"I feel as if we have done
wrong in giving up. The firman ought to have been sufficient. We shall
never find such a place again--so rich in antiquities. I have a good
mind to turn back."

"No, no, effendi," said Yussuf, "it would only mean trouble. I can take
you to fifty places as full of old remains. Trust to me and I will show
you the way."

They journeyed on for days, finding good, bad, and indifferent lodgings.
Sometimes they were received by the people with civility, at others
with suspicion, for Yussuf was taking them farther and farther into the
mountains, where the peasants were ignorant and superstitious to a
degree; but, save where they crossed some plain, they were everywhere
impressed by the grandeur of the country, and the utter ruin and neglect
which prevailed. Roads, cities, land, all seemed to have been allowed
to go to decay; and, to make the journey the longer and more arduous,
over and over again, where they came to a bridge, it was to find that it
had been broken down for years, and this would often mean a journey
along the rugged banks perhaps for miles before they found a place where
it was wise to try and ford the swollen stream.

There was always something, though, to interest the professor--a
watch-tower in ruins at the corner of some defile, the remains of a
castle, an aqueduct, a town with nothing visible but a few scattered
stones, or a cemetery with the remains of marble tombs.

Day after day fresh ruins to inspect, with the guide proving his value
more and more, and relieving the party a great deal from the
pertinacious curiosity of the scattered people, who would not believe
that the travellers were visiting the country from a desire for
knowledge.

It must be for the buried treasures of the old people, they told Yussuf
again and again; and they laughed at him derisively as he repeated his
assurances.

"Don't tell them any more," Lawrence used to say in a pet; "let the
stupids waste their time."

Sometimes this constant examination of old marbles and this digging out
of columns or slabs grew wearisome to the lad, but not often, for there
was too much exciting incident in their travels through gorge and
gully--along shelves where the horses could hardly find foothold, but
slipped and scrambled, with terrible precipices beneath, such as at
first made the travellers giddy, but at last became so common, and their
horses gave them so much confidence, that they ceased to be alar