The Rajah's Fortress — page 290: what you’re looking at

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

THE RAJAH’S FORTRESS. 275 they slept. They could be lit at any time, as they all had matches, Chauner was lying in a stupor, and would likely remain so during the night. After a hasty lunch they spread themselves out on the rugs to sleep if possible. Their arms lay at their side, for an attack might come at any moment. Guy proposed that a watch should be kept, but Topee declared that he wanted no rest, and would stay on the lookout while the others slept. It was about nine o’clock in the evening, as nearly as they could judge, when they blew out the lamps and lay own. | Condemned men on the eve of execution often slumber as calmly and profoundly as an infant, and in ten minutes these men were all asleep, utterly oblivious to the deadly peril that compassed them on all sides. An hour or two later Guy awoke in a cold sweat. He was oppressed by a strange feeling of fear. He sat upright, wiping the moisture from his forehead. He listened, but all was dead silence, save for Chauner’s heavy breathing. Yet the feeling of ap- proaching peril was so strong in him that he could not shake it off. He had fully made up his mind to waken the rest, and take the chances of being laughed at, when a slight noise in the next room caught his ear, and while he waited breathlessly to hear more, a sudden gleam of light appeared be- yond the doorway leading to the treasure chamber. The door stood open on its hinges. There was no lock attached to it. His first impulse was to give the alarm. Then prudence asserted itself, and he rose noiselessly to his feet and tiptoed over the soft rugs to the door- way. A few steps brought him to the curtains that fell across the entrance, and, glancing through their COLUM 1OOO SS co