a kind of numbing oppression
was closing in upon them. City battlements and double walls of inner
citadel, then massive gates and now again more doors that closed
behind them, intervened between them and even the perilous liberty of
the plain of El Barr. And, in addition to all this, some hundreds of
thousands of Arabs, waiting without, effectually surrounded them, and
the Maghrabi men cast their black shadow, threatening and ominous,
over the already somber enough canvas.

A web, they all felt, was closing about them that only chance and
boldness could unravel. Everything now hung on the word of an aged
fanatic, who for any fancied breach of the Oath of Salt might deliver
them to slavery, torture, death.

"Remember, men," the Master warned his men as they penetrated the
dim, golden-walled passage also lighted with sandal-oil
_mash'als_--"remember the mercy-bullets. If it comes to war, none of
us must be taken prisoner!"

To the Olema he exclaimed, in suave tones:

"_Dakhilak, Ya Shayk!_ (Under thy protection, O Sheik!) Let not the
laws of hospitality or the Oath of Salt be forgotten!"

The Olema only smiled oddly, in the dim and perfumed obscurity of the
passageway, along which the slither of the many sandaled feet on
the gold pavement made a soft, creeping sound. Nothing more was
said--except for some grumbled mouthings of Bohannan--during the next
few minutes.

The passage seemed enormously long to the Master as, flanked by
Leclair, "Captain Alden," and the major, he peered curiously at its
smooth, dull-yellow walls all chased with geometrical patterns picked
out in silver and copper, between the dull-hued tapestries, and
banded with long extracts from the Koran inlaid in Tumar characters of
mother-of-pearl.

Several turnings, and three flights of steps descending through the
solid gold "dyke" that ran down into the bowels of the earth no
one could even guess how far, served still more to confuse the
Legionaries' sense of direction and to increase their conviction that,
in case of any outbreak of hostilities, they would find themselves
trapped more helplessly than rats in a cage.

It is no aspersion on their bravery to say that more than one among
them had already begun inwardly to curse this wild-goose chase
into Jannati Shahr. It all had now begun to assume absolutely the
appearance of a well-formulated plan of treachery. Even the Master
gave recognition to this appearance, by saying again: "Be ready fo