to do was to keep descending,
in order to secure his final exit into the principal thoroughfare--
Bab-Azoun.

Few persons met him at that hour, and these appeared desirous of
avoiding observation. After passing the Bagnio with a shudder, he
extinguished the lantern. And now the real danger of his enterprise had
begun, because he was acting illegally in traversing the streets after
dark without a light, and liable to be taken up and punished by any of
the guards who should find him. He proceeded therefore with great
caution; keeping close to the walls in the darkest places, and gliding
into doorways to hide when any one approached. Thus he succeeded
escaping observation, and had almost reached the city wall, not far from
the spot where it was garnished by poor Castello's head, when he heard
the tramp of soldiers. They were about to turn a corner which would in
another second have brought him full into view. To retreat was
impossible, and no friendly doorway stood open to receive him. In this
extremity he pressed himself into a niche formed by a pillar and an
angle of the house beside him. It could not have concealed him in
ordinary circumstances, but aided by darkness there was some possibility
of escaping notice. Crushing himself against the wall with all his
might, and wishing with all his heart that he had been a smaller man, he
breathlessly awaited the passing of the soldiers.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

IN WHICH TED FLAGGAN AND HIS FRIEND RAIS ALI ACT A CONSCIOUS PART, AND A
POLITICAL STORM BEGINS TO BREAK.

There is unquestionably many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip, but on
the present occasion there was no such slip. Mariano succeeded in
diminishing and flattening himself to such an extent that the
janissaries passed without observing him. The moment they were out of
sight he glided from his hiding-place, and soon found his way to the top
of the ramparts, near the Bab-Azoun gate. The head of Castello was at
his elbow; the wearied Turkish sentinel was not a hundred yards distant
Mariano could see him clearly defined against the eastern sky every time
he reached the end of his beat.

"If he takes it into his head to walk this way, I am lost," thought
Mariano.

It seemed as if the man had heard the thought, for he walked slowly
towards the spot where the youth lay at full length on the ground.
There was no mound or niche or coping of any kind behind which a man
might conceal himself. The dead man'