His calm contrasted forcibly with the frenzied surging of the pilgrim mobs below, a screaming, raging torrent of human passion.
Clearly he could discern every detail of the city whereof Mohammed wrote in the second chapter of the Koran: "So we have made you the center of the nations that you should bear witness to men." He could see the houses of dark stone, clustering together on the slopes like swallows' nests, the unpaved streets, the _Mesjid el Haram_, or sacred square, enclosed by a great wall and a colonnade surmounted by small white domes.
At the corners of this colonnade, four tall white minarets towered toward the sky--minarets from which now a pretty lively rifle-fire was developing.

A number of small buildings were scattered about the square; but all were dominated by the black impressive cube of the Ka'aba itself, the _Bayt Ullah_, or Allah's house.
The Master gave an order.

Ferrara obeying it, brought from his cabin a piece of apparatus the Master had but perfected in the last two days of flight over the Sahara.

This the Master took and clamped to the rail.
"Captain Alden," said he, "stand by, at the engine-room phone from this gallery, here, to order any necessary adjustments as weights are dropped or raised.

Keep the ship at constant altitude as well as position.