e night wind amongst the boughs
and mosses, or the sense of the imminent dangers that we had passed and
that still awaited us. Or it may have been unknown horrors connected
with this place of which some spiritual essence still survived, for
without doubt localities preserve such influences, which can be felt by
the sensitive among living things, especially in favouring conditions of
fear and gloom. At any rate I never experienced more subtle and yet more
penetrating terrors than I did upon that night, and afterwards Ragnall
confessed to me that my case was his own. Black as it was I thought that
I saw apparitions, among them glaring eyes and that of the elephant
Jana standing in front of me with his trunk raised against the bole of a
cedar. I could have sworn that I saw him, nor was I reassured when Hans
whispered to me below his breath, for here we did not seem to dare to
raise our voices:

"Look, Baas. Is it Jana glowing like hot iron who stands yonder?"

"Don't be a fool," I answered. "How can Jana be here and, if he were
here, how could we see him in the night?" But as I said the words I
remembered Harut had told us that Jana had been met with on the Holy
Mount "in the spirit or in the flesh." However this may be, next instant
he was gone and we beheld him or his shadow no more. Also we thought
that from time to time we heard voices speaking all around us, now here,
now there and now in the tree tops above our heads, though what they
said we could not catch or understand.

Thus the long night wore away. Our progress was very slow, but guided by
occasional glimpses at the compass we never stopped but twice, once
when we found ourselves apparently surrounded by tree boles and fallen
boughs, and once when we got into swampy ground. Then we took the risk
of lighting the lantern, and by its aid picked our way through these
difficult places. By degrees the trees grew fewer so that we could see
the stars between their tops. This was a help to us as I knew that one
of them, which I had carefully noted, shone at this season of the year
directly over the cone of the mountain, and we were enabled to steer
thereby.

It must have been not more than half an hour before the dawn that Hans,
who was leading--we were pushing our way through thick bushes at the
time--halted hurriedly, saying:

"Stop, Baas, we are on the edge of a cliff. When I thrust my stick
forward it stands on nothing."

Needless to say we pulled up dead and