The
sun had topped the grey ridge of Samburan. The great morning shadow was
gone; and far away in the devouring sunshine Wang was in time to see
Number One and the woman, two remote white specks against the sombre
line of the forest. In a moment they vanished. With the smallest display
of action, Wang also vanished from the sunlight of the clearing.
Heyst and Lena entered the shade of the forest path which crossed the
island, and which, near its highest point had been blocked by felled
trees. But their intention was not to go so far. After keeping to the
path for some distance, they left it at a point where the forest was
bare of undergrowth, and the trees, festooned with creepers, stood clear
of one another in the gloom of their own making. Here and there great
splashes of light lay on the ground. They moved, silent in the great
stillness, breathing the calmness, the infinite isolation, the repose of
a slumber without dreams. They emerged at the upper limit of vegetation,
among some rocks; and in a depression of the sharp slope, like a small
platform, they turned about and looked from on high over the sea,
lonely, its colour effaced by sunshine, its horizon a heat mist, a mere
unsubstantial shimmer in the pale and blinding infinity overhung by the
darker blaze of the sky.
"It makes my head swim," the girl murmured, shutting her eyes and
putting her hand on his shoulder.
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