The two Americans and Jakob accomplished their journey to the village without mishap, although Mr Bradwell, who had seldom ridden any distance until the day before, was glad to adopt one of the high native saddles, well padded with sheep-skins, instead of the European one he had used. Arrived at the village, the horses were left in Jakob’s care, and Mr Hicks and his friend turned into the rough track which led to the asylum. This track branched off from the village street at its upper end, where the road, now fairly in Dardania, became little better than a bridle-path, and the house stood on an isolated hill about a mile away. It had been a kind of watch-tower or rude fort in the Roumi times, but of late years had been enlarged and adapted to the purposes of an ordinary dwelling by a wealthy merchant of Paranati, who thought it would prove a pleasant summer retreat. He had made the winding path leading up the hill passable for the rough vehicles of the country, even if it could not justly be called a carriage-road, and he was proceeding to plant the bare hillside and lay out gardens, when a disastrous speculation plunged him into poverty, and left the place to its old isolation. It seemed admirably fitted for Dr Gregorescu’s ostensible purpose. The situation was airy and commanded splendid views, there was space for moderate exercise within the outer circle of the old fortifications, and any patient who succeeded in escaping over the walls would be in view from the gateway almost as far as the foot of the hill. Mr Hicks noted the possibilities of the place with a jealous eye as he and his companion climbed the path. There were one or two points where it might be possible to effect an entrance, but there was no way of descending the hill but by this path, which wound in zigzag fashion up the slope, with a steep cliff above it on one side and below it on the other. There were turns at which the passenger would be invisible from the gate for a moment or two, but he could not reach the foot without coming into view again. If Dr Gregorescu were really willing to surrender his patient peaceably, it was a most extraordinary piece of good fortune, but why should he establish himself in a place of such natural advantages if he had no intention of making use of them?