and the flutter of a light dress, or
possibly two, just ahead. He took it for granted that Meryl and Diana
had both accompanied Stanley, and that his escort was no longer
expected. He told himself he was glad, and decided to go into the
Acropolis Hill, about that point of interest still unravelled between
himself and Grenville, and so avoid any chance encounter.

But when he found himself among the ruined fortifications, he became
conscious of a flagging interest wholly unlooked for. Something seemed
to have gone out of him, or out of the ancient stones, and he knew
himself in some vague way not in tune. He gazed at the amazing walls,
erected upon granite boulders two hundred to two hundred and fifty
feet above the valley, and the marvel in him that never seemed to die
was, at any rate, less arresting than it had ever been before.

Here, on an isolated hill, rising to a height of three hundred and
fifty feet, were fortifications which in their ingenuity, massive
character, and persistent repetition at every point of vantage had
astonished the highest experts of modern military engineering. Rampart
walls, traverses, screen-walls, intricate entrances, narrow and
labyrinthine passages, sunken thoroughfares, banquettes, parapets, and
other devices of a people thoroughly conversant with military
engineering and defence, and not one word, not one line, not one clue
as to the identity of the builders nor the object of their colossal
labours; labours which one felt could only have been achieved through
the compulsory service of many slaves, for thousands of tons of
granite blocks had been transported up the precipitous kopje to a
height of no less than two hundred feet, which a careful examination
of the rocks on the hill proves must mostly have been quarried from
granite about twelve miles distant. And all this in spite of the fact
that Nature alone had made the hill already impregnable, it being
inaccessible on three sides and very difficult of ascent on the
fourth. It is one of Rhodesia's mysteries, and one also of its
fascinations; those mysteries and fascinations which so far have
effectually baffled all efforts to find the clue and read the closed
book. Who was it came for gold in those old, old days? Who was it
built the line of forts to Solfala on the coast to guard the route
along which the gold was undoubtedly carried, and of which remains may
still be seen at regular intervals the whole distance? Where was the
gol