The Press., 1891-03-26

perfect mob at our heels. Fruit sellers, water carriers, dusty pilgrims, and even khree or four stately Turkish soldiers came scampering after us like boys fol- lowing a circus; and, worse than all, as we passed out through the Golden Gate (which faces the Mount of Ohves) the rabble of hideous lepers who haunt the spot swarmed suddenly out upon us.
 Those who know what the streets of Je- rusalem are like may imagine what it is to tramp through them on 8 scorching sum- mer day at the rate of five miles an hour. But wrought up as we were to kind of frenzy by the burning sun, the shouts or the mob and the fierce feverish excitement of the race, we would hardly have felt the pain of an actual wound, much less that Of few blisters and bruises, and on we went over rolling stones and gaping hollows and rotting garbage and mounds of dust and rubbish as recklessly as mountain goats.
 But even worse was still in store for us, for beyond the Golden Gate we had to fol- low a broken, uphill path, or rather ledge, between the outer wall and the brink of the deep, narrow, cleftlike Valley of Je- hoshaphat This path was literally heaped with sharp, jagged stones, every step on which must have been torture to the bare footed Arab; but, ruffian and bully though he was, he had all the indomitable courage of his race and never hinched or made sign of pain from first to last.
 By this time we had covered more than two-thirds of the distance, and the strain of this desperate struggle was beginning to tell with a vengeance. My breath came in thick gasps and my heart throbbed like the beat of hammer, while singing in my ears and an ever growing sense of dull o11 %Iah of xxyQY 1adv vTon that I had we'll nigh reached the limit of my strength. But the sight of the Arabs keen black eyes watching my face for some token of weakness spurred me on, for saw (not without a certain grim satisfaction) that my rival was in even worse case than myself His head was beginning to droop, his parted lips quivered convulsively, his bony chest shook with the sob of every labored breath, and though he still kept up with me it was only by a desperate eff fort too exhausting to last.
 Menwhile the sun grew iercer with every moment, and sky and earth seemed all red hot alike, as the pitiless glare above was darted back upon us from the bare rocks below and the glaring white walls around. And now sudden turn brought us to the foot of the rocky ridge once crowned by Herod's fortress of Antonio, and now occupied by the Turkish citadel. Up this ridge went as hard as I could go without actually running, for the Arab was now so nearly spent that l felt sure that if I could force him to a fresh effort without myself breaking down in doing so he must give in. Ishak met the trial as bravely as man could do. but it told none the less. His dark lean face was drawn and pinched like that of a corpse his bloodshot eyes seemed starting from f>, %J,oG G,,ekt 1of foI | slightly behind; but he regained his lost ground with 8 desperate effort as he heard | the yell of angry amazement that broke from the crowd. who now for the first tim' i began to doubt the triumph of their cham 1 pion. ...--
 I, too, had heard and understood tha cry, and, though dizzy and stumbling a every step, gathered the last remnant o my failing strength for the final rush which now knew to be very near. | It was, indeed. In another moment w had passed the huge gray archway of tn Jaffa gate, and there, right ahead of us not twenty yards off, stood the house tha was the goal of our race, with my two En glish comrades standing in front of it an' shouting with all the force of their lungs
 'Put it on, Keri You'll lick him yetP
 The call nerved me to final effort and, darting forward, entered the court yard gate full length ahead, while Ishal fell just as he reached it, and lay writhin on the hot pavement, with froth of bloc and foam round his gasping mouth. The beaten man writhed his swollen an quivering lips convulsively in 8 vain effor to mutter curse, and then tainted out right, while I, with red mist before m eyes. and everything spinning round m with a whirr like the fywheei of an CT zine, was led away by my comrades to b
 hastily doctored with such remedies g were to be had. But the elder of the tw
 when he heard my story merely remarked
 with that freedom of speech which is tn
 birthright of every Englishman:
 HWell, always thought you were foo
 and now Pm sure of itI'
 And on cooler reflection was very muc
 in Free Flag.