th had swallowed
them up, while none but the leading files of the escort had witnessed
their going. Five minutes later, Dick uttered a low word of command,
and a sergeant, accompanied by four files of troopers, separated
themselves from the main body and pushed forward along the main road at
a canter acting as scouts.

Scarcely had these men vanished in the distance when the sky on the left
assumed an appearance as though being overspread by a soft golden
radiance, throwing the outline of the encircling cliffs in that
direction into sharp relief, the stars thereabout paled into
insignificant pin points of light ere they vanished altogether, and
presently up sailed the full moon into view above the hill tops,
instantly flooding the valley with her soft, mysterious effulgence,
until in the course of a few minutes objects were almost as clearly
visible as in the light of day, while the multitudinous polished metal
domes and roofs, of the distant city shimmered under the clear rays like
the waters of another lake.

Some ten minutes later, a clear, shrill whistle sounded far ahead, which
was the preconcerted signal announcing that the scouts had come into
touch with an opposing body of some description, and Dick immediately
gave the order for the bodyguard to roll up their cloaks and hold
themselves ready for action. Scarcely had this been executed when the
sergeant in command of the scouts came thundering back, with the
intimation that a dense mass of footmen, armed with bow, spear and
sword, occupied the road about half-a-mile ahead, completely blocking
it, and that the officer in command--no less a personage than the
missing Lord Sachar--contemptuously refused to budge an inch, and
insolently demanded immediate speech with the Captain-General.

"He does, does he?" ejaculated Dick. "All right, he shall have it; and
much good may it do him!"

The incident of the sergeant's return had not for a moment interrupted
the progress of the bodyguard, that official having simply wheeled his
horse in the road and drawn in alongside Dick as the latter came up,
riding a few paces in advance. Then, keeping pace with the
Captain-General, the sergeant made his brief report, before falling back
into his proper place in the troop. Five minutes later, upon rounding a
bend in the road, Dick found himself within fifty yards of the opposing
force, which had been posted with some skill right across the road, at a
point where the growth