The Rajah's Fortress — page 150: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE RAJAH’S FORTRESS. 141 Guy assured him that every possible precaution would be taken, and then, with a fast beating heart, he followed close behind Topee, crouching down and moving at asnail’s pace through the under- growth. Topee’s anxiety was well founded, for in less than five minutes they turned off from the thicket into a border of high jungle grass, and crept along the very edge of the mountain wall, which had suddenly become so steep that it made Guy dizzy to look upwards. A few yards more, and Topee, motioning the rest to lie down and remain quiet, led Guy forward a few paces with many signals of caution. “‘ Now see there,” he whispered, parting the jungle grass with one hand so that Guy could look out. The scene that met his gaze was indeed start ling. A bit of open ground was before him, a cleared space in the jungle on which the moon fell softly, bringing into bold relief every stone and shrub, and shining broadly on the chalk white surface of the mountain wall, chalk white and shiny except for one place, a great black gloomy hole that pierced the cliff, like a monstrous ink stain on a snow-white sheet. All this Guy saw at a glance, and then he drew back with an irrepres- sible shudder as his eyes fell on a group in the foreground that he had not at first perceived. Half sitting, half lying before the cavern entrance were three men. The moon fell full on their faces COLUM 1OOO SS co