Part 15 (1/2)
”It does, rather,” admitted the boy, ”yet I did rasp that ere supposed to be looking down upon the bungaloith the roof off He persisted in thinking that ere looking square at it, and that the rooms in the rear were _above_ those in the front of the house”
”Stupid fellow!” I co he manifested curiosity about?”
”Oh no,” answered Billy; ”there were lots of other things he asked about He wanted to knohere we got Kit froe with everybody else He asked if eren't afraid that some day he would turn upon us and do us an injury
He said that if he was boss he'd shoot the beast right away; and he gruive him and Svorenssen any firearms to defend themselves with, not only from the leopard but also from the natives, whoht coht and massacre us all in our sleep Then he wanted to knoe are going to get the cutter into the water when she is ready for launching; and then--let ain--and the apes He said it was all very well for us who could bolt ourselves securely in the house at night; but what about him and Svorenssen if an ape should coht? Hoere they to defend thehed at that, and told hi of that sort happening that we never closed our doors or s, except when it rained But he said that didn'thappened, because we had plenty of arht to have some too He said that, ith the leopard, the apes, and the savages, life was none too safe for unarmed men like him and the Finn”
”Did his terror seeerated?” I asked
”Oh no,” asserted Billy, with conviction; ”it was real enough, and it wasn't exaggerated either; he was in a regular funk You see, he and Svorenssen had a pretty bad time, one way and another, all the tihtened thereed, ”I can quite understand that; but,”--as an idea suggested itself to me--”do you think Van Ryn suspects that you repeat these conversations of his to me?”
”N-o, I don't think so,” answered the boy ”Why should he I don't believe such a thought ever enters his head”
I did not feel by any means so sure of that as Billy seemed to be If the s were repeated to ht be explained as designed to disarm any suspicion aroused in my mind by the queer character of soement of the house, for example The pretence that the inforain be cast aas altogether too puerile for consideration; he required the infor Billy, too--for some entirely different reason
But as that reason? I wondered
I was not long kept wondering
The second night after the above-recorded conversation between Billy and e of weather It had been exceptionally hot all day, with less wind than usual, and there was a languorous quality in the atmosphere that seethened toward nightfall when the wind died away to thecloud piled itself up slowly along the eastern horizon so that the rising full ressed what little air of wind there was died completely away, and ere left, with all doors and s flung wide open, gasping for breath, and sweltering as in a Turkish bath I endured it as long as I could, and then, tossing aside the book I was atteo down to the cove and have a swim
Billy declared that he would like a swim too, if he could take a header off the veranda into deep water; but as to walking down to the cove in that heat--no; o that a storm seemed unlikely to break suddenly, I did not unduly hurry overat last delightfully cool, and quite ready for bed Uponover a book; but he confessed to feeling sleepy, upon which I ordered the boy off to bed forthwith and, extinguishi+ng the lahtway turned in; being quickly lulled to sleep by the sound of pouring rain that began just as I stretched h I had only just fallen asleep when I aith startling suddenness The rain was pelting down on the roof in torrents, , through which I could just hear poor Kit whining and fidgeting restlessly under the veranda, outsidethat it was these co:
”I etting pretty wet, hence his restlessness”
One of the doors of ave on to the veranda, both of theh the latter a vivid flash of lightning revealed the rain co spray off the already strea at his leash, which Billy had made fast as usual to one of the veranda posts The beast had withdrawn himself as far under the veranda as his leash would permit, and he did not appear to be very wet; but he see-room, so I stepped out and cast him adrift
To my amazement, the instant that I released him from his leash, he tore hie snarl, bounded through the living-room door The next instant there issued from the interior of the room a yell of consternation, immediately followed by a shriek of terror, the fall of a heavy body on the floor, screa so; and before I could draw another breath the figure of a yelling, screa, frantic man dashed from the room, cleared the veranda steps at a bound, landed heavily on the ground soh the curtain of pouring rain
But the sounds fro violence, augmented now by cries froainst the dark background of the open door; and a perception of what had happened, and was still happening, leapt to ht, Billy, quick!” I shouted, as I sprang through into the living-roo the table that stood in the roup on the floor
My hands at once ca it until they closed upon the collar round his neck, when, exerting alland resisting, off the writhing and groaning fored to drag the fiercely struggling creature out of the rooain Then I returned to the living-roohted laht the lamp in my room, boy, and then lend me a hand to put thisfigure on the floor and saw that, as I had already surmised, it was that of--Svorenssen! He was dressed only in shi+rt and trousers, both of which, rain-sodden and drenched with blood, were torn to rags by the teeth and claws of the leopard, which was still raving outside and doing his uts The man's injuries, especially about the throat, shoulders, ar; and I felt that, with the limited appliances at our co his life He still grasped in his right hand a foreon, and a similar weapon lay on the floor near him
I had only time to take in these details when Billy returned, and between us we contrived to half carry, half drag the writhing and groaning Finn into my room and deposit him on my bed I then sent Billy to the natives' room, the occupants of which had been roused by the disturbance, bidding hi ater and such other ht require
Guided by the book of instructions attached to the medicine-chest, I did the best I could for the injured hastly a nature, and his suffering so acute, that I recognised from the very outset, not only that it was impossible he should recover, but that death must ensue in a very few hours And it was dreadful to sit there by his side, listening to his moans, liberally interspersed with curses of the leopard, of eneral, and to reflect that that flood of blasphe on the brink of eternity! At length I could endure it no longer, and I said to him, rather sharply, I am afraid:
”Stop that blasphehts to prayer--if you kno to pray I fear that your life has been a deplorably er
Before to-morrow's sun sets you will be face to face with God!
Therefore I urge you to devote the few re your peace with Hied you”