Soft shadows slipping from the dark'ning sand To touch the water with a mystic hue; Two lovers in a boat ... close ... hand in hand ... While swarthy boatmen poled the small craft through. Great crocodiles and snakes and eels now swarmed The surface of the Nile as on it flowed, While flickering rays of sunshine that had warmed The earth now faded from the trail and road. The haunting cry of leopard to his mate Made shrill the air, uncanny, wierd 'and loud, Almost it seemed a warning of dire fate. Soon stars appeared without a trace of cloud. Then silence thickly fell. No sound of bird Or cry of lonely beast could now be heard. |