, gradually increasing and increasing.

Heavens! What teeming life, what stores of vital energy are hidden
under the smallest leaf, the most imperceptible blades of grass, in this
tropical forest! Myriads of stars shine in the dark blue of the sky, and
myriads of fireflies twinkle at us from every bush, moving sparks, like
a pale reflection of the far-away stars.

We left the thick forest behind us, and reached a deep glen, on three
sides bordered with the thick forest, where even by day the shadows are
as dark as by night. We were about two thousand feet above the foot of
the Vindhya ridge, judging by the ruined wall of Mandu, straight above
our heads. Suddenly a very chilly wind rose that nearly blew our torches
out. Caught in the labyrinth of bushes and rocks, the wind angrily shook
the branches of the blossoming syringas, then, shaking itself free, it
turned back along the glen and flew down the valley, howling, whistling
and shrieking, as if all the fiends of the forest together were joining
in a funeral song.

"Here we are," said Sham Rao, dismounting. "Here is the village; the
elephants cannot go any further."

"The village? Surely you are mistaken. I don't see anything but trees."

"It is too dark to see the village. Besides, the huts are so small,
and so hidden by the bushes, that even by daytime you could hardly find
them. And there is no light in the houses, for fear of the spirits."

"And where is your witch? Do you mean we are to watch her performance in
complete darkness?"

Sham Rao cast a furtive, timid look round him; and his voice, when he
answered our questions, was somewhat tremulous.

"I implore you not to call her a witch! She may hear you.... It is
not far off, it is not more than half a mile. Do not allow this short
distance to shake your decision. No elephant, and even no horse, could
make its way there. We must walk.... But we shall find plenty of light
there.... "

This was unexpected, and far from agreeable. To walk in this gloomy
Indian night; to scramble through thickets of cactuses; to venture in a
dark forest, full of wild animals--this was too much for Miss X----.
She declared that she would go no further. She would wait for us in the
howdah, on the elephant's back, and perhaps would go to sleep.

Narayan was against this parti de plaisir from the very beginning, and
now, without explaining his reasons, he said she was the only sensible
one among us.

"You won't lose anything