Came
an echoing call of trumpets, from far, hidden places in the city; and
kettle-drums boomed with dull reverberation.
"_Labbayk_, _Allahuma_!" shouted Bara Miyan, announcing with praise
to Allah his entrance into the City of Gold. A long, great shouting
answered him from the massed thousands of white figures on the walls.
The Master saw innumerable dark faces peering down from snowy
burnouses and haiks. He saw the gleam of steel. Not one of the figures
on the wall was veiled. Not one woman, therefore, had as yet been
permitted to leave the perfumed dimness of the harems, even for this
stupendous event in the city's history. So far as the Master could
judge, Captain Alden, lithely galloping close behind him, was the only
woman visible in all that multitude.
With a bold clatter of hoofs, now loudly echoed and hurled back by
the walls, the cavalcade burst up to the city like the foam-crest of
a huge, white wave. For a moment, as the Master's horse whirled him in
under the gate, he cast a backward glance at the plain and along the
battlements.
That glance showed him a small, white-clad band of Arabs trudging
afoot over the green expanse--the men who, dismounting, had given
their horses to the Legionaries.
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