e to see more than a yard or two ahead, and it was impossible to
say what strange or thrilling sight might at any moment meet the gaze.
Then there was the uncanny silence of the place, the kind of silence
that caused an involuntary movement on tiptoe and the holding of the
breath for fear of breaking it, yet which was broken at recent intervals
by stealthy, unaccountable rustlings, or sudden, violent commotions
beginning close at hand and gradually dying away in the distance. These
strange, sudden, unaccountable sounds, caused in all probability by a
boa-constrictor, a buck, or some other creature startled into quick
movement by the scent of a human being, wafted to their nostrils by an
errant draught of air, were even more startling to the nerves than the
distant roar of the jaguar, or the call of the bell bird which
irresistibly suggested the incongruous idea that at no great distance in
those gloomy forest depths would be found a church!

But Stukely was thoroughly accustomed to these and the various other
strange sounds that so frequently broke the silence of the forest, and
if he noted them at all it was merely as a hunter notes sounds that
guide him toward his game, or warns him of possible dangers. It was
not, however, in such a spot as this that he expected to find game, it
was in the open glades that occur here and there, where for some
unaccountable reason an acre or so of ground is entirely free from
trees, or at all events from undergrowth, and where the soil is covered
with thick, rich grass, upon which the deer love to graze, and which
they seem capable of scenting for miles. So he pushed forward, worming
his way through the tangled brake with an ease and celerity that would
have seemed absolutely miraculous to him three months earlier, and ever,
as he went, his glances darted hither and thither, searching for the
stronger light which should reveal to him the whereabout of one of those
open glades, or, incidentally, a venomous snake or other noxious
creature lurking in his path.

At length, when he had been thus engaged for about an hour, and had
travelled a distance of about two miles, a somewhat stronger light away
on his right front conveyed to him the welcome intimation that such an
open glade as he sought was at hand; and ten minutes later he emerged
from the forest to find himself confronted by a scene of so
extraordinary a character that he halted abruptly and rubbed his eyes,
uncertain for the