But here he was again doomed to disappointment: without the
possession of the talisman, kept by the captain of the band, he might
as well have attempted to roll the mountain on which he stood into the
water beneath, as to have shifted the massy portal: the strength of ten
thousand men, could their united efforts have been made available at one
and the same time, would not have been sufficient even to stir it.
Abad was returning, disappointed and murmuring at his fate, when
he bethought himself of the hammer which Muloch, the Spirit of the
Mountain, had promised should be of such powerful aid. He hastened to
the place where he had left the large instrument, and the next day
brought it to the robbers' cave. He was in the act of lifting the
massive weight, to have shattered the adamantine stoppage, when he
was surprised by a noise behind him. He looked, and saw the banditti
trooping up the ravine: they were returning, on horseback, from an
expedition of plunder, laden with conquest. Abad hastily, to avoid
discovery, struck the large stone with the charmed hammer, when it
receded from the blow and, admitting him into the cave, closed itself
upon him. The bandit chief, on seeing a stranger enter, ordered his men
to advance rapidly up the ravine, which leads from the waters of the
Tigris to the very threshold of the cave, embosomed amidst gigantic and
stately rocks.
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