ed, and I sat watching until their white-clad
forms disappeared in the thicket.

"As soon as I judged them to have gone a sufficient distance, I arose
and followed, cautiously counting my footsteps. But this was
needless; my father had described the tree as 'noticeable and not to
be missed,' nor was he wrong. Barely had I counted five hundred
paces when it rose into view, uncouth and monstrous. All around it
spread the crimson blossoms of huge rhododendrons; but this strange
tree was at once unlike any of its fellows and of a kind altogether
unknown to me. Its roots were partly bare, and writhed in fantastic
coils across the track. Above these rose and spread its seven trunks
matted with creepers, and then united about four feet below the point
where the branches began. Its foliage was of a dark, glossy green,
particularly dense, and its height, as I should judge, some sixty
feet.

"Taking out my compass, I started from the left-hand side of the
narrow track, and at a right angle to it. The undergrowth gave me
much trouble, and once I had to make a circuit round a huge
rhododendron; but I fought my way through, and after going, as I
reckoned, thirty-two paces, pulled up full in front of--another
rhododendron.

"There must be some mistake. My father had spoken of a 'stone shaped
like a man's head,' but said nothing of a rhododendron tree, and
indeed this particular tree was in nowise different from its
companions. I looked around; took a few steps to the right, then to
the left; went round the tree; walked back a few paces; returned to
the tree to see if it concealed anything; then sought the track to
begin my measurement afresh.

"I was just starting again in a very discomposed mood, when a thought
struck me. I had been behaving like a fool. The parchment said
'at a right angle to the left-hand edge of the track.' I had started
from my left hand, but I was descending the mountain, whereas the
directions of course supposed the explorer to be ascending.
Almost ready to laugh at my stupidity, I tried again.

"Facing round, I got the needle at an angle of ninety degrees, and
once more began counting. My heart was beginning to beat quickly by
this time, and I felt myself trembling with excitement. The course
was now more easily followed. True, the growth was as thick as ever,
but no rhododendrons blocked my passage. Beating down the creepers
that swung across my face, twined around my legs, and caught