The ground grew moist and
green, and flowers abounded, many of them new to me, and so lovely and
fragrant that in my admiration for them I almost forgot my pain. The
sun went down, but no house appeared in sight. Over the western heavens
flamed the brilliant hues of the afterglow, and from the long grass
came the sad, monotonous trill of some night insect. Troops of hooded
gulls flew by me on their way from their feeding grounds to the water,
uttering their long, hoarse, laughter-like cries. How buoyant and happy
they seemed, flying with their stomachs full to their rest; while I,
dismounted and supperless, dragged painfully on like a gull that had
been left behind with a broken wing. Presently, through the purple and
saffron-hued vapours in the western sky, the evening star appeared,
large and luminous, the herald of swift-coming darkness; and
then--weary, bruised, hungry, baffled, and despondent--I sat down to
meditate on my forlorn position.
CHAPTER XIII
I sat there till it was very dark, and the longer I sat the colder and
stiffer I grew, yet I felt no disposition to walk farther. At length
a large owl, flapping down close to my head, gave utterance to a long
hiss, followed by a sharp, clicking sound, ending with a sudden loud,
laugh-like cry. The nearness of it startled me, and, looking up, I saw
a twinkling yellow light gleam for a moment across the wide, black
plain, then disappear.
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