The way seemed to be so easy that Nick was rather puzzled. He had expected to find all kinds of hindrances, considering how jealous the Bolongu people were over the secrets of their land.
Not far from the entrance to the cave they came to a hidden gully, the top of the divide. It was a path quite invisible from a distance—a mere snail track between towering mountains. Nick Carter realized that they were traveling by a secret path known only to an initiated few, and that few confined to the priesthood of Bolongu.
They all kept a watchful eye on their guide, but he seemed not to be aware of that fact. He was unconcerned, and even cheerful—so far as such a saturnine individual could be said to be so.
Always, however, there was a malevolent cunning in his eyes which made Nick Carter keep him under constant surveillance.
The prisoner never pulled at his bonds, nor resented the fact that Jai Singh was holding him in a leash as if he were an animal. Instead, he stepped along at a lively pace, as if he were rather enjoying the walk, and so little enmity did he show to his captors that now and again he called back to them a word of caution when the path took a sharp turn or dipped abruptly.
At the end of two hours’ march they reached a ridge from which they could look down into a great valley, about ten miles square. Carpeted with fresh grass of the most beautiful green, there were several streams running through it, all converging in a large lake on the other side.
By the side of this lake was a city, whose towers and minarets shone like gold in the morning sun.
“Are they Mohammedans over there?” remarked Jefferson Arnold. “Seems to me I see something like mosques scattered about among the other buildings.”
“Most likely the people of the place have built temples and churches according to their fancy, taking their patterns in architecture wherever they happened to find them,” answered Nick. “India is a land of many religions, remember, and there are enough believers in Mohammed in the country to account for mosques anywhere.”
There were outlying villages in the distance. But the city itself looked as solid as any in all India. It was surrounded by a wall which could not have been less than forty feet in height, and thick enough to harmonize with its height.