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appearance how the death of Moreau and Montgomery and the destruction of the House of Pain had affected
them. I know now the folly of my cowardice. Had I kept my courage up to the level of the dawn, had I not
allowed it to ebb away in solitary thought, I might have grasped the vacant sceptre of Moreau and ruled over
the Beast People. As it was I lost the opportunity, and sank to the position of a mere leader among my fellows.
Towards noon certain of them 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 towards these
seated figures. One, a Wolf-woman, turned her head and stared at 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 almost deserted ravine. In an empty hut I
feasted on some specked and half-decayed fruit; and then after I had propped some branches and sticks about
the opening, and placed myself with my face towards it and my hand upon my revolver, the exhaustion of the
last thirty hours claimed its own, and I fell into a light slumber, hoping that the flimsy barricade I had erected
would cause sufficient noise in its removal to save me from surprise.
XXI. THE REVERSION OF THE BEAST FOLK.
IN this way I became one among the Beast People in the Island of Doctor Moreau. When I awoke, it was dark
about me. My arm ached in its bandages. I sat up, wondering at first where I might be. I heard coarse voices
talking outside. Then I saw that my barricade had gone, and that the opening of the hut stood clear. My
revolver was still in my hand.
I heard something breathing, saw something crouched together close beside me. I held my breath, trying to see
what it was. It began to move slowly, interminably. Then something soft and warm and moist passed across
my hand. All my muscles contracted. I snatched my hand away. A cry of alarm began and was stifled in my
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throat. Then I just realised what had happened sufficiently to stay my fingers on the revolver.
"Who is that?" I said in a hoarse whisper, the revolver still pointed.
"I--Master."
"Who are you?"
"They say there is no Master now. But I know, I know. I carried the bodies into the sea, O Walker in the Sea!
the bodies of those you slew. I am your slave, Master."
"Are you the one I met on the beach?" I asked.
"The same, Master."
The Thing was evidently faithful enough, for it might have fallen upon me as I slept. "It is well," I said,
extending my hand for another licking kiss. I began to realise what its presence meant, and the tide of my
courage flowed. "Where are the others?" I asked.
"They are mad; they are fools," said the Dog-man. "Even now they talk together beyond there. They say, `The
Master is dead. The Other with the Whip is dead. That Other who walked in the Sea is as we are. We have no
Master, no Whips, no House of Pain, any more. There is an end. We love the Law, and will keep it; but there
is no Pain, no Master, no Whips for ever again.' So they say. But I know, Master, I know."
I felt in the darkness, and patted the Dog-man's head. "It is well," I said again.
"Presently you will slay them all," said the Dog-man.
"Presently," I answered, "I will slay them all,--after certain days and certain things have come to pass. Every
one of them save those you spare, every one of them shall be slain."
"What the Master wishes to kill, the Master kills," said the Dog-man with a certain satisfaction in his voice.
"And that their sins may grow," I said, "let them live in their folly until their time is ripe. Let them not know
that I am the Master."
"The Master's will is sweet," said the Dog-man, with the ready tact of his canine blood.
"But one has sinned," said I. "Him I will kill, whenever I may meet him. When I say to you, `That is he,' see
that you fall upon him. And now I will go to the men and women who are assembled together."
For a moment the opening of the hut was blackened by the exit of the Dog-man. Then I followed and stood
up, almost in the exact spot where I had been when I had heard Moreau and his staghound pursuing me. But
now it was night, and all the miasmatic ravine about me was black; and beyond, instead of a green, sunlit
slope, I saw a red fire, before which hunched, grotesque figures moved to and fro. Farther were the thick trees,
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