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Above the high walls projected many slender, white minarets, indicating

that the inhabitants were either Turks or some race of Mohammedans;

so Rob decided to make investigations before trusting himself to their

company.

A cluster of tall trees with leafy tops stood a short distance outside the

walls, and here the boy landed and sat down to rest in the refreshing

shade.

The city seemed as hushed and still as if it were deserted, and before him

stretched the vast plain of white, heated sands. He strained his eyes to

catch a glimpse of the band of warriors he had passed, but they were

moving slowly and had not yet appeared.

The trees that sheltered Rob were the only ones without the city,

although many low bushes or shrubs grew scattering over the space

between him and the walls. An arched gateway broke the enclosure at

his left, but the gates were tightly shut.

Something in the stillness and the intense heat of the mid-day sun made

the boy drowsy. He stretched himself upon the ground beneath the

dense foliage of the biggest tree and abandoned himself to the languor

that was creeping over him.

I'll wait until that army of the desert arrives," he thought, sleepily.

They either belong in this city or have come to capture it, so I can tell

better what to dance when I find out what the band plays."

The next moment he was sound asleep, sprawling upon his back in the

shade and slumbering as peacefully as an infant.

And while he lay motionless three men dropped in quick succession from

the top of the city wall and hid among the low bushes, crawling

noiselessly from one to another and so approaching, by degrees, the little

group of trees.

They were Turks, and had been sent by those in authority within the city

to climb the tallest tree of the group and discover if the enemy was near.

For Rob's conjecture had been correct, and the city of Yarkand awaited,

with more or less anxiety, a threatened assault from its hereditary

enemies, the Tatars.

The Master Key