OUR RACE TO PARADISE 35 



Then suddenly he heard some sound or, the wind 

 veered and he caught oiu: scent ; for he stopped graz- 

 ing and melted into the forest. It is a trick that 

 elephants have, most astonishing when one considers 

 their huge bulk, the way they vanish so noiselessly 

 into the green. 



There were thirty-six more hours of blazing a trail 

 by pounding rocks and felling trees, and then we 

 reached a little open space on what seemed to be the 

 top of the world. All around the clearing was the 

 emerald of wood and vine ; beyond, as far as the eye 

 could reach, the great desert, for all its reddish grey 

 waste a magnificent sight because of its vastness. 

 Then, two hundred feet below us, in a hollow of an 

 extinct crater, girdled by forest aisles, shimmered 

 with a thousand shades of blue and green that cup 

 of sweet water which we call Lake Paradise. 



