s mind,
although it wandered. He became light-headed, and rambled on about our
madness in having undertaken such a journey, "just to pot a couple of
beastly lions," and although I did not answer them, I agreed heartily
with his remarks. Then he seemed to imagine that I was a clergyman, and
kneeling on the sand, he made a lengthy confession of his sins which,
so far as I gathered, though I did not pay much attention to them, for
I was thinking of my own, appeared chiefly to consist of the unlawful
acquisition of certain objects of antiquity, or of having overmatched
others in the purchase of such objects.

To pacify him, for I feared lest he should go raving mad, I pronounced
some religious absolution, whereon poor Higgs rolled over and lay still
by Orme. Yes; he, the friend whom I had always loved, for his very
failings were endearing, was dead or at the point of death, like the
gallant young man at his side, and I myself was dying. Tremors shook
my limbs; horrible waves of blackness seemed to well up from my vitals,
through my breast to my brain, and thence to evaporate in queer, jagged
lines and patches, which I realized, but could not actually see. Gay
memories of my far-off childhood arose in me, particularly those of a
Christmas party where I had met a little girl dressed like an elf,
a little girl with blue eyes whom I had loved dearly for quite a
fortnight, to be beaten down, stamped out, swallowed by that vision
of the imminent shadow which awaits all mankind, the black womb of a
re-birth, if re-birth there be.

What could I do? I thought of lighting a fire; at any rate it would
serve to scare the lions and other wild beasts which else might prey
upon us before we were quite dead. It would be dreadful to lie helpless
but sentient, and feel their rending fangs. But I had no strength to
collect the material. To do so at best must have meant a long walk, for
even here it was not plentiful. I had a few cartridges left--three, to
be accurate--in my repeating rifle; the rest I had thrown away to be rid
of their weight. I determined to fire them, since, in my state I thought
they could no longer serve either to win food or for the purposes of
defence, although, as it happened, in this I was wrong. It was possible
that, even in that endless desert, some one might hear the shots, and if
not--well, good-night.

So I sat up and fired the first cartridge, wondering in a childish
fashion where the bullet would fall. Then