Now I could make out the metal gates in this wall, and even dark and stealthy forms which passed and repassed beyond their bars.
Then I made out something else also, the figures of men gathering on the top of the wall, though whence they came I knew not.

By degrees their number increased till there were hundreds of them, for the wall was broad as a roadway.
Evidently these were spectators, come to witness the ceremony of sacrifice.
"Prince," I whispered to Joshua, "you must get down off the ladder or you will betray us all.

Nay, it is too late to come up here again, for already the moonlight strikes just above your head.

Go down, or we will cast the ladder loose and let you fall." So he went down and hid himself among some ferns and bushes where we saw no more of him for a while, and, to tell the truth, forgot his existence.
Far, far above us, from the back of the idol I suppose, came a faint sound of solemn chanting.

It sank, and we heard shouts.