rock-strewn ascent, now carefully stepping from one huge and ill-balanced boulder to another; now advancing timorously along a narrow path with a wall of cliff on one side and an unfathomable precipice on the other; and now using hands as well as feet for their support at some dangerous turn. Deeper grew the cloudy valley below them, clearer grew the sky above, and ever nearer frowned the unvisited bare peaks, around which vultures circled as if in anger at the invasion of their desolate dominions.
The old man rested many times on the way; but at last, after more than usual exertions, be halted, almost breathless, and gasped, "It is here!"
"I see no cave," said Antar.
The greybeard, leaning heavily on his staff, pointed to a rough slab of mossy stone that rested, as if by accident, against a wall of apparently solid rock, and said: "Lift it away. That is his door. There is the cave."
Antar looked around him, but there was no living being save his companion within
