serve as watch-houses or
places of refuge. Whether they were garrisoned by soldiers I do not
know, but I doubt it, for we saw none. It seems probable indeed that
these forts were relics of days when the land of Kaloon was guarded from
attack by rulers of a very different character to that of the present
Khan and his immediate predecessors.

At length even the watch-towers were left behind, and by sundown we
found ourselves upon a vast uninhabited plain, where we could see
no living thing. Now we made up our minds to rest our horses awhile,
proposing to push forward again with the moon, for having the wrath
of the Khania behind us we did not dare to linger. By this evening
doubtless she would have discovered our escape, since before sundown, as
she had decreed, Leo must make his choice and give his answer. Then,
as we were sure, she would strike swiftly. Perhaps her messengers
were already at their work rousing the country to capture us, and her
soldiers following on our path.

We unsaddled the horses and let them refresh themselves by rolling
on the sandy soil, and graze after a fashion upon the coarse tufts of
withering herbage which grew around. There was no water here; but this
did not so much matter, for both they and we had drunk at a little muddy
pool we found not more than an hour before. We were finishing our meal
of the food that we had brought with us, which, indeed, we needed sorely
after our sleepless night and long day's journey, when my horse, which
was knee-haltered close at hand, lay down to roll again. This it could
not do with ease because of the rope about its fore-leg, and I watched
its efforts idly, till at length, at the fourth attempt, after hanging
for a few seconds upon its back, its legs sticking straight into the
air, it fell over slowly towards me as horses do.

"Why are its hoofs so red? Has it cut itself?" asked Leo in an
indifferent voice.

As it chanced I also had just noticed this red tinge, and for the first
time, since it was most distinct about the animal's frogs, which until
it rolled thus I had not seen. So I rose to look at them, thinking that
probably the evening light had deceived us, or that we might have passed
through some ruddy-coloured mud. Sure enough they _were_ red, as though
a dye had soaked into the horn and the substance of the frogs. What was
more, they gave out a pungent, aromatic smell that was unpleasant, such
a smell as might arise from blood mixed with musk a