!" for in front of him there yawns a ravine,
four or five paces across, and many feet deep. He glances to either
side: a little to the left it narrows slightly, but only by reason of a
jagged spit of rock that juts out--a spit so small as barely to afford
resting-place to a foot. At every other spot the ravine is even wider
than where he was brought to a halt. He waits but a moment--long enough
to reflect that he dare not go the toilsome way round, lest he arrive
too late; and then, setting his teeth and clenching his fingers so
tightly that the nails press deep into his palms, he takes a leap.
Misjudgment of the distance by an inch would dash him into the chasm
below; but practice has given him perfect command of his muscles; he
springs lightly, confidently; his right foot lands on the precariously
narrow spit of rock, and as he stoops his body he brings the left foot
against the right; then, just as it would seem that the momentum of his
flight must cause him to sway and stagger and topple over sideways, he
rises as on springs to his full height, and with another effort of his
well-trained muscles he hurls himself from the spit on to the broader
ledge behind, and is safe.

Panting as he was, Ahmed sped off without delay. At last he reached the
edge of the wood; he plunged into it, and finding a track which he had
often followed, he ran easily as a deer. When he emerged at the other
end, he dashed across the fields, green with his father's crops, and
came to the gates.

"Minghal Khan is upon us!" he cried, as he entered. Some young boys
playing in the street took up the cry and ran screaming into their
houses; old Ahsan, the gate-keeper--now frail and bent, but once the
best rider and the cunningest horse-stealer of Shagpur--came tottering
out of his hut.

"Minghal Khan, say you, Ahmed-ji? That son of a dog!" and he slammed-to
the gates and barred them, muttering curses on the enemy.

By this time the cries of the children had brought the villagers into
the street. They were for the most part old men and feeble; the young
and able-bodied were with Rahmut Khan; but there were among them a few
men in the prime of life and some boys of about Ahmed's age.
Breathlessly he told them what he had seen.

"The gates are but as ghi to Minghal," cried old Ahsan. "They will not
keep him out till the sun sets."

"Then we will go into the tower," said Ahmed, "and shut ourselves up
there until my father returns."

He ran into