gh I warn you that it is a rough
one."

"Where you can travel we can follow," said Maqueda. "Tell us now what we
must do."

So he told her, and when he had done the Prince Joshua intervened,
saying that it was not fitting that the Child of Kings in her own sacred
person should undertake such a dangerous journey. She listened to his
remonstrances and thanked him for his care of her.

"Still I am going," she said, "not for the sake of the stranger who is
called Black Windows, but because, if there is a secret way out of Mur
I think it well that I should know that way. Yet I agree with you,
my uncle, that on such a journey I ought not to be unprotected, and
therefore I pray that you will be ready to start with us at noon, since
I am sure that then we shall all be safe."

Now Joshua began to make excuses, but she would not listen to them.

"No, no," she said, "you are too honest. The honour of the Abati is
involved in this manner, since, alas! it was an Abati that betrayed
Black Windows, and an Abati--namely, yourself--must save him. You have
often told me, my uncle, how clever you are at climbing rocks, and now
you shall make proof of your skill and courage before these foreigners.
It is a command, speak no more," and she rose, to show that the audience
was finished.

That same afternoon Shadrach, by mountain paths that were known to him,
led a little company of people to the crest of the western precipice of
Mur. Fifteen hundred feet or more beneath us lay the great plains upon
which, some miles away, could be seen the city of Harmac. But the idol
in the valley we could not see, because here the precipice bent over and
hid it from our sight.

"What now, fellow," said Maqueda, who was clad in the rough sheepskin
of a peasant woman, which somehow looked charming upon her. "Here is the
cliff, there lies the plain; I see no road between the two, and my wise
uncle, the prince, tells me that he never heard of one."

"Lady," answered the man, "now I take command, and you must follow me.
But first let us see that nobody and nothing are lacking."

Then he went round the company and numbered them. In all we were
sixteen; Maqueda and Joshua, we three Englishmen, armed with repeating
rifles and revolvers, our guide Shadrach, and some picked Mountaineers
chosen for their skill and courage. For even in Mur there were brave men
left, especially among the shepherds and huntsmen, whose homes were on
the cliffs. These sturdy