“’You’ll excuse me, Trenoweth.  It’s sentimental, no doubt, but I have conceived a kind of respect for these remains.  Suppose, for example, this face was really a portrait of one of this buried pair.  Why, then the deceased was very like me.  I forgive him for caricaturing my features now; were he alive, it might be different.  But this place is sufficiently out of the way to prevent the resemblance being noted by many.  By the way, I forgot to ask how you chanced on this spot.  For my part, I thought that I heard something moving in the thicket, so I followed the sound out of pure curiosity, and came upon you.  Well, well! it’s a strange world; and it’s a wonderful thought too, that this may be the grave of some primaeval ancestor of mine who roamed this Peak for his daily food—­an ancestor of some importance too, in his day, to judge by the magnificence of his tomb.  A poet might make something out of this:  to-day face to face with the day before yesterday.  But that’s the beauty of archaeology.  I did not know it was a pursuit of yours, and am glad to see you are sufficiently recovered of your illness to take it up again.  Good-bye for the present.  I am obliged to be cautious in taking farewell of you, for we have such a habit of meeting unexpectedly.  So, as I have to be up and moving for the summit, I’ll say ‘Good-bye for the present.’  We may as well leave this image where it is; the dead won’t miss it, and it’s handy by, at any rate. Addio, Trenoweth, and best of luck to your future researches.’

“He was gone.  I could hear him singing as he went a strange song which he had often sung on the outward voyage—­

    “’Sing hey! for the dead man’s lips, my lads;
      Sing ho! for the dead man’s soul. 
      At his red, red lips. . . .’

“The song died away in the distance before I moved.  I had hardly opened my lips during the interview, and now had much ado to believe it a reality.  But the newly-turfed grave was voucher enough for this.  A horror of the place seized me; I cast one shuddering look at the giant face and rushed from the spot, leaving the silent creepers to veil once more that awful likeness from the eyes of day.

“As I emerged upon the track again I came upon Peter and Paul, who were seeking me high and low, with dismay written upon their faces.  Excusing my absence as best I could, I declared myself ready, in spite of my ankle, to make all haste in the descent.  Of our journey down the Peak I need say little, except that, lame as I was, I surprised and exhausted my guides in my hurry.  Of the dangers and difficulties which had embarrassed our ascent I seemed to feel nothing.  Except in the cool of the forest, the heat was almost insufferable; but I would hear of no delay until we reached Ratnapoora.  Here, instead of returning as we had come, we took a boat down the Kalu-ganga river to Cattura, and thence travelled along the coast by Pantura to Colombo.