Yussuf the Guide Part 31

"Upon my word! Really! Bless my heart! I say, Preston, do you hear how this fellow is talking to me?"

"Yes, I hear," replied the professor. "He is quite right."

"Quite right!"

"Certainly. I have several times over felt nervous, both in our climb this morning, and since we have been up here; but I feel now as if I have mastered my timidity, and I do not mind the path half so much as I did."

"Then I've got your share and my own, and--now, just look at that boy.

It is absurd."

"What is absurd?" said the professor quietly.

"Why, to see him walking on like that. Ill! Invalid! He is an impostor."

The professor smiled.

"I say, is it safe to let him go on like that?"

"So long as he feels no fear. See how confident he is!" said Mr Preston.

Just then Lawrence stopped for the others to overtake him.

"Have you noticed what beautiful white stone this is, Mr Preston?" he said.

He pointed down at the path they were on, for every here and there the rock was worn smooth and s.h.i.+ny by the action of the air and water, perhaps, too, by the footsteps of men for thousands of years, and was almost as white as snow.

"Yes," said the professor, "I have been making a mental note of it, and wis.h.i.+ng I had a geologist's hammer. You know what it is, I suppose?"

"White stone, of course," said Mr Burne.

"Fine white marble," said the professor.

"Nonsense, sir! What! in quant.i.ties like this?"

"To be sure."

"But it would be worth a large fortune in London."

"Exactly, and it is worth next to nothing here, because it could not be got down to the sea-sh.o.r.e, and the carriage would be enormous."

"What a pity!" exclaimed the old lawyer. "Dear me! Fine white marble!

So it is. What a company one might get up. The Asia Minor Major Marble Quarry Company--eh, Preston?"

"Yes, in hundred-pound shares that would be worth nothing."

"Humph! I suppose not. Well, never mind. I'd rather have a chicken pie and a loaf of bread now than all the marble in the universe. Let's get on."

Their progress was slow, for in spite of all that Yussuf had said they had to exercise a great deal of care, especially as the narrow track rose higher and higher, till they were at a dizzy height above the little stream, whose source they pa.s.sed just as the sun was getting low; and then their way lay between two steep cliffs; and next round a sunny slope that was dotted with huge walnut-trees, the soil being; evidently deep and moist consequent upon a spring that crossed their path.

The trees were of great girth, but not lofty, and a peculiarity about them was that they were ill-grown, and gnarled and knotted in a way that made them seem as if they were diseased. For every now and then one of them displayed a huge lump or boss, such as is sometimes seen upon elms at home.

"There's another little fortune there, Burne," said the professor quietly.

"Nonsense, sir! There isn't a tree in the lot out of which you could cut a good board. Might do for gun-stocks."

"My dear Burne," said the professor, "don't you know that these large ugly bosses go to Europe to be steamed till they are soft, and then shaved off into leaves as thin almost as coa.r.s.e brown paper, and then used and polished for all our handsome pianofortes?"

"No," said Mr Burne shortly, "I didn't know it, and I didn't want to know it. I'm starving, and my back is getting bad again. Here, Yussuf, how much farther is it?"

"Two hours' journey, excellency; but as soon as we reach that gap in the rocks we come to a road that leads directly to the village, and the walking will be easier."

"Hadn't we better try and shoot a bird or an animal, and make a fire under those trees, and see if we can find some walnuts? I must eat something. I cannot devour snuff!"

The professor smiled.

"There is nothing to shoot," he said; "and as to the walnuts, they are very nice after dinner with wine, but for a meal--"

"Here, Lawrence, you are tired out, my boy," cried Mr Burne interrupting.

"Yes, I am very tired," said Lawrence, "but I can go on."

"It is dreary work to rest without food," said Yussuf, "but it might be better to get on to the spring yonder, and pick out a sheltered place among the rocks, where we could lie down and sleep for a few hours, till the moon rises, and then continue our journey."

"That's the plan, Yussuf; agreed _nem con_," cried Mr Burne.

"Perhaps it will be best," said Mr Preston, and they journeyed on for another half hour, till they reached the gap which their guide had pointed out, one which proved to be the embouchure of another ravine, along the bottom of which meandered a rough road that had probably never been repaired since the Romans ruled the land.

"Let us go a little way in," said Yussuf; "we shall then be sheltered from the wind. It will blow coldly when the sun has set."

He led the way into a wild and awful-looking chasm, for the shadows were growing deeper, and to the weary and hungry travellers the place had a strangely forbidding look, suggestive of hidden dangers. But for the calm and confident way in which Yussuf marched forward, the others would have hesitated to plunge into a gorge of so weird a character, until the sun had lightened its gloomy depths.

"I think this will do," said Yussuf, as they turned an angle about a couple of hundred yards from the entrance. "I will climb up here first.

These rocks look cave-like and offer shelter. Hist!"

He held up his hand, for a trampling sound seemed to come from the face of the rocks a couple of hundred feet above them, and all involuntarily turned to gaze up at a spot where the shadows were blackest.

All except Yussuf, who gazed straight onward into the ravine.

It was strange. There was quite a precipice up there, and it was impossible for people to be walking. What was more strange, there was the trampling of horses' feet, and then it struck the professor that they were listening to the echoes of the sounds made by a party some distance in.

"How lucky!" said Mr Burne. "People coming. We shall get something to eat."

"Hush, effendi!" said Yussuf sternly. "These may not be friends."

"What?" exclaimed Mr Burne, c.o.c.king his gun.

"Yes; that is right, excellencies; look to your arms. If they are friends there is no harm done. They will respect us the more. If they are enemies, we must be prepared."

"Stop!" said Mr Preston, glancing at Lawrence. "We must hide or run."