about those monuments like lizards. Nor, for the matter of that,
did Oliver or Japhet, who doubled down the tail as though it were a race
track. Oliver swung himself on to the ladder, and in a second was
half across it, we holding its other end, when suddenly he heard his
companion cry out. A Fung had got hold of Japhet by the leg and he lay
face downward on the board.

Oliver halted and slowly turned round, drawing his revolver as he did
so. Then he aimed and fired, and the Fung, leaving go of Japhet's leg,
threw up his arms and plunged headlong into the gulf beneath. The next
thing I remember is that they were both among us, and somebody shouted,
"Pull in the ladder."

"No," said Quick, "wait a bit."

Vaguely I wondered why, till I perceived that three of those courageous
Fung were following across it, resting their hands upon each other's
shoulders, while their companions cheered them.

"Now, pull, brothers, pull!" shouted the Sergeant, and pull we did. Poor
Fung! they deserved a better fate.

"Always inflict loss upon the enemy when you get a chance," remarked the
Sergeant, as he opened fire with his repeating rifle upon other Fung
who by now were clustering upon the back of the idol. This position,
however, they soon abandoned as untenable, except one or two of them who
remained there, dead or wounded.

A silence followed, in the midst of which I heard Quick saying to Joshua
in his very worst Arabic:

"Now does your Royal Highness think that we Gentiles are cowards,
although it is true those Fung are as good men as we any day?"

Joshua declined argument, and I turned to watch Oliver, who had covered
his face with his hands, and seemed to be weeping.

"What is it, O friend, what is it?" I heard Maqueda say in her gentle
voice--a voice full of tears, tears of gratitude I think. "You have done
a great deed; you have returned safe; all is well."

"Nay," he answered, forgetting her titles in his distress, "all is ill.
I have failed, and to-night they throw my brother to the lions. He told
me so."

Maqueda, finding no answer, stretched out her hand to the Mountaineer,
his companion in adventure, who kissed it.

"Japhet," she said, "I am proud of you; your reward is fourfold, and
henceforth you are a captain of my Mountaineers."

"Tell us what happened," I said to Oliver.

"This," he answered: "I remembered about your son, and so did Higgs. In
fact, he spoke of him first--they seem to have become friends.