The splintered shaft was like tinder, and crumbled between his finger and thumb like powder; the design of the iron was ancient and strange.
“That vulture appears to be the only resident at present inside the fort,” said Fred. “Suppose we have a shot at him, and try the effect, eh?”
“No,” replied Ned. “Keep your ammunition for worthier foes; we may need all our cartridges by-and-by. Meantime let us try to achieve what these fellows have evidently failed to do—get over the walls as quietly as possible, and discover what is behind. Keep your weapons ready for instant use, and your eyes and ears open, boys. Now, forward, in your best scaling order.”
They ran swiftly through the crunching bones, and up the steep sides of the cliffs. A rugged kind of hewn stairway led them up to a massive square-shaped portal, which was gateless and more than half demolished. The huge stones of the posts were bulging out, and the top bending over. As they dashed inside, the vulture rose with a hoarse scream and sailed lazily away.
Inside they discovered a large courtyard, heaped with fallen masonry. Great blocks of ten and twenty feet long lay in every direction, with gaps in the walls above them, from which they had been dislodged.
“By George, but they built for time here, when they were at it!” cried Clarence, looking round him with admiration.
“Yes,” replied Ned. “The builders of this place knew something about the pyramids.”
It was all of the massive, square, and Egyptian style of architecture: walls with heavy abutments at the bases; oblong narrow slits for windows and embrasures; wide spaces which had originally been covered with paintings, now only showing in undecipherable patches; massive upright slabs for pillars, with enormous flat lintels.
At intervals on the tops of the outer walls which enclosed this court were placed watch-towers, of forty and sixty feet in height. The thickness of the portal through which they had passed was twenty feet at the base and about ten at the top, as nearly as they were able to calculate from below.
An open gateway within the most massive of the buildings attracted their attention, but before venturing to explore its dark cavity, Ned formed his company into a close square; then, bidding them wait and watch, he ran over to the wall on the other side, and, climbing it by some steps, he stood on the esplanade with about five feet of wall in front of him.