feebly, for hour after hour, stopping every few
minutes to rest, for our strength was spent. Once we fell asleep, and, I
think, must have slept for some hours, for, when we woke, our limbs were
quite stiff, and the blood from our blows and scratches had caked, and
was hard and dry upon our skin. Then we dragged ourselves on again, till
at last, when despair was entering into our hearts, we once more saw the
light of day, and found ourselves outside the tunnel in the rocky fold
on the outer surface of the cliff that, it will be remembered, led into
it.

It was early morning--that we could tell by the feel of the sweet air
and the look of the blessed sky, which we had never hoped to see again.
It was, so near as we knew, an hour after sunset when we entered the
tunnel, so it followed that it had taken us the entire night to crawl
through that dreadful place.

"One more effort, Leo," I gasped, "and we shall reach the slope where
Billali is, if he hasn't gone. Come, don't give way," for he had cast
himself upon his face. He rose, and, leaning on each other, we got down
that fifty feet or so of cliff--somehow, I have not the least notion
how. I only remember that we found ourselves lying in a heap at the
bottom, and then once more began to drag ourselves along on our hands
and knees towards the grove where _She_ had told Billali to wait her
re-arrival, for we could not walk another foot. We had not gone fifty
yards in this fashion when suddenly one of the mutes emerged from
the trees on our left, through which, I presume, he had been taking a
morning stroll, and came running up to see what sort of strange animals
we were. He stared, and stared, and then held up his hands in horror,
and nearly fell to the ground. Next, he started off as hard as he
could for the grove some two hundred yards away. No wonder that he was
horrified at our appearance, for we must have been a shocking sight.
To begin, Leo, with his golden curls turned a snowy white, his clothes
nearly rent from his body, his worn face and his hands a mass of
bruises, cuts, and blood-encrusted filth, was a sufficiently alarming
spectacle, as he painfully dragged himself along the ground, and I
have no doubt that I was little better to look on. I know that two days
afterwards when I inspected my face in some water I scarcely recognised
myself. I have never been famous for beauty, but there was something
beside ugliness stamped upon my features that I have never got