6 . a night or two later we were strolling , Lord Undertone and I , on sentry-go , round the tents and we caught sight of Mr Septimus looking out through the flap of the one he occupied with his lordship &apos;s own self . bit moody , remarked my companion . like he used to be years ago &amp;hellip; remember ? well did I remember the crisis of emotion into which he was plunged one night at Abbotsfield &amp;hellip; a dinner-party it was &amp;hellip; when he first set eyes on Miss Ariadne ; but I did not wish to impart my thoughts or any misgivings I might have on this subject and in any case my recollections of the Manor , of my parlour and Sally sitting there , and of all the amenities were at that moment so strong that I dared not speak . something &apos;s up , said Lord Undertone , carefully casual . the servants are all on edge &amp;hellip; did you notice ? and the mules did n&apos;t seem to want to get off the raft . he peered as it were into the dark secrets of the jungle . think there &apos;s Indians about ? it was most certainly an eerie night , exceptionally brilliant and strange , for in the proximity of the mountains , whose presence I could almost smell , the air grew less humid and as there was no moon the galaxies had it their own way so that the forest looked ever more mysterious in their faint , silver light . impressive , Lord Undertone said , gazing reverently on the cosmic handiwork . all those stars . but I &apos;m a bit earthbound tonight , Trout . I &apos;ve got a queer feeling , like I always get when something sensational &apos;s going to happen . there &apos;s things lurking if you ask me . might be jaguar , might be &amp;hellip; head-shrinkers . hope I die kind of composed , Trout . I mean you can n&apos;t imagine the Christian martyrs twisting and shrieking , no matter how bad it felt , the fire you know , or a lion munching , or arrows where it hurts most . or can you . look over there . he pointed to the shadows beyond the river . something moved . it may well be the case , my lord , that the darkness conceals some threat . I did what I could to dissemble my dislike of the situation . well , what are you going to do about it ? I , my lord ? somewhat resentful of a responsibility that did not fall within the strict terms of a butler &apos;s engagement , yet at the same time flattered , I felt bound to advance one or two suggestions that occurred to me . bottle-foot , my lord . bottle-foot ? his lordship may have thought I had become unbalanced through fear . a character Mr Gilberto mentioned the other day , my lord . a being of whom the forest Indians are said to be mortally afraid , with a hoof shaped like the heel of a bottle . if your lordship will excuse me a moment &amp;hellip; . all right , but do n&apos;t be long . rummaging among the remains of our provisions I found a bottle with which I made numerous marks on the ground surrounding our tents and a few yards into the jungle , as far as I dared venture . if they should observe these footprints , my lord , I said , rather proud of the device , they may be deterred from attacking us . ummm . any other ideas ? yes , my lord . there is also a creature known as the water-mother who sits on a lily-leaf singing and entices men into the stream , where they drown . she has long green hair and &amp;hellip; . kind of Lorelei , you mean ? precisely , my lord . a highly poetical conception . if we could impersonate such a being &amp;hellip; . what , me ? sit on a lily-leaf and sing ? not likely , Trout . better get hold of Mrs Caine &amp;hellip; she &apos;s a witch if you like &amp;hellip; draw anyone into the water . his lordship sighed as one who would n&apos;t mind dying in certain unlikely circumstances . d&apos; you think Septimus has gone nuts over her ? the question startled my secret thoughts ; but before I had time to formulate a discreet answer the Indians were all over us and though I was able by means of a trick practised in equally repugnant circumstances to floor the first three who attacked the situation got out of hand . small , repulsive creatures they were , with black , matted hair and a striking resemblance to the shrunk heads we had gazed at recently ; and I have no hesitation in saying that they would have made an end of us but for an intervention so unexpected , so unusual , that only the necessity of rounding my narrative compels me to mention it . it will be appreciated that whereas what I am about to relate passed in a series of flashes it seemed very long during the action . standing with the blade of a rough kind of spear at my back ( and I was aware of cuts and scratches that might or might not prove poisonous ) , I did my somewhat futile best by necessarily restricted gestures to draw attention to the ground ; but whether these savages saw bottle-foot &apos;s print or not they seemed to have no fear of him , neither did they take the least notice of the alarming countenance Lord Undertone had assumed . at first glimpse of our assailants I had of course smitten the empty tin of fruit-salad that constituted our warning note , hoping that its flat tinkle would serve to rouse our companions ; trusting also that it might evoke some magical demonstration on the part of Mrs Caine . in what was I suppose little more than a few seconds Canon Pluckley emerged from his tent with the air of one who desires to investigate a situation in the interests of scholarship , but the Indians seized and threw the poor gentleman to the ground and when Mr Septimus followed , armed with a boathook and fiery with indignation , as having a measure of savage clearsightedness they could undoubtedly see , they prepared for the kill . certainly there would have been a painful resolution of our existence but for the mysterious intervention to which I have alluded . I had more than half expected that Mrs Caine , if and when she appeared in our midst , would make with her raised hand a sign of power ; she did nothing of the kind . she came from her tent indeed , with Mr Gilberto , both of them cool as you wish ; but though at sight of them the Indians made a curious hissing noise like the noise of snakes and poised their spears with a view to hurling or stabbing , having first no doubt dispatched those of us they already held , our host and his lady seemed to have no resource but a kind of personal immunity . it was scarcely a moment in which I expected to be reminded of another book that is frequently in my mind , through the looking-glass , in which , it will be remembered , as two characters are about to engage in battle a fierce , black bird , a crow of unusual size , appears over the wood , putting an end to the quarrel by its formidable aspect . in just such a manner there now showed itself over our heads , not with noise and menace but in silence more frightening than thunder , a great bird not black but white , as it were an eagle ; and when , having circled , it rose and returned into the starry sky the Indians , if Indians they were , had vanished . believe it or not . I have only to add that Mrs Caine dressed our cuts and scratches with medicaments from her little box while Mr Gilberto held his hand over them with effect that I myself felt a kind of radiant heat . 3 . is this the place ? asked Lord Undertone , peering about for vestiges of a golden temple or like portent . is this where the feller jumped in , Gilberto ? we were gathered at the edge of a cliff perhaps three hundred feet over a lake , deep in the Cordillera . es posible que &amp;hellip; I mean ... . but Mr Gilberto broke off . what do you say , Feather ? it is always told that where the man of gold plunged in his image is to be seen under the surface , she said . nothing there , said his lordship , gazing down the wall of clean rock that reflected mountain and forest , the cliff and our own peeping faces . it was such a lake , remote and magical , as well might have been the scene of some legendary event , though I imagine that the landscape must have looked very different in those far-off days . we came to it riding muleback along wooded slopes ; and agreeable it was after that humid , malodorous journey by river and swamp , for as the path ascended the climate grew temperate and the vegetation , so Canon Pluckley said , subtropical , characteristically so , although I myself should have described it as fairylike . here then we were , disposed in a commodious hut built of pine-logs or some such timber , on the shore of the lake at a point where it debouched in a stream that must find its way , I supposed to the distant Atlantic ; around us abundant provision of fruit , fish and if we desired it duck . I had a distinct impression that the hut had recently been cleaned and prepared for visitors . Mrs Caine said we were to go no further unless and until we were sent for , confirming another impression that became more and more definite , namely , that she was in touch with an invisible source of authority . naturally her words stimulated an already lively interest in the near future and as usual Lord Undertone could not refrain from questions . sent for ? his gaze examined the hut . no telephone . no wireless . no &amp;hellip; . it dawned on him . stupid of me ! tele-what-d&apos;you-call-it of course ! Mrs Caine smiled and with this all of us must be content . for my own part I should have been ready to remain here several days , collecting my wits so to speak , arranging my expectations , though wondering if Sally could be brought here by aeroplane , as I am unwilling to undertake any adventure without her ; not that there was any place where even a vertical landing could be effected . Sally and of course Mrs Septimus , for surely Mr Septimus stood in the same case as myself ? but was it so ? I allowed myself to entertain for an instant the idea , the strange , the unwelcome , the almost inconceivable idea , that Ariadne &apos;s arrival would be inopportune ; and with the idea came a somewhat vulgar impulse , which I refused , to watch Mr Septimus more closely , Mrs Caine too and Mr Gilberto who would surely show some anxiety by now if he noticed anything untoward . but all three were to the casual observation I permitted myself unruffled ; Mr Septimus reserved and certainly very thoughtful , but that was his habit . indeed we were all invaded by a most tranquil mood . even the Indian servants relaxed , knowing , so Mr Gilberto told us , that the wild and savage tribes never approached this region : at any rate they remained with us , perhaps for such protection as our presence , or Mrs Caine &apos;s , afforded , sticking rather to their quarters , going no further than the beach to fish , whereas we ourselves explored the whole neighbourhood , half , I think with an eye to fabulous remains . but after what Mrs Caine had said it was never far from our minds that at any moment we were to receive a summons . I could see that Mr Septimus was impatient for it . this afternoon , then , we climbed a promontory , a mass of clean rock crowned with trees and bushes , that stood well out over the lake . the thing about this great sheet of water on which we looked down was its astonishing stillness : it seemed to reflect not only its own dreamy shores , not only the forests of red-leaved trees on the mountainsides and the snowfields above , not only the sky but the invisible ground of being itself , as if a man should gather himself into himself and in meditation perceive what is otherwise imperceptible . away to the right , far below , I could see one of our Indians fishing and I declare that the ripple his cast made was the only change in all that expanse . 