Chapter 108

The "breezy tongues," that during the entire season of our discussion had never failed to murmur strangely, had now changed to a progression of profound and

consistently repeating moans.

They were not the making of our extravagant.

Recognizable from the mumble of the wellspring was a sound as of somebody relaxing.

It continued from a group of trees on one side of the spring.

An excess of shocked to talk, my uncle and I sat gazing at one another without either will or ability to move.

Then, shaking off the spell that lay upon us, we

rose and stepped stealthily to the spot whence came the sound, moving warily and delicately, like inside the forest some horrible mythical beast lay resting which boisterous strides could stir.

Inside the misery made by a shade of thick foliage we got the glimmer of something white. Our eyes, not used to at first to the murkiness, could not separate anything obviously, yet progressively the object of our consideration sorted itself out into the situated