As it was, he recovered himself, and
presently arrived panting and very pale. In her relief Benita kissed
him, and even as she did so thought again that she had been very near to
being left alone with Jacob Meyer.
"All's well that ends well, my dear," he said. "But upon my word I am
beginning to wish that I had been content with the humble profits of
horse-breeding."
Benita made no answer; it seemed too late for any useful consideration
of the point.
"Clever men, those ancients," said Meyer. "See," and he pointed out
to her how, by drawing a heavy stone which still lay close by over the
aperture through which they had crept, the ascent of the wall could
be made absolutely impossible to any enemy, since at its crest it was
battened outwards, not inwards, as is usual in these ancient ruins.
"Yes," she answered, "we ought to feel safe enough inside here, and
that's as well since I do not feel inclined to go out again at present."
Then they paused to look about them, and this was what they saw:
The wall, built like those below, of unmortared blocks of stone,
remained in a wonderfully good state of preservation, for its only
enemies had been time, the tropical rains, and the growth of shrubs
and trees which here and there had cracked and displaced the stones.
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