The King's Talisman — page 139: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

130 THE KINGS TALISMAN. any one had gone in advance of them, and unsuspectingly they moved on their way through the pass. «“ Hark!” said Noureddin, in a startled tone, as his train had gained a third of the way through the Petran notch. “Do you not hear the Bound of a horse’s hoofs ahead of us?” «Some night-soldier, probably,” remarked Abdah Nazor, as the distant sound struck upon his ear. “Then he must be on extraordinary business, for hear how furiously he rides.” As Noureddin spoke, they both hstened to the sounds, and ere long the deep reverberation died away, and naught but an indistinct clattering was heard. ‘‘ Whoever it is, he has cleared the pass,” the old man said. ‘‘It may be a spy, but still I see not what clew could have been had upon us. But let us push boldly on, for even in the hands of Modad himself we have nothing to (otear.”” It was fully half an hour ere the party reached tke city, and when they did so they took the street which led around by the northern wall, which they followed till they came to a huge building that had been cut out of the solid rock, and which was used as a sort of garrison for a squadron of sol- diers. ‘They had passed the building, and were about to turn off farther to the right, through a sort of natural de- file that led through a street of tombs, when the old man’s attention was arrested by the form of a man just crossing the way in front of them. ‘How now, strangers? What party is this?” asked the individual who had approached. Noureddin was upon the point of answering, when Abdah Nazor motioned him to be silent, and turning toward the stranger, he said: ‘*Do I recognize Nabal, the centurion ?” The stranger came nearer, and seeming for the first time Eomichbooks. co