"None escape," said the Wolf-bear, laughing into my face with
the exultation of hunting. We burst out again among rocks,
and saw the quarry ahead running lightly on all-fours and snarling
at us over his shoulder. At that the Wolf Folk howled with delight.
The Thing was still clothed, and at a distance its face still seemed human;
but the carriage of its four limbs was feline, and the furtive
droop of its shoulder was distinctly that of a hunted animal.
It leapt over some thorny yellow-flowering bushes, and was hidden.
M'ling was halfway across the space.

Most of us now had lost the first speed of the chase, and had fallen
into a longer and steadier stride. I saw as we traversed the open
that the pursuit was now spreading from a column into a line.
The Hyena-swine still ran close to me, watching me as it ran,
every now and then puckering its muzzle with a snarling laugh.
At the edge of the rocks the Leopard-man, realising that he was
making for the projecting cape upon which he had stalked me
on the night of my arrival, had doubled in the undergrowth;
but Montgomery had seen the manoeuvre, and turned him again.
So, panting, tumbling against rocks, torn by brambles, impeded by
ferns and reeds, I helped to pursue the Leopard-man who had broken
the Law, and the Hyena-swine ran, laughing savagely, by my side.
I staggered on, my head reeling and my heart beating against my ribs,
tired almost to death, and yet not daring to lose sight of the chase
lest I should be left alone with this horrible companion.
I staggered on in spite of infinite fatigue and the dense heat of the
tropical afternoon.

At last the fury of the hunt slackened. We had pinned the wretched
brute into a corner of the island. Moreau, whip in hand, marshalled us
all into an irregular line, and we advanced now slowly, shouting to one
another as we advanced and tightening the cordon about our victim.
He lurked noiseless and invisible in the bushes through which I
had run from him during that midnight pursuit.

"Steady!" cried Moreau, "steady!" as the ends of the line crept
round the tangle of undergrowth and hemmed the brute in.

"Ware a rush!" came the voice of Montgomery from beyond the thicket.

I was on the slope above the bushes; Montgomery and Moreau beat
along the beach beneath. Slowly we pushed in among the fretted
network of branches and leaves. The quarry was silent.

"Back to the House of Pain, the House of Pain, the House of Pain!"