The Rajah's Fortress — page 256: what you’re looking at

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

THE RAJAH’'S FORTRESS. 243 the lamp went out like a shot, and fragments of stone from the walls fell all about him. Then, as though at a great distance, he heard dimly a noise of shouting and hurrying feet and the rattle of arms. Then they died away and all was silence again. He listened intently for a while, but could hear nothing. The massive walls entombed him. At last, half persuaded that the loud explosion had been only a delusion, he fell asleep from sheer weariness. He slept for hours and woke up with a start. The lamp had been lit while he slept and was burn- ing feebly. It must be morning surely, he thought, and then with a bitter pang he remembered that day and night were one to him in that under- ground dungeon. Hark! What wasthat? Only imagination, per- haps, but no—the iron door was creaking on its hinges. It swung slowly open, and a man ad- vanced quickly to the center of the room. Forbes sprang to his feet. “Dalo!” he said bitterly. “You vile trai- tor ” He paused in wonder. The man was not Dalo. The same glittering eyes, but the face was older, the expression sterner, more cruel than Dalo’s, the hair tinged with iron gray. The stranger wore a purple tunic, and loose trousers. <A jeweled scimetar hungat his side. In COLUM 1OOO SS co