ow, as they were turning to ascend the steep slope cut
diagonally along the precipitous side of the defile, the dangerous
nature of the way became evident.

But no one spoke for fear of calling the attention of his companions to
the risky nature of the ride back; so, giving their horses the rein, the
docile beasts planted their feet together, and turned as if upon a pivot
before beginning to ascend.

So close was the wall of rock in places that the baggage brushed the
side, and threatened to thrust off the horses and send them headlong
down the slope, that began by being a hundred feet, and gradually
increased till it was five, then ten, and then at least fifteen hundred
feet above the narrow rift, where the stream rushed foaming along,
sending up a dull echoing roar that seemed to quiver in the air.

How it happened no one knew. They had plodded on, reaching the highest
part, with Hamed and the baggage-horses in front, for there had been no
room to pass them. First Yussuf, then the professor, Mr Burne and
Lawrence on Ali Baba, of course counting from the rear. There was a
good deal of hail upon the path, but melting so fast in the hot sun that
it was forgotten, and all were riding slowly on, when the second baggage
horse must have caught its load against the rock, with the result that
it nearly fell over the side. The clever beast managed to save itself,
and all would have been well had it not startled Ali Baba, who made a
plunge, stepped upon a heap of the hail, and slipped, the left fore-hoof
gliding off the ledge.

The brave little animal made a desperate effort to recover itself, but
it had lost its balance, and in its agony it made a bound, which took it
ten feet forward, and along the rapid slope, where it seemed to stand
for a moment, and then, to the horror of all, it began to slip and
stumble rapidly down the steep side of the ravine towards a part that
was nearly perpendicular, and where horse and rider must be hurled down
to immediate death.

Everyone remained motionless as if changed to stone, while the
clattering of the little horse's hoofs went on, and great fragments went
rattling off beneath it to increase their pace and go plunging down into
the abyss as if to show the way for the horse to follow to destruction.

It was all a matter of moments, with the gallant little beast making
bound after bound downward, as it felt that it could not retain its
position, while Lawrence sat well back in his