Overhead the great trees were arched
together and interlaced, their lower branches set with flowering
orchids like hothouse plants upon a window-ledge. The dense
foliage allowed only a random beam of sunlight to pass through and
pierce the pool, like a brilliant, quivering javelin. Long vines
depended from the limbs above, falling sheer and straight as
plumb-lines; a giant liana the size of a man's body twined up and
up until lost in the tangle overhead.
Although set just within the border of the untouched forest, it
was evident that this spot had been carefully cut away and
artfully cultivated. But, if man's hand had aided nature by a few
deft touches here and there and a careful pruning of her lavish
riches, it could be seen that no human artist had designed the
wondrous stage effect. To step suddenly out of an uncut wilderness
into such a scene as this was bewildering, and made the American
gasp with delight. The place had an air of strictest privacy. A
spring-board mirrored in the depths below invited one to plunge, a
pair of iron gymnasium rings were swung by chains to a massive
limb, a flight of stone steps led up the bank and into a hut
artistically thatched and walled with palm-leaves to harmonize
with its setting.
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