been
feeding, the piece of well-built wall toppled over, and three of the
broken columns fell with a crash, while a huge cloud of dust rose from
the earth.

The horses snorted and trembled, and again there came that sensation of
the earth heaving up, just as if it were being made to undulate like the
waves at sea.

Lawrence threw himself down, while Yussuf clung to the horses' bridles,
as if to guard against a stampede, and the driver stood calmly in the
attitude of prayer.

Then again and again the whole of the mountain side shook and undulated,
waving up and down till the sensation of sickness became intolerable,
and all the while there was the dull roar of falling stones above,
below, away to the left and right. Now some huge mass seemed to drop on
to the earth with a dull thud, another fell upon other stones, and
seemed to be broken to atoms, and again and again others seemed to slip
from their foundations, and go rolling down like an avalanche, and once
more all was still.

"Is it an earthquake?" said Lawrence at last in a low awe-stricken tone.

"Seems like a dozen earthquakes," said the old lawyer. "My goodness me!
What a place for a town!"

And as they all stood there trembling and expecting the next shock, not
knowing but the earth might open a vast cavity into which the whole
mountain would plunge, a huge cloud of dust arose, shutting out
everything that was half a dozen yards away, and the heated air grew
more and more suffocating.

It was plain enough to understand now why it was that in the course of
time this beautiful city should have been destroyed. The first disaster
might have been caused by war, but it was evident that this was a region
where earth disturbance was a frequent occurrence, and as time rolled
by, every shock would tear down more and more of the place.

Very little was said, for though no great shock came now, there were
every few minutes little vibrations beneath their feet, as if the earth
was trembling from the effect of the violent efforts it had made.

Now and then they held their breath as a stronger agitation came, and
once this ended with what seemed to be a throb or a sound as if the
earth had parted and then closed up again.

Then came a lapse, during which the travellers sat in the midst of the
thick mist of dust waiting, waiting for the next great throb, feeling
that perhaps these were only the preliminaries to some awful
catastrophe.

No one spoke, and the si