Beyond the track
emerged into a dazzling whiteness. . . .
In the stillness he could hear the deer belling again in the
distance, and then came a fuss of monkeys in a group of trees near
at hand. He remained still until this had died away into
mutterings.
Then on the verge of movement he was startled by a ripe mango that
slipped from its stalk and fell out of the tree and struck his hand.
It took a little time to understand that, and then he laughed, and
his muscles relaxed, and he went on again.
A thorn caught at him and he disentangled himself.
He crossed the open space, and the moon was like a great shield of
light spread out above him. All the world seemed swimming in its
radiance. The stars were like lamps in a mist of silvery blue.
The track led him on across white open spaces of shrivelled grass
and sand, amidst trees where shadows made black patternings upon the
silver, and then it plunged into obscurities. For a time it lifted,
and then on one hand the bush fell away, and he saw across a vast
moonlit valley wide undulations of open cultivation, belts of
jungle, copses, and a great lake as black as ebony.
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