He can see them now easily.Yes.See.He is their man!" On a horse that staggered gamely--silhouetted and beginning to show detail in the yellow light--a man whose nationality or caste could not be recognized rode straight for the bivouacking cavalry, and a swarm of them rode out at a walk to meet him.
The tension on the ramparts was relaxed then.

As a friend in direst need the man would have been welcome.

As one of enemy, with a message for them, however urgent, he was no more than an incident.
"By Allah!" roared Alwa suddenly.

"That is no man of theirs! Quick! To the wheels! Man the wheels! Eight men to horse!" He took the cord himself, to send the necessary signal down into the belly of the rock.

From his stables, where men and horses seemed to stand ready day and night, ten troopers cantered out, scattering the sparks, the whites of their horses' eyes and their drawn blades gleaming; without another order they dipped down the breakneck gorge, to wait below.