Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/249

 His hand moved swiftly to his girdle and Edith caught the flash of steel. In the same instant, the knife thudded into a beam, across the stairs. The Alaman tugged it out, with a meaning glance at her. He laid his hand on the beam.

"Dono-van Khan," he assured her.

The girl passed down the stairs with Abbas behind her. For this reason she did not see, across the ravine, a horseman riding at full gallop along the cliff path toward the south away from Yakka Arik. It was a native, his long cloak fluttering, bending close to the horse and riding as no one but a hill-bred native could ride. And she heard nothing because, although the opposite cliff was within easy rifle range, Monsey had given strict orders to his sentries not to shoot until he gave the word so that the firing might not reveal the secret of the trap he had set so cleverly with the assisstance of Abbas.