But on account of the grey mist I mentioned, I could not see the top, and the illusion was complete.
We reached the summit late in the afternoon, for the sun was square in our eyes.

But instead of blinding me, it seemed to clear my sight, so that I saw below me a little mud hut with smoke rising behind it, and a small patch of cultivated ground.
I'll pass over how I felt about it: they haven't made the words-- Well, we stumbled down the trail and into the hut.

At first I thought it was empty, but after a minute I saw a very old man crouched in a corner.

As I looked at him he raised his bleared eyes to me, his head swinging slowly from side to side as though with a kind of palsy.

He could not see me, that was evident, nor hear me, but some instinct not yet decayed turned him toward a new presence in the room.