct, for, still watching from the window, the
pair again sighted the trio of horsemen urging their animals at top
speed up the gentle slope of the cliff road toward the guard house.

A few minutes later the trio reined up their winded and sweat-lathered
steeds and dismounted at the door of the guard house, where they were
met and greeted with profound respect by Adoni; and while the leader,
accompanied by Adoni, entered the building, the other two busied
themselves unstrapping from their saddle bows the bundles which Dick had
noticed, and bearing which they presently followed their leader.

For fully twenty minutes the newcomers remained in close conference with
Adoni and the officer who had acted the part of medical examiner--and
whose name, it transpired, was Camma--and at the end of the conference
they were conducted by the two offic