saddle, gripping it
tightly with his knees, and holding the loosened rein.

Another bound, and another, but no foothold for the horse, and then,
after one of its daring leaps, which were more those of a mountain sheep
or goat than of a horse, Ali Baba alighted at the very edge of the
perpendicular portion of the valley side, and those above saw him totter
for a moment, and then leap right off into space.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

ANOTHER SERPENT.

The professor uttered a groan, and covered his eyes.

But only for a moment. The next he was descending from his horse, and
beginning to clamber down the side of the precipice, but a cry from
Yussuf stopped him.

"No, no, effendi. We must go back down to the side of the river and
climb up. We cannot descend."

It was so plain that the professor said nothing; but, as if yielding to
the command of a superior officer, clambered back to the pathway, and
all stood gazing down to where the slope ended and the perpendicular
wall began.

There was nothing to see but the top of the wall of rock: nothing to
hear but the hissing, roaring rush of the water far below.

"Come," said Yussuf, turning his horse, and taking the lead in the
descent along the path they had just reascended, down which, scrambling
and slipping over the thawing ice, they crept slowly, looking in the
midst of the stupendous chasm little bigger than flies.

The old lawyer trembled, while the professor's cheeks looked sunken, his
eyes hollow. No one spoke, and as they went on, the crunching of the
half-melted hailstones and the click of the horses' hoofs against the
loosened stones sounded loudly in the clear air.

It was a perilous descent, for the horses were constantly slipping; but
at last the bottom of the defile was reached, and the steeds being left
in charge of Hamed, Yussuf turned sharply to the right, closely followed
by Mr Preston and Mr Burne, to climb along the steep stone-burdened
slope, where the flooded mountain torrent was just beneath them and
threatening to sweep them away.

Yussuf turned from time to time to look at his companions, half
expecting that they would not follow, for the way he took was extremely
perilous, and he fully expected to see Mr Preston give up in despair.
But, experienced as he was in the ways of Englishmen, he did not quite
understand their nature, for not only was the professor toiling on over
the mossy stones just behind him, but Mr Burne, with his face
g