第38章 XVII. A CATASTROPHE.(2)

"It simply wrenched its fetter out of the wall." He went to the window, then to the door, and there turned to me. "I shall go after him,"he said. "There's another revolver I can leave with you.

To tell you the truth, I feel anxious somehow."He obtained the weapon, and put it ready to my hand on the table;then went out, leaving a restless contagion in the air.

I did not sit long after he left, but took the revolver in hand and went to the doorway.

The morning was as still as death. Not a whisper of wind was stirring;the sea was like polished glass, the sky empty, the beach desolate.

In my half-excited, half-feverish state, this stillness of things oppressed me. I tried to whistle, and the tune died away.

I swore again,--the second time that morning. Then I went to the corner of the enclosure and stared inland at the green bush that had swallowed up Moreau and Montgomery. When would they return, and how?

Then far away up the beach a little grey Beast Man appeared, ran down to the water's edge and began splashing about.

I strolled back to the doorway, then to the corner again, and so began pacing to and fro like a sentinel upon duty.

Once I was arrested by the distant voice of Montgomery bawling, "Coo-ee--Moreau!" My arm became less painful, but very hot.

I got feverish and thirsty. My shadow grew shorter.

I watched the distant figure until it went away again. Would Moreau and Montgomery never return? Three sea-birds began fighting for some stranded treasure.

Then from far away behind the enclosure I heard a pistol-shot. Along silence, and then came another. Then a yelling cry nearer, and another dismal gap of silence. My unfortunate imagination set to work to torment me. Then suddenly a shot close by.

I went to the corner, startled, and saw Montgomery,--his face scarlet, his hair disordered, and the knee of his trousers torn.

His face expressed profound consternation. Behind him slouched the Beast Man, M'ling, and round M'ling's jaws were some queer dark stains.

"Has he come?" said Montgomery.

"Moreau?" said I. "No."

"My God!" The man was panting, almost sobbing. "Go back in," he said, taking my arm. "They're mad. They're all rushing about mad. What can have happened? I don't know. I'll tell you, when my breath comes.

Where's some brandy?"

Montgomery limped before me into the room and sat down in the deck chair.

M'ling flung himself down just outside the doorway and began panting like a dog. I got Montgomery some brandy-and-water. He sat staring in front of him at nothing, recovering his breath.

After some minutes he began to tell me what had happened.

He had followed their track for some way. It was plain enough at first on account of the crushed and broken bushes, white rags torn from the puma's bandages, and occasional smears of blood on the leaves of the shrubs and undergrowth. He lost the track, however, on the stony ground beyond the stream where I had seen the Beast Man drinking, and went wandering aimlessly westward shouting Moreau's name.

Then M'ling had come to him carrying a light hatchet. M'ling had seen nothing of the puma affair; had been felling wood, and heard him calling.

They went on shouting together. Two Beast Men came crouching and peering at them through the undergrowth, with gestures and a furtive carriage that alarmed Montgomery by their strangeness.

He hailed them, and they fled guiltily. He stopped shouting after that, and after wandering some time farther in an undecided way, determined to visit the huts.

He found the ravine deserted.

Growing more alarmed every minute, he began to retrace his steps.

Then it was he encountered the two Swine-men I had seen dancing on the night of my arrival; blood-stained they were about the mouth, and intensely excited. They came crashing through the ferns, and stopped with fierce faces when they saw him. He cracked his whip in some trepidation, and forthwith they rushed at him. Never before had a Beast Man dared to do that. One he shot through the head;M'ling flung himself upon the other, and the two rolled grappling.

M'ling got his brute under and with his teeth in its throat, and Montgomery shot that too as it struggled in M'ling's grip.

He had some difficulty in inducing M'ling to come on with him.

Thence they had hurried back to me. On the way, M'ling had suddenly rushed into a thicket and driven out an under-sized Ocelot-man, also blood-stained, and lame through a wound in the foot.

This brute had run a little way and then turned savagely at bay, and Montgomery--with a certain wantonness, I thought--had shot him.

"What does it all mean?" said I.

He shook his head, and turned once more to the brandy.