that was the passion that held Berselius now in its grip.

He had drunk of all things, this man, but never of such a potent draught
as this demon held now to his lips--and not for the first time. The
draught would have been nothing but for the bitterness of it, the horror
of it, the mad delight of knowing the fiendishness of it, and drinking,
drinking, drinking, till reason, self-respect, and soul, were overthrown.

The thing that had been a black woman and, now, seemed like nothing
earthly except a bundle of red rags, gave up the miserable soul it
contained and, stiffening in the clutches of tetanus, became a hoop.

* * * * *

What happened then to the remaining villagers could be heard echoing for
miles through the forest in the shrieks and wails of the tortured ones.

One cannot write of unnamable things, unprintable deeds. The screams
lasted till noon.

At one o'clock the punitive expedition had departed, leaving the Silent
Pools to their silence. The houses of the village had been destroyed and
trampled out. The sward lay covered with shapeless remains, and scarcely
had the last of the expedition departed, staggering and half drunk with
the delirium of their deeds, than from the blue above, like a stone,
dropped a vulture.

A vulture drops like a stone, with wings closed till it reaches within a
few yards of the ground; then it spreads its wings and, with wide-opened
talons, lights on its prey.

Then, a marabout with fore-slanting legs and domed-out wings, came sailing
silently down to the feast, and another vulture, and yet another.

CHAPTER XVI

DUE SOUTH

When Berselius and Meeus returned to Fort M'Bassa Adams, who met them,
came to the conclusion that Berselius had been drinking. The man's face
looked stiff and bloated, just as a man's face looks after a terrible
debauch. Meeus looked cold and hard and old, but his eyes were bright and
he was seemingly quite himself.

"To-morrow I shall start," said Berselius. "Not to-day. I am tired and
wish to sleep." He went off to the room where his bed was, and cast
himself on it and fell instantly into a deep and dreamless sleep.

The innocent may wonder how such a man would dare to sleep--dare to enter
that dark country so close to the frontier of death. But what should the
innocent know of a Berselius, who was yet a living man and walked the
earth but a few years ago, and whose prototype is alive to-day.