had been watching anxiously all through this scene. "But was it a
poisonous snake?"
"One of the worst we have, effendi," said Yussuf, stooping to pick up
the broad flat head of the reptile, and showing all in turn that two
keen little fangs were there in the front, looking exactly like a couple
of points of glass.
"Yes," said the professor, "as far as I understand natural history,
these are poison fangs. Bury the dangerous little thing, or crush it
into the earth, Yussuf."
The guide took a stone and turned it over--a great fragment, weighing
probably a hundred pounds--and then all started away, for there was an
asp curled up beneath, ready to raise its head menacingly, but only to
be crushed down again as Yussuf let the stone fall.
"Try another," said the professor, and a fresh fragment was raised, to
be found tenantless. Beneath this the head of the poisonous reptile was
thrown, the stone dropped back in its place; and, sufficient time having
been spent in the old amphitheatre, they returned to the Turk's house to
get their horses and ride off to see the ruins across the stream where
the djins and evil spirits had their homes.
The horses were waiting when they got back, and the village seemed
empty; for the people were away for the most part in their fields and
gardens. Their host would have had them partake of coffee again, and a
pipe, but the professor was anxious to get over to the ruins, what he
had seen having whetted his appetite; so, after paying the man liberally
for everything they had had, they mounted.
Quite a change had come over their unwilling host of the previous night,
for as he held Mr Preston's rein he whispered:
"Ask the great effendi with the yellow turban to forgive thy servant his
treatment last night."
"What does he say, Yussuf?" asked Mr Preston; and Yussuf, as
interpreter, had to announce that if the effendis were that way again
their host would be glad to entertain them, for his house was theirs and
all he had whether they paid or no.
"And tell the effendis to beware," he whispered; "there are djins and
evil spirits among the old mosques, and houses, and tombs; and there are
evil men--robbers, who slay and steal."
"In amongst the ruins?" said Yussuf quickly.
"Everywhere," said the Turk vaguely, as he spread out his hands; and
then, with their saddle-bags and packages well filled with provisions
for themselves, and as much barley as could be conveniently taken, they
rode out of the village and turned down a track that led them through
quite a deep grove of walnut-trees to the little river that ran rushing
along in the bottom of the valley. This they crossed, and the road then
followed the windings of the stream for about a mile before it struck
upwards; and before long they were climbing a steep slope where masses
of stone and marble, that had evidently once been carefully squared or
even carved, lay thick, and five minutes later the professor uttered a
cry of satisfaction, for he had only to turn his horse a dozen yards or
so through the bushes and trees to stand beside what looked like a huge
white chest of stone.
"Hallo, what have you found?" cried Mr Burne, rousing up, for he had
been nodding upon his horse, the day being extremely hot.
"Found! A treasure," cried the professor. "Pure white marble, too."
"There, Lawrence, boy, it's in your way, not mine. I never play at
marbles now. How many have you found, Preston?"
"How many? Only this one."
"Why, it's a pump trough, and a fine one too," cried the old lawyer.
"Pump trough!" cried the professor scornfully.
"What is it then--a cistern? I see. Old waterworks for irrigating the
gardens."
"My dear sir, can you not see? It is a huge sarcophagus. Come here,
Lawrence. Look at the sculpture and ornamentation all along this side,
and at the two ends as well. The cover ought to be somewhere about."
He looked around, and, just as he had said, there was the massive cover,
but broken into half a dozen pieces, and the carving and inscription,
with which it had been covered, so effaced by the action of the lichens
and weather that it was not possible to make anything out, only that a
couple of sitting figures must at one time have been cut in high relief
upon the lid.
"Probably the occupants of the tomb," said the professor thoughtfully.
"Greek, I feel sure. Here, Yussuf, what does this mean?"
He caught up his gun that he had laid across the corner of the
sarcophagus, and turned to face some two dozen swarthy-looking men who
had come upon them unperceived and seemed to have sprung up from among
the broken stones, old columns, and traces of wall that were about them
on every side.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
A GAME AT MARBLES.
It was a false alarm. The people who had collected about them were not
brigands, and they only carried working tools, not weapons for attack.
"Means what, Yussuf?" said Mr Burne.
"They have come to see how you dig out the buried treasure, effendi,"
said the guide with a suspicion of a smile.
"Treasure! what treasure?" cried the professor.
"It is of no use to argue with them, your excellency; they of course
know that, in place of there being only little villages here in the far
back days, there were great cities, like Istamboul and Smyrna and
Trieste, all over the country."
"Quite true; there were."
"And that these cities were occupied by great wealthy nations, whose
houses and palaces and temples were destroyed by enemies, and they
believe that all their golden ornaments and money lie buried beneath
these stones."
"What nonsense!" cried Mr Burne impatiently. "If you dug down here you
would find bones, not gold. It is an old cemetery, a place of tombs--
eh, Preston?"
"Quite right," said the professor. "Tell them that we are only looking
for old pieces of sculpture and inscriptions."
"I will tell them, effendi," said Yussuf smiling; and he turned to the
people who were gathered round, and repeated the professor's words in
their own tongue.
The result was a derisive laugh, and one of the men, a great swarthy
fellow, spoke at some length.
"What does he say, Yussuf?" said Mr Burne.
"He asks the excellency if we think they are fools and children--"
"Yes, decidedly so," replied Mr Burne; "but hold hard, Yussuf; don't
tell them so."
"If it is likely they will believe that the Franks--"
"No, no, not Franks, Yussuf," said the professor laughing; "he said
`giaours.'"
"True, effendi; he did--If they will believe that the giaours would come
from a far country, and travel here merely to read a few old writings
upon some stones, and examine the idols that the old people carved."
"Well, I don't wonder at it," said Mr Burne with a sigh as he tickled
his nose with a fresh pinch. "It does seem very silly. Tell them it is
not they, but we: we are the fools."
"Don't tell them anything of the kind, Yussuf," said the professor. "It
is not foolish to search for wisdom. Tell them the truth. We are not
seeking for treasures, but to try and find something about the history
of the people who built these cities."
Yussuf turned to the country people again and delivered himself of his
message, after which several of the people spoke, and there was another
laugh.
"Well, what do they say now?"
"They ask why you want to know all this, effendi," replied Yussuf. "It
is of no use to argue with these people. They have no knowledge
themselves, and they cannot understand how Frankish gentlemen can find
pleasure therein. I have travelled greatly with Englishmen, and it is
so everywhere. I was with an effendi down in Egypt, where he had the
sand dug away from the mouth of a buried temple, and the sheik and his
people who wandered near, came and drove us away, saying that the
English effendi sought for silver and gold. It was the same among the
hills of Birs Nimroud, where they dig out the winged lions and flying
bulls with the heads of men, and the stones are covered with writing.
When we went to Petra, four English effendis and your servant, we were
watched by the emir and his men; and it was so in Cyprus, when the
effendi I was with--an American excellency--set men to work to dig out
the carved stones and idols from a temple there--not beautiful, white
marble stones, but coarse and yellow and crumbling. It is always a
fight here in these lands against seeking for knowledge, effendi. It is
a thing they cannot understand."
"What shall we do, then?"
"What they do, effendi, half their time--nothing."
"But they will be a nuisance," cried the professor.
"Yes, effendi," said the guide, with a shrug of the shoulders. "So are
the flies, but we cannot drive them away. We must be content to go on
just as if they were not here."
The professor saw the sense of the argument, and for the next four hours
the party were busy on that hill-slope climbing amongst the stones of
the ancient city--one which must have been an important place in its
day, for everywhere lay the broken fragments of noble buildings which
had been ornamented with colonnades and cornices of elaborate
workmanship. Halls, temples, palaces, had occupied positions that must
have made the city seem magnificent, as it rose up building upon
building against the steep slope, with the little river gurgling swiftly
at the foot.
There were the remains, too, of an aqueduct, showing a few broken arches
here and there, and plainly teaching that the water to supply the place
had been mainly brought from some cold spring high up in the mountains.
And all the time, go where they would, the travellers were followed by
the little crowd which gaped and stared, and of which some member or
another kept drawing Yussuf aside, and offering him a handsome present
if he would confess the secret that he must have learned--how the
Frankish infidels knew where treasure lay hid.
They seemed disappointed that the professor contented himself by merely
making drawings and copying fragments of inscriptions; but at last they
all uttered a grunt of satisfaction, rubbed their hands, gathered
closely round, and seated themselves upon the earth or upon stones.
For the professor had stopped short at the end of what, as far as could
be traced, seemed to be one end of a small temple whose columns and
walls lay scattered as they had fallen.
Here he deliberately took a small bright trowel from a sheath in his
belt, where he carried it as if it had been a dagger, and, stooping
down, began to dig.
That was what they were waiting for. He had come at last upon the
treasure spot, and though the trowel seemed to be a ridiculously small
tool to work with, they felt perfectly satisfied that it was one of the
wonderful engines invented by the giaours, and that it would soon clear
away the stones and soil with which the treasure was covered.
"What are you doing?" said the old lawyer, as Lawrence helped the
professor by dragging out pieces of stone. "Going to find anything
there?"
"I cannot say," replied the professor, who was digging away
energetically, and dislodging ants, a centipede or two, and a great many
other insects. "This is evidently where the altar must have stood, and
most likely we shall find here either a bronze figure of the deity in
whose honour the temple was erected, or its fragments in marble."
"Humph! I see," cried the old lawyer, growing interested; "but I beg to
remark that the evening is drawing near, and I don't think it will be
prudent to make a journey here in the dark."
"No," said the professor; "it would be a pity. Mind, Lawrence, my lad;
what have you there?"
"Piece of stone," said the lad, dragging out a rounded fragment.
"Piece of stone! Yes, boy, but it is a portion of a broken statue--the
folds of a robe."
"Humph!" muttered the old lawyer. "Might be anything. Not going to
carry it away I suppose?"
"That depends," said the professor labouring away.
"Humph!" ejaculated Mr Burne.
"How is it that such a grand city as this should have been so completely
destroyed, Mr Preston?" asked Lawrence.
"It is impossible to say. It may have been by the ravages of fire.
More likely by war. The nation here may have been very powerful, and a
more powerful nation attacked them, and, perhaps after a long siege, the
soldiery utterly destroyed it, while the ravages of a couple of thousand
years, perhaps of three thousand, gave the finishing touches to the
destruction, and--ah, here is another piece of the same statue."
He dragged out with great difficulty another fragment of marble which
had plainly enough been carved to represent drapery, and he was scraping
carefully from it some adhering fragments of earth, when Mr Burne
suddenly leaped up from the block of stone upon which he had been
perched, and began to shake his trousers and slap and bang his legs for
a time, and then limped up and down rubbing his calf, and muttering
angrily.
"What _is_ the matter, Mr Burne?" cried Lawrence.
"Matter, sir! I've been bitten by one of those horrible vipers. The
brute must have crawled up my leg and--I say, Yussuf, am I a dead man?"
"Certainly not, your excellency," replied the guide gravely.
"You are laughing at me, sir. You know what I mean. I am bitten by one
of those horrible vipers, am I not?"
The professor had leaped out of the little hole he had laboriously dug,
and run to his companion's side in an agony of fear.
"Your excellency has been bitten by one of these," said the guide
quietly, and he pointed to some large ants which were running all over
the stones.
"Are--are you sure?" cried Mr Burne.
"Sure, excellency? If it had been a viper you would have felt dangerous
symptoms."
"Why, confound it, sir," cried Mr Burne, rubbing his leg which he had
laid bare, "that's exactly what I do feel--dangerous symptoms."
"What? What do you feel?" cried the professor excitedly.
"As if someone had bored a hole in my leg, and were squirting melted
lead into all my veins--right up my leg, sir. It's maddening! It's
horrible! It's worse than--worse than--there, I was going to say gout,
Lawrence, but I'll say it's worse than being caned. Now, Yussuf, what
do you say to that, sir, eh?"
"Ants, your excellency. They bite very sharply, and leave quite a
poison in the wound."
"Quite a poison, sir!--poison's nothing to it! Here, I say, what am I
to do?"
"If your excellency will allow me," said Yussuf, "I will prick the bite
with the point of my knife, and then rub in a little brandy."
"Yes, do, for goodness' sake, man, before I go mad."
"Use this," said the professor, taking a little stoppered bottle from
his pocket.
"What is it--more poison?" cried Mr Burne.
"Ammonia," said the professor quietly.
"Humph!" ejaculated the patient; and he sat down on another stone, after
making sure that it did not cover an insect's nest, and had not been
made the roof of a viper's home.
Quite a crowd gathered round, to the old lawyer's great disgust, as he
prepared himself for the operation.
"Hang the scoundrels!" he cried; "anyone would think they had never seen
an old man's white leg before."
"I don't suppose they ever have, Mr Burne," said Lawrence.
"Why, you are laughing at me, you dog! Hang it all, sir, it's too bad.
Never mind, it will be your turn next; and look here, Lawrence," he
cried with a malignant grin, "this is a real bite, not a sham one. I'm
not pretending that I have been bitten by a snake."
"Why, Mr Burne--"
"Well, I thought it was, but it is a real bite. Here, you, Yussuf, hold
hard--what a deadly-looking implement!" he cried, as their guide bared
his long keen knife. "Look here, sir, I know I'm a dog--a giaour, and
that you are one of the faithful, and that it is a good deed on your
part to injure me as an enemy, but, mind this, if you stick that knife
thing into my leg too far, I'll--I'll--confound you, sir!--I'll bring an
action against you, and ruin you, as sure as my name's Burne."
"Have no fear, effendi," said Yussuf gravely, going down on one knee,
while the people crowded round.
"Cut gently, my dear fellow," said Mr Burne; "it isn't kabobs or tough
chicken, it's human leg. Hang it all! You great stupids, what are you
staring at? Give a man room to breathe--_wough_! Oh, I say, Yussuf,
that was a dig."
"Just enough to make it bleed, effendi. There, that will take out some
of the poison, and now I'll touch the place with some of this spirit."
"_Wough_!" ejaculated Mr Burne again, as the wound was touched with the
stopper of the bottle. "I say, that's sharp. Humph! it does not hurt
quite so much now, only smarts. Thank ye, Yussuf. Why, you are quite a
surgeon. Here, what are those fellows chattering about?"
"They say the Franks are a wonderful people to carry cures about in
little bottles like that."
"Humph! I wish they'd kill their snakes and insects, and not waste
their time staring," said the old gentleman, drawing up his stocking,
after letting the ammonia dry in the sun. "Yes; I'm better now," he
added, drawing down his trouser leg. "Much obliged, Yussuf. Don't you
take any notice of what I say when I'm cross."
"I never do, excellency," said Yussuf smiling gravely.
"Oh, you don't--don't you?"
"No, effendi, because I know that you are a thorough gentleman at
heart."
"Humph!" said Mr Burne, as he limped to where the professor had resumed
his digging. "Do you know, Lawrence, I begin to think sometimes that
our calm, handsome grave Turkish friend there, is the better gentleman
of the two."
CHAPTER THIRTY.
A TERROR OF THE COUNTRY.
It was now evening, but instead of the air becoming cooler with the wind
that blew from the mountains, a peculiar hot breath seemed to be exhaled
from the earth. The stones which had been baking in the sun all day
gave out the heat they had taken in, and a curious sombre stillness was
over everything.
"Are we going to have a storm, Yussuf?" said Mr Burne, as he looked
round at the lurid brassy aspect of the heavens, and the wild
reflections upon the mountains.
"No, excellency, I think not; and the people here seem to think the
same."
"Why? They don't say anything."
"No, excellency, but if they felt a storm coming they would have long
ago hurried back to their houses instead of sitting here so contentedly
waiting to see the effendi dig out his treasure."
For the people had not budged an inch, but patiently watched every
movement made by the travellers, crouching as it were, ready to spring
forward, and see the first great find.
But the professor made no great discovery. He was evidently right about
the building having been a temple, and it seemed as if an altar must
have stood there, bearing a figure of which he picked up several pieces
beautifully sculptured, but nothing that could be restored by piecing
together; and when, wearied out, he turned to examine some other parts
of the old temple, the most interesting thing that he found was a piece
of column, nearly buried, and remarkable for containing two of the
rounds or drums secured together by means of molten lead poured through
suitable holes cut in the stones.
"There," he said at last, "I have been so deeply interested in what I
have seen here, that I owe you plenty of apologies, Burne, and you too,
Lawrence."
"Humph!" grunted the old lawyer, "you owe me nothing. I would as soon
stop here and look about at the mountains, as go on somewhere else. My
word, though, what a shame it seems that these pigs of people should
have such a glorious country to live in, while we have nothing better
than poor old England, with its fogs and cold east winds."
"But this peace is not perfect," said the professor. "And now, look
here; we had better go back to our last night's lodgings. We can get a
good meal there and rest."
"The very thing I was going to propose," said Mr Burne quickly.
"Depend upon it that man will give us a pilaf for supper."
"And without Yussuf's stick," said the professor smiling. "But come
along. Let's look at the horses."
The horses were in good plight, for Yussuf and Hamed had watered them,
and they had made a good meal off the grass and shoots which grew
amongst the ruins.
They were now busily finishing a few handfuls of barley which had been
poured for them in an old ruined trough, close to some half dozen broken
pillars and a piece of stone wall that had been beautifully built; and,
as soon as the patient beasts had finished, they were bridled and led
out to where the professor and his friends were standing looking
wonderingly round at the peculiar glare over the landscape.
"Just look at those people," cried Lawrence suddenly; and the scene
below them caught their eye. For, no sooner had the professor and his
companions left the coast clear than these people made a rush for the
hole, which they seemed to have looked upon as a veritable gold mine,
and in and about this they were digging and tearing out the earth,
quarrelling, pushing and lighting one with the other for the best
places.
"How absurd!" exclaimed the professor. "I did not think of that. I
ought to have paid them, and made them with their tools do all the work,
while I looked on and examined all they turned up."
"It would have been useless, effendi," said Yussuf. "Unless you had
brought an order to the pasha of the district, and these people had been
forced to work, they would not have stirred. Ah!"
Yussuf uttered a peculiar cry, and the men who were digging below them
gave vent to a shrill howl, and leaped out of the pit they were digging
to run shrieking back towards the village on the other slope.
For all at once it seemed to Lawrence that he was back on shipboard,
with the vessel rising beneath his feet and the first symptoms of
sea-sickness coming on.
Then close at hand, where the horses had so short a time before 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 silence was absolutely profound. They were
surrounded by groves where the birds as a rule piped and sang loudly;
but everything was hushed as if the thick dust-cloud had shut in all
sound.