SEQUELS 275 



plunged suddenly upon a cosmos in the full up- 

 roar of eons of precedent, unable to look ahead, 

 while to look backward we must look down. 



Exactly a year ago I spent two hours in a 

 clearing in the jungle back of Kartabo labora- 

 tory, and let my eyes and ears have full swing.^ 

 Now in August of the succeeding year I came 

 again to this clearing, and found it no more a 

 clearing. Indeed so changed was it, that for 

 weeks I had passed close by without a thought 

 of the jungle meadow of the prev^ious year, and 

 now, what finally turned me aside from my usual 

 trail, was a sound. Twelve months ago I wrote, 

 ''From the monotone of under-world sounds a 

 strange little rasping detached itself, a reiter- 

 ated, subdued scraping or picking. It carried 

 my mind instantly to the throbbing theme of the 

 Niebelungs, onomatopoetic of the little ham- 

 mers forever busy in their underground work. I 

 circled a small bush at mv side, and found that 

 the sound came from one of the branches near 

 the top ; so with my glasses I began a systematic 

 search." This was as far as I ever got, for a flock 

 of parrakeets exploded close at hand and blew 

 the lesser sound out of mind. If I had stopped 



1 See page 34. 



