foot of them. It was our
sentry, neatly and scientifically gagged and tied up.

The steps brought us to a little courtyard about which the walls of the
houses rose like cliffs. We halted while Hussin listened intently.
Apparently the coast was clear and our guide led us to one side, which
was clothed by a stout wooden trellis. Once it may have supported
fig-trees, but now the plants were dead and only withered tendrils and
rotten stumps remained.

It was child's play for Peter and me to go up that trellis, but it was
the deuce and all for Blenkiron. He was in poor condition and puffed
like a grampus, and he seemed to have no sort of head for heights. But
he was as game as a buffalo, and started in gallantly till his arms
gave out and he fairly stuck. So Peter and I went up on each side of
him, taking an arm apiece, as I had once seen done to a man with
vertigo in the Kloof Chimney on Table Mountain. I was mighty thankful
when I got him panting on the top and Hussin had shinned up beside us.

We crawled along a broadish wall, with an inch or two of powdery snow
on it, and then up a sloping buttress on to the flat roof of the house.
It was a miserable business for Blenkiron, who would certainly have
fallen if he could have seen what was below him, and Peter and I had to
stand to attention all the time. Then began a more difficult job.
Hussin pointed out a ledge which took us past a stack of chimneys to
another building slightly lower, this being the route he fancied. At
that I sat down resolutely and put on my boots, and the others
followed. Frost-bitten feet would be a poor asset in this kind of
travelling.

It was a bad step for Blenkiron, and we only got him past it by Peter
and I spread-eagling ourselves against the wall and passing him in
front of us with his face towards us. We had no grip, and if he had
stumbled we should all three have been in the courtyard. But we got it
over, and dropped as softly as possible on to the roof of the next
house. Hussin had his finger on his lips, and I soon saw why. For
there was a lighted window in the wall we had descended.

Some imp prompted me to wait behind and explore. The others followed
Hussin and were soon at the far end of the roof, where a kind of wooden
pavilion broke the line, while I tried to get a look inside. The
window was curtained, and had two folding sashes which clasped in the
middle. Through a gap in the curtain I saw a little lamp-lit ro