CHAPTER XXII. BULIKA
I had lost all notion of my position, and was walking about in pure,helpless impatience, when suddenly I found myself in the path of theleopardess, wading in the blood from her paw. It ran against my ankleswith the force of a small brook, and I got out of it the more quicklybecause of an unshaped suspicion in my mind as to whose blood it mightbe. But I kept close to the sound of it, walking up the side of thestream, for it would guide me in the direction of Bulika.
I soon began to reflect, however, that no leopardess, no elephant, nohugest animal that in our world preceded man, could keep such a torrentflowing, except every artery in its body were open, and its huge systemwent on filling its vessels from fields and lakes and forests as fast asthey emptied themselves: it could not be blood! I dipped a finger in it,and at once satisfied myself that it was not. In truth, however it mighthave come there, it was a softly murmuring rivulet of water that ran,without channel, over the grass! But sweet as was its song, I dared notdrink of it; I kept walking on, hoping after the light, and listening tothe familiar sound so long unheard--for that of the hot stream was verydifferent. The mere wetting of my feet in it, however, had so refreshedme, that I went on without fatigue till the darkness began to growthinner, and I knew the sun was drawing nigh. A few minutes more, andI could discern, against the pale aurora, the wall-towers of acity--seemingly old as time itself. Then I looked down to get a sight ofthe brook.
It was gone. I had indeed for a long time noted its sound growingfainter, but at last had ceased to attend to it. I looked back: thegrass in its course lay bent as it had flowed, and here and thereglimmered a small pool. Toward the city, there was no trace of it. Nearwhere I stood, the flow of its fountain must at least have paused!
Around the city were gardens, growing many sorts of vegetables, hardlyone of which I recognised. I saw no water, no flowers, no sign ofanimals. The gardens came very near the walls, but were separated fromthem by huge heaps of gravel and refuse thrown from the battlements.
I went up to the nearest gate, and found it but half-closed, nowisesecured, and without guard or sentinel. To judge by its hinges, it couldnot be farther opened or shut closer. Passing through, I looked downa long ancient street. It was utterly silent, and with scarce anindication in it of life present. Had I come upon a dead city? I turnedand went out again, toiled a long way over the dust-heaps, and crossedseveral roads, each leading up to a gate: I would not re-enter untilsome of the inhabitants should be stirring.
What was I there for? what did I expect or hope to find? what did I meanto do?
I must see, if but once more, the woman I had brought to life! I didnot desire her society: she had waked in me frightful suspicions; andfriendship, not to say love, was wildly impossible between us! But herpresence had had a strange influence upon me, and in her presence Imust resist, and at the same time analyse that influence! The seeminglyinscrutable in her I would fain penetrate: to understand something ofher mode of being would be to look into marvels such as imaginationcould never have suggested! In this I was too daring: a man must not,for knowledge, of his own will encounter temptation! On the other hand,I had reinstated an evil force about to perish, and was, to the extentof my opposing faculty, accountable for what mischief might ensue! I hadlearned that she was the enemy of children: the Little Ones might be inher danger! It was in the hope of finding out something of their historythat I had left them; on that I had received a little light: I must havemore; I must learn how to protect them!
Hearing at length a little stir in the place, I walked through thenext gate, and thence along a narrow street of tall houses to a littlesquare, where I sat down on the base of a pillar with a hideous bat-likecreature atop. Ere long, several of the inhabitants came saunteringpast. I spoke to one: he gave me a rude stare and ruder word, and wenton.
I got up and went through one narrow street after another, graduallyfilling with idlers, and was not surprised to see no children. Byand by, near one of the gates, I encountered a group of young men whoreminded me not a little of the bad giants. They came about me staring,and presently began to push and hustle me, then to throw things at me.I bore it as well as I could, wishing not to provoke enmity wherewanted to remain for a while. Oftener than once or twice I appealed topassers-by whom I fancied more benevolent-looking, but none would halta moment to listen to me. I looked poor, and that was enough: to thecitizens of Bulika, as to house-dogs, poverty was an offence! Deformityand sickness were taxed; and no legislation of their princess was moreheartily approved of than what tended to make poverty subserve wealth.
I took to my heels at last, and no one followed me beyond the gate. Alumbering fellow, however, who sat by it eating a hunch of bread, pickedup a stone to throw after me, and happily, in his stupid eagerness,threw, not the stone but the bread. I took it, and he did not darefollow to reclaim it: beyond the walls they were cowards every one. Iwent off a few hundred yards, threw myself down, ate the bread, fellasleep, and slept soundly in the grass, where the hot sunlight renewedmy strength.
It was night when I woke. The moon looked down on me in friendlyfashion, seeming to claim with me old acquaintance. She was very bright,and the same moon, I thought, that saw me through the terrors of myfirst night in that strange world. A cold wind blew from the gate,bringing with it an evil odour; but it did not chill me, for the sun hadplenished me with warmth. I crept again into the city. There I found thefew that were still in the open air crouched in corners to escape theshivering blast.
I was walking slowly through the long narrow street, when, just beforeme, a huge white thing bounded across it, with a single flash in themoonlight, and disappeared. I turned down the next opening, eager to getsight of it again.
It was a narrow lane, almost too narrow to pass through, but it ledme into a wider street. The moment I entered the latter, I saw onthe opposite side, in the shadow, the creature I had followed, itselffollowing like a dog what I took for a man. Over his shoulder, everyother moment, he glanced at the animal behind him, but neither spoke toit, nor attempted to drive it away. At a place where he had to cross apatch of moonlight, I saw that he cast no shadow, and was himself buta flat superficial shadow, of two dimensions. He was, nevertheless, anopaque shadow, for he not merely darkened any object on the otherside of him, but rendered it, in fact, invisible. In the shadow he wasblacker than the shadow; in the moonlight he looked like one who haddrawn his shadow up about him, for not a suspicion of it moved besideor under him; while the gleaming animal, which followed so close at hisheels as to seem the white shadow of his blackness, and which I now sawto be a leopardess, drew her own gliding shadow black over the ground byher side. When they passed together from the shadow into the moonlight,the Shadow deepened in blackness, the animal flashed into radiance. Iwas at the moment walking abreast of them on the opposite side, my barefeet sounding on the flat stones: the leopardess never turned heador twitched ear; the shadow seemed once to look at me, for I lost hisprofile, and saw for a second only a sharp upright line. That instantthe wind found me and blew through me: I shuddered from head to foot,and my heart went from wall to wall of my bosom, like a pebble in achild's rattle.