The boys, utterly ignoring their guides, scrambled up quicker than the
Arabs could follow them. Mr. Damer started off at a pace which soon
brought him to the end of his tether, and from that point was dragged
up by the sheer strength of his assistants; thereby accomplishing the
wishes of the men, who induce their victims to start as rapidly as
possible, in order that they may soon find themselves helpless from
want of wind. Mr. Ingram endeavoured to attach himself to Fanny, and
she would have been nothing loth to have him at her right hand instead
of the hideous brown, shrieking, one-eyed Arab who took hold of her.
But it was soon found that any such arrangement was impossible. Each
guide felt that if he lost his own peculiar hold he would lose his
prey, and held on, therefore, with invincible tenacity. Miss Dawkins
looked, too, as though she had thought to be attended to by some
Christian cavalier, but no Christian cavalier was forthcoming. M.
Delabordeau was the wisest, for he took the matter quietly, did as he
was bid, and allowed the guides nearly to carry him to the top of the
edifice.
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