was more than that in it.

At any rate, we were not attacked again on the road, although there
were men who showed themselves now and then on inaccessible-looking
crags, who eyed us suspiciously and made no answer to the shouted
challenge of Anazeh's men. When the track passed over a spur, or
swung round the shoulder of a cliff, we could sometimes catch
sight of other parties--always, though of three, before and behind
us, proceeding in the same direction.

We sighted the stone walls of El-Kerak at about midafternoon, and
rode up to the place through a savage gorge that must have been
impregnable in the old days of bows and arrows. It would take a
determined army today to force itself through the wadys and
winding water-courses that guard that old citadel of Romans
and crusaders.

We approached from the Northwest corner, where a tower stands
that they call Burj-ez-Zahir. There were lions carved on it. It
looked as if the battlements had been magnificent at one time;
but whatever the Turks become possessed of always falls into
decay, and the Arabs seem no better.

Beside the Burj-ez-Zahir is a tunnel, faced by an unquestionable
Roman arch. Outside it there were more than a dozen armed men
lounging, and a lot of others looked down at us through the
ruined loop-holes of the wall above. Their leader challenged
our numbers at once, and refused admission. Judging by Anazeh's
magnificently insolent reply it looked at first as if he
intended fighting his way in. But that turned out to be