round the more; nor would she return again for all my calling.

CHAPTER IX
That afternoon with Rima in the forest under the mora tree had

proved so delightful that I was eager for more rambles and talks
with her, but the variable little witch had a great surprise in

store for me. All her wild natural gaiety had unaccountably gone
out of her: when I walked in the shade she was there, but no

longer as the blithe, fantastic being, bright as an angel,
innocent and affectionate as a child, tricksy as a monkey, that

had played at hide-and-seek with me. She was now my shy, silent
attendant, only occasionally" target="_blank" title="ad.偶然地；非经常地">occasionallyvisible, and appearing then like the

mysterious maid I had found reclining among the ferns who had
melted away mist-like from sight as I gazed. When I called she

would not now answer as formerly, but in response would appear in
sight as if to assure me that I had not been forsaken; and after

a few moments her grey shadowy form would once more vanish among
the trees. The hope that as her confidence increased and she

grew accustomed to talk with me she would be brought to reveal
the story of her life had to be abandoned, at all events for the

present. I must, after all, get my information from Nuflo, or
rest in ignorance. The old man was out for the greater part of

each day with his dogs, and from these expeditions he brought
back nothing that I could see but a few nuts and fruits, some

thin bark for his cigarettes, and an occasionalhandful of haima
gum to perfume the hut of an evening. After I had wasted three

days in vainlytrying to overcome the girl's now inexplicable
shyness, I resolved to give for a while my undivided attention to

her grandfather to discover, if possible, where he went and how
he spent his time.

My new game of hide-and-seek with Nuflo instead of with Rima
began on the following morning. He was cunning; so was I. Going

out and concealing myself among the bushes, I began to watch the
hut. That I could elude Rima's keener eyes I doubted; but that

did not trouble me. She was not in harmony with the old man, and
would do nothing to defeat my plan. I had not been long in my

hiding-place before he came out, followed by his two dogs, and
going to some distance from the door, he sat down on a log. For

some minutes he smoked, then rose, and after looking cautiously
round slipped away among the trees. I saw that he was going off

in the direction of the low range of rocky hills south of the
forest. I knew that the forest did not extend far in that

direction, and thinking that I should be able to catch a sight of
him on its borders, I left the bushes and ran through the trees

as fast as I could to get ahead of him. Coming to where the wood
was very open, I found that a barren plain beyond it, a quarter

of a mile wide, separated it from the range of hills; thinking
that the old man might cross this open space, I climbed into a

tree to watch. After some time he appeared, walking rapidly
among the trees, the dogs at his heels, but not going towards the

open plain; he had, it seemed, after arriving at the edge of the
wood, changed his direction and was going west, still keeping in

the shelter of the trees. When he had been gone about five
minutes, I dropped to the ground and started in pursuit; once

more I caught sight of him through the trees, and I kept him in
sight for about twenty minutes longer; then he came to a broad

strip of dense wood which extended into and through the range of
hills, and here I quickly lost him. Hoping still to overtake

him, I pushed on, but after struggling through the underwood for
some distance, and finding the forest growing more difficult as I

progressed, I at last gave him up. Turning eastward, I got out
of the wood to find myself at the foot of a steep rough hill, one

of the range which the woodedvalley cut through at right angles.
It struck me that it would be a good plan to climb the hill to

get a view of the forest belt in which I had lost the old man;
and after walking a short distance I found a spot which allowed

of an ascent. The summit of the hill was about three hundred
feet above the surrounding level and did not take me long to

reach; it commanded a fair view, and I now saw that the belt of
wood beneath me extended right through the range, and on the

south side opened out into an extensive forest. "If that is your
destination," thought I, "old fox, your secrets are safe from

me."
It was still early in the day, and a slight breeze tempered the

air and made it cool and pleasant on the hilltop after my
exertions. My scramble through the wood had fatigued me

somewhat, and resolving to spend some hours on that spot, I
looked round for a comfortable resting-place. I soon found a

shady spot on the west side of an upright block of stone where I
could recline at ease on a bed of lichen. Here, with shoulders

resting against the rock, I sat thinking of Rima, alone in her
wood today, with just a tinge of bitterness in my thoughts which

made me hope that she would miss me as much as I missed her; and
in the end I fell asleep.

When I woke, it was past noon, and the sun was shining directly
on me. Standing up to gaze once more on the prospect, I noticed

a small wreath of white smoke issuing from a spot about the
middle of the forest belt beneath me, and I instantly divined

that Nuflo had made a fire at that place, and I resolved to
surprise him in his retreat. When I got down to the base of the

hill the smoke could no longer be seen, but I had studied the
spot well from above, and had singled out a large clump of trees

on the edge of the belt as a starting-point; and after a search
of half an hour I succeeded in finding the old man's

hiding-place. First I saw smoke again through an opening in the
trees, then a small rude hut of sticks and palm leaves.

Approaching cautiously, I peered through a crack and discovered
old Nuflo engaged in smoking some meat over a fire, and at the

same time grilling some bones on the coals. He had captured a
coatimundi, an animal somewhat larger than a tame tom-cat, with a

long snout and long ringed tail; one of the dogs was gnawing at
the animal's head, and the tail and the feet were also lying on

the floor, among the old bones and rubbish that littered it.
Stealing round, I suddenly presented myself at the opening to his

den, when the dogs rose up with a growl and Nuflo instantly
leaped to his feet, knife in hand.

"Aha, old man," I cried, with a laugh, "I have found you at one
of your vegetarian repasts; and your grass-eating dogs as well!"

He was disconcerted and suspicious, but when I explained that I
had seen a smoke while on the hills, where I had gone to search

for a curious blue flower which grew in such places, and had made
my way to it to discover the cause, he recovered confidence and

invited me to join him at his dinner of roast meat.
I was hungry by this time and not sorry to get animal food once

more; nevertheless, I ate this meat with some disgust, as it had
a rank taste and smell, and it was also unpleasant to have those

evil-looking dogs savagely gnawing at the animal's head and feet
at the same time.

"You see," said the old hypocrite, wiping the grease from his
moustache, "this is what I am compelled to do in order to avoid

giving offence. My granddaughter is a strange being, sir, as you
have perhaps observed--"

"That reminds me," I interrupted, "that I wish you to relate her
history to me. She is, as you say, strange, and has speech and

faculties unlike ours, which shows that she comes of a different
race."

"No, no, her faculties are not different from ours. They are
sharper, that is all. It pleases the All-Powerful to give more

to some than to others. Not all the fingers on the hand are
alike. You will find a man who will take up a guitar and make it

speak, while I--"
"All that I understand," I broke in again. "But her origin, her

history--that is what I wish to hear."
"And that, sir, is precisely what I am about to relate. Poor