been there before ? No, that was absurd ! And yet 

 and yet, as I went on, no longer trotting and full of hope 

 but walking heavily and weighted with doubt, the feel- 

 ing of uncertainty grew until I really did not know 

 whether the familiar-looking objects and scenes were 

 indeed old acquaintances or merely imagination play- 

 ing tricks in a country where every style and sample 

 was copied a thousand times over. 



A few minutes later I again caught sight of. che 

 sunset glow it was on my direct right : it meant 

 that the trail had taken another turn, while I could 

 have sworn we were holding a course straight as an 

 arrow. It was all a hopeless tangle. I was lost then 

 and knew it. It was not the dread of a night out in 

 the bush for after many months of roughing it, that 

 had no great terrors for me but the helpless feeling 

 of being lost and the anxiety and uncertainty about 

 finding the road again, that gnawed at me and made 

 me feel tucked-up and drawn. I wondered when they 

 would begin to look for me, if they would light big 

 fires and fire shots, and if it would be possible toi 

 see or hear the signals. The light would not last 

 much longer; the dimness, the silence, and the hateful 

 doubts about the trail made it more and more diffi- 

 cult to recognise the line ; so I thought it was time 

 to fire a signal shot. 



There was no answer. It was silly to hope for one ; 

 for even if it had been heard they would only have 

 thought that I was shooting at something. Yet the 

 clinging to hope was so strong that every twenty yards 

 or so I stopped to listen for a reply; and 



145 K 



