c has come to Mur, and where Harmac goes
the Fung follow."

"So much the better," said the irreverent Higgs. "I may be able to
sketch and measure him now."

But I saw that Maqueda was trembling, for she, too, thought this
occurrence a very bad omen, and even Oliver remained silent, perhaps
because he feared its effect upon the Abati.

Nor was this wonderful since, from the talk around us, clearly that
effect was great. Evidently the people were terrified, like Japhet. We
could hear them foreboding ill, and cursing us Gentiles as wizards,
who had not destroyed the idol of the Fung as we promised, but had only
caused him to fly to Mur.

Here I may mention that as a matter of fact they were right. As we
discovered afterwards, the whole force of the explosion, instead of
shattering the vast bulk of the stone image, had rushed up through the
hollow chambers in its interior until it struck against the solid head.
Lifting this as though it were a toy, the expanding gas had hurled that
mighty mass an unknown distance into the air, to light upon the crest of
the cliffs of Mur, where probably it will remain forever.

"Well," I said, when we had stared a little while at this extraordinary
phenomenon, "thank God it did not travel farther, and fall upon the
palace."

"Oh! had it done so," whispered Maqueda in a tearful voice, "I think you
might have thanked God indeed, for then at least I should be free
from all my troubles. Come, friends, let us be going before we are
discovered."

CHAPTER XVII

I FIND MY SON

Our road toward the pass ran through the camping ground of the newly
created Abati army, and what we saw on our journey thither told us
more vividly than any words or reports could do, how utter was the
demoralization of that people. Where should have been sentries were
no sentries; where should have been soldiers were groups of officers
talking with women; where should have been officers were camp followers
drinking.

Through this confusion and excitement we made our way unobserved, or,
at any rate, unquestioned, till at length we came to the regiment of the
Mountaineers, who, for the most part, were goatherds, poor people who
lived upon the slopes of the precipices that enclosed the land of Mur.
These folk, having little to do with their more prosperous brethren of
the plain, were hardy and primitive of nature, and therefore retained
some of the primeval virtues of mankind, such as courage and loyalty.