Possibly
we are fortunate to have fallen into their hands."
Smith-Oldwick shrugged his shoulders. "I hope so," he said, "though
I am not at all sure about people who travel about with lions and
are afraid of parrots. There must be something wrong with them."
The party followed the trail across the field to an arched gateway
which opened at the summons of one of their captors, who beat upon
the heavy wooden panels with his spear. Beyond, the gate opened
into a narrow street which seemed but a continuation of the jungle
trail leading from the forest. Buildings on either hand adjoined
the wall and fronted the narrow, winding street, which was only
visible for a short distance ahead. The houses were practically
all two-storied structures, the upper stories flush with the street
while the walls of the first story were set back some ten feet,
a series of simple columns and arches supporting the front of the
second story and forming an arcade on either side of the narrow
thoroughfare.
The pathway in the center of the street was unpaved, but the floors
of the arcades were cut stone of various shapes and sizes but all
carefully fitted and laid without mortar. These floors gave evidence
of great antiquity, there being a distinct depression down the
center as though the stone had been worn away by the passage of
countless sandaled feet during the ages that it had lain there.
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