Page:Harold Lamb--The House of the Falcon.djvu/277

 "We may meet another peril, Excellency."

"They may try to climb the outside of the tower?"

Aravang shook his head.

"It may be, Dono-van Khan. But this peril is otherwise."

Edith spoke then and Donovan did not learn what alternative the native had in mind.

"That was splendid," she cried. "Aren't we quite safe in these stone walls—of the tower? If only we can keep them away until my father comes" "Our position, Edith," he smiled, "is excellent. Aravang, alone, could hold this floor, at a pinch. And, if you will be good enough to mount the stairs for a flight and watch from the embrasures, we can checkmate any attempt to put ladders against the tower itself." He added, however, to himself: "Of course, we are without food or water, or necessary ammunition, and Major Fraser-Carnie is at least twelve hours' ride from this place"

"Indeed," Edith reproved him, "I won't think of going upstairs without you. I think you are trying to send me away!"

She pouted and Donovan shook his head guiltily. A new outbreak of firing from the plateau, however, took him halfway up the stairs at her side, to one of the arrow slits in the stone wall, giving on the courtyard.

Hence they obtained a glimpse of an unexpected development resulting from the withdrawal of the Sayaks. Bundles of small pine branches bound together and soaked in part with kerosene—even that poor brand of liquid brought by camelback from China to Kashgar—when once ignited are not easily extinguished. As a consequence, the flares of Monsey were