The doubts I felt about the honesty of the guide and the other fellow were increased by a suspicion that they were leading me the wrong way.  We had been three hours in the forest, always ascending.  Now I knew that my destination was situated in a valley.  I asked repeatedly when we should get there, and invariably came the same short answer, “Gleich” (directly).  I noticed that we were steadily walking in the same direction, for the trees being less thick I could keep my eye on the Polar star:  this was so far satisfactory.  Presently I saw a light or two in the distance, and before long we came to a cottage, the first in what turned out to be the little village of Eibenthal.  Here we came upon a party of miners, who gave me the pleasant information that we were still an hour’s walk from Uibanya!  There was nothing for it but to go on.  I confess I breathed more freely in the open; we were quite clear of the forest now.  On we went, a regular tramp, tramp, through a long valley skirted with woods on either side.  This last part of the walk seemed interminable.  It was eighteen hours since I had started in the morning.  I was physically weary, and I really believe I went off to sleep for a second or two, though my legs kept up their automatic motion.  I am sure I must have slept, for I had a notion, like one has sometimes in sleep, of extraordinary extension of time.  It seemed to me that for years of my life I had done nothing else than walk under the starlit sky into a vast cave of black darkness, which only receded farther and farther as the swinging of the lamp advanced with its monotonous vibration of light.

It was just midnight when I descried a faint light in the distance.  It grew as we tramped on.  I knew therefore it was no deceptive star setting in the horizon, but the welcome firelight of a human habitation.  This time it was my goal—­Uibanya!  I stopped for a moment and fired off a couple of shots to announce our approach, whereupon some of the people in the house rushed out to see what was up, and I made myself known by an English “halloo,” and out of the darkness came a voice saying, “All right.”

“All’s well that ends well,” I said to myself as I paid my guide for his night’s work.  I looked round for the Wallack, but the fellow had sloped off!

I was most kindly and hospitably received, and, O ye gods, with what an appetite I ate the excellent supper quickly prepared for me!

CHAPTER VIII.

Hospitable welcome at Uibanya—­Excursion to the Servian side of the Danube—­Ascent of the Stierberg—­Bivouac in the woods—­Magnificent views towards the Balkans—­Fourteen eagles disturbed—­Wallack dance.