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Updated: June 8, 2025
Then, I heard a cry from Tonnison; he was shouting my name, excitedly, and without delay I hurried along the rocky promontory to the ruin. I wondered whether he had hurt himself, and then the thought came, that perhaps he had found something. I reached the crumbled wall and climbed 'round.
Supper over, we cleared the things out of the way, and lit our pipes. Then Tonnison asked me to get the manuscript out of my satchel. This I did, and then, as we could not both read from it at the same time, he suggested that I should read the thing out loud. "And mind," he cautioned, knowing my propensities, "don't go skipping half the book."
I agreed, and we went forward once more, though rather aimlessly; for we were not at all certain in which direction to prosecute our search. For perhaps a mile we moved onward; then Tonnison, who had been gazing about curiously, stopped and shaded his eyes. "See!" he said, after a moment, "isn't that mist or something, over there to the right away in a line with that great piece of rock?"
I felt, all at once, less assured; though I was by no means convinced as yet. After a few moments' silence, Tonnison rose, stiffly, and began to undress. He seemed disinclined to talk; so I said nothing; but followed his example. I was weary; though still full of the story I had just read.
A minute came and went in strained silence; yet I could hear nothing, and I turned to Tonnison to say as much; and then, even as I opened my lips to speak, there came a strange wailing noise out of the wood on our left.... It appeared to float through the trees, and there was a rustle of stirring leaves, and then silence. All at once, Tonnison spoke, and put his hand on my shoulder.
It was while he was thus employed, that a thought came to me: "What do you say to having another look at ?" I nodded my head down stream. Tonnison looked up. "Nothing!" he said, abruptly; and, somehow, I was less annoyed, than relieved, at his answer. After that, I left him alone. A little before teatime, he looked up at me, curiously.
There I found Tonnison standing within a small excavation that he had made among the débris: he was brushing the dirt from something that looked like a book, much crumpled and dilapidated; and opening his mouth, every second or two, to bellow my name.
Then he was silent, his eyes fixed; and I looked also; for up from somewhere about the center of the wooded lowland there rose high into the quiet air a great column of hazelike spray, upon which the sun shone, causing innumerable rainbows. "How beautiful!" I exclaimed. "Yes," answered Tonnison, thoughtfully. "There must be a waterfall, or something, over there.
I said, "who ever would have thought of this?" And I stared in amazement; then I turned to Tonnison. He was looking, with a blank expression upon his face, at the place where the river disappeared. In a moment he spoke. "Let us go on a bit; it may reappear again anyhow, it is worth investigating."
"I wish we had got the driver to interpret for us before he left," I remarked, as we sat down to our meal. "It seems so strange for the people of this place not even to know what we've come for." Tonnison grunted an assent, and thereafter was silent for a while.
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