第23章 XII. THE SAYERS OF THE LAW.(2)

I held out my hands. The grey creature in the corner leant forward.

"Not to run on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?"he said.

He put out a strangely distorted talon and gripped my fingers.

The thing was almost like the hoof of a deer produced into claws.

I could have yelled with surprise and pain. His face came forward and peered at my nails, came forward into the light of the opening of the hut and I saw with a quivering disgust that it was like the face of neither man nor beast, but a mere shock of grey hair, with three shadowy over-archings to mark the eyes and mouth.

"He has little nails," said this grisly creature in his hairy beard.

"It is well."

He threw my hand down, and instinctively I gripped my stick.

"Eat roots and herbs; it is His will," said the Ape-man.

"I am the Sayer of the Law," said the grey figure. "Here come all that be new to learn the Law. I sit in the darkness and say the Law.""It is even so," said one of the beasts in the doorway.

"Evil are the punishments of those who break the Law.

None escape."

"None escape," said the Beast Folk, glancing furtively at one another.

"None, none," said the Ape-man,--"none escape. See! I did a little thing, a wrong thing, once. I jabbered, jabbered, stopped talking.

None could understand. I am burnt, branded in the hand. He is great.

He is good!"

"None escape," said the grey creature in the corner.

"None escape," said the Beast People, looking askance at one another.

"For every one the want that is bad," said the grey Sayer of the Law.

"What you will want we do not know; we shall know. Some want to follow things that move, to watch and slink and wait and spring;to kill and bite, bite deep and rich, sucking the blood.

It is bad. `Not to chase other Men; that is the Law.

Are we not Men? Not to eat Flesh or Fish; that is the Law. Are we not Men?'""None escape," said a dappled brute standing in the doorway.

"For every one the want is bad," said the grey Sayer of the Law.

"Some want to go tearing with teeth and hands into the roots of things, snuffing into the earth. It is bad.""None escape," said the men in the door.

"Some go clawing trees; some go scratching at the graves of the dead;some go fighting with foreheads or feet or claws; some bite suddenly, none giving occasion; some love uncleanness.""None escape," said the Ape-man, scratching his calf.

"None escape," said the little pink sloth-creature.

"Punishment is sharp and sure. Therefore learn the Law.

Say the words."

And incontinently he began again the strange litany of the Law, and again I and all these creatures began singing and swaying.

My head reeled with this jabbering and the close stench of the place;but I kept on, trusting to find presently some chance of a new development.

"Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?"We were making such a noise that I noticed nothing of a tumult outside, until some one, who I think was one of the two Swine Men Ihad seen, thrust his head over the little pink sloth-creature and shouted something excitedly, something that I did not catch.

Incontinently those at the opening of the hut vanished; my Ape-man rushed out; the thing that had sat in the dark followed him (I only observed that it was big and clumsy, and covered with silvery hair), and I was left alone. Then before I reached the aperture I heard the yelp of a staghound.

In another moment I was standing outside the hovel, my chair-rail in my hand, every muscle of me quivering. Before me were the clumsy backs of perhaps a score of these Beast People, their misshapen heads half hidden by their shoulder-blades. They were gesticulating excitedly.

Other half-animal faces glared interrogation out of the hovels.

Looking in the direction in which they faced, I saw coming through the haze under the trees beyond the end of the passage of dens the dark figure and awful white face of Moreau. He was holding the leaping staghound back, and close behind him came Montgomery revolver in hand.

For a moment I stood horror-struck. I turned and saw the passage behind me blocked by another heavy brute, with a huge grey face and twinkling little eyes, advancing towards me.