XX. ALONE WITH THE BEAST FOLK.
I FACED these people, facing my fate in them, single-handednow,--literally single-handed, for I had a broken arm. In my pocket wasa revolver with two empty chambers. Among the chips scattered aboutthe beach lay the two axes that had been used to chop up the boats.The tide was creeping in behind me. There was nothing for it butcourage. I looked squarely into the faces of the advancing monsters.They avoided my eyes, and their quivering nostrils investigatedthe bodies that lay beyond me on the beach. I took half-a-dozen steps,picked up the blood-stained whip that lay beneath the bodyof the Wolf-man, and cracked it. They stopped and staredat me.
"Salute!" said I. "Bow down!"
They hesitated. One bent his knees. I repeated my command,with my heart in my mouth, and advanced upon them. One knelt,then the other two.
I turned and walked towards the dead bodies, keeping my facetowards the three kneeling Beast Men, very much as an actor passingup the stage faces the audience.
"They broke the Law," said I, putting my foot on the Sayer of the Law."They have been slain,--even the Sayer of the Law; even the Other withthe Whip. Great is the Law! Come and see."
"None escape," said one of them, advancing and peering.
"None escape," said I. "Therefore hear and do as I command."They stood up, looking questioningly at one another.
"Stand there," said I.
I picked up the hatchets and swung them by their heads fromthe sling of my arm; turned Montgomery over; picked up his revolverstill loaded in two chambers, and bending down to rummage,found half-a-dozen cartridges in his pocket.
"Take him," said I, standing up again and pointing with the whip;"take him, and carry him out and cast him into the sea."
They came forward, evidently still afraid of Montgomery,but still more afraid of my cracking red whip-lash; and aftersome fumbling and hesitation, some whip-cracking and shouting,they lifted him gingerly, carried him down to the beach, and wentsplashing into the dazzling welter of the sea.
"On!" said I, "on! Carry him far."
They went in up to their armpits and stood regarding me.
"Let go," said I; and the body of Montgomery vanished with a splash.Something seemed to tighten across my chest.
"Good!" said I, with a break in my voice; and they came back,hurrying and fearful, to the margin of the water, leaving longwakes of black in the silver. At the water's edge they stopped,turning and glaring into the sea as though they presently expectedMontgomery to arise therefrom and exact vengeance.
"Now these," said I, pointing to the other bodies.
They took care not to approach the place where they had thrownMontgomery into the water, but instead, carried the four deadBeast People slantingly along the beach for perhaps a hundredyards before they waded out and cast them away.
As I watched them disposing of the mangled remains of M'ling, Iheard a light footfall behind me, and turning quickly saw the bigHyena-swine perhaps a dozen yards away. His head was bent down,his bright eyes were fixed upon me, his stumpy hands clenchedand held close by his side. He stopped in this crouching attitudewhen I turned, his eyes a little averted.
For a moment we stood eye to eye. I dropped the whip and snatchedat the pistol in my pocket; for I meant to kill this brute, the mostformidable of any left now upon the island, at the first excuse.It may seem treacherous, but so I was resolved. I was farmore 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 quicklyand fired. I heard him yelp, saw him run sideways and turn, knew Ihad 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 lookedback at me over his shoulder. He went slanting along the beach,and vanished beneath the driving masses of dense smoke that werestill pouring out from the burning enclosure. For some time Istood staring after him. I turned to my three obedient Beast Folkagain and signalled them to drop the body they still carried.Then I went back to the place by the fire where the bodies had fallenand kicked the sand until all the brown blood-stains were absorbedand hidden.
I dismissed my three serfs with a wave of the hand, and went upthe 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 Iwas now placed. A dreadful thing that I was only beginningto realise was, that over all this island there was now no safeplace where I could be alone and secure to rest or sleep.I had recovered strength amazingly since my landing, but I was stillinclined to be nervous and to break down under any great stress.I felt that I ought to cross the island and establish myselfwith the Beast People, and make myself secure in their confidence.But my heart failed me. I went back to the beach, and turningeastward past the burning enclosure, made for a point where a shallowspit of coral sand ran out towards the reef. Here I could sit downand 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 headand unspeakable dread in my mind, plotting how I could live on againstthe hour of my rescue (if ever rescue came). I tried to review the wholesituation as calmly as I could, but it was difficult to clear the thingof 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 growsday by day back again." Then I came round to the Hyena-swine. Ifelt 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 weof the Whips could be killed even as they themselves were killed.Were they peering at me already out of the green masses of fernsand 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 unsubstantialfears.
My thoughts were disturbed by a crying of sea-birds hurryingtowards some black object that had been stranded by the waveson the beach near the enclosure. I knew what that object was,but I had not the heart to 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 soapproach the ravine of the huts, without traversing the possibleambuscades of the thickets.
Perhaps half a mile along the beach I became aware of one of my threeBeast Folk advancing out of the landward bushes towards me. I was nowso 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 attitudeof the creature. It retreated a little way, very like a dog beingsent home, and stopped, looking at me imploringly with caninebrown 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 puttingmy whip in my teeth, I stooped for a stone, and with that threatdrove the creature away.
So in solitude I came round by the ravine of the Beast People,and hiding among the weeds and reeds that separated thiscrevice from the sea I watched such of them as appeared,trying to judge from their gestures and appearance how the deathof Moreau and Montgomery and the destruction of the House of Painhad affected them. I know now the folly of my cowardice.Had I kept my courage up to the level of the dawn, had I notallowed it to ebb away in solitary thought, I might have graspedthe vacant sceptre of Moreau and ruled over the Beast People.As it was I lost the opportunity, and sank to the position of a mereleader among my fellows.
Towards noon certain of t
hem came and squatted basking in the hot sand.The imperious voices of hunger and thirst prevailed over my dread.I came out of the bushes, and, revolver in hand, walked down towardsthese seated figures. One, a Wolf-woman, turned her head and staredat me, and then the others. None attempted to rise or salute me.I felt too faint and weary to insist, and I let the moment pass.
"I want food," said I, almost apologetically, and drawing near.
"There is food in the huts," said an Ox-boar-man, drowsily,and looking away from me.
I passed them, and went down into the shadow and odours of the almostdeserted ravine. In an empty hut I feasted on some speckedand half-decayed fruit; and then after I had propped some branchesand sticks about the opening, and placed myself with my facetowards it and my hand upon my revolver, the exhaustion of the lastthirty hours claimed its own, and I fell into a light slumber,hoping that the flimsy barricade I had erected would causesufficient noise in its removal to save me from surprise.