about five in the afternoon
All was red with rust , and the shaft of the connecting-rod in particular seemed so frail , that at one moment I was very dubious : I decided , however , and , except for a slight leakage at the tubulure which led the steam to the valve-chest , all went very well ; at a pressure never exceeding three-and-a-half atmospheres , we travelled nearly a hundred and twenty miles before being stopped by a head-to-head block on the line , when we had to abandon our engine ; we then continued another seven miles a-foot , I all the time mourning my motor , which I had had to leave at Imbros , and hoping at every townlet to find a whole one , but in vain . * * * * * It was wonderful to see the villages and towns going back to the earth , already invaded by vegetation , and hardly any longer breaking the continuity of pure Nature , the town now as much the country as the country , and that which is not-Man becoming all in all with a certain _ furore _ of vigour . A whole day in the southern gorges of the Balkan Mountains the slow train went tearing its way through many a mile of bind-weed tendrils , a continuous curtain , flaming with large flowers , but sombre as the falling shades of night , rather resembling jungles of Ceylon and the Filipinas ; and she , that day , lying in the single car behind , where I had made her a little yatag-bed from Tatar Bazardjik , continually played the kittur , barely touching the strings , and crooning low , low , in her rich contralto , eternally the same air , over and over again , crooning , crooning , some melancholy tune of her own dreaming , just audible to me through the slow-travailing monotony of the engine ; till I was drunken with so sweet a woe , my God , a woe that was sweet as life , and a dolour that lulled like nepenthe , and a grief that soothed like kisses , so sweet , so sweet , that all that world of wood and gloom lost locality and realness for me , and became nothing but a charmed and pensive Heaven for her to moan and lullaby in ; and from between my fingers streamed plenteous tears that day , and all that I could keep on mourning was ' O Leda , O Leda , O Leda , ' till my heart was near to break . The feed-pump eccentric-shaft of this engine , which was very poor and flaky , suddenly gave out about five in the afternoon , and I had to stop in a hurry , and that sweet invisible mechanism which had crooned and crooned about my ears in the air , and followed me whithersoever I went , stopped too . Down she jumped , calling out : ` Well , I had a plesentiment that something would happen , and I am so glad , for I was tired ! ' Seeing that nothing could be done with the feed-water pump , I got down , took the bag , and parting before us the continuous screen , we went pioneering to the left between a rock-cleft , stepping over large stones that looked black with moss-growths , no sky , but hundreds of feet of impenetrable leafage overhead , and everywhere the dew-dabbled profusion of dim ferneries , dishevelled maidenhairs mixed with a large-leaved mimosa , wild vine , white briony , and a smell of cedar , and a soft rushing of perpetual waters that charmed the gloaming . The way led slightly upwards three hundred feet , and presently , after some windings , and the climbing of five huge steps almost regular , yet obviously natural , the gorge opened in a roundish space , fifty feet across , with far overhanging edges seven hundred feet high ; and there , behind a curtain which fell from above , its tendrils defined and straight like a Japanese bead-hanging , we spread the store of foods , I opening the wines , fruits , vegetables and meats , she arranging them in order with the gold plate , and lighting both the spirit-lamp and the lantern : for here it was quite dark .