being was treading the ground near me; that I occasionally caught
the faint rustle of a light footstep, and detected a motion in
leaves and fronds and thread-like stems of creepers hanging near
the surface, as if some passing body had touched and made them
tremble; and once or twice that I even had a glimpse of a grey,
misty object moving at no great distance in the deeper shadows.

Led by this wandering tricksy being, I came to a spot where the
trees were very large and the damp dark ground almost free from
undergrowth; and here the voice ceased to be heard. After
patiently waiting and listening for some time, I began to look
about me with a slight feeling of apprehension. It was still
about two hours before sunset; only in this place the shade of
the vast trees made a perpetual twilight: moreover, it was
strangely silent here, the few bird-cries that reached me coming
from a long distance. I had flattered myself that the voice had
become to some extent intelligible to me: its outburst of anger
caused no doubt by my cowardly flight after the Indian; then its
recovered friendliness, which had induced me to return; and
finally its desire to be followed. Now that it had led me to
this place of shadow and profound silence and had ceased to speak
and to lead, I could not help thinking that this was my goal,
that I had been brought to this spot with a purpose, that in this
wild and solitary retreat some tremendous adventure was about to
befall me.

As the silence continued unbroken, there was time to dwell on
this thought. I gazed before me and listened intently, scarcely
breathing, until the suspense became painful--too painful at
last, and I turned and took a step with the idea of going back to