The doubts I felt about the honesty of the guide and the other fellow
were increased by a suspicion that they were leading me the wrong way.
We had been three hours in the forest, always ascending. Now I knew that
my destination was situated in a valley. I asked repeatedly when we
should get there, and invariably came the same short answer, "Gleich"
(directly). I noticed that we were steadily walking in the same
direction, for the trees being less thick I could keep my eye on the
Polar star: this was so far satisfactory. Presently I saw a light or two
in the distance, and before long we came to a cottage, the first in what
turned out to be the little village of Eibenthal. Here we came upon a
party of miners, who gave me the pleasant information that we were still
an hour's walk from Uibanya! There was nothing for it but to go on. I
confess I breathed more freely in the open; we were quite clear of the
forest now. On we went, a regular tramp, tramp, through a long valley
skirted with woods on either side. This last part of the walk seemed
interminable. It was eighteen hours since I had started in the morning.
I was physically weary, and I really believe I went off to sleep for a
second or two, though my legs kept up their automatic motion. I am sure
I must have slept, for I had a notion, like one has sometimes in sleep,
of extraordinary extension of time. It seemed to me that for years of my
life I had done nothing else than walk under the starlit sky into a vast
cave of black darkness, which only receded farther and farther as the
swinging of the lamp advanced with its monotonous vibration of light.
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