n observed that the
smooth current broadened into a lake, forming the extraordinary sheet
of water of which he had heard such strange accounts.

He held the paddle suspended, and looked around.

The surface was as calm as the face of a mirror, and in the strong
moonlight, as he looked down he could see that it was of crystalline
clearness--so much so, indeed, that a boat or any floating object
looked as if suspended in mid-air.

It expanded right and left and in front, until he could barely discern
the dim outlines of trees and rocks that shut it in. It was probably
two or three square miles in extent, and to the westward the shore
appeared to be composed of enormous boulders and masses of rocks.

Directly ahead, was a crag more massive than the rest, towering a
hundred feet above the lake, with a breadth fully one half as great.
It resembled some gigantic sentinel, keeping ward and watch over the
strange region unknown to few if any white man.

Ashman turned to his companion with the question, what course he should
take, and, without speaking, she pointed to the rock which she saw had
attracted his attention.

Very slight effort was required to propel the delicate craft, which
seemed to become sentient, and to move forward in obedience to the
wishes of its occupants. He barely dipped the blade into the water,
when it skimmed forward like a swallow. After a number of strokes he
ceased and fixed his eyes on the landmark by which he was proceeding.

A singular emotion held him speechless for the time. The vast mass of
stone appeared to be slowly rising from the bosom of the lake, and,
instead of remaining motionless, was advancing to meet the tiny canoe
and its awed occupants. One moment, it was like some vast ogre,
stealing silently about to crush them beneath the clear waters, and
then it became a friendly giant, reaching out its hand to lead them
forward.

But for the distant sounds of firing at the Murhapa village, Fred
Ashman would have felt that it was all a vision of sleep, from which he
must soon awake to the realities of life.

But that horrible, grinding discord continually creeping into their
ears told too plainly the dreadful scenes at comparatively a short
distance. Even in his exalted mental state, Ashman began to ask
himself what was to be the end of the strange venture upon which he had
started. A disquieting misgiving arose, that perhaps he had not done
the wisest thing in leaving his im