It would have pleased Nick Carter to put a bullet into the venerable carcass of the old priest, and see how he would like it. But that could not be done very well, and the march was resumed without further incident.
When, an hour later, they reached the city of Shangore, Nick Carter inspected the great walls with the eyes of an engineer and a military man combined.
They were between forty and fifty feet high, and encircled the whole city. Their thickness was about twenty feet at the base.
“Looks as if this place was built to resist a siege,” observed Jefferson Arnold. “Though I don’t know who they fear. Look at the loopholes in the towers. I suppose they shoot arrows through them.”
“And there are four gates,” put in Chick.
“Big gates, too,” added Patsy.
“I have heard that this city is as strongly fortified as some of those German places we hear of,” remarked Leslie. “When those fellows had me a prisoner, they were blowing about this city of theirs.”
“Those four gates are formidable-looking arrangements,” observed Nick Carter. “There is a drawbridge to each one. The lake washes the walls all along this side where the gates are. The portcullises are mighty strong, too.”
Nick Carter understood the make-up of fortresses as well as most men, and he was struck by the completeness of the defenses of this city so far off in the desert. What he could not understand was why it had been deemed necessary to build such a place out here.
Jai Singh, who had not said much since the journey had begun in company with Calaman and his guards, shook his head as he looked at the great walls, towers, and gates. He did not like them, that was evident.