ed gave some credence to my
fantastical notion which, if there were anything in it, might account
for this great graveyard at that particular spot.

After standing for a while in the attitude that I have described,
testing the air with its trunk, Jana, for I will call him so, lumbered
down the mound and advanced straight to where the elephant that I had
thought to be dead was kneeling. As a matter of fact it was not quite
dead, for when Jana arrived it lifted its trunk and curled it round
that of Jana as though in affectionate greeting, then let it fall to
the ground again. Thereon Jana did what I had seen it do in my dream or
vision at Ragnall, namely, attacked it, knocking it over on to its side,
where it lay motionless; quite dead this time.

Now I remembered that the vision was not accurate after all, since in it
I had seen Jana destroy a woman and a child, who on the present occasion
were wanting. Since then I have thought that this was because Harut,
clairvoyantly or telepathically, had conveyed to me, as indeed Marut
declared, a scene which he had witnessed similar to that which I was
witnessing, but not identical in its incidents. Thus it happened,
perhaps, that while the act of the woman and the child was omitted,
in our case there was another act of the play to follow of which I had
received no inkling in my Ragnall experience. Indeed, if I had received
it, I should not have been there that night, for no inducement on earth
would have brought me to Kendahland.

This was the act. Jana, having prodded his dead brother to his
satisfaction, whether from viciousness or to put it out of pain, I
cannot say, stood over the carcass in an attitude of grief or pious
meditation. At this time, I should mention, the wind, which had been
rustling the hail-stripped reeds at the lake border, had died away
almost, but not completely; that is to say, only a very faint gust
blew now and again, which, with a hunter's instinct, I observed with
satisfaction drew _from_ the direction of Jana towards ourselves. This I
knew, because it struck on my forehead, which was wet with perspiration,
and cooled the skin.

Presently, however, by a cursed spite of fate, one of these gusts--a
very little one--came from some quarter behind us, for I felt it in my
back hair, that was as damp as the rest of me. Just then I was glancing
to my right, where it seemed to me that out of the corner of my eye I
had caught sight of something passing among