"No, excellency; we must go on, even if it is slowly. This part of the
valley is marshy, and there are fevers caught here. I have been along
here twice, and there is a narrow track over that shoulder of the
mountain that we can easily follow afoot, though we could not take
horses. It is far shorter, too. Can the young effendi walk so far?"

Lawrence declared that he could, for the mountain air gave him strength.
So they left the beaten track, to continue along a narrow water-course
for a couple of miles, and then rapidly ascend the side of one of the
vast masses of cliff, the path being literally a shelf in places not
more than a foot wide, with the mountain on their left rising up like a
wall, and on their right the rock sank right down to the stream, which
gurgled among the masses of stone which had fallen from above, a couple
of hundred feet below them and quite out of sight.

"'Pon my word, Yussuf, this is a pretty sort of a place!" panted Mr
Burne. "Hang it, man! It is dangerous."

"There is no danger, effendi, if you do not think of danger."

"But I do think of danger, sir. Why, bless my heart, sir, there isn't
room for a man to turn round and comfortably blow his nose."

"There is plenty of room for the feet, effendi," replied Yussuf; "the
path is level, and if you will think of the beautiful rocks, and hills,
and listen to the birds singing below there, where the stream is
foaming, and the bushes grow amongst the rocks, there is no danger."

"But I can't think about the beauty of all these things, Yussuf, my man,
and I can only think I am going to turn giddy, and that my feet are
about to slip."

"Why should you, effendi?" replied the Turk gravely. "Is it not given
to man to be calm and confident, and to walk bravely on, in such places
as this? He can train himself to go through what is dangerous to the
timid without risk. Look at the young effendi!" he added in a whisper;
"he sees no danger upon the path."

"Upon my word! Really! Bless my heart! I say, Preston, do you hear
how this fellow is talking to me?"

"Yes, I hear," replied the professor. "He is quite right."

"Quite right!"

"Certainly. I have several times over felt nervous, both in our climb
this morning, and since we have been up here; but I feel now as if I
have mastered my timidity, and I do not mind the path half so much as I
did."

"Then I've got your share and my own, and--now, just look at that boy.
It is absurd."