maggots that eat men's faces and the maggots that rot
their minds. Rot their minds. Rot their minds. Rot their minds...."

To Amanda it sounded like delirium.

"CHEETAH!" she said suddenly between remonstrance and a cry of terror.

The darkness suddenly became quite still. He did not move.

She was afraid. "Cheetah!" she said again.

"What is it, Amanda?"

"I thought--. Are you all right?"

"Quite."

"But do you feel well?"

"I've got this cold I caught in Ochrida. I suppose I'm feverish.
But--yes, I'm well."

"You were talking."

Silence for a time.

"I was thinking," he said.

"You talked."

"I'm sorry," he said after another long pause.

10

The next morning Benham had a pink spot on either cheek, his eyes were
feverishly bright, he would touch no food and instead of coffee he
wanted water. "In Monastir there will be a doctor," he said. "Monastir
is a big place. In Monastir I will see a doctor. I want a doctor."

They rode out of the village in the freshness before sunrise and up long
hills, and sometimes they went in the shade of woods and sometimes in
a flooding sunshine. Benham now rode in front, preoccupied, intent,
regardless of Amanda, a stranger, and she rode close behind him
wondering.

"When you get to Monastir, young man," she told him, inaudibly, "you
will go straight to bed and we'll see what has to be done with you."

"AMMALATO," said Giorgio confidentially, coming abreast of her.

"MEDICO IN MONASTIR," said Amanda.

"SI,--MOLTI MEDICI, MONASTIR," Giorgio agreed.

Then came the inevitable dogs, big white brutes, three in full cry
charging hard at Benham and a younger less enterprising beast running
along the high bank above yapping and making feints to descend.

The goatherd, reclining under the shadow of a rock, awaited Benham's
embarrassment with an indolent malice.

"You UNCIVILIZED Beasts!" cried Benham, and before Amanda could realize
what he was up to, she heard the crack of his revolver and saw a puff
of blue smoke drift away above his right shoulder. The foremost beast
rolled over and the goatherd had sprung to his feet. He shouted with
something between anger and dismay as Benham, regardless of the fact
that the other dogs had turned and were running back, let fly a second
time. Then the goatherd had clutched at the gun that lay on the grass
near at hand, Giorgio was bawling in noisy remonstrance and also getting
ready to shoot, and the horse-owner and his