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Page 102
"Dragging the heavy body of Vadi to the brink of this precipice,
I toppled it over, swaying dizzily as I watched it crash down
into the poisonous undergrowth two hundred feet below.
"I made a rough cache, where I stored the bulk of my provisions;
and, selecting only such articles as I thought necessary for my
purpose, I set out again northward, guided by the sound of
falling water, and having my face turned toward the silver
pencillings in the blue sky, which marked the giant peaks of the
distant mountains.
"At midday the heat grew so great that a halt became imperative.
The path was still clearly discernible; and in a little cave
beside it, which afforded grateful shelter from the merciless
rays of the sun, I unfastened my bundle and prepared to take a
frugal lunch.
"I was so employed, gentlemen, when I heard the sound of
approaching footsteps on the path behind me--the path which I had
recently traversed.
"Hastily concealing my bundle, I slipped into some dense
undergrowth by the entrance to the cave, and crouched there,
waiting and watching. I had not waited very long before a
yellow-robed mendicant passed by, carrying a bundle not unlike my
own, whereby I concluded that he had come some distance. There
was nothing remarkable in his appearance except the fact of his
travelling during the hottest part of the day. Therefore I did
not doubt that he was one of the members of the secret
organization and was bound for headquarters.
"I gave him half an hour's start and then resumed my march. If he
could travel beneath a noonday sun, so could I.
"In this fashion I presently came out upon a larger and higher
plateau, carpeted with a uniform, stunted undergrowth, and
extending, as flat as a table, to the very edge of a sheer
precipice, which rose from it to a height of three or four
hundred feet--gnarled, naked rock, showing no vestige of
vegetation.
"By this time the sound of falling water had become very loud,
and as I emerged from the gorge through which the path ran on to
this plateau I saw, on the further side of this tableland, the
yellow robe of the mendicant. He was walking straight for the
face of the precipice, and straight for the spot at which, from a
fissure in the rock, a little stream leapt out, to fall sheerly
ten or fifteen feet into a winding channel, along which it
bubbled away westward, doubtless to form a greater waterfall
beyond.
"The mendicant was fully half a mile away from me, but in that
clear tropical air was plainly visible; and, fearing that he
might look around, I stepped back into the comparative shadow of
the gorge and watched.
"Gentlemen, I saw a strange thing. Placing his bundle upon his
head, he walked squarely into the face of the waterfall and
disappeared!"
CHAPTER XXXII. STORY OF THE CITY OF FIRE (CONTINUED)
"'Quitting air, must pass through water.' The meaning of those
words became apparent enough. I stood at the foot of the
waterfall, looking up at the fissure from which it issued.
"Although the fact had been most artistically disguised, I could
not doubt that this fissure was artificial. A tunnel had been
hewn through the rock, and a mountain stream diverted into it.
Indeed, on close inspection, I saw that it was little more than a
thin curtain of water, partly concealing what looked like the
entrance of a cave.
"A great deal of mist arose from it. But I could see that, beyond
a ducking, I had little to fear; and, stepping down into the bed
of the little stream which frothed and bubbled pleasantly about
my bare legs, I set my bundle on my head as the mendicant had
done, and plunged through the waterfall, into a place of
delicious coolness.
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