For a considerable distance, as they approached the pass, the camels were made to walk in single file, and two Arabs, walking backward at the rear of the procession, smoothed out all signs of their passage. In broad sunlight, anyone hunting for a trail, would find it. But to a cursory glance it would remain invisible.
Satisfied that everything possible had been done to prevent the raiders whom he now felt assured had not yet entered the pass, from discovering he was ahead of them, Mr. Hampton ordered the party to proceed cautiously along the great stone road.
CHAPTER XIV.
A NEW RADIO STATION.
The moon had been down for two hours or more. They had so timed their approach as to make the last part of their journey come at the darkest time of night, in order to minimize the risk of being seen by any spies on the mountain.
In the distance, on either hand, stretched away to the horizon a great mountain mass, the outer walls of which Mr. Hampton estimated to be 2,000 feet at least in height. Steep precipitous slopes of rock, as far as they could judge, made ascent next to impossible. Here, in this pass, however, the mountain walls were slightly lower. Yet, as they proceeded slowly up the stone road, which ascended gradually but steadily, going carefully, with an Arab well in the lead as they approached each turn in order to give warning against surprise, the walls were steep enough in all seeming.
Conversation had been forbidden, and only the soft padding of the camels broke the silence. Yet each man thought to himself that it would be impossible to scale those slopes, and prepared to fight to the death where he stood in case of attack.
It was even darker in the pass than it had been on the desert, where the soft diffusive light of the stars gave a faint illumination. They rode two abreast, and Jack and Frank, who rode together, could make little out of their surroundings. They were in the middle of the line and could barely see the men ahead and behind them—dark, hooded shapes all. For Mr. Hampton and the boys wore Arab burnooses and, except for their sun helmets, which they wore in place of the Arab turban, resembled their companions in appearance.
Of the road itself little could be seen, except that it was smooth and without breaks, composed of immense rocks which could have been moved from a quarry and put in place only at the expense of Herculean labor, especially in that dim bygone age when laid down. Filling the pass from wall to wall, it was a road built for the ages. How deep it went, who knew? Certainly, it must have been yards in depth. Over the surface, one would have expected sand from the desert to have collected, but so free was the stone from any such accumulation that it seemed to be newly-swept. Winds playing up and down the pass like the draught in a chimney were responsible.
Suddenly the Arab riding far in the lead to guard against surprise, as similarly rode a single Arab well in the rear of the main body, fell back beside Mr. Hampton and Ali who headed the procession.
“What is it?” asked Ali, low-voiced. “Men ahead?”