The Land of Hidden Men
9781465679345
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
My Lord, I may go no farther, said the Cambodian. The young white man turned in astonishment upon his native guide. Behind them lay the partially cleared trail along which they had come. It was overgrown with tall grass that concealed the tree-stumps that had been left behind the axes of the road-builders. Before them lay a ravine, at the near edge of which the trail ended. Beyond the ravine was the primitive jungle untouched by man. "Why, we haven't even started yet!" exclaimed the white man. "You cannot turn back now. What do you suppose I hired you for?" "I promised to take my lord to the jungle," replied the Cambodian. "There it is. I did not promise to enter it." Gordon King lighted a cigarette. "Let's talk this thing over, my friend," he said. "It is yet early morning. We can get into the jungle as far as I care to go and out again before sundown." The Cambodian shook his head. "I will wait for you here, my lord," he said; "but I may not enter the jungle, and if you are wise you will not." "Why?" demanded King. "There are wild elephants, my lord, and tigers," replied the Cambodian, "and panthers which hunt by day as well as by night." "Why do you suppose we brought two rifles?" demanded the white. "At Kompong-Thom they told me you were a good shot and a brave man. You knew that we should have no need for rifles up to this point. No, sir, you have lost your nerve at the last minute, and I do not believe that it is because of tigers or wild elephants." "There are other things deep in the jungle, my lord, that no man may look upon and live." "What, for example?" demanded King. "The ghosts of my ancestors," answered the Cambodian, "the Khmers who dwelt here in great cities ages ago. Within the dark shadows of the jungle the ruins of their cities still stand, and down the dark aisles of the forest pass the ancient kings and warriors and little sad-faced queens on ghostly elephants. Fleeing always from the horrible fate that overtook them in life, they pass for ever down the corridors of the jungle, and with them are the millions of the ghostly dead that once were their subjects. We might escape My Lord the Tiger and the wild elephants, but no man may look upon the ghosts of the dead Khmers and live."
