On we trudged for another two hours, during which time the only living thing that I saw was a large owl which sailed round our heads as though to look at us, and then flew away ahead.

This owl, Marut informed me, was one of “Jana’s spies” that kept him advised of all that was passing in his territory.  I muttered “Bosh” and tramped on.  Still I was glad that we saw no more of the owl, for in certain circumstances such dark fears are catching.

We reached the top of a rise, and there beneath us lay the most desolate scene that ever I have seen.  At least it would have been the most desolate if I did not chance to have looked on it before, in the drawing-room of Ragnall Castle!  There was no doubt about it.  Below was the black, melancholy lake, a large sheet of water surrounded by reeds.  Around, but at a considerable distance, appeared the tropical forest.  To the east of the lake stretched a stony plain.  At the time I could make out no more because of the uncertain light and the distance, for we had still over a mile to go before we reached the edge of the lake.

The aspect of the place filled me with tremblings, both because of its utter uncanniness and because of the inexplicable truth that I had seen it before.  Most people will have experienced this kind of moral shock when on going to some new land they recognize a locality as being quite familiar to them in all its details.  Or it may be the rooms of a house hitherto unvisited by them.  Or it may be a conversation of which, when it begins, they already foreknow the sequence and the end, because in some dim state, when or how who can say, they have taken part in that talk with those same speakers.  If this be so even in cheerful surroundings and among our friends or acquaintances, it is easy to imagine how much greater was the shock to me, a traveller on such a journey and in such a night.

I shrank from approaching the shores of this lake, remembering that as yet all the vision was not unrolled.  I looked about me.  If we went to the left we should either strike the water, or if we followed its edge, still bearing to the left, must ultimately reach the forest, where probably we should be lost.  I looked to the right.  The ground was strewn with boulders, among which grew thorns and rank grass, impracticable for men on foot at night.  I looked behind me, meditating retreat, and there, some hundreds of yards away behind low, scrubby mimosas mixed with aloe-like plants, I saw something brown toss up and disappear again that might very well have been the trunk of an elephant.  Then, animated by the courage of despair and a desire to know the worst, I began to descend the elephant track towards the lake almost at a run.