n placed, by the rustling of which at night our
unwilling host could tell if his few neighbours contemplated robbing him
of the fruits of his toil. The only work, however, which he seemed to do
was to stand at the door of his hut and gaze vacantly at the plantation
of palm trees which he owned, and to shake his head--usually in the
negative--whenever we attempted to entice him into a conversation.

"Well," said Denviers, looking with annoyance at our host, "if this
Cingalese is too idle to tell us the full facts, I suppose we had better
find them out for ourselves." Then turning to the man he asked:--

"How far is the district over which these strange Dhahs are said to
wander?" The native pointed slowly to the north and then answered:--

[Illustration: "THE NATIVE POINTED TO THE NORTH."]

"The Dhahs were wandering afar in the forest when last I saw them, which
was fully a day's journey from here, but the sun was hot and I grew
tired." His remark certainly did not convey much information to us, but
before an hour had elapsed we set out, guided only by the forest, which
could be seen far away in the distance. Hour after hour passed until at
last evening came, and even then we were only entering upon the fringe
of the great forest which rose before us, and seemed to shut out the sky
as we wandered into the thickness of the undergrowth and gazed up at the
lofty tops of the trees which bent each other's branches as they
interlaced one with another.

We stopped at last to rest and to refresh ourselves, after which we
reclined upon the ground, facing a wide clearing in the forest, where we
laid talking idly for some time, until the voice of Hassan warned us
that someone was approaching. We listened attentively for a minute, but
no sound could be heard by us save that of the fluttering of the wings
of some bird among the branches above.

"You heard nothing, Hassan," said Denviers, "or else you mistook the
rustling above for someone wandering in the forest glade." The Arab
turned to my companion and then responded:--

"Hassan has long been accustomed to distinguish different sounds from a
distance, the one which was heard a minute ago was caused by a human
foot." He pointed to a tangled clump a little to the right of us, as he
continued:--

"Listen, sahibs, for the sound of footsteps is surely drawing near. From
yonder thicket the wanderer will doubtless emerge." Presently a sound
fell upon our ears, and a moment afterwa