登陆注册
14727400000076

第76章

There was no need, for the flimsy clasp gave at the first pull, and the sashes swung open. I scrambled in, after listening for steps on the stairs. I crumpled up the map and stuck it in my pocket, as well as the paper from which I had seen him copying. Very carefully Iremoved all marks of my entry, brushed away the snow from the boards, pulled back the curtain, got out and refastened the window.

Still there was no sound of his return. Then I started off to catch up the others.

I found them shivering in the roof pavilion. 'We've got to move pretty fast,' I said, 'for I've just been burgling old Stumm's private cabinet. Hussin, my lad, d'you hear that? They may be after us any moment, so I pray Heaven we soon strike better going.'

Hussin understood. He led us at a smart pace from one roof to another, for here they were all of the same height, and only low parapets and screens divided them. We never saw a soul, for a winter's night is not the time you choose to saunter on your housetop. I kept my ears open for trouble behind us, and in about five minutes I heard it. A riot of voices broke out, with one louder than the rest, and, looking back, I saw lanterns waving. Stumm had realized his loss and found the tracks of the thief.

Hussin gave one glance behind and then hurried us on at break-neck pace, with old Blenkiron gasping and stumbling. The shouts behind us grew louder, as if some eye quicker than the rest had caught our movement in the starlit darkness. it was very evident that if they kept up the chase we should be caught, for Blenkiron was about as useful on a roof as a hippo.

Presently we came to a big drop, with a kind of ladder down it, and at the foot a shallow ledge running to the left into a pit of darkness. Hussin gripped my arm and pointed down it. 'Follow it,'

he whispered, 'and you will reach a roof which spans a street. Cross it, and on the other side is a mosque. Turn to the right there and you will find easy going for fifty metres, well screened from the higher roofs. For Allah's sake keep in the shelter of the screen.

Somewhere there I will join you.'

He hurried us along the ledge for a bit and then went back, and with snow from the corners covered up our tracks. After that he went straight on himself, taking strange short steps like a bird. Isaw his game. He wanted to lead our pursuers after him, and he had to multiply the tracks and trust to Stumm's fellows not spotting that they all were made by one man.

But I had quite enough to think of in getting Blenkiron along that ledge. He was pretty nearly foundered, he was in a sweat of terror, and as a matter of fact he was taking one of the biggest risks of his life, for we had no rope and his neck depended on himself. Icould hear him invoking some unknown deity called Holy Mike.

But he ventured gallantly, and we got to the roof which ran across the street. That was easier, though ticklish enough, but it was no joke skirting the cupola of that infernal mosque. At last we found the parapet and breathed more freely, for we were now under shelter from the direction of danger. I spared a moment to look round, and thirty yards off, across the street, I saw a weird spectacle.

The hunt was proceeding along the roofs parallel to the one we were lodged on. I saw the flicker of the lanterns, waved up and down as the bearers slipped in the snow, and I heard their cries like hounds on a trail. Stumm was not among them: he had not the shape for that sort of business. They passed us and continued to our left, now hid by a jutting chimney, now clear to view against the sky line. The roofs they were on were perhaps six feet higher than ours, so even from our shelter we could mark their course. If Hussin were going to be hunted across Erzerum it was a bad look-out for us, for I hadn't the foggiest notion where we were or where we were going to.

But as we watched we saw something more. The wavering lanterns were now three or four hundred yards away, but on the roofs just opposite us across the street there appeared a man's figure. Ithought it was one of the hunters, and we all crouched lower, and then I recognized the lean agility of Hussin. He must have doubled back, keeping in the dusk to the left of the pursuit, and taking big risks in the open places. But there he was now, exactly in front of us, and separated only by the width of the narrow street.

He took a step backward, gathered himself for a spring, and leaped clean over the gap. Like a cat he lighted on the parapet above us, and stumbled forward with the impetus right on our heads.

'We are safe for the moment,' he whispered, 'but when they miss me they will return. We must make good haste.'

The next half-hour was a maze of twists and turns, slipping down icy roofs and climbing icier chimney-stacks. The stir of the city had gone, and from the black streets below came scarcely a sound. But always the great tattoo of guns beat in the east. Gradually we descended to a lower level, till we emerged on the top of a shed in a courtyard. Hussin gave an odd sort of cry, like a demented owl, and something began to stir below us.

It was a big covered wagon, full of bundles of forage, and drawn by four mules. As we descended from the shed into the frozen litter of the yard, a man came out of the shade and spoke low to Hussin.

Peter and I lifted Blenkiron into the cart, and scrambled in beside him, and I never felt anything more blessed than the warmth and softness of that place after the frosty roofs. I had forgotten all about my hunger, and only yearned for sleep. Presently the wagon moved out of the courtyard into the dark streets.

Then Blenkiron began to laugh, a deep internal rumble which shook him violently and brought down a heap of forage on his head. I thought it was hysterics, the relief from the tension of the past hour. But it wasn't. His body might be out of training, but there was never anything the matter with his nerves. He was consumed with honest merriment.

同类推荐
  • 摩醯首罗天法要

    摩醯首罗天法要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 泄天机

    泄天机

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 罗汉传

    罗汉传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 复郎廷佐书

    复郎廷佐书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 双溪醉隐集

    双溪醉隐集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 剑论天涯行

    剑论天涯行

    追随金庸、古龙的脚步,以纯粹的侠义情怀,书写江湖恩怨、人物传奇。让我们畅游书海、快意恩仇,向传统武侠致敬。(相信我,这是一部可以拍成电视、走上荧屏的鸿篇巨著。你,不容错过!)
  • 电视摄像艺术

    电视摄像艺术

    本书对电视摄像艺术进行了全面的阐述,系统而概括地论述了电视摄像从入门到提高再到电视艺术创作需要掌握的技巧和方法。
  • 体验式教学:让思政课活起来

    体验式教学:让思政课活起来

    本书共分六章。内容包括总论、理论基础研究、问题体系建构、“问题解析式”教学、学生问题解答和拓展应用研究等六大部分,既涉及教学模式的理论研究,更涉及教学模式在“思政课”教学实践中的应用。本书借鉴国内外兄弟院校的经验,结合当代大学生特点和生活实际,具有很强的针对性和实效性。
  • 姜晨

    姜晨

    当他带着一本泛黄的笔记本找到我时,我被他这些年的改变惊愕到了,我实在想不出到底经历了什么样的事情才能让一个人的前后变化如此之大。他让我代为修改,然后发到网上,我犹豫了。因为我认为这并不需要修改,这其中的每一个字,每一个人,每一个故事都是他真实的经历写照,我下不了手改,也没有资格去编改。他说当你看完这几年的内容就会想要去修改了。我沉默。他让我给这本书起个名字,我拒绝了,我告诉他,既然是你的经历,那就由你自己来取。到现在我还记得他当时的眼神,平静中带着微笑,微笑中却带着不曾引人注意的坚强。“就叫,姜晨。”
  • 伦巴蒂之章

    伦巴蒂之章

    故事发生在上一个故事前两百年,也就是第三纪元南联邦共和国成立前149年,第三纪元自由界第七次南北战争也是历时最长的一次南北战争(史称南北百年战争)末期。讲述了位于南自由界东南部汉顿王国伦巴蒂王朝在王权衰落与内外战争消耗背景下四大权势家族的斗争以及伦巴蒂王朝的复兴。
  • 黑色裂变

    黑色裂变

    一场雨中,小学生会把书包抱在胸前,中学生直接背在背后,高中生则把书包顶在头顶遮雨。成长中我们失去了什么?一个普通的尚武之人,是什么把他逼上了地下拳击市场的顶峰。他不残忍,亦不血腥,但是他却时常缺少人性。在经历了荣耀之后,自己却又变得不再真实。是他造就了这段故事,还是这段故事造就了他?
  • 窃神录

    窃神录

    窃钩者诛,窃国者侯。窃天者,主宰乾坤!指掌天运,号令三界!且看废材少爷萧逸风如何纵横天下,成就万世武神……
  • 腹黑计划:总裁追妻有点忙

    腹黑计划:总裁追妻有点忙

    五年前一场平凡的不能在平凡的邂逅,却成了他心中的唯一,五年后,她进入他的公司原以为是父亲安排的,却不想其实是他一直引她去他的怀抱…
  • 轮回幻灭

    轮回幻灭

    九玄幻灭,是缘分还是设计,托养于人,到底有何种秘密,双手改变天赋,动念破析万象,在诸天万界,不求荣誉,不求权力,只求让自己不再迷茫与孤单,不再痛苦与挣扎,轮回,是否还会相遇?再见,是否反目成仇?只能说,愿意等待你做出选择。其他网站搬来的,前六十章看得不爽请别喷,只是废话有点多,外加新手初作,请多包涵。
  • EXO之凤凰君主的爱恋

    EXO之凤凰君主的爱恋

    西原依晗9岁时和父母去了日本玩,他们在日本玩了一年后,可怕的事情发生了,西原依晗出了一场车祸,她忘掉了10岁前的记忆,她在医院里醒来后认识了她的养父母——凌幻家族的亲王王妃,他们收养了她,她在日本学会了空手道和剑道后,她的养父母带她回到她的亲生父母面前,她和他们相认了,于是她的养父母离开中国时,他拽住她的养父母的衣襟说:”爸爸妈妈,虽然我不是你们的亲生女儿,但是你们一年给予我的爱是我一生中最好的礼物了,我想一直当你们一生最爱的女儿!“养父母们听后哭了说:”嗯,夏娃(西原凌幻雪的乳名)你永远都是我们最爱的女儿,有空来到日本哦!再见了我亲爱的女儿!“他们说完话后就离开了中国了,她哭了。