because I was engaged in
searching the ground with my eyes. He was right; many elephants had
travelled this path--one quite recently. I, a hunter of those brutes,
could not be deceived on this point. Once or twice also I thought that
I caught sight of the outline of some tall creature moving silently
through the scattered thorns a couple of hundred yards or so to our
right. It might have been an elephant or a giraffe, or perhaps nothing
but a shadow, so I said nothing. As I heard no noise I was inclined
to believe the latter explanation. In any case, what was the good of
speaking? Unarmed and solitary amidst unknown dangers, our position was
desperate, and as Marut's nerve was already giving out, to emphasize its
horrors to him would be mere foolishness.

On we trudged for another two hours, during which time the only living
thing that I saw was a large owl which sailed round our heads as though
to look at us, and then flew away ahead.

This owl, Marut informed me, was one of "Jana's spies" that kept him
advised of all that was passing in his territory. I muttered "Bosh"
and tramped on. Still I was glad that we saw no more of the owl, for in
certain circumstances such dark fears are catching.

We reached the top of a rise, and there beneath us lay the most desolate
scene that ever I have seen. At least it would have been the most
desolate if I did not chance to have looked on it before, in the
drawing-room of Ragnall Castle! There was no doubt about it. Below was
the black, melancholy lake, a large sheet of water surrounded by reeds.
Around, but at a considerable distance, appeared the tropical forest. To
the east of the lake stretched a stony plain. At the time I could make
out no more because of the uncertain light and the distance, for we had
still over a mile to go before we reached the edge of the lake.

The aspect of the place filled me with tremblings, both because of its
utter uncanniness and because of the inexplicable truth that I had seen
it before. Most people will have experienced this kind of moral shock
when on going to some new land they recognize a locality as being quite
familiar to them in all its details. Or it may be the rooms of a house
hitherto unvisited by them. Or it may be a conversation of which, when
it begins, they already foreknow the sequence and the end, because in
some dim state, when or how who can say, they have taken part in
that talk with those same speakers. If this be so even in