Look in whatever direction they would, every object was in the fleeting minutes wonderfully clear. There lay in the direction from which they had come as far as their vision extended, the vast forest which they had skirted; in another direction all was plain; right and left open diversified land presenting easy passage for the waggons; and when in obedience to a sign from Mak they turned to gaze to the north-west, the black raised his spear and pointed in one direction, where the beautiful landscape seemed to come to an end in mass after mass of tumbled together rock, showing with vivid distinctness patches of woodland, deeply marked ravine that was filling fast with velvety purple shadow, and heaped up mass that as they gazed began gradually to grow less and less distinct, till that which at the first glance had stood out sharply clear and marked against the pale, golden sky began to die away till nothing was left, not even a shadow.
The boys and the doctor had somehow been so impressed by the beauty of the scene that they spoke in whispers, Mark finding words just to say, “Oh, I wish father were here! I did ask him to come, but he wanted to rest.”
“Yes,” said the doctor; “we have had a very long day. But how beautiful! How grand! We ought to stay up here till the stars come out.—Eh, what do you say, Mak?” as the man touched his shoulder and pointed again right away into the west.
“All gone,” he said.
“Yes, all gone,” said the doctor, using the black’s simple words.
“Sunshine come again, ’morrow morning.”
“Yes,” said the doctor thoughtfully, as he stood trying to pierce the soft transparent limpidity of the coming night. “Boys, we shall never forget this.”
“Ah,” said the black, thumping down the haft of his spear upon the massive block where he had perched himself some two hundred feet above the plain. “Mak knows Mak’s big stones.”
“What!” cried Mark excitedly. “Is that where the old city lies?”
“Umps, yes,” said the black. “Mak big stones.”