Acor having instructed two smart, keen servants
of his own to relieve each other in maintaining a strict watch upon the
noble's movements and to follow him whithersoever he might go, reporting
to Acor regularly as they went off duty.

At the moment it appeared to both Dick and Earle that these precautions
would prove sufficient, and would doubtless lead, in the course of a day
or two, to the arrest of the recalcitrant noble; but when three days had
passed bringing no news of Sachar, they decided upon the adoption of
further measures and, having in the meantime, with Lyga's assistance,
obtained the Queen's signature to the document giving Dick _carte
blanche_ to act in any manner that he might deem fit, Cavendish
published a Proclamation declaring Sachar an outlaw, offering a
substantial reward for such information as should lead to his arrest,
and pronouncing outlawry against any and all who might be found to have
afforded him refuge or succour of any kind.

This drastic step, they fully believed, would result in Sachar's
discovery and arrest, especially as every house belonging to Sachar, and
every person suspected of being in the slightest degree likely to help
or even sympathise with him, was being strictly watched; but day after
day went by with no discovery made, no smallest scrap of information
coming to hand; and meanwhile the preparations for the state obsequies
of the late king were so far advanced that at length the date was fixed
for the ceremonial, which was to be of unparalleled pomp and
magnificence.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

THE FIGHT IN THE ROAD.

The morning of the day which was to witness the imposing ceremonial of
the obsequies of the late King Juda dawned brilliantly bright and fair,
to the unqualified satisfaction of the Uluans, every one of whom counted
upon witnessing some portion at least of the pageant, while the greater
number were resolved to see practically the whole of it, and, with that
intention, arose about midnight and betook themselves along the road
leading to the royal sepulchre, which was a great cavern, situate some
eight miles from the city, in the interior of which the bodies of the
monarchs of Ulua had been deposited from time immemorial.

With the first appearance of dawn the streets of the city had begun to
assume a festive appearance, which, to Dick and Earle at least, seemed
distinctly incongruous until it was explained to them by Lyga--who came
to them early--that the