r not. It is a soldier's death,
and the one I should choose myself, and so that they are dead it can
matter little to the sultan how they die. If they were all shot, as
soon as they were taken, I should not think so much of it; but after
being held captive for years, and compelled to work, it seems to me
that their lives should be spared. As far as giving up my own life is
concerned, I would willingly do it at the orders of the sultan, but
these executions make me ill. I lose my appetite for weeks afterwards.
Let us talk of something else."

And the governor puffed furiously away at the hookah he had just
lighted. Then the conversation turned to the forts again.

"No, I do not find the life dull," he said, in answer to a remark of
Dick's. "I did so at first, but one soon becomes accustomed to it. I
have my wife and two daughters, and there are ten officers, so that I
can have company when I choose. All the officers are married, and that
gives society. Up here, we do not observe strictly the rules of the
plains, and although the ladies, of course, wear veils when they go
beyond the house, they put them aside indoors, and the families mix
freely with each other, so that we get on very well. You see, there
are very few changes ever made, and as many of the ladies are, like my
wife, no longer young, we treat them as comrades."

In the morning Dick and Surajah mounted their horses, took a hearty
farewell of the governor, and rode down to the gate. A soldier had
been sent down, half an hour before, and they found their escort in
readiness to move. They had decided that, before going to the next
fort, they would ride round the foot of the hill of Savandroog. This
they did, going at a foot pace, and scanning the cliffs and slopes as
they passed. Sometimes they reined up their horses and rode a little
farther back, so as to have a view to the very summit.

When they completed the round, they agreed that there were but two
spots where it seemed to them that an ascent was barely possible, and
they were very doubtful whether the difficulties, when examined more
closely, would not prove to be absolutely insurmountable.

"That is not a satisfactory outlook," Dick said, "but fortunately
there is, now, no motive for climbing the precipice. Certainly those
places would be of no use to a party wanting to make an attack. In the
first place, though you and I might get up, with soft shoes on, I am
sure that English soldiers, with muske