them came from a common stock,"
interrupted Higgs triumphantly.

"I daresay, old fellow," answered Orme; "I think you told us that before
in London; but we will go into the archaeology afterwards if we survive
to do so. Let Shadrach get on with his tale."

This city, which had quite fifty thousand inhabitants, continued
Shadrach, commanded the mouth of the pass or cleft by which we must
approach Mur, having probably been first built there for that very
purpose.

Orme asked if there was no other way into the stronghold, which, he
understood, the embassy had left by being let down a precipice. Shadrach
answered that this was true, but that although the camels and their
loads had been let down that precipitous place, owing to the formation
of its overhanging rocks, it would be perfectly impossible to haul them
up it with any tackle that the Abati possessed.

He asked again if there was not a way round, if that circle of mountains
had no back door. Shadrach replied that there was such a back door
facing to the north some eight days' journey away. Only at this season
of the year it could not be reached, since beyond the Mountains of Mur
in that direction was a great lake, out of which flowed the river Ebur
in two arms that enclosed the whole plain of Fung. By now this lake
would be full, swollen with rains that fell on the hills of Northern
Africa, and the space between it and the Mur range nothing but an
impassable swamp.

Being still unsatisfied, Orme inquired whether, if we abandoned the
camels, we could not then climb the precipice down which the embassy
had descended. To this the answer, which I corroborated, was that if
our approach were known and help given to us from above, it might be
possible, provided that we threw away the loads.

"Seeing what these loads are, and the purpose for which we have brought
them so far, that is out of the question," said Orme. "Therefore, tell
us at once, Shadrach, how we are to win through the Fung to Mur."

"In one way only, O son of Orme, should it be the will of God that we do
so at all; by keeping ourselves hidden during the daytime and marching
at night. According to their custom at this season, to-morrow, after
sunset, the Fung hold their great spring feast in the city of Harmac,
and at dawn go up to make sacrifice to their idol. But after sunset
they eat and drink and are merry, and then it is their habit to withdraw
their guards, that they may take part in the festiva