ause I was
hemmed in by the escort. For the same reason I did not try to slip from
the horse and glide away into the forest. There was nothing to be done
save to go on and await the end.

It came at last some hours later. We were out of the forest now, and
there was the moon rising, past her full but still very bright. Her
light showed me that we were on a wild moorland, swampy, with scattered
trees growing here and there, across which what seemed to be a game
track ran down hill. That was all I could make out. Here the escort
halted, and Simba the King said in a sullen voice:

"Dismount and go your ways, evil spirits, for we travel no farther
across this place which is haunted. Follow the track and it will lead
you to a lake. Pass the lake and by morning you will come to the river
beyond which lies the country of your friends. May its waters swallow
you if you reach them. For learn, there is one who watches on this road
whom few care to meet."

As he finished speaking men sprang at us and, pulling us from the
horses, thrust us out of their company. Then they turned and in another
minute were lost in the darkness, leaving us alone.

"What now, friend Marut?" I asked.

"Now, Lord, all we can do is to go forward, for if we stay here Simba
and his people will return and kill us at the daylight. One of them said
so to me."

"Then, 'come on, Macduff,'" I exclaimed, stepping out briskly, and
though he had never read Shakespeare, Marut understood and followed.

"What did Simba mean about 'one on the road whom few care to meet'?" I
asked over my shoulder when we had done half a mile or so.

"I think he meant the elephant Jana," replied Marut with a groan.

"Then I hope Jana isn't at home. Cheer up, Marut. The chances are that
we shall never meet a single elephant in this big place."

"Yet many elephants have been here, Lord," and he pointed to the ground.
"It is said that they come to die by the waters of the lake and this
is one of the roads they follow on their death journey, a road that no
other living thing dare travel."

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Then after all that was a true dream I had in the
house in England."

"Yes, Lord, because my brother Harut once lost his way out hunting when
he was young and saw what his mind showed you in the dream, and what we
shall see presently, if we live to come so far."

I made no reply, both because what he said was either true or false,
which I should ascertain presently, and