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For a moment we stood eye to eye. I dropped the whip and snatched at the pistol in my pocket; for I meant to
kill this brute, the most formidable of any left now upon the island, at the first excuse. It may seem
treacherous, but so I was resolved. I was far more afraid of him than of any other two of the Beast Folk. His
continued life was I knew a threat against mine.
I was perhaps a dozen seconds collecting myself. Then cried I, "Salute! Bow down!"
His teeth flashed upon me in a snarl. "Who are you that I should--"
Perhaps a little too spasmodically I drew my revolver, aimed quickly and fired. I heard him yelp, saw him run
sideways and turn, knew I had missed, and clicked back the cock with my thumb for the next shot. But he was
already running headlong, jumping from side to side, and I dared not risk another miss. Every now and then
he looked back at me over his shoulder. He went slanting along the beach, and vanished beneath the driving
masses of dense smoke that were still pouring out from the burning enclosure. For some time I stood staring
after him. I turned to my three obedient Beast Folk again and signalled them to drop the body they still
carried. Then I went back to the place by the fire where the bodies had fallen and kicked the sand until all the
brown blood-stains were absorbed and hidden.
I dismissed my three serfs with a wave of the hand, and went up the beach into the thickets. I carried my pistol
in my hand, my whip thrust with the hatchets in the sling of my arm. I was anxious to be alone, to think out
the position in which I was now placed. A dreadful thing that I was only beginning to realise was, that over all
this island there was now no safe place where I could be alone and secure to rest or sleep. I had recovered
strength amazingly since my landing, but I was still inclined to be nervous and to break down under any great
stress. I felt that I ought to cross the island and establish myself with the Beast People, and make myself
secure in their confidence. But my heart failed me. I went back to the beach, and turning eastward past the
burning enclosure, made for a point where a shallow spit of coral sand ran out towards the reef. Here I could
sit down and think, my back to the sea and my face against any surprise. And there I sat, chin on knees, the
sun beating down upon my head and unspeakable dread in my mind, plotting how I could live on against the
hour of my rescue (if ever rescue came). I tried to review the whole situation as calmly as I could, but it was
difficult to clear the thing of emotion.
I began turning over in my mind the reason of Montgomery's despair. "They will change," he said; "they are
sure to change." And Moreau, what was it that Moreau had said? "The stubborn beast-flesh grows day by day
back again." Then I came round to the Hyena-swine. I felt sure that if I did not kill that brute, he would kill
me. The Sayer of the Law was dead: worse luck. They knew now that we of the Whips could be killed even as
they themselves were killed. Were they peering at me already out of the green masses of ferns and palms over
yonder, watching until I came within their spring? Were they plotting against me? What was the Hyena-swine
telling them? My imagination was running away with me into a morass of unsubstantial fears.
My thoughts were disturbed by a crying of sea-birds hurrying towards some black object that had been
stranded by the waves on the beach near the enclosure. I knew what that object was, but I had not the heart to
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go back and drive them off. I began walking along the beach in the opposite direction, designing to come
round the eastward corner of the island and so approach the ravine of the huts, without traversing the possible
ambuscades of the thickets.
Perhaps half a mile along the beach I became aware of one of my three Beast Folk advancing out of the
landward bushes towards me. I was now so nervous with my own imaginings that I immediately drew my
revolver. Even the propitiatory gestures of the creature failed to disarm me. He hesitated as he approached.
"Go away!" cried I.
There was something very suggestive of a dog in the cringing attitude of the creature. It retreated a little way,
very like a dog being sent home, and stopped, looking at me imploringly with canine brown eyes.
"Go away," said I. "Do not come near me."
"May I not come near you?" it said.
"No; go away," I insisted, and snapped my whip. Then putting my whip in my teeth, I stooped for a stone, and
with that threat drove the creature away.
So in solitude I came round by the ravine of the Beast People, and hiding among the weeds and reeds that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]